As the new year, 1897, dawned, most activities at Cooranbong were geared to the proposed opening of the Avondale school, announced for April 28, 1897. On New Year's Day Prof. Herbert C. Lacey, who had returned to Australia to assist with the new school, was, with the help of his wife, Lillian, deep into the canning of fruit for the institution--starting with apricots. A donation of $60 just received to aid "where ... most needed" was applied toward the purchase of other fruit, peaches, plums, et cetera, as they ripened. "There must be ample provision of fruit," declared Ellen White.
On New Year's Eve, Lacey had been dispatched to ride horseback through the community to call the Adventists together for a meeting planned by Ellen White. She was determined that as they neared the target date dedicated enthusiasm for the school enterprise should not wane. It was an excessively warm evening, with the air "close and stifling," so instead of meeting in the loft of the sawmill, chairs were brought out to seat the crowd on the "green sward." Ellen White spoke, seated in her carriage with Sara to her right, holding a lantern, and Herbert Lacey standing on her left, also with a lantern. She reported that "all listened with interest" as she read from a manuscript and then spoke for a time, telling of "the establishment of the work in different localities, where buildings had been erected for schools, sanitariums, and places of worship."
Then she introduced a point of particular concern, the fruitage of the criticism and tale-bearing of two of the carpenters, who because of the limited school finances could not be paid wages they felt they were entitled to receive. To Daniells she reported the evening meeting held under the stars:
I told the people plainly that those who were not putting their whole heart into the work to be carried on in Cooranbong were only a hindrance to the work, and I heartily wished they would go to some other place.--Letter 44, 1897.
A few weeks later she wrote more specifically of the problems:
We have been passing through a severe crisis here. Trials have come through Brethren _____ and _____, and their talkative wives.--Letter 57, 1897.
She explained that "when the work was started here, it was not carried forward in all wisdom." More horses had been purchased than were needed, incurring extra expense, and there were some ill-advised steps taken in connection with setting up the sawmill.
The defectors complained of this, but the principal problem lay in the wages paid to the workmen, five shillings a day, instead of the six they demanded. She wrote:
Because they could not receive the highest wages, notwithstanding the means in the treasury were so low, they would not work. For three months Brother _____ sat on the devil's idle stool, tempting the devil to tempt him.--Ibid.
The Work at the School
Progress in erecting the school buildings was steady. Professor Rousseau, who had been connected with the school enterprise from the start of the Bible school in Melbourne, had returned to the United States. The chairman of the school board, W. C. White, who also served as the president of the Australasian Union Conference, had been sent to America to attend the General Conference session and to take care of Australian interests, among them, the production of health foods. Being on the grounds, Ellen White was expected to lead out. She felt quite alone in having to make decisions concerning the school enterprise. There was one ordained minister of experience in the whole colony of New South Wales, whose time was much taken up with the general interests of an advancing work. Metcalfe Hare, the business manager of the school, leaned heavily on Ellen White, and when important decisions had to be made she was looked upon as the senior officer in charge--a role she did not choose or covet. But those about her recognized that she had insights and experience others did not have. Writing on February 4 to W. C. White in the States, she bemoaned:
I am left here to carry as heavy a load as I have ever carried in my life, to deal with men who think that they know everything when they know nothing as they ought to know it.--Letter 186, 1897.
Of course she continued with her writing, mostly correspondence, but at times she could get in a little on the life of Christ. She neglected her diary for weeks. "I could not possibly spend time," she wrote in mid-January, "to write in my book."--Letter 166, 1897. She filled speaking appointments on the Sabbath, standing in the pulpit the first five Sabbaths of the new year (Letter 186, 1897).
Willie's family, May, the two older girls, and the twins, on New Year's Day moved from the convent back to Sunnyside, into the washhouse where the twins had been born. As the weather grew colder, they were given the living room at the Sunnyside home. Letters tell of planning some kind of a cottage for the W. C. White family.
