Wyatt Earp example essay topic

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was born on March 19, 1848 in Monmouth, Illinois. His father Nicholas was a lawyer who preferred a life of farming. From an early age, Wyatt learned from his father to stand up for what was right. When Wyatt was two years old, the family moved to Iowa. In 1861, the Civil War broke out, and Wyatt's father and three older brothers joined the Union Army. Soon after, Wyatt ran away to enlist, but his father caught him and sent him back home.

In 1864, Nicholas left the army, and the family set out for the West. It took seven months to travel from Iowa to California. On the way they encountered Indians at Fort Laramie. The Earps settled in San Bernardino, where Nicholas bought a ranch.

It was assumed that Wyatt would study to be a lawyer, but instead he became a stagecoach driver for the Banning Stage Line. He traveled between Los Angeles and Prescott, Arizona. In 1868, Wyatt went to work for the Union Pacific Railroad in Wyoming, where he was able to save some money. In 1870, he returned to Monmouth, where he married a girl named Ur illa Sutherland on January 10, 1870.

Sadly, she died a few months after their marriage from typhoid. After the death of his wife, Earp moved on to Lamar, Missouri, where he worked as the town Marshall for a year. Ellsworth was mean, and it was ugly. The stench of the its streets fell second to the odor of the un bathed saddle tramps who had just delivered 150,000 cattle from San Antonio to its freight yards. Adding to these smells were the blends of whisky, tanning leather, kerosene and carved carcasses, a revolting combination. Gunfights were spontaneous, either over a woman or a card game.

When Wyatt crossed the Smoky Hill River into Ellsworth in 1873, he may have remembered the 'rules of the gunman,' but had no intention of employing them. The two main "rules of a gunman" were to take his time and always be armed. Although many people had warned him that it would be naive to go westward without being properly armed, Wyatt didn't own a gun. All he hoped for was to find a peaceable job. But, only hours after hitching his horse in town he began to wonder if perhaps everyone was right.

The most boisterous spot in town was Brennan's Saloon, off Ellsworth Square; its faro and poker tables buzzed 24 hours, bartenders tapped beer and poured whisky constantly. Brothers Ben and Bill Thompson showed up to open their gambling concessions in town. Drinking establishments, like Brennan's, welcomed these dealers and gave them a percentage of the house take for the trade they generated. Both of the Thompsons were crooks; and they were killers.

Wyatt had heard of them and, although sensing the gambler's urge many an evening, avoided their tables. Wyatt had been in town only short term when he found himself at odds with the Thompson brothers. Lingering in the shade of a balcony outside Brennan's Saloon one afternoon, he became aware of loud name calling bouncing back and forth between two men inside the gin mill. From what he deduced, it sounded like a simple case of card-game larceny. He didn't pay much attention to the disturbance until Sheriff Whitney and two deputies appeared on the boardwalk and turned into the saloon. A cowboy was telling the sheriff that he had been swindled out of money by the fast hands of gambler Bill Thompson.

Both the Thompsons denied it. But, when the lawman threatened to break up the game once and for all, Bill produced a double-barreled shotgun from below his chair and, at point-blank range, fired a volley into the sheriff's chest. Horrified and dismayed, Wyatt watched the pair of deputies cower into the sidelines, then sulk out the side door without even the decency to take their boss's body off the floor. It was more than Wyatt could take.

'What kind of a town is this?' he snapped at the deputies who now stood meekly across the square. Between them, equally timid, was Mayor Jim Miller. Everyone wondered what the tall blonde stranger was up to when he borrowed a pair of six shooters from a nearby spectator, shoved them in his belt, and followed Ben Thompson's footsteps. He caught up with him outside the Grand Central Hotel a block away. Wyatt confronted Thompson and told him to come peacefully or draw.

Thompson, clearly scared, dropped his gun belt and turned himself in. After witnessing the killing of the local sheriff, Wyatt was given the job by the mayor. However, he turned down the job. The story of the Ellsworth episode spread fast, from cow town to cow town. Some lanky, buffalo hunter named Wyatt Earp had faced down the infamous Ben Thompson. It had reached Wichita by the time Wyatt appeared there in May of 1874 to visit his brother James.

