• John first traveled with a sick detachment from the Mormon Battalion. After they returned to Winter Quarters, John continued on to the Salt Lake Valley in 1849, leading his own company. Later in 1852, Alma Hayes documents in his autobiography that his uncle John William Hess brought his two orphaned nephews to Utah--Alma and Nephi Hayes. Further research is needed to determine the name of the company they traveled with. 

  His full name, John Wells Hess, is confirmed by the Early Missionary Database.

Mormon Battalion Sick Detachments (1847)

• Age at Departure: 22
• Head of Household

John W. Hess Company (1849)

• Age at Departure: 24
• Company Captain

Company Unknown (1852)

• Age at Departure: 27

Sources

• 1850 Utah Census.
• Autobiography and journal of John W. Hess, circa 1887-1895, 8-9.
• Biographical Record of Salt Lake City and Vicinity (Chicago: National Historical Record Company, 1902), 443.
• David Hess statement in Autobiography and journal of John W. Hess, circa 1887-1895.
• "Events of the Month," Improvement Era , Feb. 1904, 7:313.
• Hayes, Alma, "A History of Patriarch Alma Hayes," [1].
• Missionary Department Missionary Registers, 1860-1959, Volume 1.
• Norma Baldwin Ricketts, The Mormon Battalion: U.S. Army of the West, 1846-1848 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1996), 23.
• "Pres. J. W. Hess Dead," Davis County Clipper, 25 December 1903, [4].
• Utah State History Cemeteries and Burials Database.