Medical work was just getting a start in Australia. A. W. Semmens, a graduate nurse from Battle Creek, opened the Health Home in Sydney. A large residence was rented, and Ellen White notes, "As he had no money, I furnished him with £25 to make a beginning."--Letter 70, 1897. To this was soon added £10 more. The Bible Echo, on January 18, 1897, carried an advertisement for the newly developed Battle Creek health foods. The public was informed that "some of these valuable foods are already being shipped to this country, and that a proposition is on foot for their manufacture here at an early date." This was a significant project that was to take on large proportions in Australia.
The Garden at Sunnyside
The vegetable garden at the Sunnyside home was now yielding its harvest, and Ellen White wrote to the Lindsays, who with Mrs. A. E. Wessels, Mrs. Lindsay's mother, had been such benefactors to the school enterprise:
We have been living off our vegetables this year. Last year we had but few tomatoes, but this year we have enough for ourselves and a good supply for our neighbors also. So we testify that the school land will yield abundantly this coming year if the Lord's blessing shall attend our labors. We are now eating sweet corn that this land has produced, and we enjoy it much.
I wish I could pass around to Mother Wessels and your family the products of our experiments in farming this first year in the bush. The Lord has prospered us indeed.... We are seeing the exact fulfillment of the light the Lord has given me, that if the land is worked thoroughly it will yield its treasures.--Letter 92, 1897.
What they grew was supplemented somewhat by what they could glean from the countryside, such as wild blackberries. "This day," she wrote to Willie on February 4, "Sara, Maggie, Minnie Hawkins, Edith, Ella May, and Mabel went ... to gather blackberries.... Our party brought back about twenty-five quarts.... All were glad that they went."--Letter 186, 1897.
The Need of Competent Leaders
But the great need was for competent men to lead out in the work at Cooranbong. To S. N. Haskell, a seasoned minister of long experience who had recently come from Africa and was in New Zealand, Ellen White in her weariness wrote of the progress of the work and the needs:
You inquire about school buildings. (Dropped asleep.) The first building is progressing well. We have heard of no trouble. The roof is on, and everything moves satisfactorily.... I cannot carry the heavy load of writing, and also of speaking. I must not put in so much labor.... I want your help here in New South Wales. What a dearth there is!--Letter 70, 1897.
On a Monday in early February a letter came from Haskell, who had just arrived in Sydney. He urged Ellen White to hasten to the city so they could counsel together. She dropped everything and, with Sara, within three hours was "speeding to the train with" their "fastest team, conjecturing all the four miles and a half whether or not we would be able to catch the train to Sydney" (Letter 82a, 1897). They did, and at 11:00 P.M. were at the Health Home at Summer Hill, where he was staying. There they joined in planning. To help keep the Health Home afloat financially, Haskell rented and furnished one room. If the home proved a success he would be paid back from earnings. Ellen White rented one room for $1 a week. She and Sara bought furniture in Sydney for this room so that she might have a place to stay when she was in the city. It could also be used by other workers as they passed through the city. Elder and Mrs. Baker took two rooms, for which they paid ten shillings a week (Letter 82, 1897; Letter 171, 1897). After explaining these steps to help get the enterprise going, Mrs. White noted, "I hope this Health Home will prove a success, but it is an experiment."--Letter 171, 1897. And to W. C. White she wrote on the same day:
In regard to the Health Home, I cannot see anything very flattering in patients as yet. But it is no use to look on the discouraging side. We must walk by faith. We must talk faith and act faith and live faith.--Letter 188, 1897.
Dr. Kellogg had sent from Battle Creek a shipment of the newly developed health foods, apparently as a donation to the enterprise, and Ellen White reported to him:
I have learned that Brother Semmens is doing well selling the health foods.... We feel thankful that you could give them this timely assistance. They appreciate it very much, for they have been in most straightened circumstances.
In mid-February the mail brought £50 from Peter Wessels. As Ellen White acknowledged the gift she declared:
It came exactly at the right time. We were at the Health Home, trying to get means to furnish some rooms in the humblest style.... When our means gave out, we had to wait; and when that money came, we rejoiced, and were glad. Now we can finish furnishing the rooms.--Letter 130, 1897.
