Health reform, as initiated among Seventh-day Adventists by the vision of June 6, 1863, had many facets. Some people grasped the various elements and rather promptly brought about changes in their way of life. This was so with farmer Joseph Clarke, a frequent contributor to the Review, whose experience was published in the issue of March 27, 1866. With many others, changes were made more slowly or not at all. The six How to Live pamphlets, each with an article from the pen of Ellen White, were widely distributed and were instrumental in advancing reform, particularly in diet.
Her article in Number 6 was devoted to women's dress. It set forth general principles that would aid in adopting a modest, healthful style of dress. It supported efforts to lead women away from tight-fitting garments, heavy, long skirts, and hoop skirts with features that flouted modesty.
At the 1866 General Conference session, strong resolutions favoring reform and calling for the establishing of a health institution were adopted. Shortly thereafter the Western Health Reform Institute was opened in Battle Creek, and steps were taken to produce a practical medical book that would instruct and guide along the lines of health principles. [The physicians at the institute assigned this task to J. N. Loughborough, who had led out in the establishment of the institution. The manuscript, prepared in counsel with the institute physicians, was more than a year in preparation and yielded a 205-page book, compiled largely from standard medical works. Titled Handbook of Health; or a brief treatise on Physiology and Hygiene, It was published in early 1868.] At the next General Conference session, 1867, several resolutions were adopted urging the acceptance of health reform as a part of the work of preparing for the judgment. Other resolutions called for simplicity in dress, and recommended the "reformed dress." One called for support of the Health Institute, "that this may be enlarged to meet the wants of its patients." The institute was asked to issue a book "on the structure, functions, and care of the human system." Loughborough was already working on the manuscript for this.
As noted earlier, in December, 1866, James and Ellen White left Battle Creek and traveled to Wright, Michigan. At the church service on the first Sabbath they were pressed with questions on features of the health reform and especially the reform dress. The report of the meeting states:
Through wrong teaching and misunderstanding, some had become prejudiced and were ready to oppose almost anything that might be said on the subject. Their principal objections were on diet and dress; and instead of receiving what had been written upon these subjects, they were disposed to take the position that there was not full harmony in Mrs. White's testimony, especially on dress; but as she was present to speak for herself, she was able to show a perfect harmony in her testimonies.--Ibid., January 15, 1867
Ellen White took more than an hour that Sabbath morning explaining and answering questions, and continued in the afternoon. Similar questions were asked in the meetings that followed on Tuesday and Friday evenings. James reported that "we enjoy their fullest sympathy, and while our mouth is opened anew to speak to them, their ears are opened to hear."--Ibid., January 22, 1867. In the weeks that followed, the believers in other places asked the same questions that were put to them at Wright.
The Reform Dress
As to the reasons for a need of reform in women's dress at that time, the New York Independent in 1913 painted a vivid picture:
The chief points in the indictment of woman's dress of former times were that the figure was dissected like a wasp's, that the hips were overloaded with heavy skirts, and that the skirts dragged upon the ground and swept up the dirt.
Nowadays the weight of a woman's clothing as a whole is only half or a third of what it used to be. Four dresses can be packed in the space formerly filled by one. In the one-piece dresses now in vogue the weight is borne from the shoulders, and the hips are relieved by reducing the skirts in weight, length, and number. The skirt no longer trails upon the street....
The women who, for conscientious reasons, refused to squeeze their waists, and in consequence suffered the scorn of their sex, now find themselves on the fashionable side. A thirty-two-inch waist is regarded as permissible, where formerly a twenty-inch waist was thought proper. A fashionably gowned woman of the present day can stoop to pick up a pin at her feet.--New York Independent, October 23, 1913 (see also The Story of Our Health Message, 118, 119).
When in the late summer of 1864 James and Ellen White first visited Dr. Jackson's "Home on the Hillside" at Dansville, New York, they found what was called the "American costume," worn by the lady physicians and many of the women patients. While it had many features that made it more acceptable than the prevailing styles, the Whites considered certain features objectionable. Writing to friends at Battle Creek, Ellen explained:
They have all styles of dress here. Some are very becoming, if not so short. We shall get patterns from this place, and I think we can get out a style of dress more healthful than we now wear, and yet not be bloomer or the "American costume." ...I am going to get up a style of dress on my own hook which will accord perfectly with that which has been shown me. Health demands it. Our feeble women must dispense with heavy skirts and tight waists if they value health....
