My heart was stirred by his attentions in what were very romantic circumstances. [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. Then, take a look at 48 snapshots of life in the real Wild West. In the 1880 United States Census Blaylock is listed as Wyatt's wife though there is no record of a legal marriage. Related read: The Real Story of Doc Holliday and Big Nose Kate Mattie & Wyatt Leave Arizona [1], The University of Arizona Press published the book in 1976 under the title I Married Wyatt Earp: The Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus. [17] Grace Welsh and her sister-in-law Alma were the legal witnesses to Wyatt's cremation. Eugenia and Lottie McCarthy taught us to dance the Highland Fling, the Sailor's Hornpipe, and ballroom dancing. "[32], Men in Tombstone outnumbered women nine to one, and the miners were eager to pay substantial fees to women who would cook their meals, provide rooms, wash their clothes, and provide sexual services. To feed her gambling habit, Josephine would pawn the jewelry to millionaire Lucky Baldwin, but Wyatt would later buy the jewelry back. Earp would send his siblings, their wives, and Blaylock to California after the murder of his brother Morgan. He knew his wife preferred the name "Josephine" and detested "Sadie", but early in their relationship he began calling her 'Sadie'. [11][22][23][24]:47[24]:65, The facts about Josephine's life in the Arizona Territory and in Tombstone have been obscured by her legal and personal efforts to keep that period private. Now after this I'm not going to redeem any more of your jewelry." [34], Josephine's life on the frontier and possibly as a prostitute allowed her greater independence. September 8, 2013 Terri J Huck. "[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. It's not known where she and Sarah spent the intervening time. [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]. Blaylocks teenage years featured community picnics and barn dances that she and her sisters enjoyed. We aren't sure when they met. Mattie and Wyatt spent the next few years together. They recorded events in her life but found Josephine was evasive about her early life in Tombstone. Corral made him a legend. Raised by devout parents on Iowa farmland, she yearned for freedom and a life of adventure. [26]:56. Generally accepted to be a picture of Earp in Prescott, Arizona Territory, in 1880. Born Celia Ann Blaylock in 1850 in Johnson County, Iowa, she was raised on a small farm near the town of Fairfax. Mattie waited for Wyatts telegraph that she should return to Tombstone, but it never arrived. [79][80][81], The Earps moved back to San Francisco in 1891[82] so Josie could be closer to her family. Mattie eventually returned to Arizona where she spent her remaining years working as a prostitute. [27], Josephine is quoted in I Married Wyatt Earp that she received a letter and $300 from her father, urging her to return to San Francisco. [1] Henry found work as a baker. With the provision that Wyatt's name be removed from the title, the movie was released as Frontier Marshal. In 1879 the Pauline Markham Theater Company came to town, and Josephine slipped away with the troupe. [25] She would not even talk about the key events of 188182, their key years in Tombstone. [11], Throughout her later life, Josephine worked hard to manage what the press and public knew about her and Wyatt's life in Arizona. In spite of my bad experience of a few years ago the call to adventure still stirred my blood. [71] Josephine got pregnant at the same time, and she thought she could persuade Earp from heading to Alaska. [26]:52, In early 1883, Josephineor Sadie as Wyatt called herand Wyatt left San Francisco for Gunnison, Colorado, where Earp ran a Faro bank until he received a request in April for assistance from Luke Short in Dodge City. Earp had married a woman named Urilla (sometimes spelled Aurilla) Sutherland in 1870, but she passed away of typhoid fever before the couple could celebrate their first anniversary. She successfully kept both women's names out of Stuart Lake's biography of Wyatt and after he died, Josephine may have threatened litigation to keep it that way. In I Married Wyatt Earp, author Glen Boyer states that Josephine took dance lessons and had a maid. [43], In early 1881, Josephine returned to Tombstone after a trip to San Francisco. The family was settled at a farm near Iowa. Sadie "would always interfere whenever Wyatt would talk with Stuart Lake. Wells also owned a brothel in Prescott, Arizona. 