elijah funk sheets bishop in zion

7/30/2019 Elijah Funk Sheets Bishop in Zion

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ELIJAH FUNK SHEETS: BISHOP IN ZION

Eli jah Funk Sheets was a faithful, s ta lwar t Latter-daySaint and a dedicated member from the moment of h isconversion. He was a very strong, capable, and effectiveChurch administrator. It is important to know Elijah FunkSheets, h is background, conversion to, and activities in theChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His nearhalf-century of local and general Church leadership, as wellas his participation in civic endeavors, allowed him theprivi lege of being considered more than a common member ofthe Church.

Sheets' involvement in the temporal affairs of theChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints revolved aroundh is forty-eight years of service as a l oca l ward bishop andhis activit ies on a general level as traveling bishop,church stock agent, and an assistant t rustee-in-trust. Hislife was intertwined with management of the f inances,l ivestock, and lands of the LDS Church.

This paper will focus only on the contr ibutions ofEli jah Funk Sheets as a bishop of the Salt Lake Eighth Ward.We will discuss what some of his duties were in relat ion to


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h is call and how he handled situations that confronted him.

In brief introduction, Eli jah Funk Sheets was born 22March 1821 at Charlestown, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Hejoined the LDS Church in 1840 through the teachings of EdwinWoolley, Elisha H. Davis, and Lorenzo D. Barnes. He leftPennsylvania in 1841 and worked fo r six months on the NauvooTemple. In 1842 he was called to serve a mission to h isnative Pennsylvania. After his arr ival home, he wasimmediately called to serve a mission in England where hemet and married h is first wife, Margaret Hutchinson.

Sheets and h is new bride arrived from England just intime to prepare to leave Nauvoo in the general exodus fromthat city. They spent the winter of 1846-47 in WinterQuarters where Margaret and their first born baby died. Afew months after the death of his first wife Sheets marriedSussanah Musser, who was originally from Lancaste r County,Pennsylvania .

Eli jah and Susanah left Winter Quarters in the secondpioneer company w ith E lija h as a captain over ten. Theyarrived in Utah in the fall of 1847. In 1848 he beganworking with Burr Frost as a blacksmith and in 1850 heparticipated in the Iron County Mission, staying until Mayof 1851. After his arr ival back in Salt Lake City hecontinued activit ies as a blacksmith and began part icipat ingin civic activities. In time he was elected an alderman andcity councilman for Salt Lake and Provo cities, and ta x


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collector fo r Utah County. In church activities he continuedin h is assignment as one of the presidency of the 2nd Quorumo f Seventies, to which he had been called while on a missionin England.

LOCAL CHURCH LEADERSHIP

Bishop of the Salt Lake Eighth Ward

On 11 May 1856 Sheets was taken from the second quorumof Seventies and ordained a High Priest in the LDS Church.At the same time he was ordained Bishop of the Salt LakeEighth Ward by his old fr iend from Chester County

1Pennsylvania, Presiding Bishop Edward Hunter.

Location o f _t-he -Sa l~t~~~Ua ke Eighth War~dr=~1 One the first assignments Sheets had to undertakewas the call ing of h is counselors. His counselors were asfollows :

1st Counselor:From 1855-1860...........eorge WoodwrdFrom 1860-1864...........lex C. PyperFrom 1864-1866...........obert DaftFrom 1866-1876...........ohn T. D. McAll isterFrom 1876-1896...........oseph McMurrinFrom 1896-1904..........John D. H. McAllister

2nd Counselor:From 1855-1861...........ocob HoutzFrom 1861-1864...........obert DaftFrom 1864-1866...........evi StewartFrom 1866-1869............ W. LawrenceFrom 1869-1890...........saac BrockbankFrom 1890-1896...........ohn D. H. McAll isterFrom 1896-1904...........ohn Cartwright


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rThe- Salt/ La ce Eighth Ward~\ras organized in 1849 /whenSain Lake City was divided/ into nineteen/ecclesiastiic/klIunits. It included as part of \its boundaries! what ubecome to be known as Washington \Square ,/ or thei city pljock/ \ I \ / \ /' \ kwhere th'e City an\d County building now /stands. - It was/ to/ \ I v7 "v Ni "this lo/cation that arr iv ing pioneer parties stayed af terentering the valley.Duties of a B ishop

O _J- V. fre-tus &rief lydiscuss the duties of a bishop in theChurch of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and show whatsome of the activi t ies and responsibil i t ies were/placed onSheets when he accepted the assignment to serve as a bishop.

