Top 10 Most Notorious Women of The Wild West
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| Photo Horsey Hooves |
Perhaps no other time in America's history is as steeped in myth, legend, and adventure as the pioneering age of the "Wild West." Outlaws, lawmen, cowboys, American Indians, miners, ranchers, and more than a few "ladies of ill repute" emerged in this era, from 1865 to 1900.
Any female settler in the West was a heroine in her own right, but listed here are a few of the more famous (and infamous) women of this intriguing period.
Top 10 Most Notorious Women of The Wild West
1. Annie Oakley
2. Belle Starr
3. Mary Fields
4. Cathay Williams
5. Pearl Heart
6. Sonora Webster Carver
7. Laura Bullion
8. Josephine Sarah Marcus
9. Rose Dunn
10. Susan Aderson
Who Are The Most Notorious Women of The Wild West?
1. Annie Oakley
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| Photo Inside Hook |
Probably the best-known woman 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 gun so much that he let her shoot the ash off his cigarette while he smoked it. Oakley is the only woman of the Wild West to have a Broadway musical loosely based on her life (Annie Get Your Gun), which depicts her stint in Buffalo Bill's famous traveling show. When she joined the show, Bill touted her as "Champion Markswoman." When she died in 1926, it was discovered that her entire fortune had been spent on various charities, including women's rights and children's services.
| Wild West is the western United States during the 19th-century era of settlement, commonly believed to be lawless and unruly. There was a lot of violence, especially between the new people arriving and the Native Americans who lived there already. |
2. Belle Starr
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| Photo Wiki |
Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr was born in Carthage, Missouri, in 1848. Frank and Jesse James's gang hid out at her family's farm when she was a kid, and from then on she was hooked on the outlaw life. Later, when her husband Jim Reed shot a man, the two went on the run, robbing banks and counterfeiting. Starr, who was known to wear feathers in her hair, buckskins, and a pistol on each hip, was shot in the back while riding her horse in 1889. It's still unclear whether her death was an accident -- or murder.
3. Mary Fields
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| Photo Wiki |
Would-be mail thieves didn’t stand a chance against Stagecoach Mary, who sported men’s clothing, a bad attitude and two guns. Mary Fields was the first African American woman, and the second woman in the U.S., to carry mail, and she was known for hard-drinking and quick-shooting. She was born into slavery and freed after the Civil War, which is when she started working as a groundskeeper at the Ursuline Convent of the Sacred Heart in Toledo, Ohio. But she got in an argument and was kicked out. In 1895, she got a contract from the postal service to become a star route carrier. Her job was to protect mail on her route from thieves and bandits and to deliver mail.
4. Cathay Williams
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| Photo War History Online |
She was the first African-American woman to enlist in the army, and did so by disguising herself as a man. Though she was hospitalized five times, no one ever discovered her secret. She called herself William Cathay and was deemed fit for duty. After the war, she moved to Colorado and got married, but then her husband stole her money and a team of horses. Williams had him arrested. There are rumors that she owned a boarding house during her time in the west as well.
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5. Pearl Heart
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| Photo Arizona Republic |
Pearl Heart was inspired by Annie Oakley, but instead of using her sharpshooting skills for show and entertainment, Heart used them for a life of crime. The Canadian-born outlaw is said to have been a cook in a boardinghouse, while others say she ran a tent brothel near a local mine. When she was low on money, Heart met up with a man named Joe Boot and the two of them robbed a stagecoach. Heart dressed as a man, and ultimately, they got lost when they ran away. This is one of the last recorded stagecoach robberies in the U.S. They were caught and during her sentencing, she said, “I shall not consent to be tried under a law in which my sex had no voice in making.” She served some of her sentence, but became pregnant in prison and was quickly pardoned by the governor. After that, her life becomes a mystery.
6. Sonora Webster Carver
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| Photo PBS Learning |
Born in Waycross, Georgia, she was one of the first female horse divers. Her job was to mount a running horse as it reached the top of a forty-foot (sometimes sixty-foot) tower, and ride it as the horse plunged into an 11-foot pool of water below. She became the lead diving girl for William “Doc” Carver’s team. She traveled the country performing. She was blinded by a retinal detachment due to hitting the water off-balance with her eyes open while diving her horse in 1931. She continued to dive horses until 1942. The popular movie Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken is based on her life, though she was quoted being disappointed with how she was depicted.
7. Laura Bullion
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| Photo Pinterest |
More commonly referred to as "Rose of the Wild Bunch," this outlaw was born around 1876 in Knickerbocker, Texas, and learned the outlaw trade by observing her bank-robbing father. 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 men died by the gun, but "The Thorny Rose" gave up her life of crime after serving time in prison and died a respectable seamstress in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1961.
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8. Josephine Sarah Marcus
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| Photo Pinterest |
A smolderingly good-looking actor born in 1861, Marcus came to Tombstone, Arizona, while touring with a theater group performing Gilbert & Sullivan's HMS Pinafore. She stuck around to marry sheriff John Behan, but when Wyatt Earp showed up, her marriage went cold, and she and Earp reportedly fell in love. This young lady was supposedly the reason behind the famous gunfight at the OK Corral -- a 30-second flurry of gunfire involving Wild West superstars Doc Holliday, the Clayton Brothers, and the Earps. She passed away in 1944 and claimed until her dying day that Wyatt Earp was her one and only true love.
9. Rose Dunn
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| Photo Wiki |
In a family of outlaws, it was only a matter of time before "The Rose of Cimarron" was working in the business, too. Dunn met Doolin Gang member George Newcomb and joined him as he and his crew robbed stagecoaches and banks. During a particularly nasty gunfight, Dunn risked her life 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 married to a local politician.
10. Susan Aderson
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| Photo Wiki |
Anderson was known as “Doc Susie” for her dedication to her medical practice. She was born in 1870 in Indiana and went to medical school before starting her own practice. She became famous when she successfully saved a miner’s arm after he was told by another doctor it would have to be cut off. Anderson practiced medicine for 47 years and didn’t retire until she was 84.
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