• The Dunford family made several trips across the plains. Their initial emigration was with the William Field Company in 1854. After staying in Salt Lake City for a time, the family moved to California in 1855. Then moved back to St. Louis. They sailed from San Francisco, crossed the isthmus of Panama, ported at Cuba, and arrived in New Orleans in the fall of 1856. After living in St. Louis for a number of years, they left the family business in the care of his son-in-law, George A. Alder, and attempted to return to the Valley in the John D. Chase company in 1864. However, due to a disagreement that George had with his teamsters, they did not complete the journey and returned to St. Louis. Three years later, his father captained his own company back to the Salt Lake Valley, taking the whole family along with him.

William Field Company (1854)

• Age at Departure: 5

John D. Chase Company (1864)

• Age at Departure: 14

George Dunford Company (1867)

• Age at Departure: 17

Sources

• 1870 Utah Census, Salt Lake County.
• Alder, Lydia D., "Reminiscences of the Pioneers of 1854," Improvement Era, July 1908, 708-13.
• Alder, Lydia D., Reminiscences. in Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 26 Sept. 1867, 1-2.
• “Captain John D. Chase Company (independent), passenger list, 1864.” Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company church trains accounts 1861-1868, Captains’ accounts, 1862-1868. (CR 376 8, Box 1, Folder 9)
• Find a Grave (Website)
• Improvement Era , July 1908, 710.
• Missionary Department Missionary Registers, 1860-1959, Volume 1.
• Nash, Isaac B., [Reminiscences], in Carma L. Sandberg, "Nellie Nash (A Pioneer Biography of Mrs. Ellen Elvira Nash Parkinson, Wife of William Chandler Parkinson)" [M.A. Thesis, Brigham Young University, 1959], 7-9.
• Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849-1949.
• Utah State History Cemeteries and Burials Database.