Earp Historical Timeline Page 12

The Final Years

• 1902, February 1 - Wyatt and Josie turn up in Tonapah, Nevada. There Wyatt financed a saloon called The Northern. Wyatt also served as a deputy U.S. Marshal under Marshal J.F. Emmitt. Wyatt was also hired to chase of claim jumpers.
• 1903 - Wyatt is Los Angeles - where he angrily refutes an article that has him being beaten by a midget mountie after he supposedly was drunk and bullying. For a start, as Wyatt points out, he was never been in Dawson City. Old friend and Tombstone diarist George Parsons, also in Los Angeles at the time, was vocal in his support of Wyatt.
• 1903 - 1910 - Wyatt often works as a special assistant to the Los Angeles Police Department - taking on tasks that couldn't be performed legally like chasing fugitives into Mexico and bringing them back for trial. Wyatt uses former police officer Arthur M. King as his assistant.
• 1904, Summer - Virgil and Allie go to the camp of Goldfield, Nevada.
• 1905, February - The Tonopah paper reports that Virgil Earp is working as a bouncer in the National Club in Goldfield, Nevada.
• 1905, May - Wyatt and Josie stack out the "Happy Days" mine in Parker, Arizona. Sometime around this year Wyatt meets engineer John H. Flood who was to become his unpaid personal secretary and friend. Flood would produce a manuscript of Wyatt's life.
• 1905, October 19 - Virgil slips into death in the arms of pneumonia, an epidemic that was to claim many lives in Goldfield. Allie is holding his hand right at the end. They were together 32 years.
• 1907, November 12 - Nicholas Earp dies at the Soldier's Home in Sawtelle, California.
• 1910, October - George Parsons is asked by LAPD commissioner Tom Lewis to head up a special posse. He has a bad ankle so Wyatt Earp is chosen as second choice. This would lead to the last armed confrontation of Wyatt's career. Assistant Arthur King would later say it was the most 'nervy' thing he had seen Wyatt do.
• 1911, July 21 - Wyatt Earp is arrested on charges of running a confidence game along with some other men. The charges are dropped due to bad police procedure. Wyatt claimed he had no knowledge of the game being rigged.
• 1915 - Director Raoul Walsh tells in his autobiography about meeting Jack London and Wyatt Earp. Wyatt was friends with Jack since Alaska and clearly Wyatt was beginning to meet studio people at this time. He was to meet young Marion Morrison (John Wayne) and Tom Mix.
• 1920 - Wyatt begins an extensive correspondence with William S. Hart, silent screen cowboy star.
• 1920 - Daughter-in-law of Henry Hooker, Forrestine Hooker, interviews Wyatt for a manuscript on Tombstone. However they later fall out and Wyatt prevents publication of the manuscript even though it's in his favor.
• 1921, October 25 - Bat Masterson dies at work in New York. Author Stuart Lake decides to track down Wyatt Earp before it's too late to get the 'real story' of the Old West.
• 1922 - A couple of very negative and inaccurate accounts come out about the events in Tombstone that are to trouble Wyatt deeply.
• 1923 - Bill Hart suggests Wyatt write his life to contradict the false stories that continue to circulate. Wyatt asks his friend John Flood to help since he had worked as Wyatt's personal secretary and was an expert typist (!). The Earps are not well off at this time, in the days before social security, and living in Earp, near Vidal. The Happy Days mine was not a big earner. Wyatt was ill. Sadie was gambling and losing money. The Earps sometimes stay with Charles Welsh and his family, a friend from the Alaska Days, in San Bernadino. The Welshs were not fond of Sadie (Josie) and relate that she got an allowance from her family that she used to gamble away - leaving Wyatt hungry a great deal of the time. It was at the Welsh's that Flood interviewed Wyatt for the book. Josie was always in attendance, editing.
• 1926, January 25 - James Earp dies in Los Angeles, a widower.
• 1926 - Flood finishs his horribly written manuscript. Both Wyatt and Hart are puzzled at its cold reception.
• 1926, July - Chicago Journalist Walter Noble Burns visits Lost Angeles and inquires about writing Wyatt's biography but Wyatt is loyal to the Flood manuscript. Wyatt does allow Burns to interview him about Doc Holliday though. By the time that Wyatt and Hart realize that the Flood is the problem, not Wyatt's story, Flood suggests Burns as a writer, but Burns is already going to press with a book about Wyatt and Tombstone without Wyatt's input. Wyatt tried to put a stop to publication.
• 1927, December - Tombstone: An Iliad of the Southwest by Walter Noble Burns is published.
• 1927 - The Earps are living in a dingy and tiny apartment in 17th Street in Los Angeles. Wyatt is often left alone while Josie gambles. He is too ill to work and while they may be living off of Sadie's family, she feels free to gamble what they get away.
• 1927, December 25 - Stuart Lake begins writing to Wyatt Earp.
• 1928, Summer - Wyatt meets with Stuart Lake for a series of interviews.
• 1928 - Helldorado is published. It's Billy Breakenridge's account of the Tombstone days. It specially angers Wyatt who has been helpful to Billy in recent years.
• 1928, October - George Parsons spends an afternoon with old friend Wyatt Earp.
• 1929, January 13 - Wyatt dies, 80 years old, at 8:05am on a Sunday. His funeral is attended by Bill Hart, George Parsons, John Clum, and Tom Mix among others. Josie was not in attendance.
• 1929, October 24-27 - Tombstone holds it's first Helldorado celebration. John Clum attends. He was not amused by the gunfight re-enactment that was included.
  
  
  

Back in time ...

Historians : Found an error? Please feel free to email me at wyatt@panhistoria.com with corrections.

Sources:
The Illustrated Life and Times of Wyatt Earp by Bob Boze Bell, Boze Books, 1993
Wyatt Earp and the Coeur d'Alene Gold!: Stampede to Idaho Territory, by Jerry Dolph and Arthur Randall, Eagle City Publishing, 1999
Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend, by Casey Tefertiller, John Wiley & Sons, 1999
Wyatt Earp: The Missing Years, San Diego in the 1880's, by Kenneth R. Cilch and Kenneth R. Cilch, Jr., Gaslamp Books, 1998
The Earp Papers : In a Brother's Image by Don Chaput
The Truth About Wyatt Earp by Richard E. Erwin