The Connections Between The Mormon Battalion and the Ship

“The Ship Brooklyn Story - Volume 2”
by Richard H. Bullock
The Connections Between
The Mormon Battalion and the Ship Brooklyn pioneers
In conducting the necessary research for this book the author kept coming up with
permanent connections between the ship Brooklyn passengers and the Mormon Battalion. Here
is a summary of the known information about these connections.
1.
Andrew Jackson Workman a Private in Company B, he completed the journey to
California and re-enlisted in Captain Davis’ regiment in Los Angeles for a six month
extension. According to his pension records he was born in Burbon County, Kentucky 15
Jul 1824. He was 5 feet 7 inches tall, had brown hair and grey eyes. He died in
Hurricane, Utah 15 June 1909. He married Sariah Ann Johnson Eagar after the death
of her husband John Eagar, a ship Brooklyn passenger. John Eagar, along with his
mother and brothers and sisters, made the historic journey of 1846. John joined the first
company of Mormon Battalion veterans in blazing the trail over Carson Pass in 1848, the
only Brooklyn passenger in the group. His traveling partner was Addison Pratt, just
returning from his mission to the Society Islands. After arriving in Salt Lake City John
Eagar published an emigrants guide to California from Salt Lake City which was
published by Brigham H. Young in 1849. He also taught school in the Old Fort. He
married Sariah Johnson Workman 1 Jul 1849 and they pioneered Manti, Utah, where
they had eight children. When John died 3 March 1864 Sariah moved with her children
to southern Utah and married Workman on 17 March 1866 and they raised 16 children in
Virgin, Utah. The descendants of John Eagar and Sariah Workman pioneered Eagar,
Arizona on the Little Colorado River, where many descendants still live today.
2.
Zacheus Cheney a Private in Company B made the journey to California and was
discharged 16 July 1847. He traveled north to San Francisco in 1847 and met and
married Mary Ann Fisher, a ship Brooklyn passenger on 11 July 1848. She gave birth
on Christmas day of 1850 to a daughter they named Mary Ann Cheney. Mary Ann
Fisher died at San Jose, California on New Years Day 1851, just a week after giving
birth.. She is buried in San Jose but there is no headstone. Zacheus then married a halfsister of his first wife Mary Ann, named Amanda Miller Evans, another ship Brooklyn
passenger, on 10 January 1853. That same year Zacheus was ordained a leader of the
LDS Branch of San Francisco. In 1856 Elder George Q. Cannon, who was presiding over
the California mission, set him apart as president of the Alameda branch, members of
which in 1857 formed a company of 14 wagons to come to Utah. He was appointed
captain. Leaving Alameda on the 28th of August 1857 — his personal outfit consisting of
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two wagons and a carriage drawn by mules—he and his company, traveling over the
Carson Valley route, arrived at Salt Lake City on the third day of November 1857. He
and Amanda had eight children before Zacheus died 7 March 1898. They had been
strong in building up Centerville, Utah and that is where he and his wife Amanda, who
died 12 October 1917 are buried. The two homes Zacheus built are still standing and
being lived in by one of his descendants.
Zacheus Cheney - Mormon Battalion Veteran
3.
William A. Coons a Corporal in Company D made the journey to California and was
discharged 17 July 1847 in Los Angeles. He walked north to San Francisco where he met
and eloped with a young lady named Emerette Elizabeth Goodwin, a ship Brooklyn
passenger. Emerette gave birth to two children, a daughter in 1853 and a son who was
born and died in 1855. The family broke up shortly after and William A. Coons
migrated back to Los Angeles. Emerette married twice more but the marriages didn’t last
long. She died 7 July 1859 in San Andreas, Calaveras County, California but her grave
cannot be located. Her daughter was eventually re-united with her relatives in Utah.
