Virgil Walter Earp (July 18, 1843 – October 19, 1905) was an American lawman. He was both deputy U.S. marshal and the city marshal of Tombstone, in the Arizona Territory when he led his younger brothers Wyatt and Morgan, and Doc Holliday, in a confrontation with outlaw Cowboys at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881. They killed brothers Tom and Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton. All three Earp brothers had been the target of repeated death threats made by the Cowboys who were upset by the Earps' interference in their illegal activities. All four lawmen were charged with murder by Ike Clanton, who had run from the gunfight. During a month-long preliminary hearing, Judge Wells Spicer exonerated the men, concluding their actions were legally justified.
However, two months later on December 28, friends of the slain outlaws retaliated, ambushing Virgil. They shot him in the back, hitting him with three shotgun rounds, shattering his left arm and leaving him permanently maimed. The Cowboys suspected were let off for lack of evidence. His brother Morgan Earp was assassinated in March 1882. Charges against those suspected were dismissed on a technicality. Wyatt Earp, appointed as deputy U.S. Marshal to replace Virgil, concluded he could not rely on civil justice and decided to take matters into his own hands. Wyatt assembled a federal posse that included their brother Warren Earp and set out on a vendetta to kill those they felt were responsible. Virgil left Tombstone to recuperate from his wounds in Colton, California, where his parents lived.
Virgil married before he left to serve in the Union Army during the American Civil War. When he returned, his wife and child had left. He held a variety of other jobs throughout his life, though he primarily worked in law enforcement. His younger brother Wyatt, who spent most of his life as a gambler, became better known as a lawman because of writer Stuart N. Lake's fictionalized 1931 biography Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal and later portrayals of him in movies and fiction as Old West's "toughest and deadliest gunmen of his day." In 1898, Virgil learned that his first wife Ellen Rysdam and their daughter were living in Oregon and reestablished contact with them. After suffering from pneumonia for six months, Virgil died on October 19, 1905.
Early life Virgil Earp was born in Hartford, Kentucky, the second son of Nicholas Earp and Virginia Ann Cooksey.
Marriage to Ellen Rysdam
In February 1860, while living in Pella, Iowa, 16-year-old Virgil eloped with 17-year-old Dutch immigrant Magdalena C. "Ellen" Rysdam (October 25, 1842, in Utrecht, Netherlands – May 3, 1910, in Cornelius, Oregon). One report states that they saw each other only occasionally and kept their marriage secret until Ellen was about to deliver their first child. When her parents Gerrit Rysdam and Magdalena Catrina Van Velzen learned of the marriage, they were furious, as they preferred that she marry a man who was also Dutch. Virgil's father thought he was too young to marry. Both parents wanted to get the marriage annulled. One source reports that Rysdam was successful, but another says her father failed because Virgil and Ellen refused to reveal where they had been married. They also claimed they had used false names, which would have made the marriage invalid in any case.
Virgil and Ellen remained together for a year in spite of his and her parents' disapproval. On July 26, 1861, Virgil enlisted at age 18 in the Union Army. Ellen had a daughter named Nellie Jane, born January 7, 1862 or in July 1862. Virgil was mustered in to the Illinois Volunteer Infantry for three years on September 21, 1862.
Civil War service
Virgil enlisted as a private in Company C of the 83rd Illinois Infantry on July 26, 1862, and mustered into service on August 21. The 83rd fought at the Battle of Dover and then was primarily on garrison duty in Tennessee. Virgil was court-martialed for a minor offense and docked two weeks pay as punishment.
In the summer of 1863 while Virgil was on active duty, Ellen's father told her that Virgil had been killed in Tennessee. In early 1864, Ellen married a Dutch man named John Van Rossum, and in May of that year they joined a large group who relocated from Pella, Iowa, to the Oregon Territory.
When Virgil was discharged from the military on June 26, 1865, he returned to Iowa but could not find his wife and daughter. He hired on at a local farm and helped operate a grocery store, before leaving for California to join the rest of the Earp family. In 1868, Nicholas Earp took the family east again, eventually settling in Lamar, Missouri. On August 28, 1870, Virgil married Rosella Dragoo (born in France in 1853) in Lamar. His father as justice of the peace married them, but there are no further records of Rosella.
Allie Sullivan
Virgil later met Alvira "Allie" Sullivan from Florence, Nebraska, in 1874. She was a waitress at the Planter's House Hotel in Council Bluffs, Iowa. They never married but remained together the rest of his life. During the remainder of his life, Virgil worked at a variety of jobs, including peace officer, farmer, rail construction in Wyoming, stagecoach driver, sawmill sawyer in Prescott, Arizona Territory, mailman, and later in life, prospector. The Earp brothers were close and often moved together, seeking a better life. Virgil spent time in Dodge City, Kansas, in 1877 with his younger brother Wyatt. Although there is no record of Virgil ever holding any law enforcement position there, Allie claimed he briefly worked as a deputy town marshal with Wyatt.