We shall never imitate Miss Dr. Austin or Mrs. Dr. York. They dress very much like men. We shall imitate or follow no fashion we have ever yet seen. We shall institute a fashion which will be both economical and healthful.--Letter 1a, 1864 (see also The Story of Our Health Message, 128). (Italics supplied.)
Whether it was on June 6, 1863, or in a vision soon thereafter that is referred to here is not clear. Her counsel in How to Live, No. 6, published in June, 1865, deals with principles:
The female form should not be compressed in the least with corsets and whale bones. The dress should be perfectly easy that the lungs and heart may have healthy action. The dress should reach somewhat below the top of the boot; but should be short enough to clear the filth of the sidewalk and street, without being raised by the hand. A still shorter dress than this would be proper, convenient, and healthful for females, when doing their housework, and especially, for those women who are obliged to perform more or less out-of-door labor.
With this style of dress, one light skirt, or, at most two, are all that is necessary, and these should be buttoned on to a waist, or suspended with straps. The hips were not formed to bear heavy weights....
Whatever may be the length of the dress, females should clothe their limbs as thoroughly as the males. This may be done by wearing lined pants gathered into a band and fastened about the ankle, or made full and tapering at the bottom; and these should come down long enough to meet the shoe.
The limbs and ankles thus clothed are protected against a current of air. If the limbs and feet are kept comfortable with warm clothing, the circulation will be equalized, and the blood will remain healthy and pure, because it is not chilled or hindered in its natural passage through the system.--How to Live, No. 6, pp. 63, 64 (see also Selected Messages 2:478, 479).
Vital Principles of Inspiration Disclosed
Mention has been made of the questions pressed on Ellen White as she visited the churches in northern Michigan in early 1867. In October she answered a number of questions on dress and other health-related topics in the Review and Herald. Those answers revealed some basic points related to inspiration-revelation. The specific question to which she addressed herself was
Does not the practice of the sisters in wearing their dresses nine inches from the floor contradict Testimony No. 11, which says they should reach somewhat below the top of a lady's gaiter boot? Does it not also counteract Testimony No. 10, which says they should clear the filth of the street an inch or two without being raised by the hand?--The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867.
Ellen White described how the light came to her in regard to dress and discussed the basis of what she wrote:
The proper distance from the bottom of the dress to the floor was not given to me in inches. Neither was I shown ladies' gaiter boots; but three companies of females passed before me, with their dresses as follows with respect to length:
The first was of fashionable length, burdening the limbs, impeding the step, and sweeping the street and gathering its filth; the evil results of which I have fully stated. This class, who were slaves to fashion, appeared feeble and languid.
The dress of the second class which passed before me was in many respects as it should be. The limbs were well clad. They were free from the burdens which the tyrant Fashion had imposed upon the first class; but had gone to that extreme in the short dress as to disgust and prejudice good people, and destroy in a great measure their own influence. This is the style and influence of the "American costume," taught and worn by many at "Our Home," Dansville, New York. It does not reach to the knee. I need not say that this style of dress was shown me to be too short.
A third class passed before me with cheerful countenances, and free, elastic step. Their dress was the length I have described as proper, modest, and healthful. It cleared the filth of the street and sidewalk a few inches under all circumstances, such as ascending and descending steps.--Ibid.
She informed her readers:
As I have before stated, the length was not given me in inches, and I was not shown a lady's boot. And here I would state that although I am as dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord in writing my views as I am in receiving them, yet the words I employ in describing what I have seen are my own, unless they be those spoken to me by an angel, which I always enclose in marks of quotation.
As I wrote upon the subject of dress, the view of those three companies revived in my mind as plain as when I was viewing them in vision; but I was left to describe the length of the proper dress in my own language the best I could, which I have done in stating that the bottom of the dress should reach near the top of a lady's boot, which would be necessary in order to clear the filth of the streets under the circumstances before named.--Ibid.
