Big Nose Kate
Encyclopedia
Mary Katherine Horony Cummings (November 7, 1850 – November 2, 1940), known as Big Nose Kate, was the Hungarian-born long-time companion and common-law wife of fabled gambler and gunfighter Doc Holliday
in the American Old West
.
Mary Katherine Horony was born on November 7, 1850, in Pest, Hungary, the second-oldest daughter of a Hungarian physician, Dr. Michael Horony. In 1860, Dr. Horony, his second wife Katharina, and his children left Hungary
for the United States
, ultimately reaching New York
on board the ship Bremen in September 1860. Although no conclusive evidence or records exist, Dr. Horony was to accept a position as personal physician to Austrian
-born Emperor, Maximilian I of Mexico
. Many authors have stated, without proof, that Horony left Mexico
in 1863 with his family long before the crumble of Maximilian's rule. The family settled in a predominantly German area of Davenport, Iowa
, in 1862. Horony and his wife died in 1865 within a month of one another. Mary Katherine and her younger siblings were placed in the home of her brother-in-law, Gustav Susemihl, and in 1870, they were left in the care of attorney Otto Smith. The 1870 United States Census
records for Davenport, Iowa
, show Kate's younger sister, Wilhemina (Wilma), living with and working as a domestic for Austrian-born David Palter and his Hungarian wife Betty when Wilhemina was 15 years old.
bound for St. Louis, Missouri
. While in St. Louis, Kate claimed she married a dentist named "Silas Melvin" and that the two had a son. Subsequently, husband and son were said to have died of yellow fever
. No record currently proves the marriage, birth of a child, or the deaths of either Melvin or the child. What is known through United States Census
records is that a Silas Melvin lived in St. Louis in the mid-1860s but was married to a steamship captain's daughter named Mary Bust. The census
further show Melvin's occupation to be an employee of a St. Louis asylum
. Since it is during the early 1870s that Kate met Doc Holliday
, there is speculation that she may have confused the two and their occupations when recalling the facts later in her life.
By 1874, Kate had left St. Louis and made her way to Dodge City, Kansas
. It is alleged that she and Bessie Earp were fined for working as "sporting women" in a sporting house run by Bessie Earp, wife of James Earp
. Through the years, a number of historians and biographers have labeled Kate as a prostitute. To date, there is no (conclusive) proof that this was ever the case.
and began her long-time involvement with Doc Holliday
. Doc said at one point that he considered Kate his intellectual equal. There are unproven reports that Kate owned and operated a bordello in Tombstone. Amongst amateur historians, Big Nose Kate has often been confused with a Tombstone sporting woman who went by the name "Rowdy Kate". She did own a miner's boarding house in Globe along Broad Street.
By her own account, Kate and Doc went to Trinidad, Colorado
, and then to Las Vegas, New Mexico
, where Holliday was briefly a barkeep of the Center Street "gin mill
." Doc and Kate met up again with Wyatt Earp and his brothers on their way to the Arizona Territory
. Virgil Earp
had already been in Prescott
before Wyatt persuaded his brothers to move to Tombstone
. Holliday and Kate parted ways when Kate left for Globe, Arizona
. Holliday, like his friend Wyatt
, was always looking for a opportunity to make money and joined the Earps in Tombstone during the fall of 1880.
After the March 15, 1881 robbery and murder of stagecoach driver Eli "Bud" Philpot and a passenger between Tombstone and Benson, Arizona
, Cowboy
Bill Leonard
was one of three men implicated in the robbery. Holliday had become friends with Bill Leonard. When Kate and Holliday had a fight, County Sheriff Johnny Behan
and Milt Joyce, a county supervisor and owner of the Oriental Saloon, decided to exploit the situation.