William married another woman named Martha Twitchell but there is little information
available. When William applied for a pension his record stated he was 66 years old in
1886. Born at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was 5 feet 8 inches tall, dark complexion,
blue eyes, and dark hair. He was living at Soldier's House, Los Angeles in 1893. As of 4
Dec 1896 he dropped from the pension rolls because of death. The date of death was not
given. Hamilton Swarthout witnessed his pension application from Los Angeles,
California. He is buried in the Veterans Administration Cemetery, Los Angeles,
California.
4.
Henry Simon Dolten (Dalton) a private in Company B completed the journey to
California and was discharged 17 July 1847 in Los Angeles. He walked to San Francisco
and there he met and married Elizabeth Jane Kittleman, a ship Brooklyn passenger on
12 March 1848, a rainy evening in San Francisco - the same day members of the exBattalion met to make their plans to travel to Salt Lake City. It is not known when the
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Dolten’s traveled to the valley but they settled in Centerville, Utah. There they raised five
children. Henry and Elizabeth lived out the balance of their lives in Centerville where
Henry Simon Dolten died 10 November 1886 and Elizabeth died 13 December 1917.
Henry Simon Dalton (Dolten) Mormon Battalion Veteran
5.
Elijah Thomas a Private in Company C made the journey to California and was
discharged on 17 July in Los Angeles. He was the son of a wealthy plantation owner
from Mississippi who joined the Church and freed their slaves when they moved to
Nauvoo. Lige, as he was called, walked to San Francisco where he met Mercy Murray
Day Hooker Narrimore, a ship Brooklyn passenger who was working in a business she
owned selling notions and cloth from a small shop. He immediately felt attracted to her
and helped her in her business by carrying freight from the docks to her little store and
running other errands. When it came time for the proposal he admitted he didn’t have a
suit to be married in. Mercy promptly produced the clothes of her late husband and they
fit perfectly. They were married 23 June 1851. They stocked up on bolts of material for
the journey to Utah but when they got to the gold fields they found the material so much
in demand that they traded their wagon load of cloth for a fifty pound sack of gold
nuggets, much easier to transport. He started a dry goods business in Salt Lake City and
started buying up real estate, when Brigham Young chastised him for “speculating.” He
sold his lots on Main Street for a loss. Lige married a second woman in 1851, Ann
Haywood and a third, Harriett Johnson a number of years later. A son was born in 1852
named Elijah Murray Thomas to he and Ann Haywood. Elijah was called on a mission to
Jamaica in 1853 but it failed because of sickness. In 1861 he served a mission to
Tennessee and Alabama. In 1869 he was called to open a “Castor Oil” mission in
southern Utah and he sold everything and moved south. He worked with Jacob Hamblin
and others but the project failed. He later moved his family to Leeds, Utah and as they
were traveling south they stopped at every town where a Battalion member resided.
Mercy died in Clifton, Oneida, Idaho where her son Edwin Henry Hooker, a Brooklyn
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passenger, had helped to colonize and she is buried there near her son. Elijah continued
on in Southern Utah and was one of the discoverers of the Silver Reef bonanza, but he
somehow managed to lose control of the operation and only could work for wages. He
died in St. George on 14 October 1906 and is buried in the St. George Cemetery. At his
funeral were present four fellow members of the Battalion – Rufus C. Allen, Samuel
Miles and Samuel Lewis of S. George, and Zodak K. Judd of Kanab.
Elijah Thomas - Mormon Battalion Veteran
6.
James Ferguson a Private in Company A at muster-in and Sergeant-Major at muster-out.
He completed the journey to California and was discharged in Los Angeles, July 16,
1847. Assigned to office of Sergeant Major October 16, 1846. He was also officially
assigned the duty of the official historian for the Battalion. His journals were getting
ready to be published at the turn-of-the-century and became lost! What a tragedy. After
his discharge James purchased a horse and traveled to San Francisco where he met Lucy
Nutting, a ship Brooklyn passenger working in the Portsmouth House as a waitress.
