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Show I filled this position for 11 years and in 1877 was ordained a High Priest and set apart as Bishop of the Ward. Because of poor health I was released from this position in 1900. When my health improved I was called to act as Teacher in one of the three districts until August of 1902. I had served in the Gospel harness 45 years and am still working in the noblest cause on earth, William Andrew and Emmeline Beckstead Bills were parents of 12 children. Gordon Silas and William Andrew, Jr. were born in West Jordan. Alexander's birth¬place was Little Cottonwood. Catherine Emeline and Harriet Elizabeth were born in Mountain Green. John Alma, George Wellington, Mary Ellen, Martha Ann, Henry, David Wallace and David were born in South Jordan. Emmaline Beckstead Bills was born 4 April 1837 in Williamsburg, Canada, a daughter of Alexander and Catherine Lince Beckstead. She was the first of four wives. The others were Matilda and Patrina Amundsen, and Annie Eastwood. On 4 April 1915, William Andrew, now 80, feeble and forgetful, came up miss¬ing and could not be located. Sixteen days later the wife of his son, David, had a dream in which she saw William's body in the Jordan River. Early next morning, family members and neighbors rushed to the River and found the body exactly where the daughter-in-law dreamed it to be. It was 22 April 1915. William Andrew was buried in South Jordan. Emmeline lived until 1 January 1917. She was buried beside her husband. At the funeral of William it was repor¬ted that he had been active in the 'cricket war' and the Echo Canyon 'War' of 1849. He served as a member of the home guard against Indian depredations. In 1849 he had accompanied Amasa Lyman, Charles C. Rich and his father to California to purchase horses. While on this trip his father died. William re¬turned to Utah where his mother died in 1851. For a short time William lived with the family of Amasa Lyman. Mr. and Mrs. Darrel S. Bills Sandy, Utah Two sons of Alonzo Van Pat ton of Ogden were killled in a snowslide while working at their father's mine in Cottonwood Canyon in about 1904. No other information was available. Van Patton never operated the mine after that. 118 |
