• James initially traveled to the Salt Lake Valley in the Ebenezer Brown Company in 1848. However, he crossed the plains again in 1856 as a returning missionary. Sources seem to indicate that he traveled with the Daniel D. McArthur company from Iowa City to Florence, Nebraska, where he remained with several other returning missionaries to assist in organizing the outgoing companies. After the accounts were closed, he joined Grant's express company that consisted of the emigration agents and returning missionaries to continue the journey to the valley.  Immediately after arriving in Salt Lake. he turned around and went back out to participate as one of the rescuers that were sent out to assist the members of the Church stranded in Wyoming.

Ebenezer Brown Company (1848)

• Age at Departure: 20

Daniel D. McArthur Company (1856)

• Age at Departure: 28

George D. Grant Company (1856)

• Age at Departure: 28

Rescue Companies (1856)

• Age at Departure: 28

Sources

• 1850 Utah Census, Great Salt Lake, Utah Territory.
• "Arrivals," Deseret News, 8 October 1856, 245.
• Bermingham, Twiss, "To Utah--By Hand," American Legion Magazine , July 1937, 27, 58-61.
• Daniel Duncan McArthur Emigrating Company journal, 1856 May-September.
• Daniel Spencer letter to Franklin D. Richards printed in "Foreign Correspondence," Millennial Star, 2 August 1856, 489-90.
• "Death of Gen. Ferguson," Deseret News, 2 September 1863, 48.
• John Borrowman diaries, 1846-1860, Diary, 1848 July-1860 June.
• Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1 September 1856, 1-2.
• Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 28 October 1856, 1-2.
• "Journey from Florence to G. S. L. City," Deseret News, 22 October 1856, 258.
• Mary B. Crandal "Autobiography of a Noble Woman," Young Woman's Journal, March 1895, 266-267.
• Norma Baldwin Ricketts, The Mormon Battalion: U.S. Army of the West, 1846-1848 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1996), 222-23.
• Norma Baldwin Ricketts, The Mormon Battalion: U.S. Army of the West, 1846-1848 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1996), 23.
• Patience L. Archer reminiscences, undated, 57-92.
• Robert T. Burton diaries, 1856-1907; Record book, circa 1856 October-November.
• Smith, Andrew, Diaries, 1853-1856, fd. 2.
• Utah, Veterans with Federal Service Buried in Utah, Territorial to 1966.
• Utah State History Cemeteries and Burials Database.
• William Woodward letter to Heber C. Kimball, 11 June 1856.
• Young, Brigham and Heber C. Kimball and Daniel H. Wells to "All the Men and Brethren...", 11 November 1856. Brigham Young office files 1832-1878, General Outgoing Correspondence 1843-1876.