Meet The Earps

Everyone knows who Wyatt Earp was. Everyone. Not too long ago a diplomat from the United Nations made a reference to Wyatt in one of his speeches.  And everyone knew who he was talking about.

Everyone knows he was a federal marshal, carried a long barreled pistol called a Buntline Special, and was one of the most active gunmen the West has ever seen.

Of course, everyone is wrong, too.

But he DID make law enforcement a major part of his life.  At least in his early years.  Later though this interest faded out partly due to age, and partly no doubt due to the murder indictments that hung over his head.

But at twenty one, the young Wyatt was elected city marshal of Lamar, Missouri (where his folks had a farm).  Later he was appointed assistant city marshal in the various Kansas cowtowns.  Places like Ellsworth, Wichita, and Dodge City all record Wyatt was a member of their police departments.  At Dodge he even served as a church deacon.

But he was never a federal marshal.

Between his stint as a lawman in Missouri and Kansas, he did some time in what was then called Indian Territory.  That is, he DID some time, not spent it. He was arrested as a horse thief and wound up in the Fort Gibson slammer.

Funny thing about Wyatt Earp.  People either love him or hate him.  That was true a hundred and twenty years ago, and it's the same now.  No one is ever neutral.  It seems everyone is divvied up either as "Earp Champions" or "Earp Detractors".

In Fort Gibson, Wyatt never went to trial.  The Earp Detractors say he jumped bail.  But the Earp Champions pooh-pooh this and point out that the records show that when one of his (alleged) horse stealing buddies went to trial, he was acquitted.  So clearly, they say, the judge decided there was insufficient evidence in holding Wyatt further and dismissed the charges.

All in all the Champions are probably right and Wyatt was just simply let go.  But to even things out for the Detractors, there is enough left in the record to suggest he and his buddies WERE involved in various and sundry skullduggery even if it didn't pass muster for a criminal conviction.

Wyatt wisely moved on to Ellsworth where he was hired as assistant marshal and then later went to Wichita where he was given the same job.  His older brother James was there too and ran a saloon. Wyatt actually came from a big family:  there was Newton (a half brother), James, Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan, and Warren.  They were a very clubby bunch and were often winding up in the same towns.

James was married to a lady named Bessie, and most commendably for a lady in the middle nineteenth century, she decided to open her own commercial establishment to supplement James' income.  It got lots of publicity, and the newspapers would courteously referred to Bessie's place as a "sporting house."  For those not familiar with the jargon of the times, she was NOT selling tennis shoes, baseballs, or golf clubs.

But Wyatt got into the swing of being an assistant marshal in Wichita and was highly praised as an efficient policeman.  Even after his former boss lost an election, the new marshal hired Wyatt again as an assistant.  But he didn't stay long since shortly after his reappointment he beat up his former boss.  It seems the losing marshal had made Bessie's sporting house a campaign issue.  Wyatt's rage was understandable perhaps, but assistant marshals beating up their former bosses was frowned upon even then, and Wyatt found himself out of work.

So Wyatt went on to Dodge, where he again was hired as an assistant city marshal.

Like at Wichita, Wyatt got good marks as a lawman.  He was honest efficient, and a hard worker.  Also the people liked the way he handled the Texas drovers who tended to get rowdy after three months on the trail.  Now the mark of a good officer was to keep the drovers in control, but not handle them so roughly that they'd take their business to other towns.  "Too roughly" meant plugging them.  A dead drover was not only bad publicity, but they rarely spent their $30 a month in the saloons or Bessie's sporting house.

So Wyatt adopted a cheap, effective, and for the standards of the time, socially acceptable form of crowd control.  It was called "buffaloing".  Simply put, to buffalo someone you yank out your pistol and slap him upside of his head with the barrel.  Now quieter and more docile, the fellow could be led off to jail.

Maybe THIS is where the story of the Buntline Special came from. If you want to buffalo someone it's best to use a long barreled Colt .45.  Smith and Wessons are supposedly inferior for buffaloing as they tend to fly apart.

By now Wyatt had taken up with a lady named Celia Blaylock.  Everyone called her Mattie.  Given her future history and Wyatt's familial associations, possibly she had been a "sporting woman" like Bessie.  Though she called herself Mrs. Earp, there's no evidence she and Wyatt were ever legally hitched.  The same was true for Virgil and his wife, Allie, and for Morgan and his wife, Louisa.

Now James.  He WAS legally married to Bessie.  Which is weird.

Two of Wyatt's friends were also in Dodge about this time.  One was a literate, articulate, and dapper young fellow from Quebec, Canada, who had spent some time with Wyatt out on the buffalo range.  His name was Bartholomew Masterson who for some reason signed his name William Barclay Masterson.  His friends (who were many) called him Bat.  Bat's brothers, Ed and Jim, were also in town, and Ed became city marshal.  Bat himself wound up as county sheriff and by all accounts was a good one.

Wyatt's other friend was a dentist named John Henry Holliday.  Originally from Georgia, he was a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Dental Surgery.  He set up his practice at Dodge, promising to cheerfully refund his fee to anyone who was not fully satisfied.  He evidently was a pretty good dentist, too, since a crown he put in for a young patient in 1871 was still fully functional as late as 1967.

He was known (naturally) as Doc, but unlike Bat he didn't have any friends other than Wyatt. 