The enterprise did succeed. By advertisements in each issue of the Bible Echo and in other media, the public was informed that at the Health Home they were prepared to "treat by the most approved rational methods paralysis, rheumatism, sciatica, neuralgia, and other disorders of the nervous system, also all manner of stomach and bowel disorders."
These diseases will be treated by the most approved methods of hygiene, hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, massage, manual Swedish movement, diet, et cetera. Electric baths, electric vapour baths, sitz baths, salt glows, hot packs, wet sheet packs, massage, et cetera, can be had.--The Bible Echo, January 11, 1897, and throughout the year.
After some months the Bible Echo on November 15 carried a back-page note to effect that "the Sydney Health Home is having a good patronage at present--about all it can do."
The Successful Treatment of a Very Critical Case
The little struggling health institution soon proved its worth as Professor Herbert Lacey, having contracted typhoid fever during a visit in school promotion in Tasmania, was nursed back to health. On Friday, February 28, a telegram was received by his wife, Lillian, at Cooranbong to the effect that Lacey, desperately ill, would arrive by train in Sydney that day. Lillian hastened to Sydney and arrived just as her husband was arriving from Melbourne. They went immediately to the Health Home, where his case was thought to be typhoid fever. He had lost twenty pounds in one week, and his wife wrote that he was "very poor, nothing but skin and bones." At the Health Home Elders Haskell and Baker were joined by Mr. Semmens in praying for his recovery (Letter 189, 1897). Semmens began using hydrotherapy treatments. Lillian reported to her husband's father, who resided at Cooranbong, that "Brother Semmens was using ice on his bowels" (Ibid.). His vitality was low, and when Ellen White learned of the ice remedy, she hastened off a telegram to Semmens, "Use no ice, but hot applications."--Ibid. Of course there was a reason for this, as she explained in a letter to W. C. White:
In several cases light had been given me that the ice remedy was not as efficacious as the hot water. I was afraid. His vitality, I learned, was very low and to put ice on head and chest I knew was a mistake. It would tax his vitality....
There must be no risk run over Herbert's case. I was not going to be so delicate in regard to the physician as to permit Herbert Lacey's life to be put out.... There might be cases where the ice applications would work well. But books with prescriptions that are followed to the letter in regard to ice applications should have further explanations, that persons with low vitality should use hot in the place of cold.... To go just as the book of Dr. Kellogg shall direct without considering the subject is simply wild.
Hot fomentations in fever will kill the inflammation in nine cases out of ten where ice applications will, according to the light given me, tax the vitality unsafely. Here is where the danger comes in of not using judgment and reason in regard to the subject under treatment.--Ibid.
A week later in reporting to her son, she mentioned the steps being taken in connection with Lacey's illness:
The case is critical, but I believe the Lord will raise him up. We are praying for him. He is having everything done for him possible.... Brother Semmens gives his whole time to the sick man, and they are having Dr. Deek, who is watching the case of the hygienic methods of treatment with great interest. He says he is doing just as well as he could possibly do under this attack.--Letter 181, 1897.
In her diary she noted:
We have made his case a special subject of prayer. We wrote a few lines to him each day to call his attention to that which the Lord was ready and willing to do for him. The angels of God have presided over him all through his sickness.--Manuscript 172, 1897.
Ellen White rejoiced when on Friday, April 9, she could send her carriage to the railway station to meet Herbert Lacey and his wife. She reported, "He is feeling real well and means to engage in the school at its beginning. I am so pleased." And she added:
Brother Herbert walked from his father's to the meeting in the new building. He feels so well and we are so very thankful that the Lord wrought in his behalf, making Brother Semmens His human agent. He carried through the case without drugs. [Note: The reader should keep in mind that the medications referred to here were poisonous substances that when taken into the body left lasting, harmful effects and were quite unrelated to many of the medications employed now in the treatment of the sick.] W. C. White, the Lord has opened to me why so many cases are lost who have typhoid fever. They are drugged, and nature has not strength to overcome the drugs given them.--Letter 190, 1897.
