More Surprises

Another check of the earlylds.com database shows that Hiram C. Jacobs had a brother, Dana.

Here's some information about Dana.  The italicized section was found on Ancestry.com:

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

Added by Geraldine_Cunningham on 3 Jul 2009

1817, 15 March: Arrived with Family in Niagara County, New York

1830's

Married Florence Pettit and had five children.

3rd January was baptized by Father Henry Jacobs;  ordained a presiding elder of the Rustford Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in

Allegany County, New York, April 1836; and in November 1837, went to Kirtland, Ohio.

1840's

Married Zilpha Mills (between 1838-1845). They had three children; moved to Nauvoo, Illinois and attended the Seventies Jubliee held in the Pottawamies in Iowa....

1850's

Returned to New York where son Dana was born; married Huldah Harrington, 12th. April, 1856 in Conneaut, Ashtabula, Ohio. They had two sons. He had been widowed in 1855.

1860's

Farmed in Conneaut.

1870's

Attended Golden Wedding Celebration for brothers, Daniel and Whitman, on 25th September, 1879, in Niagara, New York.

1880's

Lived with his daughter Ruth Jacobs Bush and her husband George W. Bush, in Wheatfield, New York.

1890's

From the "Tonawanda Herald", dated 17th November, 1892, p. 3: "A couple of weeks ago we mentioned the fact that Mr. Dana Jacobs had gone to Antwerp, Ohio to live with his son Moroni. It is our painful duty to-day to record his death, which occurred November 6th, caused by a stroke of paralysis. His age was about 85 years. He was the father of the late Mrs. Geo. W. Bush of Main Street."

In the book Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History, Dana and Sanford Jacobs are identified as members of the Silver Creek Branch, followers of Alpheus Cutler, a man who had been a close confidant of Joseph Smith and had been instrumental in the completion of the Nauvoo Temple (in fact, it is entirely possible that the Jacobs were also involved in temple construction, for the work crews were among the last to receive their endowments).  Cutler believed that he had a special mission to minister to the Native Americans, and he and his followers refused to follow Brigham Young west.  On 13 June 1850, in a meeting presided over by Orson Hyde, Michael Jacobs, Dana Jacobs, Sanford Jacobs and several other men were found to be "disaffected," and were disfellowshipped from the Church.  Cutler was excommunicated in 1851, though it appears that none of these men ever disavowed the Book of Mormon, the restoration of the Gospel, or the leadership of Joseph Smith.

Others, including my wife's ancestors Alvah and Louisa Alexander, went West with the Saints (in another weird coincidence, it is conceivable that the Alexanders and the Jacobs knew one another, for they lived just a few blocks apart in Nauvoo).  My ancestors went another way.

I am speechless.