ELIJAH FUNK SHEETS: BISHOP IN ZION

Elijah Funk Sheets was a faithful, stalwart Latter-day

Saint

and a

dedicated member
He was

from

the

moment

of

his

conversion.

a very strong, capable, and effective

It is important to know Elijah Funk

Church administrator.

Sheets, his background, conversion to, and activities in the

Church of
Jesus

Christ of

Latter-day Saints.

His near

half-century of local and general Church leadership, as well

as his participation in civic endeavors,

allowed him the

privilege of being considered more than a common member of

the Church.
Sheets' involvement in the temporal affairs of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints revolved around

his forty-eight years of service as a local ward bishop and

his activities on a general level as traveling bishop, church stock agent, and an assistant trustee-in-trust.
life was

His

intertwined with management

of

the

finances,

livestock, and lands of the LDS Church.

This paper will focus

only on the contributions of

Elijah Funk Sheets as a bishop of the Salt Lake Eighth Ward.

We will discuss what

some of his duties were in relation to

his call and how he handled situations that confronted him.

In brief

introduction, Elijah Funk Sheets was born 22

He

March 1821 at Charlestown, Chester County, Pennsylvania.

joined the LDS Church in 1840 through the teachings of Edwin

Woolley, Elisha H. Davis, and Lorenzo D. Barnes.
He left

Pennsylvania in 1841 and worked for six months on the Nauvoo

Temple.

In 1842 he was

called to serve a mission to his

native Pennsylvania.

After

his arrival home,

he was

immediately called to serve a mission in England where he

met and married his first wife, Margaret Hutchinson.

Sheets and his new bride arrived from England just

in

time to prepare to leave Nauvoo in the general exodus from

that city.

They spent the winter of 1846-47 in Winter

A

Quarters where Margaret and their first born baby died.

few months after the death of his first wife Sheets married

Sussanah Musser, who was originally from Lancaster County,

Pennsylvania

.
They

Elijah and Susanah left Winter Quarters in the second

pioneer company with Elijah as a captain over ten.

arrived in Utah in the fall of 1847.
In 1848 he

began

working with Burr Frost as a blacksmith and in 1850 he

participated in the Iron County Mission, staying until May

of

1851.

After

his arrival back in Salt Lake City he

continued activities as a blacksmith and began participating

in civic activities.
In time he was elected an alderman and

city councilman for

Salt Lake and Provo cities, and tax

collector for Utah County. In church activities he continued

in his assignment as one of the presidency of the 2nd Quorum
of Seventies, to which he had been called while on a mission

in England.

LOCAL CHURCH LEADERSHIP

Bishop of the Salt Lake Eighth Ward

On 11 May 1856 Sheets was

taken from the second quorum

of Seventies and ordained a High Priest in the LDS Church.

At

the same time he was ordained Bishop of the Salt Lake Ward

Eighth

by

his

old

friend

from

Chester
1

County

Pennsylvania, Presiding Bishop Edward Hunter.

Location o f _t-he -S a l~t~~~Ua k e Eighth War~dr=~

One the first assignments Sheets had to undertake was the calling of his counselors. His counselors were as follows :

1st Counselor: From 1855-1860 From 1860-1864 From 1864-1866 From 1866-1876 From 1876-1896 From 1896-1904

2nd Counselor: From 1855-1861 From 1861-1864 From 1864-1866 From 1866-1869 From 1869-1890 From 1890-1896 From 1896-1904

........... ........... ...........

........... ........... ........... ...........

......

George Woodwrd Alex C. Pyper Robert Daft John T. D. McAllister Joseph McMurrin .....John D. H. McAllister

Jocob Houtz Robert Daft Levi Stewart

H. W. Lawrence Isaac Brockbank John D. H. McAllister

John Cartwright

rThe- Salt/ La ce Eighth

Ward~\ras
into

organized in 1849 / when

Sain Lake City was

divided/

nineteen/ ecclesiastiic/kl
I

units.

