(Unless otherwise noted, the following is taken from Frederick Young’s book Dodge City: Up through a Century In Story and Pictures.)
May 1876 – Arrived in Dodge from Wichita. Became Assistant Marshal May 16, 1875 under Marshal Larry Deger. A month later Ford County District Court records show Wyatt Earp & Bat Masterson to be deputy sheriffs serving under Charlie Bassett, Sheriff.
July 1876 – Arrested under Sheriff Edward O. Hougue for “fighting and disturbing the peace”.
Sept. 1876 – Stuart Lake, Wyatt Earp’s biographer, writes of Wyatt leaving Dodge w/younger brother Morgan and went to Deadwood, South Dakota, but the Dodge City Times still list Wyatt as Deputy Marshal on March 24, 1877. Nothing more is known concerning Earp’s activities in Dodge City until July 1877.
July 1877 – Wyatt returned to Dodge the day after Dodge’s first Independence Day celebration. If Earp served as an officer in 1877 it was on a part time or unofficial basis.
July 7, 1877 – Dodge City Times: “Wyatt Earp, who was on our city police force last summer, is in town again. We hope he will accept a position on the force once more. He had a quiet way of taking the most desperate characters into custody which invariably gave one the impression that the city was able to enforce her mandates and preserve her dignity. It wasn’t considered policy to draw a gun on Wyatt unless you get the drop and meant to burn powder without any preliminary talk.”
July 21, 1877 – Dodge City Times: “Miss Frankie Bell, who wears the belt for superiority in point of muscular ability, heaped epithets upon the unoffending head of Mr. Earp to such an extent as to provoke a slap from the ex-officer, besides creating a disturbance of the quiet and dignity of the city, for which she received a night’s lodging in the dog house and a reception at the police court next morning, the expense of which was about $20.00. Wyatt Earp was assessed the lowest limit of the law, one dollar.”
1877 – Wyatt again left Dodge & was reported to be in Fort Clark, TX.
May 8, 1878 – Wyatt arrived in Dodge from Texas.
May 11, 1878 – Dodge City Times: “Mr. Wyatt Earp, who has during the past served with credit on the police arrived in this city from Texas last Wednesday. We predict that his services as an officer will again be required this summer.”
May 14, 1878 – Ford County Globe: “Wyatt Earp, one of the most efficient officers Dodge ever had has just returned from Fort Worth, Texas. He was immediately appointed Asst. Marshal, by our City dads, much to their credit.”
May 18, 1878 – Dodge City Times: “The Police Force. Dodge City is practically under an efficient guard. The city fathers have wisely provided for the honor, safety and character of the city by the appointment of an excellent police force. We believe no better men or the positions can be found anywhere. The city’s guardians are named as follows:
Marshall — C. E. Bassett
Assistant Marshal — Wyatt Earp
Policeman — John Brown and Charles Trask”
June 8, 1878 – Dodge City Times: “Wyatt Earp, salary as Ass’t. Marshal …. $75” & “Appointment of Wyatt Earp to the office of Assistant City Marshal by James H. Kelley, Mayor, was upon motion of John Newton approved and confirmed.”
June 11, 1878 – Ford County Globe: “Marshal Earp deserves credit for his endeavors to stop that “bean business” at the Theater the other night.”
June 18, 1878 – Globe reports “Wyatt is doing his duty as Ass’t Marshal in a very credible manner. — Adding new laurels to his Splendid record every day.”
July 27, 1878 – Dodge City Times: ” … yesterday morning about 3 o’clock this peaceful suburban city was thrown into unusual excitement, and the turmoil was all caused by a rantankerous cow boy who started the mischief by a too free use of his little revolver. In Dodge City, after dark, the report of a revolver generally means business and is an indication that somebody is on the war path, therefore when the noise of this shooting and the yells of excited voices rang out on the midnight breeze, the sleeping community awoke from their slumbers, listened a while to the click of the revolver, wondered who was shot this time, and then went to sleep again…. It seems that three of four herders were paying their respects to the city and its institutions, and as is usually their custom, remained until about 3 o’clock in the morning, when they prepared to return to their camps. They buckled on their revolvers, which they were not allowed to wear around town, and mounted their horses, when all at once one of them conceived the idea that to finish the night’s revelry and give the natives due warning of his departure, he must do some shooting, and forthwith he commenced to bang away, one of the bullets whizzing into a dance hall near by, causing no little commotion among the participants in the ‘dreamy waltz’ and quadrille. Policeman [Wyatt] Earp and [Jim] Masterson made a raid on the shootist who gave them two or three volleys, and followed the herders with the intention of arresting them…. The herders rode across the bridge followed by the officers. A few yards from the bridge one of the herders fell from his horse from weakness caused by a wound in the arm which he had received during the fracas. The other herder made good his escape…. ” A month latter [sic] the Texas herder, George Hoy, wounded by Masterson and Earp died and was buried in Prairie Grove cemetery. The Times noted at Hoy’s passing:
“Hoy was like many other men who grow up on the Texas frontier, very bold and reckless, and we
understand he was under bond before he came here for killing two men in Texas, however he had many good traits, and seemed to have many friends among the Texas boys.” Hoy’s death at the hands of Earp and Masterson increased the friction between Dodge City lawmen and Texas catllemen.
