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A eVir A MAGAZINE of ADVENTIST HISTORY 4111110 VoL2No.1 COVER PHOTO: 1°‘11 This painting of Hamlet's Ophelia by Annie Smith is believed to be a self portrait.
Courtesy: Samuel A. Smith, Jr cAdventistWatitage 354 SOCIAL WORSHIP. SOCIAL WORSHIP, 355
Autumn. Ss & 7s. Double. 2 Guide us in the path to Heaven, Rugged though that path may be ; Let each bitter cup that's given, °,F tel ST- Serve to draw us nearer thee. esj-,44-0 In thy footsteps traced before us, There we see earth's scorn and frown; Blessed Jesus, meek and lowly,•With us here take thine abode; There is suffering ere the glory, ▪ ttoll-940- 4. There's a cross before the crown. led 1-4- 3 In thy vineyard let us labor, FINE. Of thy goodness let us tell ; All is ill without thy favor— With thy presence all is well. • -4 is, ./.; While the evening shadows gather, We would fain like thee be holy, Humbly walking with our God. Through this dreary night of tears, D. s. Lest without thine aid we perish, Oh! abide with us, we pray. Tarry with us, 0 our Saviour, 1:4 o. 4 4R- Till the morning light appears. le- . . Ht.H 14 All wry 4 Then with thee may we forever Reign with all the good and blest, Where no sin from thee can sever, Where the weary are at rest; There to praise the matchless Giver, There with angels to adore We would thy sweet Spirit cherish, Welcome in our hearts thy stay; Him who did through grace deliver 160-ci Us from death for evermore. vs • ri01-14% taN. 463 S. M. 1 ONCE more before we part, 462 8s & 7s. Double. We'll bless the Saviour's name. 1 BLESSED Jesus, meek and lowly, Record his mercies, every heart ; With us here take thine abode; Sing, every tongue, the same. We would fain like thee be holy, Humbly walking with our God. 2 May we receive his word, We would thy sweet Spirit cherish, And feed thereon, and grow ; Welcome in our hearts thy stay ; Go on to seek and know the Lord, Lest without thine aid we perish,. Oh ! abide with us, we pray. And practice what we know. cAdventistcHentage A MAGAZINE of ADVENTIST HISTORY
EDITORS Summer, 1975 I Volume 2, Number 1 Gary Land Andrews University Published by the Department of Archives and Research, Jonathan M. Butler University Libraries, Loma Linda University Union College
CONSULTING EDITORS Godfrey T. Anderson Editor's Stump Loma Linda University Richard W. Schwarz A Note from the Publisher Andrews University Articles ASSISTANT EDITORS Wayne Judd The Changing Image of the Millerites General Conference in the Western Massachusetts Press of Seventh-day Adventists Department of Education by Madeline Warner Eric D. Anderson Ascension Robes and Other Millerite Fables: University of Chicago The Millerites in American Literature ART & DESIGN EDITOR by James Ehrlich 8 Bill Kirstein Graphic Design Studio The Life and Love of Annie Smith Orlando, Florida by Ron Graybill 14 niroR The Lincoln City Mission: Mary Childs Loma Linda University A. J. Cudney and Seventh-day Adventist
YHON) Beginnings in Lincoln, Nebraska James Nix by Michael McGuckin 24 Loma Linda University "A Few Sterling Pieces:" eONTFM3LF:!::t; rOITORS Nineteenth Century Adventist Temperance Songs David T. Arthur Aurora College by Grosvenor Fattic 35 Roy E. Branson The Early Days of Loma Linda Andrews University and Even Before Raymond F. Cottrell Review and Herald by Keld J. Reynolds 42 Washington, D. C. Everett N. Dick Edwin R. Palmer: Union College Publishing Secretary Extraordinary Ron Graybill by Donald R. McAdams 51 E. G. White Estate Washington, D. C. Maurice D. Hodgen Heirloom Loma Linda University Horace Greeley and the Millerites C. Mervyn Maxwell Andrews University by Vern Garner 33 Donald R. McAdams Andrews University Bookmarks Wm. Frederick Norwood Loma Linda University Father Bates's Story Carlos Schwantes by Wayne Judd 63 Walla Walla College Eric D. Syme The Fundamentals and Fundamentalism Pacific Union College by Gary Land 65 Myron F. Wehtje Atlantic Union College The Seventh Day Baptist Connection by Margaret Schone Kearnes 67
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"Blessed Jesus, Meek and Lowly" is a hymn written by Annie R. Smith for the worship services of early Adventists. This copy is taken from Hymns and Tunes for Those Who Keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus published by the Steam Press of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association in 1876 in Battle Creek, Michigan. courtesy: Loma Linda Universtiy Library Heritage Room EDIT 115 STUMP
