Doc Holliday

by Gary L Roberts

  Hill refused to support Campbell and ordered the editors of the Denver Republican, which he owned, not to print anything that could be construed to support the Republican nominee. The Denver Tribune, whose city editor was E. D. Cowen, one of Doc’s champions in Denver, followed suit. Lake County Republicans supported Campbell, of course, and Doc might have supported him and joined one of the many Campbell clubs that sprang up to help elect Leadville’s favorite son. However, the Republican and especially the Tribune had been the Denver papers that had embraced Doc’s cause during the extradition proceedings. With Hill and the two Denver papers fostering an “independent” stance by opposing both the Republican and Democratic candidates for governor, the Lake County Independent Club was organized at Leadville.25 One of the primary organizers was Dr. John Henry Holliday.

  Considering his recent arrival in Colorado, his record of attachment to the Republican Party in recent years, and Campbell’s being a Leadville mover and shaker, Doc’s involvement with the Lake County Independent Club was almost certainly payback for the support of Hill’s paper and Cowen’s advocacy of his cause. Loyalty still mattered to him. On October 20, 1882, Doc Holliday presided over the meeting at Turner Hall that adopted a resolution, declaring, “Whereas there are numerous political clubs forming throughout this county, we as members of the Lake County Independent Club do pledge ourselves not to consolidate with the same.”26

  Along with Doc, 123 men signed the resolution including John Morgan, Ben Loeb, Ben Pentland, Frank Lomeister (who would become one of Doc’s closest friends in Leadville), Allen Blount, J. W. Ritchie, Harry Neil, Edward Dempsey, and perhaps most peculiar of all, John Tyler. The resolution’s impact was questionable, since it took no stance one way or the other. Campbell won the election, oddly taking every county in the state but Lake County. There, Grant beat Campbell by 115 votes, so perhaps Doc’s venture into politics made a difference at least locally.27

  Doc did not have time to celebrate much, because he had to leave Leadville for a court date in Pueblo. On November 22, the Pueblo paper reported that “‘Doc’ Holliday, who among others has not been to Arizona this fall, is in town attending court.” Three days later, “On application of defendant by his attorney H.G. Hollins, Esq., It is ordered that this cause be continued to the next Term of the Court.” The next day the Chieftain stated that “Doc Holliday, Charles Utt and John Nugent went to Denver last night.”28 He wasted little time getting back to Leadville, and he was on hand for a bit of excitement.

  Early on the morning of December 6, 1882, shortly after the Texas House had closed, a lamp exploded, and the prestigious gambling hall burst into flames. The fire department fought the fire for more than two and a half hours before bringing the blaze under control. By 8:30 in the morning, “what was a few hours before the elegantly equipped Texas house, was a mass of charred and blackened ruins, with nothing but the smoking walls left of what was once the finest gambling hall in the west.” The firefighters did manage to keep the fire from spreading, and except for water damage to neighboring businesses, Leadville had avoided a major disaster. The Leadville Evening Chronicle applauded the work of the fire department, but it also noted, “The firemen acknowledge with thanks the services rendered by Sandy McCusick, Doc Holliday, Thomas Flood, Thomas Ransom, and George Fonda.”29

  That moment seemed a grand testament to Doc’s emergence as a good citizen, but three days before Christmas, he apparently was arrested for being drunk and carrying a concealed weapon. The demons from Doc’s past were stirring, but he fought them for a time, and the local authorities tried to help, after a fashion.

  On Christmas night two drunks got into a fight over remarks one made about the other’s wife. Timothy Breen shot Patrick Mooney. Mooney would linger until March 1883, but he eventually died. Breen was exonerated of blame at that time. Two days after Christmas, Matt Wells, also known as Charles Perry, shot John Kerr, a faro dealer at St. Anne’s Rest, in a quarrel over a debt. Wells would eventually go to prison at the Colorado State Penitentiary for the offense.30

  As a result of these incidents, on December 29, both county and city officials announced that they would strictly enforce prohibitions against carrying concealed weapons. The announcement seemed to have a salutary effect, because in January the Evening Chronicle reported, “The sporting fraternity in the city is observing the law in reference to carrying concealed weapons very strictly. It is said that there are nearly a hundred revolvers deposited by this class of men in a certain place in the city for safe keeping.”31

