Listed as Jas M. Hudspeth, a 38 year old farmer born in Alabama with $6000 of Real Estate, in the1850 Sonoma County Federal Census and living with his brother Charles Martin Hudspeth and his family in dwelling #38.

Enumerated in the California 1852 Census as J. M. Hudspeth, a 41 year old farmer, born in Alabama, and from Arkansas. He is listed between J. C. Hudspeth and John Adams.

Listed in 1860 Census as living in Analy Township with his wife, Matilda. His Real Estate was worth $35,000, personal worth, $20,000. A 14 year old John McDonald from Australia is listed living in the same dwelling. Their dwelling is listed in-between James M. and Mary McReynolds, and Whitely and Ann Travis (a William Travis was a member of the 1853 Hagans-Cockrill immigration). A W. Hudspeth (a. 28, b. MO) is listed on page 498 of the same census.

He was a member of John C. Fremont's California Battalion that had come to California in 1846 (where Hudspeth also meet Lansford Hastings). From What I Saw in California, by Edwin W. Bryant (Ross & Haines, Inc, Minneapolis: 1967), p. 367:

Company F. -- L. W. Hastings, captain, (author of a work on California;) Wornbough, 1st lieutenant; J. M. Hudspeth, 2d. do.

From extracted notes written by Jeanne Miller:

Menefee, p. 348: James M. Hudspeth b. Madison Co. Ala. 1812-1826 to Miss. Terr. 1842 to Oregon. 1843 to Sonoma Co., Calif. Member Bear Flag Party. 1857 Assemblyman, then Senator. Land west of Sebastopol, farming and stock raising. Lost one arm.

James surveyed the town site for Napa when Nathan Coombs founded the city in 1847.

From Dale Morgan's notes to The Overland Diary of James A. Pritchard from Kentucky to California in 1849, p. 144:

Western historians have assumed that the Hudspeth who figures so prominently in the history of 1849 was James M. Hudspeth, best known for his association with Lansford W. Hastings in the opening of the Hastings Cutoff in 1846. However, Thomas Lorraine Campbell (Mrs. Paul Campbell) of Minden, Louisiana, has established that the Forty-niner was Benoni Morgan Hudspeth. She informs me that he was born in 1816 and died in California in 1850, having been a voyager with Fremont in 1845-46, and later an officer in the California Battalion. Four brothers, Robert Nicholas, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Silas Bourke Hudspeth took the trail with him in 1849, as did J. J. Myers. It was this company from Jackson County, Missouri, that opened the Hudspeth Cutoff in Idaho the following July.

From the History of Sonoma County, by J. P. Munro-Frasier (San Francisco: Alley, Bowen & Co., 1880)., pp. 478-480:

