Before moving to Tombstone, he faced a series of lawsuits alleging that he stole money and falsified court documents. It is supposedly the definitive read about Wyatt Earp. Grace recalled that Josie, who had never had many domestic skills, did very little housekeeping or cooking for Wyatt. That's why Mattie started taking laudanum for her headaches, which was a 19th century cure-all for everything, from colic to menstrual cramps. Some critics described the book as a fraud and a hoax, and the University of Arizona withdrew the book from its catalog. Earp developed a reputation as a sportsman as well as a gambler. [87] When they got to Wrangell, the season was already late, and they chose to winter in Rampart. Wikimedia CommonsMattie Blaylocks grave at the Pinal City Cemetery in Superior, Arizona. Knowledge of her place in Wyatt's life was concealed by Josephine Earp, his later common-law wife, who worked ceaselessly to protect her and Wyatt's reputation in their later years. [21] Mattie resumed life as a prostitute and committed "suicide by opium poisoning" on July 3, 1888. [26]:11 In November 1874, a woman named Sadie Mansfield took a stagecoach from San Francisco to Prescott along with several prostitutes working for Madame Hattie Wells. What did Wyatt Earps wife drink? Meet Mattie Blaylock, The Abandoned Common-Law Wife Of Wyatt Earp. [2] In November 1879, Johnny Behan opened his new saloon for business. [2], Sadie Mansfield left Gillete, near Tip Top, and arrived in Phoenix on February 13, 1880. Mrs. Virgil Earp. In the meantime, Wyatt was getting more and more involved with Josephine, who he would later marry. [38][58][59], Josephine wrote much later that her family wanted to keep her "escapades from the public." [19] A town like Tombstone, full of single men, attracted women who sought adventure with little concern for what others might think. The only way Otero could write about these things was if he had a personal relationship with some of the individuals involved. [63] They bought the only home they ever owned, a small cottage in Vidal, and lived there during the fall, winter and spring months of 1925 1928, while he worked his Happy Days mines in the Whipple Mountains a few miles north. [65], In his book, The Tombstone Travesty (later republished as The Earp Brothers of Tombstone), Frank Waters quotes Virgil Earp's wife, Allie, as saying that "Sadie's charms were undeniable. "[38] She said that at the age of 18, she ran away with two friends, Dora Hirsch, daughter of her music teacher, and a girl named Agnes, who had a role in Pauline Markham troupe's production of H.M.S. According to many who knew them, their relationship was often stormy. [28] When Stuart Lake was researching his book Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal he heard stories about Sadie's personal history. Finally, Mattie left California and moved to Globe, Arizona, where she returned to prostitution. [55] The paper also reported on April 9, 1875, that a letter was waiting for her in the post office. A staff writer for All Thats Interesting, Marco Margaritoff has also published work at outlets including People, VICE, and Complex, covering everything from film to finance to technology. 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. Pinafore, she ran away from home at age 18 to join the theatre. [21] No public record of their marriage has ever been found. Her death was ruled as "suicide by opium poisoning". Born in Wisconsin in 1850, Mattie was raised in Fairfax, Iowa until she ran away from home at the age of 16. [6] Markham already had a national reputation as a burlesque dancer and singer. He called a foul on Fitzsimmons that no one saw, and Wyatt was widely accused of taking a bribe. After Wyatt Earp's death, Josephine insisted on being called Josie or Josephine. [9] The coroner's report of her death was brief. In June 1881, Sadie sent a postal money order to her mother using the name Josephine Behan,[43] and Wyatt Earp was still living with his common-law wife Mattie Blaylock. [1] She was their third child and second daughter. Wyatt and Mattie did not arrive in Tucson by train and did not meet Virgil, Morgan and their wives there. [43] (In the 1920 census, Sadie reported to the census taker that her family was from Hamburg, Germany, bordering Prussia. He continued his career in law enforcement in Dodge City. [1], The University of Arizona Press published the book in 1976 under the title I Married Wyatt Earp: The Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus. Wyatt Earp is a unique breedfor more reasons than oneamong the famed gunslingers and infamous outlaws who shot their way across the Wild West horizon. Both made a stagecoach journey from San Francisco to Prescott, Arizona Territory; both traveled with a black woman named Julia; both were sexual partners with Behan; both were 19 years old, born in New York City, and had parents from Germany. Her real name was Leah Hirschberg, whose mother was a music teacher. Mattie eventually returned to Arizona where she spent her remaining years working as a prostitute. [26]:4748, In February or March 1879: The Prescott Weekly Journal-Miner reported that John Behan was visiting San Francisco. She enjoyed some brief success as a juvenile actress on the San Francisco stage during the 1870s. He participated in the notorious O.K. [119] In 2000, the University responded to criticism of the university and the book and removed it from their catalog. The Earps returned briefly to San Francisco in April 1900, but they returned to Seattle before boarding the steamer SS Alliance. [49] Behan was on the surface an upstanding citizen, married with a child, but he also frequented brothels. 