Transcript

My brother, John W. [Hess], who had been a volunteer in the Mormon Battalion, a company of United States troops, made up principally of Mormons, organized for the purpose of serving in the War with Mexico, and to accompany General Stephen Kearney on his expedition to California, started, with others of the Battalion in the Spring of '47, from Pueblo, Colorado, for Salt Lake, where he was mustered out of service. He and his companions overtook a company of the Saints under Apostle Amasa M. Lyman, and reached the Valley with them, just a few days after the arrival of the original 144 pioneers under Brigham Young, who arrived there July 24, 1847.