I was born Dec. 11, 1896 in Salt Lake City, Utah. My parents were Heber Spencer Sheets and Mary Bitner Sheets. I was born in the home of my parents at 975 South 7th East. The house is just across the street from Liberty Park. At the age of six years I started school at the Hamilton School where

I continued till graduation at the age of fourteen. Then I attended the L.D.S. High School until I graduated at the age of eighteen (1915).

The summer of my graduation was spent at the ranch of my uncles Milton and Hoffman Bitner at Kimball's Junction. There I remained until the haying season was over then I returned to Salt Lake City.

In the fall of 1915 I went to work for my father at the Woodruff, Sheets, Morris Coal Co. My job was to deliver coal with a horse and wagon.

I hauled coal during the winter of 1915-16 and in the summer I drove a road grader and sprinkling wagon with coal company horses. I spent the winter of 1916-17 hauling coal, which by this time was becoming quite tiresome. The early part of the summer of 1917 I took a trip to Yellowstone Park, with three of the Squire boys and George Jack in a model T Ford. Much of our time was spent fixing tires.

After the trip I decided I had had enough of hauling coal so Fred Wells and I bought a model T. Ford and went to Idaho looking for a job. We found one in Wendell, Idaho, which is on the north side of Snake River and north of Twin Falls. We started to work for Sam Smith who was clearing ground for farming and our first job W85 grubbing sagebrush by hand. We both stayed with Sam Smith until cold weather set in. By this time we were driving four, six or eight head of horses on all kinds of machinery.

We returned to Salt Lake late in the fall and got a job in the main office of the Z.C.M.I. as a file clerk. I stayed at the store during the winter. In the meantime having registered for the draft in world War I.

Sam Smith offered me a job in the spring so I returned to Idaho, this time to Jerome where Mr. Smith had a farm. After working a couple of months, mother wrote that there was a call for men for the Army in specialized crafts. Thinking I might stay out of the Infantry, I signed up as a cabinet maker.

On July 29, 1918, I left Salt Lake City in the company of 30 others from Utah, we were sent to Camp Forrest, Georgia, which is near Fort Ogelthorpe. Basic training was undertaken in 116 degree temperature. Needless to say I never saw a cabinet shop. After a few assignments with a pick and shovel detail, one of guard duty and K.P., I decided to try for an easier job. A call came from regimental headquarters for an expert typist. Blushing slightly, because all I knew about a typewriter was a little of the "hunt and pick system" I had picked up at the Z.C.M.I. I and others volunteered for the job. I got it. I remained in Regimental headquarters for the balance of my stay in the Army.

A few weeks later our regiment was transferred to Camp Funston, Kansas to join the division which was the 10th Division under the command of the famous General Leonard Wood. Ours was the 210th Regiment of Engineers.

We remained in Funston during the terrible flu epidemic. I was very fortunate in not having the flu, however, many thousands contracted it and hundreds died of it in our one camp.

In November 1918, we entrained for an embarkation port, arriving at Camp Mills, Long Island, New York just a few days before the Armistice was signed.

I helped celebrate the signing of the Armistice in New York City along with several other million people.

There was no need to send us over seas now the Armistice was signed, so we were transferred to Camp Humphreys, Virginia, not far from Washington D.C. I remained there till March when I was sent to Fort Russel, Wyoming. There I received my discharge papers as corporal in the 210th Engineers.

Shortly after arriving home, I got a job on the County Surveyor Crew, which at this time was engaged in surveying the boulevard which was to en- circle Salt Lake City.

I couldn't save money fast enough to buy a car, so I quit the job and went to Idaho again. I worked there until the weather got bad. I went home and stayed until spring. Then I went back to Idaho on a ranch.

Father and Jack Greenwell bought the Brighton Store from Will Brighton and when summer came, I went to work at Brighton, doing mostly the buying and hauling of supplies for the store. That winter I worked for Arnold Seiler in a garage and then back to Brighton in the summer. After Brighton closed I went to work for Harold La Fount, the receiver of the Sevier River Land and Water Co., as an expert bookkeeper (?) I was first stationed in Llyndill, Utah and later in the main office in Salt Lake City. As summer came on, I quit and went back to Brighton.

