O. M. Wozencraft

Wozencraft was born in Clermont County, Ohio, June 26, 1814.{{cite book |title=The story of the first decade in Imperial Valley, California |last1=Howe |first1=Edgar F. |last2=Hall |first2=Wilbur Jay |year=1910 |publisher=Imperial |page=[https://archive.org/details/storyfirstdecad00hallgoog/page/n31 25], 27 |url=https://archive.org/details/storyfirstdecad00hallgoog |quote=wozencraft. |access-date=25 May 2010}}

He graduated with a degree in medicine from St. Joseph's College in Bardstown, Kentucky. Wozencraft married Lamiza A. Ramsey (June 13, 1818 – August 30, 1905) in Nashville, Tennessee on February 23, 1837.{{cite book |title=Marriages of Davidson County, Tennessee, 1789-1847 |last=Whitley |first=Edythe Johns Rucker |year=1981 |publisher=Clearfield |isbn=978-0-8063-0919-4 |page=163 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ocj-9JOMLMoC&q=Lamiza+A.++Pamsey&pg=PA163 |access-date=25 May 2010}}{{cite book |title=Volunteer Forty-niners: Tennesseans and the California gold rush

|last=Durham |first=Walter T. |year=1997 |publisher=Vanderbilt University Press |isbn=978-0-8265-1298-7 |page=121 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vywAImZdyaMC&q=O.M.+Wozencraft+lamiza+a+ramsey&pg=PA121 |access-date=24 May 2010}} In 1848, leaving his wife and three small children in New Orleans directly after a cholera epidemic,{{cite book|title=A treatise on Asiatic cholera|year=1885|publisher=William Wood|url=https://archive.org/details/treatiseonasiati00wend|quote= brownsville cholera 1849 california emigrants.|editor=Edmund Charles Wendt, M.D.|access-date=6 June 2010|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/treatiseonasiati00wend/page/79 79]}} he relocated to Brownsville, Texas.{{cite news|title=Dream of a Desert Paradise|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/2095123/193906-Desert-Magazine-1939-June|access-date=4 June 2010|newspaper=Desert Magazine|date=June 1938|author=Taze Lamb|author2=Jessie Lamb|pages=22–23}}

After the cholera epidemic swept Brownsville in February through April 1849,{{cite book|title=Abstracts from the Northern Standard and The Red River District: August 26, 1848-December 20, 1851|year=2009|isbn=978-0-7884-4454-8| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RTKIGW5qZGcC&q=brownsville%20cholera%201848&pg=PA58 |editor=Richard B. Marrin, Lorna Geer Sheppard|access-date=6 June 2010|page=58|publisher=Heritage Books }} upon hearing news of gold being discovered, Wozencraft decided to seek his fortune in California.{{cite book |title=Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s |last=Starr |first=Kevin |year=1990 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-507260-0 |page=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h-xCsPyii2gC&q=St.+Joseph%27s+College+&pg=PA5 |access-date=24 May 2010}} Wozencraft arrived at Yuma, Arizona in May 1849, crossed the Colorado Desert in difficult circumstances, then arrived in California.

Wozencraft settled in Stockton, California and was elected as delegate to the California Constitutional Convention in Monterey in 1849 representing the district of San Joaquin.{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography: P-Z |last=Thrapp |first=Dan L. |year=1991 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-9420-2 |page=1599 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NCObM3OAPuwC&q=wozencraft+gunplay&pg=PA1599 |access-date=25 May 2010}}

Wozencraft spoke against the admission of African Americans to California:

{{blockquote|We have declared, by a unanimous vote, that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in this State. I desire now to cast my vote in favor of the proposition just submitted, prohibiting the negro race from coming amongst us; and this I profess to do as a philanthropist, loving my kind, and rejoicing in their rapid march toward perfectibility. If there was just reason why slavery should not exist in this land, there is just reason why that part of the family of man, who are so well adapted for servitude, should be excluded from amongst us. It would appear that the all-wise Creator has created the negro to serve the white race. We see evidence of this wherever they are brought in contact; we see the instinctive feeling of the negro is obedience to the white man, and, in all instances, he obeys him, and is ruled by him. If you would wish that all mankind should be free, do not bring the two extremes in the scale of organization together; do not bring the lowest in contact with the highest, for be assured the one will rule and the other must serve.|Oliver M. Wozencraft{{cite book |title=Report of the debates in the Convention of California on the formation of the State Constitution |last=Browne |first=John Ross |year=1850 |publisher=Congress of the United States of America |location=Washington, DC |page=[https://archive.org/details/reportdebatesin02browgoog/page/n56 49] |url=https://archive.org/details/reportdebatesin02browgoog |quote=wozencraft negro. |access-date=25 May 2010}}}}

