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According to Kate:

The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate Elder, Doc Holliday’s Love

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The main street of Las Vegas, New Mexico, was so crowded the passing streams of people moved as if unseen hands were dragging them this way and that.  In addition to the throngs of people crossing back and forth across the dusty thoroughfare, there were teams of horses pulling buckboards and business buggies, cowhands leading their mounts to the livery, and ranchers hauling supplies in and out of town.  Kate and Doc added to the chaos when they arrived just before Christmas 1878.  After tending to their rides and securing a room at the Adobe Hotel in Gallinas Canyon north of the central plaza of town, Kate put Doc to bed.  He was coughing a wet cough that produced enough blood to saturate a handkerchief.  Doc wasn’t the only tuberculosis sufferer in Las Vegas.  Many patients had gathered in the New Mexico location.  Dry air and rest were the only remedies for the disease.  Sometimes bundled in blankets and sheltered from precipitation, patients there endured outdoor life in all weather, hoping the regimen would heal their damaged lungs.

Tuberculosis patients also sought to rid themselves of the disease by soaking in the hot springs six miles northwest of town.  The September 30, 1878, edition of the Daily Gazette noted that the hot springs near Las Vegas contained the same mineral constituents as those in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and Thermal Springs in Europe.  Frontier physicians recommended soaking in the calcium and sodium enriched hot springs because the bicarbonates boosted blood circulation, reduced pain, and repaired tissue damage.  According to Kate, she tried to convince Doc to consider staying put until his health was somewhat restored.  She hoped he would take advantage of the hot springs and the rest.  The attack he had in Dodge City had left him weak and unsteady on his feet.  Kate promised to provide for them both while he was recovering, but Doc refused to go along with her plan.

As soon as Doc was able, he located office space on Bridge Street and opened his practice.  Las Vegas was a stopping point for those traveling along the Santa Fe Trail, it was the biggest city between San Francisco and Independence, Missouri.  Doc anticipated there would be many people in need of a dentist.  The army post, Fort Union, was twenty miles north of Las Vegas, and soldiers routinely spent time in town enjoying the nightlife.  If Doc’s practice faltered for any reason, he could also sustain himself at the poker table.  Las Vegas continually played host to cavalrymen, desperados, and outlaws looking for a fast game.  The number of card players eager to be separated from their money swelled when the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad reached the area.  Before Doc had an opportunity to fully fleece amateur card sharps, the New Mexico territorial legislature passed a bill prohibiting gambling.  The law didn’t stop Doc from dealing, however; he kept his games of chance quiet while maintaining the semblance of an upstanding citizen as the community’s respectable dentist.

To learn more about Kate read

According to Kate:  The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate Elder,

Doc Holliday’s Love

According to Kate:  The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate Elder,

Doc Holliday’s Love is available in bookstores everywhere.

A hot wind ushered Kate and Doc into Dodge in late May of 1878.  The sun’s rays were like the flames of a furnace blasting down on the parched path leading into the city.  The cow town had grown substantially in the short time Kate had been away.  Dodge was never lacking with activity, but now it was a dizzying array of action.  Hack drivers spurred their vehicles up and down the street at a rapid pace, unconcerned with the pedestrians who were forced to jump out of their way.  Harlots stood outside the doorways of their closet-sized dens, inviting passersby to step inside.  Stray dogs wandered about barking and scrounging for food.  Ranch hands led bawling livestock into corrals or railroad cars.  Disorderly drifters made their way to lively saloons, firing their pistols in the air as they went.

The distant sound of voices, back-slapping laughter, profanity, and a piano’s tinny repetitious melody wafted down Dodge City’s thoroughfare.  Kate and Doc were too tired to consider taking part in the liveliness and pressed on toward the Dodge House hotel which was adjacent to a billiard hall and restaurant.  The well-known establishment would be their home for as long as they chose to stay in town.