It was just a coincidence that Ben Thompson also resided in Wichita. At first, threats reached his ears through second parties. His own brother Jim had overheard a certain George Peshaur saying what he planned to do to Wyatt the first chance he found him alone. Town Mayor Jim Hope offered him the position of deputy marshal of Wichita. It was Hope's recommendation that, if Wyatt planned to stay there, he accept the job. Wyatt agreed that, it might discourage the criminals, and if it didn't, then he'd be able to take on the criminals legally.

Wyatt was named deputy marshal of Wichita, Kansas. Since Wichita was, in many ways, as untamed as Ellsworth had been, he found many opportunities to make his mark felt. His superiors found the new hire to be delightfully more than they expected, for he immediately administrated new regulations to discourage after-hours drinking, and gun toting. Like it or not, he realized that he had acquired a reputation in Ellsworth that demanded maintaining if he hoped to survive.

George Peshaur and his buddies were out to push him, to test their advantage against this new lawman. Wyatt knew that test was coming and he armed himself both psychologically and with a set of new guns from the Colt gun maker. Many times, in fact, Peshaur delayed him outside the Keno House to taunt, but Wyatt merely laughed in his face. 'Go home, Peshaur, you " re drunk again,' he would say. Wyatt gained local notoriety and respect as a Wichita police officer. He had many run-ins with criminals there.

On a blistering midsummer afternoon, as Wyatt worked his rounds along the shanties of Douglas Avenue, he found his path suddenly blocked by more than a dozen scowling faces; among them were Peshaur and two sidekicks, Ed Morrison and Shanghai Pierce. All were heavily armed. Wyatt went down an alley to lead the gang on a chase through several yards until he ran into a general store where he grabbed a shotgun and loaded it. There, he turned the advantage the outlaws thought they had had, by meeting them head-on out front, the barrel of his shotgun tapping Ed Morrison's nostrils. A relieved Morrison watched as his pals dropped their guns as one into the dirt.

Marshall Smith came running from his office to help Wyatt gather the weapons. After arresting Pierce, as well as several of Pierce's men, Wyatt made many enemies. But, Peshaur still needed to learn one last lesson. And Wyatt was prepared teach it.

It wasn't long after the previous display when Wyatt found himself enduring Peshaur's insults again, outside Cogswell's Cigar Store. Even though Peshaur was a much taller and meatier man, Wyatt challenged him to a 'peaceable' fistfight. The pair removed to Cogswell's back room. Wyatt proceeded to beat up Peshaur until he gave in. Forty Texan cowboys approached the town, and Wyatt met them on the bridge. He stood up to a known killer named Mannen Clements, and the cowboys left.

Clements had heard of what Wyatt was capable of and when Wyatt didn't back down, Clements did. It was the last time Wichita experienced such violence. In 1874, Wyatt was named deputy marshal of Wichita, Kansas. Wyatt used some political connections to get appointed as a city policeman. He had many run-ins with criminals there, one of them the notorious John Wesley Hardin and a rich Texan named Abel 'Shanghai' Pierce.

The violence soon moved from Wichita, Kansas to Dodge City. In 1876, Mayor Hoover, of Dodge City requested the services of Wyatt. Wyatt obliged and became deputy marshal. Once deputized, Earp hired several other deputies. He hired his brothers Morgan and Virgil, Bat and Jim Masterson, Joe Mason, and Neal Brown to help him keep order. Dodge City didn't seem to want law and order; both seemed unnecessary commodities.

Now that the cattlemen had come with their 200,000 heads of cattle, their throats dry, and their handguns loaded, Marshal Larry Deer felt overwhelmed. He was the last of a long line of officers who had been run out of town or shot in the back. He was overjoyed when Wyatt appeared, for Wyatt wasted no time in 'laying down the law'. Wyatt's first act was to draw a line across the town and forbid guns, except those carried by lawmen, north of that line. Farmers and cowboys had to check their weapons before entering the town. The town's rowdies could keep to the south side of town and they would be left alone.

