• John initially traveled to the Salt Lake Valley in the William B. Hodgetts Company in 1856.  He was a shoemaker. 

  At the end of a mission to Sweden, he traveled home with the Miner G. Atwood Company in 1865.  He assisted a group from Copenhagen heading for the Salt Lake Valley.  When the group left Florence, John was appointed steward of the company.  During this trek, he was involved in an Indian attack near Laramie and was shot with two or three arrows in his arm.

  He returned to America in 1865 on the ship Hamburg.

   

William B. Hodgetts Company (1856)

• Age at Departure: 27

Miner G. Atwood Company (1865)

• Age at Departure: 36
• Returning Missionary

Sources

• "Captain Minor G. Attwood's Company," Deseret News [Weekly], 20 Sep. 1865, 402-3.
• Dan Jones Emigrating Company journal, 1856 May-December.
• Davis, Albert Wesley, A pioneer experience 1926, 1-3.
• Hodgetts and Hunt companies camp journal excerpts in Historical Department journal history of the Church, 1896-2001 July, 15 December 1856, 16-37.
• "Immigration to Utah," Deseret News, 15 October 1856, 254.
• John Bond, Handcarts West in '56.
• Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 15 December 1856, 6.
• "Manuscript History of Wyoming, Nebraska, 1860-1870." In Manuscript histories of Church in United States circa 1910-1971. (Miner G. Atwood, journal excerpts, p. 32-33) (MS 4029)
• Missionary Department Missionary Registers, 1860-1959, Volume 1.
• Nielson, Peter Anton, Autobiographical sketch, [1-2], in Utah Pioneer Biographies, compiled by Yalecrest Camp, Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.
• Peter A. Nielsen reminiscence, undated, 1-23.
• Romney, Junius, "An Exciting Trip Across the Plains," Juvenile Instructor , 1 Jan. 1895, 34-35.
• "The Indian Attack Near Laramie," Semi-Weekly Telegraph , 5 Oct. 1865, 2.
• Utah, Deaths and Burials, 1888-1946.
• Utah, Salt Lake County Death Records, 1849-1949.
• Utah State History Cemeteries and Burials Database.
• W. B. Hodgetts Company report, 1856.