6. Denver Republican, November 10, 1887.
7. Glenwood Springs (Colorado) Ute Chief, November 12, 1887.
8. Valdosta (Georgia) Daily Times, January 28, 1888.
9. Denver Field and Farm, November 12, 1887.
10. Kent L. Steckmesser, The Western Hero in History and Legend (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965), 157–159, explores the multiplicity of images afforded to specific frontier “heroes” over time and summarizes the origin and growth of legends at 241–252. Ramon F. Adams, A Fitting Death for Billy the Kid (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1960), is still an essential work for understanding the mythmaking process.
11. Denver Republican, December 25, 1887.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Macon (Georgia) Telegraph, reprinted in the Valdosta Daily Times, February 11, 1888.
15. Ibid.
16. San Francisco Examiner, August 16, 1896.
17. Kansas City (Missouri) Journal, reprinted in the Phoenix Arizona Republican, January 21, 1899. This is not the only place in the press in which Doc was described the arbiter of saloon fights, especially during the Dodge City War.
18. Ibid. Note the reference to Doc firing the first shot and how time had changed “daisy” to “dandy.”.
19. Valdosta Daily Times, December 31, 1898. Here is yet another example of the image of the “good bad man” that was so popular at the turn of the twentieth century. E. D. Cowen, Doc’s friend from Denver and Leadville, in an article in the Denver Rocky Mountain News on October 23, 1898, about the “Happy Bad Men of the West,” a detailed exposition of the theme, made sure to note, “The genesis of the bad man of the happy killing habit is not easily traced, and by this I don’t mean the border ruffian or drunk-crazed cowboy who killed for the same reason that certain human beings with symmetrical craniums commit burglary and other crimes.” Rather, he wrote, “This unique character of American daring and the acutest sense of fair play, full of sentiments easily touched, but rarely spoken, incapable of abandoning a friend who had the law against him, and the bravest to execute the law when common sense dictated the justice of the decree…. Unerringly he was a home ruler, a local government man, with no fondness for far-away lawmakers, no confidence in their rectitude or wisdom, and a believer in the general cussedness of all human nature not embodied in his particular friends and relatives.” The “type” he illustrated not only with Doc Holliday but with Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Billy Thompson as well.
20. Washington Post, February 16, 1906.
21. William Barclay Masterson, “Famous Gunfighters of the Western Frontier: Doc Holliday,” Human Life (May 1907): 5–6.
22. Alfred Henry Lewis, The Sunset Trail (New York: Barnes, 1905), 339–358. Actually, Lewis had a way of recycling stories. Apparently, this story appeared first in Everybody’s Magazine in about 1904, before the publication of Sunset Trail. This seems to be confirmed by an article in the Arizona Republican, July 3, 1904. The Valdosta Daily Times, January 4, 1908, attributed the story to a recent issue of Metropolitan Magazine. What is most interesting, though, is the agreeable relationship that Lewis depicted between Holliday and Masterson, an image much at odds with the Human Life portrait, but believable based on Lewis’s friendship with Masterson, the association of Masterson and Holliday at Dodge, and Masterson’s role in blocking the extradition of Doc from Colorado in 1882.
23. Lewis, Sunset Trail, 356.
24. Valdosta Daily Times, January 4, 1908.
25. Phoenix Arizona Republican, June 26, 1892. Actually, the reference to Holliday being a participant in the robbery is not directly from Paul, and, in light of Paul’s statements in Denver in 1882, something more is needed to confirm that Paul believed Holliday was involved. Fred Dodge to Stuart N. Lake, September 18, 1930, Carolyn Lake, ed., Under Cover for Wells Fargo: The Unvarnished Recollections of Fred Dodge (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969), 246; and John P. Clum to George H. Kelly, August 23, 1929, reprinted in full in Ellis T. “Butch” Badon, “An Unexpected Nugget,” NOLA Quarterly 25 (October– December 2001): 21–22.
26. San Francisco Daily Call, December 15, 1896. Casey Tefertiller, Wyatt Earp: The Life behind the Legend (New York: Wiley, 1997), 297, presents evidence that Hopkins had been in Tombstone and had been arrested in June 1881 for being drunk and disorderly by one of Virgil Earp’s deputies.
27. Will H. Robinson, The Story of Arizona (Phoenix, AZ: Berryhill, 1919), William MacLeod Raine, Famous Sheriffs and Western Outlaws (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1929); William M. Breakenridge, Helldorado: Bringing the Law to the Mesquite (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1928).
28. Casey Tefertiller, “Resolving Earp Myths,” NOLA Quarterly 21 (October– December 1997): 3, is the first to point out Breakenridge’s tampering with the Nugget account.