Revelations found in the Doctine and Covenants indicatethat there are basically four main responsibil i t ies fo r abishop in the LDS Church; 1) President of the AaronicPriesthood, 2) Steward over temporal affairs of the Church,3) Minister of those in h is care to teach them both temporaland spiritual things, and 4) Literal judge over all members

3in his ward. While these revelations give a general outl ineof the responsibil i t ies of a bishop, how they fulfilledthier particular assignments was not completly spelled out.As Brigham Young once said in an 1855 Bishops meeting, "'It

2 Eighth Ward, Manuscript History, 1856-1904,Typescript, LDS Church Archives.3Dale Floyd Beecher, "The Office of Bishop: An Exampleof Organizational Development in the Church,"Task Papers in LDS History, 1978, No. 21, p. 2.


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4is not fo r me to say what the bishops do. '" In 1862 hecontinued the thought, outl ining some basic dut ies, "theoff ice of a Bishop is to attend to the temporal affairs ofthe Church to see that the poor are taken care of to seethat the brethren judiciously and wisely conduct themselvesin the capacity of a community." As to specif ic activitieshe said, "When we ordain a man to officiate in a branch ofthe Church as a bishop, he does so to the best of his

5knowledge." Robert T. Burton of the Presiding Bishopricinforme'd the Salt Lake Bishops, "'Nobody can point out thedetailed duties of a Bishop, fo r circumstances areconstantly arising in the various wards that need the wisdom

/Tof God to fathom and correct. '"Some of the specific activit ies 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 cult ivation of public property and therepair of ward fences; assign to new arrivals their farmand town lots; see personally to the distribution ofirrigation water and the maintenance and construction ofditches; keep cattle out of the f ields, imposingsanctions on uncooperative owners; assign men to work oncommunity road crews; and direct construction ofschools, meetinghouses ,and other public buildings. Thepioneer bishop's concerns were overwhelmingly temporal.For the Sunday sermon he or a designated person mightspeak on week 'upon the Ditch to convey Water to the18th Ward' and the next week on why the Lord's peoplewere subject to persecution. Whatever the theme, it was

4 Ibid. Quoted from the Salt Lake Bishops, Minutes ofMeetings, 1849-1884, 7 Apri l 1855, LDS Church Archives.5Remarks by Brigham Young, 7 May 1861, Journal ofDiscourses , 9:90.Beecher, "The Office of Bishop", p. 2.


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regarded as an aspect of ' the restored gospel. 'Occupationally the bishops during the nineteenth centurywere with few excpetions farmers and businessmen,practical-minded, effective motivators of men andwomen .It was amid these numerous temporal activities, as wel l

as counselling on spiritual matters, that Sheets was"Heinvolved in as bishop of the Eighth Ward. Some of hsiP basicactivi t ies that Sheets participated in personally were; 1)Local leader of the reformation movement of the church. 2)Caretaker of the poor, 3) Collector of t i thes andoffer ings, 4) Couselor to the membership of h is ward ontemporal matters, 5) Literal judge of spiritual matters,6) Organizer of the ward's United Order.

Local leader of the reformation movement of the ChurchThe reformation was an effort by Church officials to

bring the membership back in l ine with official teachingsand doctr ine. Through all the trials members of the. Churchhad endured, through the travels from Europe and the East,most remained strongly committed to teachings such asprayer, sabbath day observance, chasti ty, fast ing, etc. In1856, however, as the people began to settle in to a lifestyle free of persecusion and trials, many became la x inregards to their committments.

