The Forgotten Pioneers, Part IIby
Norma B. Ricketts
"No longer are these 400 men,
women, and children nameless faces marching endlessly
across the west. "
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For several months during 1997, a great deal of
publicity focused on the story of Brigham Young and the
Pioneer Company as they traveled west to reach Salt Lake
Valley in July 1847. Extensive media coverage also
followed the 1997 reenactment wagon train all along the
way until it reached Salt Lake City in July. The
September arrival of the Big Company is frequently noted,
complete with its roster broken down by hundreds,
fifties, and tens. Yet there are approximately 400
additional pioneers of 1847 who rarely are referred to
and then only by a round group number. They are faceless
and nameless. In the May 1997
issue of folio, Gregory M. Franzwa noted that
the Utah Crossroads Chapter of the Oregon-California
Trail Association continually publishes an "amazing
quarterly, Crossroads, edited by top
scholars," containing important reports and material
on emigrants. After reading Franzwa’s statement, I
felt relieved about writing this article. It does not
contain exciting events to put a reader on the edge of
his seat, nor build suspense to a breaking point, but
attempts to identify most of these pioneers so they, too,
can be remembered for coming into the Salt Lake Valley
during that historic year of 1847. It is hoped this
information can be added upon until all of the families
of the Mississippi Saints are known. The rosters of the
Mormon Battalion, as included, are well defined.
In Part One, the story was told of
seventeen Mississippi Saints and twelve Mormon Battalion
men, who spent the winter of 1846-47 in Pueblo, Colorado,
joined the Pioneer Company at Fort Laramie June 1, 1847,
and continued to the Salt Lake Valley with them. All 29
individuals in these two small groups were identified.
But there were other Mississippi Saints and Mormon
Battalion soldiers and their families still in Pueblo.
This is the story of their entrance into Salt Lake
Valley.
In April 1846 Brigham Young called John
Brown to lead church members living in Monroe County,
Mississippi, west. They were to take a diagonal southern
route from northeast Mississippi to the Platte River and
rendezvous there with the Nauvoo Saints. There were
fourteen families and several single men in this group of
43 adults (24 men, 19 women) and an unknown number of
children. Brown selected five men to go with him to
assist the families. They left April 8, 1846. When this
group reached Independence, Missouri, they were joined by
the Crow family, consisting of 17 adults and children.
With this addition the Brown company totaled 60 adults.
By mid June Brown and his company were
at the Platte River where they waited two weeks for the
Nauvoo Mormons. When no one arrived they continued
traveling on the Oregon Trail towards Fort Laramie until
they learned there were no Mormons ahead. They were
advised by a trader to go to Fort Pueblo, Colorado, for
the winter. Fort Pueblo was in a sheltered valley;
trappers residing there had corn; other food and supplies
could be obtained from nearby Bent’s Fort. John
Brown and his group arrived in Pueblo August 7, 1846.
They immediately began building log cabins and planting
crops. Absalom P. Dowdle was appointed presiding elder of
the Pueblo branch.
Mississippi Saints Who
Wintered in Pueblo1
- Dowdle, Absalom Porter.
- Wife: Sarah Ann Holladay;
child: Sarah Catherine
- Gibson, George Washington.
- Wife: Mary Ann Sparks;
children: Mary Denise married William New
in Santa Fe and did not go west with
family. Lydia A. (married Gilbert Hunt in
Pueblo), Robert B., Frances Abigail,
William C., Laura Altha, Moses, Manomas
Lavinia, Joseph.
- Harmon, James.
- Wife: Mary Ann Blanks
Smithson; children: James Bartley, Sarah
Elizabeth, Paralee America, Josephine
Smithson, and John Taylor, born in
Pueblo.
- Kartchner, William D.
- Wife: Margaret Jane
Casteel; child: Sara Emma Kartchner2.
- Mathews, Benjamin.
- Wife: Temperance Weeks;
child: Mary Elizabeth, Sarah Jane, Sally.
- Mathews, William.