Hudspeth, James M. The subject of this sketch, one of Sonoma's oldest and most respected pioneers, whose portrait appears in this work, was born in Madison County, Alabama, February 20, 1812. When quite young he accompanied his parents to Middle Tennessee and afterwards to Russellville, Alabama, where his father Charles was a member of the Territorial Legislature. At the end of three years, they next went to Monroe county, Mississippi, but in 1829 he proceeded with them to Hardiman county, Tennessee, and after residing there for a few years branch out for himself. Mr. Hudspeth's first start in life was in farming and raising at Colton, Tennessee, where he passed one year in helping to survey certain lands which had been purchased from the Chickasaw tribe of Indians. In 1835, he entered into trade with his brother John C. at Colton, Gin Port, on the Chickasaw line, Mississippi, which they continued until 1837, when he proceeded to Little Rock, Arkansas, and there began public surveying and running township lines. In this place he resided till 1841, when he transferred his location to Fort Smith, but on April 15, 1842, left for Independence, Missouri, and there joined a train of emigrant bound for Oregon and California. Early in the month of May, the train, having been fully organized under the captaincy of Elijah White, an Oregon missionary, commenced the journey. At the end of the first month S. [sic] W. Hastings succeeded White as captain, but they did not need a guide until they reached Fort Laramie; here they elected Mr. Fitzpatrick. No difficulty was experienced on the journey until arriving at Independence Rock, on the Sweet Water, where Hastings and Lovejoy were taken prisoners by the Sioux Indians while in the act of cutting their names on a high rock. Their captivity was, however, of short duration, for they were brought into the camp, about fifteen miles further on, that same evening, the Indians receiving in return presents of tobacco and other commodities. On arrival at Fort Hall, the wagons were abandoned and a mule pack-train organized, for no further hostilities were anticipated, and here the train was divided and each company went its own way. Mr. Hudspeth proceeded to Oregon and on October 5, 1842, arrived at the Willamette Falls, near the site of the present Oregon City. In that State he remained until May, 1843, at which time, in company with Shadda, Summer Bennett and their families, with the number of sixteen made up by single men, he started for California with a train of pack-animals. On the journey they met Walker Kelsey and Leese who cautioned them to be on the watch for Indians while passing through Siskiyou; no contretemps, however, occurred until they arrived on the Shasta river; but, here, they were attacked by aboriginals and one of their number shot through the back by an arrow. By this mishap their journey was in no wise delayed, yet, on arriving near Colusa, they were attacked by a batch of the Willier or Sacramento Indians, who were met in full fight and beaten by means of fire-arms of which the natives then knew but little. Their progress was continued thereafter until Sutter's Fort was gained, where they camped for two weeks, arriving there July 10, 1843. The subject of our memoir, from this point proceeded to San Francisco in one of Captain Sutter's vessels and encountered Captain Stephen Smith, who was there in his vessel on his way to Bodega to erect the machinery for a saw and grist-mill, which he had on board. Here Hudspeth, D. Dutton, John Harnes, Nathan Coombs, Alexander Copeland and John Daubenbiss were engaged by Smith as mechanics, who with him went thither and remained one month engaged in getting out the lumber for the building. At this juncture Hudspeth and Copeland returned to San Francisco, leaving a sufficient force to complete the construction. A full and graphic description of this mill and its construction will be found in our chapter on the Early History of Sonoma County. Hudspeth next proceeded to San Jose, and, after a week or two, moved to Monterey, but left in November of that year, on the appearance of the small-pox epidemic. He then passed the Winter in Gilroy, and in June, 1844, returned for the Summer to Sutter's Fort, where he employed himself in that district in hunting. There he stayed until October and then went to Saucelito and procured the lumber used in the construction of Captain Richardson's residence in Marin county, the timber being cut on the lands between San Rafael and Saucelito. At this employment Hudspeth and Copeland remained until Christmas, 1844, at which time there arose the misunderstanding between Governor Micheltorena, the General in command of the military forces of Mexico, and Pio Pico. Of this portion of his career, Mr. Hudspeth says: "When I left Saucelito for Sutter's Fort, the company consisted of Copeland, Wyman, Perry, McCoon, Joe Buzzle and wife and Miss Kelsey. After getting to Sutter's Fort an election was has had, Gant was elected Captain. Coats, First Lieutenant and myself Second Lieutenant, all under Sutter. When we reached Santa Barbara, a scouting party was sent out under Coats, which was captured this side of San Buenaventura and were paroled. When they got back Captain Gant got the company in line and said to them if there were any of the company wished to return they could do so. Over half of the company returned home, leaving our company about forty men out of one hundred. Of those that went on to Los Angeles, were Captain Gant, myself, John Bidwell, four of the Williams boys, Merritt, Copeland, and others I cannot call to mind now. We were in the service of Mexico about four months." On this breaking out, Hudspeth, in common with all other Americans, repaired to Sutter's Fort. Here he joined a battalion formed by Captain Sutter to act against the Californians, and with them proceeded to Monterey where they joined the main body of the army, marching, thence, to Los Angeles. With this force he served for four months, and, after going to Sutter's Fort, returned to his timbering operations in Marin county. In 1846, in the month of April, with L. W. Hastings, Col. Clyman and the Summer Family, he crossed the mountains for the purpose of meeting and inducing immigration to California in preference to Oregon; after traveling through snow and enduring many hardships, they returned to this State in October, just in time to miss the "Bear Flag war." Captain Hastings raised a company of volunteers, and with Hudspeth as Lieutenant, joined General Fremont at San Jose, but after reaching Los Angeles he and seven others resigned. He then came to Sonoma county and purchased land about nine miles north-east of Petaluma on the rancho now owned by Thomas Hopper, and, not long after, formed a partnership with Jasper O'Farrell as land surveyors, their first work being the survey of the site of Benicia, Solano county, in the Spring of 1847. He was also engaged in the survey of many of the rancheros as well as laying out the city of Napa for Coombs, the city of Sonoma, and on the discovery of gold he took a turn at the mines in 1849-50 and was attended with good success. In the Spring of the latter year he settled on the land now occupied by James Watson and there resided until eighteen months ago when he sold to that gentleman and moved to his present residence. Mr. Hudspeth was elected to the Legislature in 1852 and served one term; in 1853 he was elected to the Senate and served two terms. He now occupies a pleasant estate of some seven hundred acres in the township of Analy. He married September 20, 1854, Matilda Fuller, who died October 5, 1878, by whom he had no issue.

Lansford W. Hastings is also a very interesting character in early California history. His 1845 pioneer trail guide, The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California, was an early, practical, "how-to-do-it" book for immigrants to come to the West. However, it had many errors, and in particular the "Hastings' Cutoff," which supposedly had been scouted out with Hudspeth, proved to be fatal to the Donner Party.

From a History of Petaluma: A California River Town, by Adair Heig (Scottwall Associates, Petaluma: 1982), p. 69:

Petaluma's own commercial use of [Petaluma] creek began in the summer of 1851, when James Huspeth* built a warehouse near the present Washington Street Bridge; filled with potatoes from Bodega and hay cut on the meadows of Petaluma, and sent the harvest on a boat to Sacramento for sale to Sacramento for sale to miners.

* Hudspeth, a state senator from Sonoma County in 1852, is also known for his association with Lansford Hastings, a man who attempted to speed up migration into California by persuading Oregon-bond wagon trains to turn south through Utah and across the desert into California. One train, straggling and late in the westward migration of 1846, yielded to Hasting's persuasion and turned south. That was the Donner Party.

J. M. Huspeth was also said to be William McReynold's partner in the building of the Petaluma warehouse in Santa Rosa, a nineteenth century town (Historia, Ltd., Santa Rosa: c1985), p. 56.