At a conference held in Kaysvi l le, Utah on 13 September1856, the reformation movement was officially instigated

7Arrington and Bitton, The Mormon Experience, p. 109.


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under the leadership of President Jedediah M. Grant, of theFirst Presidency of the Church. Acceptance of a renewedbelief was usually signif ied by a member being rebaptized tosimbalize a washing away of their old sins and habits and arebirth into keeping the commandments.

Under the leadership of Bishop Sheets, the Eighth Wardalso participated in this movement. While the reformationwas a renewal of spir i tual commitments, it was also aneffort to have the saints recommit to many temporalactivities such as payment of debts and contibutions ,helping the poor and afflicted, and refraining fromdrunkedness and vulgari ty. To Latter-day Saints the obeyingof so called temporal laws was as vital as obeying totallyspir i tual appearing laws. In the Doctrine and Covenants itstates :

Wherefore, verily I say unto you that all thingsunto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I givenunto you a law which was temporal; neither any man, northe children of men; neither Adam your father, whom Icreated .The reformation was not only taught in the worship

meetings, where Sheets counseled the members of his ward "tobe more faithful and keep all of the commandments," but itwas taught to the teachers of the ward where they wereinstructed on what to say to the families they visited.

Sheets expressed once that the ward membership as awhole had not committed any great sins, but many had

QDoctrine and Covenants 29:34.


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neglected their prayers, had been found drunkened, wereheard to blaspheme the name of God, had been caught in lieswhile engaged in t rading or conducting business, and werenot paying their tithing.

Sheets relied heavily on the reports and advise of theWard Teachers to whom he had assigned to visit the homes ofthe members of the ward. Through their efforts the EighthWard was able to come in line with the teachings of thechurch and reform their l ives.

2 . Caretaker of the poorAs part of the daily activit ies of a bishop, Sheets was

responsibile fo r taking care of poor members of h is ward.Each bishops had the sole responsibil i ty fo r the individualmembers of their wards, and to aid them, instructions werereceived from their superiors counsell ing them on ways tohandle the affairs of the poor. In 1887 the FirstPresidency of the Church sent an epistle to the Bishops withthe fol lowing instructions:

. . . it is proper that each Bishop and h is Counsellorsshould take the necessary steps to properly care fo r thepoor who l ive in their Wards. They should call theRelief Societies to their aid in this labor. Thereasonable wants of the poor should be supplied and thepangs of poverty and destitut ion should be a[voided] .God has greatly blessed us in the fruits of our f ieldsand gardens, in our f locks and herds, and in giving uscomfortable habitations, and means to sustain ourselves.9 Council of the Twelve Apostles, General epist le,1887, Manuscript, Histor ical Department, LDS ChurchArchives .


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While aid was given freely to the elderly and those who weresick and couldn't work, it was never allowed to continue tothose that could work and support themselves. From the sameletter the First Presidency advised:

It would be a great evil among us to encourage anyclass in living upon the benevolence of the community.No system of begging should be permitted. Those able towork should be furnished employment. Persons who areproperly disposed will be glad to obtain it inpreference to being fed with the bread of chari ty; andall should be encouraged to labor according to theirstrength. This policy, if wisely pursued,will preventpauperism, and develope self-exert ion and confidence,and produce self-respect.In the minutes from the Eighth ward teachers meetings,

concern was expressed fo r those who had little if any meansto support themselves. It was through the teachers thatSheets kept in touch with the needs of the membership. Henever asked donations of the membership without first givinghimself. On 19 September 1861 it was recorded thatdonations were made fo r wood fo r the poor. Fifteenbrethren, including Bishop Sheets, donated one -half cord ofwood to the cause. Through the teachers Sheets providedwood, food, clothing, and shelter to those that were inneed, especially during the cold winter months.

