Hickok and Utter become business partners
At some point during the journey from Fort Laramie Hickok and Utter became partners in the wagon train. Utter had known Wild Bill for many years, and was aware of the latter’s propensity for getting into trouble over cards and drinking. Utter took it upon himself to look after Hickok once the wagon train arrived at Deadwood. Both men were dandies in their manner of dress and grooming, though Utter took it a level beyond that of Hickok, bathing daily, and always maintaining a meticulously groomed appearance. Utter never allowed anyone to enter his tent when encamped, and in which he kept luxurious blankets, rather than the coarse woolen blankets common on the frontier.
The wagon train, which also carried the notorious madam Madame Mustache – so-called because of a fine line of dark hair upon her upper lip, arrived in Deadwood in July, as was announced in the Black Hills Pioneer edition of July 15. Utter set up a business to deliver mail to and from Cheyenne, at the cost of twenty-five cents per letter. Hickok set himself up as a gambler, spending most of his time in saloons, of which Deadwood already had several. Calamity Jane often followed Hickok, who had little use for her, and made his disdain for her and her appearance well known about town. Not until after he was dead would Calamity Jane claim that they had once been married, yet another of the many falsehoods she created about herself and her career.