Wyatt Earp's Early Life
Pella, Iowa is not only the home of Dominie Scholte and his band of Hollanders, but also the home of the Nicholas Earp family and its most famous member—Wyatt.
The Earp family's English and Scottish descendants immigrated to America in the early 1700's. Like the Scholte band 150 years later, the Earps came to America for religious freedom.
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp, named for his father's neighbor and commanding officer in the Mexican War, was born in Monmouth, Illinois, on March 19, 1848. When Wyatt was two years old, his father Nicholas moved the family to Pella, Iowa. While living in Pella, Nicholas held the office of U.S. Provost Marshal of Marion County.
Wyatt Earp, the famous gun-slinging western marshal, grew up as an ordinary Pella boy, spending most of his spare time working on his father's farm.
Nicholas Earp's experience as a captain in the Mexican War earned him the responsibility of training troops for the Union Army. Wyatt's three older brothers enlisted in the Union Army while Wyatt stayed home and tended the farm. Finally, at the tender age of fifteen, the lure of the Civil War overwhelmed Wyatt. He ran away from home and enlisted in the army. As luck would have it, the first person Wyatt encountered among the army ranks was his father, who promptly sent him home, back to the cornfield.
In 1864 Nicholas' hitch in the army ran out. Although Nicholas was against secession, he disagreed with freeing the slaves. The elder Earp organized a wagon train of forty families with similar ideas against emancipation, and headed to California.
Before the Earps started westward, Nicholas gave Wyatt his first firearm. It was a clumsy weapon—but it proved to be a valuable tool for a wagon train on the move. Wyatt kept the party well supplied with fresh game. Dangers encountered on this trip changed Wyatt from a boy to a man.
Wyatt grew into a handsome, rugged, hard-working man. He was six feet and one quarter inch tall, slender, with powerful flair. Though people knew him to be quiet, good natured and dependable, anyone questioning Wyatt's capability could later testify to his physical prowess.
In 1870, Wyatt worked his way to LaMar, Missouri, where he fell in love and married Urilla Sutherland. Wyatt Earp's father conducted the wedding ceremony, although, Nicholas Earp was not a Justice of the Peace. Their time together as husband and wife was short. Tragedy struck Wyatt's life, his beloved bride died within the first year. Heartbroken and tired of waiting tables in his father-in-law's inn and serving as Constable of Lamar, Wyatt set out for the West. He did not remarry for nearly 40 years.
The following year found Wyatt in trouble and in a Cherokee Nation jail—accused of stealing horses. However, Wyatt paid his bail and fled before his case came to trial. Later, Earp continued working as a lawman. Carrying the badges of Policeman, Deputy Sheriff and Deputy U.S. Marshal, Wyatt kept law and order in many western towns. Moonlighting jobs as a Faro and Monte card dealer and player supplemented the lawman's income.
How did an accused outlaw become a sheriff? Anyone able to handle a gun in the frontier, was a valuable asset for the law. Besides gun handling skill, Wyatt's personality traits—absolute confidence in himself, strength, proficiency and courage made him an ideal candidate for sheriff.
Above all, Wyatt Earp had a well-grounded faith in his own talents.
In 1879, Wyatt and his two brothers, (known as the Fighting Earps), arrived in Tombstone, Arizona. Two years later, the Earps and Doc Holliday fought the historic gun fight at the O.K. Corral. The shoot out left three dead and three wounded. Only Wyatt escaped unharmed.
During the early days of President McKinley's administration, the government asked Earp to become United States Marshal of Arizona, a position he declined. At the age of 60 he married his second wife, Josephine Marcus. Josie and Wyatt headed to Alaska to investigate the Gold Rush.
In spite of Wyatt's colorful and eventful life, he lived to the ripe old age of 80. He spent his last years in Los Angeles and died on January 13, 1929. Wyatt Earp had no children and was buried in the Marcus family plot in a small Jewish cemetery in Colma, California.
Many tales told about Wyatt Earp are undoubtedly true. However, as with any folk hero, history cannot document some legends. The mists of time have obliterated many facts.
Nevertheless, we do know that a boy, who later became a famous U.S. Deputy Marshal, lived in Pella on the site of the Pella Historical Village.