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Wild
West Personalities Produce Bang-Up Pedigree
By Myra
Vanderpool Gormley, CG
The Wild West was
chock-full of colorful characters and it was natural as ticks to a hound
dog that Hollywood would fall in love with them. Of course, in certain
instances some were actually just creations of the silver screen, while
in others, there were embellishments of the historical facts pertaining
to various heroes and heroines – not unlike some of our own family legends.
Many families have
stories about being connected to or descended from renowned Wild West
personalities. My Uncle Teck went to his reward believing his father had
once encountered Jesse James hiding train robbery loot in the Cookson
Hills of eastern Oklahoma – even though I pointed out that the notorious
outlaw-folk hero was killed in 1882 when his father was a nine-year-old
boy living in Georgia. Some family legends are hard to kill.
The genealogist
often has to spend a great deal of time sorting conflicting facts from
obvious fiction before the genealogical research can be conducted. Even
biographies and autobiographies of the famous and infamous may contain
inaccuracies and discrepancies. Nevertheless, it is fun to research the
possible links to a historical figure, and even if you disprove the family
legend, you learn a lot of American history along the way. For example,
the movie, "Wyatt Earp" and the video "Tombstone"
created renewed interest in the legendary sometime-lawman. While Wyatt
Earp may appear in your family tree, you can't be a direct descendant
for although he had three wives, he did not have any offspring.
Tracing Wyatt Earp
and his family as they zigzagged across the heart of America back and
forth to California and other Western states in the 19th and 20th centuries
provides a fairly representative illustration of the migration trails
that many of our ancestors took. Wyatt Earp was born in Monmouth, Warren
County, Illinois in 1848. However, his family moved to Pella, Marion County,
Iowa, when he was about two years old. He appears with his parents (Nicholas
Porter Earp and Virginia Ann Cooksey) and his four older siblings in the
1850 census of that county.1 The
1860 census of Marion County, Iowa shows this Earp family consisting of
the parents and six children and a 17-year-old female (Lucinda Davis)
whose relationship to the Earps has not been established. The Earp children
at that time were: James C., Virgil W., Wyatt B., Morgan, Warren B. and
Virginia. The youngest child, a daughter named Adelia, was born in June
of 1861 in Pella, Iowa2.
Wyatt Berry Stapp
Earp was named for his father's commanding officer under whom Nicholas
Earp served during the Mexican War. Wyatt was too young for Civil War
service, but his father and brothers, James and Virgil, and half brother,
Newton, served – all on the Union side. The 13-year-old Wyatt was left
in charge of bringing in an 80-acre corn crop, with the help of younger
brothers Morgan and Warren.3
Nicholas Earp, Wyatt's
father, went to California in the 1850s – not for gold – but to find agricultural
land with an ample water supply, and decided to settle in San Bernardino
County.4 He returned to the Midwest
to move the family to California, but his daughter, Martha, became ill
and died. Then the Civil War started, delaying the move. In 1864-65, according
to family accounts, Wyatt drove one of the wagons when the family removed
to the vicinity of Colton, San Bernardino County, California. However,
somewhat later Nicholas Earp decided to go back and dispose of his land
in the Midwest (apparently the real estate market was depressed at the
end of the Civil War) and then to return to California to settle permanently.
So, in 1868 they went back to the Midwest – this time to Lamar, Mo. (Whether
Nicholas Earp owned property in both Iowa and Missouri at this time has
not yet been ascertained.)
In 1870, the Earp
family was enumerated in Lamar Township of Barton County, Missouri,5
with Nicholas listed as a grocer. The then 22-year-old Wyatt Earp is shown
with his wife, "Rilla," whose real name was Urilla Sutherland.6
They were married 10 January 1870 in Barton County, Missouri, according
to marriage records there. Urilla died later that year in childbirth,
along with the infant. Wyatt got into a serious quarrel with her brothers,
left town and drifted into Kansas.7
In May, 1871, Wyatt
Earp was arrested and charged with larceny – horse stealing in the Indian
Nation – he skipped bail and was never tried.8
From 1871-75 he tried buffalo hunting in Kansas and roamed around various
towns in that state, and during this time met Bat Masterson. In 1875 he
was appointed city policeman of Wichita ($60 a month), but on April 19,
1876, he was dismissed from the position and his final salary was withheld
until "all collected fines are submitted."9
On May 16, 1876,
he was hired as assistant marshal of Dodge City, Kansas at a salary of
$100 a month and $2.50 per arrest.10
Ever restless, in 1878 he went to Texas to check out ranching possibilities.
