Although Ellen White ministered successfully at the camp meetings in Melbourne and Hobart, it was against great odds. Her health had been so poor through the preceding four months that only in the strength God gave her did she dare to venture to attend. There were also problems she was called to face of which others had little knowledge, problems within her working family. "I could not possibly relate," she wrote to Edson, "the suffering of mind while attending the camp meeting at Melbourne."--Letter 123a, 1895. The problem lay in the changeable moods, erratic course, and unfaithfulness of Miss Fannie Bolton, the secretary who had replaced Sara McEnterfer at the last minute as the Whites left America; she assisted in preparing Ellen G. White articles for the journals of the church.
Ellen White had not thought to take Fannie with her on this camp meeting tour, but Fannie insisted on going and promised that the trip would bring very little break in her work. Reluctantly, her employer consented. But things did not work out as Fannie had promised. Soon she became involved in the children's meetings, and then there followed a resumption of an old attitude that in her work for Ellen White she was not being given proper recognition. Added to this was a courtship developing between Fannie and W. F. Caldwell, the man who in 1893 had come from America with the message that the Seventh-day Adventist Church had become Babylon. After a change of heart he had been employed by Ellen White, but with his long stay overseas, his non-Adventist wife had divorced him on grounds of desertion.
Ellen White Employs Fannie Bolton
Fannie had been invited to join Ellen White's staff in 1887. The daughter of a Methodist minister, Fannie was brought into the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Chicago through the evangelistic efforts of G. B. Starr and his wife. At the time, she was a correspondent for the Chicago Daily Inter Ocean. She received her literary training at the ladies' seminary at Evanston, Illinois (DF 445, G. B. Starr to L. E. Froom, March 19, 1933), and seemed well fitted for a promising future. Starr and others gave her a hearty recommendation for work on Ellen White's staff, and although she was just barely acquainted with Ellen White and W. C. White, she was employed upon Ellen White's return from Europe. She was to fit in where needed, but her work was to be largely in preparing Ellen White's materials in article form for the Review and Herald, Signs of the Times, and the Youth's Instructor. She traveled west with the White group and resided with them in the White home in Healdsburg, California. W. C. White reported that Fannie "proved to be brilliant and entertaining, and although somewhat erratic at times, was loved by the other members of the family." He and a later secretary, D. E. Robinson, explained the character of her work:
The Character of Fannie Bolton's Work
It was explained to Miss Bolton, as was made clear to other workers who shared a part in the copying and correcting of Mrs. White's writings for publication, that the matters revealed to Mrs. White in vision were not a word-for-word narration of events with their lessons, but that they were generally flashlight or panoramic views of various scenes in the experiences of men, sometimes in the past, and sometimes in the future, together with the lessons connected with these experiences. At times views were revealed to her of the actions of men in groups, of churches, conferences, and of multitudes in action, with a clear perception of their purposes, aims, and motives. Sometimes verbal instruction was given regarding what was thus revealed. Very prominent among these revelations were precious truths and facts relating to the duty, privileges, and the dangers and errors of the church, of committees, or of individuals.
Miss Bolton learned that the things revealed to Mrs. White were sometimes written out immediately after the vision, and that other things were not spoken of or written out till a long time afterward.
She was told that Mrs. White, in her earnest endeavor to present all that had been shown her on the great number of important subjects, was often led to repeat portions of the matter she sought to present; also that the grammatical construction of sentences was sometimes faulty, for in her haste in writing, she often paid little attention to spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. She expected these imperfections to be carefully corrected by the copyist.
In cases where paragraphs and sentences lost some of their power because of imperfect arrangement, Mrs. White's secretaries were instructed to make transpositions, leaving out what was clearly a repetition, when preparing matter for the printer. In the cases of letters to individuals, the repetition of important thoughts would often tend to make them more effective.
It was made emphatic that only Mrs. White's thoughts were to be used, and also her own words as far as grammatically consistent in expressing those thoughts. In no case was the copyist given the privilege of introducing thoughts not found in Mrs. White's manuscripts.-- Ibid., WCW and D. E. Robinson, "The Work of Mrs. E. G. White's Editors," pp. 3, 4.
With enthusiasm Fannie entered into her work on the E. G. White periodical articles, editing and copying. But in time she became restless and entertained the thought that she was not being given proper credit for what she was doing. The records of just what took place are sparse, but it is clear that again and again feelings of discontent and dissatisfaction swept over her that unfitted her for her assigned task.
