Editing Doc Holliday (section)

== Adulthood ==
===Career===
[[File:Atlanta 1864.jpg|thumb|[[Atlanta]] in 1864]]
Holliday moved to [[St. Louis]], [[Missouri]], so he could work as an assistant for his classmate, A. Jameson Fuches, Jr.<ref name=roberts2006/>{{rp|51}} Less than four months later, at the end of July, he relocated to [[Atlanta]], where he joined a dental practice. He lived with his uncle and his family so he could begin to build up his dental practice.<ref name=holliday2001/> A few weeks before Holliday's birthday, dentist Arthur C. Ford advertised in the Atlanta papers that Holliday would substitute for him while Ford was attending dental meetings.

=== Fight in Georgia ===
There are disputed rumors that Holliday was involved in a shooting on the [[Withlacoochee River (Suwannee River)|Withlacoochee River]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], in 1873. The earliest mention is by [[Bat Masterson]] in a profile of Doc he wrote in 1907. According to that story, when Holliday was 22, he went with some friends to a swimming hole on his uncles' land, where they discovered it was occupied by a group of black U.S. Army soldiers who were in the area as part of the federal government's occupying forces in the South.<ref name=roberts2006/>{{rp|64–67}}

Susan McKey Thomas, the daughter of Doc's uncle Thomas S. McKey, said her father told her: "They rode in on the Negroes in swimming in a part of the Withlacoochee River that "Doc" and his friends had cleared to be used as their swimming hole. The presence of the Negroes in their swimming hole enraged "Doc," and he drew his pistol, shooting over their heads to scare them off." Papa said, "He shot over their heads!"<ref>{{cite web |last1=Folsom |first1=Allen |title=Doc Holliday and the Swimming Hole Incident |url=https://www.valdosta.edu/academics/library/depts/archives-and-special-collections/regional-history/folsom01.php |website=www.valdosta.edu – Valdosta State University|access-date=September 13, 2018 |language=en}}</ref>

According to Masterson's story, Holliday leveled a double-barreled shotgun at them, and when they exited the swimming hole, killed two of the youths. Some family members thought it best that Holliday leave the state, but other members of Holliday's family dispute those accounts.<ref name=roberts2006/>{{rp|64–67}} Researcher and historian Gary Roberts searched for contemporary evidence of the event for many months without success. [[Allen Barra]], an author who focuses on Wyatt Earp, also searched for evidence corroborating the incident and found no credibility in Masterson's story.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Roberts |first1=Gary L. |title=Trailing an American Mythmaker: History and Glenn G. Boyer's Tombstone Vendetta |url=http://www.tombstonehistoryarchives.com/?page_id=88 |website=Tombstone History Archives |access-date=September 13, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324205125/http://www.tombstonehistoryarchives.com/?page_id=88 |archive-date=March 24, 2012 |date=March 24, 2012}}</ref>

=== Diagnosis of tuberculosis ===
Shortly after beginning his dental practice, Holliday was diagnosed with [[tuberculosis]].<ref name="Doc Holliday Bio">{{cite web| title=Doc Holliday| url=http://www.biography.com/people/doc-holliday-9342122#related-video-gallery| website=Biography.com| publisher=A&E Television Networks, LLC.| access-date=October 21, 2014| url-status=live| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141019102813/http://www.biography.com/people/doc-holliday-9342122#related-video-gallery| archive-date=October 19, 2014| df=mdy-all}}</ref> He was given only a few months to live, but was told that a drier and warmer climate might slow the deterioration of his health.<ref name="genealogy2"/><ref name="skyways">{{cite web|url=http://www.skyways.org/orgs/fordco/docholliday.html|title=John Henry "Doc" Holliday, D.D.S.|publisher=Ford County Historical Society|location=Dodge City, Kansas|url-status=live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120112162656/http://www.skyways.org/orgs/fordco/docholliday.html|archive-date=January 12, 2012}}</ref> After Dr. Ford's return in September, Holliday left for [[Dallas]], [[Texas]], the "last big city before the uncivilized [[American frontier|Western Frontier]]".<ref name=roberts2006/>{{rp|53, 55}}