During this summer (1922~ I received a call to go on a mission. After the Brighton season I left for the Swiss German Mission. (Oct. 1922) After an uneventful trip we landed in Liverpool, England then across the channel to Hamburg, Germany. I W8S sent to Dresden to work in the Dresden Conference. After a few months, I was sent to Goerlitz as Branch president where I labored for about a year and then went to Treiberg as Branch President for another few months, when I was sent to Austria. After a few weeks in Salzburg I was sent to Vienna as Branch President. I was later made Conference President and had the supervision of all of Austria. I had to make trips to Checho Slovakia where we had a few members.

I was released In April 1925. On my return home I visited Italy, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Holland over to London and then back to New York.

I arrived in Salt Lake in May 1925 and went to Brighton where I stayed until December, repairing and remodeling the Brighton Inn. I did odd jobs for the rest of the winter at Mullet Kelley Company and was an assessor for the County in the spring.

October 1925 I met my future wife at a Halloween party. Little did I think then that I would one day marry her.

After finishing up as assessor, I helped build a root beer stand for my father until time to open up at Brighton.

The next fall I got a job with Bamberger Coal Co. as yard superintendent of their yard in Sugar House. MY office was in the old sugar mill built by the pioneers.

The next 2 years 1927 & 28 I spent at Brighton in the summer and the coal yard in the winter.

May 15, 1929, Ina and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple by David 0. McKay who was my mission president while I was in Europe.

I had been President of the ward M.I.A. ever since returning from my mission.

Ina and I rented a house on 8th East for a year, then bought a place from the Sugar HouseWard at 1239 Westminister Ave. Salt Lake City.

The summer of 1930 my sister Vera, Ina and I leased Brighton interests from Father and operated it ourselves. We held this arrangement for two years, then Ina and I leased the place until we left in 1942.

Our first boy, Robert was born Jan. 2, 1932 at home on Westminster Ave. attended by her mother Louisa Ogden and me. We took the boy to Brighton in June and Ina managed the store. She was appointed postmaster of Brighton (Silverlake) in 1933.

Our second son was also born on Westminister May 7, 1934. He too was delivered by his grandmother Louisa Ogden, with a nurse and me in attendance. Leland was taken to Brighton in June where he thrived.

The years 1935 - 36 - 37 went along serenely. Ina and I worked in the Sugar House Ward in several capacities. I worked in the Mutual and on the stake board of Aaronic priesthood and Ina in the Primary Association.

In the spring of 1938 we started building a new home in Holiday, on an acre of ground, 2490 East and 48 South. Cliff Small was our contractor and did a very fine job for us. We really enjoyed our new home in the coming years and I was still working at the coal company and helping at Brighton during the summers.

I was at Brighton doing some repair work when the news came that the Japs had bombed Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941. War was immediately declared on Japan, and on Germany Dec. 11, 1941 which is my birthday,

Ina and I operated Brighton the summer of 1942 for the last time. Father and Vera took over from then on. On September 14, 1943 our daughter Kathryn was born in our home in Holiday. She too was delivered by her grandmother with a nurse and me in attendance.

In February 1943 the Holliday Lions Club was organized. I was a charter member and a two year charter director. We enjoyed life very much in 1943 and 1944. In May 1945 we sold our new home in Holliday also the one on Westminster and moved to Provo where we had agreed to buy the Knight Coal Company from J. William Knight, the son of Jesse Knight. I had quit my job at the Bamberger Coal Company after working for them for 19 years. Now I planned to work for myself.

We rented a house for a few months then bought the old home at 131 South 2nd East in Provo. We had been very successful in the coal business until the date of this writing, October 1950. But now we have our coal yard property under option to sell to Safeway Stores for a Supermarket,

Our son, Robert is attending the University of Utah, specializing in mechanical engineering. Leland is a junior at Provo High School and Kathryn is in the Second Grade at the Maeser School. Ina is kept busy with her family, church, civic and social duties. Grandma, Louisa Ogden has lived with us for five years, ever since our coming to Provo. She is feeling very well.

Sept. 15, 1950

Leland Bitner Sheets