Biographical Information for Elijah Funk Sheets

Source: Membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints 1830-1848, Volume 38, RUS- SHE Compiled by Susan Ward Easton Black, , University. https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/334417?availability=Family%20History%20Library, pp. 935-938.

Elijah labored as a missionary in company with Joseph A. Stratton in Illinois, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. He served as a traveling bishop , 1871; assistant trustee-in-trust of the Mormon Church. Assessor and collector of Utah county, 1870.

Taken from Elijah Funk Sheets’ Journal-Diary, 26 January 1843 to 4 May 1844 - Missionary travels in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. In route to Nauvoo at end of diary. Journal, 1821 to 31 July 1845. Left for England, May 1844. Spent some time preaching in Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Dated entries begin July 1, 1844. News of death of Smith brothers. sailed for England, 1 August. Missionary experiences in Great Britain. Volume also includes poems written by L. D. Barnes and a short essay on marriage. Journal, 1821-1904. Retrospective account, 1821-1845. Joined LDS Church, 1840. To Nauvoo, 1841. Stayed there a year. Missionary tour in eastern states, 1842-44. Baptized about one hundred people. Returned to Nauvoo and was sent on mission to England. Dated entries from 1 August 1845. Still in British Mission. sailed for home, January 1846. married author and Margaret Hutchinson first day of voyage. Slow trip to New Orleans. By boat to Nauvoo. To Iowa, May 1846. Arrived at Council Bluffs. Regular entries stop here but author continues to make occasional entries during rest of his life. Sealed to wife, who died in February, 1847. Child died shortly thereafter. Married Susanna Musser, 1847. To Utah, 1847. Married Elizabeth Leaver as plural wife, 1857. Short mission to Iron County, 1850-51. Death of wife Susanna, 1861. Married Emma Spencer, 1861. A president in second Quorum of Seventy. Bishop of Eighth , 1856-1904. Most entries after 1846 deal with births of children.

Includes sketch of experiences since 1847, written in 1887. Blacksmith. Watermaster and supervisor of streets after returning from lron county. City councilor and alderman for first municipal ward, Called to Provo as part of effort to reform the place "as there was some hard cases lived there," 1868. counselor to stake president A. O. Smoot. contractor for Union Pacific Railroad. Acting alderman. Six month mission to Pennsylvania and New York, 1869-70. Elected county assessor and collector, 1870. Appointed traveling bishop to collect tithing in Utah, Juab, Millard, Sevier, Sanpete, and Tooele counties, 1870. Placed in charge of some Church herds and pastures. Includes his letter of appointment to make his responsibilities more clear to reader. Travel with Brigham Young. Refers to himself as agent for trustee-in-trust. Elected assistant trustee of Church, 1873, with W. H. Hooper and Edward Hunter as his bondsmen for $10,000. Letter of instruction from , 1878. In charge of all Church stock and farms until his release during Raid, 1887. Experiences during the Raid, 1880's. Gave himself up and served eighty days in penitentiary, 1888. Comments on prison experiences and why he had not felt safe giving himself up earlier. Released as bishop on account of old age, 1904.

Journal, 1847 to 6 March1870. First ten pages genealogical data. retrospective account, 1847 to 1 November 1869. Arrived in Salt lake Valley, 1847. Blacksmith and farmer. Salt lake City watermaster and alderman. Called to Provo, 1867. Partner in cooperative company. Union Pacific contract. Utah Central. Called on mission to visit friends in East, October 1869. Spent most of time in Philadelphia area with relatives. Notes that he had lived in Edward Hunter's home in Pennsylvania for nine years while a young man. Visits to NewYork and Washington. Preaching experiences. Returned home in March feeling he had been treated kindly. Elijah spent his early boyhood in Pennsylvania. Being left an orphan at theage of six years he lived about two years with his grandparents, after which he found a home in the family of the late Bishop Edward Hunter, who at that time was a wealthy farmer in Chester county. Engaged in farming and stock-raising, he remained with Mr. Hunter for nine years. His opportunities for attending school were very limited, amounting to about six weeks a year from his eighth to his sixteenth year. Though raised on a farm, young Elijah was naturally inclined to mechanical pursuits, and at the age of seventeen he apprenticed himself for three years to Mr. Taylor Dilworth, to learn the trade of a blacksmith. While thus employed he first heard the restored gospel preached by Elders Edwin D. Woolley, Elisha H. Davis, , Lorenzo D. Barnes, and others; the latter was the principal instrument in the hands of the Lord to raise up a branch of the church in Chester county, Pennsylvania. Young Elijah was converted to the truth at once. In 1841 he emigrated to Nauvoo, Illinois, arriving there in September. Elijah was one of about a hundred men who volunteered to work six months on the Nauvoo Temple without pay. September 4, 1842, he left Nauvoo, in company with Joseph A. Stratton, on a mission to Pennsylvania. They were gone twenty months, during which time they baptized about sixty souls; they returned to Nauvoo May 4, 1844, witt1ac witt1ac with a company of thirty emigrating Saints. Soon after his return to Nauvoo, Elder Sheets was called on another mission, this timeto Great Britain. Together with Elders Joseph A. Stratton, Elisha Davis and J. B. Meynell, he arrived in Liverpool, England, August 24, 1844. He labored successfully in Lancashire, Yorkshire, Herefordshire, and Radnorshire, and spent considerable of his time in visiting the different branches and encouraging the saints. He presided over the Bradford conference several months and later had charge of the Herefordshire conference. In returning to America, he went as a passenger in the ship "Liverpool" which sailed from Liverpool, England, January 16, 1846. He was one of the Elders called home to receive his blessings in the Nauvoo Temple, before the Church left for the wilderness; but the company arrived too late for him to enjoy that privilege. On the day of his departure from Liverpool he was married to Miss Margaret Hutchinson, of Radnorshire, on shipboard, Elder Wilford Woodruff performing the ceremony. Soon after his return to Nauvoo, he made preparations to go to the west. It was said that, Sheets has been one of the leading workers in that sacred edifice, and having now attained the ripe age of eighty years he is remarkably bright and strong, both physically and mentally. As a missionary abroad, a pioneer of the west, a presiding Church officer, a Temple worker and a business man, his noble characteristics and unflinching integrity became thoroughly established and universally known, and there are but few men in the Church who were more extensively and favorably known among the Saints of God than Bishop Sheets. Having presided over the Eighth Ward about forty-five years, he was the oldest acting Bishop in the Church. For some time he was a widower, his four wives having all passed away. On the occasion of the celebrating of the eightieth anniversary of his birthday his grandchildren numbered 49; and he had one great grandchild.