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Sophronia Priscilla Reid was born 7 June 1842 in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois to John Hendeson Reid (1815-1862) and Sophronia Prentiss (1817-1846) and died 23 March 1870 Ogden, Weber County, Utah of unspecified causes. She married Truman Root Barlow (1818-1860) 25 December 1856 in Pottawattamie County, Iowa. She married Unknown Myers (c1840-) 1863 in Utah.

Biography

1861 Wagon Train

Wagontrain1861

Sophie with her family were participants in the David Cannon 1861 Pioneer Company, a 79 day wagon train traveling from Florence (now Omaha, Nebraska) to Salt Lake City in the early summer. It was the first of 12 such wagon trains of the year. It was a large train of 68 wagons and nearly 300 passengers led by a young 23-year old missionary returning home from England, Elder David H Cannon. Several diary/biographical accounts exist.

Sophronia's Baptism

Per Bartlett Tripp Journal, Sophie was baptized on Sunday, June 9th, on the trail with other wagon train members:

Still cool and cloudy. Fine weather for travelling cattle. Came out 7½ A[.]M. so far as the Junction of the roads leading from the Genoa and Columbus Ferry. —Preaching P.M. by Bro. W. L. Jolley. and remarks by Bro Cannon[.] Miss Emma Morris had a very bad fainting fit at the close of the services—Evening 15 were baptized. Names as follows[:] Wm. Desumer. aged 38. Born N.J. [;] John Allred. 39. Tenn. Michael Yeamans [Yeaman]. 53. New Bruns.[;] David Allred 35 Tenn: Wm Yeamans [Yeaman] 28. U[pper]. C[anada]. Emily Desumer 33 N.Y.[;] Susan Dean. 18. Ark.[;] Cynthia Yeamans [Yeaman] 49. N.J.[;] Sop[h]ronia Barlow 19. Ill.[;] Rach[el]. Desumer 15 N.Y.[;] Mary Allred 24 Ohio.[;] Jas. Bosworth. 77. Eng.[;] C[hristopher]. C. Williamson 19. Mich: Levi Desumer 20. N.Y.: Thomas Yeamans [Yeaman] U. C.

Family

The following was written by Sharron Hall Grover in 2021 in response to records incorrectly showing that Sophronia Priscilla was married to William Wood Hall and that her daughter, Sophronia Permelia, was William's daughter: Sophronia had two husbands but neither of them were William Wood Hall (1832-1891) (who was husband of her sister, Almira Jane Reid (1840-1912)). Sophronia was married to Truman Root Barlow (1818-1860) back in Iowa, but he died of pneumonia before they came to Utah. When they got to Utah, she married a man named Myers or Meyers (between 1861 & 1864 ?) and they had the daughter you put with William W. I haven't been able to find much about Mr. Myers, but I am still looking. The daughter's name is given in the Temple sealing record as Sophronia Pamelia Myers, not Hall.[1] Her temple sealing record in Logan in 1889 says:

Sophronia Pamelia Myers, dead Born 1 Dec 1864 N. Ogden, Weber, Utah Died 26 Feb 1870. Sealed to William Wood Hall... and to the mother, Sophronia Priscilla Reid ...etc.

William was there and participated in the sealing. He would have provided her name so I think we can safely assume it was Myers, not Hall. Also the wording is wrong for him to be the father. When a person is being sealed to their parents, the wording always says "sealed to the parents" and then the name of the parents is given. Here it says she was sealed to William Wood Hall and to the mother.

The temple sealings for both Sophronia and her daughter were done after they died in 1870 and at the request of Almira Jane. She had stated that she didn't like either of Sophronia's husbands and so didn't seal Sophronia to either of them - she wanted to keep both her sister and her niece close to her and obviously figured the way to do that was to have them sealed to William W instead. Those kinds of sealing (called "adoptions") were not uncommon in that time period. The thing that has led people to assume William W and Sophronia were married is that Almira Jane's daughter (another Sophronia--we've got at least 4 of them!) listed her aunt's name as "Sophronia Priscilla Reid Hall" on occasion after the temple sealing--not because they had been married, but because in Almira's and her daughter's mind, they were all sealed to the same Hall family with Almira and William. Technically, her name should have been Sophronia Priscilla Reid Barlow Myers.

My reasoning and proof is in what Almira wrote about it in her record book (speaking of herself in third person): “While here [Easton in Weber County] Almira Jane burried [sic] her only sister and her sister’s girl which made her feel quite lonely as she had neither brother or sister to claim her or speak to her; and Almira Jane went down to the temple for her sister whose name is Sophronia Prissilla [sic] and she is seald [sic] to William Wood Hall who is Almira Jane’s husband…”

The couple sealing was done in 1873, but the sealing for Sophronia's daughter wasn't done until 1889. If William was her father I think he would have done it in 1873. And actually, if William had really married Sophronia Priscilla in real life, there would have been a living sealing ordinance for them instead of a proxy sealing ordinance. William and Almira were regularly doing temple work at that time, so there is no reason they would not have been married in the temple in the first place.



Children


Offspring of Unknown Myers (c1840-) and Sophronia Priscilla Reid
Name Birth Death Joined with
Sophronia Permelia Myers (1864-1870) 1 December 1864 North Ogden, Weber County, Utah 26 February 1870 North Ogden, Weber County, Utah



Siblings


Residences

Notes

  1. ^ Email submittal from Sharon Glover, 10-Feb-2021



Footnotes (including sources)

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