The day has opened beautifully," wrote Ellen White in her diary on the morning of January 1, 1896. "Eighteen hundred ninety-five has passed into eternity with its burden of record. A new year has opened upon us, and there are no changes we can make in the old year."--Manuscript 61, 1896.
It was midsummer as the year opened in the Southern Hemisphere, and some of the days were oppressively hot. The land breeze seemed as from a furnace.
Work on the Sunnyside home was nearing completion, but the hammering, sawing, and painting were not conducive to writing.
W. C. White, in writing to O. A. Olsen on January 19, described the Sunnyside residence as constructed so it could eventually serve as an office building for Ellen White's staff:
Mother's house, when completed, will contain eleven rooms. The main building is 32 x 32, with a veranda in the front, and a hall running through the center. There are four rooms about 12 x 12, and upstairs there are four more nearly as large. Back of the main building there is a lean-to, 14 x 22, intended for a kitchen. This much of the house is plastered and therefore will be quite cool and comfortable. Mother decides to use the back room for a dining room, and so is having an addition 16 x 22 feet attached to the dining room, which will be divided up into a kitchen, bathroom, and storeroom. We expect the carpenters to complete their work this week, then we shall get settled.--9 WCW, p. 117.
Her often repeated resolutions to have a small cottage and to live somewhat in isolation was largely wishful thinking for her literary work demanded that she be surrounded with helpers, and she must provide for their housing and working space.
The Contented Working Family at Sunnyside
In a letter to Miss Emily Campbell, W. C. White described the situation at Sunnyside:
Mother is comfortably located in her new house, and has the best corps of workers that has ever been grouped around her.
Sister Davis is working on the "Life of Christ," and smaller books which will come out in connection with it. Sister Burnham is working on Christian Temperance, and articles for the papers. Sister Maggie Hare is working on letters and articles for the papers. Sister May Israel divides her time between bookkeeping and copying for Miss Davis. Sister Belden is housekeeper, with Edith Ward as assistant. Sister Lucas is dressmaker, and Minnie Hawkins has just begun regular work as copyist for Miss Burnham, and to learn other lines of the work. Brother M. A. Cornell is man of all work, with Edgar Hollingsworth as assistant and chore boy.
Mother is getting along nicely with her book work, and I am more and more thankful that she is located in a quiet place, where she will not be so much interrupted as heretofore.--9 WCW, p. 503.
She closely watched agricultural developments. As summer wore on, she was able to write on February 3 of the garden, which she reported was doing well. She added:
We have the testimony that with care taken of the trees and vegetables in the dry season, we shall have good results. Our trees are doing well.... I can testify by experience that false witness has been borne of this land. On the school ground, they have tomatoes, squashes, potatoes, and melons.... We know the land will do well with proper care.--Letter 10, 1896.
There was also the flower garden. On February 10 she got up at half past four, and at five o'clock was at work "spading up the ground and preparing to set out my flowers. I worked one hour alone, then Edith Ward and Ella May White united with me, and we planted our flowers."--Manuscript 62, 1896. Then followed the setting out of twenty-eight tomato plants. The bell ringing for morning prayers and breakfast brought these activities to a close. In her diary she wrote: "I think I have received no harm from my vigorous exercise, but feel better for the work done." She added, "After breakfast I read manuscript--two short chapters on the life of Christ."--Ibid. In fact, she was devoting a good deal of time to her last reading of the finished chapters that would soon be sent to the publishers. The next morning she was in the orchard, "tying up the trees. A tuft of grass is put between the stake and the trees so that the tree shall not be marred."--Ibid.
Consulting with W. W. Prescott
Professor Prescott made an extended visit to Cooranbong, invited there to give counsel about establishing the new school. On Tuesday afternoon, February 11, he came to Sunnyside to see Ellen White. "We had a long talk," she wrote. "We would see some matters in a clearer light. The problem of studies in our school was canvassed."--Ibid. The diary record indicates that this visit was followed by others:
Wednesday, February 12: Rode to Cooranbong.... Brother and Sister Prescott rode up with us.
