Brigham Young 1847 Pioneer Company

Brigham Young 1847 Pioneer Company - Members of this company left Winter Quarters as early as April 5th to join with the larger group. Everyone gathered to a place about 20 miles from Winter Quarters on the banks of the Platte River. There they worked repairing wagons, organizing supplies, and chopping firewood. It wasn't until the 16th of April that the company was officially organized into the hundreds, fifties, and tens, with captains appointed and they started on their way.

Company History[]

Once organized, this vanguard pioneer company consisted of 142 men, 3 women, 2 children, and 72 wagons under the direction of Brigham Young (1801-1877), senior ranking apostle at the time in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They traveled 1031 miles before reaching their destination. Some members of the company traveled ahead and arrived in the Salt Lake Valley as early as the July 21, 1847. By the 24th of July, the entire company had arrived and founded a new city called Salt Lake City. The company included 73 wagons (1 for every two pioneers), 93 horses, 52 mules, 66 oxen, 19 cows, 17 dogs and some chickens.

Soon after arriving in Salt Lake City, this group was joined by a group led by Amasa Lyman of the Mormon Battalion and Mississippi Saints that stayed the winter of 1846 in Pueblo, Colorado. Most members of the pioneer company returned to Winter Quarters.

Stephen Markham was captain of the Night Guard. 48 men divided into four shifts of 12 each. Each shift to watch half the night on every other night.

List of Pioneers[]