While in Fort Griffin, Texas Earp met John Henry "Doc" Holliday and "Big
Nose" Kate (Doc's companion) for the first time. When Wyatt Earp returned
to Dodge City in 1878, after learning that Marshal Ed Masterson had been
killed, he was accompanied by Celila Ann "Mattie" Blaylock,11
a friend of "Big Nose" Kate. No marriage record has been found for Wyatt
and "Mattie," leading to speculation that she was his common-law wife
– a not uncommon occurrence in the West at that time. Wyatt was appointed
assistant marshal of Dodge City again. However, his stay was brief – he
left Dodge City for good in June of 1879, along with Mattie and Doc Holliday.
They, and some of Wyatt's brothers, all eventually wound up in Tombstone,
Arizona.12
The gunfight at
OK Corral, which made the name of Earp famous in Western lore, took place
Oct. 26, 1881. It was in Tombstone that Wyatt met Josephine "Sadie" Marcus,
a theatrical performer for whom he abandoned Mattie Blaylock. Mattie committed
suicide July 17, 1888 in Pinal County, Arizona, and her belongings were
shipped to Mrs. Sarah Blaylock (her sister) in Fairfax, Linn County, Iowa.13
Wyatt and Josephine
spent their lives traveling, gambling, mining and living the "sporting"
life. Whether they were legally married is open to speculation.14
They lived in Idaho, California, Alaska and Nevada. In 1900 they were
enumerated on a ship in Nome, Alaska. In 1910 and 1920 they were living
in Los Angeles. Wyatt died in 192915 – Josephine
in 1944.16
Allie Earp, the
widow of Virgil, outlived them all and told her versions of their adventures
in The Earp Brothers of Tombstone.17
No marriage record has been found for Allie and Virgil either, and it
is assumed she was his common-law wife, particularly since evidently she
did not apply for his Civil War pension after his death. Virgil Earp's
first wife was Magdalena C. "Ellen" Rysdam. They supposedly were married
in 1860 at Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa.18
The young couple – Virgil was about 17 and Ellen was 16 – eloped. Ellen's
father and Nicholas Earp (Virgil's dad) were furious with them, managed
to scare the young couple half to death and supposedly had the marriage
annulled, though this has not been proven. Virgil then ran off and enlisted
in the Union Army to fight in the Civil War and Ellen's father took the
family to Oregon, later telling Ellen that Virgil had been killed in the
war. Virgil was told that Ellen had died. But, in the meanwhile Ellen
had Virgil's child – a daughter, named Nellie Jane, who eventually made
contact with her father after reading newspaper accounts of his escapades
in Tombstone, Ariz.
Virgil Earp married
secondly Rosella Dragoo in 1870 in Lamar, Barton County, Mo.19
– a fact evidently
his third wife, Allie, did not know. What happened to her is one of the
mysteries yet to be solved for this family history. He met his last wife,
Alvira Packingham "Allie" Sullivan – an orphan of Irish immigrants – in
Council Bluffs, Iowa about 1874. She died 14 Nov. 1947 in California.
Allie's brief obituary appeared in the New York Times on Tuesday, Nov.
18, 1947, noting she was 98 years old.
The Earp Family
Roots
The gateway
ancestor of the renowned Earp family is said to be a Scotch-Irishman named
Thomas Earp Jr., who was born 1656 in Ireland and came to America before
1680. According to Jean Whitten Edwards, compiler of the Earp Family Genealogy,20
Thomas Earp Jr. probably came to this country – like many of our ancestors
– as an indentured servant.
Earp is not an Irish
surname. A British surname expert lists only one reference for it – spelled
Erpe in 1561 – and claims its origins are unknown. However, American sources
note that references to Earp can be found under the spelling of Harp.
