Perhaps no other sentence in America ’s history is as steep in myth , legend , and adventure as the pioneering age of the " Wild West . " Outlaws , lawmen , cowboys , American Indians , miners , rancher , and more than a few " ladies of ill repute " emerged in this epoch , from 1865 to 1900 .
Any distaff settler in the West was a heroine in her own right , but listed here are a few of the more famous ( and infamous ) cleaning lady of this challenging period .
Our list commence on the next page with " The Rose of Cimarron , " whose rebelliousness runs in the family line .
12. Rose Dunn
In a family of outlaws , it was only a matter of prison term before " The Rose of Cimarron " was working in the business , too . Dunn fulfill Doolin Gang member George Newcomb and joined him as he and his gang surcharge stagecoaches and banks . During a peculiarly nasty gunfight , Dunn risked her lifetime to supply Newcomb with a gun and bullets and helped him escape after he was wounded in battle . Dunn died around 1950 in her mid - seventies , a respectable citizen conjoin to a local politician .
11. Pearl Hart
Pearl Hart was born in Canada around 1870 , but by the time she was 17 , she was marital to a risk taker and on a train to America . She especially liked life in the West , and , at 22 , assay to leave her married man to pursue opportunities there . Her husband followed her and won her back , but Hart was already living it up with cigarette , liquor , and even morphine . After her married man left to press in the Spanish - American War , Hart met a humanity describe Joe Boot , and they robbed stagecoaches for for a while before she was caught and jug . Hart is famous for saying , " I shall not consent to be tried under a law in which my sex had no voice in making . " She was eventually released , but the rest of her lifetime is unknown .
10. Ellen Liddy Watson
Also sleep with as " Cattle Kate , " this lady of the West made a name for herself in the late 1800s when she was in her mid - twenties . Watson turn as a James Cook in the Rawlins House hotel and there she met her true love , James Averell . The two were hang in 1889 by vigilance man who claim Averell and Watson were cattle rustlers , but it is now believed that their murder was unjustified , the solution of an abuse of might by land and cattle owners .
9. Pearl de Vere
One of the most famous madams in history , this carmine - haired siren was born in Indiana around 1860 and made her mode to Colorado during the Silver Panic of 1893 . De Vere told her family she was a clothes interior designer , but in fact rose to renown as the head of The Old Homestead , a sumptuous sporting house in Cripple Creek , Colorado . The price of a night ’s stay could cost patrons $ 250 – at a time when most hotel buck around $ 3 a night ! The construction was reportedly fit with an intercom system and boasted fine carpeting and chandeliers .
8. Lillian Smith
Before Britney and Christina , even before Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan , there was the rivalry between this crack shot and her nemesisAnnie Oakley . Born in 1871 , Smith joinedBuffalo Bill ’s show at age 15 and was notorious for bragging about her superior skills , wearing flashy apparel , and unchurch like a Panama hat . When the show went to England in 1887 , Smith shoot poorly and was make fun while Oakley rise to the occasion . This crushing reversal put Smith behind Oakley in the history books , and she died in 1930 , a comparatively unknown keepsake of the Old West .
7. Etta Place
Like many women of the Wild West , Etta Place ’s life is shroud in mystery and legend . Was she a schoolteacher who left her restrained life for the play of the outlaw life ? Was she Butch Cassidy ’s lady friend ? Was she in love with the Sundance Kid or were they just well-disposed cousin ? Evidence seems to indicate that Place was acquit around 1878 and became a prostitute at Fanny Porter ’s bordello in San Antonio , Texas . When the Wild Bunch came through , Place went with them to rob banks . She was n’t with the boys when they were kill in South America in 1909 , and some believe she became a cattle cattle thief , but no one really knows for indisputable .
6. Laura Bullion
More commonly referred to as " Rose of the Wild Bunch , " this malefactor was bear around 1876 in Knickerbocker , Texas , and hear the outlaw barter by observing her bank building - hook Father of the Church . Eventually hooking up with Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch , Bullion fenced money for the group and became romantically involved with several members . Most of those world go bad by the gun , but " The Thorny Rose " apply up her life history of law-breaking after serving sentence in prison house and die a hefty seamstress in Memphis , Tennessee , in 1961 .
5. Josephine Sarah Marcus
A smolderingly good - look doer carry in 1861 , Marcus came to Tombstone , Arizona , while tour with a theatre of operations group performing Gilbert & Sullivan’sHMS Pinafore . She stick around to tie sheriff John Behan , but whenWyatt Earpshowed up , her marriage went dusty , and she and Earp reportedly fell in lovemaking . This young lady was supposedly the reason behind the famous shootout at the okay Corral – a 30 - instant flurry of gunfire call for Wild West superstars Doc Holliday , the Clayton Brothers , and the Earps . She passed away in 1944 and claim until her dying day that Wyatt Earp was her one and only true love .
4. Calamity Jane
Born Martha Jane Canary in Missouri around 1856,Calamity Janewas a sharpshooter by the time she was a immature woman . She get her sobriquet , Calamity Jane , when she rescued an army captain in South Dakota after their camp was attack by Native Americans . Jane was said to be a whiskey - drinking , " don’t - sight - with - me " variety of gal . She is reported to have pull through the lives of six stage rider in 1876 when they were attack by Native Americans , and she link Buffalo Bill ’s show in the mid-1890s . Though she tie a man named Burk at age 33 , when Jane died in 1903 , she asked to be sink next to Wild Bill Hickock . Rumor has it that Hickock was the only gentleman she ever bonk .
3. Charley Parkhurst
Times were rough for ladies in the Wild West , so this crackerjack stagecoach driver decided to live most of her life-time as a Isle of Man . Born in 1812 , Parkhurst populate well into her mid-sixties , in spite of being a intemperately - drinking , tobacco - chewing , fearless , one - eyed animate being . She drove stages for Wells Fargo and the California Stage Company , not an easy or in particular dependable career . Using her secret individuality , Parkhurst was a register elector and may have been the first American fair sex to cast a ballot . She lived out the respite of her life grow kine and chicken until her death in 1879 . It was then that her true identity was let out , much to the surprise of her champion .
2. Belle Starr
Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr was born in Carthage , Missouri ,
in 1848 . Frank and Jesse James ’s ring hid out at her family ’s farm when she was a Thomas Kid , and from then on she was hooked on the crook life-time . afterwards , when her hubby Jim Reed film a man , the two exit on the run , soak banks andcounterfeiting . Starr , who was known to wear feathers in her hair , buckskin , and a pistol on each hip , was shoot down in the back while hinge on her horse in 1889 . It ’s still unclear whether her last was an fortuity – or murder .
1. Annie Oakley
Probably the well - known womanhood of the Wild West , Annie Oakley was born Phoebe Ann Oakley Moses in Dark County , Ohio , in 1860 , and she was shooting like a pro by age 12 . Germany ’s Kaiser Wilhelm II trusted her with a ordnance so much that he let her fritter away the ash off his cigaret while he fume it . Oakley is the only woman of the Wild West to have a Broadway melodious broadly based on her aliveness ( Annie Get Your Gun ) , which depicts her stint in Buffalo Bill ’s illustrious traveling show . When she joined the show , Bill touted her as " Champion Markswoman . " When she died in 1926 , it was discovered that her entire luck had been spend on various charities , including women ’s right and children ’s services .
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:
Helen Davies , Marjorie Dorfman , Mary Fons , Deborah Hawkins , Martin Hintz , Linnea Lundgren , David Priess , Julia Clark Robinson , Paul Seaburn , Heidi Stevens , and Steve Theunissen
