Mystery: In Pursuit of the Real John Henry “Doc” Holliday’s Grave
My real name is Jeff "Doc" Holliday. I am related to the real John Henry "Doc" Holliday of wild west fame albeit in a very distant way. My family has visited what popular culture would like you to believe is Doc's grave. I've been there, but don't believe that John Henry is really buried there and I'm not alone in that belief.
Let's start at the beginning (or is it the end?). Here's John Henry "Doc" Holliday's gravestone in Glenwood Springs, Colorado when my family visited back in the summer of 2015.
I first learned of my family's connection to the real Doc thanks to a phone call from an author who was writing a book about his life back in the mid-1990's. As I remember it, she wanted to speak to my dad who wasn't home, so I was the go-between. She asked about our family tree and told her what I knew and then more or less forgot about it. It wasn't until a year or two ago that my wife did the ancestry research and found we're super-duper distant many times removed but still related to John Henry "Doc" Holliday.
I share all of that to say this. I've heard stories passed down that say that Doc's popular grave location in Glenwood Springs is not his real grave. Even the Colorado cemetery admits they don't know exactly where John Henry is buried. They just say "somewhere in the cemetery". Right.
And then there's this vague reference to "somewhere".
One of my favorite YouTube channels "Faces of the Forgotten" is now hot on the trail of the real Doc Holliday grave in Griffin, Georgia where he was born.
I'll summarize. He was told (maybe by some of the same people in the know I've heard about) that Doc's dad had his body brought back from Glenwood Springs and had him secretly buried in the Griffin, Georgia cemetery. The word is that only 5 people were present at the midnight burial and only Doc's dad knew exactly where. The only thing we can be certain of is that it's not near the other Holliday family members who are buried in Griffin. The most specific location I've heard is that it is an unmarked grave in the Stonewall Jackson Confederate Cemetery.
There's only one other clue I've heard: "The sweet trees under which he was laid have long since disappeared."
If you're interested in the real John Henry "Doc" Holliday's life, the entire Faces of the Forgotten series is more than worth a watch.