Newton Earp

Newton Jasper Earp (October 7, 1837 – December 18, 1928) was the eldest child of Nicholas Porter Earp and Abigail Storm. He was the half-brother of Old West lawmen Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp.

Newton was born in Ohio County, Kentucky, to Nicholas Earp and his first wife, Abigail Storm. Newton Earp, and half-brothers James and Virgil, were close for their entire lives. He married Jennie (last name unknown) in 1854. She died before 1887. He ran against his younger half-brother Wyatt for the office of constable. The Earps may have hoped to keep the job in the family one way or another. Wyatt won by 137 votes to Newton's 108, but their father Nicholas lost the election for justice of the peace in a very close four-way race.

Following the outbreak of the Civil War, Earp enlisted in the Union Army (along with both James and Virgil) on November 11, 1861. Earp served with Company F of the Fourth Cavalry, Iowa Volunteers.

He was promoted to fourth sergeant on January 1, 1865. His brother James was badly wounded in a battle near Fredericktown, Missouri and returned home only months after his enlistment. Virgil and Newton, however, served the entire war. Newton mustered out of the Army on June 26, 1865 in Louisville, Kentucky.

After Earp's return from the American Civil War, he married Nancy Jane Adam in Marion County, Missouri. The newlyweds then joined his father and siblings in San Bernardino, California in southern California, where most of the family had relocated. There, Newton worked as a saloon manager.

Earp and family returned to the Midwest in 1868, first settling in Lamar, Missouri, where Earp took up farming. The family later relocated to Kansas. The Earps had five children: Effie May, Wyatt Clyde, Mary Elizabeth, Alice Abigail, and Virgil Edwin. They named their first-born son (born on August 25, 1872) after his not-yet-famous younger brother, Wyatt; and their second son (born April 19, 1880) after his younger brother, Virgil.

Following another relocation to California, Newton became a carpenter, building homes in northern California and northwestern Nevada. Daughter Effie May and wife Jennie both died on March 29, 1898 in Paradise Hill, Nevada, also known as Paradise Valley. Newton died at age 91 in Sacramento, California on December 18, 1928. Only his brother Wyatt survived him. He is buried in Sacramento's East Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.