MONMOUTH, ILLINOIS
Melba Matson, M.S. in Ed.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp’s Birthplace and Boyhood Home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 1999 National Register listing includes the words “Wyatt Earp was an internationally famous lawman who was born at the Pike-Sheldon House on March 19, 1848 in Monmouth, Illinois . . . .” This home is at 406 South 3rd Street and is now a Historic House Museum open to the public.
The Birthplace Home is listed as the Pike-Sheldon home, after the original builders: Samuel Pike, who built the original two-story section ca. 1841, and Wilson Sheldon, who built the one-story wing addition ca. 1865, which doubled the square footage of the original home. It’s one of Monmouth’s earliest homes and is “a good example of early pioneer, Greek Revival construction, especially popular in the Midwestern states in the 1840’s.”
After thirteen years of research by this author, the State of Illinois Preservation Agency architects visited the home, the staff studied all the documentation, and they submitted the National Register application to the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service.
Documentation included Warren County deeds/tax records, university professors’ analyses, a Warren County judge’s 1929 research, attorneys’ opinions, an architectural historian’s on-site examination, old-timer letters, newspaper/journal reports, Wyatt Earp’s life history and dominant Earp family affidavits.
The Wyatt Earp Birthplace Home was also listed in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society,“Wyatt Earp Birthplace Marked,” in 1956; Warren County Historical Society postcards in 1972; State of Illinois Inventory of Historic Landmarks in Warren County, Interim Report in 1974; Certificate of Historical Significance by the Monmouth Preservationists in 1986; and the Illinois Governor’s Home Town Award in 2005.
Wyatt’s aunt, Elizabeth “Betsy” Earp Ezell and family were renting his Birthplace Home, when Wyatt was born there. It was written that Wyatt’s mother was sickly, and his father had reportedly just returned injured from the Mexican War. There were now four young Earp children in the family: Newton, a half brother plus James, Virgil, and Martha. The older Greenberry Ezell family helped the Earp family during the time of Wyatt’s birth.
This home is also Wyatt’s boyhood home for one year. The family lived in the Birthplace Home after they sold their four properties in 1849. Aunt Betsy and family had bought a nearby home. Wyatt’s family then left for Pella, Iowa in 1850, where Uncle Lorenzo Dow Earp lived.
Wyatt’s family returned to Monmouth and bought properties from 1856-1859. After moving back to Pella and a wagon trip to California in 1864, the family was again in Monmouth in 1868-69 for a visit with his grandmother. They then moved to Lamar, Missouri. where Uncle Jonathan Earp lived. Wyatt was appointed a constable in December of 1869, his first lawman’s job.
Through the years other Earp relatives and relatives of Earps have lived in Wyatt’s birthplace home. Their affidavits and all documentation are on display at the Wyatt Earp Birthplace Historical House Museum in Monmouth.
The non-profit 501©3 museum is owned and operated by an International Board of Trustees and a National Advisory Council. It is tax exempt for donations. Contact the Monmouth Area Chamber of Commerce at 309-734-3181 or the Birthplace at 6771 for tours. Statement released 2007