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. [2], Later that same month, on October 24, 1874, the Arizona Miner reported, "Al Zieber, Sergeant Stauffer and a mixed command of white and red soldiers are in the hills of Verde looking for some erring Apaches, whom they will be apt to find." Mrs. Hirsch, because of Doras part in it was as anxious as my people (family), to keep it a secret. Josephine ran away, possibly as early as age 14, and traveled to Arizona, where she said she went "looking for adventure". [48] The couple moved back to Prescott, Arizona Territory, where John had been working, and four months later, on June 15, 1869, she had her first child, Henrietta. Pinafore more than a dozen times from December 24, 1879 through February 20, 1880. [83] Josephine frequently griped about Wyatts lack of work and financial success and even his character and personality. [21] No public record of their marriage has ever been found. I finally finished reading this book about the life and times of Wyatt Earp. He struggled to make a living in New York City and read about the growing city of San Francisco. [112] On July 7, 1957, grave-robbers dug into the Earp's grave in an apparent attempt to steal the urn containing his ashes, but unable to find them, stole the 300 pounds (140kg) grave stone. [34] Josephine always sought excitement in her life. Named Celia Ann Blaylock, she went to church & school, with typical parental discipline of the time. Yes, 'Tombstone' is inspired by a true story. When he delayed, she was ready to leave him. [38], Josephine said the girls arrived with the troupe in Tombstone on December 1, 1879, for a one-week engagement. There, she met Wyatt Earp around 1873 and soon became his romantic companion. [6][38] Author Sherry Monahan questions why an 18-year-old woman would be carrying books to school and find it necessary to "run away. This family lived only a few blocks from where Josephine lived with her family. Childhood & Early Life. But, in April 1881, less than eight months after Behan and Sadie built the house, she rented it to Dr. George Emory Goodfellow. "[32] Honkytonk bars in that era often had a reputation as places for prostitution[33] and his choice of language ("three hundred or so of her kind") may have referred to Josephine's work as a prostitute. They moved to San Francisco, where Josephine attended dance school as a girl. [37] One block away on the 1000 block of Clay Street in a neighborhood known for prostitution was a brothel, owned by Hattie Wells. Later that year, Josephine's half-sister Rebecca Levy married Aaron Wiener,[7] an insurance salesman born in Prussia, as her parents were. The facts about Josephine Earp and her relationship to Wyatt were relatively unknown until amateur Earp historian Glenn Boyer published the book I Married Wyatt Earp. [84][110] Wyatt became critically ill in late 1928. For Josephine Earp, the pen was mightier than the sordid. Blaylock and her sister Sarah, meanwhile, rejected their prospective suitors and soon hatched a plan to escape and see the world. After Wyatt died, Josephine spent her last years in Los Angeles. Wyatt Earp was one of the many children born to Nicholas Porter Earp and Virginia Ann Cooksey. [26]:4748, In February or March 1879: The Prescott Weekly Journal-Miner reported that John Behan was visiting San Francisco. "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. In the meantime, Wyatt was getting more and more involved with Josephine, who he would later marry. James Earp's wife, Bessie, was also a prostitute or madam, hailing from Wichita, Kansas, and she eventually moved with her husband to Tombstone. It is unclear why the pair decided to leave home but historians have speculated the sisters did not enjoy life on their parents farm in Iowa and decided to embark on a different path. They rented a cabin from Rex Beach for $100 a month and spent the winter of 18981899 there. [109]:259, Grace Welsh Spolidora, Welsh's daughter, spent a lot of time with the Earps. She met a gambler from Arizona who asked her to marry him. Then Blaylock and Earp stopped in the booming silver town of Pinal City, Arizona Territory, for two months in 1879. Otero wrote in his letter, "Holiday said something about Earp becoming 'a damn Jew-boy.' Living and working together, Mattie utilized the last name of Earp and by the time they moved on to Tombstone, Arizona in 1879, she would have been considered his common-law wife. In early April, Wyatt left Arizona for New Mexico and then Colorado. Meets Wyatt Earp. Josephine eventually sold virtually all of her jewelry to Baldwin. And he definitely wasn't the infallible hero later accounts made him out to be. [43] Rather than leave Tombstone, Josephine later wrote that Behan convinced her to use the money to build a house for them[32] and continued their relationship. 