Doc Holliday

Doc Holliday is one of my mother's favorite historical characters.

The first time I ever heard of Doc was when I was watching the movie Tombstone.

I immediately fell in love with Doc's story. The back and forth with Johnny Ringo, the friendship with Wyatt Earp, the romance with Kate, the battle with consumption, all of it makes one of the best Wild West stories I've ever heard.

John Henry Holliday, better known as Doc Holliday, was born on August 14, 1851 in Griffin, Georgia.

Karen Holliday Tanner, an author, believes that Doc was born with a cleft palate, and was supposedly operated on by his Uncle, Dr. J.S. Holliday, and Crawford Long. However, Gary L. Roberts, another author who has studied the life of Doc Holliday, argues that Doc would not have had the surgery until he was at least 2 years old if he had a cleft palate, and if he had, the news would have been huge, because that was not a common practice in those days.

He is most well known for his involvement in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, but long before he got there, Doc was a dentist.

When he was 19, Doc left his home in Valdotsa, Georgia, and went to Pennsylvania to study at Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery.

Doc earned his degree for dentistry when he was 20. Since he couldn't legally set up his own dental practice until he was 21, he worked as an assistant to his classmate, A. Jameson Fuches Jr.

After a few months, Doc moved to Atlanta to live with his Uncle. His career really began when he filled in as dentist for Arthur Ford, while he was away at a meeting.

Then, in 1873, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which is the same disease that had claimed his mother when he was 15 years old.

Doc decided to move to Dallas, Texas, hoping that the drier climate of the south west would prolong his life, since he was given only a few months to live.

He decided to open a dentist office with another dentist, John A. Seegar, but quickly realized that he was not going to be very successful, since his patients were often scared away by his constant cough.

Doc  turned to gambling, as he realized that it was far more profitable for him. On May 12, 1874, he got in trouble for illegal gambling. He was arrested in January of the following year for trading gunfire with a saloon keeper. Since no one was found injured, Doc was ruled innocent.

After moving to Denison, Texas, however, he was fined for 'gaming', and decided to leave the state of Texas behind.

Shortly, he found himself in Denver in 1875, hiding under the name "Tom Mackey". He worked as a Faro dealer at John Babb's Theater Comique.

While he worked there, he heard about gold having been discovered in Wyoming, and so in February of 1875, he moved to Cheyenne, now working as a dealer for Babb's partner, Thomas Miller, owner of the Bella Union. When Miller moved the Bella Union to Deadwood, which is where the gold rush was, Doc went with him.

In 1877, Doc made his way back through Cheyenne and Denver and on over into Kansas, where he stayed to visit an Aunt. Afterwards, he headed back down to Texas, where he continued his profession of gambling in Breckenridge.

While there, Doc got into a fight with a fellow gambler, Henry Kahn. Doc supposedly beat Kahn with his walking stick, and eventually both men were arrested and fined.

However, later the same day, Kahn shot Doc, seriously wounding him.

The Dallas Weekly Harold falsely claimed that Doc had been killed by the gunshot a few days later. Doc's cousin, George Holliday, came out despite the rumor of Doc's death, and took care of him until he was fully recovered.

Once he was recovered, Doc moved to Fort Griffin, where he met the famous Big Nose Kate, otherwise known as Mary Horony Cummings, and thus their story began.

(Kate, seated, is about 15 in this picture. Beside her stands her younger sister.)

Kate was born in Pest, Hungary, in 1850. Orphaned at the age of 15, Kate and her younger sister, Wilhelmina, were placed in the care of Gustav Susemihl, and then later in the care of Otto Smith.

When she was 16, Kate ran away, and stowed away on a boat, ending up in St. Louis, Missouri. While she was there, Kate claimed to have married a dentist named Silas Melvin, and given birth to his son, but that they both died due to yellow fever. There is, however, no record that Kate ever was married or gave birth. There are also no death records for either Silas or the child. Is probable that later in life, when Kate tried to recall the facts, she confused Silas with Doc. She may have known Silas Melvin, but the only records of anyone by that name, in the area, at that time, was married to someone else.

Around the time that Doc met Kate, he also met Wyatt Earp. 

Wyatt and Doc's friendship is legendary. It was a bit of an unlikely friendship, with Wyatt being more calm and controlled, and Doc being more hot headed and spontaneous. Their friendship solidified when Doc defended Wyatt against a few cowboys while in Dodge City, in 1878.

While Doc was mainly a gambler, he still practiced dentistry on the side until about 1878. While gambling was his game, he was also noted by many as a gunman, although he very rarely actually shot anyone.

One of the few times recorded of Doc actually using his gun was while he was in a saloon in Las Vegas, New Mexico. He and another noted gunman, John Joshua Webb, watched as a former U.S. Army Scout, Mike Gordon, tried to persuade one of the saloon girls, who also happened to be a former girlfriend, to leave town with him. When she said no, Gordon supposedly stormed out. Some say that he began firing into the building, while others say that Doc followed him outside, where he confronted him, shot him, and ultimately killed him. Doc left town the next day.

In September of 1880, Doc finds himself in Tombstone, Arizona, where he runs into his friend, Wyatt Earp. The Earp family had been in Tombstone since December of the previous year. Some say that Wyatt had sent for Doc when he realized the danger the cowboys presented.

Doc quickly became entrenched in the local politics and violence regarding the cowboys, including some of his encounters with Johnny Ringo. Tense months followed, leading up to the legendary fight at the O.K. Corral.

Picture this: it's October 26, 1881. The dusty streets of Tombstone don't know what's about to be played out. In front of Fly's boarding house, where Doc was staying, Ike Clanton, who is suffering from a late night of drinking and poker playing, Billy Clanton, Ike's little brother, Billy Claiborne, and Tom and Frank McLaury, stand against Wyatt, Virgil, and Moragn Earp, Doc standing with the Earps as a temporary lawman. Hidden in Doc's long trench coat is a coach gun, given to him just before the fight by Virgil Earp.

