Transcript
Transcript for Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia, Jenson, Andrew, 1850-1941, 1:614
Second Bishop of the Eighth Ward, Salt Lake City, Utah; longest serving Bishop as of 1901, forty-five years.Son of Frederick Sheets and Hannah Page.Born March 22, 1821 in Charlestown, Chester county, Pennsylvania.Orphaned at the age of six, lived with his grandparents , then with the Bishop Edward Hunter family until he was 19.Baptized July 5, 1840 by Erastus Snow.Moved to Nauvoo, IL, Sep 1841.Ordained an Elder April, 1842.Worked on the Nauvoo Temple without pay.Ordained a Seventy by Wilford Woodruff April 9, 1845 while on a mission in Great Britain.Married Margaret Hutchinson Jan. 16, 1846.Spent winter of 1846-47 at Winter Quarters, where his wife took sick and died, Feb 1, 1847. Their only child died a few weeks later.Married Susannah Musser April 6, 1847.Migrated to Salt Lake Valley as captain of ten in Perregrine Sessions' company of fifty, arrived Sept. 22, 1847.Elected a member of the city council in Salt Lake, and alderman of the first municipal ward.Ordained a High Priest and Bishop May 11, 1856 and set apart to preside over the Eighth Ward in Salt Lake City.Participated in plural marriage.Served as counselor to Pres. Abraham O. Smoot in the Utah county stake.Organized a co-operative with Abraham O. Smoot, to fulfill a grading contract on the Union Pacific railroad, which employed 75 men.Served short mission in 1869-70 to the States of Pennsylvania and New York, preached to his relatives, and gathered genealogy.1870 appointed assessor and collector of utah county.Appointed traveling Bishop in Utah, Juab, Millard, Sevier, Sanpete and Tooele counties, April 28, 1871 by Pres. Brigham Young.Accompanied Pres. Brigham Young on a mission to St. George in 1872.Sustained as an assitant trustee-in-trust of the Church, April 8, 1873.Lived in exile for four years, being hunted by US deputy marshals, for practicing plural marriage.Imprisoned in the Utah penitentiary for his obedience to plural marriage.Temple worker in the Salt Lake Temple since 1893 to 1901.28 children, 49 grandchildren, and one great grandchild in 1901.1842:42 Mission-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, with a company of thirty emigrationg Saints.1844:430 Mission-Soon after his return to Nauvoo, (May 4, 1844) Elder Sheets was called on another mission, this time to Great Britain. He presided over the Bradford conference several months and later had charge of the Herefordshire conference. He sailed home on the ship "Liverpool" leaving Liverpool, England, Jan. 16, 1846.Married Margaret Hutchinson, on shipboard, Elder Wilford Woodruff performing the ceremony.Ordained a Seventy April 9, 1845, by Wilford Woodreff, while on his mission in Great Britain.1850 Mission-December, 1850 he was called on a mission to Iron county as one of Geo. A. Smith's company of pioneers to that part of the country. He became one of the first settlers of Parowan. He remained on that mission about six months, then returned to Salt Lake City.