One of Sheets greatest concerns in regards to the poorcame in the form of new immigrants to the area. Being theward with the temporary camping ground for newly arr ivingimmigrating part ies, Sheets was constantly bombarded with


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new arrivals that were without proper food or shelter.Though Sheets was a benevolent leader, and desired to helpas much as he could, he was also under obligation to helpthem maintain their self suff ic iency. At a Teacher'smeeting held on 29 September 1856, Sheets brought up thesubject of bringing poor people into the ward. Herecommended that the teachers council them to "go into thecountry 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

11more than our share of the poor." His concern fo r thepoor did not stem from shelf ish means, but rather from agenuine concern fo r the long range welfare of the people to

12"take care of themselves and earn their own living. ..."At t imes, however, the needs of the numerous poor must ofconcerned him greatly. To l ighten the tension that thissituation caused he joked to h is teachers, "We must be doingbetter to the poor than others; hence the reason why they

13flock in." But in all reality he knew that redistributionwas the only way to not only help the new arr ivals, but tokeep from overtaxing the members of his ward.3 . Collector of t i thes and offer ings

Directly related to the care that was taken with the

11 Eighth Ward, General Minutes, 29 September 1856,Manuscript, LDS Church Archives."Ibid., 3 October 1861."Ibid., 3 January 1889.


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poor, was the collection of t ithes and offer ings from themembership of the Church. To the LDS the payment of tithesand offerings was a sign of faithfulness in keeping the lawsand commandments of the Lord. The giving of offerings tothe Church was a responsibi l i ty that dealt w ith temporali tems but had great spiritual implications. The two mostcommon offerings given by the people in the nineteenthcentury were Fast Offerings and Tithing.

Fast Offerings . This contribution was based on theability of those that had means to give of a portion oftheir surplus to assist the poor. One day during the monthwas set aside as a day of fasting and prayer. Members whofasted were to donate the food they would have consumed tothe bishop. This food was then used to help sustain thepoor in the ward. The leadership of the Church admonishedthe Saints to live this law:

In some of our Wards there is not proper care taken inthe collection of the fast offerings of the people. Thefirst Thursday in the month has been set apart in theChurch as a day of fasting and of prayer. That dayshould be strickly observed. Fast offerings should bebrought with a liberal hand to the Bishop of each Ward,that he may be prepared to supply those who aredependent upon the ward fo r sustenance. Some Wardsrequire considerable aid from the church to help sustaintheir poor, because their own fast offerings do notsupply them; while sometimes in the same Stake there areother Wards where there are few, if any, dependent poor.Presidents of Stakes should make arrangments with theBishops of these last named Wards to t ransfer their fastoffer ings to the Bishops of some contiguous ward whichhas more poor within its borders than its own fastoffer ings will supply. In this way all the people canhave equal opportunity of doing their duty to thepoor .


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Bishop Sheets also stressed the importance of obeyingthis law that "he might have something to feed the poor."As we have already seen, caring fo r the poor was a majorconcern fo r Bishop Sheets, and the donations received fromthe membership of the ward would have greatly helped in this

15concern .Tithing . An important contribution fo r members of the

Church was payment of ones tithing. Tithing was a law ofthe church inst i tuted not only fo r the f inancial support ofthe organization, but also fo r the spir i tual benefi t of theindividual member. Presiding Bishop Edward Hunter onceremarked that tithing was "for the benefit of those that

16paid it." To be in total harmony with the Church, one wasto pay one-tenth of h is increase to the bishops. Thetithing was then used by the Church leadership as they sawfit. There were basically fiv e d iffe ren t types of tithingused in the nineteenth century; 1) Property tithing. 2)Labor tithing. 3) Produce and stock tithing. 4) Cashtithing. 5) Inst i tut ional tithing. The most comon form topay was that of produce and stock due to the shortage ofcurrency in Mormon communities.

Each bishop became an agent of the Truste--in-Trust ofthe Church to col lect the tithing, store it in the loca l

14 Council of the Twelve Apostles, General epist le,1887' 15Eighth Ward, General minutes, 20 September 1860."Ibid, 1 February 1857.


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Bishop's s to rehouse, then distr ibute it to the GeneralChurch. The tithing was used to aid in the immigration ofthe membership of the Church to Utah, to build bui ld ings,and to help in the administrative cost of the organization.

