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. [26]:4748, In February or March 1879: The Prescott Weekly Journal-Miner reported that John Behan was visiting San Francisco. [26], Professor Pat Ryan stated that Josephine or Sadie may have used the stage name May Bell as a member of the Markham stage group. When the Comstock Lode production began to fade, San Francisco suffered. Grace was upset that Josephine didn't attend. Josephine Sarah "Sadie" Earp (ne Marcus; 1861 December 19, 1944)[1] was the common-law wife of Wyatt Earp, a famed Old West lawman and gambler. "[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. There is no legal record of a marriage between the two. [84][110] Wyatt became critically ill in late 1928. Actors Kurt Russell, as Wyatt Earp, and Val Kilmer, as Doc Holliday were both very good. Behan was gone for 35 days, returning to Prescott on November 11, 1874, where he lost the election. He opened the Northern Saloon in Tonopah and served as a Deputy U.S. Josephine wanted to keep what she viewed as their tarnished history in Tombstone private. In the 1880 United States Census Blaylock is listed as Wyatt's wife though there is no record of a legal marriage. And he definitely wasn't the infallible hero later accounts made him out to be. Marshal Virgil Earp and his brothers, Wyatt and Morgan. After Earp left Tombstone and Blaylock, she waited in Colton, California to hear from him, but he never contacted her. She was the third of six children born to parents Henry and Elizabeth Blaylock. [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. [4] The six friends traveled to Prescott, Arizona. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Tombstone (DVD, 2002, 2-Disc Set, Vista Series Directors Cut) COMPLETE with Map at the best online prices at eBay! They stayed for about four years, living most of the time in the Brooklyn Hotel. Enchanted by a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Josephine gambled so recklessly that Wyatt cut her off and asked other gambling houses to do the same. Wyatt Earp | The Old West [79][80][81], The Earps moved back to San Francisco in 1891[82] so Josie could be closer to her family. He struggled to make a living in New York City and read about the growing city of San Francisco. Virgil married his third and last wife, Alvira "Allie" Packingham Sullivan, between 1871 and 1872. I don't think she was that devastated when he died. "[19], As late as 1936, Josephine took legal action to suppress certain details of her and Wyatt's life in Tombstone. The earlier stone is on display in the Colma Historical museum.[112][115]. Her parents, Henry Blaylock and Elizabeth Vance, had left Indiana in 1846 and built a quiet life for themselves and their kids. 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. For the fictional character, see. She met a gambler from Arizona who asked her to marry him. 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. Legend states she never heard from Wyatt again. However, she was well aware that she would soon be married off to likely live out her life as a housewife. With his more violent years behind. [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. [19] Josephine could be controlling. 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. [107] The San Francisco Examiner ran a series of stories over three days describing Earp's life in exaggerated detail that ridiculed him. Is Tombstone a True Story? Is the 1993 Movie Based on Real Life? Behan was sympathetic to ranchers and certain outlaw Cowboys, who were at odds with Deputy U.S. Mattie Blaylock - Wyatt Earp's Common Law Wife - Legends of America In between, they had crossed paths, but it's not as if they went everywhere together. [6]:235 Frank Waters wrote in The Earp Brothers of Tombstone of public fights between Sadie Marcus and Blaylock and how the affair was a public scandal. Historians have stated that earlier in her life, Mattie began consuming laudanum for headaches and was known to abuse alcohol. He called a foul on Fitzsimmons that no one saw, and Wyatt was widely accused of taking a bribe. [31], Other researchers have questioned what she did prior to 1883. The Tragic Story of Mattie Blaylock, the Forgotten, Discarded Wife of At this point, Mattie's profession was listed as keeping house. Wells also owned a brothel in Prescott, Arizona. 1880; Tip Top, Yavapai, Arizona Territory; roll 37, page 413A,, enumeration district 22. [2] Sophie and Carl had three children together: Nathan (born 1857), Josephine, and Henrietta (born 1864). She met Wyatt in 1881 in the frontier boom town of Tombstone in Arizona Territory, when she was living with Johnny Behan, sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona. The family was forced to move in with Josephine's older sister Rebecca and her husband Aaron "south of the slot" (south of Market Street) at 138 Perry Street between 3rd and 2nd at Harrison in a tenement on the flatlands. Shortly after that election his young wife, Urilla Sutherland, died. Her father was a baker. According to Edward C. Meyers Mattie: Wyatt Earps Second Wife, Blaylock was the youngest of three children and her familys second daughter. 