It included as part of

\its boundaries! what

become to be known as Washington \Square ,/ or thei city where th'e City

this lo/cation that arriving pioneer parties stayed after

entering the valley.

an\d

County building now /stands.

v7

/' \ kto was/ Ni "

It "v

pljock

Duties of a Bi shop

_JO fre-tus &rief lydiscuss the duties of a bishop in the

V.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and show what

some of the activities and responsibilities

were/placed on

Sheets when he accepted the assignment to serve as a bishop.

Revelations found in the Doctine and Covenants indicate that there are basically four main responsibilities for a

bishop in the
Priesthood,

LDS

Church;

1)

President of

the Aaronic

2) Steward over temporal affairs of the Church,

3) Minister of those in his care to teach them both temporal

and spiritual things, and

in his ward.
of

4) Literal judge over all members

While these revelations give a general outline

a bishop, how they fulfilled

the

responsibilities of

thier

particular

assignments was not completly spelled out.

As Brigham Young once said in an 1855 Bishops meeting, "'It

Eighth Ward, Manuscript History, 1856-1904, Typescript, LDS Church Archives.

Dale Floyd Beecher, "The Office of Bishop: An Example of Organizational Development in the Church," Task Papers in LDS History, 1978, No. 21, p. 2.
3

is not for me to say what the bishops do.'"

In 1862 he

continued the thought, outlining some basic duties,

"the

office of a Bishop is to attend to the temporal affairs of

the Church to see that the poor are taken care of to see that the brethren judiciously and wisely conduct themselves

in the capacity of a community."

As to specific activities

he said, "When we ordain a man to officiate in a branch of

the
Church as a bishop, he does so to the best of his

knowledge."

Robert T. Burton of the Presiding Bishopric

informe'd the Salt Lake Bishops, "'Nobody can point out the
detailed
duties
of
a

Bishop,

for

circumstances

are

constantly arising in the various wards that need the wisdom

/T

of God to fathom and correct.'"

Some

of

the

specific

activities that many of

the

bishops of the church participated in were to:

take the lead 'in every domestic improvement',; establish and supervise schools; assist the farmers; supervise the cultivation of public property and the repair of ward fences; assign to new arrivals their farm and town lots; see personally to the distribution of irrigation water and the maintenance and construction of ditches; keep cattle out of the fields, imposing sanctions on uncooperative owners; assign men to work on community road crews; and direct construction of schools, meetinghouses ,and other public buildings. The pioneer bishop's concerns were overwhelmingly temporal. For the Sunday sermon he or a designated person might speak on week 'upon the Ditch to convey Water to the 18th Ward' and the next week on why the Lord's people were subject to persecution. Whatever the theme, it was

. . .

Ibid. Quoted from the Salt Lake Bishops, Minutes of Meetings, 1849-1884, 7 April 1855, LDS Church Archives. Remarks by Brigham Young, 7 May 1861, Journal of Discourses , 9:90.

Beecher,

"The Office of Bishop", p. 2.

regarded as an aspect of 'the restored gospel.' Occupationally the bishops during the nineteenth century were with few excpetions farmers and businessmen, practical-minded, effective motivators of men and women

It was amid these numerous temporal activities, as well

as

counselling

on

spiritual

matters,

that

Sheets

was

involved in as bishop of the Eighth Ward.

Some of hsiP basic

"He

activities that Sheets participated in personally were; 1)

Local leader of the reformation movement of the church.
2)

Caretaker
offerings,

of
4)

the

poor,

3)

Collector

of

tithes

and

Couselor to the membership of his ward on

5)

temporal matters,

Literal judge of spiritual matters,

6) Organizer of the ward's United Order.

Local leader of the reformation movement of the Church

The

reformation was an effort by Church officials to

bring the membership back in line with official teachings

and doctrine.

Through all the trials members of the. Church

had endured, through the travels from Europe and the East,
most

remained strongly

committed to

teachings

such

as
In

prayer, sabbath day observance, chastity, fasting, etc.

1856, however, as the people began to settle in to a life

style free of persecusion and trials, many became lax in

regards to their committments.
At a conference held in Kaysville, Utah on 13 September

1856, the

reformation movement was

officially instigated

Arrington and Bitton, The Mormon Experience, p. 109.

under the leadership of President Jedediah M. Grant, of the

First Presidency of the Church.

