Dr. George Emory Goodfellow (1855–1910) was a renowned physician and surgeon in Tombstone, Arizona, during its 1880s silver-mining boom. Known as the “Gunfighter’s Surgeon,” he settled in Tombstone in 1880, practicing above the Crystal Palace Saloon. A pioneer in trauma surgery, he became the nation’s leading expert on gunshot wounds, performing the first documented laparotomy for abdominal injuries, using sterile techniques like lye soap or whiskey, and developing spinal anesthesia. He treated lawmen and outlaws alike, including victims of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral aftermath, and served as county coroner, conducting autopsies like Morgan Earp’s in 1882. Goodfellow observed silk’s bullet-resistant properties, influencing later body armor development, though he held no patents. A civic leader, he co-founded local societies, studied Gila monster venom, and mapped an 1887 earthquake rupture. His work in Tombstone (1880–1891) solidified his legacy as a pioneering trauma surgeon and key figure in the town’s history.
Early Life and Education
George Emory Goodfellow was born on December 23, 1855, in Downieville, California, a gold-mining town in the Sierra Nevada. His father, Milton J. Goodfellow, was a mining engineer, and his mother was Amanda Ann Baskin. At age 12, George was sent to Pennsylvania for schooling, later attending the California Military Academy in Oakland. In 1872, at 17, he enrolled at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, where he became the school’s boxing champion. However, his naval career ended abruptly after he assaulted John Henry Conyers, the academy’s first Black cadet, in a hazing incident, leading to his dismissal in December 1872 amid a national scandal.
Undeterred, Goodfellow pursued medicine, studying under his cousin, a physician, and enrolling at the Wooster University School of Medicine (now the College of Wooster) in Ohio. He graduated with honors in 1876. That same year, he married Katherine Colt, cousin of Samuel Colt, the revolver manufacturer whose .45-caliber firearms would later contribute to Goodfellow’s surgical expertise.
Move to Arizona and Early Career
Goodfellow briefly practiced medicine in Oakland, California, before his restlessness led him to Arizona Territory. In 1876, he served as an acting assistant surgeon at Fort Whipple in Prescott, where his father worked for a mining company. He later became a contract surgeon at Fort Lowell near Tucson in 1879 and briefly at Fort Bowie in 1880, though he likely did not participate in Apache campaigns. On September 15, 1880, Goodfellow canceled his Army contract and relocated to Tombstone, Arizona Territory, a silver-mining boomtown founded in 1879 with a population exceeding 2,000.
Role in Tombstone, Arizona
Tombstone, known as “The Town Too Tough to Die,” was a volatile frontier town teeming with miners, outlaws, and lawmen, including Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the Cochise County Cowboys. Goodfellow opened his medical practice above the Crystal Palace Saloon, one of the West’s most luxurious establishments, strategically placing him in the heart of the action. Only four of the town’s 12 doctors, including Goodfellow, held medical diplomas, earning him a reputation as a skilled and scientific physician in a region where improvisation often defined medical care.
During the infamous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Virgil Earp, serving as Deputy U.S. Marshal and Tombstone City Marshal, was shot through the calf. Dr. Goodfellow, a skilled surgeon known as the “Gunshot Physician,” provided immediate medical care to Virgil. The sources do not provide specific details about the treatment process for this particular wound, but Goodfellow’s general approach to gunshot wounds emphasized sterile techniques, which were innovative for the time. He often cleaned wounds with lye soap or whiskey to prevent infection, a practice that set him apart from many contemporary physicians. Given the nature of a calf wound, Goodfellow likely cleaned and dressed the injury, ensuring it was stabilized to promote healing and prevent complications such as infection. His treatment was successful, as Virgil survived and continued his duties, though he likely experienced lingering effects from the injury.
Two months later, on the night of December 28, 1881, Virgil was ambushed by three men hiding in an unfinished building across Allen Street from the Cosmopolitan Hotel. He was hit in the back and left arm with three loads of double-barreled buckshot from about 60 feet. The injuries were severe, resulting in a longitudinal fracture of the humerus and damage to the elbow, with approximately 20 buckshot pellets lodged near his hip bone and above the groin. Dr. Goodfellow treated Virgil at the Cosmopolitan Hotel, using the medical tools in his bag and additional supplies fetched from the local hospital by George Parsons and another individual.
Goodfellow advised amputation of Virgil’s left arm due to the extent of the damage, but Virgil refused. Instead, Goodfellow performed a complex surgery under challenging conditions, removing more than 3–4 inches (76–100 mm) of shattered humerus bone. The procedure was unable to fully repair the longitudinal fracture or the elbow, leaving Virgil’s arm permanently crippled. Additionally, Goodfellow extracted the buckshot pellets embedded in Virgil’s back and hip area, addressing the risk of infection and further complications. His use of sterile techniques, such as cleaning wounds with lye soap or whiskey, likely played a critical role in preventing sepsis, a common cause of death in such injuries at the time. Despite the permanent disability, Goodfellow’s intervention saved Virgil’s life and preserved his arm, allowing him to later serve as a marshal in Colton, California, using his good arm to handle a gun.
