Mattie Blaylock
Encyclopedia
Celia Ann "Mattie" Blaylock (January 1850 – July 3, 1888) was a prostitute who became the romantic companion and common-law wife of Old West lawman and gambler Wyatt Earp
for about 8 years. Knowledge of her place in Wyatt's life was concealed by Josephine Earp
, his later common-law wife, who worked hard to protect her and Wyatt's reputation in their later years.
, to Henry Blaylock and Elizabeth "Betsy" Vance. She was their third child and second daughter. The family lived on a small farm that Henry had obtained in 1846. Henry and his wife were stern parents and adhered to the principle, "spare the rod and spoil the child," and "children should be seen and not heard."
Celia, or "Celie" as she was known as a child, attended Sunday school, learned Biblical parables, and was taught to live by the Ten Commandments
. When her older sister Martha Jane was 17, she married Charles Probst on July 1, 1870. Celia had no desire to live on a farm the rest of her life.
Sarah returned home less than a year later, chagrined and shamed by her experience. Her parents greeted her cheerlessly and took her back in disgrace. The first known record of Mattie's presence is a picture taken in Fort Scott
in 1871. It's not known where she and Sarah spent the intervening time. Court records indicate that the clerks may have phonetically spelled her Iowa-accented use of "Celia" as "Sally", for no court records are found throughout her life using the name Mattie. At some point she chose the alias "Sally" probably in an effort to conceal her identity and remain as anonymous as possible. Court records show that she adopted prostitution as her profession beginning in 1872 in Fort Scott
, then later in Dodge City
.
Mattie is listed as Wyatt's wife though there is no record of a legal marriage.
She was said to have suffered from severe headaches, and while in Tombstone, Arizona
she became heavily addicted to laudanum
, a commonly used opiate and pain killer of the day. It is not known exactly when Earp and Mattie Blaylock ended their relationship. At some point during late 1881 Earp began a relationship with Josephine "Sadie" Marcus
, who had been the common-law wife of Johnny Behan
. Tombstone diarist George W. Parsons
never mentioned seeing Earp and Sadie together and neither did John Clum in his memoirs. Frank Waters wrote The Earp Brothers of Tombstone in which he told tales of terrible, public fights between Sadie and Mattie Blaylock and how the affair was a public scandal. However, Waters' book has been criticized as extremely biased for its negative portrayal of Wyatt Earp and for including details not mentioned in Addie Earp's original manuscript.
Following the March 18, 1882 assassination
of Morgan Earp
, Wyatt Earp, his youngest brother Warren
, and a posse of other deputies took the law into their own hands and began a vendetta
. They hunted down some of the outlaw
Cowboys
they believed responsible for maiming Virgil Earp
and killing Morgan
. In early April, Wyatt left Arizona for New Mexico and then Colorado.
Mattie left Tombstone with other Earp family members for Colton, California
. She apparently expected to receive a telegram from Earp telling her where to meet him, but it never arrived. Instead, he went to San Francisco in late 1882 and took up with Sadie Marcus. Blaylock finally left Colton for Pinal City
, Arizona Territory
, a town that Mattie and Earp had stopped in for a couple of months in 1879 on their way to Tombstone. When the pair had been there three years earlier, it was a booming silver town. Upon Mattie's return, however, the silver boom had died down there and the bulk of the town's itinerant population had moved on. Mattie had planned a return to prostitution in Pinal City, but with most of the prospective clientele gone with the silver, making a decent living there proved difficult.
together with alcohol. Her death was officially ruled as "suicide
by opium
poisoning". She is buried in the cemetery at Pinal City
, now a ghost town
, and located just west of the former cement and mining town of Superior, Arizona.
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American gambler, investor, and law enforcement officer who served in several Western frontier towns. He was also at different times a farmer, teamster, bouncer, saloon-keeper, miner and boxing referee. However, he was never a drover or cowboy. He is most well known...
for about 8 years. Knowledge of her place in Wyatt's life was concealed by Josephine Earp
Josephine Earp
Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp was an American part time actress and dancer who was best known as the wife of famed Old West lawman and gambler Wyatt Earp. Known as "Sadie" to the public in 1881, she met Wyatt in the frontier boom town Tombstone, Arizona Territory when she was living with Cochise...
, his later common-law wife, who worked hard to protect her and Wyatt's reputation in their later years.
