Volume 17 , Issue 40

NW Okie's Journey

It turned cool down in Houston, Texas a few days ago. Nice outside weather, but this NW Okie misses her Colorado, snow-packed mountains. But the research goes on, a day late as usual.

This week we are researching the four Earp brothers and their sister, Jessie. We came across this 1881, December 30, Friday, page 1, newspaper article in The Leavenworth Times, out of Leavenworth, Kansas: "Murdering A Marshal." A gang of cowboys attempt to end the life of an officer. We are finding in our research that Wyatt and his Earp brothers were no heroes. Especially like the television western portrayed them.

Murdering A Marshal
Tombstone, Ariz. Territory, December 29 (1881) -- Deputy United States Marshal Earp, was fired upon while crossing Fifth street last night by three men, armed with shot guns. The assassins were concealed in an unfurnished building, and escaped in the darkness. fourteen shots struck Earp, indicting dangerous and perhaps mortal wounds. The assault was undoubtedly the out growth of a recent fight with the cowboys in which Earp was engaged. The gang since threatened the life of Earp and his supporters. The citizens were much excited.

Arizona, Escape of A Stage Robber

In The Record-Union, out of Sacramento, California, 12 September 1881, Monday, page 1, we find this little tidbit concerning Earp and McMasters: "Escape of A Stage Robber."

Tombstone, September 10th (1881) -- An attempt was made last night about 10 o'clock to arrest McMasters, one of the men who robbed the Globe stage last winter. Owing to McMasters being warned, he escaped. Marshal Earp fired five shots at him, but he got into a deep arroyo north of town and made good his escape. About 1 o'clock two valuable horses belonging to the Contention mine were stolen, it was supposed by McMasters and his confederate, one Ringed. Ringed was the man who robbed a poker game of $1,000 with a Winchester rifle about a month before at Galleyville, California district, this county. There was no trace of them yet.

1881, December 22, A Fierce Fight
Found on Newspapers.com

The People's Press, out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, dated 22 December 1881, Thursday, page 4, had the following headlines: "A Fierce Fight." The particulars of a terrible affray in an Arizona Town with thirty shots in twenty seconds.

The Nugget, a paper published in Tombstone, Arizona, gave the following graphic account of a fierce fight which occurred in that place not long before. The origin of the trouble dated back to the first arrest of Stillwell and Spencer for the robbery of the Bisbee stage. The co-operation of the Earps with the sheriff and his deputies in the arrest, causing a number of the cowboys to, it was said, threaten shelves of all interested in the capture. Still, nothing occurred to indicate that any such threats would be carried into execution. Tuesday night Ike Clanton and Doc Holliday and some difficulty in the Alhambra saloon. Hard words passed between them,a nd when they parted it was generally understood that the feeling between the two was that of intense hatred. The 28 December 1881, in the morning, Clanton came on the street armed with a rifle and revolver, but was immediately arrested by Marshal Earp, disarmed, and fined by Justice Wallace for carrying concealed weapons. While in the courtroom Wyatt Earp told him, as he had made threats against his life, he wanted him to make his fight, to say how, when and where he would fight, and to get his crowd, and he (Wyatt) would be on hand.

A short time after this William Clanton and Frank McLowry came into town, and, as Thomas Mclowry was already there, the feeling soon became general that a fight would ensue before the day was over, and crowds of expectant men stood on the corner of Allen and Fourth streets awaiting the coming conflict. It was about 2 o'clock, and at this time Sheriff Behan appeared upon the scene and told Marshal Earp that if he disarmed his posse, composed of Morgan and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, he would go down to the O. K. Corral, where Ike and James Clanton and Frank and Tom McLowry were, and disarm them. The marshal did not desire to do this until assured that there was no danger of an attack from the other party. The sheriff went to the corral and told the cowboys that they must put their arms away and not have any trouble. Ike Clanton and tom McLowry said they were not armed, and Frank McLowry said he would not lay his aside. In the mean time the marshal had concluded to go, and, if possible, end the matter by disarming them; and as he and his posse came down Fremont street toward the corral the sheriff stepped out and said, "Hold up, boys. Don't go down there or there will be trouble. I have been down there to disarm them."

But they passed on, and when within a few feet of them the marshal said to the Clantons and McLowrys, "Throw up your hands, boys, I intend to disarm you."

As he spoke Frank McLowry made a motion to draw a revolver, when Wyatt Earp pulled his and shot him, the ball striking on the right side of his abdomen. About the same time Doc Holliday shot Tom McLowry in the right side, using a shotgun, such as was carried by Well's Fargo & Co's messengers.

In the meantime Billy Clanton had a shot at Morgan Earp, the ball passing through the pint of theft shoulder blade across his back, just grazing the backbone and coming out at the right shoulder, the ball remaining inside his shirt. He fell to the ground, but in an instant gathered himself, and, rising to a sitting position, fired at Frank McLowry as he crossed Fremont street at the same instant Doc Holliday shot him, both balls taking effect, lighter of which would have proved fatal, as one of them struck him the right temple and the other in the left breast. As he started across the street he pulled his gun down on Holliday, telling him, "I've got you now."

This shot of McLowry's passed through Hooliday's pistol pocket, just grazing the skin. While this was going on Billy Clanton had shot Virgil Earp in the right leg, the ball passing through the calf, inflicting a server flesh wound. In turn he had been shot by Morgan Earp in the right wrist and once in the left breast. Soon after the shooting commenced Ike Clanton ran through the O.L. Corral across Allen street into Kellogg's saloon, and thence into Doughnut street, where he was arrested and taken to the county jail. The firing altogether did not occupy more than twenty seconds, during which time fully thirty shots were fired. After the fight was over Billy Clanton, wo with wonderful vitality survived his wounds for fully an hour, was carried into a house, where he laid, and everything possible done to make his last moments easy. He was game to the last, never uttering a word of complaint, and just before breathing his last he said, "Goodbye, boys; of away and let me die."

The wounded were taken to their houses, and at 3 o'clock that morning were resting comfortably. The dead bodies were taken in charge by the coroner. If there was such a thing as sand the shooting the day before bore evidence that some men pack around enough of the gritty substance to start a grindstone quarry.

Everybody engaged knew that their lives were liable to be put out by the pulling of a trigger, and no man winced or wavered a hair. After being shot down and the life blood flowing away, both young Clanton and Frank McLowry still kept up the fire on their opponents, and asked no quarter. With great holes pierced through their bodies by the leaden messages of death, their sole anxiety seemed to be to return shot for shot, and only when the spark of life ceased to burn did they relinquish their hold on the death dealing revolver, and they sank to earth as the smoke from their weapons ascended as from a funeral pyre.

HAs said in the 1881 article, "Who says it does not require courage to stand and listen to the music of a half a dozen six-shooters, singing a death march in unison every time the hammers came down? But these men died as they would probably have chosen to die had they had their choice. From he wild life they led, the dangers they encounter, and the chances they take in their chosen profession, it is a part of their creed that they must be ushered into the next world amid a pyrotechnic display and the whistling of bullets."

Have we in the twenty-first century decided that to carry and conceal weapons (guns) that we want to return to the frontier days of shootouts in the streets at all costs to innocent lives?

Good Night! Good Luck!
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