Walsall and Beyond

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Walsall and Beyond

Postby linell » Sun Apr 05, 2009 6:09 pm

Wyatt Earp’s Walsall Ancestry

During the 19th Century, ‘The Dark Region’ was decidedly a place to get away from. Agents from various shipping lines who ventured here, stood at the tail gate of their Wagons offering life in the great outdoors across the Atlantic. Such glowing oratory aroused the pioneering spirit in many Black Country hearts, and recruits were not slow in coming forward. Some died before they reached their particular Shangri la, either aboard ship or on Wagon – train treks across the plains. Fervent hopes of a better life turned in many cases to bitter disappointment. Those who survived became Hill Billie’s, plainsmen, dirt farmers or cowhands, and others were to become ‘Legends of the West.’

Of the Shipping Line agents who roamed the Black Country in the early 1800’s Doc Nathan Gantry was the best known. Clad in picturesque buckskins, he toured the region in a gaily-painted covered Wagon, hauled by four white horses. As a sideline he sold Indian Patent Medicines, reputed to cure any ailment known to man, but made far more money from recruitment fees. He was responsible for persuading many Black Country families to head for the Promised Land.

The Taylors, Harding’s, Abel’s, Hills, Clements, and Hayes from Lye Waste, were some who put their names on the dotted line. In nearby Rowley Village he was similarly successful in persuading some thirty members of the Sutton, Tomlinson, Pearce and Webb families to leave their native place.

At Walsall he lost no time in explaining that ‘Out West’ saddlers and harness makers were in great demand and would be greeted with open arms. Among those who booked passages to the land of opportunity for themselves and their families were the following Walsall men: -

Joseph Wyatt a Saddler
Thomas James an Engraver
Samuel Higgins a Spur Maker
Joseph Littlefoot a Buckler
Richard Earp a Saddler
Benjamin Lawrence a Buckler
Richard Cooper a Saddler
James Wiggins a Saddler

The Earps were of Scottish stock. They had travelled south and settled in Walsall, during the previous century, skilled saddle and harness makers, the Earp’s emblem was the head of Bonny Prince Charlie a well known and a respected trade mark in the town.

Young Richard Earp was one who fell for Doc Gantry’s spiel and subsequently made that hazardous Atlantic crossing. On the voyage out there he met up with a Joseph Webb and family, they settled in Monmouth Illinois, where Richard Earp Married Joseph Wyatt’s daughter, founding the Earps American dynasty.

The choice of their Grandson’s Christian name immortalised the joining together of two Walsall families, for Wyatt Earp was to become one of the deathless ‘Legends of the West.’ Born at Monmouth Illinois in 1848, he was only a year old when his parents headed west to stake their claim in the Californian ‘Gold Rush.’ Wyatt experienced a tough upbringing around the ‘diggins’ and whilst still in his teens took a job as a Stage Driver. He later tried his hand at Buffalo hunting, but in 1873 he was in Ellsworth a cow town, a drunken cowhand shot the Sheriff and Wyatt stepped in to arrest him. The Mayor of Ellsworth responded by pinning the dead Lawman’s Badge on Wyatt’s shirt, so began his career as a Town Marshall. He did not stay long but moved onto Witchata where he held a similar post and quickly tamed the Town.

His fame as a Law Man was spreading and the Mayor of Dodge City persuaded him to bring his law – enforcement talents to that town in 1876. Known as the Queen of Cow Towns, Dodge City was in a constant state of riot when Wyatt Earp arrived. Aided by his Deputies, Wyatt quickly brought comparative peace to the place. Bored by the inactivity he moved to Deadwood City a few months later he was called back to Dodge City, the old reign of terror had returned there with a vengeance. A well-known Gun – Fighter George Hoyt headed a gang of thugs who held the Town to ransom. Their first meeting was fatal for Hoyt, Wyatt killed him in a Gun battle and ran his side – kicks out of town. For the next couple of years Wyatt kept the peace in Dodge City, but in 1879 moved onto Tombstone where his peacekeeping talents were sorely needed.

