Though living a life of as much adventure as
did his younger brother,
Wyatt, Virgil Earp never obtained the same kind of
fame, perhaps due to
Wyatt's better skills at self-publicity.
Virgil Walter Earp was born on July 18, 1843 in Hartford,
Kentucky, the second son of Nicholas Earp and Virginia Ann Cooksey. By the time
Virgil was 17 years-old, his family was living in Pella, Iowa, where he eloped
with a Dutch immigrant by the name of Magdalena C. "Ellen" Rysdam on September
21, 1861. Though her parents severely disapproved of her choice in a husband,
the pair remained together. When the
Civil War broke out, 18 year-old Virgil
enlisted in the Union Army, eventually serving with the 83rd Illinois Infantry
from July 26, 1862-June 24, 1865.
Virgil and Ellen had a baby girl on January 7, 1862, naming
her Nellie Jane Earp. It was the only known child that Virgil would have in
his lifetime. He went off to war when she was only two weeks old.
While Virgil was off fighting the war, Ellen received word
in the summer of 1863, that Virgil had been killed. Soon after, she remarried a
man named John Van Rossem and the couple, along with Virgil’s daughter, Nellie,
moved to
Oregon Territory.
Alas, when Virgil was discharged from the army on June 26,
1865, he arrived back in Pella to find his wife and daughter gone. In the
meantime, the rest of his family had moved westward to
San
Bernardino,
California. A year later, he joined them in
California. Though he had probably
learned where Ellen and his daughter had gone, he evidently did not go looking
for them.
In 1866, Virgil was working with younger brother
Wyatt, as
a freighter-teamster between Wilmington and Prescott,
Arizona. Later, the pair
also worked on railroad construction in Wyoming.
In 1868, the
Earps returned to the Midwest,
settling in Lamar,
Missouri, where Virgil helped his father Nicholas farm and
operate a grocery store. While there, Virgil took a second wife named Rosella Dragoo on August 28, 1870. But, Virgil was obviously having no luck in the love
department as the marriage lasted just three years.
Shortly afterwards, Virgil left Lamar, settling in Council
Bluffs, Iowa for a short time. There he met a waitress named Alvira "Allie”
Sullivan. Though some say they married in 1874 in
Los
Angeles,
California.
Others surmise that they never made it official. In any case, Virgil would spend
the rest of his life with her.
Over the years, Virgil would most often work as a
lawman,
but also held a number of other jobs, including farming, prospecting, driving a
stagecoach, rail construction, and working at a sawmill.