Marriage of S. N. Haskell and Hettie Hurd
S. N. Haskell, a widower, while visiting Africa for some months en route to Australia, renewed acquaintance with Miss Hettie Hurd, a mission worker teaching there. Arrangements were made for them to marry in Australia. While Haskell waited rather impatiently in Sydney, his bride-to-be was held in quarantine for three weeks on shipboard in Melbourne because one passenger came down with smallpox just on the ship's arrival. The wedding finally took place at the Health Home on February 24, 1897. The Haskells proceeded to Cooranbong, for arrangements had been made for them to join the teaching force at the new school. Ellen White had her camp meeting tent pitched near her home and fitted up with floor covering and appropriate furniture. This provided a temporary place for the Haskells to reside.
Mrs. White had felt so alone and in need of help at Cooranbong, but even before the Haskell wedding she was given the encouraging word, "I have provided help in My servant." The Lord also revealed to her that in Haskell's wife He had "provided a matron and teacher" (Letter 99, 1897). "I rejoiced that I had the help of Brother and Sister Haskell. These God appointed to be my companions in establishing the school in this place."--Letter 77, 1897.
The coming of the Haskells to Cooranbong gave a real lift to the sagging spirits of the forces there. Ellen White wrote of it:
We have appreciated Elder Haskell here at this time very much. He is a great help and strength to us all, especially to Brother Hare. The men working on the second building, some of whom are working out their pledges, are doing very indifferent work.--Letter 152, 1897.
Counsel and Encouragement
One day Ellen White went over to see the progress being made in this second building, which would provide a dining room, kitchen, and storeroom for the school. (Letter 33, 1897). Taking in the overall situation, she had some questions to ask!
"What place have you prepared for the boys to room in?" I asked.
"The chamber above the sawmill," they answered. "Many students can sleep there, and we will also secure tents."
"Is that the best plan you have?"
It is the best we can do. When the building is enclosed, our money will be expended."
"Have you thought of how much money it would take to run this building up another story?"
Several were present. "We cannot do that," Brother Hare said, "but I wish we could." "You must do it, Brother Hare," I said. "What would the cost be?"
"Not less than £100," he answered.
"Then I advise you to put up the second story, and so provide sleeping rooms for the boys, and a meeting room for the church." ...
"What shall we do?" they asked.
"Why," I said, "am I too late with my suggestions? Have the preparations gone so far that it would be a sacrifice to change now?"
"As to the matter of that," was the answer, "had your suggestions been a day later, we would have been at some loss." ...
"I said, "I will be responsible for the change made. If any censure comes, let it fall on me. You will be at expense of getting tents, and to the labor of pitching them. The students should not be put in the room over the mill. The influence would be demoralizing."--Letter 141, 1897.
"Now," she wrote, "we have this two-story building nicely enclosed." The expansion provided "a room for Sabbath meetings" and "sleeping rooms for the young men" (Letter 33, 1897).
She confided in a letter to Willie:
Be sure that Brother Hare is consulted in everything, and he will not move out in anything without consulting me. We move harmoniously in all our plans. Brother Haskell says it will not do for anyone to speak questioningly of anything I propose, for Brother Hare raises his right arm and says, "What Sister White advises to be done shall be done, without any ifs or ands about it."--Letter 141, 1897.
She also stated:
All who see the upper story of the second building say, "Whatever could you do without it?" Brother Hare says he would not have taken the responsibility of changing anything if Sister White had not been right on the ground to say what was most needed. But that added story does Brother Hare lots of good.--Ibid.