Acceptance of a renewed

belief was usually signified by a member being rebaptized to

simbalize a washing away of their old sins and habits and a

rebirth into keeping the commandments.

Under the leadership of Bishop Sheets, the Eighth Ward also participated in this movement.
was a
effort

While the reformation

renewal of
to

spiritual commitments,
the saints

it was
many

also an

have

recommit
debts
and

to

temporal

activities
helping
the

such as payment of
poor
and

and

contibutions ,
from

afflicted,

refraining

drunkedness and vulgarity.

of

To Latter-day Saints the

obeying

so called temporal laws was as vital as obeying totally

In the Doctrine and Covenants it

spiritual appearing laws.

states :
Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal; neither any man, nor the children of men; neither Adam your father, whom I created

The

reformation was not only taught

in the worship

meetings, where Sheets counseled the members of his ward "to

be more faithful and keep all of the commandments," but it

was
taught
to

the teachers of

the ward where

they were

instructed on what to say to the families they visited.

Sheets expressed once that the ward membership as a
whole

had not

committed any

great

sins,

but many had

Doctrine and Covenants 29:34.

neglected their

prayers, had been found drunkened,

were

heard to blaspheme the name of God, had been caught in lies

while engaged in trading or conducting business, and were

not paying their tithing.

Sheets relied heavily on the reports and advise of the

Ward Teachers to whom he had assigned to visit the homes of the members of the ward.

Through their efforts the Eighth

Ward was able to come in line with the teachings of the church and reform their lives.
2

Caretaker of the poor

As part of the daily activities of a bishop, Sheets was

responsibile for taking care of poor members of his ward.

Each bishops had the sole responsibility for the

individual

members of their wards, and to aid them, instructions were received from their superiors counselling them on ways to

handle the

affairs of

the

poor.

In 1887

the First

Presidency of the Church sent an epistle to the Bishops with

the following instructions:

it is proper that each Bishop and his Counsellors should take the necessary steps to properly care for the poor who live in their Wards. They should call the Relief Societies to their aid in this labor. The reasonable wants of the poor should be supplied and the pangs of poverty and destitution should be a[voided]. God has greatly blessed us in the fruits of our fields and gardens, in our flocks and herds, and in giving us habitations, and means to sustain ourselves.

. . .

comfortable

Council of the Twelve Apostles, General epistle, 1887, Manuscript, Historical Department, LDS Church Archives

While aid was given freely to the elderly and those who were

sick and couldn't work, it was never allowed to continue to

those that could work and support themselves.
From

the same

letter the First Presidency advised:

It would be a great evil among us to encourage any class in living upon the benevolence of the community. No system of begging should be permitted. Those able to work should be furnished employment. Persons who are properly disposed will be glad to obtain it in preference to being fed with the bread of charity; and all should be encouraged to labor according to their strength. This policy, if wisely pursued, will prevent pauperism, and develope self-exertion and confidence, and produce self-respect.
In the minutes from the Eighth ward teachers meetings,

i I

concern was expressed for those who had little if any means

to support themselves.

It was through the teachers that

He

Sheets kept in touch with the needs of the membership.

never asked donations of the membership without first giving

himself.

On

19

September
for

1861 it was
for

recorded that

donations

were

made

wood

the

poor.

Fifteen

brethren, including Bishop Sheets, donated one-half cord of

wood to the cause.

wood,
I

Through the teachers Sheets provided

food,

clothing, and shelter to those that were

in

need, especially during the cold winter months.

One of Sheets greatest concerns in regards to the poor

came in the form of new immigrants to the area.

Being the

ward with the temporary camping ground for newly arriving

immigrating parties, Sheets was constantly bombarded with

10

new arrivals

that were without proper

food or

shelter.

Though Sheets was a benevolent leader, and desired to help

as much as he could, he was also under obligation to help

them maintain

their

self

sufficiency.

At

Teacher's

meeting held on 29 September 1856, Sheets brought up the

subject

of

bringing poor

people

into

the ward.