This descriptive statement is very illuminating, but no more should be read into it than the circumstances justify. She was describing the way that, at times, light came to her--not in words dictated, but in scenes, in this case contrasting scenes, leaving her to describe them in human language. She was not speaking of a practice sometimes employed in the next decade, in which she occasionally couched what she wanted to say in the words and phrases of other writers, particularly in historical description in the books presenting the great controversy story.
Ellen White Begins to Wear the Reform Dress
Only a few months after the issuance of How to Live, No. 6, in the summer of 1865, in which she dealt with dress, Mrs. White started wearing the type of dress she had described. This was while she was at Dansville with her sick husband. She wore it consistently except when "in the crowded streets of villages and cities," "at meetings," and "when visiting distant relatives" (Ibid.) She explained:
The reasons for pursuing the course I have are as follows: 1. I put on the reformed dress for general use more than two years since, because I had seen that it was a convenient, modest, and healthful style, and would, in the providence of God, as health reform should lead the way, finally be adopted by our people.
2. It was my duty to avoid raising prejudice against the dress, which would cut off my testimony if I wore it, until I had fully set the matter before the people, and the time came, in the order of events, for it to be generally adopted.
3. The dress reform was among the minor things that were to make up the great reform in health, and never should have been urged as a testing truth necessary to salvation. It was the design of God that at the right time, on proper occasions, the proper persons should set forth its benefits as a blessing, and recommend uniformity, and union of action.--Ibid.
Then she explained the problems that arose in the sequence of events:
4. The issue came too soon. The defense of the dress was forced upon us by those who opposed it, who at the same time professed full confidence in my testimonies.
When the Health Institute was opened at Battle Creek, and the dress adopted by female patients, as directed by the physicians, then came the opposition, chiefly from brethren at Battle Creek. The physicians, having full confidence in my testimonies, stated to them that the style of dress they recommended for their patients was the same as I had seen would be adopted by our people.
Then came the general inquiry, and a strange spirit of blind and bitter opposition arose with some who professed to be among the firmest friends of the testimonies. The general inquiry spread everywhere, and in the autumn and winter of 1866, letters came in from all directions inquiring in regard to what I had seen, asking for immediate answers. I therefore determined to hasten out [Testimony] No. 11.
All of this was taking place during the difficult year of James White's invalidism, when his care drew heavily on her time and energies. But seeing clearly the dire need of getting something in print on the subject, in December, 1866, she took her husband north to Wright, where they stayed in the Root home. She explained her course of action:
We visited the church at Wright, Michigan, December 21, 1866, and labored with them six weeks. I there wrote most of Testimony No. 11. The first two Sabbaths and First-days I spoke to the people in my long dress. But when I had fully set the matter before the people without raising their prejudice, I put on my present style of dress, which was immediately adopted by the numerous sisters of that church. I have worn it since that time.--Ibid.
She pointed out that as she spoke on the subject of health, she mentioned the dress reform as one of the items of least importance making up a great whole, and she reported that there were no unhappy conflicts with the women who attended her meetings. Setting an example, she presented sound reasons for adopting a reform in dress, and her testimony was received on the basis of principle.
Arriving at Style and Length
Neither a particular style of dress nor the length of the skirt in inches was revealed to Ellen White. The vision of the three groups of women brought certain important principles to the forefront, and it was left to her and the church women generally to work out something that would come within the limits shown her. At the Health Institute in Battle Creek it was found that as the women employed their ingenuity, there was considerable variance in style and length of skirt. At this point a little "dress show" was conducted. J. H. Waggoner was spending some time at the institute. At his request the physicians named a number of the women there whose dresses they considered the best, and they put on a little demonstration. The results were promptly reported in the Health Reformer:
He then measured the height of twelve, with the distance of their dresses from the floor. They varied in height from five feet to five feet seven inches, and the distance of the dresses from the floor was from eight to ten and one-half inches. The medium, nine inches, was decided to be the right distance and is adopted as the standard.--The Health Reformer, March, 1868 (see also The Story of Our Health Message, 167).
With the Health Institute in the forefront and working in harmony with the counsel given by the messenger of the Lord, the style of costume adopted at the institution became the prevailing style adopted generally by Adventist women who chose to follow this phase of reform.
