Virgil Earp - Early Life

Early Life

Virgil Earp was born in Hartford, Kentucky, the second son of Nicholas Earp and Virginia Ann Cooksey. In February 1860, while living in Pella, Iowa, 16-year-old Virgil eloped with 18-year-old Dutch immigrant Magdalena C. "Ellen" Rysdam (born November 25, 1842 in Utrecht, Netherlands – died May 3, 1910 in Cornelius, Oregon). They remained together for a year in spite of her parents' (Gerrit Rysdam and Magdalena Catrina Van Velzen) disapproval. Virgil and Ellen had a daughter, Nellie Jane Earp (January 7, 1862 – June 17, 1930). When Virgil left to serve in the Civil War, his daughter was two weeks old.

On September 21, 1861, 18-year-old Virgil enlisted in the Union Army, serving with the 83rd Illinois Infantry from July 26, 1862, to June 24, 1865. Virgil's older brother James had previously enlisted, but returned home in late 1861 after he was badly wounded during a battle near Fredericktown, Missouri. Virgil's older half-brother Newton also enlisted with the Union and served throughout the war.

In the summer of 1863, Ellen was told by her parents and by the Earps that Virgil had died in Tennessee and she left Pella with her parents and daughter for the Oregon Territory. She married John Van Rossem, who died shortly afterward, and married once again in 1867 to Thomas Eaton in Walla Walla, Washington Territory. Virgil was reconnected with Ellen and their daughter 37 years later.

In 1868, Nicholas Earp took his family east again, eventually settling in Lamar, Missouri. Virgil worked the farm and help operate a grocery store. Earp was discharged from the military on June 26, 1865 and returned to Iowa. Finding his wife and family had disappeared, he left Pella and headed to California to join the rest of the Earp family. He married Rosella Dragoo (born in France in 1853) on August 28, 1870 in Lamar, Missouri. His father was justice of the peace, but there are no further records of Rosella.

Virgil later met Alvira "Allie" Sullivan from Florence, Nebraska, in 1874. They established a common-law relationship that lasted the remainder of his life. During his life Virgil worked at many jobs. Farming, rail construction in Wyoming, stagecoach driver, a sawmill sawyer in Prescott, Arizona Territory, mailman, and later in life, prospector. A tight-knit family, the Earps generally kept close contact with one another, and often trailed along together to different living locations.

Virgil spent some time in Dodge City, Kansas, in 1877 with his younger brother Wyatt, though it is not certain if Virgil ever held any law enforcement position there. From Dodge City, Virgil and his wife moved to Prescott in July 1877, then the capital of Arizona Territory. There, in October 1877, Virgil Earp was deputized by Yavapai County, Arizona Sheriff Ed Bowers during a street gunfight. During the fight, Virgil killed one of the robbers, shooting him twice through the head with a Winchester rifle. In 1878, Virgil served in Prescott as a village night watchman for a couple of months, and was later elected as a constable in Prescott.