ONE OF THE EARLIEST EXTANT WYATT EARP DOCUMENTS, SIGNED BY THE YOUNG EARP AND HIS FATHER. THE ONLY HANDWRITTEN WYATT EARP SIGNED DOCUMENT TO APPEAR ON THE MARKET IN THE LAST SIXTY YEARS.

EARP, Wyatt Berry Stapp (1848-1929), buffalo hunter, horse thief, saloonkeeper, gambler, law officer; and Nicholas Porter EARP (1813-1907). Autograph endorsement signed (“W.S. Earp”), on the verso of a partly printed document accomplished and signed by the patriarch of the Earp clan, N.P. Earp, as Justice of the Peace, Lamar, Missouri, July 22, 1870. 2 pages, oblong octavo, edges a bit frayed but without loss, otherwise in excellent condition. A subpoena, listing witnesses to be served in the case of the state vs. Theodore Edwards, Samuel Jones and Joseph Graham. On the recto, Justice of the Peace N.P. Earp has filled in the details and the names of the seven individuals ordered to appear before the Justice of the Peace, “to testify on the trial of a case.” On the verso, in a dark, bold hand, Wyatt Earp reports that “I have Served the within Subpoena upon the within Names herein mention by Reading the same to them this July 22 1870....” Earp lists the fees for his and his father's services as Constable and Justice respectively, and he writes: “I have Served the within Subpoena upon the within Names herein mention by Reading the same to them this July 22, 1870. W.S. Earp Constable.”

EARP WAS ONLY TWENTY-ONE YEARS OLD WHEN HE SIGNED THIS OFFICIAL DOCUMENT.

Wyatt's father, Nicholas Porter Earp, here in his role as Justice of the Peace, was a wandering frontiersman who named this son after his Mexican War commander, Captain Wyatt Berry Stapp. He moved his family from Missouri to Iowa to California and back. It was in Lamar at this time that Wyatt got his first job with the law. By 1881, having drifted around the West, Wyatt, Virgil and John Henry (“Doc”) Holliday had settled in Tombstone, Arizona, where a bitter animosity arose between them and two families, the McLaurys and the Clantons. The most famous shootout in the history of the old West began with a dispute during a card game between Ike Clanton, Tom McLaury and two other men. When the fight started, Deputy Marshal Earp drew his gun, clubbed Clanton and dragged him off to night court. The next day, 21 October 1881, Wyatt approached McLaury, pulled his gun and challenged him. When McLaury declined, Wyatt severely beat him with the 12-inch barrel of his Buntline Special. The encounter escalated: Virgil and his “deputies”—Morgan, Wyatt, and “Doc” Holliday—confronted Ike and Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers outside the O.K. Corral. Morgan shot Billy Clanton. Wyatt drew and shot Frank McLaury. Firing became general. Ike Clanton fled with Billy Claiborne. When the shooting stopped Billy Clanton and both McLaury brothers were dead or dying. Of the Earp party, Virgil, Morgan and “Doc” were all wounded; only Wyatt was not shot. The Earps were arrested and acquitted.

After stints as a gambler and mine investor in Colorado, Earp and his wife, Josie, moved to California in the 1890's so she could be closer to her parents and he could pursue real estate and equine interests. He and Josie went to Alaska where they joined in the gold rush, operating several saloons and gambling concessions in Nome. They eventually moved to Hollywood where he died at age 80 years in 1929.

It is said that while in Hollywood he met a young actor, John Wayne, who later told Hugh O'Brian (who played Earp in a TV series) that he based his acting image of the Western lawman on his conversations with Earp.