  Doc took the ordinance seriously, although he may have been the gambler who made the National Police Gazette on March 31, 1883, in a story about “an unpleasant guest” who crashed a party of tourists at a Leadville hotel:

  A cowboy, who by some mysterious process (probably stage robbery) had acquired a boodle, has been touring four or five states of the west getting rid of his money. This tough tourist considered himself one of the party, and in spite of all protests made his way into the ballroom where the festivities were at their height. He displayed murderous weapons in ridiculous profusion and made a thrilling sensation. A little chap, a gambler well known in the town, a mild mannered little fellow with a cold, glittering steel grey eye that we read of often in romances but rarely see in life, took the gigantic ruffian down instanter, however, and in the most humiliating manner. Covering him with his pistol he commanded the ruffian to drop his revolvers, to open his jaws and let slip the bowie he had between his teeth and to unload of his weapons generally. Then he made him take off his hat and back out of the room, bowing and apologizing according to the dictated phrase as he went. Leadville is no place for cowboys on a lark as they are doubtless convinced by this time.

  The description of the gambler fit Doc, and it certainly sounded like something he would have done. Sentiment, at least, argues that it was he.

  The Pueblo case was still a matter of concern to Doc, and it was finally disposed of in April 1883. Seemingly by design, Doc did not appear. Instead, after being “three times solemnly called in open Court to appear and answer to the indictment presented against him for the crime of larceny,” the court declared the bond posted by his sureties, William Brady (possibly from Leadville) and George W. Crummy (the same George Crummy who had pleaded Doc’s case with Governor Pitkin), forfeited.32 And that was the end of that, the deal closed exactly as planned. Everyone knew, anyway, that the charge was phony. The case did introduce a new word in Colorado legal circles—“Hollidaying”—which referred to using fake indictments to prevent the prosecution of an individual on other, more serious criminal charges.33

  Doc kept a low profile through the spring, but he did leave Leadville for a while, and his name was soon highlighting press dispatches again. His old acquaintance from Dodge and Tombstone, Luke Short, had returned to Dodge City and eventually bought Chalkney Beeson’s share of the Long Branch Saloon. His partner, W. H. Harris, also a man with a past in Tombstone, decided to run for mayor in 1883 against Larry Deger, the former Dodge City marshal, who had the backing of ex-Mayor A.B. Webster, who also owned the Alamo Saloon, the primary competition for the Long Branch. Running on a reform platform, Deger won, and, after taking office, the new city council passed new ordinances against vagrancy and prostitution.

  The laws, which most saw as a form of taxation consistent with common practice in the cow towns for years, were instead strictly enforced—against the Long Branch and only the Long Branch. Three women were arrested there and none elsewhere. When Short realized this, he headed for the city jail to protest. En route he met L. C. Hartman, the city clerk and special policeman. Hartman, who was no gun player, overreacted to the chance encounter, pulled his pistol, and fired at Short. He missed, and when Short drew his own revolver, Hartman ran. Short’s shot missed too, but Hartman stumbled and fell.

  Short thought he had killed him and surrendered only after being assured that Hartman was okay and that he faced only a fine. When he gave himself up, however, Short was ch
arged with assault and jailed. The following morning, he was released on $2,000 bond and then immediately rearrested along with L. A. Hyatt, Johnson Gallagher, W.H. Bennett, and Doc Neil, other gamblers and saloonmen. Harris tried to reach Short, but the arrested men were held incommunicado, then marched to the railroad station and told to choose a train east or west.34

  Luke headed east to Kansas City and wired Bat Masterson in Denver to come at once. This was the beginning of an affair that came to be called the “Dodge City War.” It would be fought largely in meetings, letters, and the press, although the rumor mill constantly and ominously promised a shooting war. George Glick, the governor of Kansas, was reluctant initially to take any action in the matter, but by May 12, when he realized that Short had been denied due process, he threatened to send the state militia into Dodge if Sheriff George Hinkle could not protect all citizens and guarantee them their rights. Glick suggested that Short return to Dodge, but Short insisted on an escort. Bat Masterson, who had been at Short’s side throughout the fight so far, left to provide one, traveling to Colorado for a rendezvous with Wyatt Earp.35