After engaging in this work for a year or two, she told Ellen White that "she desired to write herself, and could not consent that her talent should be buried up in the work of preparing" E. G. White's "articles for the papers or books. She felt she was full of matter and had talent she must put to use in writing which she could not do" while connected with her present work (Letter 88, 1894). She was released, and attended classes at the university at Ann Arbor.
Ellen White Took Fannie to Australia
Learning in 1891 that Ellen White was to go to Australia, Fannie Bolton contacted her former employer, who reported:
In Battle Creek, Fannie pleaded hard with tears to come with me to engage with me in the work of preparing articles for the papers. She declared she had met with a great change, and was not at all the person she was when she told me she desired to write herself.--Ibid.
As Sara McEnterfer was ill when the White party was to leave, and could not go, Ellen White rather reluctantly accepted Fannie Bolton to accompany her, to report her sermons and assist in preparing her articles. Writing of this later, she recounted:
Just before coming to this country, in order to help Fannie, I consented to make another trial after she had given me the assurance ... that her feelings in regard to the work had wholly changed. I followed my best judgment, hoping she had gained wisdom from God and would really love the work.
I knew that she was naturally unbalanced in mind, but thought that through the light given of God, the appeal constantly made presenting definite reproofs to some and general reproofs to others, she would learn the lessons that it was her privilege to learn, and become strengthened in character. Thus she would obtain wisdom to prepare the precious matter placed in her hands, so that it might work for the saving of her soul as well as the souls of others.--Letter 7, 1894.
Unfortunately, after working for a while in Australia, the old feelings that she was not receiving proper public acknowledgment of her contributions in Ellen White's work returned, and relationships between the two became strained.
E. G. White Warned in Vision
Late in 1893, during the last month of her stay in New Zealand, Ellen White was shown in vision Fannie Bolton and certain temptations along the line of personal ambition and pride to which she was succumbing. Of this she wrote:
Not long before I left New Zealand, while in camp meeting, it was represented to me. We were gathered in a room of quite a company, and Fannie was saying some things in regard to the great amount of work coming from her hands. She said, "I cannot work in this way. I am putting my mind and life into this work, and yet the ones who make it what it is are sunk out of sight, and Sister White gets the credit for the work." ...
A voice spoke to me, "Beware and not place your dependence upon Fannie to prepare articles or to make books.... She is your adversary.... She is not true to her duty, yet flatters herself she is doing a very important work."--Letter 59, 1894.
Fannie had apparently been talking in this vein over a period of a number of months (Letter 88, 1894).
A few weeks later at the Brighton camp meeting held early in 1894, Fannie Bolton talked with her friends and at times with new believers concerning the difficulties attending her work, and of the faulty way in which some of Ellen White's manuscripts were written. She dwelt upon the "great improvements" made by the editors as they handled the materials, and belittled Ellen White's work. Again she expressed her decided conviction that the talents of the copyists should receive public recognition.
Writing of this to her son W. C. White on February 6, 1894, Ellen White declared:
I want not her life, or words, or ideas in these articles. And the sooner this bubble is burst, the better for all concerned.... I have now no knowledge of how we shall come out, and what I shall do. I am afraid that Fannie cannot be trusted....
If she has done the work as she has represented to other minds she has done, so that she thinks credit should be given her for her talent brought into my writings, then it is time that this firm is dissolved.
If she has done this work, which she has represented to others has been as much her talent, her production of ideas and construction of sentences, as mine, and in "beautiful language," then she has done a work I have urged again and again should not be done.... And she is unworthy of any connection with this work.--Ibid.
The day before, in writing to O. A. Olsen, who was just then in Australia, Ellen White told of how a voice spoke to her:
Beware and not place your dependence upon Fannie to prepare articles or to make books. She cuts out words that should appear, and places her own ideas and words in their stead, and because she had done this she has become deceived, deluded, and is deceiving and deluding others. She is your adversary.--Letter 59, 1894.
In a letter to Fannie February 6, Ellen White declared:
Every time I can distinguish a word of yours, my pen crosses it out. I have so often told you that your words and ideas must not take the place of the words and ideas given me of God.--Letter 7, 1894.
Discharged from Ellen White's Service
The situation was so critical that Ellen White found she must discharge Miss Bolton from her employ, and do so at once. She wrote Fannie:
The writings given you, you have handled as an indifferent matter, and have often spoken of them in a manner to depreciate them in the estimation of others....
I mean now for your own good that you shall never have another opportunity of being tempted to do as you have done in the past. From the light given me of the Lord, you are not appreciating the opportunities which you have had abundantly, to be instructed and to bring the solid timbers into your character building. The work in which you have been engaged has been regarded as a sort of drudgery, and it is hard for you to take hold of it with the right spirit, and to weave your prayers into your work, feeling that it is a matter of importance to preserve a spirit wholly in harmony with the Spirit of God. Because of this lack, you are not a safe and acceptable worker....
