The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery

‘Doc Holliday’s gambling skills, six-gun and caustic wit created a western legend. But Sister Mary Melanie, Margaret Mitchell and ‘Gone With the Wind’ tell the rest of the story and give us the real Doc Holliday.’

'Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone' goes behind the scenes, that western myth has established over the years, and tells the truth about Doc Holliday's life in the east and the west.

Researching a Legend Part 9
Class of 1972

Continuing:

The next memo was dated February 26, 1872. The board of trustees of The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery met and endorsed the faculty’s nominations for graduation. And accompanying that memo was a modified hand written list of potential graduates. John H. Holliday…Georgia replaced J.H. Holliday.

Next was a printed list of graduates plus other information used to make up the graduation program. The head of that page simply stated:

Philadelphia Dental College.
Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery.
The 16th Annual Commencement of The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery will be held at the Musical Fund Hall, Philadelphia, Friday evening, March 1, 1872
The Valedictory Address to be delivered by Professor James Tyson, M.D
The Number of matriculates for the session was 63.
Degrees of DDS was conferred on the following members of the graduating class by
Dr. W.W. Fouche:

Following that was a full list of the graduates. The only change to Doc’s description line on the printed edition was John H. Holliday…Georgia … then the addition of a title for his thesis, ‘Disease of the Teeth.’
There was one other page in the file and that was a replica of the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery graduation certificate presented to the graduates.

To say I was excited might be an understatement; I was giddy with excitement thinking about the past month of research. I had uncovered facts about Doc Holliday that had never been in print before. But as I sat musing about my good fortune in research I spotted a large framed plaque on the wall dedicated to Zane Grey. Grey was one of our most famous western writers. Zane Grey graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery with the class of 1895.

I thanked Dr. Whittock for his help asked his direction to Bookbinders, one of the old Philadelphia restaurant’s that was open and serving food in the 1800’s. I had lunch there and enjoyed the food along with the ambiance.
I spent the afternoon at the Philadelphia Historical Society and early that evening took a cab to the airport and a Delta Airlines flight to Atlanta.

(To be continued)

Doc Holliday's Birthday August 14, 1851

The intrepid Bill Dunn has assembled his full collection of Doc Holliday's memorabilia in one place. A new museum will open in Griffin, GA on Doc's birthday:
209 N. 13th Street
Griffin, Georgia, 30223
Phone 770 229-2705

Bill Dunn a distant cousin of Doc Holliday, is the museum cureator and has a great passion for his work. Bill has assembled a wonderful collection of documents, artwork, books, photographs, which includes a photo of Doc's boyhood home. The collection includes a number of items of interest from the period.

IF you find yourself in Central Georgia stop by the museum, take a look at the past and have a chat with Bill Dunn about the legendary Doc Holliday. You'll be glad you did.

Writers Notebook:

How my Writers Notebook got started. For a number of years I saved file copies of famous writers interviews or writings regarding their approach to writing.

Eventually I put them all in a binder. I believe Gustave Flaubert of Madame Bovary fame was one of my first entries. I took it from an obscure book of letters he wrote to friends where he talks a lot about his writing and especially his approach to Bovary.

Hemingway’s ‘A Moveable Feast’ was another early entry. I made copies of pages 12 and 13 of that book. In those two pages Hemingway made several good points about his approach to writing.

To begin, he said, ‘Write the truest sentence you know and go from there.’ As to work in progress he said. ‘I always worked until I had something done and I stopped when I knew what would happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day.’ Then he said something that really got my attention. ‘I learned not to think about anything I was writing from the time I stopped writing until I started again the next day. That way my subconscious would be working on it while at the same time I’d be listening to other people and noticing everything.

About the Author

Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter. Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
http://TheHurricaneHunter.blogspot.com