James H. Ralston

Candidate Biography:

Born: October 12, 1807 in Bourbon County, Kentucky
Married: June Alexander (in 1832), Harriet N. Jackson (1853)
Children: Jackson Harvey Ralston (delegate to Democratic National Convention from Maryland, 1908)
Military Service: ARMy (Black Hawk War), Illinois Volunteers (Mexican War)
Died: May 8, 1864 near Austin, Nevada Territory [now Nevada]

1837: Circuit Judge, Illinois 5th Circuit
1837-1839: Representative, Illinois State Legislature
1840: Presidential Elector for Illinois [Democratic]
1841-1845: Senator, Illinois State Legislature
1841: Candidate for Congress [Illinois] (Lost)
1856: Candidate for Chief Justice of California Supreme Court (Lost)
1863: Delegate, Nevada State Constitutional Convention

• Ralston died of starvation after becoming lost in a snowstorm near Austin, Nevada.
• The first session that Ralston served in the Illinois General Assembly included Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas.
  Under General Wool, Ralston served as the first Quartermaster at the Alamo following the battle there.
• PLACENAME: The area where Ralston's body was found has been named "Ralston's Desert."

Source: History of Political Conventions in California, 1849-1892 by Winfield J. Davis (1893)
Source: Selected Officers of the Nevada Legislature by the Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau (2010)