Born the child of Robert and Charlotte Cannary, on May 1, 1852, Martha Jane Cannary was the oldest of six children. She was born in Princeton, Missouri, but her family traveled by wagon train to Virginia City, Montana, in 1865. In 1866, Martha’s mother died on the trip, so the family quickly moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where her father died in 1867. Being the oldest sibling, Martha soon took over the family, and moved them to Piedmont, Wyoming. When Martha was just thirteen years old, on the family’s trek to Montana, she spent most of her time hunting with the men in the group. She became extremely proficient at horsemanship, and a skilled shot with a gun. Biographer Doris Faber wrote that she could already “cuss as fiercely as any man”, and had “learned to like the taste of whiskey”. Little did she know, the skills she developed when she was young would later result in her being nothing short of an American legend. |  |
