Lydia Marie Lathrop

LYDIA MARIE LATHROP, a daughter of Sybil Jacobs, married Samuel Brown, in 1837, at Kirtland, Ohio, when she was 21 years old. Samuel had been married before to Harriet Cooper, who died. When Lydia Marie married Samuel she became the mother of 5 year old, Samuel, named after his father.

Samuel had marched with Zion's Camp. Samuel Brown is a common name. There were other Samuel Browns in the Camp, so, Samuel added his mother's maiden name to his name that made him known as Samuel Webster Brown, or some called him "shoemaker" Brown because of his profession.

The first child born to them was a daughter in Missouri, name, Emily Sophia, born in 1838. Mary W., born in Missouri, 1839, died while they were living in Nauvoo. Other children were born in Nauvoo but did not survive.

After much persecution, they were among the last of the Saints to leave Nauvoo to cross the plains. They settled in Des Moines, Iowa, for a time, where David was born in 1847. Traveling westward, Samuel and Lydia, birthed twins, John and George Austin, in the early 1850's.

The Brown family left Council Bluff, July 10, 1852, as members of the Captain Allen Weeks Company. It had been almost 6 years since they left Nauvoo. All seemed to go well as they followed the pioneer trail across the state of Nebraska. When they camped near the North Platte River, just before the road passes over into Wyoming, tragedy struck the camp. Mother, Lydia Marie, was stricken with the dreaded sickness, cholera. She passed away, one of 13 deaths in that Company. She is buried some where on the plains. The family traveled on and arrived in Salt Lake, October, 1852. Soon to be 16 years old, Emily Sophia, assumed the role of motherhood for her little brothers and helped her father along the way.

Samuel Webster Brown and his family were sent on to Fillmore, Utah, when they arrived in Salt Lake. Grandmother Sybil Jacobs must have been surprised and happy to see this family as she was there when they arrived. There would have been sadness, too. Both of her daughters died as pioneers crossing the plains.

source: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=ldshistorical&id=I252214&style=TEXT