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Historic archive of documents from Tombstone, Arizona, highlighted by a lease signed by three members of the Earp family—Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, and James Earp—for a reservoir to bring water to their Grasshopper Mine. Includes:
- Manuscript DS, signed "Wyatt S. Earp," "V. W. Earp," "James C. Earp," and "T. J. Drum," one page both sides, 8 x 12.5, December 8, 1881. In part: "This agreement made this day between V. W. Earp, W. S. Earp, J. C. Earp, & T. J. Drum all of the City of Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona Ter., Parties of the first part & the Tombstone Water Mill & Lumber Co., a corporation of the same city…The parties of the first part for & in consideration herein after named do grant, bargain & lease to the parties of the second part the right of way to build their reservoir & say their water pipe from the westerly line…over their mining claim known as the Grasshopper mine in Tombstone district." Signed on the reverse in ink by the four parties of the first part, and embossed with the seal of notary A. O. Wallace.
- Partly-printed DS, signed "A. O. Wallace," one page, 8.5 x 7, December 14, 1881. In part: "On this Fourteenth day of December…before me, A. O. Wallace, a Notary Public in and for the County of Cochise, personally appeared Wyatt S. Earp, V. W. Earp, James C. Earp, and T. J. Drum whose names are subscribed to the annexed instrument as parties thereto, known to me to be the persons described in and who executed the said annexed instrument."
- ADS by Virgil Earp, signed within the text, "V. W. Earp," one page, 7.75 x 6.25, August 1881. A bill written at Tombstone, in part: "City of Tombstone To V. W. Earp, To Water Tickets—$1.00, Removing dead Dog, .50—$1.50." Acknowledged below by an auditor, and also endorsed on the reverse by Virgil Earp, "Bill of V. W. Earp."
- Original 2.5 x 4 carte-de-visite portrait of lawman Ed Masterson, the older brother of famed gunfighters Bat Masterson and James Masterson, showing him in a suit and tie, with an identification notation inked on the mount. The reverse bears the imprint of "W. B. Critchfield, Photographer, Chariton, Iowa."
In overall very good to fine condition, with all pieces fully laminated by a collector in the 1970s. Accompanied by a copy of a petition relating to "the matter of application of Wyatt Earp and J. H. Holliday for writ of Habeas Corpus," produced by the Tucson Blue Print Co.
This compelling group of Tombstone documents captures Wyatt and Virgil Earp at a pivotal moment in their frontier careers, just weeks after the famed Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in October 1881 and amid the escalating tensions that would soon erupt into the Earp Vendetta Ride. Far from the popular image of gunfighters alone, these records place the Earps firmly within the economic and civic fabric of boomtown Tombstone, where mining interests and infrastructure projects were essential to survival and prosperity.
The Western Americana auction of Jochen Zeitz.