Behan and Joyce plied Big Nose Kate with more booze and suggested to her a way to get even with Holliday. She signed an affidavit implicating Holliday in the attempted robbery and murders. Judge Wells Spicer
issued an arrest warrant
for Holliday. The Earps found witnesses who could attest to Holliday's whereabouts at the time of the murders and Kate sobered up, revealing that Behan and Joyce had influenced her to sign a document she didn't understand. With the Cowboy plot revealed, Spicer freed Holliday. The district attorney threw out the charges, labeling them "ridiculous." After Holliday was released, he gave Kate money and put her on the stage. Kate returned to Globe
for a time but returned to Tombstone in October that year.
. Kate is precise regarding minor details and states that she was with Holliday in Tucson
at a "feasto." There was a fiesta
, which was the San Augustin Feast and Fair, in Levin Park on October 1881. On October 20, 1881, Morgan Earp
rode to Tucson to alert Holliday of the impending trouble. According to Kate's recollections, Holliday asked her to remain in Tucson for her safety, but she refused, instead going with Holliday and Earp.
Kate wrote that on the day of the gunfight, a man entered Fly's Boarding House with a "bandaged head" and a rifle. He was looking for Holliday, who was still in bed after a night of gambling. Kate recalled that the man who was turned away by Mrs. Fly was later identified as Ike Clanton
. This follows the historical record, as Clanton was buffaloed by City Marshall Virgil Earp
after Clanton was found carrying a pistol in violation of city ordinances. Clanton was bandaged when he vistied Spartenberg's gun shop after noon that day, so her story is corroborated by other records of the event.
The Earps and Holliday walked down Fremont Street to confront the cowboys in the vacant lot west of Fly's Boarding House. Author Glenn Boyer disputes that Kate saw the gunfight through the window of the boarding house. She would have been able to see the fight only if she stuck her head out the front window of Fly's. It is more plausible that Kate had heard testimony from accurate accounts of the actual gunfight and then repeated them in her letter to her niece.
Kate stated that after Doc Holliday returned to his room, he sat on the edge of his bed and wept from the shock of what had happened during the close range gunfight. "That was awful," Kate claims he said. "Just awful." Other researchers dispute her account of events.
in April 1882. In 1887, Kate traveled to Redstone, Colorado
, close to Glenwood Springs, Colorado
, to visit with her family, brother Alexander. Some historians have attempted to connect Kate and Doc in attempts at a possible reconciliation between the two. After Holliday had died, Kate married Irish blacksmith George Cummings in Aspen
, on March 2, 1890. After working several mining camps throughout Colorado, they moved to Bisbee, Arizona
, where she briefly ran a bakery. After returning to Willcox, Arizona
, in Cochise County
, Cummings became an abusive alcoholic and they separated. In 1900, Kate moved to Dos Cabezas or Cochise
(which is now a ghost town
) and worked for John and Lulu Rath, owners of the Cochise Hotel. Cummings committed suicide in Courtland, Arizona, in 1915.
In 1910, Kate is enumerated in the U.S. Census in Dos Cabezas, Arizona, as a member of the home of miner John J. Howard. When Howard died in 1930, Kate was the executrix of his estate
. She contacted his only daughter who lived in Tempe, Arizona
, and settled the inheritance.
In 1931, now 80, Kate contacted her long-time friend, Arizona Governor George Hunt
, and applied for admittance to the Arizona Pioneers' Home in Prescott, Arizona
. In 1910, the home was established by the state of Arizona for destitute and ailing miners and male pioneers of the Arizona Territory
. It took Kate six months to be admitted, since the home had a requirement that residents must be United States
citizens. According to the 1935 Bork interview, Kate was owed money by the Howard estate but the amount owed was not enough to buy firewood through the winter as Kate had complained in her letters to the governor.
She was admitted as one of the first female residents of the home. She lived there and became an outspoken resident assisting other residents with living comforts. Kate wrote many letters to the Arizona state legislature, and when she was not satisfied she would contact the state governor.
, her death certificate states she was born in Davenport, Iowa
, to father Marchal H. Michael and mother Catherine Baldwin. The birthplaces for both parents on the certificate state "unknown".
