In the summer of 1876, Martha "Calamity Jane" Canary arrived in Deadwood Gulch already familiar with such surroundings. Born in 1856 in Mercer County, Missouri, she was the oldest of six children of Robert Willson Canary and Charlotte M. Burge. The family moved to Virginia City, Montana Territory, in 1865, and within two years both parents had died, leaving the children orphaned. Martha then went to Wyoming Territory, where she worked as a dance hall girl, waitress, laundress, and prostitute at railroad camps and military posts along the Union Pacific Railroad. By wearing men's clothing, she disguised her gender, a choice that later defined her public persona. Her alcohol-fueled lifestyle may help explain her fanciful stories and numerous love affairs, including one with western gunfighter James Butler Hickok. She also showed a caring side during the smallpox epidemic in the Black Hills and Deadwood, helping the sick without concern for her own well-being. Photographs from her adult life also show her in dresses, contrasting with Eastern preconceived dime novels. On August 1, 1903, aged beyond her years, she died in Terry, South Dakota, of inflammation of the bowels and pneumonia, and she was buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood beside Wild Bill Hickok, reportedly in keeping with her last dying wish.