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Joseph C. Morehead

Nonpartisan

Date Party Office Votes Result
11-13-1849 Nonpartisan AD-San Joaquin 0 Win
Website: www.findagrave.com/memorial/89601818/joseph-clayton-morehead
 

Candidate Biography:

Joseph Clayton Morehead
AKA: James C. Moorehead

Born: 1828 in either Cloverport or Butler County, Kentucky
Married: Nancy Hamilton, Sallie Thomas
Child: Margaret
Family: Claimed to be the son of James Turner Morehead (Kentucky Governor, 1834-1836). Denied.
Military Service: ARMY (Mexican War), California State Militia (Gila Expedition/Yuma War), Confederate Army (Civil War)
Died: November 30, 1863 in Troy or Montgomery, Alabama

1850: Resigned from the State Assembly on April 16.
1850: Fought with the Yuma Indians
1850-1851: Quartermaster General, California State Militia
1851: Led a filibustering campaign to Mazatlan, Mexico. Arrived in July 1851 with 200 lightly armed men.

  • LEGAL TROUBLES: Held as a Union Army Prisoner of War between June 17, 1862 and June 22, 1863.
  • In 1850, Morehead led the California State Militia to combat the Yuma Indians in the 1851 Gila Expedition. The State of California was nearly bankrupted by the $120,000 cost of the Expedition, which killed no indians.

Source: Assembly Journal 1849-50, p. 1234
Source: Schemers & Dreamers: Filibustering in Mexico, 1848-1921 by Joseph Allen Stout