29. Forestine C. Hooker, “Arizona Vendetta (The Truth about Wyatt Earp—and Some Others),” unpublished manuscript, circa 1920, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles, California.
30. John H. Flood Jr., “Wyatt Earp: A Peace-officer of Tombstone,” 62 (unpublished manuscript, 1927), C. Lee Simmons Collection.
31. Testimony of Wyatt Earp, Lotta Crabtree Probate Trial, pp. 315–316, William M. Breakenridge Collection, Harvard Law School Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
32. Ibid., 320.
33. Wyatt Earp to Walter Noble Burns, March 15, 1927, Walter Noble Burns Collection, Special Collections, University of Arizona Library, Tucson, Arizona.
34. See especially Earp to Burns, May 24, 1924, and Earp to Doubleday, Page & Company, May 24, 1927, Burns Collection.
35. Walter Noble Burns, Tombstone: An Iliad of the Southwest (New York: Doubleday, 1929), 52, 259.
36. Stuart N. Lake, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1931), 192–198.
37. Fred Dodge to Stuart N. Lake, September 18, 1930, Carolyn Lake, ed., Under Cover for Wells Fargo: The Unvarnished Recollections of Fred Dodge (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969), 246, and John P. Clum to George H. Kelly, August 23, 1929, reprinted in full in Ellis T. “Butch” Badon, “An Unexpected Nugget,” NOLA Quarterly 25 (October–December 2001): 21–22.
38. Lake, Frontier Marshal, 196. For Lake’s account of Doc’s death, derivative of Burns, see pp. 356–357.
39. The best sources for the reaction of Arizona pioneers who disapproved of Lake’s portrayal of Wyatt Earp are the files of the Arizona Historical Society at Tucson. Here, both manuscript commentaries and Arizona newspaper clippings are filed for J. C. Hancock, Melvin Jones, and others. See also Adams, Fitting Death, 102–140, for an interesting analysis of “The Old-Timer [Who] Thinks He Remembers.”.
40. Anton Mazzanovich’s series of articles on Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal ran in the Bisbee (Arizona) Brewery Gulch Gazette, November 13, 1931, February 19, March 11, April 15, 29, 1932. The quotes are from the November 13, 1931, article.
41. Brewery Gulch Gazette, April 22, June 3, 1932. Kate worked at the Cochise Hotel in Cochise, Arizona, as well as at Globe, so Mazzanovich could have crossed her path at either of those places.
42. Joe Chisholm, “Tombstone’s Tale (The Truth of Helldorado),” 15 1/2, unpublished manuscript, circa 1938, Jack Burrows Collection. He wrote, “Just before Tony Mazzanovich’s death Doc Holliday’s widow wrote the ex-cavalryman concerning the state of affairs in Tombstone in those days, and since then I have visited her and had her verify the data contained in her correspondence with Tony.” Joe Chisholm, Brewery Gulch: Frontier Days of Old Arizona—Last Outpost of the Great Southwest (San Antonio, TX: Naylor, 1949), 123, 128–129. Eugene Cunningham, Triggernometry: A Gallery of Gunfighters (Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, 1941), 113, said of Kate, “She was a notorious character and the story I have heard, accounting for Holliday’s infatuation for her, does not bear printing.” Harry Sinclair Drago, Wild, Woolly, and Wicked: The History of the Kansas Cow Towns and the Texas Cattle Trade (New York: Potter, 1960), was also unkind: “She was coarse and crude and had a temper to shame a fishwife. Sist
ers of her scarlet profession accused her of indulging in sexual practices on which they frowned. It certainly couldn’t have been her looks that made Doc provide her with bed and board for years.” The sources for these accusations are far from clear.
43. Arthur W. Bork and Glenn G. Boyer, “The O.K. Corral Fight at Tombstone: A Footnote by Kate Elder,” Arizona and the West (Spring 1977): 69–74.
44. Bork and Boyer, “O.K. Corral Fight,” 70.
45. Dr. Arthur W. Bork, Notes of Interview with Mary Katharine Cummings, Thanksgiving, 1935, typescript provided to Gary L. Roberts by Dr. Bork.
46. Bork and Boyer, “O.K. Corral Fight,” 65–84.
47. No reference to a connection to Maximilian appears in Bork and Boyer, “O.K. Corral Fight,” or in Boyer’s “On the Trail of Big Nosed Kate,” Real West 24 (March 1981): 14–20, 50, but in his “Frontier ‘Lost Person’ Found,” True West 39 (November 1992): 21, the Maximilian story emerged. The story was picked up by several other writers, including Ben T. Traywick, John Henry (The Doc Holliday Story) (Tombstone, AZ: Red Marie’s Bookstore, 1996), 54, despite the fact that the documentary record shows the Harony family
in Iowa well before Maximilian went to Mexico. Patrick A. Bowmaster, “A Fresh Look at ‘Big Nose Kate,’” NOLA Quarterly 22 (July–September 1998): 12–24, exposes the fallacy of this tale.
