Corliss, John Orr (1845–1923)

Corliss, John Orr (1845–1923) MILTON HOOK Milton Hook, Ed.D. (Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, the United States). Hook retired in 1997 as a minister in the Greater Sydney Conference, Australia. An Australian by birth Hook has served the Church as a teacher at the elementary, academy and college levels, a missionary in Papua New Guinea, and as a local church pastor. In retirement he is a conjoint senior lecturer at Avondale College of Higher Education. He has authored Flames Over Battle Creek, Avondale: Experiment on the Dora, Desmond Ford: Reformist Theologian, Gospel Revivalist, the Seventh-day Adventist Heritage Series, and many magazine articles. He is married to Noeleen and has two sons and three grandchildren. John Orr Corliss was a pioneering evangelist in the United States and in Australia. Early Life John Orr Corliss was born to Joseph and Jane (Morang) Corliss on December 26, 1845, in Topsham, Maine.1 His mother was a descendant of the Scottish Earl of Stair. His father’s ancestry the English family of Richard Monkton Milnes, otherwise known as the First Baron of Houghton and a man of questionable character. Joseph Corliss died in 1850 when John was scarcely 5 years old. His son’s education took place in various local schools at Topsham, Bath, and Lewiston. To escape harsh treatment from his adopted father, at the age of 16 he entered an apprenticeship as a sailor. In John Orr Corliss this capacity he became a converted Christian about Photo courtesy of Adventist Heritage Centre, Australia. 1862.2 As a 19-year-old, John abandoned seamanship and married 20-year-old Susan Gowell in 18643 and then enlisted in the Union army during the Civil War. His military unit was the Thirtieth Regiment of the Maine Infantry.4 After the war ended in 1865, he returned to Maine, where a Freewill Baptist minister baptized him in 1866.5 All happy prospects came to a tragic end with Susan’s premature death on November 16, 1867. A simple white marble headstone marks her resting place in the Oak Grove cemetery at Bath, Maine.6 At the time of John’s grieving he came in contact with James and Ellen White who were engaged in evangelism with John Andrews in New England. Corliss responded to the White’s invitation to join them in Michigan, and there he became more familiar with the Seventh-day Adventist faith. James White baptized him in 1868. In the same year, at only 23 years of age, he assumed the superintendence and chaplaincy of the fledgling Battle Creek Health Reform Institute.7 Also in 1868, he married Julia Ann Burgess,8 a schoolteacher from the age of 14 who was born in Ohio in 1843.9 Public Evangelism in America In 1871 Corliss made a significant career shift. He began conducting evangelistic efforts in remote villages in upstate Michigan, places such as Vernon, Mt. Pleasant, and Le Roy.10 He had some success, but initially he and Julia had to be self-supporting, because the Michigan Conference had no funds to pay him. John picked up laboring jobs wherever he could find them and Julia earned two dollars a week cooking for a crew of saw-millers.11 The harsh conditions came with a heavy personal cost. Their first child, Frank, born in 1870, died in 1874. Their second child, Frederick, born in 1873, died when he was only eight months old. During 1875 through 1877 the couple conducted evangelistic series in Maine and Virginia, losing their third child, Lou Ellen or “Louie,” when she was only 18 months old. Their surviving children were Lulu, born in 1877, and William Burr, born in 1882.12 John’s successful evangelistic endeavors culminated in his ordination in October 1874 at the Lapeer, Michigan, camp meeting. Elders James White, Joseph Waggoner, and Stephen Haskell officiated at the service.13 The years 1878 through 1883 were more stable for John’s young family. He used Michigan as a home base from which to conduct evangelistic series and, at times, worked in other locations. For example, he spoke at the 1880 Minnesota Sabbath School Association meeting14 and in early 1883 he conducted meetings during a tour in Georgia and Virginia.15 Nearer to home he served as evangelism director of Michigan’s District No. 3.16 However, his special interest apparently lay in Virginia where he had pioneered previously and possibly had spent some time during the Civil War. At the 1883 General Conference Session in Battle Creek, Corliss introduced the vote to accept the newly formed Virginia Conference into the Seventh-day Adventist organization. He also made a plea for more workers to go to West Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, and Maryland.17 The same proceedings took the extraordinary step to allow Corliss to select his own field of labor for 1884.18 He chose California and conducted evangelistic meetings in Healdsburg, Woodland, Oakland, and in Oregon State.19 Trail-blazing in Australia The October-November 1884 General Conference Session nominated Corliss to join Haskell and a small team to sail from California to