We share 6th great grandparents with John Henry "Doc"
Holliday---the infamous gambler, gunslinger, and dentist. This makes him
our 4th cousin three times removed.
The following information is excerpts that come from Wikipedia:
Doc Holliday--- Born John Henry Holliday
August 14, 1851
Griffin, Georgia, U.S. Died November 8, 1887 (aged 36)
Glenwood Springs, Colorado
U.S. Education Graduated from Pennsylvania
College of Dental Surgery in 1872 at age 20
Occupation Dentist, professional gambler, gunfighter
Known for Arizona War
Gunfight at the O.K.
Corral
Earp Vendetta Ride
John Henry "Doc" Holliday (August 14,
1851 – November 8, 1887) was an American gambler, gunfighter and dentist of the
American Old West, who is usually remembered for his friendship with Wyatt Earp
and his involvement in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
During his travels, he met and became good
friends with Wyatt Earp and Earp's brothers. In 1880, he moved to Tombstone,
Arizona, and participated alongside the Earps in the famous gunfight. This did
not settle matters between the two sides, and Holliday was embroiled in ensuing
shootouts and killings. He successfully fought being extradited for murder, and
died in bed at a Colorado hotel/sanatorium at the age of 36.
The legend and mystique of his life is so
great that he has been mentioned in countless books, and portrayed by various
actors in numerous movies and television series. For the 100-plus years since
his death, debate has continued about the exact crimes he may have committed
during his life.
In September 1873, Holliday moved to Dallas, Texas, where
he opened a dental office with fellow dentist and Georgian John A. Seegar.
Their office was located between Market and Austin Streets along Elm Street,
about three blocks east of the site of today's Dealey Plaza.[10] He soon began
gambling and realized this was a more profitable source of income, since
patients feared going to his office because of his ongoing cough. On May 12,
1874, Holliday and 12 others were indicted in Dallas for illegal gambling.[10] He was arrested in
Dallas in January 1875 after trading gunfire with a saloon-keeper, but no one
was injured and he was found not guilty.[1] He moved his offices to Denison, Texas,
and after being found guilty of, and fined for, "gaming" in Dallas,
he decided to leave the state.
Holliday made his way to Denver, traveling the stage
routes and staying at Army outposts along the way practicing his trade as a
gambler. In the summer of 1875 he settled in Denver under the alias "Tom
Mackey", working as a Faro dealer forJohn A. Babb's Theatre
Comique at 357 Blake street. Here he heard about gold being discovered
in Wyoming and on February 5, 1876 he relocated to Cheyenne, working as a
dealer for Babb's partner, Thomas Miller, who owned a saloon called the Bella
Union. In the fall of 1876, Miller moved the Bella Union to Deadwood (site of
the gold rush in the Dakota Territory) and Holliday moved with him.[11]
In 1877, Holliday returned to Cheyenne and Denver,
eventually making his way to Kansas to visit an aunt. He left Kansas and
returned to Texas setting up as a gambler in the town of Breckenridge. On July
4, 1877 he got involved in an altercation with another gambler named Henry
Kahn, whom Holliday beat with his walking stick repeatedly. Both men were
arrested and fined, but later in the day, Kahn shot Holliday, wounding him
seriously.[12]
The Dallas Weekly Herald incorrectly
reported Holliday as dead in its July 7 edition. His cousin, George Henry
Holliday moved west to take care of him during his recovery. Fully recovered,
Holliday relocated to Fort Griffin, Texas, where he met "Big Nose
Kate" (Mary Katharine Horony) and began his long-time involvement with her.[12] In Fort Griffin,
Holliday was initially introduced to Wyatt Earp through mutual friend John
Shanssey.[13] Earp had stopped at
Fort Griffin, Texas, before returning to Dodge City in 1878 to become the
assistant city marshal, serving under Charlie Bassett.[14]:31 The two began to form
an unlikely friendship; Earp more even-tempered and controlled, Holliday more
hot-headed and impulsive. This friendship was cemented in 1878 in Dodge City,
Kansas, when Holliday defended Earp in a saloon against a handful of cowboys
out to kill Earp, and where both Earp and Holliday had traveled to make money
gambling with the cowboys who drove cattle from Texas.