This issue of Adventist Heritage presents two pictures to our attention and made the arrange- firsts: the first publication of art by Annie Smith ments for obtaining and photographing them. and the first student articles to appear in this Also in this issue are three articles that origi- magazine. nated as student papers. Madeline Warner wrote The cover portrait — one that we feel is rather her paper on the Millerites and the Mas- striking — is a painting that Annie Smith made sachusetts press this past academic year while a of Hamlet's Ophelia. According to family tradi- student at Westfield College in Massachusetts. tion, however, this Ophelia is really Annie's "Ascension Robes and Other Millerite Fables" is self-portrait. Samuel A. Smith, Jr., of West Wil- based upon a graduate research project that ton, Massachusetts, went to great efforts to sup- James Ehrlich completed two years ago for the ply the painting for our use. And Mark L. Bovee history department at Andrews University. of Battle Creek, Michigan, whose mother, Uriah Taken together these two articles reveal the in- Smith's only daughter, was named after Annie, terplay between the images portrayed by the made it possible through a generous gift for the newspapers of the period and those appearing in cover portrait to appear in color. Accompanying imaginative literature. The accompanying il- Ron Graybill's article is another work of Annie lustrations reveal another dimension of public Smith's, an engraving of a cat. Paul and Jane opinion. Michael McGuckin's article on the be- Bonynge, also of West Wilton (Mrs. Bonynge is a ginnings of Seventh-day Adventist work in Lin- Smith descendant) loaned the print of the en- coln, Nebraska, originated as a senior research graving. We appreciate the efforts, which in- project under Professor Everett Dick about six cluded both time and money, that these families years ago at Union College. We look forward to expended in making these pictures available to future student contributions. us. Tom Dybdahl and Ron Graybill brought the
A Note From the Publisher Forthcoming in Beginning with this issue, Adventist Heritage will be published by the Department of Archives and Research of Loma Linda University. The De- Adventist `Heritage partment, which also operates the Heritage Rooms in the libraries on both campuses of the University, views this as another opportunity to THE GREAT EVOLUTION DEBATE further interest in the study of Adventist history. Some personnel changes have occurred during THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION AND this period of transition. However, the original concept of the magazine is unaltered. We wish to SUNDAY LAW FIGHT OF 1893 give a word of thanks to those who have done so much to bring Adventist Heritage into existence THE BIRTH OF and have worked to maintain it. SABBATARIAN ADVENTISM We also wish to thank you, our readers, for your overwhelming support of the magazine.
Department of Archives and Research Loma Linda University Libraries
4 THE CHANGING IMAGE OF oitt THE MILLERITES InTheWestern Massachusetts Press
Madeline Warner Madeline Warner is a student at Westfield College, Massachusetts.
n sharp contrast to the mockery and animos- the other, so that their viewpoints on regional is- I ity inflicted on faithful Millerites in the days sues were thus expressed independently of each surrounding the Great Disappointment of October other. 22, 1844, the early development of the movement Neither paper made more than passing reference was singularly unmarked by controversy. In the to William Miller before 1841 despite his ties by 1830's William Miller was a welcome visiting birth to the western Massachusetts region. The re- preacher in churches of many Protestant denomina- ligious news of the area concerned the great up- tions, with the exception of the Universalists, whose surge of evangelical fervor manifest in almost every doctrine of universal salvation he so vigorously de- church, a widespread phenomenon in 1840. Local bated with his brother-in-law. ministers frequently submitted inspirational mes- As the popularity of Miller's theory of Christ's sages for publication, and the periodic Fast Day second Advent grew, organized religions began to sermons were printed in their entirety. An early close ranks against the movement, and public opin- sign of Miller's growing influence appeared in 1841 ion underwent a marked change. This change ap- when these messages began for the first time to pears clearly in the newspapers of the 1840's. Un- discuss the doctrine of premillennialism. For exam- like the press of today, many weekly papers of the ple, the April Fast Day sermon of Westfield's Rev- period were written, edited, and published by one erend Davis described the nature of the end of the man, who editorialized openly as he presented the news, often changing his stands in response to the ---"" And Fearful ,';'.ights and Great Sisx, shall there pressures exerted by prominent people in his com- Helve/1?