48. Several respected researchers in the field doubt that Mary Katharine Cummings was Kate Elder, and her reminiscences do contain puzzling errors. Once again, as in numerous other instances of old-timer reminiscences, researchers are faced with the question of authenticity and accuracy. In Kate’s case, even some of her inaccurate statements oddly support the authenticity of her recollections.
49. Typescript of Recollections of Mary Katharine Cummings as Given to Anton Mazzanovich, inserted between pages 15 and 16, Kevin J. Mulkins Collection.
50. Ibid., 16–17; Bork Thanksgiving notes; Bork and Boyer, “O.K. Corral Fight,” 81.
51. Bork and Boyer, “O.K. Corral Fight,” 69.
52. This story appears to have been published first in Guns Magazine sometime in 1952. See John Myers Myers, Doc Holliday (Boston: Little, Brown, 1955), 253–254, who described the tale as “a legend which arouses admiration through its sheer and indelicate ingenuity.”
53. Aunt Mary [Katharine Cummings] to My Dear Niece Lillie [Raffert], March 18, 1940, acquired from the family by Glenn G. Boyer (photocopy of original in Roberts’s files) was published in Bob Boze Bell, The Illustrated Life and Times of Doc Holliday (Phoenix, AZ: Tri-Star-Boze, 1994), 107–110.
54. Frank Waters, “Tombstone Travesty (Original version),” 1934, Frank Waters Papers, Center for Southwest Research, University of New Mexico Library, Albuquerque, New Mexico, was deposited at the Arizona Historical Society largely because of Allie Earp’s displeasure with it. Eventually, Waters retrieved it from the society, after a major rewrite that was published as Frank Waters, The Earp Brothers of Tombstone: The Story of Mrs. Virgil Earp (New York: Potter, 1960). In 1998, Jeffrey Wheat, an Earp researcher, found the manuscript in the Waters Papers at the University of New Mexico Library, which led to a comprehensive comparison of the manuscript with the book. A detailed examination of the “Tombstone Travesty vs. The Earp Brothers of Tombstone,” which included Jeffrey Wheat, “The Waters Travesty,” Casey Tefertiller, “What Was Not in Tombstone Travesty,” and two articles by Gary L. Roberts, “Allie’s Story: Mrs. Virgil Earp and the ‘Tombstone Travesty’” and “The Real Tombstone Travesty: The Earp Controversy from Bechdolt to Boyer,” appeared in WOLA Journal 8 (Fall 1999): 9–47, along with additional remarks by the editor Chuck Hornung. These articles document thoroughly how Waters integrated Kate’s recollections into Allie’s story when he wrote The Earp Brothers of Tombstone.
55. Myers, Doc Holliday.
56. Patricia Jahns, The Frontier World of Doc Holliday (New York: Hastings House, 1957). Especially interesting are letters from Myers and Jahns to Lillian McKey, the first cousin of Doc Holliday of Valdosta, Georgia, which today are in the possession of Susan McKey Thomas. “Miss Lillian” was very protective of the family name, but unfortunately she wrote her letters in longhand so that there are no copies of her letters to them. Susan McKey Thomas also corresponded with Pat Jahns, who recalled her exchange with Lillian McKey.
57. Ed Bartholomew, Wyatt Earp: The Man and the Myth (Toyahvale, TX: Frontier, 1964), 16.
58. John Abbott, “Robert Holliday: Restoring a Proud Family Name,” Holliday House Gazette 3 (Winter 1998): 6.
59. Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 3, 1994; Victoria Wilcox to Gary L. Roberts, January 29, 1999. Rita H. DeLorme, “Gunfighter ‘Doc’ Holliday, Sister M. Melanie Holliday, RSM: More Than a Pretty Love Story,” The Southern Cross 79 (December 9, 1999): 3, says that Sister Melanie destroyed some of the correspondence herself and told “those close to her” that if she had not done so, “later historians might have looked upon him more favorably.” Pat Jahns to Lillian McKey, February 17, 1951, wrote, “I should like to read those letters he wrote. They would prove better than anything where he was and what he was doing at the time of their correspondence.” After John Myers Myers published his biography of Doc, Lillian McKey wrote him in an undated letter after reading the copy he sent her, disagreeing with his portrayal of John Henry. She concluded by stating, “Anyway, the tragedy is ended and let us hope the unfortunate man is at rest, after all his physical and mental sufferings.” That doubtlessly was the feeling of most of the family. From Lillian McKey’s correspondence, copies in Gary L. Roberts’s files, courtesy Susan McKey Thomas.
