California Joe Milner

Moses Embree Milner (May 8, 1829 – October 29, 1876), also known as "California Joe", was an American miner and frontier scout.

Biography 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 where he became a fur trapper.

In 1846, during the Mexican–American War, Milner 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 near Corvallis, Oregon.

Milner returned to prospecting and ranching in 1870 near Picoche, Nevada. In 1875, he scouted for the Newton–Jenney geological expedition and remained in the Black Hills to prospect.

On an undisclosed winter night in late 1875, Milner and a man named Tom Newcomb stopped by the camp of John Richard and his nephew, Alfred Pallardie, near the headwaters of the Running Water. Richard and Pallardie had been trading with the Sioux between Fort Laramie and Fort Robinson. What happened next is unknown, but Newcomb arrived at Fort Robinson the next day claiming that Milner had murdered both Richard and Pallardie at their camp. Milner was soon apprehended at Fort Robinson, but he was eventually released due to a lack of evidence. While in custody, Milner blamed the murders on Newcomb. Eventually, the blame was placed on the Cheyenne Indians.