Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone: The Life and Times of John Henry Holliday

by Tom Barnes

John Henry Holliday steps off the train at Atlanta's Union Station, fresh out of the Pennsylvania Dental College, and into Mattie's arms. But the storybook romance between the young dentist and his cousin is cut short by disease and family strife. Some close relatives are grousing at the couple to break off their relationship, but they are unwilling to bow to family pressures. However his financial reverses and physical health conspire to make that happen. John Henry is diagnosed with tuberculosis and doctors suggest a dryer climate in the West. Mattie pleads to go with him but John Henry says no and travels to Dallas alone. The dry climate stabilizes his condition, but he is unable to make a living from his dental practice. Dispirited and alone he is eventually attracted to saloon life where he takes a new name and calling -- Doc Holliday -- frontier gambler. Kate Elder, a spunky little saloon girl, sets her sights on Doc. And when trouble comes at Ft. Griffin and a noose is about to be tied around Doc's neck Kate executes a daring escape plan and the two ride north, through Indian territory, to Dodge City, Kansas. Doc sets up a dental practice in the cattle town and becomes acquainted with the likes of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Luke Short and Eddie Foy. When a wild bunch of drunken cowboy's corner Wyatt Earp Doc hurries to his rescue with a 38 in one hand and a 44 in the other. That moment was the beginning of a lifelong friendship. Wyatt Earp would never forget that day at Dodge City when Doc Holliday using courage and grit saved his life. Doc's tenuous relationship with Kate dragged along simply because he was beholden to her for saving him from the hangman's noose at Ft. Griffin. Their tumultuous relationship continued though as they follow the migration of the Dodge City crowd south to Tombstone, Arizona. A corrupt political ring backs the cowboy-outlaw faction with the complicity of the Cochise County Sheriff. Doc has friends in both camps, but joins Wyatt and his brothers on the side of law and order, where his courage and loyalty are once again tested, when he stands with the Earps, in the shootout, at the Ok Corral. Doc survives the gunfight, but death from tuberculosis is never far away. Mattie, desperate in her loneliness, writes that she had become a nun, and with those vows has taken a new name -- Sister Mary Melanie. Doc is stung by the news, but he is quick to realize that it was his own neglect that had placed Mattie in the nunnery. He is fully aware that his days are numbered, but he never wavers in his love for the girl back home. Following Doc's death Wyatt Earp spoke of his friend and said, 'Doc was the most skillful gambler and the speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun I ever knew.'

336 pages, Hardcover

First published December 8, 2005

About the author

I was born in Fort Myers, Florida and when I was five years old my family moved to Central Georgia, the land my great grandfather fought for in places like Gettysburg, Cold Harbor and Saylers Creek.
I grew up listening to Civil War stories and faithfully recorded them into my journal. I studied English literature at Middle Georgia College and drama at the Pasadena Playhouse.
My military service was spent in naval aviation where I became a member of an
elite group known as the Hurricane Hunters. Squadron 114 flew routine patrol flights out of Miami into the Caribbean and South Atlantic in search of Tropical Storms. Once a storm was located the path and growth was watched and charted. The information we gathered was then passed along the Weather Bureau and they issued storm-warning bulletins to all potential areas in the path of the storm.
After the Navy I went to New York and soon landed my first Off Broadway play, “A Good Place to Raise a Boy.” Then I did tours with Bert Lahr in “Harvey”, Vera Miles in “The Country Girl” and June Lockhart in “Forty Carats.”
When PBS decided to do the TV Series Georgia’s Heritage I was hired as host narrator and writer. My initial writing assignment was to research and write two episodes for the series The Battle of Atlanta and The Battle of Chickamauga. Once those shows were finished we picked up out cameras and trekked all over Georgia filming, writing stories about Georgia and interviewing local historians.
Chasing hurricanes with the Hurricane Hunters had its moments but the last two segments of Heritage took anxiety and fear to a whole new level. I was given 48 hours to write a documentary on the Okefenokee Swamp, faced off with an alligator and had my first brush with the legendary Doc Holliday.

That brush with the legend gave me the idea and following tons of research and writing a fact based fiction emerged and is titled Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone.
That effort was followed by a nonfiction story based on my navy experience and called The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
My third book is a novel based on the Nazi plunder of art during World War II, The Goring Collection.
A fourth novel is in the works relating to the winding down of the African slave trade in the 1850’s titled Tungee’s Gold.
I do a blog on a variety of subjects called Rock The Tower.

Reviews

[Jo Dawson]

Interesting accounting of Doc Holliday’s life.