Thursday, February 13: Awoke in the morning at four o'clock. Commenced writing. Found some special writings dated 1874 [the year the first SDA college was established]; very important instruction in them. I am writing out some things upon education to go in the next mail....
In the afternoon Professor Prescott and wife again visited me in my room. We had a long talk in regard to the management of school matters.
As questions were asked, the Holy Spirit revived many things in my mind, and I could tell them the way many matters concerning our educational interest had been presented to me.
We are to lay the situation of dearth of means before the whole school and then make known the Lord's plan as presented to me. In place of devoting time to inventing amusements to use their muscles, they can strengthen nerves and muscles to good
advantage in the work that needs to be done on the school grounds. If we shall be compelled to hire the work done, the price of tuition must be increased.
Every student may consider it to be his privilege to have a part in saving means they would pay for hiring work done that [they] themselves can do. Earning their expenses is to be considered a part of their education. Every student is to exercise brain and bone and muscle. Here is the education of the whole man, right on the ground--an education essential for all, for there is work for all to do.--Ibid.
The Prescott visit to Cooranbong buoyed up Ellen White's spirits, and in mid-March she wrote to Edson: "I am only too thankful to report that Professor Prescott's testimony is that of all the places where our schools have been located, none seems to be as favorable as this place."--Letter 147, 1896. Yet with the scarcity of money--and with litigation unnecessarily instigated by a legal firm employed in obtaining proper registration of the transaction that would put the land in the name of the General Conference Association--time went on with little visible progress in getting the school under way.
One means of getting the enterprise under way while conserving funds was the purchase of a sawmill. They found it idle in Sydney, available for £300, or about half its value. It was now cutting lumber from timber on the estate, and tallow wood for floors. (9 WCW, p. 201).
The principles under which they hoped to start the new school in Australia were a little different from those commonly held. It was therefore desirable to orient the thinking of those who would carry on the educational program when the school finally opened. W. W. Prescott was an experienced educator and in full sympathy with the principles set forth in the Spirit of Prophecy. He was also an effective evangelist. So it was decided to hold a month-long institute for teachers at Avondale. Notice for it was given in the March 23 Bible Echo under the heading "An Institute at Avondale for Teachers, Ministers, and Bible Workers."
A forty-foot camp meeting tent was brought onto the ground, and institute work began on Thursday, March 26. Many who came brought their own tents, bedding, and cooking utensils. Ellen White had the Sabbath-morning service and spoke frequently through the four weeks of the institute, emphasizing fundamental principles of Christian education.
The large round tent on the Avondale grounds, with the six family tents neatly pitched nearby, gave the appearance of a small camp meeting and attracted the attention of the community. Not a few came in, especially to the evening meetings, which were given an evangelistic turn. Ellen White reported:
Those not of our faith were in attendance all through the meeting. After the first meeting they came with their Bibles and answered the questions with the rest. I generally spoke once in the day. Unbelievers say they knew more about what the Scriptures contained, and they were highly pleased.--Letter 168, 1896.
As the institute progressed, attendance increased, and Ellen White reported in a letter to Haskell: "The very best class of the community have come out to hear. We have been made glad to see families attending these meetings. They are as sheep without a shepherd." She continued:
Last Sunday night the constable came to the meeting. He saw some of the brethren and told them that some boys designed to cut the ropes of the tent, and he was watching them. But the constable and the boys listened with deep attention, as if afraid they would lose one word, as did also the postmaster, the schoolteachers from Cooranbong and Dora Creek, and a number of other outsiders.--Letter 36, 1896.
As the institute came to a close, it was decided to leave the large tent standing for a time and to hold weekend meetings, in which Elder Starr and Ellen White led out. On June 1 she could write of one family at Dora Creek that had embraced the truth from attending the meetings and reading The Great Controversy (Letter 167, 1896). Others were deeply interested in the message.
