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Sophronia Prentiss was born 29 March 1817 in Warrensville, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States to Robert Prentiss (1791-1847) and Presillia Warren (1792-1847) and died 10 October 1846 Leando, Van Buren County, Iowa, United States of unspecified causes. She married John Hendeson Reid (1815-1862) 24 December 1837 in Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri, United States.


LDS Pioneer - Nauvoo Era

Vital Statistics

Biography

Some time after 1830, but before 1840, Robert and Priscilla and at least six of their children moved west from Ohio to Village Township, Van Buren County, where they located north of the Des Moines River in the neighborhood of what now is Douds/Leando. Leando, on the south bank of the Des Moines, was at that time known as Portland and with Iowaville, upstream on the river's north bank, was one of northwest Van Buren county's major villages.

Their daughter, Sophronia, however, became in Ohio a member of Joseph Smith’s emerging Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and after her baptism at Kirtland at his behest followed thousands of others, to northwest Missouri where, the prophet taught, New Zion would arise. It was reportedly at Far West in Caldwell County, where the Mormons were headquartered at that time and the foundation stones of a great temple were placed, that Sophronia married another convert, John Henderson Reid, on 24 December 1837.

As the Mormons were driven from Missouri during the next two years, John Henderson and Sophronia Reid and their first child, Joseph Sidney Reid, fled east across the Mississippi to Quincy, Ill., where the infant died, and then traveled upriver to Nauvoo, where the Saints regrouped, rebuilt and briefly thrived. Sophronia’s sister, Almira Prentiss, joined them once they were settled in Nauvoo.

After a very few years, life in Nauvoo became intolerable as Illinois natives organized to drive the Saints out, murdered Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, and Brigham Young, with little other choice, decided to lead the Saints west to the Great Salt Lake valley in Utah, as far from their enemies as possible. John Henderson, Sophronia and Almira received their endowments at the new temple in Nauvoo on Feb. 6, 1846, then fled across the river to find refuge in Van Buren County with Robert and Priscilla.

The Reid family suffered a succession of tragedies in Van Buren County. Both Sophronia and her infant daughter, Elizabeth Louisa, born 30 June 1845 in Nauvoo, died on the 17th of October, 1846, and were buried in the Leando Cemetery, located in a clearing alongside a creek just south of town. In December of that year, John Henderson Reid married Sophronia’s sister, Almira. On 8 August 1847 Priscilla Prentiss died and less than a month later, Amelia also died --- on 1 September, perhaps in childbirth, although that is not clear. Amelia was buried near Sophronia at Leando and Robert Prentiss apparently marked his daughters’ graves, as he did his wife’s, since the inscriptions on the identical Reid stones, now eroded to illegibility, clearly identify them as daughters of Robert and Priscilla. Sophronia's parents both died that same year in Iowa also.


Children


Offspring of John Hendeson Reid (1815-1862) and Sophronia Prentiss
Name Birth Death Joined with
Joseph Sidney Reid (1838-1839) 10 October 1838 Clinton, Phelps County, Missouri 10 October 1839 Quincy, Adams County, Illinois
Almira Jane Reid (1840-1912) 22 May 1840 Woodsville, Adams County, Illinois, United States 23 July 1912 Lago, Bannock County, Idaho, United States Enos McMurray Huddleston (c1832-)
William Wood Hall (1832-1891)
Sophronia Priscilla Reid (1842-1870) 7 June 1842 Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois 23 March 1870 Ogden, Weber County, Utah Truman Root Barlow (1818-1860)
Unknown Myers (c1840-)
Elisabeth Lovisa Reid (1845-1846) 29 June 1845 Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois 17 October 1846 Portland, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa



Siblings


Children of John Reid and Sophronia Prentiss

 

Ancestry

References:


Footnotes (including sources)

MainTour, Shargrover, 174.126.84.0, Thurstan, Robin Patterson

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