They were married prior to 2 April 1848 in San Francisco. They joined the Ebenezer
Brown Company leaving California 10 August 1848 and arriving in Utah 10 October
1848. It is said they rode a black stallion all the way. When James was offered $1000 for
the stallion, he refused. Unfortunately the stallion soon died. James became an orator,
lawyer, a very popular stage actor and filled a mission to Scotland. His speech about the
Mormon Battalion at a Military Ball in 1852 and the 4th of July is outstanding! He held
the position of Lieutenant General in the Militia and fought in the early Indian battles in
Battle Creek and Provo, where he brought back a young Indian captive. He tried to raise
the Indian as a protege, but the boy died while a teen. James Ferguson is indirectly
responsible for the Utah War of 1858! As a lawyer he took exception to the Federal
Judge having a Chicago prostitute sitting with him on the bench and tried to shame the
Judge in his own Courtroom. Judge Drummond became upset with this confrontation
and tried to have Ferguson disbarred. Ferguson and others raided the Federal Courts and
seized the records and finances from the Judge. They later threw some papers into an
outhouse and set them on fire, not the Federal Court records. The Judge fled the Territory
and headed to San Francisco and then New Orleans where he submitted his resignation
and then wrote accusing letters about the Mormons in Salt Lake City. Thus the order to
send troops. If James and the Judge had stepped out back for a good old fisticuffs the
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Utah War could have been avoided. Unfortunately James died of alcohol poisoning 30
August 1863, a great loss to our State. He is buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
Lucy Nutting Ferguson had five children by James and she lived until 7 January 1895.
She is buried near James in the cemetery. Her headstone was broken and a couple of
years ago a beautiful new memorial was placed there by the family. James also married
three other women in polygamy: Margaretta Gretrit, Phyllis Hardie and Jane Robinson.
James Ferguson - Mormon Battalion Veteran
7.
Thomas Charles Davis Howell a Private in Company E completed the march to
California and was discharged 17 July 1847 in Los Angeles. He traveled back to Salt
Lake Valley as part of the Hancock-Sierra Company in 1847, not finding his wife and
family there. In 1848 he continued his journey back to Iowa got his family and traveled to
Missouri where he earned enough to buy an outfit to return to Salt Lake. In 1852 he led
the third Company as Captain of the train. He had married Sarah Stewart on 5 July 1835
and they had five children. Thomas married Elizabeth Margaret Frances Pool, a ship
Brooklyn passenger and resident of Franklin, Idaho by then, on 18 July 1863. This may
have been a marriage of convenience as Elizabeth continued taking care of her aging
mother Mary Frances Cramer Pool, who was also a Brooklyn passenger, until Mary’s
death in 1881. Some documents show that Thomas married Mary Cramer also but the
author could not confirm this. He died 14 October 1902 and is buried next to his wife
Sarah, who died in 1886, in the little hilltop cemetery at Clifton, Oneida, Idaho.
Elizabeth died 10 November 1903 in Franklin and is buried there next to her mother and
brother in the Nash Plot of the Franklin cemetery. Thomas’ son also married a ship
Brooklyn passenger, Elizabeth Wallace Bird, the longest surviving Brooklyn
passenger who died in 1943.
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Thomas C. D. Howell - Mormon Battalion Veteran
8.
Franklin Weaver a Private in Company A completed the journey to California and was
discharged 17 July 1847. ( He was noted as one of the Battalion members that would
carry water back to those in distress.) He then traveled to San Francisco where he met
lovely Christianna Rachel Reed, a ship Brooklyn passenger. They were married by
Addison Pratt in San Francisco on 12 March 1848. They spent just a short time at the
gold mines and then joined the Ebenezer Brown Company at Sly Park and arrived 10
October 1848. They lived first in Salt Lake, then Provo, then Salt Lake and finally moved
to Antelope Island to tend for the cattle belonging to the Church. At each location they
had children born to them. Franklin listened to Brigham Young’s suggestion that he take
additional wives who were widows of his brother Miles Weaver, so he married Sarah
Clark, 8 May 1855 and Sarah Elizabeth Holmes 9 May 1856. In 1859 they traveled to
Cache Valley and settled first at Millville and later moved to Bennington, Bear Lake,
Idaho. Christianna Rachel Reed raised eleven children while at Millville. Franklin
Weaver fought Indians, raised children, and managed a farm while suffering from the
ravages of time and finally passed away 12 June 1884. His wife and companion
Christianna lived nine more years and died 24 December 1893. They both died at
Bennington and are lying side by side in the local cemetery.