- Wife: Elizabeth Adeline
Bankhead; children: Thomas Marion, Jane
Elizabeth, John Lynn, Ezekiel Cunningham,
Marie Celeste, Elvira, Narcissa, Nancy
Melissa, Benjamin, Emma Louise, Martha
Roxanna, and Sina Adeline.
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- Reer, Mary Ann.
- Children: Perrill E.
James, Sally Ann, Josephine.
- Ritter, William C.
- Wife: Sarah Ann Ritter;
child: Anderson Taylor.
- Roberds, John.
- Wife: Martha Tucker
Walpole; children: Lodesky Ann, Thomas
Richard, Mary Belvidere, Harriet Luanna,
Frances Elinore, William Brown.
- Smithson, Allen Freeman.
- Wife: Letitia Holladay;
children: John Bartley, Sarah Catherine,
James Davis, and Mary Emma.
- Smithson, William Cox.
- Wife: Lucinda Smithson;
children: Sarah Elizabeth, John Bartley,
Martha, Almira, Elvira, Eliza.
- Sparks, George W.
- Wife: Luanna (Lussiann)
Roberds; children: William Thomas, Mary
Ann.
- Terrill, William
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On September 1, 1846, after helping the
families get settled, John Brown and his assistants left
Colorado to return to their families in Mississippi. On
September 12 these men on their eastward journey met the
Mormon Battalion traveling west and told the soldiers
about the branch of the Mormon Church in Pueblo.
Brown’s group continued east and reached their
families in Mississippi October 29, 1846.
Meanwhile, as the Mormon Battalion
continued west along the Arkansas River, Lieutenant A. J.
Smith, temporary battalion commander, decided to send the
women, their husbands, and children back to Pueblo. The
chance meeting with John Brown had provided him with an
answer of what to do with the women and children. This
first detachment, known as the Higgins Family Detachment
(Arkansas Detachment), consisted of 11 men, 9 women and
33 children under Captain Nelson Higgins. They left the
battalion on September 18 and arrived in Pueblo in early
October, 1846.
Higgins Family
Detachment
- Nelson Higgins, Captain
- Wife: Sarah Blackman;
children: Almira, Alfred, Druscilla,
Heber, Nelson, Carlos, Wealtha (born in
Pueblo)
- Brown, James Polly
- Wife: Eunice Reasor;
children: Neuman, Robert, Sarah, Mary
Ann.
- Button, Montgomery
- Wife: Mary Bittels;
children: James, Jutson, Louisa, Samuel.
- Hendrickson, James.
- Hunt, Celia Mounts, first
wife of Jefferson
- Hunt, who continued to
California; children: John, Jane,
Harriet, Joseph, Hyrum and twins Parley
and Mary. Parley died in Pueblo, January
2, 1847.
- Hunt, Gilbert (married
Lydia A. Gibson in Pueblo).
- Huntington, Dimick B.
- Wife: Fanny Maria Allen;
children: Lot Elisha, Martha Zina,
- Clark Allen, Betsy (born
in Pueblo; lived only a short time).*
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- Kelley, Milton.
- Wife: Malinda Allison;
child: Malinda Catherine, born in Pueblo.
- Kelley, Nicholas
- Wife: Sarah Kelley; child:
Raymond Parley, Betsy.
- Mowrey, Harley
- * Sharp, Norman
- Wife: Martha Jane Sargent;
children: Sarah Ellen, born in Pueblo and
Martha’s sister, Caroline Sargent.
- Shelton, Sebert C.
- Wife: Elizabeth Trains
Mayfield; children: Emily Caroline,
Cooper, Marion J., Abraham C., Thomas B.,
Mary Elizabeth; by Elizabeth’s first
marriage: Andrew J. Mayfield, John
Mayfield, and Sarah Mayfield.
* Died en route to or in Pueblo
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When Philip St. George Cooke assumed
command of the battalion in Santa Fe, he thought there
were too many women, children, and sick soldiers and
decided to send a second detachment to Pueblo. This group
left Santa Fe October 18 under James Brown, captain. They
arrived in Pueblo November 17 with 92 men, 19 women and
10 children. This was the Brown Sick Detachment (Santa Fe
Detachment).
