Sybil Bliss

PIONEER SYBIL BLISS LATHROP JACOBS AND HER PIONEER FAMILY
by Mavis Buchanan

SYBIL BLISS LATHROP JACOBS was born in Tolland, Tolland County, Connecticut, 7 January, 1791(sic disputed), the first child of John Bliss and Lydia Chamberlain. She was a great-great granddaughter of immigrant, Thomas Bliss, who settled in Connecticut about 1638. He was a wealthy land owner and Puritan of the Belstone Parish, England, and because of his faith was persecuted, maltreated, impoverished and imprisoned, was finally reduced to poverty and his health was ruined, by the Church of England. This ancestor died shortly after reaching the New England shores.

Sybil married Grant Lathrop, a carpenter, descended from the Reverend John Lathrop, a Pilgrim minister who fearlessly proclaimed in New England as well as old, England beliefs. He, likewise, was persecuted and imprisoned. His distinction to religious freedom was Massachusetts, in 1634. His posterity was great.

Six children were born to Sybil and Grant. When the youngest child was three, Grant died, 21 March 1823, the oldest child was sixteen. The children born to them were, Emily Sophia, Asahel A., Solomon B., Lydia Maria, Horace K., and Osman M.

Records indicate there were many Bliss families that migrated west to Western New York, including Sybil Bliss' father, to the neighborhood of Palmyra. Sybil and her young family were there in 1830. The family was in the right place at the right time, to hear and accept the concepts of the new gospel. Emily, the oldest child was baptized in the Mormon church in 1835. possibly others of the family were baptized at that time. It is known for sure that three of Sybil's children joined the church, also, Sybil. The family seemed to be involved with the movements and activities within the church. They moved with the body of the church to Kirtland, Missouri and Nauvoo, suffering and enduring the hatred and atrocities of the enemies of the church. By this time, Sybil's children had married and had families of their own.

Sybil was married to Dana Jacobs (sic Henry), in Nauvoo, about 1840 There was no issue with this marriage. Dana was the son of Stephen Jacobs and Ruth Chapins. In spite of the turmoil and unrest the saints were going through at this time, the Nauvoo Temple was completed. Temple ordinances and baptisms for the dead were being performed. In January, 1846, the Jacobs, along with thousands of others were rushing to the temple before the westward journey toward Zion began. Records indicate that Zilpha Mills Jacobs, Dana's wife, stood proxy for some of the ordinances done for Sybil's family, which would indicate that Sybil was living as a polygamist wife to Dana. Zilpha was Dana's first wife. Ordinance work was done for family members, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and children, which, also, verified and made clear family records of Sybil's.

Sybil received a patriarchal blessing, by Patriarch John Smith, that further indicated her parents. Genealogists, in later years, had been unable to find who her parents were. These church records, when they were discovered, were the answer.

Sybil was voted a member of the Relief Society in Nauvoo.

She left Nauvoo, going west, probably with family members, Michael and Emily Jacobs, and their family. She and her husband, Dana (sic)Jacobs, took different paths and were not together again in her lifetime. He went east to Ohio and married two other women in Ashtabula, Ohio. The marriage to Dana Jacobs must have meant a great deal to her as she kept the name of Jacobs the remainder of her life.

At least three of her children, with their families, joined the exodus of the Saints, crossing the Mississippi River, going west, not knowing where....

...Sybil's (BLISS LATHROP JACOBS) three children (LATHROP), with their spouses and their children, totaled almost 30 pioneers who crossed the plains in the period of time between 1846 to 1852. Her two daughters died, also, two grandchildren and Emily's husband. Two grandsons crossed the plains twice, going back after the first crossing, to help their families along. Two grandchildren died in Fillmore, one killed by Indians and one being murdered for disclosing a secret she knew of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Sybil, in her lifetime, crossed an entire nation by wagon and on foot, from Connecticut to California. She was a true pioneer of her day.

The 1860 U.S. Census shows Sybil living with her grandson, John R. Frink's family, also, grandsons, Asahel and Hyrum (Hoagland) Jacobs were with her, living in San Bernardino.

The 1870 U.S. Census shows her living with Quartus Sparks, age 43. still in San Bernardino. She was 82 years old. A little research revealed that he was the son of Quartus Strong Sparks, a member of the group of converts who sailed in the ship, Brooklyn. His wife, Mary, and his young son, Quartus, sailed with him. They landed at Yerba Buena, San Francisco, in 1846. Quartus, the father, had been a great strength for the church in San Bernardino. He crossed the church authorities there and was excommunicated. His wife, Mary, left him and moved to Salt Lake where she married again. Quartus, the son was living with Sybil. Quartus Sr. became one of the church's severest critics and became a leader in the Reorganized Church. Sybil joined with the Reorganized Latter Day Saint Church on 26 June, 1864. On the 1867 branch list, she was known as Libby Jacobs.

Sybil died 17 August, 1879. Her obituary, as found in the San Bernardino Daily Times,
dated, 29 September, 1879, was brief….."Died. In Temescal, (Riverside County) at the residence of her son, A. A. Lathrop, Sibble Bliss Jacobs of Vermont, aged 93 years (sic), 8 months and 11 days. (New England and Michigan papers please copy." (Her birth date as noted in her history does not agree with her death age by a couple of years).

source: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=ldshistorical&id=I252209