what was wyatt earp's wife addicted to

They recorded events in her life but found Josephine was evasive about her early life in Tombstone. According to Edward C. Meyers Mattie: Wyatt Earps Second Wife, Blaylock was the youngest of three children and her familys second daughter. 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 . After Earp left Tombstone and Blaylock, she waited in Colton, California to hear from him, but he never contacted her. During a month-long preliminary hearing, Judge Wells Spicer heard testimony from a large number of witnesses. Did Bessie continue sporting once they arrived in Tombstone? [21] Mattie resumed life as a prostitute and committed "suicide by opium poisoning" on July 3, 1888. She took the unusual step of asserting in her divorce petition that Behan "at divers times and places openly and notoriously visited houses of ill-fame and prostitution at said town of Prescott. [38][58][59], Josephine wrote much later that her family wanted to keep her "escapades from the public." 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." A second stone of flat granite was also stolen. [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". "[26] Prostitution wasn't illegal in the territory as long as the women paid their licensing fees. May 9, 2014. He lived about two blocks from the family, so he likely already knew the family. There they met Virgil and Allie. Now after this I'm not going to redeem any more of your jewelry." Some critics described the book as a fraud and a hoax, and the University of Arizona withdrew the book from its catalog. Corral on October 26, 1881. [6] They traveled via ship to Panama, went over the Isthmus of Panama, and caught a steamship to San Francisco. Although she was never active in her Jewish faith, her service was conducted by a rabbi. No contemporary accounts place her at the scene of the gunfight afterward. San Francisco's population had boomed to 149,473, and housing was in short supply. [8] She had been using laudanum and alcohol to excess for some time. She may have arrived in Prescott, Arizona as early as 1874. She would marry Earp long before his gunfight at the O.K. [38], Josephine said the girls arrived with the troupe in Tombstone on December 1, 1879, for a one-week engagement. "[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. After Morgan Earp was killed in March 1882, Virgil, along with the Earp women, escorted his body home to Colton, California. 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. Boyer and other modern researchers argue that she actually lived with Behan. Many wives of the prosperous mining engineers, merchants, and business owners lived in better class cities where they didn't have to contend with being confused for a prostitute. 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. 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. But was apparently restless there. [114] Actor Hugh O'Brian, who was playing Earp in the 195561 television series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, offered a reward for the stones return. However, court records indicate that she continued to call herself by her childhood nickname of "Celie", which was often phonetically spelled by court clerks as "Sally"; no court records have been found throughout her life using the name "Mattie". [14]:101 Lake corresponded with Josephine over several years, and he claimed she attempted to influence what he wrote and hamper him in every way possible, including consulting lawyers. Grace was upset that Josephine didn't attend. [43], Sadie, traveling as either Mrs. J. C. Earp or Mrs. Wyatt Earp, left Tombstone for her family in San Francisco via Los Angeles on March 24, 1882. There they reunited with Holliday and Big Nose Kate. [50][51] On September 28, 1874, Behan was nominated at the Democratic convention to stand for re-election. [10], As a girl, Josephine loved going to the theater. Celia Ann Mattie Blaylock was a prostitute and the common-law wife of Wyatt Earp, a western frontiersman famous for his participation in the 1881 gunfight at the O.K. [108], In the 1920s, Wyatt gave Josie signed legal papers and filing fees to a claim for an oil lease in Kern County, California. [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. Born in Wisconsin in 1850, Mattie was raised in Fairfax, Iowa until she ran away from home at the age of 16. I developed St. Vitus Dance and was unable to attend school very much again. [71][86][29]:78, They boarded the steamship Rosalie for Nome, Alaska on September 21. "[21] After Wyatt's death, Josephine told her friends and family to stop calling her Sadie, Wyatt's name for her, and insisted they call her Josie. 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. The Epitaph reported on February 27, 1882 that S. Mansfield of Tombstone was returning from the west with other passengers, passing through Colton, California. 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. She is the author of The Queen of Denver: Louise Sneed Hill and the Emergence of Modern High Society. [21], In about 1923, Charles Welsh, a friend who Earp had known since his time in Dodge City in 1876, and a retired railroad engineer, frequently invited the Earps to visit his family in San Bernardino, Needles, and later in Los Angeles. Corral, she was at her home when she heard the sound of gunfire. While Blaylock grew dependent on laudanum to treat her headaches, Earp was increasingly embroiled in deadly conflict as a newfound deputy sheriff. Previously, Matties grave was unmarked. 