Archives West Finding Aid

Nathaniel Vary Jones enlisted in the battalion at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and was a sergeant of Company D. The battalion marched to Upper California by way of Santa Fe under the command of Col. Phillip St. George Cooke. The company left Fort Leavenworth on September 17 and reached Santa Fe in October. Jones gives a brief description of the Spanish settlement, which they left on October 19. Daily diary entries commence on November 13. On February l, 1847, the battalion arrived at the San Diego Mission, having "opened a road through impassable mountains, trackless deserts, without wood, water, or grass, and almost without provisions." Jones describes the area and the San Diego Mission, and notes that the same day of their arrival the party marched north. On February 2, they were at present Mule Hill, and Jones describes what is now known as the battle of San Pasqual (December 6, 1846). Continuing the march, Jones describes the camps at Mission San Luis Rey and at the Pueblo de Los Angeles. On April 28, he notes that 28 men were ordered to work on the "fort on the hill." On May 8, Jones was ordered, as one of twenty men, to "take some Indians in the mountains."

On May 10 an order was issued to detail three men from each battalion company to serve as an escort for General Kearney as he traveled to Fort Leavenworth. Jones was detailed, and on May 13 left Los Angeles. On May 27, the detachment met General Kearney at Monterey. They "fit out" in preparation for the trip east. Jones describes the marches, the countryside, the camps, the river crossings, the Indian inhabitants, and the animal life. At Fort Sutter, the company met up with Colonel Fremont, whom Kearney had under arrest and was escorting back to Ft. Leaven-worth. Here, they learned also that Sam Brannan had gone east to meet Brigham Young's party to pilot them into the Salt Lake Valley. On June 22, Jones describes General Kearney detailing five men to bury the cannibalized remains of the Donner party that they had come upon at a cabin in the Sierras. After they buried the bones of the dead the men set fire to the cabin.

The detachment then traveled down the Truckee River. By June 30, they were traveling up the Mary's River, and the journalist "had not seen one tree in 150 miles." On July 9, Jones notes, "we are now in Oregon." By July 15, they reached Fort Hall, passing Oregon emigrants along the way. They went on to the Bear River, to the Green River, to the Big Sandy, to the Sweet-water, to the Platte, and to Fort Laramie. From there Jones had permission to meet up with a company of Mormons, and obtained news of his family and friends from that group on August 4. On Sunday, August 8, they camped on the South Platte River. Buffalo was plentiful. By Friday August 20, they were crossing the prairie. On August 23, they reached Fort Leavenworth, turned over their "public property," and received pay of "only $8.60" for their "extra service." Tuesday, they "got some clothes . . . and started at noon. Came to St. Joe . . . Camped with Brother Colton at Savannah."

Nathaniel Vary Jones (1822-1863) was born in Rochester, New York. He worked as a ship carpenter until about age seventeen. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in the spring of 1842 went to Nauvoo. He served on a mission to the eastern states from 1843 to 1844. In 1845 he married Rebecca M. Burton in Nauvoo. After working on the Nauvoo temple, he moved with the Saints to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he joined the Mormon Battalion on July 16, 1846, and marched to California under the command of Col. Cooke. After his discharge at Fort Leavenworth on August 24, 1847, he met his wife and child in Far West, Missouri. On May 6, 1849, they left Council Bluffs, Iowa, and arrived in Salt Lake City in August 1849. He served in the Nauvoo Legion, served as a Salt Lake City alderman, was bishop of the LDS 15th Ward, and served an LDS mission in Hindoostan, India, from 1852 to 1855. In the spring of 1856, Jones was called to go to Las Vegas to bring back lead. He returned to Salt Lake City in 1857 and served in the militia during the "Echo Canyon War." He served a mission to England from 1859 to 1861. In the fall of 1861, he was sent to Iron County to set up iron smelting systems, but was called back to Salt Lake in 1862 to set up plants nearer Salt Lake City. In February 1863, Jones died of pneumonia. He left four wives and ten children.