By Bill Lynam
On Oct. 13, 1895, The Arizona Journal-Miner reported in a welcoming article that Virgil Earp relocated to Prescott, this time from Cripple Creek, Colorado. It recalled some of his and his brothers past exploits in Prescott and Tombstone and their ridding these communities of outlaws. Virgil started mining in the Hassayampa district in partnership with W.H. Harlon. They leased the Grizzly mine owned by W.C. Hanson.
The Miner reported on November 8, 1896, that the day before "a serious accident had occurred at this mine. Virgil Earp and W. H. Harlon were working in a tunnel. The ground caved catching Mr. Earp and pinning him to the ground. He was unconscious for several hours and Dr. Abbott, was called to dress his wounds." The doctor found he had sustained a dislocated right hip, that both of his feet and ankles were badly crushed, his head seriously cut, with bruises all over his body. The doctor said it would be several weeks before Virgil would be able to move around again. In fact, it was more than that.
Two months later, the same newspaper reported Virgil was recovering from his mine accident, hobbling around on crutches because of his severe wounds. As the reporter said: "Mr. Earp has had two or three experiences in his life which very few men would have lived through, this being one of them. He has been shot all to pieces, and crushed in this mine accident, but still has hopes as well as good prospects of living to a ripe old age." At the time, Virgil was 53.
Virgil's reputation as a lawman also got him some part-time duties in Prescott, one of which he probably wished afterwards, he had passed up.
The November 4, 1898, Miner reported Virgil had been hired as a special constable to arrest the editors of the Jerome Reporter, brothers James and Claud Thompson and a Mr. Lawrence. The basis was a warrant for libel sworn by John Burns, the Republican candidate for sheriff. The reporter suggested the charge had more to do with "horseplay" than anything. As he put it, the Jerome Reporter was running "quite a stirring campaign daily."
Nevertheless, Virgil rode over to Jerome and "nabbed Lawrence and James Thompson and brought them in. Claud Thompson was sick in bed. They were held for $1,000 bail each to appear before a grand jury to answer the charge of libel. They both gave bail and left for Jerome this morning," the Miner stated. The next day, Virgil was arrested on a charge of false imprisonment. "The justice placed Earp under $500 bond to appear before him Earp gave bail and was released."
And the day after, the Miner went on to editorialize, "most ordinary fool knows that a justice of the peace has the authority to issue a warrant and to deputize anyone to serve it. There is however, an occasional democratic fool that don't ever know that much. The arrest of Virgil Earp for false imprisonment, charged with duly serving a warrant duly issued by a peace officer of the county, proves the allegation that some fools don't know as much as an ordinary clam."
On January 5, 1898, Virgil, then 55 years old, applied for possession of 160 acres in Kirkland, Arizona, on the other side of the Bradshaw Mountains from Prescott, under the provisions of the Soldier's and Sailor's Homestead Act of June 8, 1872. This amounted to the G.I. Bill of its day giving veterans the right to apply for ownership of public lands. As a Civil War veteran, Virgil applied and received Homestead Certificate Number 569 for the SW1/4, of the SE1/4, of Section 17 and North of the NE and the SE1/4 of the NE1/4, of Section 20, Township12, North Range 4, West, Gila and Salt River Meridian in Arizona comprising of one hundred and sixty acres. As a condition of ownership, Virgil had to have witnesses support his claim of continuous residency. On March 6, 1900, he filed an affidavit naming four witnesses. In his Testimony of Claim, he responded to a number of questions demonstrating residency on the land and how he had improved it.
The testimony, in Virgil's handwriting, states, "he had established an actual residence house of adobe. The house frame was 14' by 20' with two rooms and a stable. This included a well and two acres under wire fence." He stated he and Allie lived there in constant residence. He indicated the land was of poor quality, only suitable for grazing and ranching. His personal property was horses and cattle running on the range. For cultivation, he had raised two or three grains over two seasons.
Virgil ranched in the Kirkland area for several years. The Miner reported on October 25, 1898, that he and Allie spent the winter in Prescott. The Great Register of Yavapai County indicated Virgil was a resident of Kirkland from 1898 through 1902.
The Miner reported on April 26, 1899, about Virgil Earp's first marriage. "A telegram from Portland, Oregon, tells of a romance in which a resident of Prescott was one of the principals." Continuing, " Virgil Earp of Prescott, Ariz., and his wife, Ellen, and daughter, Nellie Jane, have met in this city after a separation of thirty-eight years. Mr. And Mrs. Earp were married in Oskaloosa, Iowa, in 1860. A year later Earp went to war and the report came back, he had died. After the war was over, Earp returned to his former home, but his wife and daughter had disappeared. After several years both Earp and his wife married again. Mrs. Earp has been a resident of this city (Portland, Ore.) for many years "
A traveler through Kirkland in October of 1899, reported to the Miner on Virgil and Wyatt's recent activities. "Capt. A. F. Banta met Virgil Earp who told him that he had just had a letter from his brother, Wyatt Earp, who is at Dawson, saying that he had taken out $50,000 in gold and would start for San Francisco on the next steamer. He had been in the Klondike country for two years. Virgil Earp is engaged in the cattle business in Kirkland valley." Wyatt at this time was the co-owner of the Dexter Saloon in Nome, Alaska.
Several other events were recorded about Virgil and his time in Prescott. Many of his law enforcement appointments and stabs at election were under the auspices of the Republican Party. In September of 1900, he was a speaker at the Republican Convention in Prescott at which he was nominated for Sheriff of Yavapai County. Within only a month, however, the Miner reported he had withdrawn his candidacy. Historians suggest he was in poor health and for that reason didn't take the candidacy. The reporter at the time though, said that Earp and a candidate for another office were " men of reputation more or less good." When Virgil declined the nomination, the reporter went on to say, "as Earp has refused to run, his reputation is more than less good."
In 1902, he and Allie had begun selling their holdings. In 1902, they sold their property in Township 12 to one of his homestead attesters, William Rudy. By 1904, Virgil is absent from the Great Register. Virgil and Allie had moved on again.
Word came from Goldfield, Nevada, that Virgil died there of pneumonia at the age of 63 on October 19, 1905. At the request of his daughter, Nellie Jane, his remains were shipped to Portland, Oregon and he is buried there at the Riverside Cemetery. Allie lived on for another 42 years and never remarried.
Bill Lynam is a volunteer at the Sharlot Hall Museum.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (pb110f2p35). Reuse only by permission.
Again, there are no known photographs of any of the Earps in the Prescott Area. But Virgil did live in the Kirkland Valley for a while and probably used this train station frequently at the turn of the century since he was still very much a part of Prescott's history too.