Near the end of her life, several reporters tried to record Kate's life story, her relationship with Doc Holliday
and her time in Tombstone
. She only talked to two authors: Anton Mazzonovich and Prescott historian Dr. A.W. Bork.
Kate was buried on November 6, 1940, under the name of "Mary K. Cummings" below a modest marker in the Arizona Pioneer Home Cemetery, Prescott, Arizona.
(1993 film), and Isabella Rossellini in Wyatt Earp
(1994 film) respectively.
Doc Holliday
John Henry "Doc" Holliday was an American gambler, gunfighter and dentist of the American Old West, who is usually remembered for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his involvement in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral...
in the American Old West
American Old West
The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
.
Immigration to the United States of America
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
for the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, ultimately reaching New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
on board the ship Bremen in September 1860. Although no conclusive evidence or records exist, Dr. Horony was to accept a position as personal physician to Austrian
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
-born Emperor, Maximilian I of Mexico
Maximilian I of Mexico
Maximilian I was the only monarch of the Second Mexican Empire.After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy, he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico on April 10, 1864, with the backing of Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican monarchists who sought to revive the Mexican monarchy...
. Many authors have stated, without proof, that Horony left Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
in 1863 with his family long before the crumble of Maximilian's rule. The family settled in a predominantly German area of Davenport, Iowa
Davenport, Iowa
Davenport is a city located along the Mississippi River in Scott County, Iowa, United States. Davenport is the county seat of and largest city in Scott County. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine LeClaire and was named for his friend, George Davenport, a colonel during the Black Hawk...
, in 1862. Horony and his wife died in 1865 within a month of one another. Mary Katherine and her younger siblings were placed in the home of her brother-in-law, Gustav Susemihl, and in 1870, they were left in the care of attorney Otto Smith. The 1870 United States Census
United States Census
The United States Census is a decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution. The population is enumerated every 10 years and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats , electoral votes, and government program funding. The United States Census Bureau The United States Census...
records for Davenport, Iowa
Davenport, Iowa
Davenport is a city located along the Mississippi River in Scott County, Iowa, United States. Davenport is the county seat of and largest city in Scott County. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine LeClaire and was named for his friend, George Davenport, a colonel during the Black Hawk...
, show Kate's younger sister, Wilhemina (Wilma), living with and working as a domestic for Austrian-born David Palter and his Hungarian wife Betty when Wilhemina was 15 years old.
St. Louis and Dodge City
At the age of 16, Kate ran away from her foster home and is reported to have stowed away on a riverboatRiverboat
A riverboat is a ship built boat designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for entertainment enterprises, such...
bound for St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
. While in St. Louis, Kate claimed she married a dentist named "Silas Melvin" and that the two had a son. Subsequently, husband and son were said to have died of yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
. No record currently proves the marriage, birth of a child, or the deaths of either Melvin or the child. What is known through United States Census
United States Census
The United States Census is a decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution. The population is enumerated every 10 years and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats , electoral votes, and government program funding. The United States Census Bureau The United States Census...
records is that a Silas Melvin lived in St. Louis in the mid-1860s but was married to a steamship captain's daughter named Mary Bust. The census
United States Census
The United States Census is a decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution. The population is enumerated every 10 years and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats , electoral votes, and government program funding. The United States Census Bureau The United States Census...
further show Melvin's occupation to be an employee of a St. Louis asylum
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
. Since it is during the early 1870s that Kate met Doc Holliday
Doc Holliday
John Henry "Doc" Holliday was an American gambler, gunfighter and dentist of the American Old West, who is usually remembered for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his involvement in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral...
, there is speculation that she may have confused the two and their occupations when recalling the facts later in her life.
By 1874, Kate had left St. Louis and made her way to Dodge City, Kansas
Dodge City, Kansas
Dodge City is a city in, and the county seat of, Ford County, Kansas, United States. Named after nearby Fort Dodge, the city is famous in American culture for its history as a wild frontier town of the Old West. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,340.-History:The first settlement of...
