Son of James Brown & Martha Stephens

Married Caroline Stewart, 10 Jul 1857, Sacramento, Sacramento, California

Jesse was born 26 March 1829 [1824] by Flat Swamp Creek, (across the river from Salisbury), Rowan County, North Carolina.

His father was Captain James Brown [Jr.] of Company "C" of the Mormon Battalion. His mother, Martha Stephens was the first wife of Captain James Brown. When Jesse was 11 years old his mother died September 28, 1840.

Jesse was baptized a member of the LDS church March of 1840 in Kingston, Adams County, Illinois, a few months before the death of his mother. His mother and father had been baptized June 1839.

In the spring of 1840 Jesse moved with his father, 7 brothers and one sister to Nauvoo.

In June of 1841 Jesse's father married Susan Foutz, daughter of Jacob Foutz, who was the missionary that taught their family the gospel. Jesse's father also married other wives under polygamy.

Jesse's father and family were in Augusta, Iowa at the time the Saints were driven from Nauvoo and they went to Winter Quarters. It was here at the age of 17 years in July of 1846 that Jesse [, his brother Alexander, his step-mother Mary McRee Black Brown and her son George David Black, and his father, James Brown,] joined the Mormon Battalion.

Jesse was with his father when they took the sick of the Battalion to Pueblo, Colorado for the winter. They left Pueblo the following spring and went to Fort Laramie, Colorado and followed the Oregon Trail to Fort Bridger and then followed the Donner route into Salt Lake and arrived there on July 29, 1847 five days after Brigham Young. That day "Captain Brown led twenty-nine wagons filled with soldiers, their families, and the Mississippi Saint to a campsite about one half mile north of the temple lot." (5)

All of those Battalion men were re-baptized on August 8, 1847. "The battalion men whose families were still in Winter Quarters left to go to their familes. Captain James Brown made one final trip to obtain severance pay due to men who had been on detached duty in Pueblo. He took several ex-battalion members and started for California. Accompanying him were Abner Blackburn, Lysander Woodworth, Jesse S. Brown, John S. Fowler (not a Mormon Battalion solder), Gilbert Hung, William Squires, and William Gribble."(5)

To quote from the history of Captain Brown written by his grandson Moroni F. Brown: "On the 10th day of August 1847 in company with nine others, Sam Brannan being the guide, he left Salt Lake City bound for San Francisco, California, for the purpose of obtaining from the government paymaster... the money due the volunteers of Company "C"... They journey thither was via Fort Hall (the sink of the Humboldt) and Lake Donner, thence to San Francisco via Sutter's Fort, which was situated six miles from where Sacramento was afterwards built." (2)

It is stated that Jesse gave an account of seeing the remains of the Hastings company who perished at Lake Donner the previous winter, "and how the awe-stricken travelers gazed upon the horrid scene."(2)

They reached San Franciso about the 10th of September. Twenty-three days later the small group returning to Salt Lake City reached Sutter's Fort with a twenty-three days supply but the journey back to Salt Lake took 48 days "hence Captain Brown and his company came near starving to death on the way back."(2)

"They left the old Fort Hall route and took what was called Hastings Cutoff. They had been informed that by taking this course they would reach Salt Lake City with at least two hundred miles less travel. This course led them southward across what is known as the Seventy-five Mile Desert."

"Three days were consumed in accomplishing the journey across the desert. They found water the third day about 2:00 p.m. Some of the animals had given out, and had been left on the desert. For three days these five men had subsisted on three very lean geese which Jesse had killed the day before the company arrived at the desert; and during that length of time they had no water. One or two members of the party gave out, and were so weak that they had to be assisted on their horses by their emaciated comrades. They arrived in Salt Lake City about the 1st of December 1847"(2)

"Only three of the men who went to California with Captain Brown returned with him -- his son Jesse, Abner Blackburn, and Lysander Woodworth. They were joined by Samuel Lewis, who had been discharged from the battalion earlier in Los Angeles and had been working for Sutter."(5)

It is impressive to note that his son Jesse was one of the few brave men to make the return trip from California.

* Mormon Battalion members