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9.
Henry Willard Brizzee a Private in Company D completed the march to California and
was discharged 17 July 1847 in Los Angeles. He re-enlisted as part of the Mormon
Volunteers on 20 July 1847. Henry traveled from California to Salt Lake City in 1857
and married Elizabeth Bradley Smith, a ship Brooklyn passenger shortly thereafter.
He made a life in Summit county, Cache Valley and other locations acting as Convention
delegate from Summit County in 1862 and 1864, and being elected as State
Representative in 1864. In 1865 he represented both Summit and Green River counties.
He was identified as a junior nurseryman. In 1866 and 1867 he operated two toll gates
and bridges over the Weber River in Summit County. In 1869 Henry was prosecuting
attorney for Summit County. In 1876 he was called with others to open a mission in Old
Mexico. He had become fluent in Spanish while living in California and so he readily
accepted. After his mission he was called by the Church to help found the area of Mesa,
Arizona. He traveled there with the pioneer company and they established the city of
Mesa. He had several other wives including Emily Amanda Rockwell, daughter of Orrin
Porter Rockwell; Ann Long Didsbury; Malinda McKenzie. I do not know how many
children he had. He died 29 March 1898 at Mesa, Maricopa, Arizona and is buried in the
cemetery there. The author doesn’t know when Elizabeth Bradley Smith died or where
she is buried. She married a second time to Captain William H. Kentzel and had six
children.
Henry Willard Brizzee - Mormon Battalion Veteran
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10.
Isaac Harrison a Private in Company E completed the journey to California and was
discharged 17 July 1847 in Los Angles. On July 20, 1847 he re-enlisted with Captain
Davis’ Company as part of the Mormon Volunteers. He was a Corporal in the reenlistment company. After his tour of duty he traveled north to San Francisco and there
he met and married Catherine Clark Smith the widow of Robert Smith, both ship
Brooklyn passengers. Widow Smith was an extremely beautiful woman who had just
given birth to her dead husbands daughter, and Isaac’s heart melted. They took up
farming in the Fremont area, near California’s first farmer John M. Horner, also a ship
Brooklyn passenger. Not having as much success as John Horner they moved into the
gold fields where they operated a hotel and boarding house at a town called Murderers
Bar. They were successful in their venture and sold out just before traveling to Salt Lake
City with Catharines four children. They traveled with the Zacheus Cheney Company
arriving in Salt Lake City 3 November 1857. Isaac became the Justice of the Peace and
Postmaster in Sandy City and his wife Catharine was a mid-wife, delivering over 100
babies. Isaac died 2 March 1894 and his wife Catharine died 3 February 1903. They
are both buried in the Sandy City Cemetery in Utah.
11.
Jesse Divined Hunter Captain of Company B. He completed the journey to California
and re-enlisted as Captain of company A in Los Angeles, July 16, 1847. He was
accompanied by his wife Lydia. He was the father of William Hunter, musician, Co. B.
Lydia A. Edmunds Hunter gave birth to a child they named Diego Hunter 20 April
1847, the first Anglo child born in San Diego. Lydia Hunter died 27 April 1847 in San
Diego and was buried near the ocean at Point Loma. He had also married a woman
named Kiziah Brown and had several children by her. She eventually traveled to San
Bernardino to be with Jesse as he had accepted a position as an Indian Agent in the area.
