• Evidence from census and church ordinance records proves that Andrew Siler likely traveled to Utah in 1849. Further research is needed to confirm the name of the company with which he traveled. In the 1850 federal census of Utah his surname is spelled "Syler."

  Andrew served as captain of four independent wagons in the 1856 James G. Willie company. He left the company at Fort Laramie to join the Hodgetts company.

Company Unknown (1849)

• Age at Departure: 24

James G. Willie Company (1856)

• Age at Departure: 31

Sources

• 1850 Utah Census.
• Cantwell, James, Autobiography, in Joel Edward Ricks, Cache Valley Historical Material [ca. 1955], reel 3, item 29.
• Cantwell, James to S. S. Jones, Handcart Veterans Association, 28 Sep. 1906. Handcart Veterans Association, Scrapbook, 1906-1914f, fd 2.
• "Immigration to Utah," Deseret News, 15 October 1856, 254.
• James G. Willie Emigrating Company journal, 1856 May-November, 16-53.
• Joseph B. Elder journals, 1856-1857; 1871-1879, 21-28.
• Josiah Rogerson, "Captain J. G. Willie's Or, the Fourth Handcart Company of 1856," Salt Lake Herald-Republican, 5 January 1908.
• Levi Savage journal, 1855 March-1858 October.
• Marilyn Austin Smith, Faithful Stewards--the Life of James Gray Willie and Elizabeth Ann Pettit, 95-120.
• "Synopsis of the Fourth Hand Cart Company's Trip from England to G.S.L. City in 1856." In Historian's Office history of the Church, 1839-circa 1882, 9 November 1856, 966-83.
• William Woodward journal in Historical resource materials for Cache Valley, Utah-Idaho, 1955-1956.