Dodge was just as Kate remembered it, only more so.  It was an all-night town.  Walkers and loungers kept the streets and saloons busy.  Residents learned to sleep through the giggling, growling, and gunplay of the cowboy consumers and their paramours for hire.  Kate and Doc were accustomed to the nightly frivolity and clatter.  They were seldom disturbed by the commotion.  Doc had no trouble falling asleep after the long, hard ride.  Kate, on the other hand, decided to take a position on the balcony of the hotel to make sure no one with any ill feelings toward Doc had followed the pair from Texas.  She would rest only after it seemed Doc was safe.

According to Kate, she and Doc were registered at the Dodge House as Mr. and Mrs. Holliday.  Doc set up a dental practice in the large room the pair occupied at the hotel.  There were three doctors living in Dodge City at the time; none were dentists, although in an emergency they had removed a bothersome tooth or two.  Doc received many referrals from the physicians in town, and his patient list had grown.  To help the practice along, he placed an ad in the June 27, 1878, edition of the Dodge City Times.

“Dentistry.  J. H. Holliday, Dentist, very respectfully offers his professional services to the citizens of Dodge City and surrounding country during the summer.  Office at Room No. 24, Dodge House.  Where satisfaction is not given money will be refunded.”

To learn more about Kate read

According to Kate:  The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate Elder,

Doc Holliday’s Love

According to Kate:

The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate Elder, Doc Holliday’s Love

now available in bookstores everywhere.

“As a keen reader and student of western American history, it was a pleasure reading this book. Chris Enss has done a true service in documenting fact and debunking fiction in the many tales about “Big Nose Kate.” The book is able to vividly portray not only the life of Kate, but to put in the perspective of the often-difficult struggles of living in the new and expanding raw west of her times. It includes excellent descriptions of the various towns springing into existence with minimal social constraints during this dramatic time in our history. It is well worth adding to your library of western lore!”  Dave Vickery – Goodreads

Enter to win a copy of According to Kate along with a Kindle Paperwhite

when you visit www.chrisenss.com. 

Enter now to win a copy of the book According to Kate:

The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate Elder, Doc Holliday’s Love

Along with a Kindle Paperwhite.

The main thoroughfare of Sweetwater, Texas, was so crowded with hunters, trappers, wagons, teams of horses, and soldiers that passing streams of people jostled each other, and some walked shoulder to shoulder.*  The air was charged with excitement.  Rumors that Tom Sherman, Kate Elder, Mollie Brennan, and the other five members of the Seven Jolly Sisters were on their way had caused a mild panic, and lonely men desperate for female companionship had flocked to the burg.

Sweetwater was a trading post along the Jones Plummer Trail.  That trail was connected to the major cattle drive town of Dodge City.  Sweetwater was a destination for bullwhackers, buffalo skinners, and cowhands.  Troops from Fort Elliott, eleven miles from town, enjoyed time at Sweetwater, too.  The fort was established [in 1875] to protect the buffalo traders from being raided by Indians.

For Kate, the busy town provided a fresh crush of people to meet and with whom to do business.  Soiled doves relished a change of scenery from time to time.  They liked the possibility of enticing new patrons in a different location.  It also brought renewed business when sporting girls returned to the town where their house of ill repute was located.

The August 24, 1876, edition of the Dodge City Times described the setting where Kate and the other entertainers arrived as a “thriving hamlet overrun with tradesmen.”  Fourteen wagon loads of buffalo hides for a general outfitter in Dodge City known as Chas. Rath & Co. lined the sides of the dusty roadways.  A report that a band of twenty-one hundred Indians south of Sweetwater had been spotted rattled some of the citizenry, but, as long as the soldiers remained in town, panic was abated.

Tom Sherman and his help erected a canvas tent, set up a makeshift -stage, and the Seven Jolly Sisters went to work.  Among the many individuals who spent time with Sherman’s employees was a twenty-three-year-old buffalo hunter and army scout named Bat Masterson.  In late 1875, Bat had taken a job as a faro dealer at the Lady Gay Saloon.  After Sherman’s outfit arrived, Bat could either be found in the saloon or with Mollie Brennan.