The Final Outcome
Before leaving the question of the reform dress, we look ahead a few years. Considerable was written on the topic in the Review and Herald and the Health Reformer through a period of about four years. Many of the Adventist women cheerfully adopted the dress and were benefited, but its acceptance was not general; there was opposition and criticism. Some overlooked the statement that "none were compelled to adopt the reform dress."--Testimonies for the Church, 4:639. Among extremists this reform seemed to constitute the sum and substance of their religion. Consequently, "because that which was given as a blessing was turned into a curse, the burden of advocating the reform dress was removed."--Manuscript 167, 1897 (see also The Story of Our Health Message, 168). Seventh-day Adventist women were urged to "adopt a simple, unadorned dress of modest length." The following suggestion was made:
A plain sack or loose-fitting basque, and skirt, the latter short enough to avoid the mud and filth of the streets.... The same attention should be given to the clothing of the limbs as with the short dress.--Testimonies for the Church, 4:640.
When in 1897 some of the Adventist women thought that in their loyalty to the Spirit of Prophecy counsels they should adopt and advocate the reform dress of the 1860s, Ellen White advised against it, stating:
Some have supposed that the very pattern given was the pattern that all were to adopt. This is not so. But something as simple as this would be the best we could adopt under the circumstances. No one precise style has been given me as the exact rule to guide all in their dress.--Letter 19, 1897 (see also The Story of Our Health Message, 169).
Prevailing styles were changing in favor of more healthful attire, and Ellen White did not favor introducing a subject that would divert the minds of Seventh-day Adventists from their mission and cause. She urged:
Let our sisters dress plainly, as many do, having the dress of good material, durable, modest, appropriate for this age, and let not the dress question fill the mind.--Ibid. [For a discussion of the reform dress in further depth, see Ibid., 112-130, 156-171, 441-445.]
Skills in Public Speaking Acquired by Ellen White
It was the invalidism of James White through 1866 and well into 1867 that drove Ellen into unabashed public speaking to the point where she could go into a church and address the audience at the worship service on a Sabbath morning. At the same time, with Ellen's encouragement James moved forward by faith in the lines of activity that opened before him, and his strength gradually returned. On the last day of 1867 the Review and Herald carried a short article in which he reviewed somewhat the experience of the year just closing. The article was written from Portland, Maine, while the Whites were on a three-month itinerary in the Eastern States:
Just one year ago today, December 19, Mrs. White and self left home to resume our labors, from which we had been held by feebleness for nearly two years. We look back upon the past year with feelings of gratitude to God for His goodness, and His especial blessing upon our feeble labors.
During no year have the people of God received us so readily as in the past, and during no year has our testimony been so plain and pointed, and during no year have we seen so many backsliders reclaimed, and so many in bad habits, such as the use of tobacco, reclaimed, as during the past year.--The Review and Herald, December 31, 1867.
James White made a remarkable though gradual recovery from the point of such weakness that he felt he could carry neither purse nor watch, to an active, aggressive ministry. The days in their retirement in their new home on the little farm in Greenville, Michigan, marked the step-by-step recovery in physical and mental restoration to the point described years later by Ellen White:
After eighteen months of constant cooperation with God in the effort to restore my husband to health, I took him home again. Presenting him to his parents, I said, "Father, Mother, here is your son."
"Ellen," said his mother, "you have no one but God and yourself to thank for this wonderful restoration. Your energies have accomplished it."
After his recovery, my husband lived for a number of years, during which time he did the best work of his life. Did not those added years of usefulness repay me manyfold for the eighteen months of painstaking care?--Manuscript 50, 1902 (see also Selected Messages 2:308).
