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Josephine was born in New York to a Prussian Jewish family. 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 . All three Earp brothers had been the target of repeated death threats made by the . [32] The money was to cover her return trip, and it was ten times what she needed for the fare, and there is no record of him having sent the money to her. In the 1880 United States Census Blaylock is listed as Wyatt's wife though there is no record of a legal marriage. [71] Josephine was addicted to gambling on horse racing and her wagering increased until Wyatt gave her an ultimatum. [112] Josephine died at age 83 on December 19, 1944, in the same bungalow she and Wyatt shared at 4004 W. 17th Street in the West Adams district of Los Angeles. Wyatt Earp took up with the beautiful, young Sadie, even as his drug-addicted wife, Mattie, lay in bed with crippling headaches. [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." By David Cranmer. The Epitaph reported on February 27, 1882 that S. Mansfield of Tombstone was returning from the west with other passengers, passing through Colton, California. In the meantime, Wyatt was getting more and more involved with Josephine, who he would later marry. . She often appeared on stage and in publicity photos wearing a corset and pink tights: shocking attire for the 1870s. The name Sadie Mansfield was also recorded in Tombstone. [42]:275298 In December 1883, they visited Galveston, Texas, and in March 1884 they were in Salt Lake City. [38][58][59], Josephine wrote much later that her family wanted to keep her "escapades from the public." She is the author of The Queen of Denver: Louise Sneed Hill and the Emergence of Modern High Society. He was in agreement, but Josephine, who was 37, miscarried soon after. [19], Wyatt refereed the Fitzsimmons vs. Sharkey boxing match on December 2, 1896 and was accused of fixing the outcome. Earp moved to Wichita, Kansas, and worked as a shotgun guard for Wells Fargo. [3] Earp resigned from the Dodge City police force on September 9, 1879, and traveled to Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory with Blaylock, his brother Jim, and Jim's wife Bessie. Boyer, Glenn G. Wyatt Earp: Facts Volume Two, Childhood and . 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 also received her Bachelor of Arts in history, magna cum laude, from the same institution. Who was at Wyatt Earp . . (It's now a ghost town in Shoshone County). Blaylock's relationship with Earp was rediscovered by Earp researcher John Gilchriese and author Frank Waters in the 1950s, when they uncovered a coroner's report for "Mattie Earp", and a deathbed conversation in which she told someone, "Wyatt Earp had ruined my life. Josephine gambled so recklessly that Wyatt cut her off and asked other gambling houses to do the same. She was not recorded in the 1870 census but in 1871 she posed for a photo in Fort Scott, Kansas. [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. In the gunfight, Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt Earp joined Doc Holliday to . Meet Mattie Blaylock, The Abandoned Common-Law Wife Of Wyatt Earp By Marco Margaritoff | Edited By Erik Hawkins Published March 24, 2022 In the mid-19th century, Mattie Blaylock left her farm life in Iowa behind and eloped with Wyatt Earp, but ended up abandoned by the lawman after the Gunfight at the O.K. Instead, he married Marcus within weeks and never spoke of Blaylock again. Her death was ruled as "suicide by opium poisoning". It was a working-class, ethnically mixed neighborhood, where smoke from factory chimneys filled the air. In the midst of all this conflict, Wyatt is dealing with the fact that his wife, Mattie, has become addicted to Laudanum, a mixture of opium and morphine. [113] She died penniless. Wyatt Earp enthusiasts have made the gravesite the most visited in that Jewish cemetery and once even stole the tombstone. [8] "There was far too much excitement in the air to remain a child. 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. Earp developed a reputation as a sportsman as well as a gambler. Billy Clanton (Thomas Haden Church) Billy Clanton, Ike's younger brother, played here by Thomas Haden Church, isn't so lucky and isn't afforded the opportunity to throw down his red sash. [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. This page is not available in other languages. Wyatt Earp is the most recognizable face of the Earp family. [26]:46, During 187173, Behan succeeded his father-in-law Bourke as Yavapai County Sheriff. [26]:56. During a month-long preliminary hearing, Judge Wells Spicer heard testimony from a large number of witnesses. Wyatt Earp, one of the most famous figures to emerge from the colorful 19th-century history of the American West, is best remembered known for his participation in a notorious 1881 gunfight at. [34], The type of work available to unmarried women without means in that era was as waitresses, laundresses, seamstresses, or other dull work which Josephine avoided. Apartment buildings were crowded and large homes were converted into rooming houses. [17] Grace Welsh and her sister-in-law Alma were the legal witnesses to Wyatt's cremation. He reportedly worked on a floating brothel thereafter and married teenage prostitute Sally Heckell, who was busted alongside him on Sept. 10, 1872, and identified herself as his wife. Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was born on March 19, 1848, the fourth child of Nicholas Porter Earp and his second wife, Virginia Ann Cooksey. Shortly after that election his young wife, Urilla Sutherland, died. Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp (1860 - December 19, 1944) was the common-law wife of Wyatt Earp, a famed Old West lawman and gambler. There is some evidence that she lived from 1874 to 1876 in Prescott and Tip Top, Arizona Territory under the assumed name of Sadie Mansfield, who was a prostitute, before becoming ill and returning to San Francisco. [70] He held onto his San Diego properties but their value fell, but he could not pay the taxes and was forced to sell the lots. Corral, but Virgil Earp, In the last half of the 1800s, the bustling port town of San Francisco, which grew out of, If you are a fan of the Paramount+ series Yellowstone (and who isnt? Although she was never active in her Jewish faith, her service was conducted by a rabbi. James Earp's wife, Bessie, was also a prostitute or madam, hailing from Wichita, Kansas, and she eventually moved with her husband to Tombstone. [2][32] Some modern researchers question the likelihood that her father, a Reform Jew, would approve his daughter's union with Behan, a man 14 years older than his daughter, an unemployed office-seeker, Gentile, and divorced father. E.C. Pinafore in San Francisco. [107] The San Francisco Examiner ran a series of stories over three days describing Earp's life in exaggerated detail that ridiculed him. But was apparently restless there. Wyatt Earp After the legendary gunfight in Tombstone that lasted only 30 seconds, but would up defining Earp for the rest of his life, Earp and his new common law wife Sadie (a.k.a Josie) traveled around the west, scoring money in the gold rush and by investing in properties. The Tragic Story Of Henry Duke Of Cornwall, Henry VIII's Son Who Died At Just Seven Weeks Old, 32 Disturbing Photos Of Life Inside Soviet Gulag Prisons, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. [56], On May 22, 1875, Behan's wife Victoria filed for divorce. However, she was well aware that she would soon be married off to likely live out her life as a housewife. While they survived without a scratch after 30 seconds of gunfire, Blaylock had already been wounded as Earp had already met Josephine Sadie Marcus months ago. "Mattie: Wyatt Earp's Secret Second Wife", narrates the tragic life of Mattie Blaylock (1850-1888) who, from 1871 was Earp's second wife and then, from 1882 until Earp's death in 1928, was his darkest, most closely guarded secret. Later that year, Josephine's half-sister Rebecca Levy married Aaron Wiener,[7] an insurance salesman born in Prussia, as her parents were. She was peculiar. Her body was cremated and buried next to Wyatt's remains. 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. It tells the story of Wyatt Earp's darkest secret. Instead . But in August a Tombstone newspaper reported a letter waiting at the post office for Sadie Mansfield. Corral in 1882. There they met Virgil and Allie. She enjoyed some brief success as a juvenile actress on the San Francisco stage during the 1870s. It's October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, and Arizona is not yet a state. [64]:p235 While there are no contemporary records in Tombstone of a relationship between them, they certainly knew each other, as Behan and Earp both had offices above the Crystal Palace Saloon. But the collision of Jewish and cowboy cultures that epitomized their union goes on. Green. [18]:36, During the later years of her life, in addition to burnishing the life and legend of husband Wyatt Earp, "she scripted a history of make believe to hide a number of things of which she was not terribly proud. The United States Census confirmed her as his common-law wife by 1880. Earp did mezuzah when entering the house." Who Killed Johnny Ringo? [2] Sophie and Carl had three children together: Nathan (born 1857), Josephine, and Henrietta (born 1864). Running into town in the direction of the shots, Josephine was relieved to see that Wyatt was uninjured. [Henry] Jaffa told me later that Earps woman was a Jewess. This podcast is dedicated to Nick's wife, Linda. Corral, she was at her home when she heard the sound of gunfire. J. Levine Auction & Appraisal in Scottsdale, Ariz., is auctioning the guns, which owner Josh Levine believes