The Birth of Twin Grandsons
If W. C. White and even Ellen White had their attention diverted from the institute for a few hours, it was not to be wondered at, for on Sunday night, April 6, May White gave birth to twin sons. We will let the proud grandmother give the report:
Last night about ten o'clock, Sara came into my room full of excitement and glad surprise. Mrs. May Lacey White presented to her husband a pair of twin boys. The mother is doing well. She had a midwife--a good, intelligent, motherly woman--and Sara McEnterfer.... Both mother and babies are doing well.--Letter 137, 1896.
Ellen White rejoiced, for "at one time," she wrote, "it appeared that the White family, if time lasted much longer, would become extinct, but when these two boys came into the family, the prospect seemed more encouraging."--Letter 119, 1896.
In the days and weeks that followed, Ellen White made frequent mention of the healthy babies, "hearty, hungry little fellows" (Letter 121, 1896), and their steady development.
An Appeal to the Wessels Family for Money
The work at Avondale was at a standstill, mainly for lack of funds. On April 29 Ellen White wrote to the Wessels family in Africa, pleading for help:
I wish to write you a few lines, asking you to lend me £1000. At the present time we are greatly in need of a building for school purposes. On account of the lack of means, we may not be able to carry out the plans designed by Brother Sisley, but if you will lend us the money I ask, we can commence at once to erect a plain, economical building.... It would be a great mistake [to stop] the work on the school building for a year.... Are you able to loan us £1000, and can you send it direct to us? ... If you can send the money, I will give you my note for the same, only asking you to make the interest as low as you can afford.... Would you know how you can best please your Saviour? It is by putting your money to the exchangers, to be used in the Lord's service and to advance His work.--Letter 107, 1896.
In another letter she told of how "the word of the Lord" came to her, "'Send to Africa for help. I have entrusted my stewards there with means, and I will move upon their hearts to trade upon My entrusted talents.'"--Letter 114, 1896.
Although money was scarce, the land yielded its crops in such abundance and good quality that Ellen White could write, "We are all convinced that this is the place where we should locate."--Letter 107, 1896. Now she would wait for a response, a response that could assure progress.
In the meantime the program of writing and of ministering in the community continued. "I am so glad I am here," she wrote on May 3. They were calling for her to return to America, but "Not yet, not yet" was her word.
I have important writing to do, and this must be done before I can leave this locality. The school must be started, a meeting house must be built before we can leave the work. I feel forbidden to go now. We must not leave, for the people here would be utterly discouraged if we did. Poverty binds them about in this country. They say, If you had not been able to help us, what would we have done. I tell them that all the gold and silver in the world belongs to the Lord. The cattle upon a thousand hills are His, and He will not let His work come to a standstill. It must go. "Go forward," saith the Lord; and if we move, the way will open. The work here must not stop.--Letter 111, 1896.
Ellen G. White Stood as a Bank to the Cause
"I have to stand as a bank," Ellen White wrote to Dr. Kellogg in Battle Creek, "to uphold, borrow, and advance money." She added, "I turn and twist every way to do the work. Others will take hold and do something when they see that I have faith to lead out and donate." Then she stated:
Here are all our workers that must be paid. I am heavily in debt in this country to those in other countries. Eighteen hundred dollars from one person; this money has been used up. Five hundred dollars from one in Africa, which is a loan and has been applied in different ways that demanded means to forward the work. I move by faith.--Letter 58, 1896.
The Staggering Blow
But the staggering blow came a few days later. Unexpectedly the court hearing the case involving the holding of the school property, for which payment had been made, ruled unfavorably in a suit that arose from disputed interest in the amount of $40. The cost to the school enterprise for the judgment and attorney's fees was $1,750, and this at a time when funds were extremely short. To W. C. White, president of the union and chairman of the school board, it was staggering, and drained him of his courage and strength. It was all so unnecessary. Gladly would the school board have paid the £8 of interest, but the chairman was in New Zealand when the matter came up, and the attorneys handling the title to the property, confident they could win, filed suit without proper authorization. They lost, and Australia lost. The church lost not only the money but also nearly a year in getting the school underway. Depression overwhelmed the few who had a full knowledge of the facts.
