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Show Services Held for E. H. Bird, Former Church, Civic Leader - Attended by a large number of Milford relatives and friends and others from Beaver county and throughout the state, funeral services serv-ices were held Sunday afternoon at Gunnison for 'E. H. Bird, a former bishop of the Milford' L. D. S. ward and member and president of the Milford town board of trustees. Bishop Bird died the preceding pre-ceding Thursday morning in a Salt Lake hospital following an operation opera-tion for recurrent stomach trouble. trou-ble. The services were held in the Gunnison ward chapel with Bishop Hyrum Christiansen in charge. In- torment1 took place in the Gunni- son cemetery, where one of the Bird children was already interred. iSpeakers at the services were S. Taylor Farnsworth of Beaver, I Beaver stake president', and D. C. J Heslington and E. R. Moody, prin-1 cipals of the Milford elementary and high schools, respectively. A tribute to Bishop Bird, written j by Edith Young Booth of Provo was read by Mrs. Vera Bond of Milford. Musical numbers included includ-ed three three quartet selections, a vocal solo by Mrs. Ralph Quayle, a violin solo by Gilbert Child's of Gunnison and a vocal solo by Bishop Bish-op Alvin H. Baker of Milford. Opening Op-ening and closing prayers were offered by former Bishop William A. Miller of Beaver and Raymond' Taylor of Spanish Fork, while the grave was dedicated by former Bishop M. Joy Ghristensen of Las Vegas. Active pall-bearers were W. J. Gribble, H. M. Gribble, J. B. Gribble, Grib-ble, Elmer Nielsen, Neil Sorenson and Irby Arrington close connections connec-tions of the family; while honorary honor-ary pall-bearers included E. R. Mocdy, D. C. Heslington, Alvin H. Baker, J. M. Hughes, Parley Fisher, Fish-er, W. A. Miller, Rudolph Nielsen, S. Taylor Farnsworth, Raymond Taylor, Ralph Quayle, Carl Goodwin, Good-win, Clinton Bond, Art Williams, L. C. White, C. A. Arrington, Leonard Banks and M. Joy Christ-ensen. Christ-ensen. There were some 60-odd beautiful beauti-ful floral offerings and Milford and Gunnison women friends of the family served as flower bearers. bear-ers. The son of Edward Harry and Martha Jane Reid Bird, Mr. Bird was born m Nephi, April 21, 1883. He attended the schools of Nephi and came to Milford in June, 1906 to work for the Grace Brothers lumber yard. Later he, with R. H. and H. H. Pitchforth and W. J. Burns, purchased the lumber yard but eventually he and Burns sold their interests to the Pitchforths and operated a furniture store as Burns & Bird. Selling his interest in the furniture store to Burns, Mr. Bird took up the plumbing business but in 1921 embarked in the general merchandise business with C. A. Arrington, having purchased pur-chased the store of C. C. Sloan. He was elected a member of the Milford town board of trustees in November, 1921 and a year later was made president of the board on the resignation of D. A. Baxter. Bax-ter. He was re-elected president in November, 1923, and served until un-til the end' of 1925, when he was succeeded by 0. F. Hubbell. For 17 years he served as bishop of the Milford ward and for eight years additional he was a member of the bishopric. Preceding this he was Milford Sunday school superintendent. super-intendent. Some three year ago, Bishop and Mrs. Bird and the unmarried members of their family removed to Salt Lake City, where he enlarged en-larged oif his activities in the insurance in-surance business. Honest, kindjy and considerate, Bishop Bird made friends readily wherever ihe went and the large number of friends who made the trip to Gunnison to pay their last respects to their good friend and fellow citizen testified tes-tified eloquently of their high regard re-gard for him and the feeling of loss cn the part of themselves and hundreds of others who could not attend. |