Sidney Sheen

Sidney's Story

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The Story

Sidney's Story

researched by Penny Magnusson Hannum

Birth:  April 17th, 1856   |   male   |   in Atlantic Ocean

Death:  June 23rd, 1856   |   Infant   |   by Four Mile Creek in Iowa

Memorial:   Stone 7   |   left column

Sidney's parents are James Sheen Jr. and Mary Shields Jaynes who are both from England.

Sidney was born while sailing to America on the ship “Enoch Train”. After they arrived in America the Sheen family joined with other Saints to travel to the Salt Lake Valley. This group of Saints joined the Edmund Ellsworth Company to cross the plains, the company left Iowa on June 9, 1956.

Two month old Sidney died from the strains of the journey.

In a journal of the journey by Archibald Walters, he recorded:

"June 23rd......good camping ground, plenty of wood and water, four miles from Fort Des Moines. Passed a small town this morning seven miles from the Fort. June 24th. The camp rolled out at thirty past six a.m. Traveled eleven miles. The roads a little rough....day exceedingly warm - hard on the handcart boys. Pitched tents at thirty past one p.m.......Sidney Shinn [Sheen], son of James and Mary Shinn Jr., died this morning. Buried thirty yards south of the bridge on Four Mile Creek, on the east bank, under an elm tree."

Sidney is buried near the abandoned Fort Des Moines in Iowa.

submitted by The Daughters of Utah Pioneers and Days of ‘47