O4701

Love

Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane

Pansies in a Basket

Collins Cover Announcement 

Flower Basket Love Stamp

Romantic Couples Series

Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane

James Butler Hickok and Martha Jane Cannary were two legendary and authentic historic figures from the Old West. Better known as Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane, their trails eventually crossed in Deadwood, South Dakota where a friendship turned into romance. By many accounts, they-were married at Benson's Landing, Montana in 1873 and had a daughter.

Accounts from this period described Calamity Jane a being "extremely attractive" and a "pretty, dark-eyed girl." She was a genuine frontierswoman and took pride in being a professional scout. Jane was an excellent shot and was involved in several campaigns against the warring Indian tribes. She also had a reputation for exhibiting kindness and compassion to the sick and needy. In 1893 Jane joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show as a trick rider and sharpshooter.

Wild Bill was known for his skills as a gunfighter and scout. Most famously he is remembered for his reputation as a lawman in the untamed West. Starting as a stagecoach driver, his abilities as a marksman soon helped to secure him law enforcement jobs in the Kansas and Nebraska Territories. While traveling with a wagon train to Deadwood, he met the pretty and daring Calamity Jane and their romance began. On August 2, 1876 Bill was playing poker when buffalo hunter "Broken Nose Jack" McCall shot him in the back of the head. Wild Bill was holding two pairs - aces and eights - and ever since, that has been known as the "dead man's hand."

It's reported that Calamity Jane then went after Broken Nose Jack with a meat cleaver but did not find him. Eventually McCall was caught, convicted, and executed for the murder. My hand painted cachet shows the handsome pair during their days in Deadwood. A hard-riding, straight-shooting romantic couple from the Old West. Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. 

Collins #O4701 - $14.00.