• The Berry family traveled to the Salt Lake Valley with the Samuel Gully/Orson Spencer Company in 1849.  The family included widowed Armelia Shanks Berry and her children: John Williams Berry, Louisa Jane Berry Allen (wife of Daniel Allen), Cynthia Lovinia Berry, Thirza Melvina Berry, William Shanks Berry, Robert Madison Berry, and Joseph Smith Berry. The McOlney Branch record of members confirms that he initially traveled to the Valley in 1849.

  A few years later, he is seen on the plains again, this time to assist in the rescue of the Saints stranded on the plains of Wyoming the winter of 1856.

  At the end of a mission, John Williams traveled as Captain of the John W. Berry Company in 1858.

Samuel Gully/Orson Spencer Company (1849)

• Age at Departure: 26

John W. Berry Company (1858)

• Age at Departure: 35
• Company Captain

Rescue Companies (1856)

• Age at Departure: 33

Sources

• 1850 Utah Census.
• Bullock, Thomas, to Brigham Young, 26 June 1858, in Brigham Young, Office Files 1832-1878, reel 36, box 26, fd. 5.
• Bullock, Thomas, to Editor, 22 July 1858, in Missionary Reports, fd. 17.
• Bunting, James Lovett, Diaries, 1857-1920, 95-100.
• Ensign, Martin Luther, Autobiography 1897.
• Find a Grave (Website)
• Gardner, Robert, Diaries and reminiscences, 1857-1887, item 4, 88-92.
• George Goddard papers, 1855-1899, Journals, Volume 2, 1857 April-1858 July.
• Isaiah M. Coombs collection, 1835-1938, Diaries, Volume 8, 1858 April 13-1858 September 1, 16-66.
• Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, Supplement after 31 December 1849, 1.
• Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 21 June 1858, 30.
• McOlney Branch (Iowa), Record of Members.
• Missionary Record Index
• Peirce, Eli Harvey, Diary, 1857-1858, vol. 2.
• "Registry of Names of Persons Residing in the Various Wards as to Bishops' Reports, Great Salt Lake City, Dec. 28th, A.D. 1852." In Wright, Norman Edgar, ed., Key to Migration Sources Great Britain and North America.  
• Reuben Miller journals, 1848-1849, Journal, 1849 June-September.
• Reuben Miller letter to Brigham Young, 9 September 1849.
• Seventy Quorum Membership Index, 1835-1846.
• Shumway, Andrew Purley, Reminiscences, 1869.
• Thomas Bullock journal, 1858 May-June.
• Welchman, Arthur P., Reminiscences and diary, [ca.1854-1917], fd. 1, 93-94.
• William Broomhead diary, 1856 October-1857 April.
• Young, Brigham to John M. Berry, 1 December 1856. Brigham Young office files 1832-1878, Letterbooks 1844-1877.