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, and the stories of the incident vary.

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 started shooting over their heads. Though an educated and respected man, John Henry was a hot-tempered Southerner and 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, and on March 1, 1872, he was conferred the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery and 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. When John (Doc) was just 15, his mother died of consumption on Septem(later called tuberculosis.) This was a terrible blow to the teenager, as his relationship with his mother was very close. Major Holliday quickly became one of the town’s leading citizens, serving two terms as Mayor, acting as Secretary of the County Agricultural Society, 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 War, he returned to Griffin, Georgia, with an orphaned Mexican boy named Francisco Hidalgo. He served in several wars, including the Cherokee Indian War, the Mexican-American War, and a Major in the Confederate Army. 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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