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Notorious outlaw, Belle Starr died as she lived, ambushed on a lonely trail while returning to her outlaw stronghold known as Younger's Bend. Her estate consisted of a few hundred dollars and her homestead. Originally the headright of her deceased husband, Sam Starr (son of Tom Starr, the famed Cherokee dissident), the sixty acres could not be sold. Her son and daughter, Eddie and Pearl, could live upon the land as long as they pleased but if they left, it automatically reverted to the Cherokee Tribal Council.
Leave it they did, living for a time in Van Buren, Arkansas, across the river from Fort Smith. Eddie was sent to the Ohio State Penitentiary for bootlegging whisky to the Indians, leaving young Pearl on her own. A short time later, Madame Van's had a new "boarder" in her bordello, a young woman who called herself "Rosa Reed".
Working in the shadow of the Iron Mountain Railroad overpass, it did not take long for the newcomer to get "broken in" to nights filled with a procession of men willing to pay for a few minutes of her time and the possession of her body. Pearl aka "Rosa" soon proved her inheritance was more than a bit of land and a small stash of money. She had the same indefinable quality which men found so alluring in her less attractive mother. She became Van Buren's most popular whore, hoarding her considerable earnings as she planned her escape to the bigger and more affluent Fort Smith. In November, 1891, Pearl shed both Van Buren and her alias, leasing a house at 25 Water St. on "the Row", where Fort Smith's bordellos were located. There, at various addresses over a twenty-three year time span, she plied her trade as both prostitute and madam. Now boldly proclaiming she was Belle Starr's daughter, she exploited the commercial value of the name her mother had made infamous.
Fort Smith, enjoying its greatest boom, was also the home of long-established madams, such as Maud McGrath, Dot Parker and Laura Ziegler. With enough business for all, they helped her recruit "boarders" from Hot Springs and Memphis. The Row was located only three blocks from the courtroom of the famous Hanging Judge Parker. The gallows where eighty-six men were hanged stood in the courtyard below, which also housed the prison known as the scourge of the Border.
By 1892, Pearl had amassed enough money to hire expensive lawyers and was successful in freeing her brother. In 1893, President Harrison pardoned him. Eddie hurried to Fort Smith to thank his sister, only to spurn her completely when he learned how the money had been obtained. Outraged, he became Judge Parker's deputy marshal, operating in Indian Territory. Poor wages and great danger accompanied this job, and Eddie dropped from sight until October, 1896, when he reappeared long enough to kill the Crittenden brothers, also former Parker deputies, who were rampaging through the town of Waggoner where he had settled. The notoriety and whisky drove him to the little town of Claremore, where he ran two saloonkeepers out of their place of business. They returned, armed. Minutes later, Eddie lay dead.
In the meantime, Fort Smith was under pressure from its citizens to abolish the Row and the activities of freelance prostitutes. The town already had ordinances which could shut down the bawdy houses and streetwalkers if the city fathers chose to enforce them. To prevent this occurrence, the madams and their "boarders" had long paid a weekly tax of $ 15 per house and $ 5 per "boarder" which were used to pay for weekly medical examinations. Fines of five dollars were also levied upon streetwalkers who were arrested for soliciting, but this did not prevent new ordinances from being passed, as demanded. The new laws were thorough. One even made it a crime for prostitutes to "loiter in a city cemetery."
The moral upheaval didn't tame Pearl. In defiance, she placed a star-shaped sign, outlined in red and white electric lights, on the front of her house. The reformers demanded its removal. Pearl refused, even under police pressure. It's obscene welcome could be seen blocks away and became a Fort Smith landmark, making sure everyone knew exactly where "Pearl's Place" was located.
For years, Pearl was plagued with arrests and attorney's fees. In February, 1916, the city finally won, when Pearl agreed to leave town if the current charges were dropped. Under threat of immediate arrest if she entered the city limits, she was never to return,. "Rosa Reed" died on July 6, 1925, in the sleepy border town of Douglas, Arizona, whose residents were unaware of Rosa's true identity.
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