You have come to think that you were the one to whom credit should be given for the value of the matter that comes from your hands. I have had warnings concerning this, but could not see how I could come to the very point to say, "Go, Fannie," for then you plead, "Where shall I go?" and I try you again.--Ibid.
On receiving this letter from Ellen White, Miss Bolton wrote a humble confession in which she acknowledged:
The bottom of all my trouble has been self, and that is satanic. I would keenly regret ever having had an association with the work, only that I still believe that God will work it for good....
It is very clear that I did not have the exalted sense of its sacredness which I should have had. I have felt that I needed human sympathy and recognition, and this has led me to talk to others what I had to do to the work. This was self, of course, yet I must say what is only the truth, that I never cast a doubt upon the inspiration of the work. I have always declared and believed the testimonies, and have never felt to doubt their divine origin....
My faith in the testimonies is stronger today than ever, and I feel that I want to put my whole influence on the side of upbuilding the faith of God's people in this great and sacred work.--DF 445b, Fannie Bolton to EGW, February 9, 1894.
On the advice of her fellow workers, Ellen White consented to give Fannie another trial. Later she wrote that Fannie's repentance was "short-lived" (Letter 102, 1895).
Now, almost two years later at the Armadale camp meeting, with old friends and acquaintances, history repeated itself. This time Ellen White dismissed Fannie Bolton from her employ. In a letter to Marian Davis back at Granville, she reported:
Fannie represented that she and Marian had brought all the talent and sharpness into my books, yet you were both ignored and set aside, and all the credit came to me.
She had underscored some words in a book, Christian Temperance, "beautiful words," she called them, and said that she had put in those words, they were hers. If this were the truth, I ask, Who told her to put in her words in my writings? She has, if her own statement is correct, been unfaithful to me.
Sister Prescott, however, says that in the providence of God that very article came to them (Brother and Sister Prescott) uncopied and in my own handwriting, and that these very words were in that letter. So Fannie's statement regarding these words is proved to be untrue.
She added:
If after this meeting Fannie shall come to Granville, you must not put one line of anything I have written into her hands, or read a line to her of the "Life of Christ." I would not have any (advice) from her. I am disconnected from Fannie because God requires it, and my own heart requires it. I am sorry for Fannie.--Letter 102, 1895.
To her son Edson she wrote:
Fannie Bolton is disconnected with me entirely. I would not think of employing her any longer. She has misrepresented me and hurt me terribly. Only in connection with my work has she hurt me.
She has reported to others that she has the same as made over my articles, that she has put her whole soul into them, and I had the credit of the ability she had given to these writings. Well, this is the fifth time this breaking out has come.
It is something similar to the outbreak of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, only she has not those to unite with her because they know me and my work. She goes not only to those who believe and know me to tell her story but she goes to those newly come to the faith and tells her imaginative story. The same sentiment is expressed as in Numbers 16:3.--Letter 123a, 1895.
Again Fannie wrote a heartfelt confession to Ellen White, five pages of contrition and repentance that closed with the appeal "O do let me be a channel, if it be ever so hidden. Do let me be a worker, if it be in ever so humble a spot. Now, while I make this request, I do it with all submission to the will of God. I am not worthy to ask anything of the kind. Do with me as it seems best."--DF 445a, Fannie Bolton to EGW, October 31, 1895. But writing of Fannie to Marian Davis, Ellen White declared:
I am now relieved from this fitful, skyrocket experience. She seems to swell up into such large measurements of herself, full of self-sufficiency, full of her own capabilities, and from the light God has been pleased to give me she is my adversary, and has been thus throughout her connection with me.--Letter 22a, 1895.
She recounted former warnings regarding Fannie's connection with her work, and her mistaken judgment in the course she should follow. She wrote somewhat in finality:
Two years ago He revealed to me that Fannie was my adversary, and would vex my soul and weaken my hands, but I was so anxious to get out things that I thought the people needed. Then came other trials in New South Wales, one after another [so] that I was not able to bear it.
Oh, If I had only heeded the instruction given of God and let no other voice or influence come in to leave me in uncertainty, I might have been saved this last terrible, heart-sickening trial.... I hope the Lord will forgive me and have mercy upon me, but to try this matter again is out of the question. I am willing her talent shall be exercised for all it is worth, but it will never be in connection with me. I have served my time with Fannie Bolton.--Ibid.
So she conjectured. But there was a factor she had not taken into consideration. Some months later the Lord called it to her attention.
