Tales Behind the Tombstones Page 7

  Shortly after his brother’s death, Holliday, now a dignified six-foot-tall, twenty-one-year-old with blue-gray eyes and a thick mustache, left home and headed for Fort Griffith, Texas. When he arrived, he met a young prostitute named Kate Elder. The two were involved in an on-again-off-again romance that lasted fifteen years.

  Doc toured the Western territories working at times as a dentist, but mostly earning his keep playing cards. He traveled the boomtowns of Dallas, Denver, Pueblo, Leadville, Dodge City, Tucson, and Tombstone. Any man foolish enough to suggest Doc acquired his poker winnings by being less than honest was quickly and violently corrected. Doc was as proficient with a knife as he was a gun. He never shied away from a fight, and he shot or killed any man who challenged him.

  Outside of his paramour Kate Elder, or Big Nose Kate as she was more commonly known, Holliday’s only friends were legendary lawmen Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp. While in Kansas the three men played nightly card games and drank. According to another well-known western figure, Bat Masterson, “Doc idolized Wyatt.” The hotheaded and impetuous Holliday studied Earp’s unflinching demeanor and mannerisms and made sure his gun hand was available whenever Wyatt needed help.

  By 1874 Doc and Kate had settled in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The two were living as husband and wife and were making a good living—Doc as a gambler and Kate as the owner of a parlor house. Their lives were chaotic and tumultuous. Doc had frequent altercations with the law. He gunned down competitors and was implicated in the holdup of a stage. His tuberculosis worsened and disagreements with Kate increased. After two years in the same location, Doc decided to accept an offer from his brothers to move to Tombstone. Kate objected to Doc leaving their home and refused to go along with him at first, but within a month she followed him. Both arrived in the silver boomtown in early 1881.

  Doc’s health continued to decline; he was thin and pale. His bright eyes faded into a cold, hard gray, and his head was now topped by enough white hairs to make his hair appear ash blond. Alcoholism further deteriorated his personality, and his hangovers were marvels to behold.

  Doc and Kate were residing at Fly’s Boarding House when the gunfight at the OK Corral occurred. Ike Clanton and members of a cattle-rustling gang of outlaws feuding with the Earps had threatened Wyatt and his brothers. The altercation resulted in the deaths of three men. After the gunfight and the subsequent vendetta ride in which the cowboy outlaws were tracked down and killed, Doc headed for Colorado. In Pueblo he became a fixture in the gaming room of the Comique Club. Most of the gamblers, bartenders, and police knew about his part in the OK Corral “street fight” and regarded him as something of a celebrity.

  In 1884 Doc was in and out of sanitariums in an attempt to help his lungs, but the disease had progressed beyond repair. His pension for getting in trouble did not falter in spite of his physical condition. He had run-ins with the law for crimes committed in Kansas and was arrested for shooting a Leadville bartender.

  By the spring of 1887, Doc Holliday was a patient at the Glenwood Springs Health Spa in Glenwood, Colorado. He was emaciated and frail, and his body was shaken by constant coughing spells. He would not leave the facility alive.

  On November 8, 1887, after he asked a nurse to give him a drink of whiskey and to find his boots, Doc’s breathing became extremely labored. By the time his boots were located, Holliday was taking his last breath. Looking down at his bare feet before closing his eyes, he said, “Well, I’ll be damned.” He had always insisted he would die with his boots on.

  Doc Holliday is buried at the Pioneer Cemetery in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The words on this tombstone read: DOC HOLLIDAY 1852–1887. HE DIED IN BED.

  Sarah Winnemucca d. 1891

  “In the history of the Indians she and Pocahontas will be principal female characters, and her singular devotion to her race will no doubt be chronicled as an illustration of the better traits of Indian Character.”

  —SAN FRANCISCO CALL, JANUARY 1885

  The Piute Indian Sarah Winnemucca listened intently as one of the tribe’s elders told the story of how the army soldiers killed a party of their people on a fishing expedition. Relations between the Piutes and white settlers had been strained since the discovery of silver in northern Nevada in 1859. An influx of prospectors and their families onto tribal land threatened the Piutes’ way of life. The 1865 massacre of a Piute fishing party by United States troops had further fueled problems. Among the dead that day was Sarah’s infant brother. Hearing details of the incident made the well-known Piute leader sad but more determined than ever to travel to Washington and inform the powers there of the difficulties.