#	"Tens #"	Position	Name	Return Status	Notes
001	001	Cptn10	Wilford Woodruff (1807-1898)	Stayed?	Apostle, Missionary and future President of the Church
002	001		Jacob D Burnham	?
003	001		Joseph Egbert	?
004	001		Marcus B Thorpe
005	001		George Wardle
006	001		John S Fowler
007	001		Orson W Pratt (1811-1881)	Stayed?	Apostle of the Church
008	001		John M Freeman
009	001		George Albert Smith (1817-1875)	??	Apostle of the Church
010	002	Cptn10	Thomas Grover
011	002		Barnabas L Adams (1812-1869)	Returned 1848
012	002		Amasa M Lyman (1813-1877)		Apostle of the Church - Detached at Pueblo, Colorado to lead in sick detachment of Mormon Battalion and Mississippi Saints, arriving in SLC just a couple of days behind this company.
013	002		Albert Carrington (1813-1889)		Future Apostle of the Church
014	002		George W Brown
015	002	Scribe	Willard Richards (1804-1854)	Returned 1848	Apostle of the Church returned in 1848 with a large company of saints, Clerk to Brigham Young
016	002		Jesse C Little
017	002		Ezra T Benson (1811-1869)		Apostle of the Church
018	002		Roswell Stevens
019	002		Sterling Driggs
020	002	Scribe	Thomas Bullock	Returned	Secretary to Brigham Young
021	003	Cptn10	Phineas H Young (1799-1879)	Stayed	Older brother to Brigham Young, later bishop of Salt Lake 2nd Ward.
022	003		Thomas Tanner
023	003		Addison Everett
024	003		Lorenzo D Young (1807-1895)	Stayed with Family	Younger brother to Brigham Young- Bishop of Salt Lake 18th Ward.
025	003		Harriet W Young (1803-1871)	Stayed	Plural Wife of Lorenzo (1 of only 3 women in company.) She had been suffering terribly from malaria fever and pleaded to be included thinking it will help her condition. She then was allowed to bring her two children.
026	003		Isaac Perry Decker (1840-1916)	Stayed	Stepson of Lorenzo, 1 of two children.
027	003		Lorenzo Z Young (1844?)	Stayed	Son of Lorenzo, 1 of two children.
028	003		Joseph S Schoefield
029	003		John Y Green
030	003	Lt Gen	Brigham Young (1801-1877)	Returned	Senior Apostle of the Church
031	003		Clarissa Decker (1828-1889)		Plural Wife of Brigham
032	003		Truman Osborn Angell (1810-1887)		Architect of Temples
033	003		Bryant Stringham
034	003	Cptn 100	Albert P Rockwood		Captain of First 100
035	004	Cptn10	Luke S Johnson (1807-1861)		Former apostle of the church, returned to serve as Bishop in Tooele.
036	004		Edmund Ellsworth
037	004		George R Grant
038	004		Samuel Fox
039	004		Eli H Peirce
040	004		Jacob Weiler
041	004		John Holman
042	004		S Alvarus Hanks
043	004		Millen Atwood
044	004		Tunis Rappleye
045	004		William Dykes
046	005	Cptn10	Stephen H Goddard
047	005		Henry Sherwood
048	005		Sylvester H Earl
049	005		Samuel H Marble
050	005		William Henrie
051	005	Cptn50	Tarlton Lewis
052	005		Zebedee Coltrin (1804-1887)	Returned 1851	Story of used rattlesnake oil to cure Black Scurvy on leg. Returned to Iowa then served a mission before returning to Salt Lake.
053	005		John Dixon
054	005		George Scholes
055	005		William A Empey
056	006	Cptn10	Charles Shumway
057	006		Thomas Woolsey
058	006		Erastus Snow (1818-1888)	Returned	Future Apostle
059	006		William S Wardsworth
060	006		Simoen Howd
061	006		Andrew P Shumway
062	006		Chauncey Loveland
063	006		James Craig
064	006		William P Vance
065	006		Seeley Owen
066	007	Cptn10 / Cptn50	James Case
067	007		William Smoot
068	007		William Carter
069	007		Burr Frost	Stayed	One of the two Blacksmiths for the group.
070	007		Benjamin F Stewart
071	007		Eric Glines
072	007		Artemas Johnson
073	007		B Franklin Dewey
074	007		Datus Ensign
075	007		H Monroe Frink
076	007		Ozro Eastman		Non-member friend of the church
077	008	Cptn10	Seth Taft
078	008		Stephen Kelsey
079	008		Charles D Barnum
080	008		Rufus Allen
081	008		James W Stewart
082	008		Levi N Kendall
083	008		David Grant
084	008		Horace Thornton
085	008		John S Eldredge
086	008		Almon S Williams
087	008		Robert T Thomas
088	008		Elijah Newman
089	008		Francis Boggs
090	009	Cptn10	Heber C Kimball (1801-1868)		Apostle of the Church and Counselor to Brigham Young.
091	009		Ellen Sanders (1823-1871)		Plural Wife of Heber
092	009		William A King
093	009		Hosea Cushing
094	009		George Billings
095	009		Philo Johnson
096	009		Howard Egan
097	009		Thomas P Cloward
098	009		Robert E Baird
099	009		Edwon Whipple
100	009		William Clayton (1814-1879)		Company historian & scribe. Clayton is credited with inventing a version of the modern odometer, during this trip across the plains from Nauvoo, Illinois to Utah, with the help of apostle and mathematician Orson Pratt. Clayton was assigned to record the number of miles the company traveled each day.
101	010	Cptn10	Appleton M Harmon
102	010		Horace K Whitney (1795-1850)
103	010		Orrin P Rockwell
104	010		R Jackson Redden
105	010		Francis M Pomeroy
106	010		Aaron F Farr (1818-1903)
107	010		Nathaniel Fairbanks
108	010		Carlos Murray
109	010		Orson K Whitney
110	010		Nathaniel T Brown
111	010	Major / Cptn50	John Pack
112	011	Cptn10	John S Higbee
113	011		Solomon Chamberlain
114	011		Joseph Rooker
115	011		John H Tippetts
116	011		Henson Walker
117	011		John Wheeler
118	011		Conrad Kleinman
119	011		Perry Fitzgerald
120	011		James Davenport
121	011		Benjamin W Rolfe	???	Non-member friend of the church
122	012	Cptn10	Norton Jacobs
123	012		George Woodward
124	012		Lewis Barney
125	012		Andrew S Gibbons
126	012		John W Norton
127	012		Charles A Harper
128	012	Colonel	Stephen Markham (1800-1878)		Captain of the Night Guard Captain of 2nd 100
129	012		George Mills
130	012		Josepn Hancock
131	013	Cptn10 / Cptn50 / Major	Shadrach Roundy (1789-1872)	Stayed	One of the first pioneers to plow the Salt Lake Valley for farming.
132	013		Levi Jackman
133	013	Actg Cptn10	John Brown (1820-1896)	Return 1848	Leader of Mississippi Saints -returned to get his family. Acting Captain of ten since Bro Roundy was major.
134	013		David Powell
135	013		Oscar Crosby		Former negro slave
136	013		Hans C Hanson
137	013		Lyman Curtis
138	013		Matthews Ivory
139	013		Mark Lay		Former negro slave
140	014	Cptn10	Joseph Matthew
141	014		John S Gleason
142	014		Alexander P Chessley
143	014		Norman Taylor
144	014		Gilbard Summe
145	014		Charles A Burke
146	014		Rodney Badger
147	014		Green Flake		Former negro slave

Reference Sources[]

Ensign to the Nations, Russell C. Rich, 1972 (Deseret Books)

Recap[]