Fannie planned to return to the United States, but was prevented from doing so by a rather prolonged illness. She stayed for a while at the home of Pastor Stephen McCullagh in Melbourne, and then decided to visit Cooranbong. In response to a telegram from her, Ellen White arranged to have her met at nine o'clock at night at the Morisset railway station and taken to the Shannon home. There, under the tender and discerning care of Sara McEnterfer, who gave her hydrotherapy treatments, Fannie's health began to improve. A whole year had passed since the Melbourne experience.
A Unique Vision
Then while Ellen White was visiting Elder and Mrs. Starr in Sydney, a very unusual experience came to her. Not only the message given to her merits a place in this account, but also the manner in which Ellen White received the light--a vision in which she was fully conscious. Of this she wrote:
Friday, March 20, I arose early, about half past three o'clock in the morning. While [I was] writing upon the fifteenth chapter of John, suddenly a wonderful peace came upon me. The whole room seemed to be filled with the atmosphere of heaven. A holy, sacred presence seemed to be in my room. I laid down my pen and was in a waiting attitude to see what the Spirit would say unto me. I saw no person. I heard no audible voice, but a heavenly watcher seemed close beside me. I felt that I was in the presence of Jesus.
The sweet peace and light which seemed to be in my room ... is impossible for me to explain or describe. A sacred, holy atmosphere surrounded me, and there was presented to my mind and understanding matters of intense interest and importance. A line of action was laid out before me as if the unseen presence was speaking with me. The matter I had been writing upon seemed to be lost to my mind and another matter distinctly opened before me. A great awe seemed to be upon me as matters were imprinted upon my mind.
The question was, "What have you done with the request of Fannie Bolton? You have not erred in disconnecting with her. This was the right thing for you to do, and this would bring to her mind conviction and remorse which she must have. She has been tempted, deceived, and almost destroyed. Notwithstanding her perversity of spirit, I have thoughts of mercy and compassion for her....
"Take this poor deluded soul by the hand, surround her with a favorable influence if possible. If she separates now from you, Satan's net is prepared for her feet. She is not in a condition to be left to herself.... She feels regret and remorse. I am her Redeemer; I will restore her if she will not exalt and honor and glorify herself. If she goes from you now, there is a chain of circumstances which will bring her into difficulties which will be for her ruin....
"You are not to wait for evidence of transformation of character. The Holy Spirit alone can do this work, and mold and fashion this child's experience after the divine similitude. She has not power, if left to herself, to control a temperament that is always a snare to her, unless she keeps in the love of God, unless she humbles herself under the hand of God, and learns daily the meekness and lowliness of Christ."--Manuscript 12c, 1896.
To this instruction Ellen White responded:
I ... shall work accordingly. I have taken Fannie to my home here at Sunnyside, Avondale, Cooranbong. I shall do all I can to help her heavenward.--Ibid.
Fannie Given Another Trial
Ellen White fitted up a room for Fannie in her new Sunnyside home and took her in. There, with continued treatment, her health improved. Then in response to the instruction outlined in the vision that she should be given another trial, Mrs. White put copy in her hands as in the past. She began on an article and then brought it back to Ellen White, telling her that she could not possibly do the work, and expressed the conviction that she should return to America. When she said this, Ellen White felt she now was free. It was Fannie's decision. Of the experience, she later wrote:
I now see why I was directed to give Fannie another trial. There were those who misunderstood me because of Fannie's misrepresentations. These were watching to see what course I would take in regard to her. They would have represented that I had abused poor Fannie Bolton. In following the directions to take her back, I took away all occasion for criticism from those who were ready to condemn me.--Letter 61, 1900.
On May 10, 1896, Fannie Bolton took passage on the Victoria of the P. & O. S.S. Line, from Sydney to London. On shipboard she wrote to Ellen White:
I realize to some degree how unworthy I am, but "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners," and this comforts me, and by the power of His grace alone, I hope for salvation. I know your prayers will follow me. Thank you again for your patience and kindness and mercy to me. I go home with much lighter heart than I could have done before this.--DF 445, Fannie Bolton to EGW, May 14, 1896.
Fannie Bolton Explains her Editorial Work
In letters, one to an acquaintance written in Australia and another a "confession" addressed to "Dear Brethren in the Truth," penned after returning to the United States, Fannie Bolton spoke truthfully concerning the work done by those who assisted Ellen White in her work. Here are a few paragraphs from the two statements. The first was written November 11, 1894, to a Miss Malcolm:
Concerning the matter of which I have written to you before, I will say that there is no reason why you or anyone else should be thrown into perplexity. Sister White is the prophet of the Lord for the remnant church, and though the Lord has seen fit to choose one for this work who is not proficient in grammar and rhetoric, and this lack is supplied by others, yet she is responsible for every thought, for every expression, in her writings. Every manuscript that is edited goes back to her for examination, and this work committed to those who have been called to labor in this branch is not done without prayer and consecration.
