Person:John Holliday (7)

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John Henry Holliday (August 14, 1851 – November 8, 1887), better known as Doc Holliday, was an American gambler, gunfighter, and dentist. A close friend and associate of lawman Wyatt Earp, Holliday is best known for his role in the events leading up to and following the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. He developed a reputation as having killed more than a dozen men in various altercations, but modern researchers have concluded that, contrary to popular myth-making, Holliday killed only one to three men. Holliday's colorful life and character have been depicted in many books and portrayed by well-known actors in numerous movies and television series.^[1]

At age 21, Holliday earned a degree in dentistry from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery. He set up practice in Griffin, Georgia, but he was soon diagnosed with tuberculosis, the same disease that had claimed his mother when he was 15, having acquired it while tending to her needs while she was still in the contagious phase of the illness. Hoping the climate in the American Southwest would ease his symptoms, he moved to that region and became a gambler, a reputable profession in Arizona in that day. Over the next few years, he reportedly had several confrontations. He saved Wyatt Earp, a famous lawman and gambler, while in Texas. Afterwards they became friends. In 1879, he joined Earp in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and then rode with him to Prescott, Arizona, and then Tombstone. In Tombstone, local members of the outlaw Cochise County Cowboys repeatedly threatened him and spread rumors that he had robbed a stagecoach. On October 26, 1881, Holliday was deputized by Tombstone city marshal Virgil Earp. The lawmen attempted to disarm five members of the Cowboys near the O.K. Corral on the west side of town, which resulted in the famous shootout.

Following the Tombstone shootout, Virgil Earp was maimed by hidden assailants while Morgan Earp was murdered. Unable to obtain justice in the courts, Wyatt Earp took matters into his own hands. As the recently appointed deputy U.S. marshal, Earp formally deputized Holliday, among others. As a federal posse, they pursued the outlaw Cowboys they believed were responsible. They found Frank Stilwell lying in wait as Virgil boarded a train for California and Wyatt Earp killed him. The local sheriff issued a warrant for the arrest of five members of the federal posse, including Holliday. The federal posse killed three other Cowboys during late March and early April 1882, before they rode to the New Mexico Territory. Wyatt Earp learned of an extradition request for Holliday and arranged for Colorado Governor Frederick Walker Pitkin to deny Holliday's extradition. Holliday spent the few remaining years of his life in Colorado. He died of tuberculosis in his bed at the Hotel Glenwood at age 36.

Photo of his tombstone on FindAGrave.com.

Information on "Doc" Holliday

From the Kansas Heritage website, quoting Doc Holiday by John Myers:^S1
The earliest known authentic document naming Holliday is the baptismal record of 21 March 1852, which is on file at the First Presbyterian Church in Griffin, Georgia. His father, Maj. Henry Burroughs Holliday, after a short tour in the Confederate Army, moved his family from Griffin, Georgia to Valdosta, Georgia near to a section which is known as Bemiss south of Moody Air Force Base. Doc finished grade school at the Valdosta Institute where he had some Greek, much Latin, and considerable French. During his first two years, his favorite study was advanced English called rhetoric.

Maj. Holliday also had served in the Mexican War, after which he brought back a Mexican boy who had been orphaned, named Francisco Hidalgo. Alice McKey Holliday died of tuberculosis (or "consumption") in 1866, when John was 12 years old; it is believed he had contracted the disease from her, as it was not yet known to be communicable. Also, Francisco, John's adopted brother, later died of tuberculosis, so he must have contracted it from one of the two (or both).

For many years it was believed that John attended dental school in Baltimore, but the three main dental schools in Baltimore had no record of a "J. H. Holliday" ever having attended school there. But through the efforts of Dr. L. C. Holtzendorff (Valdosta, Georgia), Dr. Donald Washburn (American Dental Association Librarian Services, Chicago), and Mr. John Whittock (Librarian, School of Dental Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia), it finally was determined and verified that "John H. Holliday" graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in 1872.

In the west, Doc was an unusual character of his time. He was a well-educated man in a region where formal education was not generally regarded as important. He was fluent in Latin and played the piano (his mother taught piano for many years). He loved being a dentist, but because his patients didn't like their dentist coughing in their faces, it was difficult for him to keep customers. He discovered that he had a real talent for playing cards, however, and established himself as quite a good gambler, for which he was well respected. But he was also a moody, fatalistic man dying from an incurable disease. He drank a lot, and thought a lot about death. It's widely thought that his fatalism about his impending death made him fearless in a gunfight; he had nothing to lose. That's why he was always so quick to get involved in the battles with the Earps. Doc liked to dress up in fancy clothes and assume a very sophisticated demeanor, and he was regarded as quite a funny gentleman with a lively sense of humor.