He also moved that a two term limit apply to the position of Governor of California. That question was debated then rejected.{{cite book |title=Report of the debates in the Convention of California on the formation of the State Constitution |last=Browne |first=John Ross |year=1850 |publisher=Congress of the United States of America |location=Washington, DC |page=[https://archive.org/details/reportdebatesin02browgoog/page/n163 156] |url=https://archive.org/details/reportdebatesin02browgoog |quote=wozencraft moved the following. |access-date=25 May 2010}}

Wozencraft's signature appears on the handwritten parchment copy of the constitution signed by the delegates on October 13, 1849.{{cite web|title=Records of the Constitutional Convention of 1849|url=http://www.sos.ca.gov/archives/collections/1849/|work=California State Archives|publisher=California Secretary of State|access-date=27 May 2010}}

File:Maidu Headmen with Treaty Commissioners.png Headmen with Treaty Commissioners. Wozencraft is seated center front. Image was captured on or around August 1, 1851 at Bidwell's Ranch at Big Chico Creek.{{cite web|title=California -- One Hundred and Fifty Years Ago |url=http://www.library.ca.gov/sitn/2003/0313.htm|work=Studies in the News|publisher=CALIFORNIA RESEARCH BUREAU CALIFORNIA STATE LIBRARY|access-date=14 June 2010}}{{cite web|title=Text of Bidwell Treaty|url=http://www.maidu.com/maiduculture/bibliography/textbidwelltreaty.html|publisher=Konkow Valley Band of Maidu|access-date=15 June 2010}}]]

On July 8, 1850, President Millard Fillmore appointed Wozencraft as an Indian Agent of the United States.{{Cite report |title=DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR'S RECENTLY RELEASED GUIDANCE ON TAKING LAND INTO TRUST FOR INDIAN TRIBES AND ITS RAMIFICATIONS |url=http://www.standupca.org/gaming-law/land-acquisitions/Carl%20Artman%20Statement%20Oversight%20Hearing%20Committee%20on%20Natural%20resources.pdf |year=2008 |publisher=COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION |access-date=24 May 2010 |page=41 }}

Salary and expenses were not provided to Wozencraft for this appointment. On October 15, 1850, his title as Indian Agent was suspended and he, Redick McKee and George W. Barbour were appointed "commissioners 'to hold treaties with various Indian tribes in the State of California,' as provided in the act of Congress approved September 30, 1850." In that role Wozencraft was paid eight dollars per day plus ten cents per mile travelled.{{cite book |title=Letter to O.M. Wozencraft, Eedick McKee and George W. Barbour |last=A.S. Loughery, Acting Commissioner |year=1850 |publisher=Department Of The Interior |location=Washington, DC|page=152|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-YsFAAAAQAAJ&q=wozencraft&pg=PA152 |access-date=25 May 2010}}

Between March 19, 1851, and January 7, 1852, Wozencraft, McKee and Barbour traversed California and negotiated 18 treaties with Native American tribes. The treaties were submitted to the United States Senate on June 1, 1852. They were considered and rejected for ratification by the Senate in closed session. The treaties were then sealed from public record until January 18, 1905.{{cite book |title=Early California Laws and Policies Related to California Indians |last=Johnston-Dodds |first=Kimberly |year=2002 |publisher=California Research Bureau, California State Library |isbn=1-58703-163-9 |pages=23–24 |url=http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/02/14/02-014.pdf |access-date=25 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228103203/https://www.library.ca.gov/crb/02/14/02-014.pdf |archive-date=28 December 2017 |url-status=dead }}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bseGAAAAMAAJ&q=o.m.wozencraft+indian+agent&pg=PA418 |title=Journal of the executive proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America |date=July 8, 1852 |page=392,446|publisher=United States Congress |access-date=24 May 2010}}

Fillmore removed Wozencraft's standing as an Indian Agent on August 28, 1852.

