"To Doc from Kate"

[Hummer]

News from my friend 'Doc' Boyle, that Doc Holliday's derringer has been purchased for the Glenwood Springs Frontier Museum. Doc is an historian and character actor specializing in Doc Holliday. He founded and runs the Old West Daily Reader https://oldwestdailyreader.com/, a collection of accounts, stories and photographs of the old west. See also: http://dochollidaylive.biz/docs-links/ and Doc's Guns: http://dochollidaylive.biz/docs-guns/ for more photos and the provenance.

The gun is an 1866 Remington Derringer in .41 rimfire.

See the links for the full articles: http://www.postindependent.com/news/...-when-he-died/


Doc Holliday’s gun returning to Glenwood; museum buys derringer that was in his room when he died



Members of the society Wednesday night met with the seller, Jason Brierley of Vancouver, British Columbia. The society had already secured a lender for the sale price, and after review of the gun's provenance, Wednesday's group discussed the purchase with the rest of the board Thursday afternoon.

The board voted to buy the derringer, given to Holliday by his common-law wife, Mary Katherine "Big Nose Kate" Horony-Cummings, a Hungarian-born prostitute. The handle is engraved, "To Doc from Kate."

The gun is now in a safe-deposit box. The society will plan its exhibition and invite the public to view it as soon as possible.

Holliday, a dentist and gambler, was one of the Old West's most famous gunfighters. Just 36 years old and suffering from tuberculosis, he came to Glenwood Springs in 1887 in hopes that the vapor caves would help his ailment. It was in vain, and he died in a bed at the Hotel Glenwood, at what is now the northeast corner of Eighth Street and Grand Avenue.

Wednesday night, Kight, historian R.W. "Doc" Boyle and other society members pledged contributions to help repay the lender. The organization may soon launch a fundraising campaign to involve the public, as well.

Those gathered listened to Boyle's assessment of the gun's authenticity.

"The gun is real. There's no doubt the gun is real," the Holliday expert said, showing obvious emotion. The documentation, which he reviewed with Brierley the night before, included an affidavit from the gun's first sale, letters, magazine articles and more.

Those involved said Holliday's common-law wife likely purchased the gun as a gift in Tombstone, Arizona, one of the West's frontier boomtowns and scene of perhaps the most famous gunfight in Old West history, in which Holliday teamed up with Wyatt Earp and Earp's brothers battling the outlaw Cowboys gang. It's one of several Holliday items to have sold in recent years, including a flask, which went for $130,000, and a shotgun believed to have been Holliday's, which sold for $200,000.

The derringer is believed to have been one of few possessions in the hotel room when he died. Looking at his bare feet in his final moments, Holliday is reputed to have said, "This is funny" — contrary to his expectation of dying with his boots on. The hotel burned down in 1945.

Hotel bartender William G. Wells received the gun as partial payment for Holliday's funeral, and it remained in the family until Utah gun dealer E. Dixon Larson purchased it in 1968. Larson wrote about the derringer and other Holliday guns in a 1972 article in Guns magazine. The early '80s saw a Tennessee lawyer purchase the gun, and the current owner bought it in July.

Brierley, who traveled here from Vancouver at his own expense, said that when he bought the gun, he just wanted to take a picture of it at Doc Holliday's grave in Glenwood Springs. He believes it belongs here.

"This gun's a magnet for Doc Holliday's stuff," Brierley said.


See the links for the full articles: http://www.postindependent.com/news/...doc-from-kate/

‘To Doc from Kate’ — but who was Kate?

Doc Holliday is a known entity, a man of the Wild West. But if you've followed news of the Glenwood Springs Historical Society's purchase of Holliday's derringer, you may have wondered about its inscription: "To Doc from Kate."

So, then, who was Kate?

Mary Katherine Horony-Cummings, casually known as Big Nose Kate, lived a life as lively as her male companion's.

Kate was born in Hungary and moved to the United States at age 10 in 1860. The family settled in Davenport, Iowa, several years later, and it wasn't long until trouble befell Kate and her siblings. Her parents died when Kate was 15, and the children were bounced from one home to another.

It wasn't long before Kate had enough. She ran away to St. Louis a year later, and for a time lived in Ursuline Covenant. That, too, was a short-lived decision. By 1869, records showed Kate working as a prostitute.

Life kept Kate, sometimes known as Kate Elder, on the move, and in 1877 she met John Henry “Doc” Holliday in Texas. The pair traveled west together, and his employment, too, was colorful. Doc worked as a dentist during the day, but gambled, drank and ran a saloon at night. As they moved to New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, Kate found work as a dance-hall girl and prostitute.

Glenwood Springs Historical Society members think Kate may have purchased the derringer the society now owns while in Tombstone. Despite the sometimes volatile nature of their relationship, Doc had the gun with him when he died in the Hotel Glenwood.



More behind the story:
http://www.postindependent.com/news/...nwood-springs/

http://www.postindependent.com/opini...te-of-history/

[ray1970]

Some day when I hit the lottery I'm buying a firearm with some history behind it.

Until then I'll just have to be happy checking that sort of stuff out in a museum.

[buffalobo]

It was worth whatever price they paid for it.

Glenwood Springs Frontier Museum is on the list to visit.

[Hummer]

It was worth whatever price they paid for it.

Glenwood Springs Frontier Museum is on the list to visit.

Well, maybe not. It now appears that the Utah gun dealer may have perpetuated a fraud in 1968, and that he may have been in the business of falsifying documents to sell guns he claimed to be owned by other celebrity old west characters besides the Doc Holliday derringer.

Remember, western movies and TV were very popular in the 1950's and 1960's, and there was a big market for guns of old west, whether original or reproductions. Most every kid had a Fanner 50 pistol and holster set, and a lever action Winchester just like Chuck Conners used in The Rifleman.

I heard about this last week and the Glenwood paper has now published more on the Doc Holliday derringer story. Seems the first red flag was the engraving itself, they just didn't do that back in the days of Doc Holliday. If a gun from that era is engraved it is almost certainly a fake.

Still, it's a good story, and if the museum is unable to get the money back from the Canadian seller, the derringer might go on display anyway as the real fake Doc Holliday derringer as a story of the fraud common in the world of antique firearms.


http://www.postindependent.com/news/...-gun-in-doubt/

[BladesNBarrels]

Seems the first red flag was the engraving itself, they just didn't do that back in the days of Doc Holliday. If a gun from that era is engraved it is almost certainly a fake.
http://www.postindependent.com/news/...-gun-in-doubt/

Thanks for posting the reason the museum is questioning their purchase. I wondered when I saw the article what had triggered their concern.