Wyatt Earp, the man, the myth, the legend

In 1849, the family moved to Pella, Iowa to farm, but returned to Monmouth in 1856. The only work Nicholas could find was that of constable, and he supplemented this income by boot-legging alcohol. That his father was able to work on both sides of the law was not lost on young Wyatt. The family returned to Pella, Iowa in 1859. When the Civil War began, all three of Wyatt’s older brothers joined the Union Army on Nov. 11, 1861. Although barely a teenager, Wyatt wanted to join up too. Dad said no. Wyatt ran away and tried to enlist. Dad brought him back home. Wyatt didn’t like people making decisions for him.

By 1864, the reunited family headed to California with a wagon train. It was in California that Wyatt got a chance to prove himself a man. He worked as a driver for a stage coach line and as a teamster hauling goods between California and Arizona. Along the way, he discovered gambling and figured out a way to open several gambling saloons in San Diego. He also discovered boxing and learned how to referee.

But the peripatetic Earps were soon on the move again, this time to Lamar, Mo. in 1868. Again, Nicholas found work as a constable until 1869 when he became a justice of the peace. Wyatt was appointed constable to fill out his father’s term. To keep the job, Wyatt had to run for the office. He decided to do just that, running against his brother Newton, and winning 137 to 108 votes. Wyatt liked to win. By 1871 he was in trouble, accused of pocketing some fees he had collected for the county schools. Then there was a matter of stealing some horses. Wyatt left town and headed for Peoria, Ill. where he and brother Morgan founding lodging in the house of Jane Haspel. Arrested for having been in that kind of "house” and for making a profit, Wyatt would be arrested again in Peoria for similar enterprises.

It was time to move on. In April of 1875, Wyatt joined the Wichita, Kan. marshal’s office. Here he performed his law duties dutifully, arresting a horse thief, and on another occasion, cooling off an out-of-control mob bent on trouble. He received commendations for his handling of other problems. It didn’t last. There was more personal trouble, and he moved on in 1876 to Dodge City, Kan., getting hired there as assistant marshal. He took a short vacation in 1877 to pursue his hobby, gambling, and while making the rounds in Texas, he met a dentist named Doc Holliday. Holliday soon joined Wyatt back in Dodge City where Bat and Jim Masterson were already acquainted with Earp. Doc was in a bar there when a brawl broke out. A cowboy drew a gun and aimed for Wyatt’s back. Doc yelled "Look out!” to Wyatt. Wyatt "looked out” and lived to tell the story. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. But Wyatt could be your best friend or your worst enemy. He could work side by side with you and later run off with your wife. Wyatt liked the girls and the girls liked him. Women of the church-going kind were scarce on the frontier, so his ladies were often of the "evening” kind. Wyatt brought one of his "girls” along with him to Dodge City in 1876, and she remained his companion until 1882. Her name was Celia Anne Blaylock, but he called her "Mattie.” When he left Dodge City in 1878 for New Mexico, he took "Mattie” too. Although he finally left her, for the rest of her life Mattie considered herself his wife (Wyatt had had one official marriage. In 1870, in Lamar, Mo., he had married Urilla Sutherland. She died a few months later).

Tombstone, Ariz. Wyatt and his older brothers, James and Virgil, got into town in December 1879. James found work in a bar and Virgil as a deputy marshal. Wyatt rode shotgun for Wells Fargo stagecoaches. There were silver mines in Tombstone and the Earps staked out mining claims. By the summer of 1880, the two younger boys, Morgan and Warren, joined their band of brothers in Tombstone, and Doc Holliday was not far behind. An incident occurred when a cowboy named Frank McLaury was accused of stealing six army mules from Camp Rucker and was caught changing the brand from U.S. to D.8. Virgil Earp was the arresting officer and thus began the conflict between the McLaurys and the Earps. There would be one incident after another between the rival groups until a showdown seemed inevitable.

A year earlier, one of Wyatt’s horses had been stolen and he learned now that it was in the possession of Ike and Billy Clanton. Wyatt and Doc rode out to the Clantons to get his horse. They got the horse and the wrath of the Clantons as well. More incidents and more tension. On Wednesday, Oct. 26, 1881, the pot boiled over. Virgil deputized Doc Holliday, Wyatt and Morgan Earp. At 3 p.m., the Earps headed for the OK Corral. Their antagonists, the Clantons and the McLaurys, were waiting. They met at close range. And when the dust settled, Doc Holliday, Virgil and Morgan Earp were hit. Billy Clanton, Tom and Frank McLaury were killed. There was a trial, and the Earps and Holliday were exonerated, but not out of danger. In December, Virgil was ambushed and shot in the arm and shoulder. Ike Clanton was suspected but not convicted. On the night of March 18, 1882, Morgan Earp was shot in the back and died less than an hour later. The shooter escaped. Wyatt and James put Morgan’s body on a train, to be buried at his home in Colton, Calif. Next day Virgil and his wife left Tombstone.    

Wyatt stayed long enough to deliver family justice for the killing of Morgan. Then he and his compatriots rode out of Tombstone in April 1882, and headed for Colorado. In late 1882, Wyatt and Warren joined Virgil in San Francisco. Wyatt renewed a warm friendship there with Josephine Sarah Marcus, whom he called "Josie.” She had been a mistress of Sheriff Johnny Behan in Tombstone. Wyatt and Josie left San Francisco together in 1883 and remained together for the next 46 years. He would spend much of the rest of his life running saloons and gambling businesses and pursuing mining interests with his younger brothers. There was some talk of the Earp boys doing some claim-jumping. Old habits die hard.

Wyatt and Josie moved back to San Francisco during the 1890s to be closer to Josie’s family. In 1897, they went to Alaska for a time with other gold-rushers, and then moved to Hollywood. Wyatt was not unmindful of the drama of his life. In fact, he thought it would make a darn good movie. He got acquainted with the early movie cowboys and made a lasting impression on a young fellow named John Wayne. Wayne said later he used Earp as his role model.

Wyatt Earp died at home in Los Angeles on Jan. 13, 1929 at the age of 80. He had done it all. As a lawman, he had walked the thin blue line. If you were to pile up the number of arrests he made on one end of a see-saw and the number of times he was arrested on the other end, you wouldn’t have to have perfect eyesight to see that see-saw stayed about level. In a panoply of colorful characters in the Old West, Wyatt Earp was a rainbow. Josie, honoring her own faith, had his remains cremated and buried in the Marcus family plot at the Hills of Eternity, a Jewish cemetery in Colma. She joined him there in 1944. The original headstone was stolen later that year, but discarded along a road on the Peninsula.

Robbers remorse? The marker has been replaced with a new stone. The man who got famous at the OK Corral in Tombstone rests once again in tombstone territory.