Wozencraft was an advocate for creating a gravity-fed canal from the Colorado River to provide irrigation to the Salton Sink area of the Colorado Desert (now known as the Imperial Valley). Around 1854 to 1855 he hired Ebenezer Hadley, County Surveyor of Los Angeles and Deputy County Surveyor of San Bernardino, to survey a route for the canal.{{Cite thesis |degree=Ph.D. in Sociology |title=Environmental Conditions, Negotiations and Crises: The Political Economy of Agriculture in the Imperial Valley of California, 1850-1993. |chapter-url=https://www.msu.edu/~rudya/Chapter3-Preconditions.pdf |last=Rudy |first=Alan |chapter=3 | year=1995 |access-date=26 May 2010}} In 1859 Wozencraft successfully lobbied the California State Legislature to provisionally allocate {{convert|3000000 |acre|km2|0}} of the Colorado Desert to himself for the scheme.

Wozencraft required passage of federal legislation (e.g. H.R.3219{{cite book |title=Congressional serial set, Issue 2439 |year=1885 |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |location=Washington D.C. |page=219 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PjIZAAAAIAAJ&q=wozencraft&pg=PA219 |access-date=24 May 2010}}) to finalize the land allocation approved by the state legislature. This would allow him to secure capital to complete the project. He unsuccessfully lobbied the United States Congress for this allocation for the remainder of his life.{{cite book |title=Hoover Dam: An American Adventure |last=Stevens |first=Joseph E. |year=1990 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-2283-0 |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ga3CBCSP9asC&q=Hoover%20Dam%3A%20An%20American%20Adventure%20wozencraft&pg=PA10 |access-date=26 May 2010}}

File:Wozencraft House San Bernardino c1863.jpg house of recalled Mormon Apostle Amasa Lyman was the residence of Wozencraft and his family in 1863.]]

Wozencraft died of a heart attack on November 22, 1887, in a boardinghouse in Washington, D.C. He had been in Washington to again present a Colorado Desert irrigation scheme bill to Congress. Just prior to his death the bill had been killed in committee. In committee the bill was described as a "fantastic folly of an old man".

Work began on the Alamo Canal 13 years after Wozencraft's death, ultimately providing irrigation to the Imperial Valley in a manner similar to that first proposed by Wozencraft almost 50 years earlier.{{cite web|last=Laflin|first=Pat|title=THE SALTON SEA CALIFORNIA'S OVERLOOKED TREASURE|url=http://www.saltonsea.ca.gov/ltnav/library_content/Hydrology/cal_orverlooked_treasure_lafin.pdf|publisher=Coachella Valley Historical Society|access-date=1 June 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527234147/http://www.saltonsea.ca.gov/ltnav/library_content/Hydrology/cal_orverlooked_treasure_lafin.pdf|archive-date=27 May 2010|url-status=dead}} He has been declared the "Father of the Imperial Valley."{{cite journal|last=Romer, M.A.|first=Margaret|title=A History of Calexico|journal=Historical Society of Southern California|year=1922|volume=12|issue=2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wbw-AAAAYAAJ&q=wozencraft+%22father+of+the+imperial+valley%22&pg=RA3-PA29|access-date=6 June 2010|page=29|location=Los Angeles}}

Modern evaluations of the treaties he negotiated with California Native Americans are critical:

{{blockquote|Taken all together, one cannot imagine a more poorly conceived, more inaccurate, less informed, and less democratic process than the making of the 18 treaties in 1851-52 with the California Indians. It was a farce from beginning to end.{{cite book |title=The Eighteen Unratified Treaties of 1851-52 |last= Heizer |first=Robert F. |year=1972 |publisher=Berkeley: Archaeological Research Facility |pages=50–56}}}}

Nineteenth century evaluations are likewise scathing:

