Big Nose Kate, more than Doc Holliday's woman

Virgil Morgan and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday walked into history on October 26 1881 when they exchanged gunfire with a group of outlaws in the town of Tombstone in the Arizona Territory what happened there is fairly well known but much less well known was the story of the woman who briefly accompanied Doc Holliday at his time there in Tombstone and who may have saved his life earlier in his career without her Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday may not have walked side by side into the most famous gunfight in the history of the Wild West Mary Catherine Horan II better known as big nose Kate was another larger-than-life colorful character of the Wild West and hers is a story that deserves to be remembered her entire history is shadowy and may be full of tall tales some historians see Kate was born in Hungary Slovakia in November 18-49 others claim the year was 1850 kate was one of several children one story surrounding her family's emigration to Mexico says that her father Michael Horan II was a personal physician to Maximilian the first the austro-hungarian Archduke whom Napoleon the third had installed as the Emperor of Mexico and when the monarchs ring failed Horan moved his family to Iowa there is little evidence to support that claim other historians say the family emigrated through New York City like many others in that era and wandered west eventually settling in Iowa whatever the truth Kate's parents died when she was a teenager at 14 or 15 and left her and her siblings without parents in Iowa unhappy with her situation she ran away from the foster home that took her in and stowed away on a riverboat that was traveling down the Mississippi in later memoirs he claims that she was discovered by the riverboat captain on this trip was taken under his wing she began to use his last name Tate Fisher and enrolled in a school at a convent in st. Louis historians disagree over whether she graduated from the school but her contemporaries say that she was smart enough to be successful at whatever she chose to do although opportunities were somewhat limited for women at the time she claims that in st. Louis she married a man named Silas Melvin and had a child with him but both he and the child died of an illness but again the historical record is unable to prove that claim but it also appears to be in st. Louis where she first began working as a prostitute it was there some historians claimed that Kate first met a man named John Henry Holliday would go under Fame in the West with the moniker Doc Holliday Holliday had recently graduated from a dental school in Pennsylvania but could not yet get a license to practice because he was too young not yet 21 years of age Holliday was in st. Louis because a friend a gym bacin pukes jr. offered Holliday a job in his practice in the interim pukes office was only a few blocks away from where Kate was plying her trade holiday with his Georgia drawl and legendary manners was probably quite memorable decayed among the other men she entertained he returned to Georgia in 1872 to open his own dental practice living her behind plying her trade after this historians believe tate was working as a prostitute in Dodge City Kansas we know Kate changed locations because there is documentation showing she was find in Dodge City for being a sporting woman which was what officials called prostitution at the time she was working at a brothel owned by Nellie earth the wife of James herb was one of the lesser known earth brothers throughout her busy life Kate was known by many nicknames because of her marriages and reputation of moving from place to place in addition to big nose she was also known as Katie elder mrs. John H Doc Holliday nosey Kate Kate Cummings and Kate Melvin the nickname big nose Kate was actually used by white herb in an article he wrote for a San Francisco newspaper in 1896 herb wrote that this wasn't a comment under actual nose but referred to her strong bold character he said she had a legendary temper and valued her freedom over most anything else despite numerous film depictions to the contrary Kate wasn't particularly far on the verb and the feeling was reciprocated she was not a blushing violet and never apologetic for her profession or her hard-drinking ways the men around Kate may not have appreciated the way she didn't ask for permission to live the way she wanted to they may also have been intimidated by her intelligence which Holliday was known to have said was equal to his own in the 1870s Kate was living with Jay s elder a saloon keeper in Wichita who gave her the surname made famous in the 1965 western film the sons of Katie elder starring John Wayne and Dean Martin she was arrested for prostitution in June of that year and that brush with the law may have encouraged her to move somewhere more friendly to her profession Kate with up spring from Dodge City to Great Bend and her protector jazz elder went elsewhere unfortunately trouble found her her again in grey pen and Kate was fined ten dollars for assault and battery she found another man to protect her a saloon owner gambler and gunslinger named Tom Sherman a man with a fearsome reputation Sherman wasn't someone to mess around with according to one story after shooting a man in a gunfight Sherman said to the people watching I better shoot him again hadn't I boys and he did walking up to point-blank range to do so Kate and Sherman wandered the West going from town to town seeking opportunities for both prostitute and gambler she was working in Port Griffith Texas when Doc Holliday blew into her life again in the time since she had known him in st. Louis Holliday had been shot in the leg and now walked with a lip he had also picked up what people at the time called lung disease or consumption doctors today call it tuberculosis it would eventually kill him but in the