Tombstone Businesses

By George Self

Introduction

Vintage black and white photograph of a dusty main street in an old western town. Wooden buildings line both sides of the wide, unpaved road. Visible business signs include 'Restaurant' and 'McAlister'. A lone figure in dark clothing stands on the right side of the street. The scene depicts a sparsely populated frontier settlement from the late 19th century.

From its founding in 1879 until the spring of 1882, Tombstone was a rapidly growing boomtown that aggregated thousands of people worldwide. Most of those folks were decent, hard-working people looking for a better life, but naturally, there were also a few scoundrels. During those early days, there was a severe land scandal that cheated a lot of everyday folks out of their money. There were also occasional fights between groups like the Earps and the cowboys. However, by the late spring of 1882, the Earps had left town, and the cowboys were all but wiped out; then, Tombstone settled into a wholesome place to raise a family.

To appreciate what those years produced, consider where Tombstone started. A contemporary account published in July 1880, when the boom was just gaining momentum, counted twelve large general merchandise stores, four hotels, nine restaurants, two drug stores, five corrals, six lawyers, two breweries, five fruit and vegetable stores, ten cigar stores, one candy factory, one photograph gallery, two watchmakers, five assay offices, and “several saloons.” The account ended on a note that now reads almost as a motto: “This is a quiet and peaceable community, and families are settling here and improving the moral atmosphere.” Within three years that foundation would more than double.

Listing

By the early 1880s, Tombstone had fine dining, world-class entertainment, a horse racetrack, a baseball park, and a public swimming pool. Prominent buildings included the Cochise County Courthouse, the Tombstone City Hall, and the Schieffelin Hall Opera House. The following businesses were listed in the 1883-1884 Tombstone Business Directory.

  • Attorneys: 22
  • Banks: Hudson & Co (5th bet Allen/Fremont), Cochise County Bank (4th/Allen)
  • Healthcare: 8 doctors, 2 dentists, 1 hospital (Tombstone Hospital, 715 Fremont), 3 drug stores
  • Hotels: 6 (Brown, Cosmopolitan, Grand, LeVan, Occidental, Russ House)
  • Ice houses: 2 (Tombstone and Charleston Ice Co, Tombstone Ice Works)
  • Livery Stables/Corrals: 7 (Arizona, Dexter, Lexington, O. K., Pioneer, Tombstone, West End)
  • Lodging Houses: 10 (American, Cochise, Fourth St Lodging, Palace, San Francisco, San Jose, Smith's, Sullivan, Sunnyside, Way Up)
  • Newspapers: 2 (Epitaph, Republican)
  • Restaurants/Chop Houses: 13 (American, Boss, Brooklyn, California, Can Can, Dining Room, Grand, Gregory's, International, Maison Doree, Melrose, New York, Occidental, Pacific)
  • Saloons: 20 (Arcade, Arizona, Boca, Capital, Comet, Crystal Palace, Delta, Dragoon, Elite, Fountain, Hafford’s, Headquarters, Little Chief, Music Hall, Opera, Oriental, Pony, Queen’s, Senate, Wine House) Note, the business directory would have only listed the major saloons but there were likely other smaller saloons.
  • Services: 8 barbers, 8 blacksmiths, 16 dressmakers, 2 gunsmiths, 5 jewelers/watchmakers, 17 laundries, 5 tailors, 4 wagon makers
  • Stores: 3 bakeries, 8 boot/shoe, 8 cigar/tobacco, 3 clothing, 2 fruit dealers, 3 furniture, 7 general merchandise, 9 grocery, 1 ice cream/candy, 2 stationer/news, 3 saddle/harness
  • Theaters: Crystal Palace, Palace, Schieffelin Hall

One aspect of Tombstone’s commercial life that the directory does not capture is how many of those businesses were run by women. Research drawing on census records, licenses, and newspaper advertising has identified at least 137 female proprietors active between 1878 and 1884, almost certainly an undercount. About 60 percent ran hotels, boardinghouses, or restaurants; another 30 percent made dresses or hats; the remaining 10 percent operated in fields that were traditionally male, from groceries to saloons. The geography of Allen Street organized this commercial world: the north side housed saloons, gambling establishments, and brothels, while the south side was given to stores, restaurants, and “respectable” establishments. In 1881 the city council formally established a red-light district on the north side of Allen, east of Sixth Street, though in practice the boundary was rarely enforced. Nellie Cashman ran the Russ House hotel, the Arcade Restaurant, and held a saloon license, earning the nickname “angel of Tombstone” for her philanthropy (see Nellie Cashman). Mollie Fly ran a 12-room boarding house next to the O.K. Corral and, with her husband C.S. Fly, sold hand-painted cabinet portraits from their photography gallery for 35 cents each. Samantha Fallon arrived in 1879 with $600 and built a 20-room lodging house on Fremont Street whose property was assessed at $4,000 by 1884. Lenders extended credit readily during the boom, even to single women, because inflationary conditions were expected to carry all businesses to success.

Some context for what those businesses charged: in the boom years of 1881–83, miners earned $4 a day and shaft men earned $6; clerks and bookkeepers took home $50–100 a month with board. A full Sunday dinner at the Occidental Restaurant (salmon, leg of lamb, multiple roasts, pastry, and English plum pudding) cost 50 cents. Board ran $8–10 a week; a comfortable home could be built for $400–600. One saloon in the list above deserves particular notice: Hafford’s Corner, run by Colonel Roderick Hafford, an amateur ornithologist who displayed bird paintings instead of the barroom nudes standard elsewhere and kept live birds throughout the premises. The Earps, Doc Holliday, Johnny Ringo, and Billy Claiborne were among the regulars.

Sources

  • “On the Wrong Side of Allen Street: The Businesswomen of Tombstone, 1878–1884” (Osselaer 2014), Journal of Arizona History, vol. 55, no. 2. Source for female proprietor count, business-type breakdown, credit access, and individual women named.
  • “If You Go, You Must Dress Up” (Underhill 2016), Journal of Arizona History, vol. 57, no. 3. Source for wages, cost of living, Hafford’s Corner Saloon, and saloon culture.
  • “The ‘Autobiography’ of a Frontier Newspaper” (Underhill 2015), Journal of Arizona History, vol. 56, no. 2. Source for the end-of-1880 Epitaph business inventory.
  • Plan for the Creation of a Historic Environment in Tombstone, Arizona, Tombstone Restoration Commission (TRC 1972). Source for the July 1880 Arizona Quarterly Illustrated business snapshot quoted above.

Location

The movies about Tombstone emphasize a 30-second gunfight since that was very dramatic, but that gunfight does not represent the town's history very well. On your next visit to Tombstone, look beyond the gunfights to discover how the ordinary folks worked and lived.