Holliday was still practicing dentistry on the side from
his rooms in Fort Griffin and in Dodge City, as indicated in an 1878 Dodge
newspaper advertisement (he promised money back for less than complete customer
satisfaction), but this is the last known time he attempted to practice.[13] Holliday was
primarily a gambler although he had a reputation as a deadly gunman. Modern
research has only identified three instances in which he shot someone. In the
summer of 1878, Holliday assisted Earp during a bar room confrontation when
Earp "was surrounded by desperadoes". Earp credited Holliday with
saving his life that day and the two became friends as a result..[15]
One documented instance happened when Holliday was
employed during a railroad dispute. On July 19, 1879, Holliday and noted gunman
John Joshua Webb were seated in a saloon in Las Vegas, New Mexico when a former
U.S. Army scout named Mike Gordon tried to persuade one of the saloon girls to
leave her job and come away with him. When she refused, Gordon stormed outside
and began firing into the building. Holliday followed him and killed him before
he could get off a second shot. Holliday was placed on trial for the shooting
but was acquitted, mostly based on the testimony of Webb.[16][17]
Dodge City was not a frontier town for long; by 1879, it
had become too respectable for the sort of people who had seen it through its
early days. For many, it was time to move on to places not yet reached by the
civilizing railroad—places where money was to be made. Holliday, by this time,
was as well known for his prowess as a gunfighter as for his gambling, though
the latter was his trade and the former simply a reputation. Through his
friendship with Wyatt and the other Earp brothers, especially Morgan and
Virgil, Holliday made his way to the silver-mining boom town of Tombstone,
Arizona Territory, in September 1880. The Earps had been there since December
1879. Some accounts state the Earps sent for Holliday when they realized the
problems they faced in their feud with the Cowboy faction. In Tombstone,
Holliday quickly became embroiled in the local politics and violence that led
up to the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in October 1881.
The gunfight happened in front of, and next to, Fly's
boarding house and picture studio, where Holliday had a room, the day after a
late night of hard drinking and poker by Ike Clanton. The Clantons and McLaurys
collected in the space between the boarding house and the house west of it,
before being confronted by the Earps. Holliday likely thought they were there
specifically to assassinate him.[18]
It is known Holliday carried a coach gun from the local
stage office into the fight; he was given the weapon just before the fight by
Virgil Earp, as Holliday was wearing a long coat which could conceal it. Virgil
Earp in turn took Holliday's walking stick: by not going conspicuously armed,
Virgil was seeking to avoid panic in the citizenry of Tombstone, and in the
Clantons and McLaurys.[19]
An inquest and arraignment hearing determined the
gunfight was not a criminal act on the part of Holliday and the Earps. The
situation in Tombstone soon grew worse when Virgil Earp was ambushed and
permanently injured in December 1881. Then Morgan Earp was ambushed and killed
in March 1882. After Morgan's murder, Virgil Earp and many remaining members of
the Earp families fled town. Holliday and Wyatt Earp stayed in Tombstone to
exact retribution on Ike Clanton and the corrupt members known as the Cowboys. In
Tucson, while Wyatt, Warren Earp, and Holliday were escorting the wounded
Virgil Earp and his wife Allie on the first stage of their trip to California,
they prevented another ambush in Tucson, and this may have been the start of
the vendetta against Morgan's killers.
Several Cowboys were identified by witnesses as suspects
in the shooting of Virgil Earp on December 27, 1881, and the assassination of
Morgan Earp on March 19, 1882. Some circumstantial evidence also pointed to
their involvement.
Wyatt Earp had been appointed Deputy U.S. Marshall after
Virgil was maimed. He deputized Holliday, Warren Earp, Sherman McMasters, and
"Turkey Creek" Jack Johnson, and they guarded Virgil Earp and his
wife Allie on their way to the train for California. In Tucson, the group spotted
Frank Stilwell and Ike Clanton lying in wait to kill Virgil. On Monday, March
20, 1882, Frank Stilwell's body was found at dawn alongside the rail road
tracks, riddled with buckshot and gunshot wounds.[20]
Tucson Justice of the Peace Charles Meyer issued arrest warrants
for five of the Earp party, including Holliday. They returned briefly to
Tombstone on March 21, where they were joined by Texas Jack Vermillion and
possibly others. Wyatt deputized the men who rode with him. After leaving
Tombstone, the posse made its way to Spence's wood-cutting camp in the South
Pass of the Dragoon Mountains. There they found and killed Florentino
"Indian Charlie" Cruz. Over the next few days they also located and
killed "Curly Bill" Brocius and wounded at least two other men thought
to be responsible for Morgan's death. Holliday and four other members of the
posse were still faced with warrants for Stilwell's death. The group elected to
leave the Arizona Territory for New Mexico and then Colorado. While in
Trinidad, Colorado, Wyatt Earp and Holliday parted ways, going separately to
different parts of Colorado. Holliday arrived in Colorado in mid-April 1882.[21]
On May 15, 1882, Holliday was arrested in Denver on the
Arizona warrant for murdering Frank Stilwell. Wyatt Earp, fearing that Holliday
could not receive a fair trial in Arizona, asked his friend Bat Masterson,
Sheriff of Trinidad, Colorado, to help get Holliday released. The extradition
hearing was set for May 30.[22]:230 Late in the evening of May 29,
Masterson needed help getting an appointment with Colorado Governor Frederick
Walker Pitkin. He contacted E. D. Cowen, capital reporter for the Denver
Tribune, who held political sway in town. Cowen later wrote, "He
submitted proof of the criminal design upon Holliday's life. Late as the hour
was, I called on Pitkin." After meeting with Masterson, Pitkin was
persuaded by whatever evidence he presented and refused to honor Arizona's
extradition request.[22] His legal reasoning was
that the extradition papers for Holliday contained faulty legal language, and
that there was already a Colorado warrant out for Holliday—one on bunco charges
that Masterson had fabricated in Pueblo, Colorado.[22]
Masterson took Holliday to Pueblo, where he was released
on bond two weeks after his arrest.[23] Holliday and Wyatt met briefly after
Holliday's release during June 1882 in Gunnison.