Brown Sick Detachment
- James Brown, Captain
- Wife: Mary McCree Black;
child: George David Black, Mary’s
son by first husband.
- Abbott, Joshua, Co.D
- Wife: Ruth Markham
- Adams, Orson B., Co.C
- Wife: Susan Smith
- Allen, Franklin, Co.B,
- Allred, James T.S., Co.A
- Wife: Eliza Manwaring
- Allred, Reuben W., Co.A
- Wife: Elzadie E. Ford
- Averett, Jeduthan, Co.D
- Beckstead, William E.,
Co.C
- Bingham, Erastus, Co.B
- Bird, William, Co.B
- * Blanchard, Mervin S.,
Co.A
- Brown, Agnes, wife of
- Edmund L. Brown, who
continued on.
- Brown, Alexander, Co.C
- Brown, Harriet St. John,
wife of Daniel Brown (in the Willis
detachment)
- Brown, Jesse J., Co.C
- Buchannan, John, Co.D
- Calkins, James W., Co.A
- Calvert, John, Co.C
- Carpenter, Isaac, Co.C
- Carpenter, William H.,Co.C
- Casto, William, Co.D
- * Chase, Abner Co.D
- Chase, John D., Co.B
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- Cummings, George, Co.E
- Davis, James, Co.D
- Douglas, Ralph, Co.D
- Durphee, Francillo, Co.C
- Earl, James C., Co.A
- Garner, David, Co.A
- Garner, Philip, Co.B
- Gifford, William B., Co.D
- Glazier, Luther W., Co.E
- Glines, James H., Co.A
- Gould, John C., Co.C
- Gould, Samuel, Co.C
- Gribble, William, Co.D
- Hanks, Ebenezer, Co.E
- Wife: Jane Wells Cooper
- Hess, John W., Co.E
- Wife: Emeline Bigler
- Hirons, James, Co.D
- Wife: Mary Ann Jameson
- Holden, Elijah E., Co.A
- Hopkins, Charles, Co.E
- Hoskins, Henry, Co.E
- Hulet, Schuyler, Co.A
- Hunt, Matilda Nease,
second wife of Jefferson Hunt, who went
on to California; children:
Matilda’s brother and sister Peter
Nease and Ellen Nease.
- Jackson, Charles A., Co.A
- Jacobs, Bailey, Co.E
- Johnson, Jarvis, Co.C
- Karren, Thomas, Co.E
- Kenney, Lorin E., Co.D
- Lake, Barnabas, Co.A
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Brown Sick Detachment,
continued
- Lamb, Lisbon, Co.D
- Larson, Thurston, Co.C
- Laughlin, David, Co.D
- Luddington, Elam, Co.B
- Wife: Mary Eliza Clark;
children: Angeline A.; Elam’s
mother, Lena Monger Luddington.
- McIntire, Dr. William
(command staff)
- Mesick, Peter J., Co.D
- Miller, Daniel, Co.E
- Nowlin, Jabez, Co.C
- Oakley, James, Co.D
- * Oyler, Melcher, Co.A
- Park, William A., Co.E
- Perkins, David, Co.C
- * Perkins, John, Co.C
- Pierson, Harmon D., Co.B
- Pierson, Judson R., Co.C
- Pugmire, Jonathan Jr.,
Co.E
- * Richards, Joseph W.,
Co.A
- Roberts, Benjamin, Co.D
- Rowe, Caratat C., Co.A
- Rowe, William, Co.D
- Sanderson, Henry W. Co.D
- Sargent, Abel M., Co.D
- * Scott, James R., Co.E
- Sessions, John, Co.A
- Wife: Mary Emeline
Sessions.
- Sharp, Albert, Co.D
- Shupe, Andrew J., Co.C
- Shupe, James, Co.C
- Wife: Sarah Prunty; child:
Elizabeth Margaret, born in Pueblo.
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- Smith, John G., Co.E
- *Smith, Milton, Co.C
- Smith, Rebecca3
- Smith, Richard, Co.C
- Steele, John S., Co.D
- Wife: Catherine Campbell;
child: Mary.