On January 24, 1876, Kate and Mollie concluded their dance routine and set off to explore additional business.  They ventured to the Lady Gay for a drink.  The two ladies met Bat at the bar, and he bought them a drink.  Once their drinks were finished, Bat and Mollie retired to his room.  Kate recalled the couple hadn’t been gone long when Sgt. Melvin A. King, one of the men with whom Bat had been playing cards earlier in the evening, charged toward Bat’s room.  King was furious with Bat over what he perceived as “underhanded dealings.”  With a loaded gun in hand, King pounded on Bat’s room door and waited for an answer.  Assuming it was Kate wanting to join the pair for a nightcap, Bat unlocked the door.  Sgt. King burst into the room and opened fire.  Mollie came between Bat and one of the bullets and was critically wounded.  Bat was shot in the pelvis, but he managed to grab his gun and kill King before collapsing.

Despite his best efforts, the local physician could not save Mollie.  An army surgeon was called to the scene to remove the bullet from Bat’s lower mid-section and stayed with him until he recovered.

To learn more about Kate read

According to Kate:  The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate Elder,

Doc Holliday’s Love

Enter now to win a copy of the book According to Kate:

The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate Elder, Doc Holliday’s Love

Along with a Kindle Paperwhite.

In the winter of 1872, Wendell Phillips, orator, attorney, and the soul of John Brown marching on, delivered a lecture to a large audience of concerned citizens in St. Louis, Missouri, about the social cancer that plagued society.  He pounded the lectern he stood behind while addressing the crowd and advised them to take a stand against intemperance, crime, and prostitution.  Phillips was appalled that city officials had legalized the profession and were issuing licenses to the owners of houses of ill repute and the bawdy women who worked there.  Almond Street, a popular thoroughfare five blocks west of the riverfront, was the location of many of those houses.  It was Phillips’ hope that after the residents of St. Louis heard his fiery speech they would demand the businesses be closed.

“The root of this vice is poverty,” Phillips proclaimed.  “It is because the poverty of a certain class makes them the victims of the wealth and leisure of another.  Give one hundred men anywhere an honest career and a chance at the grand opportunities of life, and ninety out of the hundred will distain to steal.  Give one hundred women a fair chance at the grand opportunities that their brothers have and ninety out of the hundred will disdain to barter virtue for gold.”  Mary Katherine Horony, now known as Kate Fisher, was one of those near Almond Street who bartered virtue for gold.  Poverty had played a part in her decision to become a sporting woman, but she was satisfied the work possessed possibilities beyond money.  Kate was a business woman — nothing more, nothing less.

St. Louis had given Kate and other sporting women the opportunity to do their job without fear that law enforcement would interfere.  The “social evil ordinance” the city had passed in March 1870 not only required prostitutes to obtain licenses but also mandated business women to submit to medical exams testing for venereal diseases.  Civic leaders hoped the controversial ordinance would ultimately reduce the spread of disease.  Many opposed the idea, arguing that it “encouraged the very vice which all good men and women destined to see suppressed.”  Many soiled doves never bothered to register.  Kate was one of those women.

The spirited, Hungarian woman must have been able to take care of herself against intoxicated and belligerent clients.  Prostitutes sometimes found themselves in the company of men who resented their services.  They hated themselves for hiring sporting women and blamed those women for the ills of society.  A listing of arrests in daily, St. Louis papers showed how many acts of violence against prostitutes occurred nightly.  The August 29, 1872, edition of The Macon Republican contained information about the circumstances surrounding the beating deaths of more than ten, bawdy ladies in the area of Popular Street in St. Louis.

“Eleven wretched criminals victimized prostitutes overnight,” The Macon Republican article began.  “A man named Burklin shot a sinful woman when crazed with drink and jealousy; another killed a woman with a grubbing hoe; a third tossed the prostitute out a third story window; three were stabbed to death; the seventh prostitute was beaten to death with a soda water bottle; two were strangled; two were hanged by the neck with a rope.”

To learn more about Kate read

According to Kate:  The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate Elder,

Doc Holliday’s Love