  Sarah was born in 1844 in Washoe County, Nevada. Her grandfather was Chief Truckee, a former guide who assisted white explorers, such as John C. Fremont, in finding their way over the Sierra Nevadas. The friendly Chief Truckee could not have foreseen the multitudes of white settlers who would descend upon the area and force him and his people out.

  “I was a very small child when the first white people came into our country,” Sarah shared in her autobiography. “They came like a lion, yes, like a roaring lion and have continued ever since, and I have never forgotten their first coming.”

  Sarah’s grandfather was a wise man who recognized the importance of making peace with the newcomers. Wanting his grandchildren to have every advantage in dealing with these new inhabitants, he arranged for Sarah and her sister to learn English and the white man’s way of life. A Virginia trader and his family who lived at a nearby settlement served as the girls’ teachers.

  Sarah was a quick study and extremely bright. She was particularly gifted in language. By the time she was fourteen years old, she could speak five different languages, including English and Spanish. At her grandfather’s urging, Sarah continued her education at a convent school in San Jose, California.

  During her long absence the situation between the Piute Indians and the white pioneers grew worse. The Piutes were being completely crowded out, and as their food source had been nearly depleted by the hordes of emigrants, they had been driven to work menial jobs to purchase supplies. The Piutes were then forced to move to a reservation near Pyramid Lake, Nevada. When white squatters moved in on the lake, the government again pushed the Piutes off the land, this time sending them to a reservation in Oregon.

  Sarah was brokenhearted over what seemed like the inevitable demise of the great tribe and wanted to help preserve what little was left. In 1871, at the age of twenty-seven, she took a job with the Bureau of Indian Affairs at Fort McDermitt in Oregon. Sarah was able to serve her people at the Malheur Indian Reservation by teaching school and issuing supplies. Sarah was married twice in the first four years she was employed at the reservation. Her first husband was a lieutenant in the army who drank a lot. Her second husband was an Indian whom she left because he was abusive.

  A new Indian agent was selected to oversee the events at Malheur reservation in 1878. Sarah has worked with the new agent prior to his appointment and knew him to be corrupt and self-serving. When she conveyed her opinion to the authorities, she was promptly fired as the reservation interpreter. The government’s decision to ignore her comments and relieve her of her position infuriated her, and she decided to take the matter to the officials in Washington, D.C. While en route, she found herself in the middle of a war between the Bannock Indians of Idaho Territory and the U.S. government.

  The Piutes were caught in a vise between the Bannock Indians, their northern neighbors in Idaho and Oregon, and the increasing number of settlers pushing them out of their tribal lands in Nevada. A Bannock war party had captured a band of Piute, including Sarah’s father, Winnemucca, now the chief of the Piute tribe. Sarah quickly volunteered her interpretive services to the army. They accepted her offer and sent her out with two Indian guides to locate the Bannock Indians holding her father and the others. Sarah and her companions traveled more than two hundred miles before finding Chief Winnemucca and the other Piutes. Disguised as a brave, Sara
h managed to sneak into the Bannock camp and rescue her father and her people.

  In 1880 Sarah finally reached the nation’s capital and was allowed to speak with the secretary of the interior and President Rutherford B. Hayes about the treatment of Native Americans. The government made promises for improvement but ultimately did not keep them. The broken promises reflected back on Sarah and eroded away at the trust the Piute placed in her.

  Despite the U.S. government’s betrayal and the lack of confidence her people had in her efforts, she worked hard for them and dedicated her life to the cause. In 1881 Sarah married for a third time. That marriage, like the others, ended in divorce. She lectured across the nation, started a school for Indian children, and wrote the first book ever penned by a Native woman. Her book, Life Among the Piutes, Their Wrongs and Claims, was first published in 1883.

  The original editor of the book, Mary Peabody Mann, noted that Sarah’s speeches were extraordinarily moving, but that it was Sarah’s goal to set down in writing the full story. “It is the first outbreak of the American Indian in human literature, and it has a single aim—to tell the truth as it lies in the heart of a true patriot, and one whose knowledge of the two races gives her an opportunity of comparing them justly.”