  The gathering place for Luke’s “escort” was Silverton, Colorado. That spring, Wyatt Earp was operating the club rooms of Silverton’s new and luxurious Arlington Saloon and Gambling Hall, owned by George Brower of Denver. Initially, Wyatt denied any involvement in the Dodge City troubles and wrote a letter to the Denver Republican stating that he had no intention of becoming involved. Both the Silverton Democrat and the La Plata Miner affirmed that Earp was “a peaceable and law-abiding citizen of Silverton, and has not been in Dodge City for the last four years.” Things were about to change, however. Bat Masterson arrived in Silverton at midmonth, and Doc Holliday most likely arrived about the same time. Local tradition says that Doc checked into the Grand Hotel in May, and Bat Masterson was still receiving mail there as late as June 4, 1883, well after he had returned to Dodge. Obviously, their intent was to recruit Wyatt as a fighter on Luke’s behalf.36

  The press was soon full of stories about gunmen en route to Dodge. Rumors flew hot and heavy through the last two weeks in May. On May 15, the Kansas City Journal announced that Bat Masterson’s presence in Kansas City meant that he was preparing for his visit to Dodge City: “Masterson precedes by twenty-four hours a few other pleasant gentlemen who are on their way to the tea party at Dodge. One of them is Wyatt Earp, the famous marshal of Dodge, another is Joe Lowe, otherwise known as ‘Rowdy Joe,’ and still another is ‘Shotgun’ Collins, but worse than all is another ex-citizen and officer of Dodge, the famous Doc Halliday [sic].”

  The Journal went on to describe each of them, saying of Doc, “Among the desperate men of the West, he is looked upon with the respect born of awe, for he has killed in single combat no less than eight desperadoes. He was the chief character in the Earp war at Tombstone, where the celebrated brothers, aided by Halliday, broke up the terrible rustlers.” The gathering of these worthies, the Journal observed, “means exactly that these men are going to Dodge City,” noting:

  They all have good reason to go back. Masterson says he wants to see his old friends. Short wants to look after his business. Earp and Holliday, who are old deputy sheriffs of Dodge, also intend visiting friends, so they say, and Collins is coming along to keep the others company. “Rowdy Joe”… goes about for pleasure. Altogether it is a very pleasant party. Their entrance into Dodge will mean that a desperate fight will take place.37

  The Kansas City Star provided an even more detailed review, stating that Jonathan Calhoun of Caldwell had arrived and after conferring with Short and Masterson left for Topeka, adding another description of Masterson’s “formidable delegation” that included an imposing description of Holliday:

  Next to Masterson Doc. Holliday has probably the most exciting history and is the hardest man in a fight. He also was a United States marshal at Tombstone during the troublesome times and has laid away many a cow boy under the daisies, or more properly speaking, cactus. Absolutely reckless of his life he has unaided cleaned out many a saloon of hard characters and on one occasion when a plot was formed to assassinate him, literally shot his way out of a dozen men. So much for the gentle “Doc,” who is a quiet spoken man and formerly a dentist—hence his title.38

  The following evening, the Star narrowed its focus to Masterson, Lowe, and Holliday in the feature “About Some Bad Men.” The description of Doc was blood and thunder from first to last, but it is arguably the earliest account to say that Doc went west “because his physician told him he had incipient consumption and would die at home,” although the author made the mistake of making “home” the state of Iowa. “He is the last man anybody would ever take for a ‘killer,’” the Star observed, “slim, stoop shouldered, dressed in black, his sandy hair streaked with gray, his complexion sallow; he looks like a professional man who devoted himself strictly to business, and did too much desk work for his health.”39

  While newspaper readers were fed a steady diet of melodrama, maneuvering of a more serious nature continued. The list of gunfighters prepared to descend on Dodge grew apace. The Dodge City Times added a list of men with nothing but sobriquets: Black Jack Bill, Dynamite Sam, Dirty Sock Jack, Cold Chuck Johnny, and more. Governor Glick sent Thomas J. Moonlight, the attorney general, to investigate, and a veritable reunion of Dodge City luminaries took place at Caldwell as Frank McLain, Charles E. Bassett, Neal Brown, and others assembled there.

