For those fans of the Old West, we present to you the possible early life of Big Nose Kate, also known as Katie Elder, Kate Fisher, and Katherine Cummings–Doc Holliday\u2019s girl, she was, living in Tombstone at the time of the famous gunfight between the Clantons and the Earps at the OK Corral.<\/p>\n
But about 17 years earlier, she lived in Davenport, Iowa.<\/p>\n
According to documents that were reportedly found in her effects, Kate was born Mary Katherine Horony in 1850, one of the seven children of Dr. Michael Horony, a prominent and wealthy physician in Budapest. According to a few sources, she was well-educated, and spoke several languages.<\/p>\n
In 1860, Mary Kate left Hungary with her family for Davenport, Iowa. Why we do not know, but a clue may be that there was a small, but prominent Hungarian population already established in this city by the time they arrived.<\/p>\n
Dr. Horony and his second wife, Katherina, died just a month apart in the spring of 1865. His obituary appears in the Davenport Democrat<\/em>. Both their names are\u00a0on the City Sexton Monthly Reports to City Council indicating the dates buried and where the graves are located in Davenport City Cemetery.\u00a0<\/p>\n Though the orphaned Mary Kate and her younger siblings first lived in the household of Gustav Susemihl, the husband of an older sister, their guardianship was eventually given to Otto Smith, a Davenport attorney.\u00a0Western lore\u00a0says that Mary Kate didn\u2019t care much for this turn of events and took off. According to a petition signed by Otto Smith in Dr. Harmony\u2019s probate files, Mary Horony \u201c. . . cannot be found anywhere, because she went as it is said to parts unknown . . .\u201d<\/p>\n These unknown parts may have included St. Louis, Dodge City in Kansas, and Fort Griffin, Texas, working, as it is rumored (but not proven), as a \u2018sporting woman.\u2019 It was in Texas, around 1876, that she is said to have first met that gambling, drinking, consumptive dentist John Henry Holliday–who went by the nickname \u2018Doc\u2019–and his friend Wyatt Earp.<\/p>\n The rest, as they say, is history, though not part of ours.<\/p>\n But isn\u2019t it interesting to imagine that for a few years, we were part of hers?<\/p>\n (posted by Sarah)<\/em><\/p>\n *Part II<\/strong> was posted for this story on September 14, 2011.\u00a0 Please click here <\/a>to view.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For those fans of the Old West, we present to you the possible early life of Big Nose Kate, also known as Katie Elder, Kate Fisher, and Katherine Cummings–Doc Holliday\u2019s girl, she was, living in Tombstone at the time of … Continue reading