. It is alleged that she and Bessie Earp were fined for working as "sporting women" in a sporting house run by Bessie Earp, wife of James Earp
James Earp
James Cooksey Earp was the little known older brother to old west lawman Virgil Earp and lawman/gambler Wyatt Earp. Unlike his lawmen brothers, he was a saloon-keeper and was not present at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral....
. Through the years, a number of historians and biographers have labeled Kate as a prostitute. To date, there is no (conclusive) proof that this was ever the case.
Doc Holliday and the O.K. Corral
In 1876, Kate moved to Fort Griffin, Texas, where she met Wyatt EarpWyatt Earp
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American gambler, investor, and law enforcement officer who served in several Western frontier towns. He was also at different times a farmer, teamster, bouncer, saloon-keeper, miner and boxing referee. However, he was never a drover or cowboy. He is most well known...
and began her long-time involvement with Doc Holliday
Doc Holliday
John Henry "Doc" Holliday was an American gambler, gunfighter and dentist of the American Old West, who is usually remembered for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his involvement in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral...
. Doc said at one point that he considered Kate his intellectual equal. There are unproven reports that Kate owned and operated a bordello in Tombstone. Amongst amateur historians, Big Nose Kate has often been confused with a Tombstone sporting woman who went by the name "Rowdy Kate". She did own a miner's boarding house in Globe along Broad Street.
By her own account, Kate and Doc went to Trinidad, Colorado
Trinidad, Colorado
The historic City of Trinidad is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Las Animas County, Colorado, United States...
, and then to Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas, New Mexico
Las Vegas is a city in San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. Once two separate municipalities both named Las Vegas, west Las Vegas and east Las Vegas , divided by the Gallinas River, retain distinct characters and separate, rival school districts. The population was 14,565 at the 2000...
, where Holliday was briefly a barkeep of the Center Street "gin mill
Speakeasy
A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages. Such establishments came into prominence in the United States during the period known as Prohibition...
." Doc and Kate met up again with Wyatt Earp and his brothers on their way to the Arizona Territory
Arizona Territory
The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....
. Virgil Earp
Virgil Earp
Virgil Walter Earp fought in the Civil War. He was U.S. Deputy Marshal for south-eastern Arizona and Tombstone City Marshal at the time of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in the Arizona Territory. Two months after the shootout in Tombstone, outlaw Cowboys ambushed Virgil on the streets of...
had already been in Prescott
Prescott, Arizona
Prescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s....
before Wyatt persuaded his brothers to move to Tombstone
Tombstone, Arizona
Tombstone is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona Territory. It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the American Old West. From about 1877 to 1890, the town's mines produced USD $40 to $85 million...
. Holliday and Kate parted ways when Kate left for Globe, Arizona
Globe, Arizona
Globe has an arid climate, characterized by hot summers and moderate to warm winters. Globe's arid climate is somewhat tempered by its elevation, however, leading to slightly cooler temperatures and slightly more precipitation than Phoenix or Yuma....
. Holliday, like his friend Wyatt
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American gambler, investor, and law enforcement officer who served in several Western frontier towns. He was also at different times a farmer, teamster, bouncer, saloon-keeper, miner and boxing referee. However, he was never a drover or cowboy. He is most well known...
, was always looking for a opportunity to make money and joined the Earps in Tombstone during the fall of 1880.
After the March 15, 1881 robbery and murder of stagecoach driver Eli "Bud" Philpot and a passenger between Tombstone and Benson, Arizona
Benson, Arizona
-Transportation:Benson Airport is located 3 miles north west of the city.Benson is served by Interstate 10 to the north, which travels directly to downtown Tucson....
, Cowboy
The Cowboys (Cochise County)
The Cowboys were a loosely associated group of outlaw cowboys in Pima and Cochise County, Arizona Territory in the late 19th century. They were cattle rustlers and robbers who rode across the border into Mexico and rounded up cattle that they then sold in the United States...
