page_title: Wyatt Earp
section_title: Dodge City and Deadwood
hierarchical_section_title: Wyatt Earp / Early life / Dodge City and Deadwood
caption_attribution_description: English: Celia Ann "Mattie" Blaylock was Wyatt Earp's common-law wife from about 1873 until mid-1881. After Wyatt left her for another woman, she later moved to Pinal City, Arizona Territory, where she apparently overdosed on laudanum and alcohol.
context_page_description: Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an Old West lawman and gambler in Cochise County, Arizona Territory, and a deputy marshal in Tombstone. He worked in a wide variety of trades throughout his life and took part in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which lawmen killed three outlaw Cochise County Cowboys. He is often erroneously regarded as the central figure in the shootout, although his brother Virgil was the Tombstone City and Deputy U.S. Marshal that day, and had far more experience in combat as a sheriff, constable, marshal, and soldier.
  Earp was at different times a professional gambler, teamster, and buffalo hunter. Over his lifetime, he owned several saloons, maintained a brothel, mined for silver and gold, and refereed boxing matches. He spent his early life in Pella, Iowa. In 1870, he married Urilla Sutherland, who contracted typhoid fever and died in childbirth. During the next two years, Earp was arrested for stealing a horse, escaped from jail, and was sued twice. He was arrested and fined three times in 1872 for "keeping and being found in a house of ill-fame".
context_section_description: After 1875, Dodge City, Kansas, became a major terminal for cattle drives from Texas along the Chisholm Trail. Earp was appointed assistant marshal in Dodge City under Marshal Lawrence Deger around May 1876, and he spent the winter of 1876–77 in the gold rush boomtown of Deadwood in the Dakota Territory. He and Morgan left Dodge for Deadwood  on September 9, 1876, with a team of horses, but they arrived there to find that all the land was already tied up in mining claims, so Morgan decided to return to Dodge. Instead of gambling, Wyatt made a deal to buy all the wood that a local individual had cut and put his horses to work that winter hauling firewood into camp. He made about $5,000 in profit but was unable to file any mining claims, so he returned to Dodge City in the spring. 
  He rejoined the Dodge City police in spring 1877 at the request of Mayor James H. Kelley. The Dodge City newspaper reported in July 1878 that he'd been fined $1.00 for slapping a muscular prostitute named Frankie Bell, who "heaped epithets upon the unoffending head of Mr. Earp to such an extent as to provide a slap from the ex-officer," according to the account. Bell spent the night in jail and was fined $20, while Earp's fine was the legal minimum.
  In Oct. 1877, outlaw Dave Rudabaugh robbed a Sante Fe Railroad construction camp and fled south. Earp was given a temporary commission as deputy U.S. Marshal and left Dodge City, following Rudabaugh over 400 miles (640 km) through Fort Clark, Texas, where the newspaper reported his presence on January 22, 1878, and on to Fort Griffin, Texas.
  He arrived at the frontier town on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River and went to the Bee Hive Saloon, the largest in town and owned by John Shanssey, whom Earp had known since he was 21. Shanssey told Earp that Rudabaugh had passed through town earlier in the week, but didn't know where he was headed. Shanssey suggested that Earp ask gambler Doc Holliday, who played cards with Rudabaugh. Doc told Earp that Rudabaugh was headed back into Kansas.
  By May 11, 1878, the Dodge newspapers reported that Earp had returned. The Dodge City Times noted on May 14 that he'd been appointed Assistant Marshal for $75 per month, serving under Charlie Bassett. Doc Holliday also showed up in Dodge City with his common-law wife Big Nose Kate during the summer of 1878. Ed Morrison and another two dozen cowboys rode into Dodge that summer and shot up the town, galloping down Front Street. They entered the Long Branch Saloon, vandalized and harassed the customers. Hearing the commotion, Earp burst through the front door to find numerous guns pointing at him; another version of the story has it that only 3:5 cowboys were there. In both versions, Holliday was playing cards in the back and he put his pistol at Morrison's head, forcing him and his men to disarm. Earp credited Holliday with saving his life that day, and the two became friends since.
  While in Dodge City, Earp became acquainted with James and Bat Masterson, Luke Short, and prostitute Mattie Blaylock, who became his common-law wife until 1881.
caption: Wyatt's second wife, Mattie Blaylock
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