belonged to Wyatt Earp. Grace Spolidora was a teenager during the Earp's many visits to her family's home near Needles, California and sometimes went to San Diego with them. [19] The most she would say is that she returned to the Arizona Territory in 1881 and joined Johnny Behan in Tombstone. "She didn't go to his funeral, even. But Leah never left San Francisco with Josephine. Corral, during which Wyatt and his brothers killed three Cochise County Cowboys. "[2][26]:46 If as Josephine stated she traveled with Markham's troupe from San Francisco in December 1879, there are no contemporary accounts of the trip being interrupted by Indians. It was cited by scholars and relied upon as factual by filmmakers. [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. [17] Although the biography became a bestseller, it was later strongly criticized for fictionalizing Earp's life and was found to be markedly inaccurate. At this point, Mattie's profession was listed as keeping house. "[18]:79 Victoria cited liaisons with several woman, but specifically mentioned a "Sadie or Sada Mansfield", a 14-year-old "woman of prostitution and ill-fame" as co-respondent in the divorce action. . Marshal Virgil Earp and his brothers, Wyatt and Morgan. Who was at Wyatt Earp's funeral? David B. [32][46], How and when she and Wyatt Earp began their relationship is unknown. [11], Throughout her later life, Josephine worked hard to manage what the press and public knew about her and Wyatt's life in Arizona. [2], On February 6, 1875, criminal charges were filed against Sadie Mansfield for petty larceny, accusing her of stealing two German silver spoons worth $126.00. [76] Wyatt followed the crowd looking for gold in the Murray-Eagle mining district and paid $2,250 for a 50 feet (15m) diameter white circus, in which they opened a dance hall and saloon called The White Elephant. Behan moved for a time to the northwest Arizona Territory, where he served as the Mohave County Recorder in 1877. She then made her way to Kansas where she first worked as a prostitute in Scott City before moving on to Dodge City. He promised Blaylock a telegram with instructions on where to reunite when it was safe, but never did. He holds dual bachelor's degrees from Pace University and a master's degree from New York University. Wyatt Earp was born in Monmouth, Illinois in 1848. Blaylock planned to return to sex work in Pinal City, but with most of the prospective clientele gone with the silver, making a living there proved difficult. However, the union wouldnt last. Tombstone diarist George W. Parsons never mentioned seeing Wyatt and Josephine together and neither did John Clum in his memoirs. She became addicted to laudanum. Josephine ran away, possibly as early as age 14, and traveled to Arizona, where she said she went "looking for adventure". Historians have stated that earlier in her life, Mattie began consuming laudanum for headaches and was known to abuse alcohol. The earlier stone is on display in the Colma Historical museum.[112][115]. [57] Nineteen-year-old Sadie Mansfield, the same person his former wife Victoria had named in their divorce five years earlier, was also living in Tip Top. [2] Earp was appointed assistant marshal in Dodge City under Marshal Lawrence Deger around May 1876. 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. Blaylock continued to work as a prostitute. The Markham troupe is documented as leaving San Francisco on board the Southern Pacific Railroad, not a ship nor a stagecoach, in October 1879 for Casa Grande, Arizona, the end of the line. The Rufus Buck gangs exploits didnt last long, but they were brutal enough to quickly go down in, Wyatt Earp may be lionized for his role in the gunfight at the O.K. [32] Sadie was an attractive woman, with thick, dark hair, vivid black eyes, and was well-endowed. Her parents greeted her cheerlessly and took her back in disgrace.[1]. [6][26] Ray says that Josephine didn't have a friend named Dora Hirsch. As the oldest, Martha Jane Blaylock was the first to be married in 1860, when she was 17. [10], As a girl, Josephine loved going to the theater. [63] Wyatt and Josie never had any children. [5][9] In early 1880, Henry was living with his son-in-law Aaron, who was employed as a bookkeeper. We aren't sure when they met. [17] She was also in need of money, and tried to sell a collection of books to Lake while he was writing the book. Born in Wisconsin in 1850, Mattie was raised in Fairfax, Iowa until she ran away from home at the age of 16. Of those three, there's a "maybe" around Marcus, but it should come as no surprise that Mattie Blaylock, the woman usually described as the "second Mrs. Wyatt Earp," had a history of prostitution. [6] Markham already had a national reputation as a burlesque dancer and singer. Celia Ann "Mattie" Blaylock (January 1850 - July 3, 1888) was a prostitute who became the romantic companion and common-law wife of Old West lawman and gambler Wyatt Earp for about six years. Following the Earp Vendetta Ride, the Earp posse went to Albuquerque, New Mexico for two weeks. Wyatt never sent for her and she moved to Pinal, Arizona, where she resumed life as a prostitute, eventually committing suicide by taking an overdose of laudanum. ", Mattie was born Celia Ann Blaylock in Monroe Township, Johnson County, Iowa, near Fairfax, Iowa, to Henry Blaylock and Elizabeth "Betsy" Vance. 