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| Warren Earp, youngest of the famed Earp brothers |
Most think the term "wild and woolly West" didn't apply to Orange County. They're shocked to learn we had cowboys, Indians, shoot-outs in saloons, posses chasing horse thieves, and every other Old West cliche you care to mention. Admittedly, we weren't home to many of the big names from the history books, but we weren't exactly out of the picture either.
For instance, there's no record of famous lawman Wyatt Earp visiting Orange County, but some of his famous family spent time here.
In a 1930s interview with historian Terry E. Stephenson, Orange County pioneer Henry Sterling Pankey recalled Nicholas Porter "Nick" Earp, who’d been a friendly neighbor living near his bee ranch on the Temescal side of the Santa Ana Mountains by Lake Elsinore. He noted that Earps would sometimes find their way to the other side of the mountains.
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| Henry S Pankey, circa 1885 |
"[Nick] Earp was the father of the well-known Western marshals and gunmen, Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil, and Warren,” said Pankey. “Morg, I believe, was killed at Tombstone while the Earps were here. The elder Earp and his wife and daughter, and son-in-law, Will Edwards, and Warren Earp, were on the place. These three men all worked for me at different times. Warren worked for me at Santa Ana, on my property southwest of Santa Ana in the Gospel Swamp section."
Warren wasn't with his brothers at the famous O.K. Corral shoot-out in Tombstone in 1881, but he helped Wyatt hunt down the man who killed their brother, Morgan. Later in life, Warren took to trading on his brothers’ notoriety, became a well-known bully, and in 1900 was shot dead in Wilcox, Arizona during an altercation with cattleman John Boyett.
It may be a thin thread connecting O.C. to the O.K. Corral, but it's interesting that any thread exists at all.
PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pankey, Edgar & Libby Pankey. Love of the land: The Pankeys of Orange County, Seven Locks Press, 2000.
Pankey, Edgar & Bonnie Pendelton. Edgar & Elizabeth Pankey: Family Life In Early Orange County, Orange County Pioneer Council, 1992.
Stephenson, Terry E. & H. S. Pankey. "From Texas to California in 1869," Orange County History Series, Vol. 3, Orange County Historical Society, 1939.