In the general meetings of the Eighth ward and in theTeachers meeting, a comon theme was Sheets' concern fo rcollection of the t i thes. At a meeting in 1856 he probedfor commitments from the teachers to, "square up theirtithing by the 1st of January, 1857." On 7 January 1857 he"urged the Teachers to pay their tithing also to teach it tothe people." His concern never seemed to focus on the needof the Church fo r f inancial assistance, but on the need ofthe members to bless their l ives by fol lowing the

17commandments of the Lord.

4 . Counselor to the membership on temporal mattersOne of the important responsibil i t ies, of the nineteenth

century bishop was to counsel the membership of the ward indaily activities. Some of the areas where bishops of thetime period, and Bishop Sheets in part icular , helped in wasin raising funds fo r the building of church houses andschools, and counciling members to care fo r themselves.

Building projects. Some of the building projects thatthe Eighth Ward was involved in was to help haul stone fo rthe Salt Lake Temple, build a new meeting house, and repairthe school house. Each brethren in the ward was asked to

"Ibid, 7 January 1857.


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donate means to help bui ld , wagons to help haul, and time todo much of the work. It was the teachers, not the Sheetshimself, that l ined up the men fo r these projects. But asin the donations and contributions, Sheets was in theforefront and usually gave the most time and means.

Projects that involved the whole city usually meant anassignment of labor from the wards. One of the projects washauling stone from the quaries in Big Cottonwood canyon fo rthe temple. Also of great concern to Sheets during the1860s was the building of a water canal to supply water tothe city. Records kept in h is journal indicated the amount

18of 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 attendingto councel or asking fo r more help.

Counsell ing the Saints . One of Bishop Sheets strongpoints was the way in which he could counsel the membershipof the ward to take care of themselves and be productive.In 1856 he admonished the Eighth ward teachers to see "thatthere was no idlers in the ward that they might ... bebusy while good weather lasted that none might suffer fo rwant of food and fuel." He was always concious of the factthat many in the ward did not heed his counsel. He told theteachers to "wake up some of the mumblers of this ward that

1 ft Ibid., 20 September 1860.


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19had not walked in the line of their duty fo r a long t ime."Most the Eighth Ward teachers' meeting would begin with

the bishop asking for a report of the activit ies of h isteachers and f ind out if the needs of each individual memberwere being met. He was concerned that they had enough woodto burn fo r the winter and enough food to help them survive.At a Teachers Meeting held on 31 October 1858 the Bishopadvised the brethren to get their bread stuff and preparefo r a time of scarcity. He wanted the teachers to talk to

2 0the people because "he could see they were lacking."After that w inter the teachers reported that the wardsurvived the winter though it had been hard to get wood.Sheets was pleased with the reports but did not let themoment pass without counsell ing them to get their grain info r the future.

Another area that he talked to ward members was the waythey treated one another. Sheets, like many other membersof the Church at the t ime, had a strong dislike fo r theGentile or non-Mormon civil leadership they had. During ateachers meeting in 1861 it was reported that two membershad had a difficulty between themselves and to solve thematter had gone to the civil courts. Sheets stronglyadvised the Teachers to counsel the members that when "...they had difficulties to settle them in a proper manner and

19Eighth Ward, General Minutes, 22 October 1856."Ibid., 31 October 1858.


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take a course to make peace fo r gentile courts d id not make..21peace. ...

5 . Judge of Spi ritual Matte r sAs a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day-

Saints, Sheets was appointed to be a judge of the membershipof h is ward over the spiritual activities of their lives.In the Doctrine and Covenants it states:

And whoso standeth in this mission [the office ofbishop] is appointed to be a judge in Israel . . . .And to 2udge his people by the testimony of thejust. . . .The bishop as literal judge in Israel was to judge on

matters of both spiritual and temporal nature. Classicstories in the nineteenth century Church are of Bishopsjudging on the water r ights, where to put houses, bui ldcorrals, etc. Of a more serious nature was the judging thata bishop had to do on the spir i tual side of life, whenmembers were not living up to the standards of Churchdoctrine and practice.