-1.1:1;i: befro munity. Two weekly newspapers published in west- - • ern Massachusetts during the height of the Miller- ite movement, the Westfield News Letter and the Springfield Republican, provide evidence of these 1 _ _ changing viewpoints. Although both were staunchly Whig papers and were published only ten miles apart, the hearty rivalry between the two as well as their violent disagreement on the temper- t. 711- ance question, kept them from following a wide- spread practice of the day: that of copying items . - from one another while giving only minimal ac- knowledgement of the source. Although the News Letter and the Republican borrowed freely from This woodcut depicts the "last day tokens" that were to many other publications, each pointedly ignored herald the coming of Christ. credit: American Heritage Publishing Company 5 world. Reverend Davis discussed Miller's theories interested readers, and the editor was forced to and analyzed his Scriptural proofs, concluding that tread a treacherous path between the opposing fac- Millerism differed from orthodox views only in stat- tions. One irate reader, writing as "Anti-Millerite," ing "that the Beast and False Prophet will be de- demanded the names of any respected citizens who stroyed in 1843." When the Chronicle of Providence, had adopted Millerism, fearing "the sentiment to go Rhode Island, described Miller as "either a fool or a out from this town that the Westfieldanians are crazy man," it prompted the News Letter's first composed of fools or dupes, as I conceive the Miller- editorial comment on Miller. Editor Porter retorted ites to be." The editor appended the observation that to the Chronicle's charge that he personally held local citizens are "probably composed of flesh and Miller "to be neither. He makes plenty of $ by his blood like other men. How far their heads may be speculation on the future. That we hold to be the cracked we have no means of knowing, but one surest test of good sense & sanity. Of all millers we thing is certain: Millerism has not yet made them know of no miller who brings more grists to his mill crazy." than Miller the prophet." An unnamed local Millerite wrote describing his By August, 1842, western Massachusetts Miller- new-found sense of peace in looking "for the blessed ites were preparing for the arrival of the Great Tent hope of our Savior Jesus Christ near at hand," and in Cabotville (now Chicopee Falls). An Elder Beach the editor offered the opinion that the adoption of spoke at the Westfield Baptist Church for several Millerism "by a few in Westfield will not tend to evenings to prepare the local populace for the im- bring disgrace upon our community," although he minent tent meeting. His vivid description of the maintained it was presumptuous to set a date. destruction by fire of the world in 1843 aroused local During this period the rival Springfield interest. Although impressed by Beach's deep piety, Republican printed no mention of local Millerite the Westfield editor expressed reservations that the activity, although lengthy analyses of William Lord should have revealed the exact time for the end Miller's Scriptural chronology were a recurrent fea- of the world to "such a poor driveler as William ture as well as reports from Boston newspapers of Miller." eastern tent meetings and the construction of the In early September the Cabotville Chronicle Boston Tabernacle. reported quite thoroughly the largest tent meeting A distinct change in press attitude, however, can the writer had ever witnessed. Over 2000 people a be seen in 1843. Reverend Amasa Holcomb of the day attended to hear Brothers Himes and Fitch Westfield Methodist Church delivered a lengthy conducting the meetings until William Miller was refutation of Miller's prophetic chronology; this was able to arrive to bring the proceedings to an even published in its entirety, dominating the front more exuberant pitch. The enthusiasm engendered pages of two consecutive issues of the News Letter. at this meeting was manifest in the nearby small At this point, Reverend Holcomb, speaking for all town of Montgomery, where a hurriedly arranged the local Protestant ministers, disassociated him- camp meeting converted over twenty people. self from the teachings of William Miller. Brothers Area ministers remained silent in the press on Hastings and Scott challenged Holcomb's charges, the question of the coming advent, and local editors but their rebuttals were dismissed as "roundabout" could only offer their personal assumptions that the by the News Letter editor, who declared that he no "inflated bubble of Millerism would produce a sea- son of great wickedness and a reckless contempt of all religion." Despite such editorial comments, local GRAND ASCENSION OF THE MILLER TABERNACLE! Protestant denominations apparently were benefit- Miller in his Glory, Saints and Sinners in one great OONGLOPIMATION I ting from the Millerite spirit in the form of in- creased church attendance and activity. The Methodist revival had attained such proportions that they were able to build a new church, and Brothers Hastings and Hawkes, traveling Millerite preachers, were given the use of the old church for a series of well-attended lectures. A brief summary of Millerite beliefs was pub- lished several days before the scheduled lectures, and the News Letter editor noted that although he remained "personally an infidel on the Second Com- ing in 1843" despite attending three meetings, he knew of "a number of influential citizens who had embraced the doctrine." With this observation, the floodgates were broached for an active flow of correspondence from