Being aware of the British's propensity to drop their "H's," genealogists
must consider this possibility when researching a surname beginning with
a vowel. Wyatt Earp's great-great-grandfather appears on a 1776 Maryland
enumeration as William Harp.21
William Earp, born
1729 in Maryland, along with three of his sons – Philip, Joshua and Josiah
– participated in the Revolutionary War. William's wife was Priscilla
Nichols. William was the son of Joshua Earp and Mary Budd. Joshua Earp,
born ca 1705, died ca 1760 in Fairfax County, Virginia was the son of
John Earp and Rebecca [-?-]. John Earp, born 1680 in Maryland, was the
son of the gateway ancestor.
Philip Earp, a son
of William Earp and Priscilla Nichols, was born in 1755 in Frederick County,
Md., and was a great-grandfather of Wyatt Earp. Philip Earp died in Caswell
County, North Carolina in 1810 – he was the father of Walter Earp (1787-1853).
Walter Earp was a teacher, lawyer, judge of Illinois Circuit Court, justice
of the peace and a licensed preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1808 he married Martha Ann Early in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.
They removed first to Tennessee and then in 1813 to Kentucky, living in
Logan, Butler and Ohio counties. In 1847 they made a final move to Warren
County, Illinois. Nicholas Porter Earp was the third child and second
son of Walter Earp and Martha Ann Early, and father of the famed Tombstone
Earp brothers.
Nicholas Earp was
almost as colorful as his well-known sons and just as restless. As a deputy
sheriff of Warren County, Illinois, he established a precedent for fearless
efficiency which might well have motivated his sons. Nicholas was involved
in the Black Hawk War of 1831, was a sergeant in the Mexican War, and
during the Civil War served the Union army in Iowa as a provost marshal
for recruiting. Born in Lincoln County, North Carolina in 1813, Nicholas
grew up in Ohio County, Kentucky, where he married first Abigail Storm
in 1836. By her he had a son, Newton Jasper, and a daughter, Mariah Ann.
Abigail and the baby girl died, and in 1840 Nicholas married Virginia
Ann Cooksey. They had five sons and three daughters. Of their eight children
– James Cooksey, Virgil Walter, Martha Elizabeth, Wyatt Berry Stapp, Morgan
S., Baxter Morgan, Virginia A., and Adelia Douglas – only three, perhaps
only two,22 of them had children. Virgil had
a daughter by his first wife, Magdalena C. "Ellen" Rysdam; and Adelia
married William Thomas Edward and had a son and daughter. Two were killed
– Morgan and Warren – and two daughters, Martha and Virginia, died in
childhood.
Newton Jasper Earp,
Nicholasí eldest child, was born 7 October 1837 in Ohio County, Kentucky.
He enlisted 11 November 1861 in Co. F., Fourth Cavalry, Iowa Volunteers;
was promoted to fourth corporal on 1 Jan. 1865, and mustered out 26 June
1865 in Louisville, Ky. Newton married Nancy Jane Adams (born ca 1845)
the daughter of John A. Adams and Christina Nancy [–?–] 12 Sept. 1865
in Marion County, Missouri. Nancy died 29 March 1898 in Paradise, Nevada
[possibly this location is Paradise Valley in Humbolt County]; Newton
died 18 December 1928 and is buried in East Lawn Cemetery, Sacramento,
Calif.
Newton Jasper Earp
and Nancy Jane Adams had five children: Effie May, born 6 May 1870 in
Missouri; Wyatt Clyde, born 25 Aug. 1872 in Kansas; Mary Elizabeth, born
25 Aug. 1875 in Kansas, but died before 1885; Alice Abigail, born 18 Dec.
1878 in Kansas (she married John E. Wells); and Virgil Edwin Earp, who
was born 19 April 1880 in Kansas (he married Grace J. Scott and died in
Sacramento, Calif. after 1959)
This preliminary
search clears up a few discrepancies in the Western Earps' saga, but it
also throws glaring lights on some of the family skeletons. Additionally,
it raises nagging questions pertaining to the conflicting versions of
the family's history. And, like most genealogies, it has some holes.
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