Early life
Mattie was born in Monroe Township, Johnson County, Iowa, near Fairfax, IowaFairfax, Iowa
Fairfax is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2123 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Fairfax is located at . It is located along U.S...
, to Henry Blaylock and Elizabeth "Betsy" Vance. She was their third child and second daughter. The family lived on a small farm that Henry had obtained in 1846. Henry and his wife were stern parents and adhered to the principle, "spare the rod and spoil the child," and "children should be seen and not heard."
Celia, or "Celie" as she was known as a child, attended Sunday school, learned Biblical parables, and was taught to live by the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
. When her older sister Martha Jane was 17, she married Charles Probst on July 1, 1870. Celia had no desire to live on a farm the rest of her life.
Runs away
Apparently her younger sister Sarah, born in 1853, shared her aversion to life on the farm, and the two girls ran away together in the middle of 1868. Mattie was a reasonably skilled seamstress and may have sought work in that field, but both girls found life on their own very difficult. There were few employment possibilities for young girls. They likely headed west to one of the growing towns along the Kansas-Iowa-Missouri border area.Sarah returned home less than a year later, chagrined and shamed by her experience. Her parents greeted her cheerlessly and took her back in disgrace. The first known record of Mattie's presence is a picture taken in Fort Scott
Fort Scott
General Winfield Scott, former General-in-Chief of the U.S. Army, was the namesake for five places named Fort Scott:*Fort Scott, Kansas, a city that grew up around a military fort of the same name**Fort Scott National Historic Site...
in 1871. It's not known where she and Sarah spent the intervening time. Court records indicate that the clerks may have phonetically spelled her Iowa-accented use of "Celia" as "Sally", for no court records are found throughout her life using the name Mattie. At some point she chose the alias "Sally" probably in an effort to conceal her identity and remain as anonymous as possible. Court records show that she adopted prostitution as her profession beginning in 1872 in Fort Scott
Fort Scott, Kansas
Fort Scott is a city in and the county seat of Bourbon County, Kansas, United States, south of Kansas City, on the Marmaton River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,087. It is the home of the Fort Scott National Historic Site and the Fort Scott National...
, then later in Dodge City
Dodge City, Kansas
Dodge City is a city in, and the county seat of, Ford County, Kansas, United States. Named after nearby Fort Dodge, the city is famous in American culture for its history as a wild frontier town of the Old West. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,340.-History:The first settlement of...
.
Meets Wyatt Earp
Celia may have met Wyatt as early as 1871 and perhaps as late as the fall of 1873. She continued to work as a prostitute during their early years together. In the 1880 United States CensusUnited States Census
The United States Census is a decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution. The population is enumerated every 10 years and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats , electoral votes, and government program funding. The United States Census Bureau The United States Census...
Mattie is listed as Wyatt's wife though there is no record of a legal marriage.
She was said to have suffered from severe headaches, and while in Tombstone, Arizona
Tombstone, Arizona
Tombstone is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona Territory. It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the American Old West. From about 1877 to 1890, the town's mines produced USD $40 to $85 million...
she became heavily addicted to laudanum
Laudanum
Laudanum , also known as Tincture of Opium, is an alcoholic herbal preparation containing approximately 10% powdered opium by weight ....
, a commonly used opiate and pain killer of the day. It is not known exactly when Earp and Mattie Blaylock ended their relationship. At some point during late 1881 Earp began a relationship with Josephine "Sadie" Marcus
Josephine Earp
Josephine Sarah Marcus Earp was an American part time actress and dancer who was best known as the wife of famed Old West lawman and gambler Wyatt Earp. Known as "Sadie" to the public in 1881, she met Wyatt in the frontier boom town Tombstone, Arizona Territory when she was living with Cochise...
, who had been the common-law wife of Johnny Behan
Johnny Behan
John Harris Behan was from April, 1881 to November, 1882 sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona Territory. Behan was appointed the first sheriff of the newly-created county in February, 1881. The mining boomtown of Tombstone was the new county seat and Behan's headquarters...