{{blockquote|There was a very general impression in the state, and apparently pretty well founded, that [Wozencraft, McKee and Barbour] knew little about the country and still less about the Indians; and that everything they did was a mistake and almost everything in excess of their powers. They appear to have traveled about in considerable style and at very great expense, but accomplished nothing of importance. They made presents and promises in abundance, but got nothing of value in return. None of their treaties were approved; and nearly all the debts they contracted were repudiated as unauthorized. The reservations they established were nearly, if not entirely, useless and very unpopular...{{cite book |title=History of California | volume=3 |last=Hittell |first=Theodore Henry |year=1898 |publisher=N. J. Stone and Company |location=San Francisco |page=902 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NUkOAAAAIAAJ&q=%22as+for+the+work+of+the+united+states+commissioners%22+wozencraft&pg=PA902 |access-date=28 May 2010}}}}

Wozencraft is buried at the San Bernardino Pioneer Memorial Cemetery.{{cite web |url=http://www.sbcity.org/cityhall/library/services/history/pioneers/w_z/wozencraft.asp |title=Pioneers of San Bernardino: Oliver M. Wozencraft |publisher=City of San Bernardino | access-date=15 March 2011}}

{{reflist|2}}

• {{Cite journal|last=Wozencraft|first=Oliver M.|title=The Dead Brought to Life with Animal Magnetism|journal=Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal|date=June 1875|volume=18|series=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-i0gAQAAIAAJ&q=om+wozencraft+animal+magnetism&pg=PP7|editor1-first=Henry |editor1-last=Gibbons|page=221}}
• Wozencraft letter to Hon. Luke Lea, Commissioner Indian Affairs, Washington requesting $500,000 to cover treaty commitments to California Native Americans. {{cite book|last=Wozencraft|first=Oliver M.|title=EXECUTIVE DOCUMENTS THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES|year=1851–1852|pages=7–8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gHsFAAAAQAAJ&q=o.m.+wozencraft&pg=RA2-PA8}}
• Wozencraft accused of demanding kickback from contract to supply cattle to Native American bands as part of treaty negotiations. {{cite book|last=Secrest|first=William B.|title=When the great spirit died: the destruction of the California Indians, 1850-1860|year=2002|publisher=Word Dancer Press|isbn=978-1-884995-40-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2q-Z_dV9yqIC&q=wozencraft++kickback&pg=PA165|page=165}}
• Magazine article with Wozencraft claims of finding baby Shasta abandoned by mother; picture of Shasta in 1882. {{cite news|title=Dream of a Desert Paradise|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/2095123/193906-Desert-Magazine-1939-June|access-date=4 June 2010|newspaper=Desert Magazine|date=June 1938|author=Taze Lamb|author2=Jessie Lamb|pages=22–28}}
• Gunfight with Willis brothers. {{cite news|title=SAN FRANCISCO NEWS|url=http://www.newspaperabstracts.com/link.php?action=detail&id=50103|access-date=4 June 2010|newspaper=Sacramento Daily Union|date=November 27, 1862}} Willis accuses Wozencraft of being drunk, abusive and the first to draw a pistol. {{cite news|title=The Wozencraft and Willis Difficulty|url=http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cdnc/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SDU18621202.2.6&cl=search&srpos=0&dliv=none&e=-------en-Logical-20--1-byDA---WOZENCRAFT+WILLIS-all---1862|access-date=28 June 2011|newspaper=Sacramento Daily Union|date=2 December 1862|page=3}}
• 1864 newspaper article by Mark Twain describing Wozencraft's oration in praise of the Democratic Party and Secession; "His speech was simply a rehash of all the whinings and hypocrisy of Copperheads since the conflict began."{{cite news|last=Twain|first=Mark|title=Democratic Meeting at Hayes' Park|url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks09/0900821h.html|access-date=22 June 2010|newspaper=The San Francisco Daily Morning Call|date=August 3, 1864}}

• [https://catalog.archives.gov/id/55030733 Treaty of Temecula]
• {{commons category-inline}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wozencraft, O. M.}}

Category:Physicians from Ohio

Category:Colorado Desert

Category:History of San Bernardino, California

Category:Imperial Valley

Category:Native American history of California

Category:People of the California Gold Rush

Category:United States Indian agents

Category:1814 births

Category:1887 deaths

Category:People from Clermont County, Ohio