60. Abbott, “Restoring a Proud Name,” 6.
61. Pat Jahns to Susan McKey Thomas, February 17, 1975, copy in author’s files.
62. Morgan De Lancey Magee, “A Lady Never Tells,” Holliday House Gazette 1 (Fall 1996): 8.
63. Abbott, “Restoring a Proud Name,” 6.
64. DeLorme, “More than a Love Story,” 3.
65. David O’Connell, The Irish Roots of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind (Decatur, GA: Claves and Petry, 1996), 83–92.
66. Valdosta Daily Times, February 25, 1893; Susan McKey Thomas, “Henry Burroughs Holliday: 1819–1893, Lowndes County,” unpublished manuscript, Roberts’s collection. “Major” was a distinguished citizen of Valdosta for a number of years. He was politically active, having served as mayor for several terms. He also operated a nursery and is generally credited with introducing pecan growing to southern Georgia. For examples of his activities and service, see Valdosta Daily Times, January 13, September 15, 29, October 20, 1877, August 24, 1878, September 27, 1879, February 17, 1883, June 14, 1884, February 7, 14, 1885, April 18, 1885, December 27, 1890, January 17, March 7, 1891.
67. Valdosta Daily Times, September 27, 1879.
68. Albert S. Pendleton Jr. and Susan McKey Thomas, In Search of the Hollidays: The Story of Doc Holliday and His Holliday and McKey Families (Valdosta, GA: Little River, 1973), 55–58; Atlanta Constitution, February 24, 1914, October 20, 1921.
69. Victoria Wilcox, “Mischievous Minor: From Lad to Lunger,” True West 48 (November–December 2001): 22.
70. Glenwood Springs (Colorado) Sage-Reminder, August 21, 1970.
71. J. R. Kirkpatrick, “Doc Holliday’s Missing Grave,” True West 37 (October 1990): 46–49. The family had an interest in Doc’s grave as early as 1949, when J. F. DeLacy promised Lillian McKey he would try to find out more about Doc’s burial site. DeLacy to Robert N. Mullin, January 9, 1949, Robert N. Mullin Collection, Nita Stewart Haley Memorial Library and J. Evetts Haley History Center, Midland, Texas. Pendleton and Thomas, In Search of the Hollidays, 52, reproduce a letter from May Knight of the Glenwood Springs Chamber of Commerce to Susan McKey Thomas, June 12, 1973, which consisted largely of an account by Art Kendricks, the employee at the Hotel Glenwood, who had helped Doc in his last days. He claimed to have personally placed a small wooden cross on the grave in the cemetery. See also Valdosta Daily Times, December 18, 1976; Atlanta Journal, June 22
, 1978. Roberts has copies of the correspondence between Thomas and the Colorado authorities.
72. Glenwood Springs Ute Chief, November 19, 1887; City Council Minutes, April 25, June 20, November 7, 1887, Glenwood Springs City Council Records, Frontier Historical Society, Glenwood Springs, Colorado; see also Glenwood Springs (Colorado) Post-Independent, April 19, 2005. Cindy Hines, Director of the Frontier Historical Society, in a letter to Gary L. Roberts, April 29, 2005, notes, “It makes no sense that Doc would be buried at the bottom of the hill because the ground was supposedly too frozen, if Hewson was moving bodies to the cemetery at the same time.” These documents, combined with the contemporary accounts, would seem to settle the question of where he was buried.
73. Bill Dunn, “The Forgotten Graves,” Yesterday’s Memories (November 2000): 2–5; Jackie Kennedy, “Uncovering the Myth: Doc Holliday and His Griffin, GA, Home,” Georgia Backroads 2 (Winter 2003): 40–41.
74. Bruce Dettman, “The Holliday Mystique,” 1, unpublished manuscript, 2001, copy in Roberts’s files, courtesy of Bruce Dettman.
75. Ibid., 1–3. Allen Barra, Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends (New York: Carroll and Graf, 1998), 343–370, is a very good review of films that involve Wyatt Earp. He also recognizes the power of Holliday’s presence on film and includes films not mentioned here.
76. Two articles by Shirley Ayn Linder, “When the Dealing’s Done: John H. (Doc) Holliday and the Evolution of a Western Myth,” Journal of the West 37 (April 1998): 53–60, and “Is There a Doctor in the House? The Legend of John H. (Doc) Holliday in the 20th Century,” True West 48 (November–December 2001): 71, are also helpful.
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