On the 23rd of September, Elder Woodruff attended a conference in Bradford. The meetings were attended by large numbers. Elder Elijah F. Sheets, long and honorably known throughout Utah as Bishop Sheets, was then presiding over that conference. Of that occasion he writes in his journal: "The congregation was as still as death." He spoke upon the mission and teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith whose recent martyrdom had still its mournful affects upon the Saints who were sorely disappointed that they had not the opportunity in life to hear the words that dropped from the lips of him whom God had called to open the great dispensation of the last days. "On my birthday, March 1st, 1845, I received a letter from {238} a friend. It contained a copy of a letter dated Pittsburg, January 30th, 1845, and was written by John Greenbow to his father in Kendall. The letter contained a statement to the effect that he was getting the Doctrine and Covenants stereotyped and that he would bring the plates to England for the purpose of printing, publishing, and copyrighting the book so that the Church could not print and publish it. This was a bold scheme by apostates to steal the book containing the revelations of God to the Church. There was in this proposed action, no doubt, an intention to change the wording and thus deceive the world. I regarded the receipt of the letter as nothing less than providential, an interposition of our Heavenly Father who knew the evil design of the wicked and therefore caused the letter to come into my hands. I spent the day examining the laws of England relative to copyrights." This information aroused Elder Woodruff to immediate action, and as early as June 7, 1845, he secured the copyright of the book which was entered at Stationer's Hall, England. On the 9th of March Elder Woodruff records the fact that he held conference in Preston where he visited the old cock-pit, where Elders Kimball and Hyde first openly declared the message of the gospel to the people of England, and where they were soon followed by Willard Richards. He with his companion also walked up and down the river where so many hundreds of the Saints had been baptized. At the Preston conference he mentions the fact that there were several branches represented with the total membership of five hundred souls. This was the first conference organized in the British Mission eight years before by Heber C. Kimball.