It is rumored that at one time, Doc was in love with his cousin Martha “Mattie” Anne Holliday.
It was said that Doc was planning to marry her but Mattie refused because, being a devout Catholic, it was forbidden for her to marry her first cousin. Despite the heartbreak, the two wrote letters to one another for years.
A Wartime Childhood
He was born John Henry Holliday in August 1851. Holliday’s father, Henry Burroughs Holliday, served in both the Mexican-American War and in the Civil War. In 1862, with the threat of Union troops upon them, the Hollidays moved further south to Valdosta, Georgia.
The Holliday family became prominent in the community, and his mother did her best to shelter him from the traumas of wartime living. Despite the difficult time in which he was raised, Holliday didn’t grow up fighting with his classmates or neighbors.
A Brilliant Mind
Given his future reputation, you might think that Doc Holliday was an unruly child, but that was far from true. As a child, Holliday actually suffered from speech impediments and a cleft palate. He overcame his disabilities, however, after corrective surgery and hours of lessons from his mother, Alice.
It was recorded that Holliday was an exemplary student. He attended Valdosta Institute while only a teenager and devoured rhetoric, mathematics, and history. He also became fluent in Latin, French, and Ancient Greek. At just 20 years old, Holliday became a Doctor of Dental Surgery after studying at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery.
His Health Battle
In 1866, Holliday’s mother died of tuberculosis. Her death deeply impacted him as his mother played a very crucial role in his life and the two were very close. Only three months later, his father married Rachel Martin, who was eight years his senior. Shortly after this, Holliday’s father left the family to practice dentistry in Missouri and Georgia.
During his teenage years, Holliday’s adoptive brother, Francisco, sadly also succumbed to tuberculosis. And soon he too, learned that he suffered from the disease and was given only a few months to live.
A Risk Taker
Holliday soon moved to Dallas and partnered with a family friend, Dr. John Seegar. The two won many dentistry awards. Miraculously, Holliday ended up living far beyond his initial diagnosis but occasionally suffered from coughing spells. In the 1870s, his dentistry work began declining.
Resourceful Holliday resorted to gambling. He must have been clever and intuitive because he did quite well as a gambler. Soon, gambling became his main source of income. But here he encountered another struggle. In May of 1874, Holliday and 12 others were ejected from Dallas for illegal gambling.