On May 31 W. C. White wrote to his longtime friend W. C. Sisley, who had drawn the plans for the buildings and was now in Battle Creek:
To us this decision [against us] means a great deal. Our work has been delayed nearly a year, and now we have about £350 to pay. This is the severest disappointment and misfortune I have ever experienced in connection with our work, and for a time I was almost paralyzed with discouragement....
While we have been waiting for our lawsuit to terminate, we have not felt free to say much to our brethren about what was delaying us.--9 WCW, p. 496.
The W. C. White family was living at this time in what was known as the "convent," a two-story building formerly occupied by the Sisters of St. Joseph. He rented this from the Catholics in early May, and it provided not only living quarters for his family of six but office space as well. He wrote of it to Emily Campbell, now in the United States:
This is a pleasant house of nine rooms. We are now fairly settled. Some furniture I had, some Mother loaned me, and some I have bought from the school. We have very little that is new....
Brother Francis Tucker is boarding with us. Sister Nora Lacey is chief housekeeper, with Ella as assistant. Brother and Sister H. C. Lacey are boarding with us, so you see we have a family of ten, counting the twins. Ella takes care of the cow; Mabel fills the lamps, cuts kindling wood, and takes care of the babies. Everybody is busy.-- Ibid., 503.
The Sawmill Loft Put to Use
It was midwinter as Ellen White wrote on July 5, 1896:
One week ago yesterday I spoke in the upper room of the mill, partially enclosed, to eighty assembled, mostly our own people.... It is rather a rustic place in which to meet, but when the sun shines in this country no other heating apparatus is needed.
I spoke again yesterday. We had a good meeting. We shall be glad to get a meetinghouse and a school building. We are praying for means. We cannot advance until means shall come in from some source.--Letter 152, 1896.
The sawmill loft was often mentioned as a place of meetings that were held from week to week. It also became an assembly room for many of the young people at Cooranbong in a temporary school conducted by Prof. Herbert Lacey and his wife, Lillian. The Laceys had come from America to assist in what was to be the Avondale school. Eager to get on with school work, and finding quite a number of young men and women eager to attend classes, Lacey saw an opportunity to make a beginning. On his own responsibility but with the consent of the school board, he began a night school in the mill loft. Some of the furniture and equipment sent up to Cooranbong when the Bible school in Melbourne closed, was taken out of storage and put to use. Securing textbooks in Sydney and with his wife to help, Lacey conducted classes and collected tuition, with the understanding the school board would not be held in any way responsible for any expense connected with the project, for the board had no money. Some twenty-five young people attended.
Settlement of the Walling Lawsuit
On July 9, 1896, Ellen White conveyed in a letter to her niece Mary Watson what was good and bad news. The lawsuit Mr. Will Walling instituted against Ellen White in 1891, for the alienation of the affection of his two daughters whom Ellen White had taken at his request and reared and educated, was finally brought to a close. But it cost her money hard to spare, $1,500 for a settlement and $2,000 for attorney's fees. Those familiar with the matter felt certain that if the case had been brought to court, Walling would have lost. In the July 9 letter, she explains why it was not handled that way:
I could have decided to go into court, but this would have brought the children where they would have been obliged to testify on oath against their father, and would have led to endless trouble. The mother would have been brought into court, and you would probably [have] had to act a part. There is no knowing what lies might have been sworn to, or how much disgrace might have been brought upon us all.--Letter 128, 1896.
Good News! Money from Africa! Building Begins!
Through August and September the development of the Avondale school was dormant. Poverty abounded, and Ellen White for a time gave employment to five men working on her grounds so that they might have something with which to supply their families.
For three or four months she had not been able to pay her helpers, yet they were willing to suffer inconvenience. Grocery bills accumulated, and then with a draft of $600 from Battle Creek, representing royalties on book sales, she could settle with workers and grocers. Late in September the mail from Africa brought $5,000 on loan to Ellen White from Mother Wessels. Her prayer had been answered, money was in hand, and they could start building. "We praised the Lord for this favor," she wrote. "The building had been delayed for want of means, and the faith of our people had almost come to a stand still. Many, I fear, had lost faith. But I knew that God would work in our behalf."--Manuscript 55, 1896. He did!
