Frontier Lawman Virgil Earp

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Meanwhile, in San Bernardino, Governor Robert Waterman made it clear to San Bernardino County Sheriff J.B. Burkhart that there could be no more delay — the court order must be enforced. Burkhart promptly deputized 10 dependable men and escorted the governor to the crossing site in nearby Colton. Waterman made his way to the front of the San Bernardino mob and read the court order. The locomotive must be cleared away at once, the governor said, and if guard Virgil Earp made any move with his six-shooter, Burkhart and his deputies would open fire.

The charged atmosphere made the possibility of an intercommunity bloodbath seem likely — something even bloodier than that Tombstone shootout. Earp could also see that further resistance was hopeless. He holstered his six-shooter and ordered the engineer to move the locomotive. Whether or not Earp was following instructions from his Southern Pacific bosses is not known, but by not resisting the governor, sheriff and deputies, he made sure that the bloodless Battle of the Crossing did not turn into the Gunfight at the Colton Crossing.

Colton did become something of a railroad center, and Virgil and Allie settled down to urban living there. But Virgil was not just any old resident. People knew his name — Earp was virtually synonymous with frontier justice — and his reputation. Virgil’s father, Nick, a saloon owner, was elected justice of the peace for Colton in 1884, and Virgil began to take an interest in local politics.

According to author Don Chaput, Virgil Earp gambled a lot during these years, opened a detective agency briefly in 1886 and then was elected village constable in early July of that year. One year later, Colton was incorporated as a city. On July 11, 1887, according to the minutes of a board of supervisors meeting, V.W. Earp was elected the first city marshal with 109 votes to 61 votes for William Brown and just one for L.S. Abel. Earp’s term of office was one year at a salary of $75 per month. On April 8, 1888, Earp was re-elected city marshal for another one-year term.

Marshal Earp spent time collaring tramps, petty thieves and drunks. Records from various board of trustee meetings suggest that Virgil had many mundane duties and no staff to help him do them. When the lock on the jail needed replacing, he bought and installed the new one. When the sewer backed up, he did the digging to clear it. One note says, Bill submitted by V.W. Earp to Trustees for $4.25 for cost of nails and meals of prisoners. Another note says: The Marshal was instructed to keep watch of the electric lights and note their burning. He was also instructed to procure a ballot box to be used at the next election.

In March 1889, Virgil Earp resigned as city marshal and became a boxing matchmaker and gambling hall operator in the larger city of San Bernardino. In the spring of 1893 he ventured off to Vanderbilt, a gold mining camp in northeastern San Bernardino County. There, Virgil Earp opened Earp’s Hall, a two-story saloon that had a public hall upstairs for dances, prizefights, and church services on Sunday. Virgil was later described by Vanderbilt acquaintance J.O. Fisk as a cheerful and agreeable man….In appearance to me, he even looked kind of studious, but he always took part in the dances and get-togethers they had in those days. Fisk also described Virgil as a quiet man who wouldn’t talk much about himself, but who, despite his injured left arm, could handle cards, drinks and hard cases. Even though Virgil was well liked in Vanderbilt, he lost the election for constable in 1894.

Virgil and Allie were back in Colton by early 1895, but they did not stay long. Virgil had heard from brother Wyatt and was off to the mining town of Cripple Creek, Colo., that summer. Apparently there was not much profit to be found there, and in October, Virgil and Allie went back to Prescott, Arizona Territory, where they had lived in the late 1870s. Mining in the area seemed to be Virgil’s chief interest, but he was injured in a mining accident in the fall of 1896. He recovered and took up ranching in the Kirkland Valley, south of Prescott.

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