While acting as an Indian agent at San Louis Rey he married Jane Elizabeth Tompkins,
a ship Brooklyn passenger on 3 July 1862 and had been living with her family in San
Bernardino. When Kaziah showed up with the children Jane Elizabeth demanded a
divorce from Jesse Hunter. After a bitter court fight they were divorced with Jane
Elizabeth holding the property they owned in Los Angeles. Unfortunately she had
pledged it as collateral to the lawyer that handled her divorce and when she died 5 May
1920 the Lawyer took possession of the $100,000 property. Jane Elizabeth Tompkins
Hunter was buried in the Mountain View Cemetery, San Bernardino, CA. Jesse D.
Hunter lived in the Los Angeles/San Bernardino area until 27 August 1877. His grave
has never been located.
Additional research by the author has added the following:
Jesse Divined Hunter
Jesse D. Hunter was born to Samuel and Lydia Devenny Hunter on 5 July 1806 in
Hopkinsville, Christian, Kentucky. He married Keziah Brown in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
on December 1825, Lydia Edmonds in Nauvoo, Illinois on 2 February 1846, and Jane Elizabeth
Tompkins in San Bernardino in 1862. He and Keziah had six children, namely, William Hunter
born 25 December 1830 in Greene, Illinois; Asa Barton Hunter, born 20 November 1832 in
Lebanon, St. Clair, Illinois; Mary Barton Hunter, born 15 May 1834 in Lebanon, St. Clair,
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Illinois; Jesse Hunter, born 8 June 1839 in Johnson, Illinois;, Samuel Divined Hunter, born 9
April 1842 in Illinois and Martha Hunter, born 8 June 1843 in Illinois. Keziah was born 22
February 1808 in Davis, Kentucky. When Jesse and her son William joined the Mormon
Battalion in 1846, Keziah made her way west with the Daniel Spenser/Peregrine Sessions
Company in 1847 and eventually to Monterey where she met up again with Jesse.
When Jesse and his son William joined the Mormon Battalion his second wife Lydia
Edmonds Hunter also signed up as a laundress and accompanied the Battalion on their long
march. She was pregnant at the time. Only five of the women that started the journey and made
it all the way to San Diego, Lydia was one. The others were Melissa Coray, Phebe Brown, Susan
Davis and Nancy Davis. Lydia gave birth to the first white child born in San Diego 13 April
1847 and he was named Diego Hunter. She became very ill two weeks later and died from
typhoid fever on April 27, 1847. Her remains are buried at the Rosecrans Point Loma Military
Cemetery across the bay from San Diego. The young son Diego was taken by the midwife, Doña
Juanita Machado de Wrightington, and raised into adulthood. Diego apparently never lived with
his father.
A number of the men from Company B of he Mormon Battalion were experienced in
making brick, so they commenced on 28 March 1847 to make bricks that were used to line water
wells in the community of San Diego. By the end of June they had built the first brick building
in San Diego, the Courthouse. This is probably when Jesse learned the talent of making kilnfired brick. The Mormon Battalion were discharged from service on July 16, 1847. Jesse reenlisted as Captain of Company A in Los Angeles in July of 1847 for an additional six months
service. At the time of his completion of service he was appointed the U. S. Indian agent for
southern California and made his home at San Luis Rey. He then raised cattle as part of the San
Bernardino community. Here he married Jane Elizabeth Tompkins, still being married to
Kaziah, and Jane was still married to her first husband at the same time, but neither knew of the
others partner. He moved to Los Angeles in 1852 and began a brick making operation.
Jesse established his brickyard a Broadway and Second streets. The bricks were likely
made from local materials and then were fired in field kilns using wood as fuel. The bricks were
slightly smaller and thinner than standard bricks of today. Because of under firing they spalled
and eroded easily. Most likely that all the brick buildings in Los Angeles up to at least 1854
were made from Jesse D. Hunter brick. He sold them for $25.00 a thousand and soon had a tidy
fortune. It is likely that the first brick building was a home for himself at Third and Main Streets.