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. She wrote, "life was dull for me in San Francisco. Blaylock and her sister Sarah, meanwhile, rejected their prospective suitors and soon hatched a plan to escape and see the world. Previously, Matties grave was unmarked. No documentation proves they were married, but they claimed their wedding took place in Iowa or Nebraska. Born Celia Ann Blaylock in 1850 in Johnson County, Iowa, she was raised on a small farm near the town of Fairfax. In 1879 the Pauline Markham Theater Company came to town, and Josephine slipped away with the troupe. It is unclear when she began going by the name Mattie, but it is reasonable to assume she may have adopted the alias when she began working as a prostitute. The Short, Tragic Life of Mattie Blaylock, Wyatt Earp's Second Wife The feud escalated, and on October 26, 1881, it finally exploded into violence in a gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone. 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? Some researchers also state that Josephine Earp, Wyatt Earps fourth and final common law wife, did her best to keep her husbands past with Mattie a secret. Actor Kevin Costner, who played Earp in the 1994 movie Wyatt Earp, offered to buy a new, larger stone, but the Marcus family thought his offer was self-serving and declined. While Blaylock grew dependent on laudanum to treat her headaches, Earp was increasingly embroiled in deadly conflict as a newfound deputy sheriff. [1] She maintained a relationship with Johnny Behan's son, Albert Price Behan, whom she had grown to love as her own son. [49] Behan was on the surface an upstanding citizen, married with a child, but he also frequented brothels. [11], Some modern writers believe that Wyatt Earp moved in with Josephine after she kicked Behan out. Mattie allegedly suffered from severe headaches and became addicted to laudanum, which was commonly used as a pain killer at the time. Wyatt's old friend Doc. 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. He was known to disappear for days at a time "to see property", the family euphemism for a drinking binge, and Earp was his regular partner. 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. On June 14, 1900, Wyatt and Josephine were bound for Nome, Alaska. He continued his career in law enforcement in Dodge City. Tombstone Ending Explained: Legend Passes Into Cinema [73]:38, After the Earp Vendetta Ride ended in April 1882, Wyatt left Arizona for Colorado. 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. During the same week, Behan registered at the Bank Exchange Hotel in Phoenix, and on March 5 the Prescott Weekly Journal-Miner reported that Sadie had returned to Gillette from Phoenix on March 2. She was not recorded in the 1870 census but in 1871 she posed for a photo in Fort Scott, Kansas. Josephine ran away, possibly as early as age 14, and traveled to Arizona, where she said she went "looking for adventure". Corral, which may have contributed to their animosity. Wyatt meets Josephine "Josie" Marcus, who is a traveling actress, and the two begin an affair. Researchers have found that the two names share extremely similar characteristics and circumstances. Earp developed a reputation as a sportsman as well as a gambler. Levine says another gun in the collection was owned by Wyatt's . [19] The most she would say is that she returned to the Arizona Territory in 1881 and joined Johnny Behan in Tombstone. Mattie Blaylock spent her entire childhood learning scripture and attending church. [5]:65 It is not known exactly when Earp and Blaylock ended their relationship. She likely enjoyed the social life and independence that accompanied her role. 8. Finding Behan in bed with the wife of a friend of theirs, she kicked him out. [26] He was furious about her gambling habit, during which she lost considerable sums of money. Later in life Josephine described her first years in Arizona as "a bad dream". The divorce also cited Behan's threats of violence and unrelenting verbal abuse. [1] Celia had no desire to live on a farm for the rest of her life. 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. [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. Apartment buildings were crowded and large homes were converted into rooming houses. 