• 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 [Weekly], 8 October 1856, 245.
• Bermingham, Twiss, "To Utah--By Hand," American Legion Magazine , July 1937, 27, 58-61.
• Burton, Robert Taylor, Diaries 1856-1907, Record book, circa 1856 October-November.
• Crandal, Mary B. "Autobiography of a Noble Woman," Young Woman's Journal, Feb. 1895, 266-67; ibid., Apr. 1895, 320-23; ibid., May 1895, 387-88; ibid., June 1895, 427.
• 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 [Weekly], 2 September 1863, 48.
• Find a Grave (Website)
• 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 [Weekly], 22 October 1856, 258.
• Patience L. Archer reminiscences, undated, 57-92.
• Ricketts, Norma Baldwin, The Mormon Battalion: U.S. Army of the West, 1846-1848 , [1996], 222-23.
• Ricketts, Norma Baldwin. The Mormon Battalion: U.S. Army of the West, 1846-1848, Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1996, 23.
• 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.
• Woodward, William, to Heber C. Kimball, 11 June 1856, in Brigham Young, Office Files 1832-1878, reel 35, box 25, fd. 9.
• 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.