When the old west stalked the Streets of Jacksonville

[Ocklawaha]

From the "OCKLAJUNK DRAWER"...

In the Texas State Penitentiary.

OCKLAWAHA

[Timkin]

The Ockla-junkdrawer is the best !

[Ocklawaha]

Wouldn't Hardin look cool on the Riverwalk?

SELMAN, JOHN HENRY, Texas gunfighter, killer of John Wesley Hardin. Serving with the Texas Calvary during the Civil War, Selman deserted in 1863 then joined the Texas Militia only to desert again in 1865. He later ended up in the lawless Brazos area where he was involved with illegal law-enforcement and rustling. Many attempts to ambush and arrest Selman failed and Selman's "Seven Riders Gang" raided in West Texas throuhout the late 1870's. Eventually settling down in Fort Davis after being cleared of rustling charges, Selman was elected constable in El Paso in 1892. He killed John Wesley Hardin in the Acme Saloon in 1895, the shooting provoking a trial which ended in a hung jury. Selman was himself slain by a U.S. Marshall in a private quarrel before the case could be retried. With such such a bloody life it is amazing that Selman is not as notorious as other more notorious gunfighters. Selman material is very scarce but $2,500-5,000 at Christies will get you this little plea on a theft case:

OCKLAWAHA

[Ocklawaha]

Sherman McMasters: "Where is (Wyatt) he?"
Doc Holliday: "Down by the creek, walking on water."
REF: Early in the infamous vendetta, Wyatt Earp walked into the middle of Cottonwood Creek whilst surrounded and under a withering fire from the gang known as "The Cowboys", and unloaded his guns into their midst. ACTUALLY HAPPENED.

Sweet Mattie, Doc's cousin, Martha Anne "Mattie" Holliday, who in later life joined the Order of the Sisters of Mercy to become Sister Mary Melanie, was said to be the model for the saintly Miss Melanie in "Gone With the Wind." This is certainly not as far-fetched as it sounds. Philip Fitzgerald, the uncle-in-law of Robert Kennedy Holliday (one of Doc's uncles) was the great-grandfather of "Gone With the Wind" author Margaret Mitchell, but wait - it gets better. Of the eight children born to Robert Kennedy Holliday and his wife was one Martha Anne "Mattie" Holliday, Sister Mary Melanie.



Beautiful Kate, Known as "Big Nose Kate," Hellion, hard drinker and opium user (woman after my own heart) and sometime hooker... Big Nose Kate was well-educated and came from a fine Hungarian family; her father was a physician. Doc must have found her to be as pleasant a surprise in the often crude surroundings he was forced to endure as she did him.

Although Kate stated on more than one occasion that she and Doc were legally married, no license exists.

A photograph showing a heavy set, coarse-featured woman with wavy hair is often ascribed to as being the likeness of Big Nose Kate. It is not Kate Elder, but a prostitute known as Nosey Kate.

BATTLE AT ALONGSIDE THE OK CORRAL.
While Clanton was being disarmed, arrested, and taken before a judge, Kate claims that Holliday put on his clothes and went up to see the Earps. They had gathered at the corner of 5th Street and Allen, where they could keep an eye on the courtroom to the South, the O.K. Corral a block west, and the various cowboys who were believed to be coming and going from out of town. Eventually, the Earps and Holliday walked down Fremont Street to confront the cowboys in the vacant lot West of Fly's (and Holliday's) boarding house. Kate would have been able to see the fight, just feet away, from her window overlooking the vacant lot. In Kate's version of the gunfight, Holliday had a problem with this "rifle" after the shooting started. He threw it to the ground and drew his pistol. This report fits with what is known of the events, although what Holliday actually threw down would have been his double-barrelled short shotgun (the gun he had emptied when killing Tom McLaury).

It is only from Kate that we know what happened after the fight. Doc Holliday went back to his room and examined a minor flesh wound on his hip, which he had gotten from a bullet fired by Frank McLaury. He sat on the edge of the bed and wept from the shock of what had just happened. "That was awful," Kate claims he said. "Just awful."

Kate stayed at the Arizona Pioneers' Home until her death on November 2, 1940, five days before her 90th birthday.

Kate was a larger-than-life character who lived to see stories of her own life and death (in that alleged gunfight in Bisbee) told as a legend of the Old West. In real life, she died in bed, having survived a world that was hard on both women and horses.

Kate said of life: "Part is funny and part is sad, but such is life any way you take it."

Doc Holliday: "It's true, you are a good woman. Then again, you may be the antichrist."  She died alone probable drug overdose.  

Wyatt Earp: "Well, I'll be damned."
Doc Holliday: "You may indeed, if you get lucky."

Doc Holliday: [to Johnny Ringo] "Why Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just walked over your grave."

DOC HOLIDAY, contrary to the movie's Tombstone which pretty well nailed him, or Wyatt Earp, which portrayed him much too old and robust, Doc had sandy hair! Doc was fair-haired, a platinum blond so said Virgil's wife, Allie, upon meeting him for the first time, not dark-haired as most surviving and probably doctored photos show. Wyatt described him as "long, lean and ash blond." But then so were the Earps!

It was said he was the consummate wandering spirit, and dying with TB, I'm nearly certain of visits here. They claimed he never got to California, but he said he did... About 1940, in an old cabin east of mine on the Colorado River, a guy found a wooden box under the floor. Inside were two matched revolvers both inscribed John H. Holliday. Anyway, he's look pretty cool standing on our Riverwalk near John Hardin.

Local boy, "Young John Henry," grew up to be John H. DOC HOLLIDAY! As we were the closest port to Valdosta, he undoubtedly made the journey here. His father was at the battle of Olustee. Jacksonville plays heavily in the family plantation history post war.

OCKLAWAHA