Bill Leonard
Bill Leonard
William R. Leonard is a Republican U.S. politician who served as a member of the California State Board of Equalization from 2002 until his resignation in March 2010.-Life and career:After earning his B.A...
was one of three men implicated in the robbery. Holliday had become friends with Bill Leonard. When Kate and Holliday had a fight, County Sheriff Johnny Behan
Johnny Behan
John Harris Behan was from April, 1881 to November, 1882 sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona Territory. Behan was appointed the first sheriff of the newly-created county in February, 1881. The mining boomtown of Tombstone was the new county seat and Behan's headquarters...
and Milt Joyce, a county supervisor and owner of the Oriental Saloon, decided to exploit the situation.
Behan and Joyce plied Big Nose Kate with more booze and suggested to her a way to get even with Holliday. She signed an affidavit implicating Holliday in the attempted robbery and murders. Judge Wells Spicer
Wells Spicer
Wells W. Spicer was an American journalist, prospector, politician, lawyer and judge whose legal career immersed him in two significant events in frontier history: the Mountain Meadows massacre in the Utah Territory in 1857; and the 1881 shootout commonly known as the Gunfight at the O.K...
issued an arrest warrant
Arrest warrant
An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by and on behalf of the state, which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual.-Canada:Arrest warrants are issued by a judge or justice of the peace under the Criminal Code of Canada....
for Holliday. The Earps found witnesses who could attest to Holliday's whereabouts at the time of the murders and Kate sobered up, revealing that Behan and Joyce had influenced her to sign a document she didn't understand. With the Cowboy plot revealed, Spicer freed Holliday. The district attorney threw out the charges, labeling them "ridiculous." After Holliday was released, he gave Kate money and put her on the stage. Kate returned to Globe
Globe, Arizona
Globe has an arid climate, characterized by hot summers and moderate to warm winters. Globe's arid climate is somewhat tempered by its elevation, however, leading to slightly cooler temperatures and slightly more precipitation than Phoenix or Yuma....
for a time but returned to Tombstone in October that year.
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
There is some historical evidence authenticating Kate's claims of being in the vicinity of Tombstone with Holliday during the days leading up to the fight. In a 1939 letter Kate wrote to her niece, Lillian Rafferty, Kate revealed she had stayed with Holliday at Fly's Boarding House. The room was along Fremont Street and the open alley way between the boarding house and the O.K. CorralGunfight at the O.K. Corral
The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a roughly 30-second gunfight that took place at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona Territory, of the United States. Outlaw Cowboys Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran from the fight, unharmed, but Ike's brother...
. Kate is precise regarding minor details and states that she was with Holliday in Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
at a "feasto." There was a fiesta
Festival
A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....
, which was the San Augustin Feast and Fair, in Levin Park on October 1881. On October 20, 1881, Morgan Earp
Morgan Earp
Morgan Seth Earp was the younger brother of Deputy U.S. Marshals Virgil and Wyatt Earp. Morgan was a deputy of Virgil's and all three men were the target of repeated death threats made by outlaw Cowboys who were upset by the Earps' interference in their illegal activities. This conflict eventually...
rode to Tucson to alert Holliday of the impending trouble. According to Kate's recollections, Holliday asked her to remain in Tucson for her safety, but she refused, instead going with Holliday and Earp.
Kate wrote that on the day of the gunfight, a man entered Fly's Boarding House with a "bandaged head" and a rifle. He was looking for Holliday, who was still in bed after a night of gambling. Kate recalled that the man who was turned away by Mrs. Fly was later identified as Ike Clanton
Ike Clanton
Joseph Isaac Clanton was born in Callaway County, Missouri. He is best known for being a member of group of outlaw Cowboys that had ongoing conflicts with lawmen Wyatt, Virgil, Morgan Earp and Wyatt's friend Doc Holliday. The Clantons repeatedly threatened the Earps because they interfered with...
