Wyatt’s One Wedding

Questions surround Earp’s only legal marriage.

In January 1870, Wyatt Earp took the plunge. He married Urilla (or Aurilla) Sutherland in Lamar, Missouri. Earp’s father Nicholas officiated. What happened to Mrs. Earp is subject to speculation. She died about nine months after the wedding—but the cause of death is not clear. Urilla may have been pregnant at the time, but that, too, is not definitive. Conflict soon erupted between the Earp boys and Urilla’s brothers. What caused that is also unknown. What is certain: this was Wyatt’s only legal marriage.