Questions have been raised as to which "Joseph" or "Joe" Zumwalt brought the rituals for E Clampus Vitus (ECV) organization to California. Looking at the posted history on the ECV web sites, some refer to Joseph H. Zumwalt as the founder. I have done a lot of research and to date I have not been able to find a middle name or initial of my distant, (5th), Great Grandfather, Joseph Zumwalt. That is not to say that he didn't have a middle name or initial but to the best of my knowledge none is recorded.
I do however have a copy of a very extensive, well researched and verified book of all of the known Zumwalts in the United States titled One Zumwalt Family by Helynn Carrier published in 2000. I have used that book and other reference documents available on the web and in historical documents to research my Zumwalt ancestry. In the Carrier book there is only one Joseph H. Zumwalt (page 83) that could fit in the time period in question:
He was born ca. 1811 in Missouri and he married an Elizabeth
(Last name unknown) who was born Missouri or Kentucky about1820?
They had four children,
Julia Zumwalt born Missouri ca 1847
David Zumwalt born Missouri ca. 1848
Samuel Zumwalt born Missouri ca. 1851
Nancy Zumwalt born Missouri1 ca. 1853
It seems reasonable to assume that this Joseph H. Zumwalt did
not come to California. He was apparently very busy rearing a family in Missouri during the early gold rush period when
Joseph Zumwalt was busy making his fortune. According to Carrier, one Zumwalt researcher, named Teresa Blattner, (page 91) found references to Joseph H. Zumwalt and his wife in the 1850 census in Clay County, Missouri and in the 1860 census for Platte County, Missouri. This is just another bit of evidence that this man was not in California during the time that E Clampus Vitus was being started in Mokelume Hill, California in 1850.
Unless there was another Joseph H. Zumwalt that none of us know about, I feel certain that this individual, the only known Joseph H. Zumwalt, did not found ECV. It had to be Old Joe Zumwalt, the restless one who in fact did found the order in California.