Arrival in Arizona From Dodge City, Virgil and Allie arrived in Yavapai County, Arizona, in July 1877. Virgil lived in Camp Verde, Arizona, where he first delivered mail and drove passengers between Camp Verde and Prescott on the Star Line stage. By October 1877 Virgil and Allie had moved to Prescott, Arizona, where he later owned a woodcutting business outside of town.
On October 16, 1877, U.S. Marshal Wiley Standifer, Yavapai County Sheriff Edward Franklin Bowers, Prescott Constable Frank Murray, Virgil Earp, and Colonel William Henry McCall attempted to arrest John Tallos and accused murderer George Wilson. While the others rode on horseback or carriages, Virgil ran on foot after the posse that pursued the two men to the edge of town, where a gun fight broke out. Virgil spotted one of the two men under a tree, reloading his pistol. Using a Winchester rifle from a distance, Virgil shot him through the head, killing him.
Virgil was shortly afterwards offered a job as a driver for Patterson, Caldwell & Levally, a local freight company, during which he met John J. Gosper, Secretary of the Arizona Territory. Gosper was acting Governor in the place of Governor John C. Frémont, who was frequently absent. When Crawley Dake was appointed U.S. Marshal, he and Virgil became friends. In 1878, Virgil was appointed as Prescott's night watchman, which paid $75 a month.
In November 1878, he was elected as constable for Prescott, for which he received fees for serving summonses, subpoenas, writs and warrants. While constable, Virgil wrote his brother Wyatt about the opportunities in the silver-mining boomtown of Tombstone. In September 1879, Wyatt resigned as assistant marshal in Dodge City. Accompanied by his common-law wife Mattie Blaylock, his brother Jim and his wife Bessie, they left for Las Vegas in the New Mexico Territory. There they were reconnected with Doc Holliday and his common-law wife Kate Horony, who had been running a gambling business until the territorial legislature banned gambling. Virgil and his wife met the others in Prescott.
Appointed deputy U.S. marshal With Virgil leaving for Tombstone, U.S. Marshal Crawley Dake appointed him as deputy U.S. marshal for the Tombstone District of Pima County on November 27, 1879. He was instructed by Dake to help resolve ongoing problems with outlaw Cowboys. But the job did not pay much. He was mostly on call helping county and city officials.
In an interview after he left Tombstone, Virgil said that "The first stage that went out of Prescott toward Tombstone was robbed. Robberies were frequent and became expensive." Virgil and his brothers Wyatt and Jim and their wives arrived together in Tombstone on December 1, 1879.
Tombstone City marshal On October 30, 1880, after town marshal Fred White was accidentally shot and killed by outlaw and gunman "Curly Bill" Brocius, Virgil was appointed acting town marshal of Tombstone. Virgil now held both the more powerful local town marshal position and the prestigious federal law enforcement appointment. As town marshal, Virgil earned a regular salary of $100 a month plus a percentage of city taxes he collected.
But Virgil did not hold the job for long. The city held a special election on November 13, and Tombstone city policemen James Flynn and Ben Sippy competed for the job. But then Flynn dropped out of the race and Sippy beat Virgil for the office, 311 votes to Earp's 259. On January 4, 1881, the city held its first regular election, and Virgil lost to Sippy once again.
However, Sippy was known to be in financial trouble. He requested a two-week leave of absence on June 6, 1881, and never returned. The city council once again appointed Virgil as temporary city marshal. On June 22, the center section of Tombstone was devastated by a fire. Virgil kept looting under control and chased off lot jumpers who tried to take over property. On June 28, it was learned that Sippy had left about $3,000 in bad debt and financial improprieties in his office. Virgil was appointed by Tombstone Mayor John Clum as the permanent city marshal and paid $150.00 per month.
Conflict with Cowboys
To reduce crime in Tombstone, the city council enacted an ordinance in April 1881 that prohibited anyone from carrying a deadly weapon in town. Everyone was required to deposit their weapons at a livery or saloon soon after entering town. A long-simmering feud between the Earps and some of the Cowboys played a big role in a gunfight that broke out when Virgil decided to enforce the ordinance on Wednesday, October 26, 1881.
Virgil was told by several concerned citizens that several Cowboys, who had been threatening the Earps for several months, were in town and armed in violation of the ordinance. Assisted by his deputy Morgan Earp and temporary deputies Wyatt Earp and John "Doc" Holliday, Virgil went to disarm Frank and Tom McLaury, Ike and Billy Clanton, and Billy Claiborne. That confrontation turned into a shootout now known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Modern media depictions of Wyatt Earp made him into a legend. He is often depicted as the central lawman in the shootout, but Virgil was Tombstone City marshal and a deputy U.S. marshal. Although Wyatt had previously served in Wichita, Kansas, and Dodge City as a lawman, Virgil had three years of Civil War service, and had previously worked in law enforcement as a sheriff, constable, and marshal. Virgil made the decision to enforce a city ordinance prohibiting carrying weapons in town and to disarm the Cowboys. While Wyatt had acted as city marshal the week prior when Virgil was out of town, Wyatt was on that day only a temporary assistant marshal to his brother.VIRGIL EARP: IN A BROTHER’S SHADOW