Alexander P. Crittenden

Alexander P. Crittenden (1816-1870)[1] was a politician, serving in the California legislature. He was also a military veteran, serving in the American Civil War with the Army of the Confederate States of America.[2] He was murdered by Laura Fair while staying at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco.[1]

Biography

Alexander Parker Crittenden was born in 1816 to Thomas Turpin Crittenden in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1836, he graduated from West Point and joined the army as a lieutenant. In 1838, he married Clara Churchill Jones Crittenden (1820-1881). In 1839, the family moved to Texas where Crittenden practiced law until 1849 when they moved to Los Angeles, California and was elected to the California legislature.[1][3]

In 1863, he relocated to Virginia City, Nevada Territory after refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the federal government while Clara remained in San Francisco. In Nevada, Crittenden met and started a relationship with Laura Fair, the owner of the Tahoe House Hotel. Initially Fair believed him to be single, and when she discovered he was married, he promised to divorce Clara. In November of 1870, Fair shot him in the heart aboard a ferry from Oakland to San Francisco.[1][4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Crittenden family papers 1837-1907". quod.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2016-10-21.
  2. ↑ Vassar, Alexander C. (2011). Legislators of California (PDF). Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  3. ↑ "Finding aid of the Alexander Parker Crittenden Papers C058820". www.oac.cdlib.org. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
  4. ↑ "The case of Laura Fair, San Francisco 1870". SFGate. Retrieved 2016-10-24.


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