Aug. 17, 1878 – Another shooting affair broke out at the bar in the Comique theater. Earp and Jim Masterson were having difficulties calming an intoxicated and troublesome cowboy. The bystanders, Texas cattlemen, came to the cowboy’s aid and joined the fight. Wyatt and Jim bruised a few Texas heads with their six-shooters. Several shots were fired but no one was injured. The Globe commented: “We however cannot help but regret the too ready use of pistols in all rows of such character and would like to see a greater spirit of harmony exist between our officers and cattle men so that snarling coyotes and killers could make their own fights without interesting or dragging good men into them.”
August 1878 – Wyatt was chosen as a Ford County delegate to the Kansas Slate Republican convention held in Topeka, KS on Aug. 28.
1878 – Wyatt claimed in his biography (Stuart Lake, author) that the highlight of his career as the tamer of Dodge City were his confrontations with Texas cattlemen, Tobe Driskill and Bob Rachel, and his “High Noon” encounter with the legendary badman, Clay Allison. Wyatt claimed that Allison was commissioned by Texas cattlemen to kill him, and that he faced down the killer and ran him out of town. No other sources of this now classic Western encounter between Earp and Allison can be found. The only accounts mentioned in Dodge City papers that could tie into Wyatt’s claims are these in the Sept. 10, 1878 edition of the Ford County Globe: “Clay Allison came down from the west on the 5th [two weeks after the death or George Hoy]” and “The ‘hurrah’ look which pervaded our streets a few weeks ago is gone, and we now linger in peace.” Whether the “peace” referred to was caused by Wyatt Earp’s pistol or by the natural slowing down of cattle trade activities in the fall of 1878, will never be known. The real story of Driskill, Rachel, Allison, and Earp died when these four passed from the western scene.
Oct. 3, 1878 – Dora Hand, a singer in the variety theaters of the West under the name or Fannie Keenan, was the tragic victim of an assassin’s bullet meant for the mayor of Dodge City, James H. “Dog” Kelley. The four shots that were fired aroused Assistant Marshal Earp and policeman Jim Masterson to investigate. Guessing at the possible motive, the officers found a witness who had seen James W. Kenedy and an unknown companion in the still open saloon shortly after the shooting. Kenedy disappeared and his companion was arrested and placed in jail. The companion pleaded innocent, but supplied information implicating Kenedy. By two o’clock that afternoon, a posse was formed, The Times called it “as intrepid a posse as ever pulled a trigger…” It included Sheriff Bat Masterson, Marshal Charlie Bassett, Assistant Marshal Wyatt Earp, Deputy Sheriff William Duffey, and Bill Tilghman. The next clay Kenedy was captured. He was latter [sic] acquitted because of insufficient evidence.
1879 – Deputy Marshal Wyatt Earp’s and Policeman Jim Masterson’s salary was raised to $100 each. It was the start of the cattle season and the Dodge City lawmen, Bat Masterson, Charlie Bassett, Wyatt Earp, and Jim Masterson were warning one and all to “Leave off your concealed weapons, and don’t undertake ‘to take the town’ … “
May 5, 1879 – “unruly Missourians… on their way to Leadville, Colorado… undertook to ‘take the town.’ While Assistant Marshal [Wyatt] Earp was attempting to disarm [them] and [was] leading an unruly cuss off by the ear, another one of the party told his chum to ‘throw lead.'” Sheriff Bat Masterson happened on the scene in the nick of lime, and, using the broad side of his revolver over the head of the Missourian, saved Wyatt from possible ‘lead poisoning’. The next evening, the three Missourians, still smarting from their pistol whipping, “assembled in the rear of the store building… and sent word by a colored boy that a man wished to see [Sheriff Masterson]. The negro ‘smelt a mouse,’ and put the Sheriff on his guard.” One Missourian was arrested and according to the Times, “These fellows remarked that they ‘had run things in Missouri,’ and believed they could ‘take’ Dodge City, but admitted that they were no match for Dodge City officers. Dodge City is hard ‘to take!”‘
May 24, 1879 – Dodge City Times: “Officers Earp and Jas. [James] Masterson served a writ on a horse drover, out on Duck Creek, Wednesday, in order to obtain the claim of a darkey against the dover [sic], for services rendered by the aforesaid colored individual. Seven brave horse herders stood against the two officers, who, showing no signs of ‘weakening’ soon obtained satisfaction of the claim, the drover promptly paying the debt when resistance was no longer available.”
