Before the O.K. Corral: How the Civil War brought Wyatt Earp’s brother to Portland By Randy Fletcher

On an autumn afternoon in 1881 four armed lawmen strode down a dusty street in Tombstone, Arizona. They headed toward the O.K. Corral and immortality. The leader of the quartet was Virgil Earp, serving a dual capacity as Tombstone City Marshal and Deputy U.S. Marshal for the Arizona Territory. Accompanying Virgil were his younger brother Morgan who was his regular city deputy, and two other men specially deputized for that day: Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.

The lawmen were on their way to arrest members of the Cowboys, an outlaw faction notorious for rustling and robbery. Their offense that day was carrying firearms within city limits in violation of a Tombstone ordinance. A long series of events led to the bloody confrontation that was about to erupt and details of the conflict are readily available in print and on film.

Gunfight over in half a minute

Upon reaching an alley near the O.K. Corral, Virgil Earp and his bold deputies confronted five members of the Cowboys. Virgil hoped to avoid a fight and carried Doc Holiday’s cane in his gun hand. He commanded the Cowboys to “Throw up your hands” but gunfire broke out immediately. To this day there is a dispute over who fired the first shot. Some claim it was Doc Holliday while others say that Doc fired in response to Cowboy Billy Clanton drawing his pistol. In any case, the hail of lead that followed lasted less than thirty seconds. When the shooting was over, three of the Cowboys lay dead in the street: Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury, and Frank McLaury. The other two Cowboys, Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne were able to run away unhurt. Morgan Earp was wounded in his back above his shoulder blades. Virgil was shot through the calf of his right leg and Doc Holliday was hit in the hip. Wyatt Earp came out of the gunfight unscathed.

Seven Earp brothers grow up in Illinois and Iowa

Virgil and Wyatt’s parents, Nicholas and Virginia Earp, were farmers who raised a family of seven boys and four girls. Originally from Hartford, Kentucky they later moved to Monmouth, Illinois and Pella, Iowa. Virgil Walter Earp, their third son, was born on July 18, 1843. At the age of sixteen Virgil eloped with a Dutch girl named Ellen Rysdam who was also just sixteen. Virgil and Ellen would have a daughter, Nellie Jane.

When the Civil War began, the oldest Earp boys volunteered to fight for the Union cause. Eldest son James Earp volunteered with the 17th Illinois Infantry and was discharged after being badly wounded at the Battle of Fredricksburg. Newton Earp served as a sergeant in the 4th Iowa Cavalry and fought at Vicksburg. Virgil served in Company C of the 83rd Illinois Infantry. The remainder of the Earp brothers, including Wyatt and Morgan, were too young for military service.

Private Virgil Earp was still a teenager when marched off to war in 1862 leaving his wife with a baby girl just two weeks old. He would not see his wife or daughter again for thirty-seven years because in the summer of 1863, Ellen was told that Virgil had been killed in Tennessee. Heartbroken, Ellen took her daughter and headed west with her parents. Unaware of the reports of his death, Virgil served throughout the Civil War seeing action in Tennessee and Kentucky. His regiment was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland commanded by Major General George H. Thomas. By the end of the war, the 83^rd Illinois had lost one hundred twenty-one men and officers. Private Earp was not among those who died. He returned home in the summer of 1865, three years after he left, to find his wife and baby gone and no way to contact them.

Like tens of thousands of Civil War veterans, the Earp brothers headed west for a fresh start and new opportunities. For the next ten years, Virgil Earp moved around the country holding various jobs such as farming, railroad construction, and stagecoach driver. He married, divorced, and married again. The Earps were a tight knit family who kept in close contact with each other and often ventured into business as a family. Virgil spent time in Dodge City, Kansas where younger brother Wyatt served with Bat Masterson as Deputy City Marshals.

In 1877 Virgil and his third wife, a diminutive beauty named Allie Sullivan, moved to Prescott, Arizona where Virgil became deputy sheriff for Yavapai County. It was in Prescott that Virgil was involved in his first street gunfight, killing an outlaw with a shot from his Winchester rifle. Afterwards, Virgil won election as Prescott Town Constable.

Earp brothers reunited in Tombstone

In 1879 Virgil’s experience in law enforcement and his Republican political persuasion earned him an appointment as Deputy United States Marshal for the Arizona Territory. He was assigned to the southern portion of the territory and chose Tombstone as his residence. There he was reunited with his brothers, Wyatt and James Earp, who were running a saloon and stage business and speculating on a silver mine. The next year brothers Morgan and Warren Earp also moved to Tombstone.

Following the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Ike Clanton filed murder charges against the three Earp brothers and Doc Holliday. A trial was held with the judge ruling that the four defendants had acted within the scope of the law and the charges were dismissed. Thwarted in court, the Cowboys sought other opportunities for revenge.