  Years of marital hardship and personal loss took a toll on Sarah’s emotional and physical well-being. At the age of forty-seven, she developed a persistent cough and was suffering from extreme exhaustion. She felt dejected and isolated by her native people and the United States government, and this further contributed to her declining health.

  Sarah Winnemucca passed away on October 17, 1891, while visiting her sister in Bozeman, Montana. The cause of death was tuberculosis. Since her passing, her work as an author has been recognized by the University of Nevada, and she has been inducted into the Nevada Writer’s Hall of Fame. An elementary school in Washoe County, Nevada, was named in her honor, and in 2005 a statue of the tireless crusader for Indian rights was erected at the U.S. Capitol.

  Although Sarah made great strides to liberate Native Americans from their “white enemies,” she died believing she was a failure. She is buried in an unmarked grave at Henry’s Flat in Nez Perce County, Idaho.

  Bob Ford d. 1892

  “Instantly his real purpose flashed upon my mind. I knew I had not fooled him. He was too sharp for that. He knew at that moment as well as I did that I was there to betray him.”

  — BOB FORD’S ACCOUNT OF THE EVENTS LEADING

  UP TO HIS KILLING JESSE JAMES, APRIL 1882

  Dressed in his finest Sunday suit, Bob Ford struck a proud pose for an eager photographer in Pueblo, New Mexico. A brilliant flash lit up the photographer’s studio, and when the smoke from the phosphorous lens disappeared, a clear view of the outlaw Ford could be seen. His tailor-made suit was accentuated by a brocaded vest and diamond stickpin. In his left hand he held the pistol he used to kill Jesse James.

  From the moment Ford gunned down the legendary James on April 3, 1882, he had been boasting of his deed. In fact less than an hour after the murder, Bob Ford and his brother Charlie had hurried to a telegraph office and sent a message to the governor of Missouri with news that Jesse James was dead. “I have killed Jesse James,” the wire read. The brutal act entitled him to a substantial reward.

  Bob Ford was born in Ray County, Missouri, in 1861. He was a troubled youth who wanted nothing more than to be an outlaw. His heroes were renegades who robbed banks and trains. He longed to meet Cole Younger and Jesse James, and in 1879 he got his chance. Bob and his younger brother, Charlie, joined James’s gang and accompanied them on several raids. It wasn’t long before Bob graduated from robbery to murder.

  In January 1882 authorities learned he had shot a fellow gang member in the head and buried his body in a shallow grave. To avoid prosecution, Ford struck a deal with Missouri governor Thomas Crittenden that involved Jesse James. Ford would receive a full pardon if he killed the elusive outlaw.

  In early April 1882 Ford seized the opportunity to kill the notorious James. Bob and Charlie were with Jesse at his home discussing plans for another robbery when Jesse turned his back on the brothers. A bullet from Bob’s six-shooter crashed through Jesse’s skull.

  News of Ford’s act spread quickly. Many Missouri residents called the boys cowards and made their time at home in Ray County miserable. To make matters worse for the brothers, it was rumored that Frank James was going to be coming for them to get revenge for Jesse’s death. Charlie was petrified and fled the area hoping to avoid the backlash. His nerves finally got the better of him, however, and he committed suicide.

  In spite of the jeers and shouts of recrimination and threats of death from those who believed killing Jesse James was an act of treason, Bob continued to be vocal about the shooting. In order to deal with the criticism he encountered from most everyone he came in contact with, he began drinking to excess and gambling away his money. He traveled constantly, hoping to outrun anyone who wanted him dead for what he did. He met his demise in Pueblo, New Mexico, on June 8, 1892. He was involved in an altercation with a man he claimed had stolen a diamond ring from him. When Bob wouldn’t retract the accusation, the man shot and killed him.

  Ford’s body was returned to Missouri and buried in the family plot at the Ray County Cemetery in Richmond, Missouri. A rock with Ford’s name on it marks the site of his grave. Signs that read HERE LIES THE DIRTY LITTLE COWARD WHO SHOT MISTER HOWARD, (James’s alias at the time of his death) are occasionally found propped against the stone.