The bullets begin flying. The fight reportedly only lasted for about 30 seconds, but it was enough. Both of the McLaury brothers were killed, along with Billy Clanton. Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran from the fight unharmed. Both Morgan and Virgil Earp were injured, leaving only Doc and Wyatt as the uninjured of their party.

According to the law, the gunfight was not the fault of the Earps and Doc, so they were held guiltless in that matter, but that was the least of their troubles.

Virgil was later ambushed in December, and permanently injured, and the following March, Morgan was ambushed and killed. After Morgan's death, most of the Earp family left Tombstone.

Wyatt however, wanted to stay behind with Doc, to exact retribution, and bring justice to the vicious cowboys, but first he decided to help Virgil to California.

While escorting his injured brother to California, Wyatt, Warren, another of the Earp boys, and Doc successfully stop another ambush by the cowboys.

This was the beginning of the Reckoning. 

Because Virgil was injured, Wyatt was appointed as Deputy US Marshall. He deputized Doc, Warren Earp, Sherman McMasters, and Jack Johnson.

In Tuscon, on the way to California, Wyatt's party spots Frank Stilwell and Ike Clanton, who they believe were probably waiting to finish Virgil off.

On Monday, March 20, 1882, Stilwell's body was found off the side of the railroad tracks, peppered with buckshot.

Arrest warrants were issued for Wyatt's party of men, including Doc, because they were suspected to have killed Stilwell.

They returned to Tombstone briefly, were Texas Jack Vermillion, and possibly others, join Wyatt's men. Wyatt always deputized the men who rode with him.

After leaving Tombstone, Wyatt and his men made their way to Spence's wood cutting camp at the base of the Dragoon mountains. There, they located and killed Florentino "Indian Charlie" Cruz. Over the next little while, they also located and killed Curly Bill Brocius in a shoot out at at Iron Springs.

At least two other cowboys that Wyatt believed were associated with his brother's death were shot and injured. 

Since they were still faced with arrest warrants bearing their names, Wyatt and his men decided to leave the Arizona territory and went to New Mexico, then Colorado.

It was in Trinidad, Colorado, that Wyatt and Doc parted ways, going to different parts of Colorado.

A month after he reached Colorado, Doc was arrested on the warrant from Arizona.

Wyatt heard about Doc's arrest, and feared that he would not get a fair trial. Wyatt contacted his friend, who happened to be the chief of police in Trinidad, to try and get Doc released.

After quite a bit of work, Doc was not released, the legal reasoning being that he also had a warrant for his arrest out in Pueblo, Colorado on Bunco charges (bunco is a gambling game, for those of you who don't know), although many say that this warrant was fabricated.

Doc was moved to Pueblo shortly, and then released on bond two weeks after his arrest. Wyatt and Doc ran into each other again briefly after this.  

Popular rumor is that after this, Doc Holliday shot Johnny Ringo.

Ringo's body was found in the crook of a tree, a bullet wound in his right temple, a revolver in his hand, on July 14th, 1882. Some say that Doc shot him with a rifle from a distance, and that Doc and Wyatt had gone back to Arizona looking for Ringo to kill him. The official coroner's report rule it as a suicide.

Official records of the Pueblo County District court say that Doc and his attorney were present in the court room on July 11th, 14th, and 18th, however, Karen Holliday Tanner believes that only Doc's attorney was present, and that the court just wrote that Doc was there in person. She says that is a common legal filler, and does not necessarily mean that he was actually there.

Doc was definitely in Salida Colorado on July 7th, which is 500 miles away from the site of Ringo's death, and only 6 days before the shooting.

Doc spent the rest of his life in Colorado. After living in Leadville for a while, he suffered from the high altitude and and headed towards the Hotel Glenwood (which was not a hospital, as commonly believed), where he believed the water would cure him. He depended more and more on alcohol and laudanum and his ability to gamble deteriorated. 

In 1887, already gray and extremely ill, Doc lay in his bed, and asked the nurse attending to him to give him a shot of whiskey. When the nurse told him no, he looked down at his bare feet, amused.

The nurse said his final words were "Damn, this is funny." Many people, probably including Doc himself, believed that he would die with his boots on.

Gary Roberts, a biographer, claims that Doc was probably too sick to utter any last words. Even so, the idea of Doc being amused at his own death seems to fit his personality.

Doc died at 10am on November 8, 1887, at 36 years old.

A persistent legend says that Wyatt was with Doc when he died, although Wyatt always said that he didn't hear of Doc's death for about 2 months afterwards. Kate also claims to have been with Doc when he died, but her presence is doubted. 

Doc was buried the same day he died in Linwood Cemetery, overlooking Glenwood Springs. 

Doc Holliday, a gambling man with a reputation for murderously good aim with his gun was, according to Wyatt Earp, " a dentist, not a lawman or an assassin, whom necessity had made a gambler; a gentleman whom disease had made a frontier vagabond; a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit; a long lean, ash-blond fellow nearly dead with consumption, and at the same time the most skillful gambler and the nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun that I ever knew."

According to Kate, Doc's long time companion and common-law wife, after the shoot out at the OK corral, Doc came home, sat on his bed, and cried, saying "That was awful."

Doc was not known to have killed many men. He was a man whom life had turned hard, but by nature, Doc seemed to be a very gentle man, who wanted nothing more than a peaceful life. His reputation made him out to be a cold, hard, blood thirsty man, but if you look a little harder, he only did what he had to.

Doc Holliday has been immortalized in history, despite the short span of his years. Played by Val Kilmer in the movie Tombstone, Doc's legend lives on, all these years later.