This grandson, Edward Thomas Walton, is my father. At New Orleans the ship grounded on a sand bar and for nine days it was stuck fast in the sand. There were 333 passengers on board and it became necessary to transfer them to a river steamboat. The Saints were under the direction of Brother John S. Higbee. Joseph Walton worked his passage up the Mississippi to St. Louis and later he drove an ox team across the plains, arriving in Salt Lake City on September 17, 1853.
Research has yet to uncover concrete evidence for the exact death date.