. This follows the historical record, as Clanton was buffaloed by City Marshall Virgil Earp
Virgil Earp
Virgil Walter Earp fought in the Civil War. He was U.S. Deputy Marshal for south-eastern Arizona and Tombstone City Marshal at the time of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in the Arizona Territory. Two months after the shootout in Tombstone, outlaw Cowboys ambushed Virgil on the streets of...
after Clanton was found carrying a pistol in violation of city ordinances. Clanton was bandaged when he vistied Spartenberg's gun shop after noon that day, so her story is corroborated by other records of the event.
The Earps and Holliday walked down Fremont Street to confront the cowboys in the vacant lot west of Fly's Boarding House. Author Glenn Boyer disputes that Kate saw the gunfight through the window of the boarding house. She would have been able to see the fight only if she stuck her head out the front window of Fly's. It is more plausible that Kate had heard testimony from accurate accounts of the actual gunfight and then repeated them in her letter to her niece.
Kate stated that after Doc Holliday returned to his room, he sat on the edge of his bed and wept from the shock of what had happened during the close range gunfight. "That was awful," Kate claims he said. "Just awful." Other researchers dispute her account of events.
After the OK Corral and later life
Kate is reported to have made trips to Tombstone to see Holliday until he left for ColoradoColorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
in April 1882. In 1887, Kate traveled to Redstone, Colorado
Redstone, Colorado
Redstone is a census-designated place in Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The population as of the 2010 Census was 130.The U.S. Post Office at Carbondale now serves Redstone postal addresses...
, close to Glenwood Springs, Colorado
Glenwood Springs, Colorado
The City of Glenwood Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Garfield County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimated that the city population was 8,564 in 2005...
, to visit with her family, brother Alexander. Some historians have attempted to connect Kate and Doc in attempts at a possible reconciliation between the two. After Holliday had died, Kate married Irish blacksmith George Cummings in Aspen
Aspen, Colorado
The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...
, on March 2, 1890. After working several mining camps throughout Colorado, they moved to Bisbee, Arizona
Bisbee, Arizona
Bisbee is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, 82 miles southeast of Tucson. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 6,177...
, where she briefly ran a bakery. After returning to Willcox, Arizona
Willcox, Arizona
Willcox is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 3,769. Professional wrestler Ted Dibiase lived his formative years in Willcox, as did singer Tanya Tucker.-History:...
, in Cochise County
Cochise County, Arizona
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*78.5% White*4.2% Black*1.2% Native American*1.9% Asian*0.3% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*4.0% Two or more races*9.6% Other races*32.4% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
, Cummings became an abusive alcoholic and they separated. In 1900, Kate moved to Dos Cabezas or Cochise
Cochise, Arizona
Cochise is an unincorporated community located in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. The city was created alongside the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1880s. The city was primarily a stop for coal and water which were needed for trains at the time. At its peak, the town had a population...
(which is now a ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
) and worked for John and Lulu Rath, owners of the Cochise Hotel. Cummings committed suicide in Courtland, Arizona, in 1915.
In 1910, Kate is enumerated in the U.S. Census in Dos Cabezas, Arizona, as a member of the home of miner John J. Howard. When Howard died in 1930, Kate was the executrix of his estate
Will (law)
A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...
. She contacted his only daughter who lived in Tempe, Arizona
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2010 population of 161,719. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale...
, and settled the inheritance.
In 1931, now 80, Kate contacted her long-time friend, Arizona Governor George Hunt
George W.P. Hunt
George Wylie Paul Hunt was an American politician and businessman. He was the first Governor of Arizona, serving a total of seven terms, along with President of the convention that wrote Arizona's constitution. In addition, Hunt served in both houses of the Arizona Territorial Legislature and was...
, and applied for admittance to the Arizona Pioneers' Home in Prescott, Arizona
Prescott, Arizona
Prescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s....
. In 1910, the home was established by the state of Arizona for destitute and ailing miners and male pioneers of the Arizona Territory
Arizona Territory
The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....
