Introduction

It is impossible to cover the amazing life of in a short essay. With that in mind I am going to share with you the highlights of his life, than I present the facts from the myths about his life. Feel free to e-mail me any questions about Doc.

John Henry “Doc” Holliday

John Henry Holliday was born on August 14, 1851 in Griffin, to John Burroughs Holliday and Alice Jane Holliday. John was the only surviving child of their marriage his having had an older sister who passed away two years before john was born.

John had a birth defect, which consisted of a cleft palate and partly cleft lip also called a hair lip. Actually this birth defect is not that uncommon. It still to this day occurs in every 600 to 800 births and there is no explanation as to why this defect occurs. At two months of age the defect was repaired surgically by a cousin, and famous surgeon, named Doctor . The surgery left no speech impediment however the repair was visible scar in his upper lip which he tried to cover by growing a mustache.

John’s greatest influence as a young man was his mother Alice Holliday, a refined Southern Lady, who took great pleasure doting on her only son John, by helping him with his schoolwork and she taught him to play the piano. John practiced playing piano every chance he had and developed into a concert level pianist. Her greatest gift to John was to refine him to be a Southern Gentleman. John was born into an upper middle class family. His father was a pharmacist and his uncles were all either doctors or dentists.

Alice Holliday died from Tuberculosis on September 16th, 1866 when John was just fifteen years old. It was felt by historians, she contracted the disease during the Civil War while caring for sick soldiers at the Andersonville Prison and while there endured many major physical hardships.

The death of his mentor, mother and best friend took a heavy toll on young John as she was the stabilizing force in his life. Then he became even more bitter when his father married a twenty three year old neighbor, Rachel Martin, just a little over three months after his mother’s death on December 18th 1866. From that point their relationship was strained at best.

John’s father inherited a plantation of over 2400 acres near the town of Valdosta, Georgia and so the family moved there permanently when John was just sixteen years old. Young John became very rebellious and was in and out of trouble over the next three years. Finally, with no where else to turn, John’s father enrolled him in the nearby Valdosta Institute, which was a very ritzy private military school. He hoped the discipline of a military school might help change his son’s attitude.

John excelled in grammar, mathematics, history and learned to speak fluent French and and began to play the game of poker with fellow students in his free time, winning enough money to allow him not to have to work while there at school. To his father’s surprise, John graduated with top honors at the school.

After graduating from The Valdosta Institute it is thought by most historians that John chose to go to dental school for two reasons, the first because his uncle’s was the founder of the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery and second, it would put distance between he and his father.

John excelled at dental school graduating on March 1st, 1872 at the age of 19 with a Doctorate of Dental Surgery Degree and was the valedictorian of his class. While at dental school he made expense money again by playing poker with fellow students.

He moved , Georgia after graduating and lived with an uncle, Doctor John Stiles Holliday while he and his college roommate and good friend Arthur C. Ford looked to start a dental practice.

Also staying at his uncle’s house was a black slave named Sophie Walton. Sophie had relocated to the Holliday home after her master’s plantation had been torched and burned to the ground. Sophie was not the typical servant who reigned over the kitchen and household chores. She had other interests, primarily playing cards. With a deck of cards in her hands, she performed wizardry. John Henry was fascinated with Sophie’s talent at cards and under her guidance he became addicted to the games. One of the tricks Sophie taught her young apprentice was the art of “skinning.” Skinning is removing cards from a new deck, altering some or all of the cards (by marking them) and then returning the cards to the deck and resealing the deck. She also taught him every other card trick she knew. The hours spend playing cards with Sophie would soon have a great impact in young John’s life.

After opening the dental practice with Art Ford, John began suffering from a dry cough. They both thought it was simply a smoker’s cough or that he might have caught the flu. After a couple of months when the symptoms did not go away, John sought medical treatment and was sadly diagnosed with Tuberculosis.

He was then forced to sell his portion of the practice to his partner and seek another way to make a living. He took up the second love of his life which was that of a gambler and sought work playing poker and also from time to time as a Faro dealer and also as a bartender when he was down on his luck.

It has been widely thought by most historians that John contracted TB from his mother because it is a virus and can stay dormant for years before becoming active. It can be spread from a sneeze, cough or even singing. It is highly contagious and spreads rapidly when subjects are in close proximity of each other and in tight environments with little or no air movement, which is why it was so devastating to the Native American population, because of their life style, living in dwellings with little or no air movement.