He also likely provided brick for the first jailhouse and in 1854, the first brick school house,
which stood at the corner of Second and Spring streets. Many other buildings were built as he
expanded his business expertise.
At some point in time Kaziah and Jane learned of each other and divorce proceedings
took place between Jane Elizabeth Tompkins and Jesse D. Hunter. It was an ugly divorce and
eventually Jane was granted the divorce and one of the buildings that Jesse owned, later value at
$100,000. Jesse then traded his brick house in Los Angeles to lawyer Lewis C. Granger for
some 2,000 acres of property known as Rancho Cañada de los Nogales, in the modern Highland
Park area of the Los Angeles basin.. He curtailed his brick making operation in 1854 when
competition came on the scene. In 1859 Hunter bought an additional 500 acres across the Los
Angeles River, the southern tip of Rancho San Rafael. He and Kaziah and the children turned to
farming. He remained in this activity until his death sometime between 1877 and 1882. Records
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are not too sure on the date. Kaziah Hunter the sold the Rancho in 1882 to developers George
W. Morgan and Albert H. Judson.
In 2009, Judith Triem, Board Member of Rancho Camulos, Ventura County, brought to
attention bricks in their fountain which had been constructed in 1852. From the records of he
Rancho owners Ygnacio and Ysabel del Valle brought the bricks to the Rancho form Los
Angeles in 1852. The only brick maker in Los Angeles at that time was Jesse Hunter.
Restored fountain Rancho Camulos
Internal structure of the fountain before restoration, showing Jesse D. Hunter bricks
From the records of the Rosedale Cemetery, 1714 S. Normandie Ave., Los Angeles the
Author has located Jesse D. Hunter died 27 Aug 1877 and Kaziah Hunter, died 12 Jan 1889
according to cemetery records. And buried at location AS.20 1W6S and N-A.20 1W6S.
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Diego Hunter1
Diego was born 13 April 1847 with the help and attention of Doña Juanita Machado de
Wrightington and the best doctor available. He was named for the place of his birth and the first
Anglo child born in San Diego. He grew up like Doña Juanita’s child of her heart, she having
brought him safely to birth, in spite of his mother’s weakened condition for the long march. It
was strange to see that deep affection between the beautiful golden haired blonde bot growing up
with brunette children and his dark eyed foster mother, an affection that lasted their whole lives.
He was never able to get used to speaking English, even when necessary. Captain Jesse
Hunter went away afterwards leaving Diego like he was an old hat. When Diego reached a mans
age of twenty-one he got a job driving cattle to San Juan Capistrano. That was the first time he
went from Doña Juanita and the town of his birth knew him no more. Diego became the Indian
agent for San Juan Capistrano and that is where we lose track of him.
William Hunter
William was a musician in Company B. He completed the journey to San Diego and was
mustered out of service July 16, 1847 in Los Angeles. He was the son of Jesse Hunter and
Kaziah Hunter. He was born 25 December 1830. He lived at 727 Buenavista St., Los Angeles,
California. He was dropped from the Pension rolls 4 June 1894 because of death. The cause of
his death is not known. He undoubtedly joined his mother and father when they owned the
Rancho.
1
San Diego Historical Society Library and Manuscript Collection, Old Town and the Mormons.
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12.
13.
David Ira Frederick, Sr. a Private in Company A was a member of Lieutenant Willis’
Pueblo Detachment. At the beginning of the Battalion march David sent some of his
uniform money back to Amasa Lyman, a long respected friend. After their winter stay in
Pueblo, Colorado David accompanied the Battalion members to Salt Lake Valley. He
remained in the Salt Lake area for a time and assisted the wives of Amasa Lyman,
eventually traveling with them to San Bernardino to meet their husband. At San
Bernardino David started a sawmill operation that proved profitable for him. He met and
Married Mary Ann Winner, a ship Brooklyn passenger in about 1853. They answered
Brigham’s call for return in 1858 and stopped at Parowan. Here they chose to raise their
family. Mary Ann Winner passed away from consumption 12 February 1859 and was
buried in the Parowan Cemetery. David continued caring for the family and later died on
9 February 1888 at Huntington, Emery County, Utah where he is buried.
Nathaniel Vary Jones a Sergeant in Company D. He completed the journey to California
and was part of General Kearney's detachment that returned Frémont east for court martial.