The Sheriff of Tombstone John Behan was an extremely tolerant man, if not corrupt, some said he turned a ‘blind eye’ to the considerable misdemeanours of local baddie ‘Old Man Clanton’ and his equally troublesome sons. The famous Johnny Ringo was a member of the Clanton Gang. Wyatt knew he needed some good men at his side for the inevitable clash with the Clanton’s, so he took with him his brother’s Jim, Virgil, and Morgan and the legendry Doc Holliday. After the famous Battle at ‘O.K. Corrall’ – Billy Clanton and the McLowery brothers, Frank and Tom lay dead and Ike Clanton had fled the field of Battle.

Morgan and Virgil Earp received minor wounds but Wyatt and Doc Holliday were unscathed. However little more than a year later Virgil Earp was shot down whilst patrolling the streets of Tombstone and crippled for life. Ike Clanton and Ringo were arrested for the attempt on Virgil’s life, but friends provided them with ‘alibis’ and they went free!

The vendetta against the Earps continued and in March 1882, Morgan Earp was fatally wounded whilst playing Pool in Tombstone’s Billiard Parlour. The assassins, firing through an open window, also narrowly missed Wyatt Earp, who was watching the game. The killers were identified as four Clanton hirelings, Frank Sitwell, Hank Swilling, Pete Spence, and Indian Charlie Cruz. Grief stricken Wyatt put his brother’s body abroad a train for burial in California and with red revenge in his heart, set off to track down the assassins. Before Morgan Earp’s body reached his parents home, two of his slayers lay dead but Swilling and Spence succeeded in making their escape. Wyatt scoured vast tracks of country for a month before he reluctantly gave up the chase.

In direct contrast to many Lawmen and Gunfighters of the era, Wyatt Earp lived to the ripe old age of 81. He was a Legend in his own lifetime, and since his bloodline can be traced back to Walsall, this is another example of how the immigrants from this region stamped their incredible mark on a compelling period in America’s history.
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Re: Walsall and Beyond

Postby peterd » Sun Apr 05, 2009 6:31 pm

excellent read linell
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Re: Walsall and Beyond

Postby linell » Mon Apr 06, 2009 6:50 am

Thanks Pete, I never realised that Wyatt Earp was descended from Walsall Earps :!:
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Re: Walsall and Beyond

Postby FarSide » Mon Apr 06, 2009 8:30 am

Fascinating, thx Linell, I love the real cowboy/hillbilly stories/history.
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Re: Walsall and Beyond

Postby FarSide » Tue Apr 07, 2009 9:43 am

Barbara was the daughter of Sarah Lucy Nash (nee Earp) who died aged 102 in 1982. Sarah’s grandfather was the brother of Nicholas Porter Earp whose sons were Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan.


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http://www.expressandstar.com/2008/01/0 ... earp-dies/
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Re: Walsall and Beyond

Postby BobThomas » Tue Jun 20, 2017 8:29 pm

Hi Linell

I know that I'm 8 years' late but I had researched Wyatt Earp's family a few years ago and wished to offer my views! :lol:

As a lifelong Walsallian, I would love the story to be true but, sadly, I don't think that it is. I started the research after reading an article about Wyatt Earp in the Sunday Mercury and I was further intrigued by the article in the Express & Star concerning the death of a Barbara Nash in 2008 (quoted by FarSide, above) who claimed to be a descendant of Wyatt Earp (she wasn't).

In your post you said that Wyatt's grandparents were Richard Earp and Joseph Wyatt's daughter. This was not so. Wyatt's parents were Nicholas Porter Earp and Virginia Ann Cooksey. His paternal grandparents were Walter Earp and Martha Ann Early while his paternal great-grandparents were Matthew Phillip Earp and Sarah Sally Vaughn. All of them were, as Bruce Springsteen might have sung, born in the USA. :P

There was indeed an Earp family in the Walsall/Wednesbury/Darlaston area in the 19th Century (the one to which Barbara Nash (mentioned above) belonged). They may indeed be distantly related to Wyatt Earp but there is not a direct bloodline connection. I researched, not only with the old favourites, Ancestry and Wikipedia, but also on American history sites and message boards.

Where did you get your information, please, as I would like to pursue that line of enquiry?


Thanks
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Re: Walsall and Beyond

Postby linell » Thu Jun 22, 2017 8:42 pm

Was an Article in the Black Country Bugle. Yes seems to be a lot of conjecture unfortunately :)
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