Nellie Cashman and Friends

Nellie Cashman, proprietress of the Russ House in Tombstone (named after the original by the same name in San Francisco) was the Southwest's counterpart to Julia Bullete of the Comstock.  She was a venturesome woman of questionable morality, an angel of the booming mining camp, and as long as the frontier lasted, she was remembered as the belle of the ball.

One youthful Episcopalian minister, Rev. Peabody, was on good terms with everyone in Tombstone, from Nellie Cashman to the town's first millionaire, Mr. Ed Shieffelin.  Even Julius Cesar, the first restaurateur of 

Tombstone liked Rev. Peabody.

 

Crystal Palace, Tombstone

Rev. Peabody was educated in Cheltenham and the University of Cambridge in England before coming to the states. But in Tombstone, Peabody found himself in a predicament - he had no where to hold Sunday church services.  So the Reverend appealed to Nellie to get the owners of the Crystal Palace to allow Sunday services to be held in their saloon.  Admist the gambling tables, Peabody began to preach his sermons each Sunday morning.

Rev. Peabody went on to become the headmaster of the Groton School for aristocrats in Massachusetts.

More interesting characters of Tombstone next time...