He

recommended that the teachers council them to "go into the

country and that no one bring them in the ward unless th[ey]

were able to support them so as not to burden the ward with

more than our share of the poor."

11

His concern for the

poor did not stem from shelfish means, but rather from a

genuine concern for the long range welfare of the people to

12 "take care of themselves and earn their own living. ..."
At times, however, the needs of the numerous poor must of

concerned him greatly.

To

lighten the tension that this

situation caused he joked to his teachers, "We must be doing

better to the poor than others; hence the reason why they 13 flock in." But in all reality he knew that redistribution
was the only way to not only help the new arrivals, but to

keep from overtaxing the members of his ward.

3

Collector of tithes and offerings

Directly related to the care that was taken with the

Eighth Ward, General Minutes, 29 September 1856, Manuscript, LDS Church Archives.

11

"Ibid., "Ibid.,

3 October 1861. 3 January 1889.

11

poor, was the collection of tithes and offerings from the

membership of the Church.

To the LDS the payment of

tithes

and offerings was a sign of faithfulness in keeping the laws

and commandments of the Lord.

The giving of offerings to

the Church was a responsibility that dealt with temporal

items but had great spiritual implications.
common offerings
The two most

given by the people in the nineteenth

century were Fast Offerings and Tithing.

Fast Offerings

This contribution was based on the

ability of those that had means to give of a portion of

their surplus to assist the poor.
One day during the month

was set aside as a day of fasting and prayer.

Members who

fasted were to donate the food they would have consumed to

the bishop.

This food was then used to help sustain the The leadership of the Church admonished

poor in the ward.

the Saints to live this law:

In some of our Wards there is not proper care taken in the collection of the fast offerings of the people. The first Thursday in the month has been set apart in the Church as a day of fasting and of prayer. That day should be strickly observed. Fast offerings should be brought with a liberal hand to the Bishop of each Ward, that he may be prepared to supply those who are dependent upon the ward for sustenance. Some Wards require considerable aid from the church to help sustain their poor, because their own fast offerings do not supply them; while sometimes in the same Stake there are other Wards where there are few, if any, dependent poor. Presidents of Stakes should make arrangments with the Bishops of these last named Wards to transfer their fast offerings to the Bishops of some contiguous ward which has more poor within its borders than its own fast In this way all the people can offerings will supply. have equal opportunity of doing their duty to the poor

12

Bishop Sheets also stressed the importance of obeying

this law that "he might have something to feed the poor."
As we

have already seen, caring for the poor was a major

concern for Bishop Sheets, and the donations received from

the membership of the ward would have greatly helped in this

concern

.15 .
An important contribution for members of the

Tithing

Church was payment of ones tithing.

Tithing was a law of

the church instituted not only for the financial support of

the organization, but also for the spiritual benefit of the individual member.
Presiding Bishop Edward Hunter once

remarked that tithing was

1 6 paid it."
to

"for the benefit of those that

To be in total harmony with the Church, one was

pay

one-tenth of his increase to the bishops.

The

tithing was then used by the Church leadership as they saw

fit.

There were basically five different types of tithing

2)

used in the nineteenth century; 1) Property tithing.

Labor tithing.

3)

Produce and stock tithing.

4)

Cash

tithing. 5) Institutional tithing.

pay was

The most comon form to

that of produce and stock due to the shortage of

currency in Mormon communities.

Each bishop became an agent of the Truste--in-Trust of

the Church to collect the tithing, store it in the local

14

Council of the Twelve Apostles, General epistle,

1887' 15 Eighth Ward, General minutes, 20 September 1860.

"Ibid,

1 February 1857.

13

Bishop's

storehouse,

then distribute

it to

the

General

Church.

The tithing was used to aid in the immigration of

the membership of the Church to Utah, to build buildings, and to help in the administrative cost of the organization.
In the general meetings of

the Eighth ward and in the

Teachers meeting, a comon theme was

collection of the tithes.
for

Sheets'

concern for

At a meeting in 1856 he probed

commitments

from the

teachers to,

"square up their
On 7 January 1857 he

tithing by the 1st of January, 1857."

"urged the Teachers to pay their tithing also to teach it to

the people."