  Sheriff David Douglass d. 1896

  “I knew him well and I considered him one of the bravest men I ever met. He did not know what fear was and his one idea while in performance of his duty was to get his man.”

  — SACRAMENTO SHERIFF TOM O’NEILL’S REMEMBRANCE

  ON SLAIN SHERIFF DAVID DOUGLASS, JULY 1896

  Pioneers lured west by promises of great fortune encountered rough terrain, inclement weather, hostile Natives, and highway robbers. Their survival depended on a variety of things, not the least of which were lawmen. The local sheriff and his deputies made sure settlers were protected from thieves and murderers threatening to overtake them on the trails and in the gold rush mining camps. One lawman who attempted to do just that was David F. Douglass.

  Douglass was elected to the post of Nevada County sheriff in 1894. Sheriff Douglass had been a guard for gold shipments traveling by train and had also served as a messenger for Wells Fargo. He was known by residents in Grass Valley and Nevada City, California, as a bold, fearless, and defiant officer, dedicated to making sure the law was upheld.

  On Sunday, July 26, 1896, Douglass set out after an outlaw named C. Meyers who had been terrorizing the county. The pursuit ended in the death of the bandit and the sheriff. Sheriff Douglass shot and killed the highwaymen, but just who shot Douglass remains a mystery.

  After learning where the thief was hiding out, Douglass mounted his horse and took out after him. When the sheriff hadn’t returned by the next day, his friends and deputies combed the area looking for him. His body was discovered a few feet from the outlaw’s. Cedar and chaparral trees were thick around the secluded scene, and it was evident to the sheriff’s deputies that he had been lured to the spot.

  Sheriff Douglass’s body was found with his head pointing downhill, his face plunged in the brush and dirt. The Grass Valley Union newspaper reported that the “force of the fall brought a slight contusion to the forehead.” Those who discovered his body believed that the bullet that took his life had entered his back, thrusting him forward. The report quoted deputies as saying, “Undoubtedly Sheriff Douglass had shot Meyers dead and was going to inspect the damage when a bullet pierced his frame.”

  As subsequent facts developed it appeared there had been an accomplice of Meyers hiding somewhere in the area. The unknown shooter fired shots at Douglass. The first bullet went into his back on the left side, and the second hit him in the right hand. Nevada County residents were shocked by the news of
the respected sheriff’s death. They arrived in droves at the scene of the tragedy hoping to find a clue as to who the murderer might have been. Dozens of well-armed men scoured the hills in search of the assassin. The killer was never found.

  A monument to the memory of the sheriff and the outlaw (buried at the site) was erected at the location of the tragic gun-fight in early 1900.

  It is believed Douglass was pitted against two and then one escaped. The bodies were lying parallel to one another. The gravestone over Sheriff Douglass’s grave and that of the bandit he shot is located in the Tahoe National Forest in Nevada City, California, on a dirt pathway on Old Airport Road.

  Nancy Kelsey d. 1896

  “Once, I remember, when I was struggling along . . . I looked back and saw Missus Benjamin Kelsey a little ways behind me, with her child in her arms, barefooted, I think, and leading a horse . . . It was a sight I shall never forget.”

  — NICHOLAS DAWSON, A MEMBER OF

  THE BIDWELL-BARTLESON PARTY, 1841

  At eighteen years old, Nancy Kelsey became the first white woman to cross the Sierra Nevadas. The teenager made the long trip overland barefoot with a one-year-old baby on her hip. Born in Barren County, Kentucky, in 1823, she married Benjamin L. Kelsey when she was fifteen. She had fallen in love with his restless, adventurous spirit, and from the day the two exchanged vows she could not imagine her life without him. At the age of seventeen, Nancy agreed to follow Benjamin to a strange new land rumored to be a place where a “poor man could prosper.” Nancy, Benjamin, and their daughter, Ann, arrived in Spalding Grove, Kansas, just in time to join the first organized group of American settlers traveling to California by land. The train was organized and led by John Bidwell, a New York school teacher, and John Bartleson, a land speculator and wagon master.