establish a mission base in Australia.20 The group comprised Haskell; Mendel and Lizzie Israel and their two daughters, Jessie and May; John and Julia Corliss and their two children, Lulu and Burr; printer Henry Scott; and colporteur William Arnold. They departed San Francisco aboard the Australia on May 10, 1885, sailing via Hawaii, American Samoa,21 and New Zealand, arriving at Sydney on Sabbath June 6. Haskell and Israel remained in Sydney for a short time to explore the city while the others journeyed on to Melbourne to find lodgings.22 Corliss gave early attention to establishing what became known as the Echo Publishing House and effectively became its managing editor.23 Later reports indicate that he largely financed the enterprise with his own funds.24 At the same time the missionaries purchased a large tent, and he assisted Mendel Israel with five evangelistic series in suburban Melbourne during the warmer southern months, October 1885 through April 1886.25 They established a church there before the two evangelists moved on to frosty Ballarat in the July winter.26 By October 1886 John had transferred to the city of Adelaide where he conducted meetings in the Norwood Town Hall.27 The Adelaide church of 34 members and a larger Sabbath School organized in December.28 The following months, January and February 1887, Corliss conducted another tent series in Geelong, Victoria.29 He began an additional one in the Melbourne suburb of East St Kilda30 when his health suddenly collapsed under the pace he had set for himself. He and his family returned to California in March 1887.31 Recuperation and Renewed Service in America After spending a few months in California, they moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, where he engaged in editorial and religious liberty activities.32 Intermittently, he evangelized in Washington, D.C., where in 1889 he organized the first Adventist church in the nation’s capital and helped pastor the congregation during its early years. He also joined A. T. Jones in an appearance before a United States Senate committee, urging the defeat of a proposed constitutional amendment to “Christianize” public schools.33 The production of Bible Readings for the Home Circle was a major enterprise at the time. Corliss adapted his evangelistic topics for publication in the volume. Its preface acknowledged him with the words, “Prominent among these contributors is J. O. Corliss, who, assisted by others, carefully edited and revised the entire collection …”34 The book became the denominational standard for Bible studies using the proof-text method. Another Term in Australia The Corliss family returned to Australia in late 1893, just prior to the January camp meeting at Middle Brighton, suburban Melbourne. John addressed the gathering on the two Sunday evenings, prime time for the general public who wished to hear an evangelist.35 He continued with an evangelistic series after the camp meeting concluded.36 In the same year, 1894, he repeated the series in Hawthorn37 and Auburn38 and then transferred to Tasmania to conduct similar meetings,39 returning to Melbourne to address a convention at the St. Kilda Bible School40 and then proceeded to the October camp meeting in Ashfield, suburban Sydney.41 Once again, at the conclusion of the camp he continued with a public campaign.42 Seventeen-year-old daughter Lulu assisted with a Sunday School.43 He accepted no administrative duties, preferring to take the role of leading evangelist with its punishing pace of public meetings. While he was in Sydney conducting campaigns, John’s 13-year-old son, Burr, helped to clear the Avondale estate and attended evening classes in 1895 prior to the official opening of the Avondale School.44 John himself, however, became ill with influenza. It weakened him, but early in 1896 the family transferred to Perth, West Australia. Corliss opened a tent series in Beaufort Street, North Perth, but few attended, so he shifted it to Charles Street in West Perth. He had only given two lectures when his health failed. He organized the election of officers for the infant company and left his assistant in charge, departing with his family from Albany on April 18, 1896, for New York via London. Corliss intended to seek medical help at the Battle Creek Sanitarium.45 Two Further Decades of Service For two years, 1897 and 1898, Corliss taught Bible classes for the medical and nursing trainees at Battle Creek Sanitarium during his recuperation. He spent the last months of 1898 serving in Canada and then returned to California in 1899 where he remained in ministry46 except for 12 months as vice-president of the British Union Conference, 1902-1903.47 His last years of service in California included several terms on the executive committee48 and finally as field director and correspondence secretary in the religious liberty department of the Pacific Union Conference.49 During those years he had less involvement with public evangelism.

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