=== Move to Dallas ===
When he arrived in Dallas, Holliday partnered with a friend of his father's, Dr. John A. Seegar.<ref name=traywick/> They won awards for their dental work at the Annual Fair of the North Texas Agricultural, Mechanical and Blood Stock Association at the Dallas County Fair. They received all three awards: "Best set of teeth in gold", "Best in [[Vulcanization|vulcanized rubber]]", and "Best set of artificial teeth and dental ware."<ref name="Tombstone">{{cite web |url=http://www.tombstonetimes.com/stories/facts.html |title=Facts Any Good Doc Holliday Aficionado Should Know |publisher=Tombstone Times |first=Susan |last=Ballard |access-date=March 30, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150223140337/http://www.tombstonetimes.com/stories/facts.html |archive-date=February 23, 2015 }}</ref> Their office was located along Elm Street, between Market and Austin Streets.<ref name="Dallas">Erik J. Wright (December 2001). "Looking For Doc in Dallas". ''True West Magazine'', pp. 42–43; text: "...{{nbsp}}about three blocks east of the site of today's [[Dealey Plaza]]{{nbsp}}..."</ref> They dissolved the practice on March 2, 1874. Afterward, Holliday opened his own practice over the Dallas County Bank at the corner of Main and Lamar Streets.

With coughing spells at inopportune times from his tuberculosis, his dental practice slowly declined. Meanwhile, Holliday found he had some skill at gambling and he soon relied on it as his principal income source.<ref name=traywick/> On May 12, 1874, Holliday and 12 others were indicted in Dallas for illegal gambling.<ref name="Dallas"/> He was arrested in Dallas in January 1875 after trading gunfire with a saloon keeper, Charles Austin, but no one was injured and he was found not guilty.<ref name="genealogy2"/> He moved his offices to [[Denison, Texas]], but after being fined for gambling in Dallas, he left the state.

=== Heads farther west ===
Holliday headed to [[Denver]], [[Colorado]], following the stage routes and gambling at towns and army outposts along the way. During the summer of 1875, he settled in Denver under the alias "Tom Mackey" and found work as a [[Faro (card game)|faro]] dealer for John A. Babb's Theatre Comique at 357 Blake Street. He got into an argument with Bud Ryan, a well-known and tough gambler. They drew knives and fought and Holliday left Ryan seriously wounded.<ref name="LegendsofAmerica">{{cite web| url=http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-docholliday.html| title= Doc Holliday| access-date=November 7, 2011| website= legendsofamerica.com| publisher=Legends of America| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111024013210/http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-docholliday.html| archive-date=October 24, 2011| df=mdy-all}}</ref>

Holliday left when he learned about gold being discovered in Wyoming. On February 5, 1876, he arrived in [[Cheyenne, Wyoming]]. He found work as a dealer for Babb's partner, Thomas Miller, who owned the [[Bella Union Saloon]]. In the autumn of 1876, Miller moved the Bella Union to [[Deadwood, South Dakota]] (site of the [[Black Hills Gold Rush|gold rush]] in the [[Dakota Territory]]), and Holliday went with him.<ref name= holliday2001/>{{rp|101–103}}

In 1877, Holliday returned to Cheyenne, then Denver, and eventually to [[Kansas]], where he visited an aunt. When he left Kansas, he went to [[Breckenridge, Texas]], where he gambled. On July 4, 1877, after a disagreement with gambler Henry Kahn, Holliday beat him repeatedly with his walking stick. Both men were arrested and fined, but Kahn was not finished. Later that same day, he shot and seriously wounded the unarmed Holliday.<ref name=holliday2001/>{{rp|106–109}} On July 7, the ''[[Dallas Weekly Herald]]'' incorrectly reported that Holliday had been killed. His cousin, George Henry Holliday, moved west to help him recover.

Once healed, Holliday relocated to [[Fort Griffin]], Texas. While dealing cards at John Shanssey's saloon, he met [[Big Nose Kate|Mary Katharine "Big Nose Kate" Horony]], a dance hall woman and occasional prostitute. "Tough, stubborn, and fearless", she was educated, but chose to work as a prostitute because she liked her independence.<ref>{{Cite web |url= http://thetombstonenews.com/the-infamous-doc-holliday-p1201-84.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170903162643/http://thetombstonenews.com/the-infamous-doc-holliday-p1201-84.htm|url-status= dead|title=The Tombstone News| archivedate=September 3, 2017|website=thetombstonenews.com}}</ref> She is the only woman with whom Holliday is known to have had a relationship.<ref name=holliday2001/>{{rp|109}}<ref name=traywick>{{cite web| last1=Traywick| first1=Ben| title=Doc Holliday| url=http://www.historynet.com/doc-holliday| website=HistoryNet| access-date=April 4, 2015| url-status=live| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150511193521/http://www.historynet.com/doc-holliday| archive-date=May 11, 2015| df=mdy-all}}</ref>