In this 1844 cartoon Miller sits on his chart atop the tabernacle and a man looks into the heavens with a telescope while Joshua V. Nimes is held on the earth by the devil who cries, "Joshua V. you must stay with me." The saints are all clad in ascension robes. credit: Review and Herald Publishing Association longer could have any "sympathy with a doctrine inasmuch as he was going on 4 legs, making 43, and which is so totally absurd and nonsensical." A sec- looked to be 18 years old . . . the wonderful coinci- ond set of Millerite lectures by H. A. Chittenden of dence in the matter producing the prophetic period Hartford, Connecticut, was dismissed patronizingly of 1843." . as a case of "zeal ahead of judgement." The Republican also published a letter from This loss of support from established religions "Puritan," a Springfield man traveling in Europe was evident in the Springfield Republican's specu- who wrote that in Genoa he had come upon a penni- lation about how "a poor country parson, as distin- less Millerite from Worcester, Massachusetts, who guished for his ignorance as anything else, should was seeking an audience with the Pope, whereupon succeed in playing on the credulity of a considerable he would leave for a forty day fast outside portion of the Earthly tabernacle." Its readers were Jerusalem, at the end of which he expected Christ to then regaled with the analogy of Jeremiah Cross- take him into heaven. man, of Vermont, who had predicted the end of the Ever loyal politically to the Whigs, the Westfield world on June 4, 1812, and when "the earth con- News Letter admitted to "one delusion worse than tinued, he fell into a consumption and died a martyr Millerism: that of thinking of John Tyler as a great to his own credulity." public benefactor," but the editor found more satis- No longer could the hitherto unquestioned piety faction in recounting a report from Buffalo, New and sincerity of William Miller shield the move- York, that an Ethiopian there was predicting the ment from mocking and cruel attacks in the secular end of the world April 10, 1844, "with the restora- press. The News Letter reported from a Crescent tion of the colored race to regal power . . . he is to be City paper that a kitten had been born with 1843 king and his wife queen." This claim was felt to have tails. It was named "Miller" as "the phenomenon arisen from Millerite teachings, and no story refers to the end of the world." Not to be outdone, the seemed too bizarre to be credited to the Millerites. Springfield Republican reprinted the reputed con- Few local references were made in either the firmation of the truth of Millerism that appeared in News Letter or the Republican in 1844; many of the a Maine newspaper, the PortlandBulletin: "We saw widely-circulated claims of Millerite excesses, or a dog with his tail curled up to form the figure 3 and murders, suicides, and insanity while under the Miller influence, were reprinted without attribu- tion or corroboration. The only reported local Millerite activity in 1844 was a lecture by Brother Hastings the Sunday be- fore October 22 in which he expressed his assurance that he would meet his Lord by the next week. His faith was dismissed as "humbug . . . the worst scourge of the western world." The Great Disappointment did not bring about a softening of tone; unspecified excesses in unnamed towns were charged to Millerism by the Springfield Republican but subsequent issues neither clarified these charges nor dealt again with Miller and his followers. The News Letter reprinted some of the more lurid stories from the Philadelphia papers, and noted that "the Miller day has passed and yet the sun continues his circuit." AThe "Patent Fire Proof Chest" lithographed in 1844 While William Miller and his doctrines were satirizes Millerism, vegetarianism, and temperance. The treated with a courteous interest, if not total accep- caption stated, "Now let it come. I'm ready." credit: Review and Herald Publishing Assocation tance, by Protestant denominations, western Mas- sachusetts newspapers presented his theories in a clear and balanced manner. But once Millerism was disavowed by the local churches, Miller and his followers became the target for japes, innuendoes, and distortion. The Millerites made good copy, and the local press took full advantage of it at the ex- pense of journalistic integrity.