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. J. Levine Auction & Appraisal in Scottsdale, Ariz., is auctioning the guns, which owner Josh Levine believes belonged to Wyatt Earp. In 1998, reporters and scholars found that Boyer could not document many of the facts he wrote about Josephine's time in Tombstone. Earp developed a reputation as a sportsman as well as a gambler. The United States Census confirmed her as his common-law wife by 1880. Earp goes home to a wife addicted to a laudanum, a common drug of the time mixing morphine and opium. In 1906 he discovered several deposits of gold and copper near the Sonoran Desert town of Vidal, California on the Colorado River and filed more than 100 mining claims[63] near the Whipple Mountains. We aren't sure when they met. From 1891 to 1896, the Earps lived in at least four different locations in San Francisco: 145 Ellis St., 720 McAllister St., 514A Seventh Ave. and 1004 Golden Gate Ave.[70] After moving to southern California in about 1903, they also lived in several different locations. She met a gambler from Arizona who asked her to marry him. For the fictional character, see. By Kathy Weiser-Alexander, updated February 2020. He became a deputy before settling in Dodge City as assistant marshal. 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. "[84][19][21], Among the facts Josephine wanted scrubbed from Earp's history, she persuaded biographers Flood, Lake and Burns to write that Earp was a non-drinker. He struggled to make a living in New York City and read about the growing city of San Francisco. Instead, Earp left Colorado in late 1882 and arrived in San Francisco where Virgil was seeking treatment for his arm. She said Weiner used a connection he had in Prescott to help Josephine get home. Who Killed Johnny Ringo? On November 25, 1899, the Seattle Star reported Earp's arrival. It's October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, and Arizona is not yet a state. Wyatt's commonlaw wife, Matty Blalock, became addicted to opium in . Corral shootout and the Earp Vendetta Ride. [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. [75] At Santa Rosa, Earp personally competed in and won a harness race. 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. Mattie Blaylock spent her entire childhood learning scripture and attending church. Josie had two miscarriages during her life and was apparently unable to have children. [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. [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. [1][14] Sadie was a well-known nickname for Sarah, Josie's middle name, and it was common for prostitutes of that time period to change their first name. In 1879 the Pauline Markham Theater Company came to town, and Josephine slipped away with the troupe. 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. )[43] On October 20, 1875, the Arizona Weekly Miner of Prescott, Arizona noted that among the passengers en route from San Francisco were "Miss Saddie [sic] Mansfield and Mrs. Julia Barton, a servant. [44][52][53] The area in which Behan campaigned was also near Cave Creek, where Al Sieber was looking for Indians. She wrote, "life was dull for me in 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. 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 earned a certificate in genealogical research from Boston University and a certificate in antiques, collectibles, and appraising from Asheford Institute of Antiques. When the Comstock Lode production began to fade, San Francisco suffered. She was peculiar. 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. She had a small, trim body and a meneo of the hips that kept her full, flounced skirts bouncing. The Earps returned briefly to San Francisco in April 1900, but they returned to Seattle before boarding the steamer SS Alliance. [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." This is the book from which the movie Tombstone was based. Mrs. Virgil Earp. This family lived only a few blocks from where Josephine lived with her family. The Lewis family was Jewish, and came from the Posen region in Prussia, current-day Poland, around 1850. [2] The 1880 census places the family in the 9th Ward, between San Francisco Bay, Channel, Harrison and Seventh streets. Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp, died in 1944, and her remains now rest with his. Byways & Historic Trails Great Drives in America, Soldiers and Officers in American History, Easy Travel Organization Tips You Will Love, Bidwell-Bartleson Party Blazing the California Trail. Her parents, Henry Blaylock and Elizabeth Vance, had left Indiana in 1846 and built a quiet life for themselves and their kids. They traveled West, thinking they would find some work. Mattie was considered Earp's common-law wife and in the 1880 census, the 30-year-old was listed as Mattie Earp, wife of Wyatt Earp. Apartment buildings were crowded and large homes were converted into rooming houses. What did Wyatt Earps wife drink? Wyatt Earp: Directed by Lawrence Kasdan. No documentation proves they were married, but they claimed their wedding took place in Iowa or Nebraska. 