. It took Kate six months to be admitted, since the home had a requirement that residents must be United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
citizens. According to the 1935 Bork interview, Kate was owed money by the Howard estate but the amount owed was not enough to buy firewood through the winter as Kate had complained in her letters to the governor.
She was admitted as one of the first female residents of the home. She lived there and became an outspoken resident assisting other residents with living comforts. Kate wrote many letters to the Arizona state legislature, and when she was not satisfied she would contact the state governor.
Death and discrepancy
Kate died on November 2, 1940, 5 days before her 90th birthday, of acute myocardial insufficiency, a condition she showed symptoms of for one day before her death. Her death certificate states that she also suffered from coronary artery disease and advanced arteriosclerosis. Kate's death certificate showed significant discrepancies regarding her parents' names and her stated birthplace. While history has always stated Kate was born in HungaryHungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, her death certificate states she was born in Davenport, Iowa
Davenport, Iowa
Davenport is a city located along the Mississippi River in Scott County, Iowa, United States. Davenport is the county seat of and largest city in Scott County. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine LeClaire and was named for his friend, George Davenport, a colonel during the Black Hawk...
, to father Marchal H. Michael and mother Catherine Baldwin. The birthplaces for both parents on the certificate state "unknown".
Near the end of her life, several reporters tried to record Kate's life story, her relationship with Doc Holliday
Doc Holliday
John Henry "Doc" Holliday was an American gambler, gunfighter and dentist of the American Old West, who is usually remembered for his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his involvement in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral...
and her time in Tombstone
Tombstone, Arizona
Tombstone is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona Territory. It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the American Old West. From about 1877 to 1890, the town's mines produced USD $40 to $85 million...
. She only talked to two authors: Anton Mazzonovich and Prescott historian Dr. A.W. Bork.
Kate was buried on November 6, 1940, under the name of "Mary K. Cummings" below a modest marker in the Arizona Pioneer Home Cemetery, Prescott, Arizona.
In other media
Big Nose Kate was depicted by Joanna Pacula in TombstoneTombstone (film)
Tombstone is a 1993 American action film set in the Old West directed by George P. Cosmatos, along with uncredited directorial efforts by actor Kurt Russell and writer Kevin Jarre. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Jarre....
(1993 film), and Isabella Rossellini in Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp (film)
Wyatt Earp is a 1994 American semi-biographical Western film, written by Dan Gordon and Lawrence Kasdan and directed by Kasdan. It stars Kevin Costner in the title role as lawman Wyatt Earp, and features an ensemble cast that includes Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Isabella Rossellini, Mark Harmon,...
(1994 film) respectively.
Additional reading
- On the Paper Trail of Big Nose Kate, Angel M. Brant, Self-published September 2008. This book contains pictorial info never published by past Cummings' authors.
- Arizona State Archives and Genealogy Division, Phoenix, Arizona.
- Ace High Gunfighters & Company, an Old West reenactment group in Mesa, Arizona, (AceHighGunfighters@COX.net).
- Old West Researcher, A. M. Brant.
- Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend, Dr. Gary Roberts, John Wiley Publisher, 2006 (ISBN 0471262919). Contains a great deal about Kate and debunks many older claims about her.
- Scott County Recorder's Office (Holly), Davenport, Iowa
- Davenport City Library, Davenport, Iowa
- Doc Holliday: A Family Portrait, Karen Holliday Tanner, University of Omaha Press, 1998 (ISBN 0-8061-3036-9). Contains carefully researched material about Kate and Doc Holliday, avoiding mythology in favor of accounts with newspaper, legal, or other independent historical documentation.
- Wyatt Earp, Family Friends and Foes, Volume I, Who Was Big Nose Kate, Glenn G. Boyer, Arizona University Press, 1997 (ISBN 1-890670-06-5). Boyer is the only known author to have met with members of the Horony Family. Pictures from the family are included in the booklet as well as copies of her letters to family members and the governor of Arizona.
External links
- Find a Grave Listed under "Kate Elder." Link includes a photo of her grave marker.
- Arizona Pioneers' Home