• John was the son of Ezra and Elizabeth Oakley.  He initially traveled to the Salt Lake Valley in the Edward Hunter/ Joseph Horne Company in 1847. At the end of a mission, he traveled home as Captain of the 1st Hundred with the Edmund Ellsworth Company in 1856. Later that same year, he also participated as one of the rescuers sent out in the winter of 1856 to assist the members of the Church stranded in Wyoming.

   

Edward Hunter/Joseph Horne Company (1847)

• Age at Departure: 27
• Head of Household

Edmund Ellsworth Company (1856)

• Age at Departure: 36

Rescue Companies (1856)

• Age at Departure: 36

Sources

• Ann Ham Hickenlooper, Diary of Ann Ham Hickenlooper, wife of William Hanney Hickenlooper, crossed the plains with the first handcart co., arrived in Salt Lake City 26. Sept., 1856 and record of work done for the dead (Salt Lake City, Utah: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1957).
• Daniel Spencer letter to Franklin D. Richards printed in "Foreign Correspondence," Millennial Star, 2 August 1856, 489-90.
• "Died," Deseret Evening News , 12 May 1890, 2.
• Edmund Ellsworth Emigrating Company papers, 1856, Folder contents: (1) Journal, 1856 June-September.
• "Emigrants for Utah," Deseret News, 6 August 1856, 176.
• John Oakley journal entries in William C. Staines journal, 1852 August-1860 May.
• John Oakley journal excerpt, 1856 June-August.
• Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 21 June 1847, 21.
•  Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 26 September 1856, 28.
• Kettle, John, Journal, 1856, 2-3, MSS SC 1688.
• "Names of Persons Who Volunteer to Go as Teamsters" in Offerings for the assistance of the P. E. F. immigrants, 1856 October in Perpetual Emigrating Fund Company general files, 1850-1887.
• Oakely, John, [Journal], in "Church Emigration Book"
• Perpetual Emigrating Fund, Financial Accounts 1849-1886, Ledger A, p. 251.
• Perpetual Emigrating Fund, Financial Accounts 1849-1886, Ledger B, p. 192.
• Sabin, Mary Powell, Autobiography 1926, 10-14.
• Smith, Andrew, Diaries, 1853-1856, fd. 2.
• William Woodward letter to Heber C. Kimball, 11 June 1856.
• Woodward, W., to Albert Jones, Handcart Veterans Association, 12 Sep. 1906. Handcart Veterans Association, Scrapbook, 1906-1914, fd. 2.