At a teachers meeting held on 21 February 1861, theteachers reported that Rxjirerir~BT"own was slack in attendingto his duties in the church and was not considered to be infull fel lowship. Sheets remarked that he knew B-e-ewnwas not doing his duties, that he did not pray or pay h is

21Ibid. 2722Doctrine

February 1861.and Covenants 58:17-18.


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t i thing. He wished the teachers to "wake him up ifpossible" fo r he considered him to be "fast asleep." Sheetsthen opened up a discussion on the matter. He rel iedheavily on the counsel of the brethren that attended theTeachers Meeting and l istened closely to their advise.Brother Woodward spoke and thought the reports were aboutr ight on behalf of Bif-o-fcfre-rBtoto, that it was "time to Trim

23up the Tree fo r the health of the body."As the weeks went by reports continued to come in that

B-e-ai-he-rB-row-n was not responding to the counsel of theTeachers assigned to h is home. Bishop Sheets took to heartVw*-\the counsel of Brother Woodward and invited to thenext Teachers meeting to "talk to him and try the savinginfluence and see if we could prevai l on him to serve h is

2 4God if we could not we should have to disf ellowship him."On March twenty-first Ro-fe-e-irtBro-wn arr ived at the

Teachers meeting and was given the f loor to discuss thereasons that he had not been attending his meetings. Hecommented that he had some previous difficulties and that hehad some bitter feelings towards the bishop, thus the reasonfo r staying away from church activity. The meeting was thenopened fo r the teachers to counsel with him. They advisedhim to stra ig hte n out his life and to return to fullfellowship. The Bishop counseled him to clear up the old

23Eighth Ward, General Minutes, 21 February 1861.Ibid, 7 March 1861.


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vHmistakes and make his life r ight by being rebaptized. B-rmffi-stated th at he did not fee l 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 fo r the work thebrethren had taken in behalf of Brother Brown and that thedecision was right and would stand.6 . Organizer of the wardf s United Order

In the early 1870s cooperative stores were beinginst i tuted under the auspices of the ZCMI as a way ofcreating outlets for home manufactured goods. Many SaltLake Wards organized in the effort and created goods fo r thepublic .

On 19 May 1874 a branch of the United Order wasorganized in the Eighth ward. Bishop Sheets invited all whowanted to join to vote fo r the organization and those whocould not, for business reasons, would not need to . It wasvoted in favor of organizing a United order with Elijah F.Sheets as President, John D.T. McAll ister as 1st vicepresident, Isaac Brockbank, 2nd Vice President, John N.

2 5Pike, 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 thateven though the hat factory only ran fo r a few years it didturn out " ladies' and gentleman's hats of dif ferent shapesand qual i ty.

News 23:268.


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Feelings toward Bishop Sheets

To many members of the Salt Lake Eighth Ward, BishopSheets was the only bishop they ever knew. For for ty-eightyears he presided over the ward, working directly with themembership and counselling them in spir i tual and temporalmatters. A question to ask ourselves is; after for ty-eightyears of service, how was Sheets l iked by the ward? He hadnumerous opportunit ies to cause offense, as bishopsmanytimes do when called upon to counsel the members. Butat the same time he had many chances to create close andlasting f r iendships.

One occasion in part icular shows the love and respectthat the ward membership had fo r their bishop. On 11 May1896 a party was held in honor of Bishop Sheets fo r fortyyears of service as bishop of the Sal t Lake Eighth ward. Theward choir sang his favorite hymn then the prayer wasoffered by his first counselor, Joseph W. McMurrin. C. B.Tuckfield presented to Sheets a si lver mounted silk umbrellaas a token of the respect and esteem that the members of theward held fo r him. On the handle of the umbrella wasengraven the words, "May 1, 1896, Presented to E.F. Sheetsby the members of the Eighth ward on h is 40th anniversary asBishop.