- Stephens, Lyman, Co.B
- * Stevens, Arnold, Co.D
- Stillman, Clark, Co.D
- Stillman, William, Co.B
- Tanner, Myron, Co.D
- Terrell, Joel J., Co.C
- Tindell, Solomon, Co.C
- # Walker, William, Co.B
- Whiting, Almon, Co.D
- Whiting, Edmund, Co.D
- Wilkin, David, Co.C
- Wife: Isabella McNair
Hunter
- Williams, Thomas S., Co.D
- Wife: Albina Merrill;
children: Caroline, Ephraim, and Phoebe
(born in Pueblo), and Albina’s
sister: Phoebe Lodema Merrill.
- Wright, Charles, Co.B
- Wriston, John P., Co.A
- *Died en route to or in
Pueblo
- # Did not go west.
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Colonel Cooke sent Lieutenant William
W. Willis with the last detachment at the Rio Grande
River November 10. They arrived in Pueblo December 20,
1846. There were 56 men and one woman in the Willis Sick
Detachment (Rio Grande Detachment).
Willis Sick Detachment
- William W. Willis, Captain
- Babcock, Lorenzo, Co.C
- Badham, Samuel, Co.D
- Bevan, James, Co.A
- Bingham, Thomas, Co.B
- Blackburn, Abner, Co.C
- Bliven, Jane4
- Brazier, Richard, Co.E
- Brimhall, John, Co.C
- Brown, Daniel, Co.E
- Burns, Thomas R., Co.E
- Burt, William, Co.C
- Bybee, John, Co.B
- Calkins, Alva, Co.A
- Camp, James, Co.B
- * Carter, Richard, Co.B
- Cazier, James, Co.E
- Cazier, John, Co.E
- Church, Haden W., Co.B
- Clark, Albert, Co.E
- Clark, George S., Co.B
- * Coleman, George, Co.A
- Compton, Allen, Co.D
- Curtis, Josiah, Co.A
- Dalton, Edward, Co.D
- Dalton, Harry, Co.D
- * Dobson, Eli, Co.A
- Dunn, James, Co.C
- Eastman, Marcus, Co.B
- Frederick, David, Co.A
- * Freeman, Elijah, Co. B
- * Green, John W., Co.C
- Gribble, Sophia Smith5
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- Hewett, Eli B., Co.A
- Higgins, Alfred, Co.D
- Hinckley, Arza E., Co.B
- Hoagland, Lucas, Co.D
- Johnstun, Jesse, Co.C
- Maxwell, Maxie, Co.A
- McClellan, William E,,
Co.E
- Mecham, Erastus D., Co.D
- Richardson, Thomas, Co.E
- Richmond, Benjamin, Co.C
- Rust, William W., Co.C
- Shipley, Joseph, Co.C
- Skeen, Joseph, Co.E
- Squires, William, Co.C
- Stewart, Benjamin, Co.D
- Stewart, James, Co.D
- Thomas, Hayward, Co.D
- Thomas, Nathan, Co.C
- Tippets, John, Co.D,
courier
- Tubbs, William R., Co.D
- Welsh, Madison, Co.C
- Whitney, Francis T., Co.B
- Wilson, George, Co.E
- Woodworth, Lysander, Co.A
- Woolsey, Thomas, Co.E,
courier
- Wriston, Isaac N., Co.A
-
- * Died en route to or in
Pueblo
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Altogether there were 159 men, 29
women, and 43 children in the three detachments. The
names of these men are known from military rolls,
journals, family histories, and from the mustering-out
roll. Fifteen soldiers died en route to Pueblo or during
the winter.
This Mississippi-battalion contingent
(about 300 men, women and children) spent the winter in
Pueblo. The soldiers built additional cabins plus a
larger building for church and social purposes. A few men
worked for the trappers, while others found employment at
Bent’s Fort. As spring approached the Crow family
grew impatient and decided to start west without waiting
for the others. Because of this early start the Crows
were waiting at Fort Laramie when Young and the Pioneer
Company arrived June 1 and traveled with them on the last
part of the journey for the historic 1847 entrance into
the valley.
