California Joe Milner

Moses Embree Milner was born in Stanford, Kentucky on May 8, 1829. At age 14 he moved west to St. Louis, Missouri for a short time and then on to Fort Laramie, Wyoming where he became a fur trapper.[1]

In 1846 during the Mexican–American War he began working as a scout for General Stephen W. Kearny and Colonel Alexander W. Doniphan. Following the war he married Nancy Watts and moved to California, where he became a gold prospector and was then known as "California Joe". In 1853, he left California and built a cattle ranch in near Corvallis, Oregon.[1]

In 1866, California Joe was a scout based in Kansas at Fort Riley and later out of Fort Harker where he became acquainted with Wild Bill Hickok and Texas Jack Omohundro. Then in 1868, Milner was named Chief of Scouts for George Armstrong Custer in Fort Hays but Custer soon found Joe drunk and immediately demoted him.[2]

Milner returned to prospecting and ranching in 1870 near Picoche, Nevada. In 1875, Milner scouted for the Jenny Geological Expedition expedition of 1875 and remained in the Black Hills to prospect.[3]

On an undisclosed winter night in late 1875, California Joe Milner and Tom Newcomb stopped by the camp John Richard and his nephew, Alfred Pallardie. They were camped near the headwaters of the Running Water, trading with the Sioux between Fort Laramie and Fort Robinson. What happened next is unknown, but Tom Newcomb arrived at Fort Robinson the next day with the news that California Joe had murdered both John Richard and Alfred Pallardie at their camp. California Joe was soon apprehended at Fort Robinson, and eventually released for lack of evidence, but not before blaming the double murders on Tom Newcomb. Eventually the blame was placed on the Cheyenne Indians.[4]

In October 1876, while at Fort Robinson, Nebraska he was shot by Thomas Newcomb, whom he had publicly accused of killing John Richard. Frank Salaway was a witness to the killing of California Joe. Salaway said that following the murder of John Richard, California Joe quickly began spreading the word that Tom Newcomb had killed Richard. Tom Newcomb had in fact said that he would kill California Joe onbsight for reporting that he had killed Richard. Tom Newcomb avenged John Richard's death by blasting California Joe. He was buried at Fort Robinson and now is at Fort McPherson National Cemetery.[3]

• Media related to California Joe Milner at Wikimedia Commons
• California Joe Milner at Find a Grave