WE KNOW about Virgil and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, we know the famous film that was made about them, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, starring Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn. There’s Tombstone, Arizona: a name that used to send shivers down teenage spines.
But where was Ellen Rijsdam from Rhenen?
The Tombstone tale has been rendered unrecognizable over time. Yes, there was a shoot-out between good guys and bad hombres, but it lasted no more than 30 seconds. Yes, there were a whole bunch of Earp brothers who were policing the town. And sure enough, Wyatt was one of them, but important enough for Kevin Costner to put him on a pedestal? Hm, maybe not.
So again, where was that girl from Rhenen, then?
ELLEN Rijsdam was Virgil’s woman, Virgil Earp, US marshall in Tombstone, the man of the hour, the real guy in charge when criminals executed someone, and the police reacted with lethal force. But there was no sign of her. Ellen was in Oregon, thousands of miles away.
Sister of Neeltje, Adriana, Arie, Geertje, Hannie and another handful of siblings, daughter of Gerrit Rijsdam and Magda van Velzen. A badass, headstrong. They had emigrated from the Dutch town of Rhenen to Iowa, and her next door neighbor there was Virgil Earp. He was 16, she a year older. Virgil was just as stubborn, no surprise because his dad was Sheriff Nick Earp, notorious for his short fuse.
Ellen and Virgil ran off together, eloped, and found a priest who was willing to marry them. Teens, husband and wife. Pregnant, like right away. But the Civil War broke out, and Virgil joined the army two weeks before lil’ Nellie was born. So back to mom and dad Ellen went, baby in tow.
LONG STORY short, dad Rijsdam saw an opportunity and made up the news he said he had heard in town: Virgil Earp was dead and would never come home again. Ellen was inconsolable, and fled with Nellie as far away as she could, to Portland, Oregon.
The rest is history, except this: unscathed, Virgil Earp returned, became a sheriff and a marshall, and Tombstone made him famous – but all his life he kept searching desperately for his baby daughter. Eventually, to his unspeakable delight, he found her in Oregon, where her mom had since remarried a man from Zaltbommel. Daughter Nellie and daddy Virgil Earp became best buddies. He stayed with her as often as he could.
When he finally died for real, and Ellen shortly thereafter, their daughter buried them close to her home. There they still are, and Nellie has since joined them. Forever reunited.