The Pueblo detachments and remaining
Mississippi Saints, under Captain James Brown, left
Pueblo May 24. They gradually gained on the vanguard
company until they were only a day behind at the ferry on
the Platte River. Finding a blacksmith, they decided to
stop to get their animals shod. Next they followed the
Platte River to the Sweetwater River on to Independence
Rock. After they passed Devil’s Gate, they
celebrated the anniversary of their enlistment, July 16:
"At daylight there was a salute of small arms in
honor of our enlistment and more especially the finishing
of our one year’s service to Uncle Sam, and to let
every one of Uncle Sam’s officers know we were our
own men once more."—John Steele7
Although their period of service was
up, there was no one to discharge them. They believed
they had to go to California to be discharged and receive
their mustering-out pay.
On July 28 they had their first view of
Salt Lake Valley. Abner Blackburn and several others
climbed a mountain crest and were impressed by "the
grandest view that ever mortal beheld, the air was clear
and perfect for a great view, the great Salt Lake
glistening under the sun’s rays, range after range
of mountains in every direction, the great desert to the
west and Utah lake to the south east and the mountains
beyond. A more sublime view was seldom seen from a
mountain top."8
On July 29, 1847, President Brigham
Young, Heber C. Kimball, Willard Richards, George Albert
Smith, Amasa Lyman, Wilford Woodruff, Ezra T. Benson and
five other authorities rode on horseback to the mouth of
Emigration Canyon, where they met the incoming Pueblo
colonists. A violent thunderstorm prevented a grand
welcome, but a fife and drum corps greeted the new
arrivals. Thomas Bullock described the formation:
"Council & Officers first, Infantry next with
Martial Music, then followed the Cavalry—with
baggage wagons bringing up the rear."9
Captain Brown led 29 wagons filled with
soldiers, their families, and Mississippi Saints to a
campsite about one half mile north of the temple lot. The
next morning, July 30, Brigham Young and the Council of
Twelve Apostles met with the battalion officers and told
them, "Your going into the army has saved the lives
of thousands of people." 10
Since their enlistment period had
expired, Brigham Young and the church authorities decided
to disband the three detachments and not have them
continue to California for severance pay as originally
planned. That evening in a general meeting for the Saints
Brigham Young spoke until he was hoarse. He expressed a
warm feeling toward the soldiers and requested that the
men build a bowery on the temple lot so they could hold
their meetings in the shade.11
On July 31 Brigham Young assumed
command and assigned the soldiers to gather brush for the
bowery. They built a comfortable shelter forty by
twenty-eight feet in size. During that week the soldiers
continued to work under church direction, cultivating the
soil and making adobe bricks for both living quarters and
the fort. The addition of the men from Pueblo greatly
aided in the heavy work in the valley during those early
months.
During this same time, Young was
organizing two groups to go east to help the Saints come
west. These groups were known as the "Ox train of
returning pioneers" and the "Horse and mule
train."12
The ox company left Salt Lake Valley
August 17, 1847, and consisted of sixty-nine men,
forty-two of whom were ex-battalion. There were 107 men
(thirty-two ex-battalion men) in the horse and mule
company that left the Salt Lake Valley August 26. In
addition to Brigham Young, seven of the Twelve Apostles
were in this group. It had been only thirty-three days
since the Pioneer Company arrived. As they traveled east,
they met the westbound Big Company, which reached Salt
Lake Valley in early October 1847.
A third group of over a hundred Mormon
Battalion veterans entered Salt Lake Valley in late
September-early October 1847. Their entrance to the
valley was overshadowed by the arrival of the Big Company
at the same time.
These battalion men had been discharged
in Los Angeles on July 16, 1847. No longer under military
order, the men formed into hundreds, fifties, and tens,
under the leadership of Levi Hancock. There were 223 men
in this group, and all were identified. They traveled
through California’s central valleys, past
Sutter’s Fort, into the Sierra Nevada. When they
were near Donner Summit, they met James Brown with a
letter from church authorities telling the men about the
destitute situation in the valley and recommending that
they return to California and work a season. Several
diaries of these men contain the notation that
"about half went on and half went back" to work
for Captain John Sutter at Sutter’s Fort.