On July 14, 1882, Johnny Ringo was found dead in the
crotch of a large tree in West Turkey Creek Valley, near Chiricahua Peak,
Arizona Territory, with a bullet hole in his right temple and a revolver
hanging from a finger of his hand. The book, I Married Wyatt Earp,
supposedly written by Josephine Marcus Earp, reported that Wyatt Earp and
Holliday returned to Arizona to find and kill Ringo. Actually written by Glen
Boyer, the book states that Holliday killed Ringo with a rifle shot at a
distance, contradicting the coroner's ruling that Ringo's death was a suicide.
However, Boyer's book has been discredited as a fraud and a hoax[24] that cannot be relied
upon.[25]:489 In response to
criticism about the book's authenticity, Boyer said the book was not really a
first-person account, that he had interpreted Wyatt Earp in Josephine's voice,
and admitted that he could not produce any documents to vindicate his methods.[26]
Official records of the Pueblo County, Colorado District
Court indicate that both Holliday and his attorney appeared in court there on
July 11, 14 and 18, 1882. Author Karen Holliday Tanner, in Doc
Holliday, A Family Portrait, speculated that Holliday may not have been in
Pueblo at the time of the court date, citing a writ of habeas corpus issued for
him in court on July 11.[6] She believes that only his attorney may have
appeared on his behalf that day, in spite of the wording of a court record that
indicated he may have appeared in person—in propria persona or
"in his own person". She cites this as standard legal filler text
that does not necessarily prove the person was present. There is no doubt that
Holliday arrived in Salida, Colorado on July 7 as reported in a town newspaper.
This is 500 miles (800 km) from the site of Ringo's death, six days before
the shooting.
Holliday spent the rest of his life in Colorado. After a
stay in Leadville, he suffered from the high altitude. He increasingly depended
on alcohol and laudanum to ease the symptoms of tuberculosis, and his health
and his ability to gamble began to deteriorate.[6]:218
In 1887, prematurely gray and badly ailing, Holliday made
his way to the Hotel Glenwood, a sanatorium near the hot springs of Glenwood
Springs, Colorado. He hoped to take advantage of the reputed curative power of
the waters, but the sulfurous fumes from the spring may have done his lungs
more harm than good.[6]:217 As he lay dying,
Holliday is reported to have asked the nurse attending him at the Hotel
Glenwood for a shot of whiskey. When she told him no, he looked at his bootless
feet, amused. The nurses said that his last words were, "Damn, this is
funny." Holliday died at 10 A.M., November 8, 1887. He was 36.[3] It was reported that
no one ever thought that Holliday would die in bed with his boots off.
Marcus Mark Hardin * (1681 - 1735) Marcus Mark Hardin * (1681 - 1735)
is our 6th great
grandfather is
our 6th great grandfather
Mark Hardin * (1718 - 1790) Alice
Hardin (1730-1777)
son of Marcus Mark Hardin * daughter
of Marcus Mark Hardin *
Benjamin Hardin * (1753 - 1834) Joseph Cloud (1770-1851)
son of Mark Hardin * son of Alice
Hardin
Daniel Hardin * (1790 - 1850) Jane Cloud
(1804-1853)
son of Benjamin Hardin * daughter
of Joseph Cloud
Martin V Hardin (1834 - 1881) Alice Jane Mckey
(1829-1866)
son of Daniel Hardin * daughter of
Jane Cloud
Nancy Wilson Hardin * (1858 - 1933) John Henry “Doc” Holliday
(1851-1887)
daughter of Martin V Hardin
Walter Scott Bramblett * (1882 -
1978)
son of Nancy Wilson Hardin *
Margaret May Belle Bramblett * (1911 - 1988)
