Robert married Mary Ann Ross on 12 March 1852 in Cedar City, so he must have arrived in 1851 or earlier. He took his family on to California where Mary Ann died on 6 July 1856. Robert and his children then appear in the 1860 census at Fillmore, Utah. Obituaries of Robert's daughter Mary Ann indicate that the family arrived in Fillmore in 1856; but the History of Millard County, Utah says they arrived there in 1857. The latter seems most likely given the approach of Johnston's army that year. Additional research is needed to discover the exact year and the name of the company with which the family traveled back to the Valley