A Killing at Holbrook’s Cottage Saloon

Holbrook, Arizona Territory — January 19, 1896

By 1896, Holbrook had earned a reputation as a rough railroad and cattle town. Along its business district stood a saloon with a name that left little to the imagination—the Bucket of Blood.

Whatever the origin of that name, it was already in use when violence broke out there on a Sunday evening in January 1896/

Shortly after six o’clock on January 19, two men were playing cards inside the saloon. One was George C. Hiatt, a barber who had arrived in Holbrook only about three months earlier, reportedly from Colorado. The other was Harry Donnelly, manager of the establishment.

According to an account published three days later in the Arizona Republican, a dispute developed during the game. Angry words passed between the two men.

Then Donnelly drew a revolver.

He forced Hiatt from the saloon and into the street. The confrontation did not end at the doorway. In front of the neighboring drug store, Donnelly fired.

Hiatt fell in the road.

When townspeople reached him, they found blood covering the front of his shirt. The bullet had passed through his heart. He died almost immediately.

Donnelly Arrested

The shooting quickly brought Deputy Sheriff Hofford to the scene. Sheriff Commodore Perry Owens was out of town, but Hofford arrested Donnelly without delay.

The newspaper reported that Donnelly claimed no man could take him alive. Whatever resistance he may have contemplated ended when the deputy confronted him.

The tragedy extended beyond the street. When word reached Hiatt’s widow, the newspaper reported that she collapsed and remained unconscious for some time afterward.

Donnelly was expected to receive a preliminary hearing at Winslow.

But buried near the end of the newspaper account was another detail—one that tells us something about the saloon before Hiatt ever entered it.

The Republican identified the establishment as the “Bucket of Blood” saloon, reported it as the property of F. J. Wattron, and said Donnelly operated the place.

“It has indeed a bloody record.”

The newspaper went even further, reporting that it was said no fewer than nine men had been killed there.

Whether that number was accurate is another question. The article offered no names, dates or circumstances for those supposed deaths. But it establishes something important: by January 1896, the Bucket of Blood name—and the saloon’s violent reputation—were already well known.

The Cottage or the Bucket of Blood?

One question remained: was the Bucket of Blood described in the 1896 account actually the establishment historically known as the Cottage Saloon?

A Holbrook newspaper answered that question the following year.

On May 8, 1897, the Holbrook Argus carried a brief notice:

“The ‘Cottage’ or ‘Bucket of Blood’ saloon reopened last Monday under the management of H. S. Stevens.”

That small announcement is significant.

It demonstrates that people in Holbrook in the 1890s were using Cottage and Bucket of Blood for the same establishment. This is not simply a name attached to the building decades later by writers or tourist promoters. It appears in Holbrook’s own newspaper.

The notice also shows that management had changed. Harry Donnelly, who had been identified as manager in January 1896, was gone. By May 1897, H. S. Stevens was running the reopened saloon.

What the Newspapers Don’t Tell Us

Today, stories explaining how Holbrook’s Bucket of Blood received its name are easy to find. Some describe spectacular gunfights and blood covering the saloon floor. Dates and participants vary depending upon the telling.

The contemporary evidence examined here tells a more limited story.

By January 1896, a Holbrook establishment was unquestionably being called the Bucket of Blood Saloon. It already had a reputation for violence. On January 19, an argument beginning inside ended with George C. Hiatt lying dead in the street.

By May 1897, the Holbrook Argus explicitly identified the establishment as the “Cottage” or “Bucket of Blood” saloon.

Those facts can be documented.

How the saloon first acquired its memorable name—and whether nine men really died there before Hiatt—remains less certain.

More than a century later, the stone remains of the Cottage still stand in Holbrook. The surviving walls are tangible evidence of the building itself.

The newspapers provide something equally valuable.

They allow us to separate, at least for one violent Sunday evening, the Bucket of Blood of legend from the Bucket of Blood that actually appeared in the news.

Primary Sources

Arizona Republican, Phoenix, Arizona Territory, January 22, 1896, “Shooting at Holbrook: Bloodshed Over a Dispute in a Card Game.”

Holbrook Argus, Holbrook, Arizona Territory, May 8, 1897, p. 3, notice announcing the reopening of the “Cottage” or “Bucket of Blood” saloon under H. S. Stevens.