He was discharged on the Bear River in southeast Idaho July 16, 1847. Married Rebecca
Maria Burton 14 March 1845 and had eight children with her. Married Caroline Martin
Garr 7 July 1856 and two other women in 1857, with whom he had another six children.
Nathaniel served a mission to England where he was Mission President of the British
Mission. Nathaniel died 15 February 1863, at the age of 61, and is buried in the Salt Lake
City cemetery. Nathaniel is described thus: He lived at 28 North 2nd West, Salt Lake
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City, Utah. He was 6 feet 1 inch tall and had dark hazel eyes and dark brown hair.
Caroline Martin Garr, daughter of Fielding Garr and Pauline Turner then married John
Read Clark Jamison, a ship Brooklyn passenger and son of Hannah Tucker Read and
grandson of Christianna Gregory Read, also Brooklyn passengers. They had two
children. Little is known of their subsequent years except that they helped pioneer
Bennington, Bear Lake Idaho and Millville, Cache, Utah. John Read Clark Jamison
died 4 July 1887 and is buried in Millville, Utah. Caroline Martin Garr died 2
November 1912 and is buried in the Fairview, Franklin, Idaho cemetery. Others of
Nathaniel’s wives are buried in Salt Lake City.
14.
Harley W. Mowry, a Private in Company C. He had been part of Captain Nelson
Higgins Family Detachment that guided the sick Battalion men, women and children to
Pueblo, Colorado. He had been a stone mason by trade, and worked for two years on the
Nauvoo Temple, helping to create the beautiful stone work and adornments. He married a
woman named Martha Jane Sargent Sharp, whose husband, Norman Sharp, also in the
Battalion, died from an accidental gunshot to the arm. Harley and Martha were married 4
July 1847, while 50 miles southwest of Casper, Independence Rock, Natrona,,Wyoming.
After reaching Salt Lake City the couple went to help settle San Bernardino. Reaching
their destination, they decided to travel on to Northen California in search of Harley’s
family. They found them at Washington Corners, Alameda, California. Harley’s father
Barton Mowry, mother Ruth Walkup Mowry, brothers Origin Mowry and Rhanaldo
Mowry were ship Brooklyn passengers. Harley’s father Barton and brother Origin,
became very wealthy and stayed in California, where there are many municipal locations
named after them in Fremont and San Jose. His mother Ruth Walkup Mowry and
youngest brother Rhanaldo came to Utah and settled in Kaysville, where they are buried.
Harley and his wife Martha had ten children, helped settle Southern Idaho and died in
Vernal, Uintah, Utah, where they are buried. Harley died in 1920, one of the last Mormon
Battalion Veterans to pass on to the other side. His wife Martha is the oldest survivor of
the original company that began from Winter Quarters. Their daughter Sarah Ellen Sharp,
born in Pueblo, CO, is the last survivor of the Battalion. Harley W. Mowry also had an
older brother named Sylvester Mowry that stayed in the East and graduated from West
Point. Sylvester is significant to our history from being part of Colonel Steptoe’s
investigating team of the Gunnison Massacre, helping to survey the Columbia River for a
railroad route, fighting Apaches in Arizona Territory, surveying and recommending the
area of the Gadsden Purchase where the Mormon Battalion had once marched; and
operating a silver mine named the Patagonia in Santa Cruz County, Arizona Territory.
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Harley Mowry - Mormon Battalion Veteran
Harley & Martha Jane Sargent Sharp
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