SOURCES Springfield [Massachusetts] Republican, February 11, 1843 — October 26, 1844. 111111 ninT Westfield [Massachusetts] Neivs Letter, April 22, 1842 — October 30, 1844. Of Millerism Unmasked, 7 Or a brief account of a Millerite Camp Poets often used doggerel to attack the Millerites. Meeting, held in East Kingston, N. H-, credit: Review and Herald Publishing Association from June Pith to July 5th, 1S-12. tALcepsion Cl bps 11 and therCMillerite C3abies: THE MILLERITES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE
James Ehrlich
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1849 story "Kavanaugh" was the first fictional instance of the ascension robe stories.
credit: Houghton, Mifflin
8 Not surprisingly, the Millerite prediction of a date for Christ's coming caught the fancy of the fiction writers. In the fictional view, time setting gained acceptance among the credulous by its im- pressive mathematical calculations. Edward Eg- gleston, a former Methodist minister, portrayed Millerism in The End of the World as an exciting diversion for bored village folk. As Eggleston told it, since there are no circuses or murders to divert the people's attention they flock to hear Elder Hankins when he comes into Sugar Grove announcing that the world will end at midnight, August 11, 1843. It is his calculation that makes Hankins's prediction incontrovertible, at least to most people, for he argues that "figgers won't lie noways, and it's fig- gers that shows this yet to be the last yer of the world, and that the final end of all things is ap- proachin'." He does not ask people to listen to any of his own impressions or reasonings, only that they just "listen to the voice of the man in the linen-coat what spoke to Dan'el, and then listen to the voice of arly in the nineteeth century James Fen- the 'rithmetic, and to a sum in simple addition, the E imore Cooper complained that in America simplest sort of addition." "there are no annals for the historian; no follies (beyond the most vulgar and commonplace) for the Everyone seems to believe Hankins, however, ex- satirist; no manners for the dramatists; no obscure cept Jonas, a new hired hand on one of the local fictions for the writer of romance; no gross and farms. One night at Elder Hankins's meeting at the hardy offenses against decorum for the moralist; church, Jonas comments to a friend, nor any of the rich artificial auxiliaries of poetry." Looky thar, won't you? He'll cipher the world into nothin' in no time. He's like the feller that tried to find By the 1830's and 1840's all this had changed, out the valoo of a fat shoat when wood was two dollars a however. Not only had American writers — largely cord. "Ef I can't do it by subtraction I'll do it by long- with Cooper's help — discovered the Indian, fron- division," say he. And of this 'rithmetic preacher can't tiersman, and American nature as themes for their make a finishment of this sublunary speer by addition, he'll do it by multiplyin'. They's only one answer in his literature, but the "freedom's ferment"of the Jack- book. Gin him any sum you please, and it all comes out sonian period had created some of the social diver- 1843! sity that Cooper had felt necessary for great litera- Jonas complains that July fourths are all over along ture. Along with the utopians, abolitionists, and with shooting firecrackers and the star-spangled feminists who caught the attention of writers both banner because Hankins "ciphers and ciphers and great and common, the Millerites stimulated a reac- then spits on his slate and wipes us all out. tion of humor and sympathy. Whenever Gabr'el blows I'll believe it, but I won't The Millerites, of course, were followers of Wil- take none o' Hankins's tootin' in place of it." liam Miller, the New York Baptist farmer who in- The calculating aspect also appeared in Mary E. terpreted the Biblical book of Daniel to mean that Wilkens's story of "A New England Prophet." Christ would return sometime between March 21, Again, a skeptic comments that the Millerite has to 1843, and March 21, 1844. Miller preached these "twist passages hindmost foremost, and bottomside ideas widely in the 1830's and 1840's, attracting up, an' add, an' subtract, an' divide, an' multiply, an' perhaps as many as 50,000 believers. After Miller's hammer, an' saw, an' bile down, an' take to a grist- predictions failed to come to pass, Samuel S. Snow, mill" before he gets the desired meaning. These two one of his followers, re-examined Daniel, deter- stories were written toward the end of the mined that Miller had made a mistake, and an- nineteenth century, but specific dates also appeared nounced that Christ would come on October 22, in Asmodeus's The Millerite Humbug and C. A. P.'s 1844. This prophecy rekindled the hopes of the Mil- "A Millerite Miracle" that were contemporary with lerites, hopes that were dashed as October 22 came the Millerite movement. So strong was the date- and passed without special event. As a result the setting image of Millerism in fiction that it occurred movement began to break apart amidst a flood of as late as 1972 when Henry Carlisle mentioned it in scorn and abuse. Voyage to the First of December.
James Ehrlich teaches history and mathematics at Minneapolis Junior Academy.
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