Ellen White Calls a Work Bee
Just when they were within three weeks of target date for the school to open, Haskell was suddenly called to Adelaide to assist in meeting the crisis in the church there, brought about by the apostasy of the pastor, Stephen McCullagh. With Haskell's leaving, even if for only a couple of weeks, Hare's courage sank to an all-time low. He could see there was no hope of meeting the April 28 deadline for the opening of school. Taking in the situation, Ellen White began to plan a strategy, for she held that the school must open on time. She was not able to attend church on the Sabbath, but she sent an announcement to be read appointing a meeting for all who would, to attend on Sunday morning at six o'clock. She had something to say to them. She sent word to Metcalfe Hare to come to her home after the Sabbath to meet with Mrs. Haskell, Sara, and herself.
Mrs. White told the story to Willie as to what took place:
On Saturday evening we had our interview. Our means were gone, and the school building could not be finished to open school at the appointed time. Sister Haskell asked just how many hands could be put on to the building, how many on outside work, how many on the cistern, and how many inside. She wrote these down on paper, and after everything had been stated, she and I said, "We will have every position filled." Brother Hare argued that it was impossible.
We opened the morning meeting with singing and prayer, and then we laid the situation before them all. I told them that I would let them have Brethren Connell, James, and Worsnop, and pay them hire.
Brother Connell said that he had a two weeks' pledge to work out. Brother James said he would give one week's work in any line or place where they might put him. Brother Anderson also had pledged two weeks, and so one and another volunteered until men, women, and children were accepted.
I told them that I would give Sara to work in union with Sister Haskell, and they agreed to lay the floor with the help of Brother James to place the boards and press them into position, while Sister Haskell and Sara should drive the nails.
Our meeting lasted from six until eight o'clock. After [the] meeting the brother from Queensland made some depreciatory remarks about "lady carpenters," but no one to whom these words were addressed responded.
Every soul was put to work. There were over thirty in number. The women and children worked in the first building, cleaning windows and floors. Sister Worsnop came with her baby and children, and while she worked on the inside of a window, her eldest girl of 10 years worked on the outside. Thus the work in the first building was nearly completed in the first day.
Sister Haskell and Sara completed nearly one half on the dining-room floor. Brother Hare says everyone was enthusiastic. The women who engaged in the various branches of the work did well. Brother Richardson was putting the brick in the floor of the cellar. Some of the girls passed the brick from outside, while others inside passed them to Brother Richardson.
In the afternoon I was sent for to consult with Brother Hare in regard to making changes in the divisions of the dining room.... Then Brother Hare conducted me over the immediate premises, and we decided on the trees that must come down, one of which went down yesterday.... We left all the acacia trees, wattle trees they are called here. They are a very beautiful green, and bear a fragrant yellow blossom....
Yesterday all the furniture in the mill loft was washed and cleansed from vermin, and prepared for the new building. One more floor is to be laid this afternoon.... The carpenters are siding up the building. Both ends are done, and quite a piece of the lower part on both sides....
Monday, April 6, the workers, men, women, and children are all at work....
The sisters had put the first coat of paint on the window frames. Brother Hare said that the women's diligent work had done more to inspire diligence in the men at work than any talk or ordering. The women's silence and industry had exerted an influence that nothing else could do. These women have worked until their hands and fingers are blistered, but they let out the water by skillful pricking, and rub their hands with Vaseline. They are determined to get at the work again....
Brother Hare is full of courage now. Brother Haskell will be back in a week or two at most from the time he left.... His wife and Sara are heart and soul in the work. They make an excellent span just at this time. They will be in readiness to lay the upper floor after today, I think. Everything that is needed has come from Sydney and is right at hand, so that there will be no delay.
School will be opened April 28, 1897.--Letter 152, 1897.
About the time the work bee began, word was received from W. C. White that at the General Conference session action was taken to send Prof. C. B. Hughes, principal of the school in Texas, to assist at Cooranbong. He was a well-qualified and experienced educator and would bring good help to Avondale. The word brought courage to all. (11 WCW, p. 276).
Entering fully into the spirit of things, Sara McEnterfer set out to raise money to buy a school bell. From the families in the community she collected about £6, and what Ellen White declared to be "an excellent sounding bell" was put in operation (Letter 141, 1897).
