Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Earp

Hi, my name is Wyatt Earp. I was born March 19, 1848. Not much happened when I was only a baby, but my life got a whole lot more interesting, just listen to my story, and trust me. Fast forward about a decade, it was 1861, and I was 13 years old when the Civil war broke out. I wasn't quite old enough to go to war, but what did I care? Unlike you probably, I wanted to fight. My older brothers Virgil and James, and my half-brother Newton had gone to fight in the war. You could probably guess what I did, tried to join them on the battlefield, right? Correct. My family moved a lot in hopes of striking it rich, so one time when we moved I tried to join them in battle. I had gotten a couple miles away before my dad caught me. What would your dad do if he caught you going to war at 13? I think you can be spared of the details of what mine did. Needless to say it wasn't a happy house that night.

Later Virgil and I went back home to Illinois, only to discover our father had moved again to Lamar. Without us. I said he moved a lot, but not without us! I went to Lamar and there became a law officer. My unemployed dad ran for constable, and won! I married in Lamar, and seemed to have a quiet life ahead of me. Then of course my wife died of typhoid, and then I wandered into Native territory, and there was soon a warrant on me for stealing horses. I then fled to the Kansas prairies, and fell in with the bison hunters. I got my education in the buffalo camps. I moved in and out of that profession because it was profitable, and it kept me going.

Then it became obvious to me that buffalo hunting offered a limited future because the number of buffalo was dropping rapidly, so then I turned to the cattle towns. The end of the civil war marked the beginning of industrial revolution. In 1875 I moved to Wichita, Kansas, there I was appointed city policeman. I worked both sides of the law. I was a good policeman, but ran afoul of town politics. I got involved in a fistfight with the opponent of my boss, making the town council oppose my tenure. I then became the owner of a bar but never let liquor touch my lips. I had a crazy love for ice cream, and every day in Tombstone I would stop into the ice cream parlor for a scoop of ice cream.

Now let me tell you about the Earp brothers, and friends. I have 4 brothers, Virgil, James, Morgan, and Warren. I was 33 when I got involved in the gunfight at the O.K. corral. My friend Doc Holliday, my 3 brothers and I defeated the 3 outlaws that were opposing us in less than 30 seconds. Something interesting about me is that both Doc Holliday and my brothers got hit in gunfights that they were a part of, but I never ever got shot in a gunfight I was a part of. One time my gun fell out of my coat and hit the ground, it then shot through my coat, then the ceiling.

Last, but not least, people always said that wherever the Earp brothers went that law and order was established. I guess that was true. After my first wife died I had three more wives before I died, you want to hear how I died? I died of chronic cystitis. Chronic cystitis is a bladder disease. You would think that people threatened me, and you would be right, I was threatened by three outlaws that finally killed my mom Virginia, and my brother Morgan. Those were the same outlaws that we killed in the O.K. corral gunfight. I guess you could say I had an interesting life. I would have to agree. According to my wife my last words were "Suppose, suppose..." No one knows what I was going to say.

Sources: Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

"Main Page." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Apr. 2017. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

Love, Evans. "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral: A Brief History." O.K. Corral Gunfight Site, Tombstone, AZ. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2017.
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Presentation Notes:

"Hi, I just came from the Lamar town constable election, were you there? It was very interesting, and I'm not just saying that because it was my brother Morgan versus my dad Nicholas. My dad ended up winning, although I wanted Morgan to. He's played a bigger role in my life than my dad ever did."