. Tombstone diarist George W. Parsons
George W. Parsons
George Whitwell Parsons was a licensed attorney turned banker during the 19th century Old West. He is remembered due to his having kept an accurate diary of his days in the west, which gave detailed accounts of his interaction with Old West notables such as Wyatt Earp and "Curly Bill"...
never mentioned seeing Earp and Sadie together and neither did John Clum in his memoirs. Frank Waters wrote The Earp Brothers of Tombstone in which he told tales of terrible, public fights between Sadie and Mattie Blaylock and how the affair was a public scandal. However, Waters' book has been criticized as extremely biased for its negative portrayal of Wyatt Earp and for including details not mentioned in Addie Earp's original manuscript.
Following the March 18, 1882 assassination
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
of Morgan Earp
Morgan Earp
Morgan Seth Earp was the younger brother of Deputy U.S. Marshals Virgil and Wyatt Earp. Morgan was a deputy of Virgil's and all three men were the target of repeated death threats made by outlaw Cowboys who were upset by the Earps' interference in their illegal activities. This conflict eventually...
, Wyatt Earp, his youngest brother Warren
Warren Earp
Baxter Warren Earp was the youngest brother of Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil, James, and Newton Earp. He was not present during the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. After Virgil was maimed in an ambush, he joined Wyatt and was in town when Morgan was assassinated. He helped Wyatt in the hunt for the outlaw...
, and a posse of other deputies took the law into their own hands and began a vendetta
Earp vendetta ride
The Earp Vendetta Ride, lasting from March 20 to April 15, 1882, was a manhunt for outlaw Cowboys led by newly appointed Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp. He was searching for men he held responsible for maiming his brother Virgil, the Tombstone Marshal and Deputy U.S. Marshal, and assassinating his...
. They hunted down some of the outlaw
Outlaw
In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...
Cowboys
The Cowboys (Cochise County)
The Cowboys were a loosely associated group of outlaw cowboys in Pima and Cochise County, Arizona Territory in the late 19th century. They were cattle rustlers and robbers who rode across the border into Mexico and rounded up cattle that they then sold in the United States...
they believed responsible for maiming Virgil Earp
Virgil Earp
Virgil Walter Earp fought in the Civil War. He was U.S. Deputy Marshal for south-eastern Arizona and Tombstone City Marshal at the time of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in the Arizona Territory. Two months after the shootout in Tombstone, outlaw Cowboys ambushed Virgil on the streets of...
and killing Morgan
Morgan Earp
Morgan Seth Earp was the younger brother of Deputy U.S. Marshals Virgil and Wyatt Earp. Morgan was a deputy of Virgil's and all three men were the target of repeated death threats made by outlaw Cowboys who were upset by the Earps' interference in their illegal activities. This conflict eventually...
. In early April, Wyatt left Arizona for New Mexico and then Colorado.
Mattie left Tombstone with other Earp family members for Colton, California
Colton, California
Colton is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The city is located in the Inland Empire region of the state and is approximately 57 miles east of Los Angeles. The population of Colton is 52,154 according to the 2010 census, up from 47,662 at the 2000 census.Colton is the...
. She apparently expected to receive a telegram from Earp telling her where to meet him, but it never arrived. Instead, he went to San Francisco in late 1882 and took up with Sadie Marcus. Blaylock finally left Colton for Pinal City
Pinal City, Arizona
Pinal or Pinal City is a ghost town in Pinal County in the U.S. state of Arizona. The town was populated from the 1870s into the 1890s, in what was then the Arizona Territory....
, Arizona Territory
Arizona Territory
The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....
, a town that Mattie and Earp had stopped in for a couple of months in 1879 on their way to Tombstone. When the pair had been there three years earlier, it was a booming silver town. Upon Mattie's return, however, the silver boom had died down there and the bulk of the town's itinerant population had moved on. Mattie had planned a return to prostitution in Pinal City, but with most of the prospective clientele gone with the silver, making a decent living there proved difficult.
Death
On July 3, 1888, Mattie took a lethal dose of laudanumLaudanum
Laudanum , also known as Tincture of Opium, is an alcoholic herbal preparation containing approximately 10% powdered opium by weight ....
together with alcohol. Her death was officially ruled as "suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
poisoning". She is buried in the cemetery at Pinal City
Pinal City, Arizona
Pinal or Pinal City is a ghost town in Pinal County in the U.S. state of Arizona. The town was populated from the 1870s into the 1890s, in what was then the Arizona Territory....
, now a ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
, and located just west of the former cement and mining town of Superior, Arizona.