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? It's not known where she and Sarah spent the intervening time. As the oldest, Martha Jane Blaylock was the first to be married in 1860, when she was 17. [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. Her real name was Leah Hirschberg, whose mother was a music teacher. Yes, 'Tombstone' is inspired by a true story. [92][94][29]:78, Wyatt and Josie returned to Los Angeles on December 13, 1901 and stayed at the Hollenbeck Hotel. Mattie eventually returned to Arizona where she spent her remaining years working as a prostitute. Boyer, Glenn G. Wyatt Earp: Facts Volume Two, Childhood and . [112], Cemetery officials re-set the stone flush in concrete, but it was stolen again. [67] During their stay in Albuquerque, the two men ate at The Retreat Restaurant owned by "Fat Charlie". The earlier stone is on display in the Colma Historical museum.[112][115]. [21], Wyatt died on January 13, 1929. Then Blaylock and Earp stopped in the booming silver town of Pinal City, Arizona Territory, for two months in 1879. He was reputed to own a six-horse stable in San Francisco,[74] although it was learned later that the horses were leased. Earp would send his siblings, their wives, and Blaylock to California after the murder of his brother Morgan. 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. [21] No public record of their marriage has ever been found. Legend states she never heard from Wyatt again. [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. In 1879, five prostitutes lived there. The information in the letter is compelling because at the time it was written in the 1940s, the relationship between Wyatt Earp and Josephine Marcus while living in Tombstone was virtually unknown. Blaylocks early childhood consisted of little more than Sunday school and strict adherence to contemporary household rules, and her parents subscribed to the notion that sparing the rod would spoil the child. Bourke. It is supposedly the definitive read about Wyatt Earp. The horse was a frequent winner and sometimes Wyatt bought Josephine some jewelry with the proceeds. [25] Josephine's own story offers a conflicting account of when she first reached Arizona. 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. But they'd met only four years earlier, while passing through Texas. Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp (1860 - December 19, 1944) was the common-law wife of Wyatt Earp, a famed Old West lawman and gambler. But the collision of Jewish and cowboy cultures that epitomized their union goes on. Earp moved to Wichita, Kansas, and worked as a shotgun guard for Wells Fargo. She always interfered! Josephine wrote in I Married Wyatt Earp that she and Wyatt were married in 1892 offshore by the captain of Lucky Baldwin's yacht. 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. Corral in 1882. In between, they had crossed paths, but it's not as if they went everywhere together. She lived on the family farm, had local friends & activities. In mid-1868, Celia ran away with her younger sister Sarah to avoid farm life. "[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. Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal. Wyatt Earp is the most recognizable face of the Earp family. While the gunsmoke of the Civil War had settled, life in the American frontier was no picnic. Even though he was very ill, she still didn't cook for him. Because so much has been written about Doc Holliday, much of it conflicting, it often is difficult to get a clear picture of his personal appearance, demeanor, and behavior. In his memoirs, Wyatt Earp described Holliday this way: "He was a dentist whom necessity had made a gambler, a gentleman whom disease had made a frontier vagabond, a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit . Wyatt put oil leases he owned in Henrietta's name with the agreement that the proceeds would benefit Josie after his death. She ran away with the gambler anyway, who later abandoned her in Arizona. He wrote (in her voice), "Hattie and I attended the McCarthy Dancing Academy for children on Howard Street (Polk and Pacific). In the gunfight, Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt Earp joined Doc Holliday to . "[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. 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. [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." In 1998, a series of articles by Tony Ortega in the Phoenix New Times, including interviews with Glenn Boyer, argued that Boyer invented large portions of the book. 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 . Shortly afterwards, Wyatt Earp began his famous "Revenge Ride" to rid the Territory of outlaws. Her father Henrys earnings as a baker fell. Running into town in the direction of the shots, Josephine was relieved to see that Wyatt was uninjured. Earp was apparently heavily affected by his first wife's death and started acting out. [72] This was one week after Morgan Earp was assassinated and five days after Wyatt set out in pursuit of those he believed responsible.

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