Early History
McCracken was born in Petershagen, Germany, during a time of much civil unrest. Her father, a former soldier at Waterloo, foresaw trouble from citizenry calling for revolution, and so gathered his family in 1846 and fled to St. Louis, Missouri.
In 1864, Josephine met and married Army Lieutenant James A. Clifford in New Mexico. Clifford's sanity began to unravel and he confessed to his wife that he had killed a man in Texas. He threatened her, saying that if she told anyone, he would kill her too. After appealing to his superiors and making sure he was under guard, she fled to her family in San Francisco.
Read more about this topic: Josephine Clifford Mc Cracken
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