John received the nickname of “Doc” in Ft Worth, Texas while dealing Faro at the famous Fannies Bordello slash saloon. He made a name for himself on the gambling circuit and also a very good living. Doc was an excellent gambler because he was very intelligent but most of all because he had a photographic mind and counted cards. Which means he could picture every discount card that was played, hence, as each new hand was dealt and the deck became smaller, knowing the cards that had been played gave him a distinct advantage. And also according to in his biography, Frontier Marshall, Doc like all other gamblers at that time, cheated when needed but he was so proficient of a card player that it was generally not necessary. He was simply a born gambler.

Doc was told by several physicians while still living in Atlanta that he had about six months to a year to live and that he could slow the effects of the disease if he moved to a dry climate. His first stop was , Texas because that is where the railroad ended at that time.

Contrary to Hollywood movies, “Doc” Holliday traveled by train because he simply was not in good enough health to travel by horseback and travel by created too much dust. As a matter of fact, Doc did not even own a horse. If he wanted to go horseback riding he would simply go to the livery stable and rent a horse. He lived in and boarding houses. Also because of his bad health he did not camp or sleep on the ground as Hollywood would like us to believe.

Each time a new railroad town opened “Doc” Holliday could be found there for two reasons, first he probably had been run out of a previous town or was broke and second with the new town came lots of people with money to lose.

Doc continued to practice in towns where he gambled without a license. He generally always took out a newspaper ad when he arrived in a new town stating the he gave a money back guarantee on his dental work. He worked on all of his friends teeth over the years including Wyatt Earp.

A gambler in the Old West had to be able to protect himself, because in most cases he stood alone. Doc was well aware of this fact and faithfully practiced with his guns and throwing knives, becoming very proficient with both weapons but especially with his sidearm which was a short barreled pearl handled Cold 45 pistol.

In the summer of 1876 down on his luck he took a job dealing Faro at a saloon in , Texas. It was there that he first met Wyatt Earp. Wyatt had a warrant for the arrest of for crimes committed in Dodge City, , where Earp was a Deputy Marshall. Wyatt heard from the town Marshall in Fort Griffen that Doc might have some information about the whereabouts of his prey. So, Wyatt approached Doc to ascertain any information he could provide him about Rudabaugh.

They formed an unlikely friendship from that day. Wyatt was calm and collected and Doc being high strung and anything but calm. Their friendship culminated from respect for each other’s positions in life and most important was their mutual dislike for Arkansas Dave Rudabaugh.

It was in Fort Griffin that the incident with a gambler by the name of Ed Bailey took place, which by the way was well portrayed in the beginning scene of the movie Tombstone. While Ed and Doc were playing poker, Bailey kept looking at the discard pile which is against the rules in the game of poker. So calmly Doc warned him to stop several times. After Ed did it one more time, Doc called and laid down a flush saying, “Isn’t that a daisy,” The meaning of this statement in the old west was that it was the best hand, or it meant the best shot or the best of anything.

Ed Bailey went crazy and accused Doc of cheating. While leaning over the table to grab Doc, Holliday drew his knife and slashed Ed from one side above his hips to another exposing Ed’s stomach organs.

Ed lived but Doc was arrested after the incident and held to stand trial. During the time he was in jail awaiting trial a lynch mob formed with the idea of hanging Doc. During his stay there in Fort Griffen, Doc developed a friendship with a local prostitute, known as Big Nosed Kate, her Christian name was Mary Katherine Morony. Kate was born in Budapest Hungary and immigrated to the United States with her family when she was a child. She also went by Kate Fisher, Kate Elder and Mary Katherine Cummings, and died at the Pioneer home in Prescott. and is buried nearby.

Doc liked Kate and they each enjoyed the other’s company. Kate thought there might be something brewing with Doc so she decided to break him out of jail. She set a building on fire at the other end of the town to create a diversion. While the lynch mob went to help fight the fire, she freed Doc.

From that day forward Doc felt he owed Kate a debt for saving his life so he took her with him everywhere and removed her from being a prostitute by caring for her and she knowing his deteriorating medical condition agreed to care for him as well as provide him with personal services.

