Editing Morgan Earp (section)

== Early life ==
[[File: Louisa Houston Earp Peters.jpg|thumb|left|Morgan married Louisa Alice Houston in the 1870s. After Morgan's murder, she married Gustav Peters in 1885 and died in 1894 in Long Beach, California.]]

Morgan Earp was born in [[Pella, Iowa]], to [[Nicholas Porter Earp]] (1813–1907), a [[cooper (profession)|cooper]] and [[farmer]], and his second wife Virginia Ann Cooksey (1821–1893).

=== Brothers' service in the Civil War and later ===

When elder brothers [[Newton Earp|Newton]], [[James Earp|James]], and [[Virgil Earp|Virgil]] went off to the [[American Civil War]], they left their young teenage brothers Wyatt and Morgan to tend the family farm.  James and Morgan grew up close, with a shared wish for adventure and a dislike of farming. Before adulthood, teen-aged Morgan followed James Earp to Montana for a couple of years. Later he was with Wyatt on the [[Old West|Western frontier]].

In spring 1868, his father [[Nicholas Porter Earp]] and his siblings Ginnie, Warren, and Adelia returned to the mid-west and Lamar, Missouri, where Nick became the local constable.<ref name=historynetvirgil>{{cite web|title=Frontier Lawman Virgil Earp|url=http://www.historynet.com/frontier-lawman-virgil-earp.htm|date=June 12, 2006|access-date=May 9, 2011 |first1=Jan S. |last1=Paul |first2=Gene |last2=Carlisle |work=Wild West}}</ref> By November 17, 1869, Nick resigned to become Justice of the Peace. Wyatt, who had followed them to Missouri, was appointed constable in place of his father.<ref>Barra, Allen (1998) [https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/barra-earp.html Inventing Wyatt Earp His Life and Many Legends] ''New York Times''</ref> In early 1870, Wyatt married Urilla Sutherland, but she died later that year shortly before she was due to have a baby. Shortly afterward, Wyatt, James, Virgil, and Morgan got into what witnesses described as a "20-minute street fight" with Urilla's brothers and other relatives over the alleged bootlegging activities of both families.<ref name="silva">{{cite web |last1=Silva |first1=Lee |title=The Mysterious Morgan Earp {{!}} HistoryNet |url=http://www.historynet.com/mysterious-morgan-earp.htm |website=www.historynet.com |date=16 January 2018 |access-date=9 June 2018}}</ref>

Sometime between 1871 and 1877, Morgan met Louisa Alice Houston, the daughter of H. Samuel Houston and Elizabeth Waughtal. Louisa (born January 24, 1855) was the second eldest of 12 children.{{citation needed|date=May 2022}}

In 1875, Morgan left [[Wichita, Kansas]] and became a deputy marshal under [[Charlie Bassett]] at [[Dodge City, Kansas|Dodge City]].

=== Move to Butte, Montana ===

In late 1877, Morgan and Louisa moved to [[Miles City, Montana]], where they bought a home. Shortly after Wyatt and Virgil headed for Tombstone, Arizona, Morgan and Louisa sold their home in Montana and headed west. Morgan apparently didn't think the wild mining town of Tombstone was suitable for Louisa, who was a petite woman and suffered from [[rheumatoid arthritis]]. He took her instead to stay with his parents in [[Colton, California]], in March 1880. Morgan set out to meet his older brothers in Tombstone on July 20, 1880. Louisa followed him in early December.<ref name="Monahan">{{cite web|last1=Monahan|first1=Sherry|title=The Dedicated Women Behind the Earp Men|url=http://www.truewestmagazine.com/the-dedicated-women-behind-the-earp-men/|publisher=True West magazine|access-date=1 March 2016|date=January 6, 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160227123814/http://www.truewestmagazine.com/the-dedicated-women-behind-the-earp-men/|archive-date=27 February 2016}}</ref>

In 1878, the July 25 ''Daily Pioneer'' reported that Morgan had joined prospectors pursuing gold in the Bear Paw mountains on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northern Montana Territory, "Mr. Morgan Earpt{{sic}} arrived last evening from the Tongue River, which he left about three weeks ago."  General John Gibbon had brought troops to the Teton River to keep prospectors from being "slaughtered by Indians." Morgan remained in Montana for an unknown amount of time. On December 16, 1879, he was selected as a policeman in [[Butte, Montana]]. A story has circulated that Morgan and [[William L. Brooks|Billy Brooks]] competed for the job of a policeman. During a confrontation over the job, they got in a gunfight. Some accounts say Earp killed Brooks, and that Earp was wounded. But other accounts report that Brooks later died at the hands of a lynch mob, but no contemporary documentation of the shootout has been found. Morgan served for only three months, until March 10, 1880.<ref name="silva"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Legendary Lawman Morgan Earp |url=https://www.officer.com/on-the-street/body-armor-protection/article/10369152/legendary-lawman-morgan-earp |website=Officer |date=28 September 2011 |access-date=9 June 2018 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rosa |first1=Joseph G. |title=The Gunfighter: Man Or Myth? |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Um4KRtIutecC |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |access-date=9 June 2018 |page=108 |language=en |year= 1979|isbn=978-0806115610 }}</ref>

=== Arrival in Tombstone, Arizona Territory ===

Morgan's wife, Lou, wrote a letter to her sister Agnes on March 5, 1880: "We arrived in San Bernardino on Wednesday evening, and Thursday we came by train to the Temescal Mountains Warm Springs.… I suppose I will have to live here now for some time, for there is no way to make enough money to get away." Morgan is listed in the June 1880 census for Temescal. In a July 19, 1880, letter, Lou wrote, "My husband starts for Arizona in the morning."<ref name=mysterious>{{cite web |title=The Mysterious Morgan Earp |url=https://www.historynet.com/mysterious-morgan-earp.htm |website=HistoryNet |access-date=28 February 2019 |date=16 January 2018}}</ref>

At different times in [[Arizona]], both Wyatt and Morgan worked as [[shotgun messenger]]s for [[Wells Fargo|Wells Fargo & Co.]], deputy sheriffs for [[Pima County, Arizona|Pima County]], and as deputies under Tombstone's town Marshal, Virgil Earp, their older brother. During December 1881, Wyatt was appointed by U.S. Marshal Crawley Dake as [[United States Marshals Service|deputy U.S. marshal]] after Virgil was wounded. Wyatt appointed his brother Morgan as a deputy.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Morgan Earp – Assassinated in Tombstone AZ – Life & Death|url=https://www.tombstonetraveltips.com/morgan-earp.html|access-date=2021-11-09|website=Tombstone Travel Tips}}</ref>