His concern never seemed to focus on the need

of the Church for financial assistance, but on the need of

the

members

to

bless

their
17

lives

by

following

the

commandments of the Lord.

4

. Counselor

to the membership on temporal matters

One of the important responsibilities, of the

nineteenth

century bishop was to counsel the membership of the ward in

daily activities.

Some of

the areas where bishops of the

time period, and Bishop Sheets in particular, helped in was

in raising funds
for

the building of

church houses and

schools, and counciling members to care for themselves.

Building projects.
Some of the building projects that

the Eighth Ward was involved in was to help haul stone for

the Salt Lake Temple, build a new meeting house, and repair
the school house. Each brethren in the ward was asked to

"Ibid,

7 January 1857.

14

donate means to help build, wagons to help haul, and time to do much of the work.
It was the teachers, not the Sheets
But as

himself, that lined up the men for these projects.

in the

donations

and

contributions,

Sheets was

in the

forefront and usually gave the most time and means.

Projects that involved the whole city usually meant an

assignment of labor from the wards.

One of the projects was

hauling stone from the quaries in Big Cottonwood canyon for

the temple. Also of great concern to Sheets during the

1860s was the building of a water canal to supply water to

the city.

Records kept in his journal indicated the amount

8 1

of time members of the ward spent on the project.

Sheets was generally pleased with the response that the

ward gave on assignments, projects, and donations of goods.
He was

always concious to thank and praise before attending

to councel or asking for more help.

Counselling the

Saints

One of Bishop Sheets

strong

points was the way in which he could counsel the membership

of the ward to take care of themselves and be productive.

In 1856 he admonished the Eighth ward teachers to see "that

there was no idlers in the ward that they might

...

be

busy while good weather lasted that none might suffer

for

want of food and fuel."

He was always concious of the fact He told the

that many in the ward did not heed his counsel.

teachers to "wake up some of the mumblers of this ward that

1 ft

Ibid., 20 September 1860.

15
19 had not walked in the line of their duty for a long time."
Most the Eighth Ward teachers' meeting would begin with

the bishop asking for

a report of

the activities of his

teachers and find out if the needs of each individual member

were being met.

He was

concerned that they had enough wood

to burn for the winter and enough food to help them survive.
At

a Teachers Meeting held on 31 October 1858 the Bishop

advised the brethren to get their bread stuff and prepare

for a time of scarcity.
He wanted the teachers to talk

to

the

people because
that

"he

20 could see they were lacking."

After

winter

the

teachers

reported that

the ward

survived the winter

though it had been hard to get wood.

Sheets was pleased with the reports but did not let the
moment pass without counselling them to get their grain in

for the future.

Another area that he talked to ward members was the way

they treated one another.

of

Sheets, like many other members

the Church at the time, had a strong dislike for the

During a

Gentile or non-Mormon civil leadership they had.

teachers meeting in 1861 it was reported that two members had had a difficulty between themselves and to solve the
matter

had gone

to

the

civil courts.

Sheets

strongly

advised the Teachers to counsel the members that when "...

they had difficulties to settle them in a proper manner and

19

Eighth Ward, General Minutes, 22 October 1856.

"Ibid.,

31 October 1858.

16

take a course to make peace for gentile courts did not make

peace.
5

.....21

Judge of Spi ritual Matte r s

As a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-

Saints, Sheets was appointed to be a judge of the membership

of his ward over the spiritual activities of their
In the Doctrine and Covenants it states:

lives.

And whoso standeth in this mission [the office of bishop] is appointed to be a judge in Israel. And to 2udge his people by the testimony of the just.

...

. . .

The bishop as literal judge

in Israel was to judge on

matters of

both spiritual and temporal nature.

Classic

stories in the nineteenth century Church are of Bishops

judging on the water
corrals, etc.

rights, where to put houses, build

Of a more serious nature was the judging that

a bishop had to do on the spiritual side of

life, when
Church

members were

not

living up to

the

standards of

doctrine and practice.

At a teachers meeting held on 21 February 1861, the

teachers reported that

Rxjirerir~BT"own

was slack in attending

to his duties in the church and was not considered to be in

full fellowship.