Farming in Greenville
It was a happy day for the Whites--James, Ellen, and Willie, now 12--when on Thursday, May 2, 1867, they could see the plow turn the rich soil on their little Greenville farm (The Review and Herald, May 14, 1867), to be followed quickly by the setting out of grapes, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries, and incidentally starting the construction of their new home. At some point about this time Ellen devised a plan to encourage James to engage in physical activity. He had been warned by the physicians at Dansville that physical activity could lead to another stroke. Ellen had been shown that without both mental and physical activity he could not hope to recover fully. Here is her account:
In the spring there were fruit trees to be set out and garden to be made. "Willie," I said, "please buy three hoes and three rakes. Be sure to buy three of each." When he brought them to me, I told him to take one of the hoes, and Father another. Father objected, but took one. Taking one myself, we began to work; and although I blistered my hands, I led them in the hoeing. Father could not do much, but he went through the motions. It was by such methods as these that I tried to cooperate with God in restoring my husband to health.--Manuscript 50, 1902 (see also Selected Messages 2:307).
Rather triumphantly James White reported on Tuesday, June 18, that he harnessed his horses and went to town on business and brought home materials for the builders (The Review and Herald, June 25, 1867). Sabbath, June 29, he and Ellen met with the church in Fairplains. He spoke in the morning for an hour and a half on baptism, and in the afternoon for an hour on Galatians 6:6, 7,on reaping what one sows. Ellen followed, speaking for an hour. The next morning he led four candidates into the nearby lake and baptized them. Willie was one of the four. James took Brother King into the water with him in case he needed assistance, but he needed none. On the preceding Thursday and Friday he had engaged in the activities about the farm and the new home going up. He wrote:
Fifth- and Sixth-days I was able to prepare a farm wagon with wooden springs, go to town for lumber, to the woods for wood, and on Sixth-day P.M. was one of two to handle nearly three thousand feet of heavy lumber just from the river. I stood upon my feet handling this lumber more than two hours in the hot sun. I was just tired enough to sleep well all night and feel well the next morning. To God be the praise.
We shall soon go out prepared to hold meetings, Providence permitting, where the way opens. We find it quite easy speaking and singing.--The Review and Herald, July 9, 1867.
On Thursday, July 4, they drove over to Wright and took breakfast under the shade of two large oak trees in a beautiful grove. For their breakfast they had strawberries from their own plants set out only five weeks before.
Thoughts on Revelation
At this time they received from the express office fifty copies of Uriah Smith's Thoughts on Revelation, just published in Battle Creek. Of this precious addition to the literature of the church James wrote:
These thoughts are not the fruit of one brain.... William Miller saw much. Others since have seen more. And as this open book contains more which bears directly upon the present truth than any other book of the Bible, its clearest light is reserved for believers in the time of the third message.--Ibid., July 16, 1867
This book grew out of a series of Review articles started by James White in 1862 as he sat in Smith's Sabbath school class in Battle Creek. By their choice the class was studying Revelation. At about midway, as White was called away, the work of writing was picked up by Smith. In the July article that mentioned the Smith book, the Review readers were informed:
Mrs. White's health is excellent, and I am still making up lost time in sleeping, which is relieving my head. With my present labor, mental and physical, in the heat of midsummer, and the loss of teeth and of blood when they were extracted, I think I fully hold my own. With God's blessing I hope to gain faster in the future. The field of usefulness is open before us and we hope to have strength to stand side by side in the good work.--Ibid.
Getting in the Hay
The work of recovery continued at a steady but slow pace. Thursday and Friday, July 18 and 19, were busy days for James White, for it was time to get in the hay. He arranged with the neighbors to cut the hay, and expected to invite them to help him get it in. But Ellen saw a good opportunity to draw her husband into further activity. While the hay was drying she slipped away and visited the neighbors. Through inquiry she learned that they were pressed with their own work but were planning to help James get his hay in. To each she said, "When he sends for you, tell him what you have just told me, that you are pressed with your own work and it is not convenient to leave your own work, as you will suffer loss if you do" (see 2Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 357). The neighbors were very reluctant to do this, but when she explained her plan to encourage James in activity, they agreed to cooperate. The story is told in several places, but here is the account as related in Life Sketches of James and Ellen White, published in 1888:
When the call was made for help, all the neighbors declared themselves too busy to respond. It was necessary that the hay be secured at once, and Elder White was sorely disappointed. But Mrs. White was not at all despondent; she resolutely said: "Let us show the neighbors that we can attend to the work ourselves. Willie and I will rake the hay and pitch it on the wagon, if you will load it and drive the team." To this he consented; but how could they make the stack?