Medical Innovations and Gunshot Wound Expertise
Goodfellow became the nation’s foremost expert on gunshot wounds, earning the moniker “Gunfighter’s Surgeon.” Tombstone’s frequent violence provided ample opportunity to hone his skills. He treated both lawmen and outlaws, including members of the notorious Cowboys like Curly Bill Brocius. His pioneering work included:
- First Documented Laparotomy: On July 4, 1881, Goodfellow successfully performed a laparotomy—small incisions to treat abdominal gunshot wounds—on a miner shot nine days earlier, a procedure that became the standard for such injuries. He emphasized that without surgery within an hour, victims of .44 or .45-caliber abdominal wounds faced certain death due to hemorrhage.
- Sterile Techniques: Goodfellow insisted on cleaning wounds with lye soap or whiskey, a practice ahead of its time when many surgeons ignored sterile protocols. His methods improved survival rates and contrasted with the unsanitary care that led to President James Garfield’s death from a gunshot wound in 1881.
- Perineal Prostatectomy: In 1891, while in Tucson, Goodfellow performed the first documented perineal prostatectomy to remove an enlarged prostate, a significant urological advancement. He completed 78 such operations with only two deaths.
- Spinal Anesthesia: He pioneered spinal anesthesia by mixing cocaine with spinal fluid, injecting it into the spine to numb patients during surgery, a technique rare in the frontier.
As county coroner, Goodfellow conducted autopsies, including Morgan Earp’s after his 1882 assassination. His report detailed the bullet’s path through the left kidney, spinal column, and great vessels, causing fatal hemorrhage. His dark humor was evident in reports, such as describing a corpse as “rich in lead, but too badly punctured to hold whiskey” or ruling a lynching victim’s death as due to “emphysema of the lungs” caused by strangulation.
Notable Incidents and Community Involvement
Goodfellow’s practice extended beyond gunshot wounds. During the June 1881 Tombstone fire, he reconstructed George W. Parsons’ nose, deformed by falling wood, using a wire framework, refusing payment for the service.
He was a civic leader, co-founding the Tombstone Club, a reading society, and the Tombstone Scientific Society. He invested in the Huachuca Water Company, which built a 23-mile pipeline to Tombstone. His naturalist pursuits included studying Gila monster venom, debunking myths about its lethality by surviving a self-induced bite in 1891, and publishing findings in Scientific American.
In 1886, Goodfellow joined the pursuit of Geronimo after the Apache leader’s escape from the San Carlos Reservation, later befriending him and winning a $20 bet by testing Geronimo’s silent arrow-shooting technique. In 1887, he led a relief effort to Bavispe, Sonora, after a devastating earthquake, earning the title “El Santo Doctor” and a horse from Mexican President Porfirio Díaz. With photographer Camillus S. Fly, he mapped the earthquake’s surface rupture, publishing the first such map in North America in Science.
Later Career and Life
In 1891, Goodfellow moved to Tucson after his friend Dr. John C. Handy was fatally shot, taking over Handy’s practice and becoming chief surgeon for the Southern Pacific Railroad. He performed Arizona’s first appendectomy that year. His wife, Katherine, died in 1891, leaving him with their daughter, Edith (born 1879); their son, George Milton, died in 1882. Goodfellow remarried Mary Elizabeth before March 1906.
In 1898, he served as a civilian surgeon in the Spanish-American War, leveraging his Spanish fluency to negotiate a peace settlement in Cuba, earning a Distinguished Service Order. After the war, he practiced in San Francisco, becoming a leading physician. In 1910, while working as chief surgeon for the Southern Pacific Railroad in Mexico, he contracted multiple neuritis, likely from overwork or exposure, and died in Los Angeles on December 7, 1910, at age 54.
Legacy
Dr. George E. Goodfellow’s 11 years in Tombstone (1880–1891) cemented his reputation as a pioneering trauma surgeon and scientist. His innovations in laparotomy, sterile techniques, prostatectomy, and spinal anesthesia were decades ahead of their time, earning him recognition as the first civilian trauma surgeon. His work on silk’s bullet resistance foreshadowed modern body armor. The University of Arizona School of Medicine honors him with the George E. Goodfellow Society. Despite personal flaws—hard drinking, womanizing, and a pugnacious temperament—Goodfellow’s contributions to medicine and Tombstone’s history remain legendary.
Sources:
- Didusch Museum, “A Truth Stranger Than Fiction: The Life and Times of Dr. George Emery Goodfellow”
- True West Magazine, various articles
- Sharlot Hall Museum
- DeGruyter Brill, “Bulletproof Silk: Observations of Dr George E. Goodfellow”