  Finally, on May 31 Wyatt Earp arrived in Dodge on the morning train. According to his recollections, a group including Johnny Millsap, George “Shotgun” Collins, Texas Jack Vermillion, and “Crooked Mouth” Johnny Green came with him. According to Earp, when Mike Sutton, the district attorney, saw them, he said, “My God, Wyatt, who are these people you’ve got with you?”

  Wyatt replied, “Oh, they’re just some bushwhackers I’ve brought over from Colorado to straighten you people out.”40

  On June 2, an anonymous writer advised in a letter to the editor of the Topeka Commonwealth:

  Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and all the sports in the country, held a meeting at Silverton and decided to take Dodge City by storm. Short is at Caldwell but will meet the party at Cimarron, 18 miles west of Dodge, perhaps Sunday night or soon after. Horses will be taken at Cimarron and the whole party will rendezvous at Mr. Oliver’s, two miles west of Dodge. Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp are now secretly in Dodge City, watching matters. When the time for action comes a telegram will reach them worded as follows: “Your tools will be there at #x2014;——,” giving the time agreed upon. The plan is to drive all of Short’s enemies out of Dodge at the mouth of the revolvers.

  The author insisted that he had the information “from undoubted authority,” and this may have been the plan. The Commonwealth added, “As if to confirm the report, we learn that Earb [sic] and Short were registered at Kinsley on Sunday at the eating house. They probably left Dodge for further consultation with friends and are preparing to carry out the plan outlined above.”41 If there was such a plan, it was never implemented. Wyatt claimed that he laid out terms and refused to compromise until the Deger-Webster faction folded, making an invasion unnecessary. He then left Dodge on June 2 and met Short, Masterson, and William F. Petillion, the court clerk of Ford County who had been drawn into the affair by Governor Glick, at Kinsley, east of Dodge. On Sunday, May 3, he returned to Dodge with Short, still half expecting a fight. It did not happen, and Masterson arrived the next day. Bassett, Brown, McLain, and others also slipped quietly into Dodge. The Globe reported simply, “Luke Short returned to the city Sunday afternoon, and we believe he has come to stay.”42

  On the evening of June 4, Sheriff Hinkle telegraphed Governor Glick, telling him that he thought it impossible to prevent a fight, explaining, “An agreement was made allowing Luke Short to return to Dodge City on condition he would send his fighters out of town which he has failed to do. I think a fight immenent [sic].” The next day, in a remarkably understated note, the Ford County Globe reported,
“Wyatt Earp, a former city marshal of Dodge City arrived in the city last Thursday. Wyatt is looking well and glad to get back to his old haunts, where he is well and favorably known.” But the paper could not resist adding, in another column, “Wyatt Earp has returned to the city. Wonder if it has any political significance? Eh, Deacon?”43

  Two days later, the Kansas City Star reported, “The much talked of band of noted killers who were to congregate here and accompany Luke Short, the exile, back to Dodge City, Kan., are in part at least, at that place now. Advices from there state that Luke Short, Bat Masterson, Charley Bassett, and Doc Holliday at present hold the fort and that trouble is liable to ensue at any moment.”44 The failure of the Short forces to leave led to a proclamation closing all gambling establishments in the city. The arrival of Attorney General Moonlight from Topeka finally settled things when he organized the Glick Guards, a quasi-military organization that included men from both sides of the controversy. By June 10, most of the fighters had left, and Luke Short himself, his point made, would take leave of Dodge not long afterward. The Dodge City War was over.45

  Whether or not Doc Holliday was actually one of Wyatt Earp’s fighters, the Short faction made excellent use of his reputation. He was given a high profile in the feature articles written about Short’s allies, and he was subtly mentioned in several of the more understated news accounts. Neither Bat Masterson nor Wyatt Earp mentioned him in their later reminiscences about the affair, and none of his biographers have given him a role. Yet, he was certainly part of what transpired, even if he never left Colorado. He was mentioned more often than several of those known to have been involved, and the list of hard cases Wyatt named as getting off the train with him were never mentioned at all in the papers. At the very least, people were conscious of the possibility that he was one of the fighters, and it was a tribute to his reputation in 1883 that the very mention of him made a difference.