Since there were 223 men in this group
whose names are all known, if "half went back and
half went on", that would be about 112 in each
group. There are no rosters telling how the men were
divided. However, Sutter and his clerk kept a record of
who went in and out of the fort. Also, battalion journals
tell of their assignments in Sutter’s employment.
There are 106 men whose names are known from
Sutter’s records, battalion journals, and other
sources. Subtracting 106 from the 223 known names
traveling from Los Angeles with Hancock, leaves 117
names. As more research is done, it may develop that some
of the 117 worked for Sutter and belong on the other
list, but the Hancock list may be close to definitive.
When material is first published, frequently new
information comes forth. If this happens and identifies
one new name, it will make this article worthwhile.
Hancock Company
The Hancock Company went directly to
Salt Lake Valley in 1847. This is the "half"
that continued on with Levi Hancock to Salt Lake after
meeting James Brown in the Sierra.
- Allen, Albern
- Allen, George A.
- Allen, Rufus C.
- Allred, Reddick N.
- Averett, Elisha
- Beckstead, Orin M.
- Beddome, William
- Bickmore, Gilbert
- Bliss, Robert S.
- Bronson, Clinton D.
- Brown, John
- Brownell, Russell G.
- Bunker, Edward
- Bush, William
- Calkins, Sylvanus
- Campbell, Jonathan Jr.
- Casper, William W.
- Casto, James
- Catlin, George W.
- Chase, Hiram B.
- Clark, Joseph L.
- Clark, Lorenzo
- Cole, James B.
- Davis, Eleazer
- Davis, Sterling
- Davis, Walter L.
- Dodge, Augustus E.
- Dyke, Simon
- Dykes, George P.
- Egbert, Robert C.
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- Ewell, John M.
- Ewell, William F.
- Fairbanks, Henry
- Fauney, Fredrick
- Fife, John
- Finlay, Thomas B.
- Forbush, Lorin E.
- Forsgreen, John E.
- Garner, William A.
- Gilbert, John R.
- Goodwin, Andrew
- Hancock, Charles B.
- Hancock, George W.
- Hancock, Levi W.
- Hanks, Ephraim K.
- Harris, Robert Jr.
- Haskell, George N.
- Haws, Alpheus
- Hendericks, William D.
- Hickmott, John
- Howell, Thomas C.D.
- * Hoyt, Henry
- Hunsaker, Abraham
- Hunt, Jefferson
- Hunt, Marshall
- Huntsman, Isaiah
- Hyde, William
- Ivie, Richard A.
- Jameson, Charles
- Johnson, Henry M.
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Hancock Company,
continued
- Judd, Hyrum
- King, John M.
- Kirk, Thomas
- Lane, Lewis
- Lawson, John
- Lytle, Andrew
- McArthur, Henry M.
- McCarty, Nelson
- McCord, Alexander
- McCullough, Levi H.
- Martin, Edward
- Merrill, Ferdinand
- Merrill, Philemon C.
- Murdock, John R.
- Myler, James
- Olmstead, Hiram
- Oman, George W.
- Owen, Robert
- Pace, James
- Perrin, Charles
- Pettegrew, David
- Pettegrew, James P.
- Porter, Sanford
- Pulsipher, David
- Rainey, David P.
- Raymond, Alonzo P.
- Richmond, William
- Roberts, Levi
- Robinson, William J.
- Rosecrans, George W.
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- St. John, Stephen
- Savage, Levi
- Scott, Leonard M.
- Sessions, Richard
- Sessions, William B.
- Smith, Albert
- Spidle, John
- Standage, Henry
- Stewart, Robert B.
- Study, David
- Swarthout, Hamilton
- Swarthout, Nathan
- Taggart, George W.
- Tanner, Albert M.
- Thompson, James L.
- Thompson, John C.
- Tuttle, Luther T.
- Twitchell, Anciel
- Tyler, Daniel
- Vradenburg, Adna
- Wade, Moses
- Wheeler, Merrill W.