Announcement of the Opening of the School
The good word reached most believers in Australia and New Zealand through the April 5, 1897, issue of the Bible Echo. S. N. Haskell signed the article that informed constituents that school was opening at last. He promised:
The Avondale school will give a liberal education to its pupils. Its founders are decidedly in favor of this. And at the same time the Scriptures will hold a prominent place in the school. It will aim to give that education in the sciences that will fit those who attend for the practical duties of life.
Haskell mentioned also that connected with the school would be manual training and scientific cooking. In addition, the students would receive instruction on how to care for the health, "believing a sound body contributes largely to a sound mind."
Those who had been in Australia longer, who knew well the general financial conditions, entertained some misgivings as to how many students would show up. W. C. White had alluded to this in his letter to O. A. Olsen written March 13, 1896:
You will see from my article for the Echo, a copy of which I enclose, what my expectations are about the opening of our regular school. These are hard times, and if our buildings were ready, it would be difficult to get a paying patronage.--9 WCW, p. 342.
Two months after White wrote this letter, Professor Rousseau felt that because of his wife's failing health, he must return to the United States for a year, and requested a leave of absence. The board granted this, and in early July, 1896, having packed their household goods for storage, Rousseau and his wife took ship for San Francisco. His responsibilities as school manager were left with W. C. White, and his responsibilities as accountant were placed on the shoulders of Mrs. Lillian Lacey. The latter, a capable young woman but without experience in these lines, was hastily tutored by Rousseau before he left. As the church members saw the strong pillar of the teaching team departing and leaving the newly come Laceys to stand almost alone, their courage plummeted.
Now, in early 1897 Ellen White's undaunted faith was a steadying influence. School would open on April 28, 1897, and her brethren tried hard to exercise faith and to plan wisely. Wrote Daniells to W. C. White on May 6: "I believe God is giving us the victory, though the devil is fighting this phase of our work very hard."
Daniells went on to say that they could not learn of one person in New South Wales and knew of only one in New Zealand who was planning to attend the school as a boarding student. He knew of only three or four from his conference. The matter became the subject of prayer, and his secretary, a woman named Graham, came up with a suggestion that he says "worked like a charm."
The suggestion was to ask the members in all the churches to each pledge sixpence a week for twenty weeks toward the students' aid fund. Twenty-seven persons making such payments would meet the tuition of one student for the term of twenty-two weeks. This was to be a revolving fund, the student in time paying it back to aid another. The assignment of the students to be benefited would be in the hands of the conference committee. The people were pleased, and enfused with a new spirit. The North Fitzroy church pledged itself responsible for two students, and other churches responded well. Daniells reported:
One week ago tonight we sent six young men and women off by Cook's excursion. This morning at six o'clock we sent six more. One went alone in the middle of the week. This makes thirteen who have gone from this conference, and we are expecting to send four more.--11 WCW, p. 435.
Plans called for the literature evangelists to sponsor one student, and the scattered believers another. Daniells wrote rather jubilantly:
If these plans work, and from the way things are going I have reason to believe they will, we shall have a pretty good attendance after all. We shall pull hard to have from thirty-five to forty boarding students by the time Professor Hughes arrives. These with the day students will give us an attendance of about sixty students.-- Ibid., 436.
The Question of a Primary School
In the meantime there were some tense moments at Cooranbong brought on by an ill-advised action of the school board. It was decided that there would be no primary school. Ellen White learned of this only after some announcements had been made, and she felt impelled to step in and take a firm position. She wrote of this, too, in her May 5 letter to Willie:
The board met, and ... decided that for this term there would be no primary school. On the next Sabbath morning, I told them that the primary school would commence when the other school did.--Letter 141, 1897.
When Brother Lacey made the statement that there would be no primary school this term, Brother Hare felt much disappointed, for he wanted both of his children in the school. The officers are on his track, telling him that his children must attend the public school....
But in the first Sabbath meeting we held in the upper room, I presented this matter and called for a response, and you should have heard Brother Gambril's remarks. He came forward to the front seat, so that I could hear him. He spoke of the influence of the public schools on his children, of the education they were receiving.--Ibid.
