Wyatt Earp Wyatt Earp was an American frontiersman and law enforcement officer, born in Monmouth, Illinois. As a young man Earp was a stagecoach driver, railroad construction worker, surveyor, buffalo hunter, and policeman, and in 1876 he became chief deputy marshal of Dodge City, Kansas, a lawless frontier town. In 1869, Wyatt returned to Lamar, Missouri. There he had his first experience in law enforcement. In Lamar he ran against his older brother Newton for the position of Constable of the Lamar Police Force in 1870. Wyatt won the election by 35 votes. Newton, being the half brother of the other Earps, is hardly mentioned in any reference. We know that he fought in the Civil War