The Columbus Dispatch
But three historians traced Tipton's path to the cemetery's shaded greens on Columbus' West Side.
Yesterday, they met there to honor Tipton at his final resting place in section 45 of Green Lawn. A white stone marker recently was placed there by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs after Ontario researcher Mark Dworkin told them of Tipton's Civil War service in the Navy.
"We've finally been able to get Tipton a marker after 100 years," he said.
By all accounts, Tipton was a thin man at 5 feet 10 who had slight blue eyes and chestnut brown hair. But his life was one of toughness and survival, Dworkin said.
Out West, he was a gambler and Earp's trusted bodyguard, said Jean Smith, a researcher from Safford, Ariz., who visited Tipton's gravesite yesterday.
"The posse was made of some pretty tough characters," added Chuck Smith, Jean's husband. "But Earp was after some pretty tough guys as well."
Historians say Tipton's experience aboard the USS Malvern, an iron side-wheel gunboat, hardened him. What happened between leaving the Navy and ending up in Tombstone is a bit foggy.
It's possible "Tipton" wasn't his real name. This might explain why researchers can't find any family records, Dworkin said.
"Tipton could have taken that name heading into the war," he said. "A lot of men who went West afterward were trying to escape their past."
Historians know of just one photo of Tipton, a mug shot taken Oct. 22, 1897, the day he entered the Ohio State Penitentiary. Green Lawn visitors were handed copies of the photo yesterday.
"He's a pretty wiry guy," said Steve Stoehr, a Westerville resident and naval history buff. "I can't imagine that guy coming up and hitting you right in the nose."
But Tipton had to be awfully tough, Dworkin said.
"If you were the type to be a shopkeeper, you didn't get involved with this posse."
While known to most as a "miner," Tipton was first a member of Tombstone's "law and order faction," which included Earp, his brothers, Doc Holliday and some businessmen.
There's no evidence that Tipton was at the OK Corral with Earp and others during the legendary gunfight on Oct. 26, 1881, but records show he was in the thick of things afterward.
Tipton rode with the posse on what's known as the "Tombstone vendetta run," after the murder of Wyatt's brother, Morgan Earp, in March 1882.
Finally, he was arrested on federal charges in 1897 for smuggling Chinese laborers into the United States from Mexico.
When he entered the Ohio Pen in October that year, he suffered with a kidney disease and was down to 130 pounds, according to the researchers.
Tipton died four months later in prison.