She earned a certificate in genealogical research from Boston University and a certificate in antiques, collectibles, and appraising from Asheford Institute of Antiques. His elder brothers joined the Union Army when the American Civil War began, while Wyatt, 13 years old, and his younger brothers took care of the farm. In the gunfight, Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt Earp joined Doc Holliday to . "[13], In the course of writing Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal (1931), Stuart Lake learned that Josephine had lived with Johnny Behan in Tombstone and other aspects of Josephine's life that she wanted to keep private. In the summer they retreated to Los Angeles, where Wyatt struck up relationships with some of the early cowboy actors, including William S. Hart and Tom Mix. She was laid to rest in the cemetery about one mile from the old townsite. He struggled to make a living in New York City and read about the growing city of San Francisco. Some researchers also state that Josephine Earp, Wyatt Earps fourth and final common law wife, did her best to keep her husbands past with Mattie a secret. This podcast is dedicated to Nick's wife, Linda. Sid Grauman of Grauman's Theater and cowboy actor and long-time friend of Wyatt Earp William S. Hart paid for her funeral and burial. She wrote, "life was dull for me in San Francisco. They traveled West, thinking they would find some work. [43] Josephine said Behan asked her to marry him and persuaded her parents to approve their engagement. In mid-1868, Celia ran away with her younger sister Sarah to avoid farm life. She always interfered! Corral in Tombstone, a man becomes a myth in this thrilling journey of romance, adventure, and desperate heroic action. She enjoyed some brief success as a juvenile actress on the San Francisco stage during the 1870s. She said that during the last years of Wyatt's life, Josephine received an allowance from her family and gambled it away, often leaving Wyatt hungry. I don't think she was that devastated when he died. Celia Ann Mattie Blaylock was born around 1850 into a religious family in Iowa. He opened the Northern Saloon in Tonopah and served as a Deputy U.S. [2], Prescott had 668 residents in 1870. [1] Celia had no desire to live on a farm for the rest of her life. At some point after leaving home, Celia chose the alias "Mattie", probably in an effort to conceal her identity and remain as anonymous as possible. Wyatt Earp took up with the beautiful, young Sadie, even as his drug-addicted wife, Mattie, lay in bed with crippling headaches. She said Weiner used a connection he had in Prescott to help Josephine get home. It was discovered in a backyard in Fresno, California. The Weekly Journal-Miner reported in October 1879 that Behan was planning on opening a business in the silver mining boom town of Tip Top in central Arizona. She hoped to return to the days of bustling mining town prostitution, but the boom had passed, and Blaylock withered. Corral is quiet, and it's had an unremarkable existence for the two years it's been standingalthough . [43][57] The only difference noted in the 1880 census is their occupation: Sadie in San Francisco is listed as "At home", while Sadie in Tip Top is recorded as a "Courtesan". [11], Some modern writers believe that Wyatt Earp moved in with Josephine after she kicked Behan out. John Wilson Vermillion (1842-1911), also known as " Texas Jack " or later as " Shoot-Your-Eye-Out Vermillion ", was a gunfighter of the Old West known for his participation in the Earp Vendetta Ride and his later association with Soapy Smith . Her real name was Leah Hirschberg, whose mother was a music teacher. He managed a small store during the spring of 1899 in St. Michael on the Norton Sound, a major gateway to the Alaskan interior via the Yukon River. [3][68] The Earp party split up in Albuquerque, and Holliday and Dan Tipton rode on to Pueblo, while the rest of the group headed for Gunnison.[69]. His second wife was Mattie Blaylock, who became addicted to pain killer medicine. [18] Behan claimed their daughter Henrietta wasn't his, and a request for support for Henrietta was stricken from the divorce petition. She then made her way to Kansas where she first worked as a prostitute in Scott City before moving on to Dodge City. Later that year, Josephine's half-sister Rebecca Levy married Aaron Wiener,[7] an insurance salesman born in Prussia, as her parents were. "[2] She added, "The fear and the excitement, the weeks of exhausting travel, chagrin over my own foolishness, all together proved too much for my strength. Blaylock was said to have suffered from headaches, and while in Tombstone, Arizona, she became addicted to laudanum, a then-common opiate and pain killer. [106] During an investigation of the boxing match by a panel appointed by San Francisco Mayor Washington Bartlett, they learned Josephine Earp was a "degenerate horseplayer" and that she frequently took loans out against her jewelry. [43] These facts may explain why Josephine later thought of this time in her life as "a bad dream. "Allie's Story: Mrs. Virgil Earp and The "Tombstone Travesty", "Pharmacology and Pharmacokinetics of Alcohol and Opioids", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mattie_Blaylock&oldid=1143484556, This page was last edited on 8 March 2023, at 00:57. And you have no business risking money that way. They planned to head for Alaska to join in the Alaska Gold Rush, but their departure was delayed for three weeks when Wyatt fell while getting off Market Street streetcar and bruised his hip. Levine says another gun in the collection was owned by Wyatt's . Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was born on March 19, 1848, the fourth child of Nicholas Porter Earp and his second wife, Virginia Ann Cooksey. [2], By 1870, San Francisco was riding on the coattails of the still-expanding economic boom caused by the mining of silver from the Comstock Lode. She met Wyatt in 1881 in the frontier boom town of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, when she was living with Johnny Behan, sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona. Some say he spent a lot of time hunting, others argue he occupied his time in houses of ill-repute and other less than desirable establishments of the time. There, she met Wyatt Earp around 1873 and soon became his romantic companion. We aren't sure when they met. She was peculiar. [66], A letter written by former New Mexico Territory Governor Miguel Otero appears to indicate that Earp had strong feelings for Josephine shortly after leaving Tombstone in April 1882. Her father hoped to turn their farm into a profitable business and regularly brought his kids along on trips into Fairfax to procure supplies and network with the locals. Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp (1861-December 19, 1944) was an American part-time actress and dancer who was best known as the wife of famed Old West lawman and gambler Wyatt Earp. [5]:47[5]:65, Blaylock suffered from severe headaches and while in Tombstone, Arizona she became addicted to laudanum, a then-common opiate and pain killer. [6] Markham already had a national reputation as a burlesque dancer and singer. [98]:83 Wyatt and Josie Earp summered in Los Angeles and lived in at least nine small Los Angeles rentals as early as 1885 and as late as 1929, mostly in the summer. Although she was never active in her Jewish faith, her service was conducted by a rabbi. Wyatt Earp, in full Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp, (born March 19, 1848, Monmouth, Illinois, U.S.died January 13, 1929, Los Angeles, California), legendary frontiersman of the American West, who was an itinerant saloonkeeper, gambler, lawman, gunslinger, and confidence man but was perhaps best known for his involvement in the gunfight at the O.K. Wyatt's commonlaw wife, Matty Blalock, became addicted to opium in . Corral in 1882. Virgil married his third and last wife, Alvira "Allie" Packingham Sullivan, between 1871 and 1872. Three days later, Sieber and Sgt. There they reunited with Holliday and Big Nose Kate. Perhaps she became addicted to the substances and no longer knew her limits. The family was settled at a farm near Iowa. It is undisputed, however, that he was arrested in a brothel raid in 1872. Corral icon. The Cochise County Cowboys were initially a mere nuisance, but killed marshal Fred White on Oct. 28, 1880 and would spark the gunfight at the O.K. Wyatt Earp enthusiasts have made the gravesite the most visited in that Jewish cemetery and once even stole the tombstone. Actor Kevin Costner, who played Earp in the 1994 movie Wyatt Earp, offered to buy a new, larger stone, but the Marcus family thought his offer was self-serving and declined. [6]:235 Frank Waters wrote in The Earp Brothers of Tombstone of public fights between Sadie Marcus and Blaylock and how the affair was a public scandal. It is a very good read and I would recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about the life and times of Wyatt Earp. [19], Wyatt refereed the Fitzsimmons vs. Sharkey boxing match on December 2, 1896 and was accused of fixing the outcome. ", Mattie was born Celia Ann Blaylock in Monroe Township, Johnson County, Iowa, near Fairfax, Iowa, to Henry Blaylock and Elizabeth "Betsy" Vance. [111] She received some royalties from the movie and one-half of the royalties earned by Stuart Lake's book about her husband. [2] Upon their arrival, her father found a highly stratified Jewish community. She ran away with the gambler anyway, who later abandoned her in Arizona. She went to San Francisco in March 1882 and was joined that fall by Wyatt, with whom she remained as his life companion for 46 years until his death. After Morgan Earp was killed in March 1882, Virgil, along with the Earp women, escorted his body home to Colton, California. She was buried in the Pinal Cemetery in Pinal, Arizona. The group spent 10 days sleeping on the floor. She had a small, trim body and a meneo of the hips that kept her full, flounced skirts bouncing. [18]:93, Behan and his wife were divorced in less than a month, in June 1875. One of these was sent after she ended her relationship with Johnny Behan, indicating that she was earning money as a single woman. Boyer, Glenn G. Wyatt Earp: Facts Volume Two, Childhood and . The name Sadie Mansfield was also recorded in Tombstone. The book I Married Wyatt Earp (1967), based on a manuscript allegedly written in part by her, describes events she witnessed in Arizona that occurred before 1879, the year she claimed at other times to have first arrived in Tombstone. [71] Eager to escape the controversy over the boxing match dogging him, Earp gave up managing race horses in San Francisco and on December 20, 1896 he and Josie left for Yuma, Arizona. Eugenia and Lottie McCarthy taught us to dance the Highland Fling, the Sailor's Hornpipe, and ballroom dancing. She met a gambler from Arizona who asked her to marry him. Earp was apparently heavily affected by his first wife's death and started acting out. Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp, died in 1944, and her remains now rest with his. [19], Each may have engaged in extramarital affairs. It is in large part due to Josephine's efforts to build and burnish the reputation of her common-law spouse that he has been depicted in books and movies as a champion of justice . She apparently expected to receive a telegram from Earp telling her where to meet him, but it never arrived. Then, take a look at 48 snapshots of life in the real Wild West. The German Jews were usually more affluent, were better educated, and spoke German, while the Polish Jews, who spoke Yiddish, were typically peddlers and much more religious. [42]:p275-198[77], After the Coeur d'Alene mining venture died out, Earp and Josie briefly went to El Paso, Texas before moving in 1887 to San Diego where the railroad was about to arrive and a real estate boom was underway. Born in Wisconsin in 1850, Mattie was raised in Fairfax, Iowa until she ran away from home at the age of 16.