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. [6] Markham already had a national reputation as a burlesque dancer and singer. [113] She died penniless. In 1939 Josephine sued 20th Century Fox for $50,000 in an attempt to keep them from making the film titled Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal. Wyatt is generally tied to three women: Urilla Sutherland, Cecilia Ann "Mattie" Blaylock, and Josephine Marcus. The name Sadie Mansfield was also recorded in Tombstone. Mattie also left the area and reportedly traveled with other Earp family members to California. Virgil married his third and last wife, Alvira "Allie" Packingham Sullivan, between 1871 and 1872. Born in Wisconsin in 1850, Mattie was raised in Fairfax, Iowa until she ran away from home at the age of 16. She wrote, "life was dull for me in San Francisco. 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. As her addiction became worse, Wyatts eyes began to stray in Tombstone and he started up an affair with Josephine Marcus. (Josephine in her own account said that she brought her maid, a black woman named Julia, with her. Bat Masterson, a friend of Wyatt Earp's who was in Tombstone from February to April 1881,[29]:41[30] described her to Stuart Lake as "an incredible beauty"[31] and as the "belle of the honkytonks, the prettiest dame in three hundred or so of her kind. 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. [119] In 2000, the University responded to criticism of the university and the book and removed it from their catalog. [41][42] On October 21, 1879, the Los Angeles Herald reported that May Bell was among members of the Markham troupe. [26]:52 In March 1882, Sadie sent a postal money order to her mother, Mrs. H. Marcus, in San Francisco. He lost an election for Mohave County deputy sheriff in Gillet in 1879, but was elected as Mohave's representative to the Tenth Territorial Legislature. I thought constantly of my mother and how great must be her grief and worry over me. [26]:53 Josephine and Wyatt traveled through various western states hunting for gold and silver mining they could invest in. [1] She maintained a relationship with Johnny Behan's son, Albert Price Behan, whom she had grown to love as her own son. According to many who knew them, their relationship was often stormy. [3][1][4][5] Sophie was a widow with a 3-year-old daughter, Rebecca Levy, when she married Marcuse, who was eight years younger than she. [43] Josephine said Behan asked her to marry him and persuaded her parents to approve their engagement. Let's save Wyatt's women for last and begin with Virgil, who is the second best-known Earp brother. Wyatt Earp took up with the beautiful, young Sadie, even as his drug-addicted wife, Mattie, lay in bed with crippling headaches. It's October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, and Arizona is not yet a state. Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp, by Ann Kirschner", "Testimony of Wyatt S. Earp in the Preliminary Hearing in the Earp-Holliday Case", "The Earps, Doc Holliday, & The Blonger Bros", "Long Green's Bodyguard Swears he is a Poor Man", "San Diego Walking Tour: Gaslamp Quarter", "Wyatt Earp: The Missing Years, San Diego In The 1880s", "Shady Ladies in the "Stingaree District" When The Red Lights Went Out in San Diego", "The Story of New San Diego and of its Founder Alonzo E. Horton", "Seattle newspaper reports on November 25, 1899, that Wyatt Earp will open a gambling house in the city", "1900 United States Federal Census for Mrs W S Earp", "Earp Historical Timeline San Francisco and Alaska", "Earp Historical Timeline Page 12 The Final Years", "Cemetery of the Week #116: Wyatt Earp's gravesite", Rare Original Letters: Josephine "Sadie" Earp, 1914 "Kaloma" valse hesitante by "Gire Goulineaux", a pseudonym of Johann C. Schmid (19701951), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Josephine_Earp&oldid=1152582421, Hills of Eternity Memorial Park, Colma, California, frontier adventurer; gambler; possibly prostitute, This page was last edited on 1 May 2023, at 03:08.
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