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. [25] Josephine's own story offers a conflicting account of when she first reached Arizona. Eugenia and Lottie McCarthy taught us to dance the Highland Fling, the Sailor's Hornpipe, and ballroom dancing. [8] She had been using laudanum and alcohol to excess for some time. For those of you with knowledge about Victorian medicines, you know they're mostly high grade opiates. [88][89][90], In the spring they decided the gold rush in Dawson was drawing to an end and headed for Nome instead. Corral gunfight, which took out three of the Cochise County Cowboys. [63] At some point during August and September, Sadie and Wyatt may have become friends and perhaps more seriously involved. Corral, Ike Clanton filed murder charges against the Earps and Doc Holliday. A few women of the era chose to remain single as a means to maintain their independence from men, and Josephine was among them. What did Wyatt Earps wife drink? I couldn't verify its origins, but I wonder if it was the one that surfaced in the 1950s when her nephew read an article about the opening of a new museum in Dodge City, Kansas . She said Weiner used a connection he had in Prescott to help Josephine get home. [95] In February 1902, they arrived in Tonopah, Nevada, known as the "Queen of the Silver Camps," where silver and gold had been discovered in 1900 and a boom was under way. Considine tried to keep Earp from succeeding, and arranged for his establishment to be raided. The symptoms of St. Vitus Dance and meningitis are somewhat different, but both can be contracted from the same strain of bacteria through saliva. Tombstone diarist George W. Parsons never mentioned seeing Earp and his next common-law wife, Josephine "Sadie" Marcus, together and neither did John Clum in his memoirs. Sadie "would always interfere whenever Wyatt would talk with Stuart Lake. Josephine and Wyatt moved throughout their life, from one boomtown to another, until they finally bought a cottage in the Sonoran Desert town of Vidal, California on the Colorado River, where they spent the cooler seasons. Writer Alan Barra suggests that Behan and Earp knew of their mutual attraction to the same woman before the Gunfight at the O.K. [26]:52 In March 1882, Sadie sent a postal money order to her mother, Mrs. H. Marcus, in San Francisco. Celia, or "Celie" as she was known as a child, attended Sunday school, learned Biblical parables, and was taught to live by the Ten Commandments. "[20] While Blaylock was living with Earp, she suffered from severe headaches and became addicted to laudanum, an opiate-based pain reliever widely available at the time. [19] The Yuma Arizona Sentinel reported on October 25, 1879, "Tuesday arrived a Pinafore Company for Tucson, composed of Misses Pauline Markham, Mary Bell, Belle Howard, and Mrs. Pring, and Messrs. Borabeck and McMahon. The O.K. In spite of my bad experience of a few years ago the call to adventure still stirred my blood. They likely headed west to one of the growing towns along the Kansas-Iowa-Missouri border area. Distrustful of her ability to manage her finances, Wyatt made an arrangement with her sister Henrietta Lenhardt. [12] Waters' work was later found to be critically flawed, "based upon prevarications, character assassinations, and the psychological battleground that was the brilliant, narcissistic mind of its author. He recorded Josephine as a member of the Marcus household,[5] information that may have been offered by her parents. [2] The 1880 census places the family in the 9th Ward, between San Francisco Bay, Channel, Harrison and Seventh streets. Born Celia Ann Blaylock in 1850 in Johnson County, Iowa, she was raised on a small farm near the town of Fairfax. It is possible she overdosed by accident and died of respiratory depression. [11] When Frank Waters was writing Tombstone Travesty, originally published in 1934, he returned from a research trip to Tombstone to learn that Josephine Earp had visited his mother and sister and threatened court action to prevent him from publishing the book. 