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. [56], On May 22, 1875, Behan's wife Victoria filed for divorce. [1] She maintained a relationship with Johnny Behan's son, Albert Price Behan, whom she had grown to love as her own son. Both of Behan's children, Henrietta and Albert, were ill with meningitis around 1877, and in July of that year, Henrietta died from the disease. There were few employment possibilities for young girls. His first was Urilla Sutherland who died early in his marriage. I thought constantly of my mother and how great must be her grief and worry over me. [17] Although the biography became a bestseller, it was later strongly criticized for fictionalizing Earp's life and was found to be markedly inaccurate. They traveled West, thinking they would find some work. But in August a Tombstone newspaper reported a letter waiting at the post office for Sadie Mansfield. [45], Behan married 17-year-old Victoria Zaff in March 1869 in San Francisco, her step-father's home town. In I Married Wyatt Earp, author Glen Boyer states that Josephine took dance lessons and had a maid. He continued to race horses, but by 1896 he could no longer afford to own horses, but raced them on behalf of the owner of a horse stable in Santa Rosa that he managed for her.[82]. 8. 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. Even though he was very ill, she still didn't cook for him. Raised by devout parents on Iowa farmland, she yearned for freedom and a life of adventure. James Earp's wife, Bessie, was also a prostitute or madam, hailing from Wichita, Kansas, and she eventually moved with her husband to Tombstone. For Josephine Earp, the pen was mightier than the sordid. He opened a small business catering to miners and joined a few posses pursuing bandits. Today, you can travel to the ghost town of Pinal, near the town of Superior, Arizona and visit Matties marked grave in the historic cemetery. She gambled away the filing fees and lied to Wyatt about what happened to the lease, which later turned out to be valuable. In the 1880 United States Census Blaylock is listed as Wyatt's wife though there is no record of a legal marriage. [71] Josephine got pregnant at the same time, and she thought she could persuade Earp from heading to Alaska. He was known as a lawman, gambler, and boxing referee, exemplifying the pinnacle of American grit, inspiring practically every Hollywood western in some way. Josephine and Wyatt went to great lengths to keep her name out of Lake's book, and she threatened litigation to keep it that way. [105], While they lived in San Diego, Wyatt raced Otto Rex, the horse he had won in a card game. 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. In my confusion, I could see no way out of the tragic mess. Also coming to Tombstone is Wyatt's good friend, Doc Holliday. 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 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. [citation needed], Josephine told others that when she and her friend Dora arrived in Arizona she learned that "some renegade Yuma-Apaches had escaped from the reservation to which they had been consigned and had returned to their old haunts on the war-path." Earp would send his siblings, their wives, and Blaylock to California after the murder of his brother Morgan. [57], In retelling her life story, Josephine Marcus retold many elements of her experience that corroborated facts in Sadie Mansfield's history. [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. Corral in Tombstone, a man becomes a myth in this thrilling journey of romance, adventure, and desperate heroic action. Cinergi Pictures EntertainmentMattie Blaylock (left) and Wyatt Earp (center) as portrayed by Dana Wheeler Nicholson and Kurt Russell in Tombstone (1993). He knew his wife preferred the name "Josephine" and detested "Sadie", but early in their relationship he began calling her 'Sadie'. [40], During the 1880 census in Tip Top, Behan's occupation was given as saloon keeper. They recorded events in her life but found Josephine was evasive about her early life in Tombstone. [36]:101, In a remarkable set of coincidences, the known life of Josephine Sadie Marcus overlapped the life of an otherwise unknown prostitute named Sadie Mansfield. [14]:101[15] At one point in their contentious relationship, Josephine described Lake's book as made up of "outright lies". 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. [2] Upon their arrival, her father found a highly stratified Jewish community. [citation needed]. [19] Josephine could be controlling. 5. [26]:54, In November 1899, they left Alaska for a period and went to Seattle, Washington, with a plan to open a saloon and gambling room. "[2] She said, "the whole experience recurs to my memory as a bad dream and I remember little of its details. The moment came between March and October of 1868, when the two adult sisters left town without money or permission from their parents. [54] In 1874, 14-year-old Sadie Mansfield worked under the watchful eye of Madam Josie Roland as a prostitute in a brothel on Granite Street, between Gurley and Alarcon streets, and near the Yavapai County Courthouse where Sheriff Behan worked. . Earp's former wife, Mattie Blaylock traveled with other Earp family members in April 1882, to Colton, California, waiting for Wyatt to telegraph her and invite her to join him. There is no legal record of a marriage between the two. Josephine ran away, possibly as early as age 14, and traveled to Arizona, where she said she went "looking for adventure". Prominent men were however expected to be discreet. This was the same date that Wyatt Earp and his brothers arrived. In the book I Married Wyatt Earp (1967), based on a manuscript which she purportedly wrote, author Glenn Boyer quotes her as saying, "I liked the traveling sort of man better than the kind that sat back in one town all his life and wrote down little rows of figures all day or hustled dry goods or groceries and that sort of thing My blood demanded excitement, variety and change. Earp named a mining claim he filed on February 16, 1880 "Mattie Blaylock. She met a gambler from Arizona who asked her to marry him. Retrieved on June 20, 2011. In the 1880 United States Census Blaylock is listed as Wyatt's wife though there is no record of a legal marriage. [19] Josephine sought to get her own life story published and gained the assistance of Wyatt's cousins Mabel Earp Cason and Cason's sister Vinolia Earp Ackerman. She apparently expected to receive a telegram from Earp telling her where to meet him, but it never arrived. 