<P> At age 16, Kate ran away from her foster home and stowed away on a riverboat bound for St. Louis, Missouri . Kate later claimed that while she lived in St. Louis she married a dentist named "Silas Melvin" with whom she had a son, and that both died of yellow fever . No record has been found to substantiate marriage, birth of a child, or the death of either Melvin or the child . United States Census records report that a Silas Melvin lived in St. Louis in the mid 1860s but that he was married to a steamship captain's daughter named Mary Bust . The census also shows that another Melvin was employed by a St. Louis asylum . Since Kate met Doc Holliday in the early 1870s, she may have confused the two and their occupations when recalling the facts later in her life . </P> <P> Researcher Jan Collins states that Cummings entered the Ursuline Convent but did not remain long . In 1869, she is recorded as working as a prostitute for madam Blanch Tribole in St. Louis . In 1874, Kate was fined for working as a "sporting woman" in a sporting house in Dodge City, Kansas, run by Nellie "Bessie" (Ketchum) Earp, James Earp's wife . </P> <P> In 1876, Kate moved to Fort Griffin, Texas, where in 1877 she met Doc Holliday . Doc said at one point that he considered Kate his intellectual equal . Kate introduced Holliday to Wyatt Earp . The couple went with Earp to Dodge City and registered as Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Holliday at Deacon Cox's boarding house . Doc opened a dental practice by day but spent most of his time gambling and drinking . The two fought regularly and sometimes violently . </P> <P> According to Kate, the couple later married in Valdosta, Georgia . They traveled to Trinidad, Colorado, and then to Las Vegas, New Mexico, where they lived for about two years . Holliday worked as a dentist by day and ran a saloon on Center Street by night . Kate also occasionally worked at a dance hall in Santa Fe . </P>

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