During the Mexican American War, the 1846-47 Kearny Expedition surveyed some of the land the U.S. hoped to build a railway on. Kearny was accompanied by Lt. Cooke and the Mormon Battalion. The Mormon Battalion used an existing Native American trail to form Cooke’s Wagon Road, which would later be used by Butterfield and other overland stage companies.

Lydia Anna Tobey was born the same year the Mormon Battalion started creating Cooke’s road. Thomas Fry Tobey, the brother who wrote her the letter, was six years old at the time.