- White, Joseph
- Whitworth, Robert W.
- Wilcox, Henry
- Wilcox, Matthew
- Winn, Dennis W.
*Died in Sierra Nevada
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These little-known 1847 pioneers
contributed greatly to the early days in the Salt Lake
Valley and in helping different companies of Saints come
west in the years that followed. The ex-soldiers of the
Mormon Battalion had become experienced frontiersman
during their long trek. They knew how to survive under
perilous conditions, and they were leaders who
contributed greatly in establishing settlements wherever
Brigham Young sent them throughout the west. No longer
are these 400 men, women, and children nameless faces
marching endlessly across the west. Each is identified
and his role is defined. They can be listed with the
other pioneers who arrived during the historic year of
1847.
NOTES
1.
There were fourteen families in the original John Brown
company when it left Mississippi. Only names known are
given. The names of the Crow company, who joined the
Brown group, were listed in Part One. The Mississippi
Saints settled primarily in Holladay and Cottonwood near
Salt Lake City. Perhaps a study of the early pioneers in
these two settlements will reveal the names of others who
spent the winter in Pueblo. While these names have
been gathered from many sources, the primary sources are
original battalion rosters and three handwritten pages by
Thomas Bullock titled, " Names of Pueblo soldiers
and Mississippi brethren arrived in Great Salt Lake City,
August, 1847." This document is in the LDS Church
Archives, Salt Lake City. Bullock lists one name seen for
the first time: John Edmunds (black)." There is no
Edmunds on the battalion roll. Bullock wrote
Edmunds’ name on a page with the women and children.
His age is shown as 30. There were black men who served
the officers. Perhaps Edmunds was one of these servants
who became ill and was sent to Pueblo. Bullock’s
list does not identify the company in which Edmunds
traveled to Pueblo.
2.
Sara Emma Kartchner was born in Pueblo August 17, 1846,
the first white child born in Colorado.
3.
Rebecca Smith’s husband, Elisha Smith, was a
teamster and was not a member of the battalion. He died
en route to California.
4.
Jane Bliven was listed in the Bullock list of Pueblo
soldiers (n1 above), which showed her to be 43 years old.
There was no one named Bliven in the battalion. The
closest name phonetically is James Bevan, a twenty-five
year old private. As far as has been determined, the
Bullock list is the only one naming Jane Bliven.
5.
Sophia Smith Gribble was married to William Gribble, who
went to Pueblo in the Brown detachment. They were
divorced shortly after arriving in Salt Lake Valley and
she married William Tubbs immediately. Because she was
known as Sophia Tubbs in Salt Lake City, there was
confusion as to who was with the battalion. Thomas
Bullock, The Pioneer Camp of the Saints, The 1846 and
1847 Mormon Trail Journals of Thomas Bullock, edited
by Will Bagley. Spokane: The Arthur H. Clark Company,
1997. 248, 253.
6.
John Steele, Diary, July 16, 1847.
7.
Abner Blackburn, Autobiography, 10.
8.
Thomas Bullock Journal, July 29, 1847, LDS Church
Historian’s Department.
9.
Bullock, Pioneer Camp, 245.
10. B. H. Roberts, The Mormon Battalion: Its
History and Achievements. Salt Lake City: Deseret
News, 1919. 61.
11. Bullock, Pioneer Camp, 258-59, 276-277,
12. Norma B. Ricketts, The Mormon Battalion:
U.S. Army of the West, 1846-1848. Logan: Utah State
University Press, 1996, 279-282.
Norma B. Ricketts is an LDS writer
specializing in the history of Mormons in California
during the period 1844-1860. A former newspaper
columnist, she has written books and articles for three
decades. Her latest work, The Mormon Battalion, U.S.
Army of the West, 1846-1848, is a definitive
prize-winning work on the battalion. She currently is
revising the fourth edition of Mormons and the
Discovery of Gold (first published in 1963) for
California’s sesquicentennial in 1998. Her address
is 6209 East McKellips Road, #216, Mesa, Arizona
85215-2846
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