- Participant in Mormon Battalion
- Married to at least 3 other members of the Mormon Battalion
Biography
Harriet St. John was born 7 November 1829 in Clymer, Chautauqua County, New York, United States to Stephen Merritt St. John (1810-1893) and Sally Falley Slayton (1808-1887) and died 18 November 1920 Bakersfield, Kern County, California, United States of unspecified causes. She married Daniel Brown (1822-1899) 29 January 1846 in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, United States. She married John Wesley Binley (1814-1894) February 1848 . She married Hamilton Swarthout (1828-1894) 17 August 1850 in San Juan Bautista, Monterey County, California, United States. She married John A DeWitt (1832-1893) 1879 in San Bernardino County, California, United States.
Mormon Battalion Veteran
Participant in the march of The Mormon Battalion. This unit of the US Army served in the Mexican-American War and was the only religiously based infantry unit ever created by Presidential order. It consisted of nearly 500 men recruited exclusively from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly called the Mormons). They undertook the longest infantry march in U.S. military history (as of 1847) and in the process marked out and creating the first continuous wagon road to California which linked the future states of New Mexico, Arizona, and California to the United States. Most members served an initial 12 month term (Jul 1846- Jul 1847) with some members re-enlisting for an additional 12 months afterwards.
Harriet married in early 1846 in Nauvoo to Daniel Brown (1822-1899) at age 16. Later that year Daniel and her father joined the Mormon Battalion. Harriett would join also as a laundress and later be part of the "Sick detachment" that marched from Pueblo, Colorado to Salt Lake City. She would later divorce and remarry several times, including with two more veterans of the Sick Detachment.
Children
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Harriett Binley (1848-1941) | |||
Siblings
Residences
See Also
- Harriet St. John
- St. John Family
- St. John in Chauatauqua County, New York
- St. John in Kern County, California
- St. John in Hancock County, Illinois
- Soldiers of the Mormon Battalion
- Harriet St. John, Mormon Battalion Association, https://www.facebook.com/profile/100069476179805/search/?q=Rufus%20Chester%20Allen, retrieved 01 Jun 2024
- Mormon Battalion Project, Geni.com, https://www.geni.com/projects/Mormon-Battalion-Project/844, retrieved 01 Feb 2025.
- Harriet St. John, FamilySearch.org, https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LQR4-RXS, retrieved 01 Feb 2025