But if they crossed the line, they could expect to be carted off to jail. Wyatt and his men made many arrests each day. Wyatt also kept loaded guns at strategic locations about the town so he would always be ready to take care of a problem. As in Wichita, the bad men grumbled at Wyatt's appointment. Much worse to them was the fact that Wyatt began investing in Dodge property, which indicated his intended longevity.

One of their first reactions, therefore, was to pay a professional killer to slay the mighty Wyatt Earp. The infamous Clay Allison from Las Animas, New Mexico. Allison was a 26-year-old, clever, quick-trigger who had a lethal hatred for the law. He recently had been tried for the murder of Las Animas' marshal, but despite many witnesses, an obviously threatened jury found him innocent.

If there was a demon designed for the job of killing Wyatt, Allison was it. Allison's stay in Dodge proved brief and unsuccessful. Wyatt had known of the contract on him and when Allison arrived in town, Earp was there to meet him. They met outside the Long Branch Saloon and, while the cowboys watched, the two notables had a long sober discussion. Whatever words were exchanged is still a mystery, but that same afternoon Allison rode out of town to never return.

Dodge City attracted more than just villains. It also attracted journalists come to write not so much about the town as about Wyatt Earp. Dime novel writer Ned Buntline, for one, found Wyatt great pulp material. In gratitude, he presented Wyatt and his deputies with a specially made Colt. 45; its barrel was four inches longer than the standard, it had an attachable rifle stock for shoulder aiming and came in its own finely tooled holster. After eight months, Wyatt had tamed Dodge City, and he began to get restless.

He traveled to Deadwood City in the Dakotas, where he sold wood to the miners. Wyatt pocketed more than $5,000, and then headed to Texas. In Texas Wyatt worked as a cattle detective. While hunting rustler, Dave Rudabaugh, he met Doc Holliday. Wyatt and Doc then went to Cheyenne, Wyoming. In Cheyenne, a telegram was waiting that asking Wyatt to return to Dodge City.

In April of 1877, he went back to Dodge City. By then, he was enjoying a reputation as a tough lawman. Wyatt was again named marsha l, and his brothers Virgil and Morgan worked as his deputies. That summer an anonymous horseman tried to kill Earp, but Earp, always quick on his feet, ducked the shots and killed the rider. Several Texan cowboys also tried to kill Wyatt, but they were not successful. It was during his Dodge City days that, around 1877, Wyatt met Celia Anne Blaylock, whom he affectionately called 'Mattie'.

She was probably a saloon girl. Not much is known about her, but it appears she may have come from Fort Scott, Kansas. Seemingly, they never married, but kept company as husband and wife under the strict Victorian moral code. At first, the couple was happy, but Mattie's deepening dependency on laudanum, acquired because of an illness, would soon put a strain on their relationship. They would remain together over the next three and a half years. The following year, Earp came close to losing his life again.

A large group of Cheyenne Indians had passed near the town and some of the townsfolk figured they would go out and kill a few. Earp remained in town, refusing to participate. While the town was practically deserted, Tobe Driskill and some hired hands trapped Earp at the Long Branch Saloon. Driskill had a grudge against Earp. Just when Earp thought the end was near, Doc Holliday saved the day and shot one of the cowboys.

It was enough distraction that Wyatt was able to talk himself out of it. After that, only a couple of other violent incidents occurred, before Dodge City settled down to a quiet little town. Dodge had become so quiet that Wyatt found himself spending more time gambling than marshaling. Earp got bored and decided to move on. Cashing in his real estate, he handed in his resignation. As he told Mayor Kelley, he had an itching for a more peaceful existence, perhaps go into a business where 'I'm not a target for every drunken cowboy seeking a reputation.

' In 1879, Wyatt traveled to Tombstone, Arizona, where big silver strikes were making men rich. According to Virgil, Tombstone offered wonderful business opportunities, because it was only a couple of years old, but growing by leaps and bounds with already a thousand people. Clever entrepreneurs were opening hotels and gin mills and breweries and milliners and many other types of commerce to meet the needs of the growing populace His brother James and his family went to Tombstone with Earp. Upon his arrival at Tucson, on the way to Tombstone, his old friend Charles Shi bell appointed him deputy sheriff of Pima County. Wyatt arrived with Mattie on December 1, 1879, and immediately felt its energy. In January, brother Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday came to Tombstone too.