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. #wyattearp #oldwest #history #sanbernardino . 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. She and her sister-in-law Alma were concerned about the care Josie gave Wyatt. 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. Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was born on March 19, 1848, the fourth child of Nicholas Porter Earp and his second wife, Virginia Ann Cooksey. He promised to marry her and she joined him in Tombstone. Then, take a look at 48 snapshots of life in the real Wild West. But, no other corroborating evidence has been found supporting the thesis that Josephine used May Bell as a stage name, and she never claimed so. Mattie was considered Earps common-law wife and in the 1880 census, the 30-year-old was listed as Mattie Earp, wife of Wyatt Earp. The third of four children, Josephine Sarah (Marcus) Earp was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1861 to German-Jewish immigrants Sophie and Hyman (Henry) Marcus. [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. Josephine left Behan in 1881, before the Gunfight at the O.K. Mattie Blaylocks grave at the Pinal City Cemetery in Superior, Arizona. [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. [2] Josephine said that she matured early and developed large breasts. Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp (1860 - December 19, 1944) was the common-law wife of Wyatt Earp, a famed Old West lawman and gambler. [72] This was one week after Morgan Earp was assassinated and five days after Wyatt set out in pursuit of those he believed responsible. The Sacramento Daily Record reported on October 20, 1882, that Virgil had arrived in town from Tombstone to greet his brother Wyatt arriving from the east, although Virgil was living in Colton at the time. Mattie Blaylock ran away from home when she was 18. 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. Named Celia Ann Blaylock, she went to church & school, with typical parental discipline of the time. 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. Behan moved for a time to the northwest Arizona Territory, where he served as the Mohave County Recorder in 1877. (It's now a ghost town in Shoshone County). Wyatt Earp is the most recognizable face of the Earp family. I can remember shedding many tears in out-of the way-corners. After a time however I very much improved in health so that within two years after my experience I was once more a normal healthy girl." He reneged but persuaded her to stay. [2] The Weekly Arizona Miner of Prescott reported on February 5, 1875, that Sadie Mansfield won a prize in the "Grand New Year Gift Enterprise". Wyatt Earp was born in Monmouth, Illinois in 1848. [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. She continued to work as a prostitute during their early years together. Who was at Wyatt Earp . [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 mid-1868, Celia ran away with her younger sister Sarah to avoid farm life. [84][110] Wyatt became critically ill in late 1928. She passed away on July 3, 1888, at about the age of 38. [2], Josephine's father Henry was a baker. Her confusing recollection of events show how easily Josephine mixed fact and fiction. [19], Wyatt refereed the Fitzsimmons vs. Sharkey boxing match on December 2, 1896 and was accused of fixing the outcome. Earp developed a reputation as a sportsman as well as a gambler. [19], Each may have engaged in extramarital affairs. Behan was sympathetic to ranchers and certain outlaw Cowboys, who were at odds with Deputy U.S. [71]:117 Other researchers and writers aren't even sure she was in town that day. [71] Director John Ford said that whenever Josephine left town for religious conventions, Earp would come into town, play poker, and get drunk with the cowboy actors. Instead . Virgil married his third and last wife, Alvira "Allie" Packingham Sullivan, between 1871 and 1872. [108], In the 1920s, Wyatt gave Josie signed legal papers and filing fees to a claim for an oil lease in Kern County, California. Did Bessie continue sporting once they arrived in Tombstone? In the 1880 United States Census Blaylock is listed as Wyatt's wife though there is no record of a legal marriage. The San Diego Union printed a report from the San Francisco Call on July 9, 1882 that Virgil Earp was in San Francisco (receiving treatment for his shattered arm) and that Wyatt was expected to arrive there that day. Court records show that she became a prostitute beginning in 1872[1] in Fort Scott, then later in Dodge City. [71] Josephine was addicted to gambling on horse racing and her wagering increased until Wyatt gave her an ultimatum. On July 3, 1888, Blaylock took a lethal dose of laudanum and alcohol. It was apparently not his first run-in with the law. [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.
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