Even Bat who once finagled a way to keep Doc from being extradited for murder didn't like him very much.  In a newspaper interview years later, Wyatt called Doc "that mad merry scamp with a heart of gold", but a little after that Bat wrote that Doc had "a mean disposition and an ungovernable temper" and " under the influence of liquor" (which was almost always) was a "most dangerous man".  Bat went on to add that Doc totally lacked all the "leadership qualities" of men like Wyatt Earp and "was much given to both drinking and quarreling and among those who did not fear him very was much disliked."  Most everyone who knew Doc seemed to agree with Bat.

Gradually Doc's practice faded.  Whether due to his cantankerous nature, his preference for gambling, or his tuberculosis that would send him into coughing fits while ministering to his dwindling supply of patients is anyone's guess.  Probably it was all of them put together.  Before long he was spending virtually all his time drinking, gambling, and getting into some rather spectacular arguments with his girlfriend, Kate Elder.  As you may have guessed by now, Kate was a "sporting woman" and, no, she and Doc never got married.

Later Wyatt would testify under oath that Doc had saved is life in Dodge City by helping him with a bunch of rambunctious cowboys.  Although there's nothing other than Wyatt's word on this, little else can explain why Wyatt put up with Doc as much as he did.

The cowtowns never lasted long as cowtowns.  Eventually the residents who included increasing numbers of farmers got tired of both the cattle drives and the cowboys, and one by one the cattle drives were outlawed.  So after a few years, Wyatt began to sense there wasn't much future in Dodge.  Besides he had begun to think buffaloing cowboys and risking his life for between $50 and $125 a month wasn't really the way to a life of wealth and ease.  Maybe being a businessman was the way to go.  But he probably didn't have any real plans until he got a note from his brother Virgil who suggested that Wyatt join him at a little speck on the Arizona map called Tombstone.

Virgil had been living in Prescott, Arizona, and like Wyatt had worked into law enforcement.  But his position was a little more lofty.  As a Union Civil War veteran and a Republican, he had managed to wrangle an appointment as a deputy federal marshal and now hoped to make the most of it.

The job of a deputy federal marshal was high in status but low in pay.  Usually they did the strong arm stuff for the chief marshal who usually sat on his rear end and handled the paper work.  But a deputy's job gave both credentials and experience for other jobs in law enforcement.  In those days before people worried about conflict of interest, you could hold several jobs at once.  It was possible for a man to be deputy federal marshal, the county sheriff, the city marshal all rolled into one.  There were practical advantages to this, especially in cities that were only about three blocks long.  If someone caused a disturbance in the town you could follow him into the surrounding county just by mentally putting on your sheriff's hat as you crossed the city limits.

Better yet you could collect all the salaries.  The sheriff's job was the best.  By skillful management of fee and tax collection, you could pick up an extra $2,000 - $3,000 a month, and keep it pretty much legal.  That was good money in 1880, a time when cowboys made no more than $100 for a three month trail drive.

So about the time Wyatt was thinking about leaving Dodge, Virgil heard that a silver strike had been made at Tombstone.  His federal appointment would still be good there, so he mosied on down.  That probably helped him get the job of city marshal.  He needed an assistant, so he called on Wyatt.  In between marshalling, they figured they could stake some mining claims.  But rather than bust their heinies mining silver, they intended to simply sell their mines to any and all takers.  Wyatt also figured he could obtain some gambling concessions at the various and numerous saloons that were sure to spring up along the main street of the town.  So Wyatt left Dodge with Mattie, and they moved on to Tombstone.

As law officers, the Earps naturally came into contact with the current county sheriff, Johnny Behan.  Johnny had been appointed by the governor, but now they were going to start electing their sheriffs.  Wyatt wanted the job too (and the money that went with it) so he decided to run as well.  Johnny, recognizing Wyatt's credentials and experience, told him that if he, Wyatt, lost the election then he, Johnny, would make him his deputy sheriff.  Wyatt said he appreciated it, but if he won, he had his brothers to take care of (Morgan and James had rolled into town by then) and he couldn't return the favor.  That was fine, said Johnny, he understood.  He'd still appoint Wyatt deputy.  The two men parted amicably.

Probably through Johnny, Wyatt met Ike Clanton and Tom and Frank McLaury.  The Earps were often called in for posse duty and so were the Clantons and McLaurys.  All evidence shows they got along pretty well, and would even work to help each other out.  Later Tom even said Wyatt was a friend of his.

Johnny won the election but didn't make Wyatt deputy.  He later said this was due to "personal reasons."  The personal reasons might have been Sadie Marcus, who called herself Josephine.  As a matter of fact, she called herself Josephine Behan, although like Mattie and Allie and Louisa, she wasn't.  But since she lived in the same house with Johnny and was helping raise Johnny's son by his first marriage (Johnny was divorced), this seemed a good way to avoid offending the more delicate minded townspeople.

The story is usually told that Johnny didn't appoint Wyatt because Josie chucked him for Wyatt.  That was pretty much Josie's tale, too.  She said she split up with Johnny because Johnny was a philanderer (which he was), a liar (which he also was), had a weak character (which he did), and because she thought Wyatt had more manly qualities.

The trouble with Josie's story is that there's evidence that she left Johnny before she started associating with Wyatt.  To make ends meet (no pun intended) she may have made her living as (yep) a "sporting woman."  Tombstone old timers who remembered Josie took the story pretty much for granted, and certainly in later life, Josie was vague (and inaccurate) about her early days there.  But the gist of the tale is probably true.  Wyatt taking up with Josie probably soured Johnny on Wyatt.  So Wyatt didn't get the job.

And what about Mattie?  Simple.  Wyatt, the widely respected law officer and former church deacon, just dumped her. P>