Sidney Marcus Beckstead and Ann Sophia Rollins

Sidney Marcus Beckstead

Ann Sophia Rollins

Sidney Marcus Beckstead was born 19 March 1832 in Williamsburg, Dundas, Ontario, Canada. Sidney’s grandparents had moved to Canada at the time of the Revolutionary War. Sidney’s parents were Francis Beckstead and Maria Beckstead, who were first cousins. Sidney was the second child of seven boys and one girl.


Sidney’s family was converted to the LDS church about 1836 in Ontario, and
soon after left Ontario to join the saints in Illinois. Several families made the trip together, including both Sidney’s parents and grandparents, leaving many family members in Ontario. The trip was difficult, and at one time was attacked by a mob.  They were camped by a stream, but could not get to the water, because the mob would shoot at them. However a torrential rain came and dispersed their attackers. They were rescued by a group of saints the next day, lead by the Prophet Joseph Smith. After three months traveling, they reached DeWitt, Caldwell County, Missouri, hoping to settle there, but found the settlement under siege by another mob. They moved on to Far West where they spent the winter, then moved on to the Nauvoo in the spring of 1839, living in the area of Carthage and Warsaw, and Lima. There his grandfather, Francis Beckstead Sr. died. They were with the saints as they were driven out of Nauvoo, and crossed the plains to Council Bluffs, Iowa the spring of 1846. It was here that Sydney’s youngest brother was born, and his oldest brother joined the Mormon Battalion.


Sydney met Ann Sophia Rollins while living at Council Bluffs, but her father did not approve of the marriage. They ran away across the Missouri River into Nebraska and were married by a Catholic priest. Sidney’s sister and husband went with them. Ann’s father disowned her and forbade Sidney and Ann to ever enter his home, but two months later he forgave them and gave a wedding reception in their honor.


Ann Sophia Rollins was born 5 Mar 1831 in Bangor Maine to Enoch Perham
Rollins and Sophia Wing Philbrook. Ann and her mother and half brother William Henry Lambert, met the first missionaries that came to Maine and believed their message. Ann’s father was very strong against this new religion at first, but after he heard the missionaries, accepted immediately. About 1836 they started their journey towards Nauvoo. Not having sufficient money, they had to stop and work along the way, taking about eight years to get there. They arrived in Nauvoo six weeks after the Prophet’s death. While in Nauvoo, one child was born and two died, and Ann’s mother was in poor health. Ann also was married as a plural wife and had one baby which died.
At that time plural marriages were kept secret, and the father is not known. As the saints started to move westward, the Rollins family was left in Nauvoo with the sick.  September 1846, they were forced to leave. They crossed the river in a log canoe and made shelter with only a quilt. It was here that the saints were fed with quail that flew into their destitute camp. The summer of 1848 they crossed Iowa to Council Bluffs, where Ann and Sydney met and were married.


Sydney and Ann began their trip across the plains with the Becksteads in 1852. Sydney’s father got cholera and died just outside of Council Bluffs. His mother decided she could not go on with the children alone, and returned to Iowa.


Sydney and Ann and one year old daughter continued their trip with the Rollins family. Their second child, Sabra Jane was born in the wagon box the next year in Salt Lake before a house was completed. Over the next few years they were sent to several locations to help begin settlements, moving fourteen times in twelve years. They lived in Mountain Green, Payson, Goshen, and South Jordan and other locations. Sydney and Ann had seven children, the last three dying as babies. Sydney was a carpenter, wagon
maker, blacksmith, shoemaker, farmer, and violinist.


In 1863 Sydney married Annie Susannah Jackson as a polygamist wife. They had one son born. She was a widow with a small son. 


In 1864 Sydney was called to go back to Missouri to help with the immigration.  While there he visited his mother, who had remarried to a Josephite and did not welcome her son. On his way home to Salt Lake, Sydney accidentally shot himself. He was standing night guard, when he mounted his horse, then reached down to pick up his gun. The gun went off and killed him. Ann did not hear of the news until three weeks later when the company arrived home. At the time her youngest child was very sick and
died ten days later.


Ann married Edward Killick Roberts in 1869. They had two children. Ann
Sophia Rollins passed away 13 May 1885 in Annabelle, Utah.