June 1879 – The newspapers reported, “A party of eight men had been making some ‘demonstrations’ across the ‘dead line,’ …” The dead line referred to was the railroad tracks. North of the tracks were respectable saloons and businesses where gunplay and carrying weapons were discouraged by the city police. South of the tracks the lawmen made little effort to enforce the ordinance against carrying weapons unless a complaint was made or unless actual fighting broke out. Many of the saloons north of the tracks installed boards with wooden pegs on which the cowboys were encouraged to hang their six-shooters while partaking. On one particular June evening, according to the Globe, “the police undertook to disarm [the] squad of cow boys who had neglected lo lay aside their six shooters upon arriving in the city. The cow boys protested and war was declared.” After some rough and tumble fighting with the Dodge City’s law officers, probably Earp and Jim Masterson, the cowboys fled. Later in the evening one of the eight cowboys driven off by the policemen was found lurking suspiciously around “the room of one of the officers…. ” Wyatt claimed that after reaching his room at the Dodge House, and before lighting his lamp, he looked out his widow [sic]. The roar of a double-barreled shotgun brought the sash around his head in splinters. Wyatt said he saw the figure run south across the tracks, and he climbed through the window after him. Wyatt claimed he shot the fellow in the leg and lugged him back to the jail where he confessed. The wounded cowboy, according to Wyatt, was trying to collect the reward place [sic] on Wyatt’s head by disgruntled Texans.
Sept. 1879 – Wyatt turned in his resignation the first week of September. Together with some of his friends he took part in a grand going-away party the Globe entitled “A Day Of Carnival” Wyatt departed the next day for Las Vegas, New Mexico.
1883 – Wyatt returned to Dodge City and became a part of the Dodge City Peace Commission, an army of assorted gunslingers who gathered to opposed [sic] the efforts of Mayor Deger and his allies to reform the saloons during the Dodge City saloon war. A peaceful agreement was eventually worked out whereby gambling could commence if the notorious gamblers and confidence men left town. After posing for the famous Dodge City Peace Commission photograph, Wyatt returned to Silverton, Colorado.
Dodge Cities [sic] lawmen were controversial, sometimes reckless, often politically partisan, but all were strong in the face of violence. Men like Bat Masterson, Ed Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Charlie Bassett, and Larry Deger were a match for the early violence of the rough frontiersmen –buffalo hunters, soldiers, cowboys, drifters, and escaped criminals — men who had forgotten or never known the civilized ways of society.
Wyatt’s reputation in Dodge City was one of a laconic and confident enforcer of the city ordinances. “He had a quiet way of taking the most desperate characters into custody which invariably gave one the impression that the city was able to enforce her mandates and preserve her dignity. It wasn’t considered policy to draw a fun [sic] on Wyatt unless you got the drop and meant to burn powder without any preliminary talk.”
A colt single-action .45 caliber Buntline Special allegedly was given to each of the Dodge City lawmen, Charlie Basset [sic], Bill Tilghman, and Wyatt Earp by E.Z.C. Judson, better known as Ned Buntline. Buntline, a showman and author, gave the specially made pistols in appreciation for the stories and background material given him be [sic] these authentic Western lawmen.
For additional information on the life of Wyatt Earp you may want to see the following books:
Bartholomew, Ed. Wyatt Earp: 1848 to 1880 the Untold Story. Toyahvale, Frontier Book Co. 1963.
Bartholomew, Ed. Wyatt Earp: The Man & the Myth 1879-1882 – sequel to “The Untold Story”. Second Volume of Wyatt Earp Story. Toyahvale, Frontier Book Co. 1964.
Bell, Bob Boze. The Illustrated Life & Times of Wyatt Earp. Boze Books. 1993.
Boyer, Glenn G. (ed.) I Married Wyatt Earp. The Recollections of Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp. Tucson,
University of Arizona Press, 1976.
Lake, Stuart N. Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal. Boston & New York, Houghton Mifflin Co. 1931.
Mann, E. B. Wyatt Earp, The Lawman series By Colts Firearms. Colts Inc. 1970.
Shillingberg, William B. Wyatt Earp and the “Buntline Special” Myth. Tucson, Arizona, Blaine Publishing Co. 1976.
Tilghman, Zoe A. Spotlight… Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp as U.S. Deputy Marshals. San Antonio, The Naylor Co. 1960.
Turner, Alford E. The Earps Talk. College Station, TX, Creative Publishing Co. 1980.
Waters, Frank. The Earp Brothers of Tombstone… The Story of Mrs. Virgil Earp. New York, Bramhall House, 1960.