"The word of the Lord" comes to her; but if in [the word's] passing through the human channel, the human imperfection in education leaves its impress, why should it be a perplexity if God should lay upon another the trifling duty of putting the subject of a sentence in harmony with its verb, or the number or gender of a thing mentioned in harmony with the fact that determines the number and gender? There are many ways of expressing the same thought. We may say, "Sit down," "Take a chair": "The sun shines," "It is a bright day," "The atmosphere is illuminated," and not mar the thought in using different words.
Now as far as changing Sister White's expressions are concerned, I can say that just as far as it is consistent with grammar and rhetoric, her expressions are left intact.--DF 445b, Fannie Bolton to Miss Malcolm, November 11, 1894.
Seven years later, in 1901, she wrote:
The editors in no wise change Sister White's expression if it is grammatically correct, and is an evident expression of the evident thought. Sister White, as human instrumentality, has a pronounced style of her own, which is preserved all through her books and articles, that stamps the matter with her individuality.
Many times her manuscript does not need any editing, often but slight editing, and again, a great deal of literary work; but article or chapter, whatever has been done upon it, is passed back into her hands by the editor, and the Spirit of Prophecy then appropriates the matter, and it becomes, when approved, the chosen expression of the Spirit of God.--DF 445a, "A Confession Concerning the Testimony of Jesus Christ," written in early 1901 to "Dear Brethren in the Truth."
The Long-range Harvest of Falsehood and Misrepresentation
But the seed had been sown in Australia. Of the harvest, Ellen White wrote on April 11, 1897, to Fannie, who was in Battle Creek:
My Sister Fannie Bolton: The work which you have done here in Australia has yielded a harvest which is widespread.... You claimed that it was your superior talent that made the articles what they were. I know this to be a falsehood, for I know my own writings....
Brother McCullagh has reported your words of information given him from house to house, saying that I have very little to do in getting out the books purported to come from my pen, that I had picked out all I had written from other books, and that those who prepared my articles, yourself in particular, made the matter that was published....
You can see by this what a harvest your leaven of falsehood and misrepresentation have produced.... I will say that much of the time that you were in Australia, you surely did not know what manner of spirit you were of. Satanic agencies have been working through Fannie Bolton.--Letter 25, 1897.
In response to this very plain message, Miss Bolton replied to Ellen White on July 5, 1897, and, following an extended confession, declared:
My eyes are open to the way in which I hurt your work, for my spirit was not right. The enemy had magnified my supposed difficulties, and though I did not realize what I was doing, he knew exactly what he intended to do through me, but by the grace of God he has lost his tool....
As to the testimony you sent of my feelings, faults, errors, and ignorance of my attitude, I say it is true, true to the core.
In her closing paragraphs she asked a question and made a statement:
Do you think it can be possible for you to give me a place in your heart now? Can you think kindly toward me? Will you ever be able to repose any confidence in me as a friend? ...
I do not know whatever made me make such a blunder as to insist on going with you to Australia, or of insisting over and over after repeated failures; but I am warned not to undertake a place of so great responsibility. I dare not do it, for it has been proved over and over that I am as weak as water, and I think the decision of the testimony [that Fannie should never work for her again] was wise.--DF 445a.
This pattern of falsifications and subsequent confessions continued for a number of years, including statements circulated particularly in Battle Creek that she had written Steps to Christ and, at Ellen White's bidding, certain of the testimonies she sent out. [Note: Those desiring further information regarding fannie Bolton's connection with Ellen White may secure it from the Ellen G. White Estate at the cost of duplication and mailing.] Such reports brought perplexity and concern to those unfamiliar with the facts in the case. The fears expressed by some who knew her well, that Fannie Bolton was unbalanced in mind, were confirmed when she was admitted to mental institutions on several occasions.
In 1900, four years after Fannie returned to the United States, Ellen White made the following cogent observation:
Wherein do my articles in the papers now differ from what they were when Fannie was with me? Who is it that now puts in words to supply the deficiencies of my language, my deplorable ignorance? How was this done before Fannie Bolton had anything to do with my writings? Cannot people who have reason see this? If Fannie supplied my great deficiency, how is it that I can now send articles to the papers?--Letter 61a, 1900.