Wyatt Earp came to like Holliday's style, and after they met in Shanessy's saloon in Fort Griffin, Texas, they immediately became friends. Wyatt said later that Holliday was "the nerviest, speediest man with a six-shooter I ever knew" and was "probably the most dangerous man in Tombstone." At the OK Corral, it is said by witnesses that the three Earp brothers all were dressed in black with grim expressions on their faces, while Doc was nattily clad in grey and was whistling.

Doc went to Dodge City in 1877 as a result of the following incident: He became involved in a gambling episode with Ed Bailey in Fort Griffin, which resulted in Doc's leaving there. Bailey drew a gun and Doc let him have it with a knife. Bailey collapsed and died. Even though, according to the law, Doc was in the right (having acted in self-defense), he was arrested and incarcerated in a local hotel room, there being no jail in the town. It was evident that Bailey was a popular man among the townspeople, and it seemed that Doc was doomed in spite of the circumstances. The story is that "Big-Nose Kate" Elder came to Doc's rescue by setting fire to the back of the hotel, thereby creating a diversion. Kate, armed with a pistol, then proceeded to the hotel room, got the drop on the deputy town marshal who had been left in charge of the prisoner, and set Doc free. Kate and Doc hid out during the night, and when morning came, they headed for Dodge City. Once in Dodge, Doc renewed his friendship with Wyatt.

Doc had a falling out with an outlaw named Mike Gordon in late August 1879. Inviting Gordon out into the street, Doc then shot him dead. Doc had to leave town quickly because of word that he was about to be arrested. This led him back to Dodge City, to which Doc was glad to return. He found that Wyatt had resigned his job as one of Dodge City's marshals and had gone to Tombstone. Doc then went to Tombstone himself, to join up with his friend. According to John Myers, "Doc had travelled in haste -- would have entailed driving the wagons up some awkward grades. Leaving Trail City in the number two rig of the Earp caravan, Wyatt heard hoof-beats in pursuit. 'Where are you going, Wyatt?' the rider who caught up with him asked. 'Tombstone' Earp said. 'That's what they told me in Dodge,' Doc replied. 'Guess I'll go with you.'"

By May 1887 (according to Myers), "the consumption so racked him that he could hardly keep on his feet. As a realist, Doc was not one to believe in miraculous cures, but as a man of action he refused to stop in his tracks while there was a chance of going on. The sulphur vapors at Glenwood Springs, Colorado, were ballyhooed as being medicine's final answer to the evil challenge of tuberculosis. On the off-chance that this was true, Doc went out to the health resort to play his last chip."

Doc Holliday died in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, at a sanitarium. It is said that during the last couple of months of his life, he got out of bed perhaps twice. Witnesses at his bedside say that just before he died he asked for a glass of whiskey, sipped it down, and smiled, then looked at his bare feet and said, "this is funny." He had always expected he would die someday with his boots on.

1. ↑ United States. 1860 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publication M653).

   
1860 U.S. Census, District 1001, Spalding County, Georgia (Roll M653 136), p. 183; Dwelling 173; Family 173.
Holliday Henry B 40 [abt 1820] M Trader (re=$10,490; pe=$7,900) South Carolina
Holliday Alice J. 30 [abt 1830] F South Carolina
Mckey M. A. 18 [abt 1842] F Georgia
Mckey M. E. 16 [abt 1844] F Georgia
Mckey E. H. 14 [abt 1846] F Georgia
Holliday John H. 8 [abt 1852] M Georgia


2. ↑ United States. 1870 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publications M593 and T132).

   
1870 U.S. Census, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia (Roll M593 163), p. 318A; Dwelling 105; Family 105.
Holliday Henry B 51 [abt 1819] M W General Agent (re=$1,700; pe=$1,000) South Carolina
Holliday Rachel 27 [abt 1843] F W Keeping House Georgia
Holliday John 18 [abt 1852] M W Student (re=$3,500) Georgia
Traup Lizie 17 [abt 1853] F Mu Georgia


3. ↑ United States. 1880 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publication T9).

   
1880 U.S. Census, Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona (Roll 37), ED 26, p. 447D; Dwelling [no no.]; Family 52 (Montezuma St).
Holladay J. H. W M 29 [abt 1851] Single Dentist Georgia South Carolina South Carolina
Elliott Richard E. W M 45 [abt 1835] Single Miner Maine Massachusetts New Brunswick
Gosper John J. W M 39 [abt 1841] Divorced Miner & Stock Raiser Ohio New York New York


4. ↑ Kansas Heritage website.

   Kansas Heritage