Melissa Coray was the wife of Mormon Battalion Sgt. William Coray. As a laundress, she was allowed to travel with the Mormon Battalion the entire route from Iowa to the coast of California during the Mexican-American War. As part of that two-year venture, she ended up walking across three trails blazed by the men with whom she traveled.
Melissa Burton Coray was the youngest of the four women who made the entire march of the Mormon Battalion. (Earlier in the campaign, the other laundresses were sent back to Pueblo, Colorado, with one of the sick detachments.) She was born March 2, 1828, in Mersey, Essex, Ontario Canada to Samuel Burton and Hannah Shipley. At the age of ten, she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). When the members of the church were driven out of Nauvoo, Illinois, with the rest of her family, she began the march westward.
Eighteen-year-old Melissa was among about 2,000 Mormon refugees at Mt. Pisgah, Iowa, when she married William Coray on June 22, 1846. Four days later, the U.S. Army requested the enlistment of 500 Mormons for the war with Mexico.
Captain James Allen and four other officers in uniform arrived with orders from U.S. Army to request the enlistment of 500 Mormons for the war with Mexico. After the persecution, murders, and theft the church members had been subjected to in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, with no relief offered or granted by the federal government, their request was treated with mistrust. However, Brigham Young arrived from Council Bluffs, Iowa within a few day. He had been in communication with certain senators and others to assure them the members were not a hostile force. They still supported the constitution of the United States. He told the members they should enlist. The enlistment pay would help their families move west.
Melissa knew that her young husband would enlist. He was a military man, having served with the Nauvoo Legion. However, as much as she believed in placing her faith in God, she rebelled at the prospect of being separated from her husband, especially so soon after their marriage.
"If he must go, I want to go," she said. "Why must women always stay behind and worry about their husbands, when they could just as well march beside them."
When William told her that there were to be four women with each company employed as laundresses, Melissa realized there was a way she might accompany him. He was a sergeant in Company B, and if she were in the same company, it would be entirely safe and proper.
On July 13, 1846, William and Melissa arrived at Council Bluffs, Iowa, with other volunteers. On July 20, they marched to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and from there to California.
In her journal, Melissa said that one of the hardest parts of the journey was leaving her father and mother. However, since it was a choice between them and her husband, she thought her duty was to her husband.
Above map, created by Brian Cole, courtesy of the Mormon Battalion Assoc.
The march of the Mormon Battalion from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to San Diego, California, was the longest infantry march in the nation’s history. Melissa walked almost the entire way. She was inclined to belittle the walking she did, although other members of the Battalion said that she traveled on foot a large part of the 2,000 miles to San Diego and most of the return journey to Salt Lake. "I didn't mind it," she declared. "I walked because I wanted to; my husband had to walk, and I went along by his side." She said many times they had very little food and less water, but she and her husband got along very well. Many of the men in the Battalion ate until they were satisfied. The result was that they consumed their food at the start and did not have any later on when they needed it badly.
But not so with the Coray couple. She had learned differently from experience. She looked ahead and figured how many days the food would have to last until they met the next supply company, and then she used only so much each day. She tried to cook wisely, so that no food would be wasted. Although they did not have all they wanted to eat, they were never in danger of starving. She went from campfire to campfire, urging more care in the use of food. She used to relate how, weary and footsore, they had to walk miles and miles without water, and often the men thought they would die of thirst: "That is something," she said, "that only gets worse when you think of it. When I was thirsty, I tried not to think of it." It was at such a time that she learned to carry a pebble in her mouth. This caused the saliva to flow more freely and lessened her unquenchable thirst.
When the Battalion reached Santa Fe, Colonel Cooke decided to send the women and children and sick soldiers to Pueblo for the winter. At this, Melissa Coray almost lost courage. But it was not so with her husband. Along with Capt. Davis, Capt. Hunter and Sergeant Brown, he went to the Colonel to persuade him to let the four women continue. Just what was said at this conference, the women never knew, but they were permitted to accompany their husbands. She said it was a sad day when they had to bid their companions good bye.
The nausea of early pregnancy made traveling harder for her, and she had to hide it as long as possible. Once, after marching two days without water, she saw a number of men crowded around a small spring from which trickled a little stream of water. As it seeped from the rocks they were sucking it through a quill. She said it was such sights as this that made one's heart almost fail.
William attempted to keep many of the trials of the trip from her, but she knew and shared most of them. One night in Arizona she had a scare that she didn't forget. Mexicans were in the vicinity. The men, concerned they might be attacked, stayed up all night. Nothing happened. About this time, Melissa was becoming extremely weary and footsore. Col. Cooke seeing her fatigue, got down from his big white horse and offered it to her to ride on. In relating this to her grandchildren, she was always careful to designate "white horse" as though this made the event more important.
Up until this time, travel through the desert southwest had been only on horseback or on foot. The Mormons brought wagons, and blazed a route across the region that would be followed for the next century and more. At one point they reached a box canyon that was slightly too narrow for the wagons to pass. Using axes, the men widened the road by literally chipping their way through until it was wide enough for the wagons. Their route became used as the Southern Overland Trail, and is today the approximate route of Interstate 8 between Yuma and San Diego.
On Jan. 29, 1847, the Mormon Battalion reached Mission San Diego, California. She and Sergeant Coray, with others of the Battalion thought their journey ended. After two days, however, they were ordered to the Mission San Luis Rey to do garrison duty and protect the area from the Indians. In six weeks or so Company B was ordered back to San Diego. On March 17, 1847, Company B, which included William and Melissa, arrived in San Diego and took over operation of Fort Stockton. Melissa said they camped at Old Town, near the site which is now known as Ramona's marriage place. It provided the couple four months of a peaceful life.