Sheets remarked that he knew

B-e-ewn

was not doing his duties, that he did not pray or pay his

21Ibid.
22

27 February 1861.

Doctrine and Covenants 58:17 -18.

17

tithing.

He

wished

the

teachers

to

"wake him up if
Sheets

possible" for he considered him to be "fast asleep."

then opened up a discussion on the matter.
He

relied

heavily on the counsel of the brethren that attended the

Teachers

Meeting and listened closely to

their

advise.

Brother Woodward spoke and thought the reports were about

right on behalf of Bif-o-fcfre-rBtoto, that it was "time to Trim

up the Tree for the health of the body."
As

23

the weeks went by reports continued to come in that

B-row-n was

B-e-ai-he-r

not

responding to the counsel of

the

Teachers assigned to his home.

Bishop Sheets took to heart

the counsel of Brother Woodward and invited

next Teachers meeting to

Vw*-\

to the

"talk to him and try the saving

influence and see if we could prevail on him to serve his

God if we could not we should have to disf ellowship him." 2 4

On

March twenty-first

Ro-fe-e-irtBro-wn arrived at

the

Teachers meeting and was given the floor

to discuss the
He

reasons that he had not been attending his meetings.

commented that he had some previous difficulties and that he had some bitter feelings towards the bishop, thus the reason
for staying away from church activity.

The meeting was then

opened for the teachers to counsel with him.

him to

They advised
full

straighten out

his life and to

return to

fellowship.

The Bishop counseled him to clear up the old

23

Eighth Ward, General Minutes, 21 February 1861.

Ibid,

7 March 1861.

18

mistakes and make his life right by being rebaptized.

B-rmffi-

vH

stated that he did not feel he could do that and he left.

It was moved and carried by the brethren to cut him off.

Sheets then commented that he was thankful for the work the

brethren had taken in behalf of Brother Brown and that the

decision was right and would stand.
6

. Organizer
In the

of the wardf s United Order

early

1870s

cooperative
the

stores
ZCMI

were

being

instituted under

the auspices of

as a way of
Many Salt

creating outlets for home manufactured goods.

Lake Wards organized in the effort and created goods for the

public

.
19 May 1874 a branch of

On

the United Order was

organized in the Eighth ward.

Bishop Sheets invited all who

wanted to join to vote for the organization and those who could not, for business reasons, would not need to.
It was

voted in favor of organizing a United order with Elijah F.

Sheets

as

President, John D.T. McAllister

Isaac

as

1st vice

president,

Brockbank, 2nd Vice President, John N. 25 Pike, secretary, and John Cartwright, treasurer.
The Eighth Ward United Order was organized as a Hat

factory.

In 1875 a report in the Deseret News stated that

even though the hat factory only ran for a few years it did

turn out "ladies' and gentleman's hats of different shapes

and quality.

News

23:268.

19

Feelings toward Bishop Sheets

To many members of

the Salt Lake Eighth Ward, Bishop

Sheets was the only bishop they ever knew. For forty-eight
years he presided over the ward, working directly with the

membership and counselling them in spiritual and temporal

matters.
A

question to ask ourselves is; after forty-eight

He had

years of service, how was Sheets liked by the ward?

numerous

opportunities

to

cause

offense,

as

bishops
But

manytimes do when called upon to counsel the members.

at the

same time he had many chances to create close and

lasting friendships.
One occasion in particular

shows the love and respect

On 11 May

that the ward membership had for their bishop.

1896 a party was held in honor of Bishop Sheets for forty

years of service as bishop of the Salt Lake Eighth ward. The

ward choir

sang his

favorite

hymn then the prayer was

C. B.

offered by his first counselor, Joseph W. McMurrin.

Tuckfield presented to Sheets a silver mounted silk umbrella

as a token of the respect and esteem that the members of the

ward held for

him.

On

the handle of

the umbrella was

engraven the words,

"May 1, 1896, Presented to E.F. Sheets

by the members of the Eighth ward on his 40th anniversary as

Bishop.

26News

24:591.
History, vol. 323, 11 May 1896.