In a very few days Ellen G. White and W. C. White would be leaving for the camp meeting scheduled in Adelaide. Surely Ellen White should lay the cornerstone. She tells the glad story:
On October 1, 1896, we assembled on the school grounds to lay the cornerstone of our first school building.... The Lord had moved upon the hearts of Sister Wessels and her sons to grant my request for a loan of £1,000 at 4 1/2 percent interest.
This was an important occasion, but only a few were present. It had been hurriedly planned that I should have the privilege of laying the cornerstone, as I was to leave the following day for Sydney, en route for Melbourne and Adelaide.
We had a season of prayer and singing, and then I took the stone in my hand and laid it in position. My heart was filled with gratitude to God that He had opened the way [so] that we could erect this first building. We praised the Lord for this favor.--Ibid.
Plans for the building, Bethel Hall, as drawn by W. C. Sisley, had long been in hand. Work began immediately.
The Adelaide Camp Meeting
Friday morning, October 2, accompanied by Sara McEnterfer and her son W. C. White, Ellen White went to Sydney and spent a profitable weekend with the churches in the city and its vicinities. Monday afternoon they boarded the train for the overnight trip to Melbourne en route to Adelaide, where another successful camp meeting was conducted.
She returned to Cooranbong on Wednesday, November 4, and rejoiced to see the progress made in her orchard, where fruit would soon ripen. She was also delighted with the progress being made in erecting Bethel Hall. It would be ready in March. But she could remain for only a few days, for the second session of the New South Wales Conference was called for Thursday, November 12, to Sunday, November 14. It was to be held in the Ashfield church, and she felt she should attend.
Sunnyside in Early Summer
Ellen White enjoyed her Sunnyside home, situated on what had now become a tract of sixty acres (she bought more land to help furnish money to the school). "The climate of New South Wales," she wrote, "is as good as any I have knowledge of, and you know, I have traveled nearly round the inhabited world. We came here to get the benefit of this climate." She commented, "My health has improved very much lately. During the last two years I have done more writing than I have ever done before in the same period of time. I am now writing largely."--Letter 128, 1896. She pointed out, no time clock was kept, and when not under the pressure of a crisis, the workers were free to find relaxation and diversions.
On the Sunnyside farm she had four horses and three cows. Three of her women helpers, Sara McEnterfer, May Israel, and Minnie Hawkins, each had a saddle horse. In a letter to Edson she wrote of her workers and their recreation:
The garden is the exercise ground for my workers. Early and late the girls are at work in the garden when they are off duty. It is better for them, and more satisfactory than any exercise they can have.
I could not persuade Marian to ride, could not get her [free] from her writings; but now she has her interest awakened and I have no fears but that she will get out of her chair and work in the garden. This garden of flowers is a great blessing to my girls, and they are working with the tomato raising, planting and caring for the tomatoes.--Letter 162, 1896.
As to the food served in her Sunnyside home, she wrote:
My table is furnished with fruit in its season.... Vegetables, fruit, and bread form our table fare. As we are educating colonials in health principles, we do not under any circumstances place meat on the table. Some of our present company are as pupils in a school, and therefore, precept and example must be harmonious. Each year we put up not less than six or eight hundred quarts of canned fruit. We have peaches, apricots, nectarines, grapes, plums, and tomatoes canned.--Letter 128, 1896.
On Friday morning, December 4, 1896, she discovered a ripe peach in her orchard. She wrote in her diary:
Today I picked the first ripe peach, deep red in color, from my orchard. These peach trees were planted one year ago the last September. We have several nectarine trees, bearing red-cheeked, fine-looking fruit, some of which is nearly ripe. Next year we will have quite an abundance of fruit if the blessing of the Lord rests upon our trees.--Manuscript 44, 1896.
The demonstration at Sunnyside was working well.