Three days after Christmas 1881, Virgil Earp was walking alone in the evening on Tombstone’s Allen Street when he was hit by a shotgun blast at close range. The buckshot tore through his left arm and into his side. The discharge crippled Virgil’s left arm for life. Even as the doctors worked to save his life, Virgil told his wife Allie “Never mind, I’ve got one good arm left to hug you with.” Three months later, Morgan Earp was killed when he was shot in the back in an ambush while playing billiards.

Older brother James Earp escorted Morgan’s body to their parent’s home in California for burial. Virgil and Allie Earp were sent to Tucson so that Virgil could recover from his wounds in safety. Wyatt Earp (photo) was appointed U.S. Marshal with the authority to name his own deputies. Wyatt, along with brother Warren Earp, Doc Holliday, and other deputies embarked on a vendetta ride to exterminate the Cowboys from Arizona. The events of 1881 and 1882 are portrayed in the motion picture Tombstone starring Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp with Virgil heroically portrayed by Sam Elliott.

Virgil recovers from his wounds

It took Virgil Earp two full years to recover from his gunshot wounds. Once he was well enough to leave Tucson he traveled to his parent’s home in Colton, California. The gunfight at the O.K. Corral had made the Earps famous and Virgil, despite having the use of just one arm, was hired as a special guard by the Southern Pacific Railroad. When Colton became an incorporated city in 1887, Virgil Earp was elected as it’s first City Marshal and was paid a salary of seventy-five dollars a month. Virgil and Allie stayed on the move for the next twenty-five years living at times in California, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada. They occasionally visited his brother Wyatt and his other siblings and engaged in a number of business ventures including mining, saloon keeping, and ranching. Virgil was famous wherever he went and often worked in law enforcement.

A letter arrives from Oregon

Virgil Earp was again living in Prescott, Arizona when he received a letter from a Mrs. Levi Law of Portland, Oregon. Mrs. Law was in fact his long lost daughter Nellie Jane. The exploits of Wyatt and Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday were published in newspapers and dime novels throughout the United States and even in Europe. Virgil’s fame reached Portland, where his first wife Ellen, still believing Virgil had perished in the Civil War, was remarried and residing with her new husband and her daughter by Virgil. Allie and Virgil Earp had no children and it was Allie that encouraged Virgil to travel to Portland to meet his only child.

Virgil Earp visited his daughter and the Rose City in the spring of 1899. There, for the first time, he met the three grandchildren he never knew existed. The Portland Oregonian newspaper reported on the visit of the famous lawman. Even in his late fifties Virgil Earp was an imposing figure of a man, tall and broad shouldered. Years later, Earp’s grandson, George Law, would tell of a lesson he learned from the old marshal. The family went for a ride on one of Portland’s streetcars but before boarding, Grandpa Earp told the kids “I’m not going to give the conductor my fare.” The family took their seats and the conductor came down the isle to collect the nickel fare from each passenger. When the conductor came to where Virgil Earp was sitting he didn’t stop or ask for Virgil’s five cents, he just kept moving down the aisle. Asked by his daughter why the conductor didn’t collect his fare, Virgil replied “It’s the way I looked at him. He was afraid of the look.” Having finished the demonstration for his grandchildren, Virgil Earp stopped as he exited the streetcar and paid the conductor the required fare. The year after her father’s trip to Portland, Nellie Jane made the trip to Arizona to visit Virgil and Allie.

A final trip to Portland

In 1904 Virgil and Allie Earp moved to Goldfield, Nevada to join Wyatt in speculating on a gold strike. Virgil was appointed Deputy Sheriff of Esmeralda County, the final post in his law enforcement career. The next year Virgil contracted pneumonia and on October 19, 1905, one of the most colorful figures of the American West passed into history. He was sixty-two years old. At the request of his daughter Nellie Jane, Allie allowed Virgil’s remains to be sent to Portland for burial. Allie lived another forty-two years but never remarried. Virgil was the love of her life. She moved to California where she lived with members of the Earp family. Allie Earp died at the age of ninety-nine and is buried in Los Angeles next to her best friend, Virgil’s sister Adelia Earp Edwards.

River View Cemetery is located on Macadam Boulevard in southwest Portland. In section fifteen of the cemetery, beneath a variegated holly tree, rest the remains of U.S. Marshal Virgil W. Earp. His grave headstone is quite unpretentious. A gray granite tube-shaped marker set low to the ground. There is no mention of his Civil War service, his career as a lawman, the O.K. Corral, or his famous brother Wyatt. His engraved epitaph reads simply “God will take care of me.” His daughter Nellie Jane is buried with her family in a nearby plot. A spokesman for the cemetery reports that of all the people buried in the cemetery, the final resting-place of Virgil Earp is their most asked about grave.

Bibliography available on request.