The farm was new, and they had no barn. Mrs. White volunteered to build the stack, if her husband would pitch up the hay, while Willie should be raking for another load.--Ibid.
Some of the neighbors, as they passed by, were surprised to see Ellen White, the woman who spoke each week to a houseful of people, treading down the hay and building the stack. Reporting his activities for this week, James wrote: "I have worked from six to twelve hours each day, and have enjoyed blessed sleep from six to nine hours each night.... My work has been haying, plowing, grading about the house, hoeing, and putting down carpets."--The Review and Herald, July 30, 1867.
Meetings at Bushnell
That Friday afternoon, July 19, James and Ellen White left with their team for Bushnell to attend weekend meetings for which an appointment had been made through a notice on the back page of the Review published on Tuesday, July 16. Neither had ever been to Bushnell, but the elder of the Greenville church, A. W. Maynard, and the elder of the Orleans church, S. H. King, had suggested a grove meeting at Bushnell, where there was a struggling group of believers. The notice read in part:
Grove Meeting. Providence permitting, there will be a grove meeting at Bushnell, Michigan, at the usual hours of meeting on Sabbath and First-day, July 20 and 21. A general gathering is expected from those within a day's ride....
The best grove nearest to the water should be selected and well seated. As this young church is small, those coming must come nearly prepared to take care of themselves.--Ibid., July 16, 1867
As the dwindling company of discouraged Sabbathkeepers at Bushnell had met the previous Sabbath morning, July 13, only seven were present, and they had decided to hold no more meetings (The Signs of the Times, August 29, 1878). But the notice in the Review led them to get word around for at least one more meeting, the next Sabbath, and proper preparations were made in a suitable nearby grove. James and Ellen White, who drove over on Friday afternoon, were entertained at the Stephen Alchin home at Bushnell. Sabbath morning, as they drove to the grove, they found about sixty believers on the grounds, twenty of them from Bushnell. The others were from Greenville and Orleans.
While driving to the grove Sunday morning, James White remarked that likely he would preach to the trees and probably twenty-five persons. To their surprise, they found no less than 125 attentive listeners. The meeting was a great success. The Bushnell members, taking courage, asked James and Ellen White to return for meetings the next Sabbath and Sunday (The Review and Herald, July 30, 1867).
The Unforgettable Meeting the Next Sabbath
Accordingly, all the Sabbathkeepers were on the grounds Sabbath morning. After James White had spoken, Ellen, Bible in hand, began to speak from a text of Scripture and then paused. Laying her Bible aside, she began to address those who had accepted the Sabbath in that place. She was not acquainted with them and did not know their names, but she addressed a number of persons. James White described it:
She designated each brother and sister by his or her position as the one by that tree, or the one sitting by that brother or sister of the Greenville or Orleans church, with whom she was personally acquainted, and whom she called by name.
She described each peculiar case, stating that the Lord had shown her their cases two years previous [most likely in the vision at Rochester], and that, while she was just then speaking from the Bible, that view had flashed over her mind, like sudden lightning in a dark night distinctly revealing every object around.--The Signs of the Times, August 29, 1878.
She spoke for about an hour, addressing different ones. When she had concluded, Brother Strong, who knew each member of the Bushnell company personally, arose and asked those addressed by Ellen White if the things she had spoken about to them were true. "Either these things were true or they were not; if they were not true he, and all present, wished to know it; and if they were true they also wished to know it, and from that day have a settled faith in the testimonies."--Ibid. The report is that "the persons thus addressed accordingly arose one by one, and testified that their cases had been described better than they could have done it themselves."--Ibid. Commented James White:
It was not enough for that intelligent company to know that the testimony given that day was correct in the majority of cases present, but it was necessary that it be proven correct in every particular of the case of each person, in order that their faith should be fully established. Had the testimony failed in a single instance, it would have destroyed the faith of all present. As it was, they had a settled faith from that hour, and all took their position on the third message.--Ibid.
Sunday morning there was a baptism, and the Bushnell church was organized and officers chosen. In the years that followed, several workers in the cause came from that church.
Each weekend James and Ellen White were at one of the churches within easy driving distance of Greenville. During the week they were on their little farm, James working outside, and Ellen engaged in writing.