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. In the 1880 United States Census Blaylock is listed as Wyatt's wife though there is no record of a legal marriage. ), you were probably thrilled when, When Josephine Marcus Earp died in Los Angeles on December 19, 1944, her small memorial attracted little attention, The Real Story of Doc Holliday and Big Nose Kate, Im Your Huckleberry: the Real Meaning of Doc Hollidays Famous Line, Tombstone vs. Wyatt Earp: 7 Differences in the Dueling Movies, 10 Fascinating Facts About Jack Swilling, the Founder of Phoenix, 8 Interesting Facts About the Arizona Rangers, 15 Native American Ruins in Arizona that Offer a Historic Glimpse into the Past, 8 Famous (and Infamous) Sheriffs of the Old West, Blood Brothers: The Unlikely Friendship of Tom Jeffords and Cochise, 8 Things You Might Not Know About Morgan Earp, Wyatts Favorite Bro, 9 Fascinating Facts About Virgil Earp, Noble Lawman of the West, Mrs. Earp: The Wives And Lovers Of The Earp Brothers, A Wyatt Earp Anthology: Long May His Story Be Told, I Married Wyatt Earp: The Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp. Raymond Nez wrote that his grandparents witnessed their marriage off the California coast. [1] Henry moved the family to San Francisco in 1868 when Josephine was 7. But they'd met only four years earlier, while passing through Texas. "[2] She said, "the whole experience recurs to my memory as a bad dream and I remember little of its details. Raised by devout parents on Iowa farmland, she yearned for freedom and a life of adventure. She may have arrived in Prescott, Arizona as early as 1874. [26]:49, On June 2, 1880, the U.S. census had recorded Sadie Mansfield, whose occupation was "courtesan", as living in Tip Top. [88][89][90], In the spring they decided the gold rush in Dawson was drawing to an end and headed for Nome instead. When she was seven years old, the family moved to San Francisco. [34] Josephine always sought excitement in her life. They had an estimated $80,000, a relative fortune (equivalent to about $2,610,000 today). In I Married Wyatt Earp, author Glen Boyer states that Josephine took dance lessons and had a maid. In 1884, Wyatt and his wife Josie, his brothers Warren and James, and James' wife Bessie arrived in Eagle City, Idaho, another new boomtown that was created as a result of the discovery of gold, silver, and lead in the Coeur d'Alene area. [42]:p275-198[77], After the Coeur d'Alene mining venture died out, Earp and Josie briefly went to El Paso, Texas before moving in 1887 to San Diego where the railroad was about to arrive and a real estate boom was underway. She apparently expected to receive a telegram from Earp telling her where to meet him, but it never arrived. 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. [21] Mattie resumed life as a prostitute and committed "suicide by opium poisoning" on July 3, 1888. [2] What is known for certain is that she traveled to Tombstone using the name Josephine Marcus in October 1880. [71]:117 Other researchers and writers aren't even sure she was in town that day. 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. [2], The events that Josephine "Sadie" Marcus claimed took place when she was 18 years old in 1879 don't correlate with known facts, but do closely correspond to the events in 14 year old Sadie Mansfield's journey to Prescott in 1874. Corral on October 26, 1881. It's not known where she and Sarah spent the intervening time. Tombstone (1993) - Plot - IMDb She continued to work as a prostitute during their early years together. Green. Wyatt Earp's Grave - Colma, California - Atlas Obscura [43], In early 1881, Josephine returned to Tombstone after a trip to San Francisco. "[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. On November 25, 1899, the Seattle Star reported Earp's arrival. Wyatt's commonlaw wife, Matty Blalock, became addicted to opium in . C. S. Fly/Wikimedia Commons A portrait of Wyatt Earp's wife, Josephine Earp, in 1881, the year they met. 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. I can remember shedding many tears in out-of the way-corners. In the meantime, Wyatt was getting more and more involved with Josephine, who he would later marry. ", Mattie was born Celia Ann Blaylock in Monroe Township, Johnson County, Iowa, near Fairfax, Iowa, to Henry Blaylock and Elizabeth "Betsy" Vance. [37] One block away on the 1000 block of Clay Street in a neighborhood known for prostitution was a brothel, owned by Hattie Wells. Earp did mezuzah when entering the house." Earp moved to Wichita, Kansas, and worked as a shotgun guard for Wells Fargo. 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. Josephine Sarah Marcus was born in 1861 in New York City, the second of three children of immigrants Carl-Hyman Marcuse (later Henry Marcus) and Sophie Lewis. Mattie Blaylock - Wikipedia
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