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According to Kate: The Legendary Life and Times of Big Nose Kate, Love of Doc Holliday

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 Elder read According to Kate

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According to Kate: The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate, Love of Doc Holliday

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 Elder’s life with Doc Holliday read According to Kate

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According to Kate: The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate, Love of Doc Holliday

As the reader of the journal knows, Mary Katherine Harony, a.k.a. Big Nose Kate, was the paramour of Doc Holliday. She figures in all the literature about Tombstone and the Earps. In the early books, especially, she lends herself to caricature. She is the perfect dancehall girl who is mostly known for going on what is frequently termed, “a monumental drunk,” and implicating Doc in an attempted stage robbery and murder. In short, she is a colorful subordinate character in the Tombstone saga. Author Chris Enss brings her to center stage in this first-book length biography.

Ms. Enss utilized a wide range of sources but primarily used Kate’s own recollections to put together his narrative. These include the Bork and Mazzanovich interviews as well as Kate’s handwritten notes compiled between 1935 and 1939. I was previously unaware of the last. Ms. Enss relates the story as Kate remembered it, inaccuracies, and all. The author rightly does not appoint herself as a corrector of historical errors. After all, what is interesting is Kate’s take on her past.

Devotees of the Tombstone story should find much in this book to interest them. Few pages pass without a new twist on an old story. For instance, to pluck on from the canon, when Doc saves Wyatt’s life in Dodge City, the leader of the rowdy cowboys is James Kenedy, the later killer of Dora Hand. Also, a new suspect in the killing of Johnny Ringo is brought forth. It is certainly one I have never heard before.

Needless to say, when one encounters nuggets of this variety an immediate flip-through to the endnotes follow. The notes in this book are specific and you will learn the source. You might quibble with the source, but it will be there. I learned from the notes that an Indiana newspaper, The Fort Wayne Sentinel, retold the story of Doc’s evisceration of Ed Bailey and Kate’s subsequent rescue of Holliday. This article appeared in November of 1896, so they probably got it from the San Francisco Examiner article of August 1896 by Wyatt Earp. It was interesting to see the story had a wider circulation that I previously thought. Incidentally, Kate ridiculed this legend.

This book contains many photographs. The ones of the principal characters are all familiar ones. There are some good pictures of the towns Kate and Doc lighted in as well as a map of Tombstone. The book reads well. Many times, I picked it up planning to read only ten pages but kept going. There have been many individual tales of outlaws, cowboys, and gamblers. Here now is one of the dancehall girl, and a famous one at that.

Garth Gould, Wild West History Association

To learn more about Kate Elder read According to Kate

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According to Kate: The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate, Love of Doc Holliday

“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

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The Doctor Was A Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier

The difficult trek across the plains and deserts of the frontier, to Rocky Mountain destinations and beyond, was viewed by the first women physicians as just another obstacle to overcome on the way to achieving their goal. They wanted to practice medicine and believed they would have a chance to do that in the mining camps and cow towns in the West. Initial attempts to practice their profession sent shock waves through the deeply patriarchal society.

Doctor Elise Pfeiffer Stone was subjected to a barrage of ridicule and criticism after an article about her practice ran in the March 5, 1888, edition of a Nevada City, California newspaper. “Lady physician – Mrs. E. Stone, who is, we learn, a thoroughly educated and accomplished physician, has established herself in Selby Flat, and offers her services to the ladies of Nevada and vicinity.” A note left on the door of Doctor Stone’s office in response to her advertisement read, “It would be so nice if you weren’t here.”

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The Doctor Was A Woman: Stories of the First Female Physicians on the Frontier