In July, they marched to Los Angeles where the battalion was disbanded. From there, the battalion members split into several groups for the trip to the Salt Lake Valley.
Melissa had looked forward to the time when her husband would be mustered out so he could make a home for her and the baby she was expecting. Once the Battalion was discharged in early summer, William Coray bought a wagon and horses and the Corays joined a small party led by Capt. Jefferson Hunt. They traveled up the California coast to Monterey.
While in Monterey, Melissa gave birth to a son on October 2, 1847. The baby, whom the couple named William, only lived a few days. He was buried in the little cemetery in Monterey. When Melissa returned to California years later, she tried to find her son’s grave. However, there had been so many changes, she was unable to locate it.
As soon as she was able to travel, the couple started out again. Melissa said the trip was hard; the country was new; and there were no roads. They had to pick their way as best they could. In one place they came to a gorge so narrow that they couldn't drive through it. They had to take their wagon apart and carry it through, a piece at a time.
When they reached Sutter's Mill they found that gold had been discovered. Although the Corays were anxious to get to Salt Lake, they had to remain in the area long enough to get the means to continue. William Coray sent two sacks of gold back east with others to be delivered to his mother and sister still in Iowa so they could make the journey to Utah.
The main company of returning Mormon Battalion veterans left for Utah with the Browett-Holmes Company from Pleasant Valley, near present-day Placerville. The company consisted of forty-five men, Melissa Coray as the lone woman, two cannons, seventeen wagons, 150 mules and horses and about the same number of cattle. On July 4th in 1848, in Pleasant Valley, California, they recognized Independence Day by firing two rounds from a cannon. Addison Pratt wrote: "With these [cannons] we saluted the day, which made the mountains ring."
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| Silver Lake along the Emigrant Trail as seen from Hwy 88 |
To avoid crossing the Truckee River numerous times, they chose to blaze a new trail farther south through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It took them six weeks to build a wagon trail over what is now known as the Carson Pass. These were the first wagons to travel this route and the first to go from west to east.
Original map courtesy of National Parks Service
For Melissa Coray, this was the second time she had watched the battalion build a road. The first was the last 700 miles to San Diego. Melissa also witnessed a third building of a road—the Salt Lake Cut, which eliminated the wagons going all the way north to Fort Hall in what is now Idaho before going south again. This was constructed just before arriving in the Salt Lake Valley on Oct. 6, 1848.
Upon arriving in Salt Lake City, Melissa was reunited with family members, among them several brothers as well as her father, who had remarried a young widow with a daughter after the death of Melissa’s mother. Glad that the journey was over, she expressed gratitude for the respect and consideration she received from the men with whom she traveled, as well as their support for her husband, whose health had begun to fail. He had developed a cough during the last several months of the march to San Diego, and it had grown progressively worse.
Melissa and her husband decided to build a house just outside the fort surrounding Salt Lake City. By then, William was “greatly reduced in flesh,” so Melissa relied on the help of three of her brothers, Robert, William, and Charles, to make bricks for the home. William tried to help, but was not able to do much. By November, William hoped to live long enough to see his and Melissa’s second child born. The couple moved into their new home on January 20, 1849.
Melissa gave birth to a baby girl on February 6, 1849. The couple named her Melissa, after her mother.
William Coray passed away on March 7, 1849, less than three months after arriving here. Having just turned twenty a few days before, Melissa became a widow with a young child. Fortunately, she had the support of her family. Just before his passing, William gave her brother, Robert, a sack of gold to help provide for Melissa and the baby.
About two years later, Melissa married William H. Kimball, eldest son of Heber C. Kimball. The couple ran the hotel and stagecoach stop at Kimball Junction, at the top of Parleys Canyon in Utah. During the year and a half the Pony Express was in operation, it also served as a station for their riders. The couple had six children.
During the 1896 Utah Jubilee, Melissa was photographed along with the still-living members of the Mormon Battalion who attended. She is the third person from the left in the front row.
Melissa stayed in Salt Lake City area, where she died on September 21, 1903.
Photograph of Melissa Burton Coray Kimball displayed during 1915 San Diego Exhibition
Melissa Coray Peak marker ctsy Ted Muller Ted's Outdoor World blog
In 1990, a mountain peak in eastern California was renamed
Melissa Coray Peak to honor the memory of this Mormon pioneer woman and the
"thousands of emigrant women who endured similar hardships in settling the
West."
In my last year’s Prairie Roses Collection book, Clara, she along with other characters in the story trod this route cut by the Browett-Holmes Company, now known as the Emigrant Trail or Emigrant-Carson Pass Trail, which was first trod by Melissa Coray. To find the book description and purchase options, please CLICK HERE
This year I am writing a third book for this series. It is titled Lucy, and is currently on pre-order with a release date of May 2nd. With the exception of a few improvements since Melissa Coray’s day, Lucy will also travel this same trail. To find the book description and pre-order link, please CLICK HERE
Sources:
Ricketts, Norma B., Melissa’s Journey with the Mormon Battalion, The Western Odyssey off Melissa Burton Coray: 1846-1848.International Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Utah Printing Company, Salt Lake City, Utah: 1994.
http://www.coryfamsoc.com/articles/coray.html
https://www.thechurchnews.com/1994/8/13/23256692/california-peak-named-in-honor-of-wife-of-battalion-member
https://www.topozone.com/california/el-dorado-ca/stream/
https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/560418-melissa-s-journey-with-the-mormon-battalion-the-western-odyssey-of-melissa-burton-coray-1846-1848
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