Virgil was deputy marshal, Morgan become a city policeman, James ran a saloon frequented by city reformers, and now Wyatt, who held sway over Tombstone's most popular saloon and guard-dogged town monies. John Behan was the sheriff of Tombstone, and Wyatt did not trust him. Behan had ties to many outlaws in the region, and he allowed men that Wyatt arrested to escape from jail. The town was only a few months old, it was already full of outlaws. The most famous outlaws were John Ringo, Curly Bill Brocius, and the Clanton brothers. The lawmen and the outlaws were always at odds.

The most famous incident of Wyatt Earp's career was the shootout at O.K. Corral. Throughout the summer season of 1881, threats against the Earp Brothers increased. Ike Clanton, Johnny Ringo, 'Curly Bill' Brocius and others of their type would often be heard telling a barroom-full how they were going to kill Wyatt Earp. The shootout occurred on October 26 of that year.

All day, Oct. 25, Ike Clanton had been drunk, waddling from one gin mill to another. His denouncements of the Earps and Holliday were expletive and singed with violence. By nightfall, he had made his way to the Occidental Saloon for a card game with Tom McLaury. An angry Doc Holliday, who had heard of the boasts, confronted him. 'I heard you " re going to kill me, Ike,' he said. 'Get out your gun and commence.

' Virgil Earp pulled Holliday away from Clanton, but Clanton followed, promising 'to kill you tomorrow when the others come to town. ' Spotting Wyatt on the streets, the fired-up Clanton continued. 'Tell your consumptive friend, your Arizona night in " gale, he's a dead man tomorrow!' To which Wyatt sarcastically replied, 'Don't you tangle with Doc Holliday, he " ll kill you before you " ve begun. ' And thus the stage was set for what was to become known as the Gunfight at O.K. Corral, which still generates story and legend to this day.

The shootout was not actually in the corral but on a vacant lot near an assay office and Fly's Photographic Gallery. The Mclaury and Clantons met near the O.K. Corral. The Earps, in anticipation of trouble, woke early. Wyatt had tried to avoid a fight and hoped he still could. Most of the Clanton allies were deadly shots and, if they decided to open up, he and his brothers would have no recourse but to shoot back. From his hotel window, Virgil watched Billy Clanton ride into town, accompanied by friend Billy Claiborne.

They met the McLaury brothers and Ike Clanton on Allen Street. The Clantons were egging for a fight; it was obvious to many. Various members of the town's Citizens' Committee conferred with Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil Earp on the walkway and offered their assistance in the event of trouble. Wyatt thanked them, but told them it was his and his brothers' responsibility as law officers. About two o'clock that afternoon, Sheriff John Behan told the Earp brothers about some outlaws that were in town. He said that they had been bragging about how they would take down the Earp brothers.

He tells the Earp brothers they should go arrest the bad men before there can be any kind of a confrontation. Unfortunately, it appears Behan then went and warned the outlaws that the sheriff was coming. Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp, along with Doc Holliday headed to the intersection of Third Street and Fremont Street, which was less than a block from O.K. Corral. Just up the street, Tom McLaury sees them coming. He warns the others, Frank, Billy, and Ike Clanton, Billy Claiborne, and his brother Frank. As the lawmen draw close to the outlaws, Sheriff Behan appears near Bauer's Meat Market and tells them that he has disarmed the outlaws so that a shootout won't be necessary.

However Virgil Earp, who was actually the sheriff, while the others were deputies, insisted that the gang be arrested. When the lawmen approached the outlaws, Virgil Earp commanded that they give up their guns and surrender. What happened then is still very much unsettled. Because it happened in a span of no more than 40 seconds even the participants couldn't be sure. No one could later target who had shot first, but Doc Holliday seemed to have scored the first hit.

His bullet tore through Frank McLaury's stomach sending McLaury's own shot wild through Wyatt's coattail. Billy Clanton fired at Virgil, but his shot too went astray when Morgan's shot entered his rib cage. Billy Claiborne had run at the first blast and was already out of sight. Ike Clanton, too, panicked and threw his gun down, pleading for his life. Desperately, wounded and dying, Billy Clanton fired blindly into the gun smoke encircling him, striking Virgil's leg. He then fell lifeless from a final volley from Wyatt's Buntline Special.

