Wednesday, August 22, 2001
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Wednesday, August 22, 2001 |
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'Doc' Holliday: The facts and fictions By CAROLYN CARY Legendary figures in history are often credited with more stories that are fiction than are fact. They are almost always among the dearly departed for quite a number of years along with all witnesses to their lives. A case in point is our own John Henry Holliday, a.k.a. "Doc" Holliday. His uncle, Dr. John Stiles Holliday, built the house in Fayetteville currently under renovation by its owner, the city of Fayetteville. My study of the family indicates they were all very close and no doubt visited each other often. One of the elder doctor's brothers, Henry Burroughs Holliday, was a fascinating person himself. He fought in the Mexican-American War in 1846 and returned with a 13-year-old Mexican orphan, Francisco Hidalgo. The orphan had to be hidden in the cargo hold of the train as he was not exactly a United States citizen. Hidalgo later received that citizenship and fought in the War between the States, dying just a few years later from respiratory problems received in the war. One of the doctor's sisters, Martha, married Col. James F. Johnson, who was one of those creating the Fayetteville Academy in 1855. The doctor graciously allowed students and faculty of the new school to live in his newly built home (the one being currently renovated) for several years. It is felt the Martha was not happy with a lack of social status in her home county, and her husband was instrumental in creating Clayton County in 1858, and they promptly moved to Jonesboro. It is supposed she created a social climate she felt befitting her personality. Another of her brothers, Robert K. Holliday, moved to Jonesboro not long after, served as a quartermaster in the War between the States, and died a few years afterwards from illnesses received in the war. The Holliday family is fascinating of itself and "Doc" is among those. Born with a cleft palate, he was saved by the efforts of his uncle, J. S. Holliday. "Doc's" mother died of tuberculosis, inadvertently giving it to him. This disease led him west where he learned he could not make a living with his dental tools. A maid in the Holliday household, Sophie, taught him to play cards at an early age and John Henry was forced to use this knowledge to make a living. Was he a "gunslinger"? Not in the sense one thinks of the word. While a deputy, he killed two men, and while I am not trivializing a death of any kind, it was "legal." As far as can be ascertained, he killed no one else. Not only have tales about him in the West survived, but many have grown here in Fayette County. Among some I have been fighting for the past six years is that Margaret Mitchell used to visit the Hollidays in the J. S. Holliday house, often staying overnight. False! By the time she would have "visited," the Hollidays had been out of the house for 70 years. Visitors have been shown an upstairs bedroom and told John Henry and his cousin, Melanie, played there and were sweet on each other. Again, a check of dates shows this couldn't have been so. The real gem that has been passed along is that the set of "original dental tools" he owned were on display. A collateral descendant of his, Karen Holliday Tanner, traveled to every town her cousin visited and each one claimed to have his "original set" of dental tools. One charlatan owner had an entrepreneurial brainstorm and placed his "original" set in the house in Fayetteville. Later taking it back, he advertised it as coming out of the Holliday house in Fayetteville, which technically it did, and sold it for $100,000. My own editor, bless his heart, added several sentences to a story I wrote two weeks ago, one of which said "Doc" was a former resident of Fayetteville. Sorry, Mr. Editor, but I'm afraid this isn't so. Folks, this was a neat family, always adding to the community and doing for others. They and their descendants deserve only the truth being told about them, and this includes "Doc." What really breaks my heart is that hundreds of school children have visited the J. S. Holliday house and have been told a long string of "stories." When I speak in the schools and they repeat them to me, I gently try to convince them these stories are incorrect. But try and dissuade a fifth grader who has already made up his mind about a "famous gunslinger" he thinks is from his county. [Carolyn Cary is Fayette County's official historian and editor of "The History of Fayette County," published by the Fayette County Historical Society. Contact her at ccary@TheCitizenNews.com.]
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