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I bought a old Iowa Genelogical Society "Hawkeye Heritage" (Fall -Winter 1981) at a local genealogical Seminar recently. I found this interesting article on the Earp Brothers, and their combatants at the OK Corral, the McLaurys.
Iowans in the Wild Wild West:
While residents of Tombstone,AZ, were staging a re-enactment of the gunfight at the OK Corral on the 100th anniversary of the famous shootout, 26 Oct 1981, an Iowan was presenting an alternate version of the event. The shootout involved a number of former Iowans----Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil Earp, formerly of Pella, on one side, and Tom and Frank McLaury of Buchanan County, on the other , losing side.
In an article in the Des Moines Sunday Register of 1 Nov 1981, Scott Stevenson of Storm Lake, director of alumni at Buena Vista College and a descendant of the McLaury family, described the popular hero, Wyatt Earp, as a "thief, a cold -blooded murderer ...(who) should have had his neck stretched on an Arizona gallows."
Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp, joined by Doc Holiday and others, shot down Tom and Frank McLaury at the OK Corral 26 Oct 1881, an event recreated many times in books and on films and television programs.
The article seems to indicate that neither the Earps nor the McLaurys were blameless, and we're not going to reprint the pros and cons. But we did think you might be interested in these notes of some genealogical interest.
-The Earps and the McLaurys started out for the West from homes in Iowa that were only 50 miles apart.
-The Earp family moved to Iowa first, settling in Pella during 1850 when Wyatt was two years old.
-The McLaury family settled in Tama County, near Belle Plaine, during 1855, where the father, Robert Houston McLaury farmed and practiced law. About five years later, McLaury bought 800 acres of land in Buchanan County and moved there.
-The Earps left Iowa during 1864 in a wagon train headed for California, where the parents finally settled. Their five sons ---Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil, James, and Warren ---wandered across the West. Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil gained reputations as lawmen.
-When Wyatt Earp's second wife, Mattie Blaylock, committed suicide in 1888 her belongings were sent to a relative in Linn County, IA.
-Virgil Earp supposedly met his wife, Allie, when she was a waitress in Council Bluffs.
-Doc Holiday's wife, "Big Nose Kate" Elder, reportedly was from Davenport.
-Tom and Frank McLaury left Iowa originally for Fort Worth, Tx , where their brother William, was a lawyer.
-The Clanton family , also involved in the shootout in Tombstone, were former neighbors of the McLaurys in either Iowa or New York.
To finish the story: After the shooting, the bodies of the McLaurys and Clanton were dressed in the finest of broadcloth suites, placed in silver-trimmed coffins and displayed in the window of a hardware store before burial in "Boot Hill".
Wyatt Earp and Holliday were charged with murder, but the charges were subsequently dismissed, even though William McLaury arrived from Texas to help with the prosecution.
In December, Virgil Earp was crippled for life when he was ambushed as he crossed a street. The next March, Morgan Earp was killed after he was shot through a window while shooting pool. William McLaury has been credited by some with Morgan Earp's death. Wyatt Earp himself died during 1929 and was buried in San Francisco.
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