"Journal

20

Bishop Sheets rose to speak and stated that he was

"almost
too

full

for

utterance."

He

spoke

for

awhile

thanking everyone for the occasion.

On another occasion sheets was honored by member of the

Eighth ward after his release from prison, where he had

served time for unlawful cohabitation.

The ward threw a big

party and presented to him a gold headed cane, "as a token

of love and respect."
Of the occasion Sheets said, "I pray
no

God to bless the Ward and all my friends."

Release as Bishop of the Eighth Ward

Sheets' long tenure as bishop would be hard to follow

in any great detail.

During his years of service he saw the

Eighth ward go from pioneer ward with a large influx of

immigrants to an established twentieth century ward

Q>y

His

length of service is still hailed as the longest in Church

History.

29

In 1904, Sheets was 83 years old and to continue

handling the affairs of this cteagaaag"- urban ward would have

been extremely taxing.

Arnold H. Schulthese of the Liberty

Stake said that because of Sheets' advanced age he should

not have the great responsibility of the bishopric upon his

shoulders.
my

When contemplating his releaseOhee wrote , "I hope have

bin exceptable
to

laboures

the

Lord and my

Brethern

."

diary, vol 5 ( f d ?) for a list of the longest serving [Get info from the list by bishops in the Salt Lake Stake. Ron Watt on the whole church. ]

2gSheets,

See appendix

21

In the

teachers meeting held on 29 May 1904 Sheets

reported that

it was his last meeting that he would be

attending with the Teachers because in two weeks from that

date he would be released as bishop.
to thank
He took a few moments

the brethren for

their assistance to him in his

calling and admonished them to

remain dilegent in thier

He stated that he

labors to build up the kingdom of God.

felt g-e-edw-i-trh t"hre~~c-lra-n-g-ea-n4- that "the change would be all

right

11

At a sacrament meeting held on 12 June 1904, President

Arnold H. Schulthese of the Liberty Stake presided and told

the membership of the ward of the release of Bishop Sheets.

Sheets spoke and said the saints in the Eighth Ward were the

closest to him, next to his family, but he felt that his release was "all right."
In expressing a

reserved, "all

right" to the public, he showed how difficult this occasion

was.

In his journal he wrote:

"This day I was honorbly released from being bishop of the Eight Ward of the Liberty Stak of Zion which I had bin Bishop over for over 48 years. This was don upon the acont of my age as I am now over 83 years old And I feel that there is quite a burdon token off my solders And may God bles the new Bishop and council. And the Ward wich I love." While the release of Bishop Sheets may not have been a

total shock to those in attendance, many of whom knew a

Sheets,

Diary, fd. ? (vol. 5).

Eighth
32

Ward, General Minutes, 29 May 1904

Sheets, Diary ? (vol. 5).

22

change would soon take place, because of Sheets' age, it was

an emotional moment knowing that they would not work closely

with him again.

Speakers commented on the longeivity and

faithfulness of his service.

President John R. Winder of

the stake presidency noted the tears sadness in the eyes of

the saints to part with Bishop Sheets and stated, "There

will always be pleasure in the hearts of the Saints when the
name of Bishop Sheets is mentioned."
Two weeks after

33

his release from the Bishopric, Sheets

left the Salt Lake Temple, where he had been laboring since

its opening, and visited with the First Presidency of the

Church.
He told them that he was going to take a trip to

the Teton Basin to visit his son.

President Joseph F.

Smith, and other members of the First Presidency, gave him a

blessing and ordained him a Patriarch in the Church.

Sheets left Salt Lake City with family members

and

arrived in Rexburg, Idaho early on Sunday morning July 3rd.

A

few hours after his arrival he passed away.

At

his

funeral it was said of Sheets:

Bishop Sheets was a man of unflinching integrity to the truth. He was always ready to obey any call made upon him and could be depended upon to carry it out to the very letter. His was a life of uninterrupted activitity and devotion, and by his good deeds and charitable disposition he endeared himselfo all who ever had the pleasure of his acquiantance

Ibid.,
34

12 June 1904.

Journal History, vol. 414, 3 July 1904.