meantime Holliday went West seeking the drier climates that were believed to help those with his condition along the way he was developing his own reputation for violence and no patience for those he felt were shortchanging him in addition to reuniting with Kaede it was at Fort Griffin that Holliday met white herb then a deputy US Marshal was on the trail of the notorious outlaw dirty Dave rudabaugh Holliday had played cards with Rudy bond described him as an ignorant scoundrel it is entirely possible that Wyatt and Doc Holliday were introduced by Kate who is probably already familiar with herb having worked at James ARP saloon earlier in her career later told a story about what happened in Fort Griffin which Kate said he embellished but which actually showed her in a good light according to herb Holliday was playing cards with a notorious gambler named Edie Bailey when things went awry Bailey apparently not trusting Holliday to play fairly was looking through the discard pile after every hand that was blatantly against the rules of the card game Holliday asked Bailey to stop and when he didn't whole they raked in the pot apparently intending to leave Bailey do his gun to make Holliday put the money back but Holliday gutted Bailey with a knife killing him the town people nabbed holiday and threw him in jail rumbling about ropes and murder Kate jumped holidays rescue by setting a huge fire to attract the town's attention and then showed up at the jail toting a gun in both hands demanding holidays release however the jail back happened Caden Holliday fled town and we're at Dodge City Kansas shortly thereafter she claims that they married sometime before arriving in Dodge City and they registered at the hotel there under the name dr. and mrs. holiday but like so many things in Katie's life there's no evidence to prove that it actually happened the registration might have been an attempt to lend some legitimacy to their situation now together Holliday continued to work is both a dentist and a gambler while Kate continued to practice the world's oldest profession they continued on Western after Holliday was accused of burglarizing his store in Dodge City his cough was becoming worse they weren't tied down to any one place for very long Holliday established a saloon in Las Vegas New Mexico Territory but the town was already guarding a reputation for violence so he sold up in the couple moved on when the Earp's encouraged Holliday to move to tombstone rustic silver mining camp in Arizona Territory Kate lived elsewhere for atarime but joined him before the big shootout for which he is most well remembered by some accounts she may have witnessed the shootout their relationship throughout their time together was confessed to us once after a serious argument holidays enemies took advantage of their estrangement and talked Kaede into filing a false claim with authorities that holidayed helped to rob the Bensons stagecoach she'd been very drunk at the time that she made the statement but it was a very serious accusation two men had been killed in the holdup the earth stepped in and provided witnesses proving Kate's statement false but the damage to cave in Holidays relationship seemed permanent they were never as close after that time things deteriorated further after Tom marshal Virgil Earp arrested Kate for disorderly conduct and she left town furious Holliday died in Colorado in 1887 kate married again in 1892 George Cummings a minor and according to Kate abusive alcoholic they moved to Bisbee Arizona Cate opened a bakery that failed she divorced Cummings and moved in with Jack Howard another minor this final relationship seemed to be a good fit has Kate put down roots and stayed with Howard for 30 years left of the home they lived in after his death in 1930 aging and short of resources Kate sold the home and applied to Arizona Governor George hunt for permission to move into the Arizona pioneers home in Prescott the home had originally been established for aging and infirm men who settled the western frontier they were also required to be American citizens which Kate may or may not have been it took her some time but she was eventually given permission to move into the home Kate was the first woman who was granted permission to do so in her final years she maintained active letter-writing campaigns to political leaders in an effort to improve the lot of those who lived in the Arizona pioneers home she remained feisty and outspoken to the end died of heart disease in November of 1940 she's buried at the cemetery the Arizona pioneers home in Prescott Arizona while she was after years on a pioneers home several authors came to her offering to write her story at first she was angry because they didn't offer her money and then she was angry because the story never seemed to get written but those conversations still tell us something about her relationship with Doc Holliday she said of him I loved doc thought the world of him and he was always kind to me until he got mixed up with those herbs one wonders what nickname big-nose Kate used when she was referring to Wyatt Earp she said of her life once parts funny part is sad such as life any way you take it very reminiscent of a quote about life that Doc Holliday give when he said there is no normal life there is only life and that famous couple represented life in the Wild West I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets have forgotten the history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section I will be happy to personally respond be sure to 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Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 1,123,852

Rating: 4.9600854 out of 5

Keywords: history, history guy, wild west, doc holliday, wyatt earp, big nose kate, us history, american history

Id: RjPNvbYX1Bw

Length: 10min 58sec (658 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 07 2019