The Earp family was perhaps one of the more notorious families of the Old West. James Earp was the older brother to the more famous Earp brothers. He was Virgil, Morgan, and Wyatt Earp's sibling.
James Earp was born in 1841 in Harford, Kentucky. He was raised in a family where family was important and they were very close. In 1861, he joined the Union Army along with brothers Newton and Virgil. He was part of the 17th Illinois Infantry. James was wounded in a Missouri battle in October of 1861 and unable to finish the fight.
After the war, he stayed on the move which is something that most of the Earps did back in those times. He married a prostitute named Nellie Ketchum in 1873 and soon became the deputy marshal in Dodge City, Kansas.
In 1879, he moved to Tombstone, Arizona where he would meet up with his brothers Wyatt and Virgil. However, he would become a saloon manager and manage the gambling in the town rather than sling guns like his brothers. He was not at the gunfight that went down in history as one of the more famous gun fights at the OK Corral.
After his brother Morgan was killed and Virgil was injured, James Earp moved with his family to Colton, California. He died in January of 1926 in California.
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