John Henry Hurdsman

On the newspaper roster of the 1855 Andrus Company the family surname is spelled "Herdsman."  John's birth date is from the 1900 Utah census and his Utah death certificate; his death date is from Utah Death Registers, Salt Lake Cemetery Records and Utah Cemetery Inventory.  John and his family crossed the Atlantic on the ship Juventa and the plains to Utah in 1855; but, according to a history written in the late 1990's, they returned to St. Louis the next year. While in St Louis John's wife, Lettice, bore and lost two children. (See The St. Louis Index.)  In 1860 John, Lettice and their son Charles again crossed the plains to Utah where another child was born 18 May 1861.  Additional research is needed to identify the name of the pioneer company with which they made their final plains crossing.