He was moody, a heavy drinker, and perhaps more prone to the life he lived with no fear of death. However, Doc was also miserable, with the knowledge of his impending death. His intelligence made him a “natural” at gambling, which quickly became his means of support, where he was both an active participant and a poker and Faro dealer. He was fluent in Latin, played the piano very well, was a “nappy” dresser, and displayed the manners of a Southern gentleman. ![]() However, as the coughing spells wracked his body during delicate dental procedures, his business declined, and Holliday was forced to find another way to earn a living.ĭoc was a most unusual character out west, a highly educated and refined man where such things were uncommon. Initially, Doc worked with another dentist named Dr. However, Bat Masterson would write in 1907 that Doc moved due to the shooting incident back in Georgia. In October 1873, Doc Holliday packed up and headed for Dallas, Texas, the railroad’s end at the time. His adopted Mexican brother was also diagnosed with the disease and later died, so he may have also contracted it from him.ĭoc consulted several physicians, who told him he had only a short time to live and was encouraged to move to a dryer climate to extend his life. Shortly after starting his dental practice, Doc Holliday discovered that he had contracted tuberculosis – most likely from his mother before she died. This seems to be the first account of Doc’s love affair with the six-shooter. While one of the black men shot back, no one was killed. On one occasion, African American men were swimming in his favorite swimming hole, and the outraged Doc Holliday started shooting over their heads. Though educated and respected, John Henry was a hot-tempered Southerner who was quick to use a gun. Shortly after graduation, Doc Holliday began work as a dentist in the office of Dr. In 1870 he enrolled in the college in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and on March 1, 1872, he earned a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree along with 26 other graduates. The family’s status in the community and the fact that his cousin, Robert Holliday, founded the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery probably encouraged John’s choice of profession. Compounding this loss, his father remarried only three months later.ĭoc Holliday’s graduation from dental school photo, 1872. This was a terrible blow to the teenager, as his relationship with his mother was very close. ![]() When John was just 15, his mother died of consumption (later called tuberculosis) on September 16, 1866. Major Holliday quickly became one of the town’s leading citizens, serving two terms as Mayor, acting as Secretary of the County Agricultural Society, was a member of the Masonic Lodge, Secretary of the Confederate Veterans Camp, and the Superintendent of local elections. He moved Alice, John, and Francisco to Lowndes County, where John Henry attended grade school at the Valdosta Institute, studying Greek, Latin, and French. In 1857, Major Holliday inherited a piece of land in Valdosta, Georgia. On August 14, 1851, John Henry “Doc” Holliday was born. ![]() On January 8, 1849, Major Holliday married Alice Jane McKay and, within just a year, had a daughter, Martha Eleanora, who died in infancy. After serving in the Mexican-American War, he returned to Griffin, Georgia, with an orphaned Mexican boy named Francisco Hidalgo. He served in several wars, including the Cherokee Indian War, and the Mexican-American War, and was a Major in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. A friend to Wyatt Earp, he was deputized in Tombstone, Arizona, before the famous gunfight at the O.K. 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 and nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun I ever knew.”ĭoc Holliday was a gambler, vagabond, gentleman, and gunfighter. ![]() “I found him a loyal friend and good company.
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