26News 24:591."Journal History, vol. 323, 11 May 1896.


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Bishop Sheets rose to speak and stated that he was"almost too full fo r utterance." He spoke fo r awhilethanking everyone fo r the occasion.

On another occasion sheets was honored by member of theEighth ward after h is release from prison, where he hadserved time fo r unlawful cohabitat ion. The ward threw a bigparty and presented to him a gold headed cane, "as a tokenof love and respect." Of the occasion Sheets said, "I pray

n oGod to bless the Ward and all my fr iends."

Release as Bishop of the Eighth WardSheets' long tenure as bishop would be hard to follow

in any great detai l . During his years of service he saw theEighth ward go from pioneer ward with a large influx ofQ>yimmigrants to an established twent ieth century ward . Hislength of service is still hailed as the longest in Church

29History. In 1904, Sheets was 83 years old and to continuehandling the affairs of this cteagaaag"- urban ward would havebeen extremely taxing. Arnold H. Schulthese of the LibertyStake said that because of Sheets' advanced age he shouldnot have the great responsibil i ty of the bishopric upon h isshoulders. When contemplating h is releaseOheewrote , "I hopemy laboures have b in exceptable to the Lord and myBrethern ."

2gSheets, diary, vo l 5 ( f d ?)See appendix fo r a list of the longest servingbishops in the Salt Lake Stake. [Get info from the list byRon Watt on the whole church. ]


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In the teachers meeting held on 29 May 1904 Sheetsreported that it was his last meeting that he would beattending with the Teachers because in two weeks from thatdate he would be released as bishop. He took a few momentsto thank the brethren fo r their assistance to him in h iscalling and admonished them to remain dilegent in thierlabors to build up the kingdom of God. He stated that hefelt g-e-edw-i-trh t"hre~~c-lra-n-g-ea-n4- that "the change would be allr ight . 11

At a sacrament meeting held on 12 June 1904, PresidentArnold H. Schulthese of the Liberty Stake presided and toldthe membership of the ward of the re lease of Bishop Sheets.Sheets spoke and said the saints in the Eighth Ward were theclosest to him, next to h is family, but he felt that h isrelease was "all right." In expressing a reserved, "allr ight" to the publ ic, he showed how difficult this occasionwas. In his journal he wrote:

"This day Iwas honorbly released from being bishop ofthe Eight Ward of the Liberty Stak of Zion which Ihad b in Bishop over fo r over 48 years. This was donupon the acont of my age as I am now over 83 years old And I feel that there is quite a burdon token o ff mysolders 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 Ward, General Minutes, 29 May 1904 .32Sheets, Diary ? (vol. 5).


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change would soon take place, because of Sheets' age, it wasan emotional moment knowing that they would not work closelywith him again. Speakers commented on the longeivity andfaithfulness of h is service. President John R. Winder ofthe stake presidency noted the tears sadness in the eyes ofthe saints to part with Bishop Sheets and stated, "Therewill always be pleasure in the hearts of the Saints when the

3 3name of Bishop Sheets is mentioned."Two weeks after his release from the Bishopric, Sheets

left the Salt Lake Temple, where he had been laboring sinceits opening, and visited with the First Presidency of theChurch. He told them that he was going to take a trip tothe Teton Basin to visit h is son. President Joseph F.Smith, and other members of the First Presidency, gave him ablessing and ordained him a Patriarch in the Church.

Sheets left Salt Lake City with family members andarrived in Rexburg, Idaho early on Sunday morning July 3rd.A few hours after h is arr ival he passed away. At h isfuneral it was said of Sheets:

Bishop Sheets was a man of unfl inching integri ty tothe truth. He was always ready to obey any call madeupon him and could be depended upon to carry it out tothe very letter. His was a life of uninterruptedactivitity and devotion, and by h is good deeds andcharitable disposition he endeared himselfo all whoever had the pleasure of his acquiantance .

Ibid., 12 June 1904.34Journal History, vol. 414, 3 July 1904.

elijah funk sheets bishop in zion

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