It was in this setting that Ellen White made the rather familiar statement (found in Testimonies for the Church, 6:199), "In localities where there is a church, schools should be established if there are no more than six children to attend."--Ibid.
Steps were taken to again rent the convent for use in educating Adventist children in Adventist principles. Some of the children would be coming up Dora Creek by rowboat; Gambril's 15-year-old daughter would bring two Gambril children and two others to the primary school, which by mid-May had an enrollment of fifteen (Ibid.; Letter 126, 1897).
The Avondale School Opens
For some unknown reason, no official report of the opening of the Avondale school graces the pages of the Bible Echo. However, Metcalfe Hare stated in a report:
The school opened the twenty-eighth of April, Mrs. E. G. White, Elder S. N. Haskell, and the teachers being present, with all those who had been associated with the work. The buildings were dedicated to their sacred mission by Elder Haskell.--DF 170, "The Avondale School, 1895-1907."
Ellen White furnished a few more details in a letter to W. C. White a few days later:
April 28 our school opened. At the opening exercises the upper room of the second building, above the dining room, was quite full. Brother Haskell opened the meeting by reading a portion of Scripture. He then prayed, and made a few remarks. I then followed.--Letter 141, 1897.
"The Spirit of the Lord was present," she wrote to Edson (Letter 149, 1897), and in her diary for the opening day she wrote:
We had the opening exercises in the last building erected. We had more in attendance than we had expected. We felt very thankful to make so good a beginning. We were very much pleased to have Brother and Sister Haskell with us. Brother Herbert Lacey and his wife were with us.--Manuscript 172, 1897.
So with a staff of six (of which four were teachers) and with ten students (Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 365) the Avondale school commenced, and on the very day appointed. When some expressed the opinion that the buildings could not be completed on time, Ellen White had declared:
There must not be one day's postponement.... If there is but one student present, we will begin the school at the appointed time.--Letter 149, 1897.
She understood well the far-reaching psychological effect if they failed. But they did not fail. She wrote on May 5:
School had been delayed so long that we knew that no matter what our condition was in the way of preparation, it must start on time. But no one believed that it would. Now, when they see that we are in earnest, they will have some confidence and interest in the school.--Letter 141, 1897.
One week after school opened, Ellen White reported forty students. The Bible Echo dated June 7 reported that "about fifty students are in attendance at the Avondale school," rather more than expected. The next issue declared that they were "happy to revise these figures this week and state that there are sixty-two."
Ellen White felt comfortable with the Haskells at the school taking a leading role. She wrote of them as experienced laborers, who "were a great help to us in the work of preparation, in devising and planning to get things in order" (Letter 149, 1897). Prof. and Mrs. C. B. Hughes were on their way from Keene, Texas. After the school was quite well organized and had continued for two months, the faculty was described in a report by G. T. Wilson in the Bible Echo:
Prof. C. B. Hughes and wife arrived two weeks ago from America. He has been chosen by the school board as principal of the school, and is to have the general management of things on the place. He teaches the history class, who are now studying "Empires of the Bible." His wife teaches grammar, rhetoric, elocution, penmanship, and one Bible class.
Prof. H. C. Lacey is teacher of mathematics, physiology, geography, singing, and voice culture; and his wife teaches the primary department.
Pastor S. N. Haskell is the principal instructor in Bible study; and Mrs. Hettie Hurd Haskell, his wife, has charge of one Bible class, and acts as the matron of the school.
Mr. T. B. Skinner, a graduate of St. Helena Sanitarium Nurses' Training Department, has charge of the kitchen and dining room, and on one day in the week gives practical instruction in cooking. The students are taught how to make bread, can fruit, and the other arts of healthful cookery.--June 21, 1897.
In concluding his report, Wilson observed that "the students are mostly young men and women, of good, intelligent class, besides whom there are a few persons of more mature years." About one half were below the age of 16.
The school at Avondale was off to a good start.