An immediate silence followed. The battle lasted less than a minute, and Tom and Frank McLaury, as well as Billy Clanton, were killed. Townspeople ran from their homes and shops to see what had happened. John Club and the Citizens Committee called for wagons to convey wounded Morgan and Virgil to their respective homes; doctors followed those wagons. Wyatt walked from the scene, wondering what had happened and how it happened. He became conscious of Behan beside him, advising him he was under arrest.

Behan arrested the Earps and Doc Holliday for murder. After a month long trial, it was determined they acted within the law. Over the past several months, Johnny Ringo, Billy Brocius and the other rustlers had been involved in a series of territorial stage holdups. Ike Clanton attempted to kill Wyatt and Morgan while they were playing pool. Morgan was killed, and Wyatt vowed revenge.

Judge Spicer and other businessmen contacted Acting Territorial Governor George Gasper and Territorial Marshal Crawley Drake for help. They gave Wyatt what he had hoped for: a commission as U.S. Marshal to go after the outlaws. Encouraged by the overdue show of justice, both Wells Fargo and the Southern Pacific Railroad agreed to fund Wyatt's posse and equipment. His first victim, at a shootout in Tucson, was Frank Stillwell. He also assembled a posse and shot Florentine Cruz and William B. Graham.

Sheriff Behan, who wanted to arrest Wyatt, was tracking his every move. The night that Wyatt and his posse were about to leave Tombstone, he tried to serve him with an arrest warrant for the murder of Stillwell, a warrant obtained from a naive judge in Tucson. Wyatt pushed him aside and lifted himself into his saddle. Wyatt was unable to find Pete Spence and Ike Clanton, but within a couple of years all would die performing criminal acts.

When Arizona Territory officials began researching Behan's record, they found that they were able to build up quite a file against him in no time. He resigned in 1882 and left Tombstone. Unfortunately for Wyatt, he was eventually forced to flee Arizona himself because of the Stillwell warrant so he headed to Colorado with Doc Holliday. He and brother Warren tried their hands in various gold camps of Colorado. In 1884 they tried the silver strikes in the Idaho Panhandle, but they had no luck. From there the brothers split and Earp headed back to Texas.

He was only there a short while, when he moved to San Diego, where he set up a thoroughbred ranch. In July 1888 his wife Celia Anne "Mattie" Blaylock died. In 1896 Wyatt got remarried. He married Josephine Sarah Marcus. In San Diego, Wyatt bought and sold real estate. From San Diego, Wyatt moved to San Jose and started a racehorse farm.

The two spent the next several years wandering among the gold and silver boom towns of the West. In 1897, Wyatt headed to Alaska after gold had been discovered. He didn't strike gold in Alaska, but he was successful in the Colorado River valley. They also owned oil properties and actually did quite well for themselves. He spent the rest of his life managing his mines in Colorado and his oil wells in California. Wyatt Earp died on January 13, 1929, and his fame as a lawman has continued to grow since his death.

Wyatt Earp literally shot his way into the hearts of Western America. He is familiar to the nation's people, young and old. From Ellsworth, Kansas to Tombstone, Arizona, he cleaned the streets of desperadoes in town after town. He shot coolly, he shot straight, and he shot deadly, but only in self-defense. Like any other person whose reputation leaned on firepower, there were those who wanted to test, to see if their draw was a split second quicker or if they could find a weak spot. Wyatt put many of their doubts to rest.

When the history of the western lawmen is placed in view, Earp's name leads the parade of Hickok, Masterson, Garrett, Tilghman and all the rest.

Bibliography

The Wild West. 12 Mar. 2000.
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K. Coral. 5 Jan. 2001.
30 Apr. 2001 web 2 May 2001.
2 May 2001 web Casey.
Wyatt Earp: The Life behind the Legend. Wiley, John and Sons. 1998 West, Paul.
O.K. Corral, the Earps and Doc Holliday. Simon and Schuster Trade. 2000.