• Elias initially traveled to the Salt Lake Valley in the Heber C. Kimball Company with Ellen Elizabeth Abbott in 1848.

  At the end of a mission, he traveled home with the Richard Ballantyne Company in 1855 as indicated by Martha Jane Gardner Kearns on familysearch.org.

  He later participated as one of the rescuers that were sent out in the winter of 1856 to assist the members of the Church stranded in Wyoming.

Heber C. Kimball Company (1848)

• Age at Departure: 41
• Head of Household

Richard Ballantyne Company (1855)

• Age at Departure: 48
• Returning Missionary

Rescue Companies (1856)

• Age at Departure: 49

Sources

• 1850 Utah Census.
• Ballantyne, Richard, to Brigham Young, 22 July 1855, in Brigham Young, Office Files 1832-1878, reel 33, box 23, fd. 18.
• "Deaths," Deseret Evening News, 6 May 1891, 8.
• "Departure for the Plains," The Mormon, 2 June 1855, 2.
• Early Missionary Database
• Isaiah M. Coombs collection, 1835-1938, Diaries, Volume 1, 1855 April-1856 April 27. 
• [List of those filing for lots, 1848], in Salt Lake County Recorder's Office, Land records [ca. 1847-1860].
• Martha Ann Gardner biographical sketch, undated, 3-4.
• "Mrs. Gardner, Aged Pioneer, Passes Away," Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 17 July 1916, 5.
• Richard Ballantyne papers, 1852-1896, Journal, 1855 July-September.
• Saints By Sea: Latter-day Saint Immigration to America
• Utah State History Cemeteries and Burials Database.
• William Thompson journal excerpts in Historical Department journal history of the Church, 1896-2001 July, 24 September 1848, 17-54.