Moses Thurston and many of the emigrants who would be part of his overland emigrant train left Liverpool, England, April 22, 1855, aboard the ship S. Curling(often called the Samuel Curling in Church records). Thurston was returning to Utah after serving a mission in England; the emigrants were Mormon converts. After an exceptionally rough voyage of 30 days, the ship docked at New York. Next, the travelers went by rail to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and from there by steamboat down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to St. Louis. Elder Thurston and about 100 passengers arrived in St. Louis on June 9 aboard the steamboat Gibson. From St. Louis they steamed up the Missouri River to Atchison, Kansas Territory--the Mormon outfitting point for plains travel that year. One of the emigrants described the country surrounding Atchison as wild and timbered.
Organized at Mormon Grove (just outside Atchison), Thurston's was an independent company, but it included many Perpetual Emigration Fund passengers. At least one of the English families, however, was wealthy enough to pay for the outfit of another family. A few of the emigrants who accompanied Thurston were from Ohio. The train started for Utah on July 4; it consisted of 148 individuals, 33 ox-drawn wagons, 234 oxen, 28 cows, and 12 horses. Because of Indian hostilities along the trail, this train traveled part of the way to Utah with the Richard Ballantyne company.
Along the trail, one female traveler reportedly put some of her milk and cream "in a tightly covered wooden churn and fastened [it] firmly inside the wagon; the butter was already churned when [the company] reached the evening camp." This same woman lovingly nurtured her yeast culture so that her family could have leavened bread, which she baked in "rock ovens built by previous pioneers." On August 24 the Thurston train was at the Upper Ford of the Platte, some 15 miles ahead of Ballantyne's company. All was well with the emigrants. They had lost no cattle or horses, and no one had died. Two young men from the company escorted Elder Erastus Snow and a companion (who were traveling to Utah unescorted) to Warm Springs; then they returned to the train. The company arrived in Salt Lake City on September 28 with the emigrants generally in good health and excellent spirits.Company members arrived in the Salt Lake Valley from 19-28 September 1855.