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. He was named after his father's commanding officer in the Mexican-American War, Captain Wyatt Berry Stapp, of the 2nd Company Illinois Mounted Volunteers. This is the story of that life together after Wyatt's famous. Raymond Nez wrote that his grandparents witnessed their marriage off the California coast. [75] At Santa Rosa, Earp personally competed in and won a harness race. "[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. [67] During their stay in Albuquerque, the two men ate at The Retreat Restaurant owned by "Fat Charlie". [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. [21], Wyatt died on January 13, 1929. Later in life Josephine described her first years in Arizona as "a bad dream". Josephine told Earp's biographers and others that Earp didn't drink, never owned gambling saloons, and that his saloons didn't offer prostitutes, which all have been documented. This was the same date that Wyatt Earp and his brothers arrived. Wyatt and Mattie did not arrive in Tucson by train and did not meet Virgil, Morgan and their wives there. [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. [2] Josephine said that she matured early and developed large breasts. Even though he was very ill, she still didn't cook for him. Her confusing recollection of events show how easily Josephine mixed fact and fiction. Corral in Tombstone, a man becomes a myth in this thrilling journey of romance, adventure, and desperate heroic action. The family lived on a small farm that Henry had obtained in 1846. No contemporary accounts place her at the scene of the gunfight afterward. Wyatt Earp had a total of three wives. I developed St. Vitus Dance and was unable to attend school very much again. When she was seven years old, the family moved to San Francisco. One of these was sent after she ended her relationship with Johnny Behan, indicating that she was earning money as a single woman. To feed her gambling habit, Josephine would pawn the jewelry to millionaire Lucky Baldwin, but Wyatt would later buy the jewelry back. [101][102] Josie's three nieces, daughters of her half-sister Rebecca and husband Aaron Wiener, would frequently visit the couple during the winter months at their desert camp. It is undisputed, however, that he was arrested in a brothel raid in 1872. [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. While there, Wyatt stayed with prominent businessman Henry N. Jaffa, who was also president of New Albuquerques Board of Trade. "[26]:42, In the Cason manuscript, which was in part the basis for the book I Married Wyatt Earp, Josephine says she and her friend Dora joined the Pauline Markham Theater Company in 1879, when it visited San Francisco on its Western tour. In 2009, the Tonto National Forest, in conjunction with local citizens and preservation organizations, began preserving the historic cemetery, interpreting the history, and updating grave markers. "[2] Considering that Josephine reported in later life at having first arrived with the Markham Troupe on December 1, 1879, and that Josephine joined Behan in Tombstone that same year, her reference to "my bad experience of a few years ago" means she must have been in Arizona for some time before 1879. Wyatt's old friend Doc. There, she met Wyatt Earp around 1873 and soon became his romantic companion. The cousins recorded events in her later life, but they found Josephine evasive about the timing and nature of events during her time in the Arizona Territory and Tombstone. Of the countless prospectors who rushed west to mine silver, only a few became rich. Also coming to Tombstone is Wyatt's good friend, Doc Holliday. [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. While Blaylocks first few years as a drifter are largely undocumented, by around 1872, she was working as a prostitute in Fort Scott, Kansas, then later settled in Dodge City where shed meet Earp. Cason says she and her sister "finally abandoned work on the manuscript because she [Josie] would not clear up the Tombstone sequence where it pertained to her and Wyatt. It was here that he met Mattie Blaylock, with whom he started an affair and moved to the town of Tombstone on Dec. 1, 1879. "[25], In addition to Josephine's concealing Wyatt's past relationship with Blaylock, modern researchers think she may also have been concealing her own past as a "sporting lady" or prostitute. It was described by the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology in 2006 as a creative exercise that cannot be substantiated[121] or relied on. They arrived while the city was recovering from the disastrous earthquake of October 21, 1868. Behan was sympathetic to ranchers and certain outlaw Cowboys, who were at odds with Deputy U.S. Josephine Earp's story was shrouded in mystery throughout her life, but modern historians posit that she lied about her early years in an effort to conceal her unsavory past. [27]:117[61] In Josephine's version of her life story, she left San Francisco to join Behan to Tombstone in October 1880,[62] and was hoping he would fulfill his promises to marry her. [29]:78[96], After Tonopah's gold strike waned, Wyatt staked mining claims just outside Death Valley and elsewhere in the Mojave Desert.

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