Celia Ann Blalock--Wyatt Earp's First Common Law Wife

By Celia Ann Yeary

Many articles have been written and several movies have been made about Wyatt Earp. Some know that Josephine Earp was his common law wife, and in their later years she strived to protect his reputation that he'd had with an earlier common law wife.

The "other common law wife," the first one, caught my attention when I learned she and I shared a name--Celia Ann. Also she and I were called "Celie," which is the old pronunciation of our name.
In addition, she had a sister named Sarah...and so do I.

How could I not be interested in her?



YOUNG CELIA ANN BLAYLOCK
"MATTIE"

However, we part company when talking about our professions. I was a high school teacher, and the other Celia Ann, more often called "Mattie," was a prostitute.

Celia Ann "Mattie" Blaylock was born in 1850 and lived only 38 years. She was born in Wisconsin and raised in Iowa, but she ran away from home at age 16 to escape stern parents and farm life.

She moved on to Kansas, where she became a prostitute in Dodge City. There, in l873, she met Wyatt Earp and soon became his romantic companion. During their early years together, Mattie continued to work as a prostitute.

By the time they moved to Tombstone, she had taken the name "Earp" to be recognized as his common law wife.

She suffered from severe headaches, perhaps what we know as migraines, and she used laudanum as a pain killer. Mattie soon became addicted to the opiate.

The worse her headaches and addiction became, the more Wyatt strayed. He began an affair with Josephine Marcus.

 

WYATT EARP

AS A YOUNG MAN

In 1882, after the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and after the assassination of Morgan Earp, Wyatt sent his brother Virgil, the Earp women, and Mattie with the body of Morgan home to Colton, California.

Warren and Wyatt Earp stayed behind to begin the Earp Vendetta Ride.

Imagine Mattie waiting in California for Wyatt's message to return to Tombstone. But a telegram never arrived.

Meanwhile, Wyatt became more involved with Josephine. They married sometime later.

"MATTIE EARP"

PROBABLY IN HER THIRTIES

Mattie, though, heartbroken and not knowing why Wyatt did not send for her, moved on to Globe, Arizona. She returned to prostitution and moved again to Pinal City, Arizona.

On July 3, 1888, after six years of waiting for Wyatt, she took a lethal dose of laudanum. Her death was ruled suicide. She was thirty-eight years old.

The name "Mattie" never appeared on any court records throughout her life. During one period, she was known as "Sally," which may have been phonetically mistaken for her Iowa accented "Celia," or "Celie."

Celia Ann Blaylock became one of many tragic figures during the Nineteenth Century in the Wild West. History has left us with countless personal stories.

 

 

Her story seem particularly lonely and sad.

She was laid to rest on a lonely hilltop one mile from Pinal,

which is now a ghost town.

 

 

~*~*~

Sources:
Legends of America:
  Historical Women Index
  Wyatt Earp-Frontier Lawman
WestWeb-Western Women in History

Wikipedia

Wikimedia Commons