Kate and Doc fled Ft Griffin and they went to Dodge City, where his new friend Wyatt Earp was the Deputy town Marshall to his brother Virgil, who was the town Marshall. Upon arriving by train the first thing they saw was when they stepped off the train was a sign stating, “All firearms must be checked at the Marshall’s office.” So Doc and Kate went right over to Marshall’s office to check their guns. Upon arriving at the office they found Wyatt standing on the front porch with his back to he front door surrounded by six men with their guns pointed at him. Not liking the odds Doc and Kate snuck up behind the culprits. They both drew their guns and Doc shot one of the men in the leg when they turned around to see the commotion behind them. Not liking the new odds they all dropped their guns.

In Wyatt Earp’s biography, Frontier Marshall, he credited Doc Holliday for saving his life that day and from that day forward the two were very close friends. They remained close until after the Tombstone Vandetta ride.

After the last member of the gang () who was involved in the at the OK Corral was killed, Doc and Wyatt were sitting in the Crystal Palace bar in Tombstone having a drink. Wyatt told Doc that he missed the company of Josie Marcus. Doc piped up and asked him why in the world he had such strong feelings for a Jew broad.

Wyatt finished his drink said nothing to Doc and walked out of the bar. That was the end of their friendship. A warrant was issued for their arrest for murder in the shooting deaths of Curly Bill Brocius and Indian Charlie so Doc fled to Leadville and worked at Hymans Saloon as a bartender and played poker. Leadville boasted over two hundred saloons at that time.

Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the United States at an altitude of over 10,000 feet. Eventually the altitude got the best of Doc so he moved to Glenwood Springs and opened a saloon. He died from the effects of TB in his room at the Colorado Hotel on November 8th 1887 with Big Nosed Kate at his side, contrary to the Hollywood movies. His last words before he died, when he looked down at his feet and saw that his boots had been removed was, “This is funny,” meaning no southern gentleman died without his boots off. Doc was just 36 years old when he passed. He was fearless in life because he hoped he would die from a gunshot wound.

During the final week of his life he had a Catholic Missionary Sister help take care of him. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays he was visited by a Presbyterian Minister and then on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays he was visited by a Catholic Priest. At one of those days the nun was there when the Presbyterian Minister was present, after he left she asked Doc why he had the Priest visit him. His answer was, “Sister, I need all the help I can get.” Even facing death he did not lose his zest for life and his humor.

Even though the never spoke again when Wyatt heard about Docs death he told a reporter, “I found Doc to be a loyal friend and good company. He was a dentist whom necessity had made a gambler, a gentleman whom disease had made a vagabond; a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit; a long lean blonde fellow nearly dead with consumption and at the same time the most skillful gambler with nerves of steel and was the speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun and knife I ever knew.”

The Republican reported an incident that occurred while he lived in Leadville. One of his attorney’s Colonel Deweese, stated that, “Doc would just as soon life kill a man as not.” Adding: “All he looked out for usually was to have the law on his side.” Deweese further was quoted; “I said to Doc one day, Doctor, doesn’t your conscience ever trouble you?” “No, he replied, with that peculiar dry cough of his, “I coughed that up with my lungs long ago.” But Doc also went on to tell Deweese, apparently in a more serious mood, and interested in setting the record straight; “I’ve have credit for more killings than I ever dreamed of.”

Lets examine the statement “I’m your huckleberry,” made while playing Doc Holliday in the movie Tombstone. There are several possible definitions of this statement. It is highly unlikely that Doc Holliday even made the statement but if he had it would have meant “I am the one and I am here for you.”

Some historians say it comes from the fact that cattle died from eating the huckleberry plants and berries and others say it came from ’s book, Huckleberry Finn. Tom Sawyer’s was a pallbearer in their friend’s funeral might have meant, “I will be a pallbearer at your funeral,” This is highly unlikely because the book was not written until 1883. Again the incident in Tombstone took place in 1881 so again Hollywood took liberties.

In closing, Doc Holliday had a reputation for being one of the worse killers in the Old West but in fact he only killed two men. According to Ben Traywick the famous Tombstone Historian and author of 38 non fiction books, the first killing occurred at the Gunfight at the OK Corral, where Doc shot Tom Mclaury in the general firefight that took all of 30 seconds and the second shooting was when Old Man Clanton accused Doc of shooting his son Billy at the firefight. Clanton drew down on Doc at a distance of ten feet and that was a fatal mistake. He died instantly with one shot placed right through his heart. was not as fast. Doc put several men in the hospital during his 14 year gambling career but again is only credited with killing two men. His myth as one of the worse killers in the west has been blown way out of proportion over the past 120 years. Most of his notoriety has come from the Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona on October 18, 1881.

Zeke Crandall Author and Historian