On Wednesday, May 25, near the close of the Lake Union Conference session, Ellen White left Berrien Springs for a trip into the South. With her were Edson White, Sara McEnterfer, Maggie Hare, and Dr. and Mrs. David Paulson.
During the six-hour layover in Chicago, Dr. Paulson arranged to take her out to Hinsdale to the site where plans were being laid to open a new sanitarium. She found Hinsdale something like Takoma Park. She thought the surroundings were perhaps even more beautiful and she felt that it would make an excellent place for a medical institution.
Back in Chicago in the later afternoon, with Edson and her two women helpers she boarded the train for Nashville. The overnight trip was comfortable, and in the morning they were met by W. O. Palmer, one of Edson White's close helpers. He drove them to the plant of the Southern Publishing Association and then to Edson's home nearby. She made this her headquarters for the next six weeks.
During the Berrien Springs meeting both Professor Sutherland and Professor Magan had resigned from their positions of leadership at Emmanuel Missionary College. They expressed their determination to go into the South, find a tract of land, and begin a self-supporting school. From Nashville they set out in various directions in search of a suitable property within their financial capability. They found one in particular--the Fergusen-Nelson place--but the quality of the land fell short of their desires. Then plans were developed for quite a large party to make a trip up the Cumberland River on the Morning Star, to continue the search for a school site. They would wait until W. C. White had closed up his work in the North and joined them in Nashville before making the trip.
Ellen White and all her party would be on the boat. She had been on the Morning Star in 1901 as she passed through Vicksburg, but had not traveled on the boat. A full week would be spent on the trip up the Cumberland River, and besides, she would be with her son and his wife. She eagerly looked forward to this.
While the Morning Star was being readied, she rested in Edson's home. He earnestly hoped that his mother should have an enjoyable experience living on the boat, and craved her counsel as he sought a site for another school for blacks near Nashville.
Recounting the experience, she spoke of the bountiful supply of good things from Edson's garden--green peas, strawberries, potatoes, sweet corn. She felt that the good ten-acre tract of land that had been secured for the publishing house was a favorable one.
As the Sabbath neared, some thought perhaps it would be better if Ellen White did not try to speak that day in Nashville, but she said, "'I have a message to bear.'"--Letter 183, 1904. She tells of how the Lord strengthened her, and "I bore a straightforward testimony. Maggie reported what I said. Afterward I was told that even had I known the real condition of things in the church, which I did not, I could not have spoken more to the point."-- Ibid.
Tuesday, June 7, was the day set for boarding the Morning Star and beginning the trip up the Cumberland River. That morning she wrote to her granddaughter Mabel:
We are just about to leave here for a trip of six or seven days up the Cumberland River in the Morning Star. Our party will consist of Brethren Magan and Sutherland, your Uncle Edson and your Aunt Emma, your father, your grandmother, Sara, Brother Crisler, who returned from Graysville yesterday, Maggie, Edson's stenographer, and several others. We expect to start about noon today.--Letter 191, 1904.
Although the main objective for the trip was to find land for a self-supporting school, everyone looked forward to a change and a little vacation. Brethren Sutherland and Magan had heard that land was available for $5 to $10 an acre near Carthage, Tennessee, some ninety direct miles north of Nashville.
They did not get away at noon as they had expected, for some repairs had been made on the boat, which called for an inspection before they could leave. Nonetheless they boarded late Tuesday afternoon to be ready to go as soon as the boat was ready.
Edson had served as pilot on the Mississippi River and had license papers for that. But he did not have pilot's papers for the Cumberland River, so he secured the services of an accredited pilot. He was eager to learn all he could about the navigation of this river so that he could pilot the boat on it in the future.
Ellen White was delighted to find the rooms aboard pleasant and convenient. The boat had apparently been tied up for some time, and was not refitted. Upon coming on board the party rededicated the boat. In a season of prayer they pleaded with God that in all its service it should be an agency to accomplish much good in various ways, bringing light to many places that otherwise could not be reached. In its earlier service the Morning Star had been used as a meeting house and as a dwelling for Edson White and his wife.
The Trip North on the Cumberland River
Wednesday morning they pulled out into the river and started the trip north. "I shall enjoy the trip," wrote Ellen White, "for I have much to say to our party--especially to Brethren Sutherland and Magan, upon the school problem. This opportunity I must improve.... I retired early to my bed."--Manuscript 143, 1904.
In addition to those who were named by Ellen White as being in the traveling party there were the pilot, Will Palmer; Mr. Judd, who was Edson's stenographer; a fireman; an engineer; a cook; and a general hand. Several of these were blacks. Passengers and crew numbered sixteen in all. As they traveled north they stopped occasionally, sometimes for repairs, sometimes to purchase produce and milk or buttermilk from the farms they passed. From time to time they stopped to look at the land.
In her diary Ellen White recorded, "I am so glad I could give satisfaction to my children in accompanying them on this tour of inspection of lands suitable for schools for both colored and white." She described the scenery as being beautiful and said, "It is a grand outing for us all." From time to time they passed large rafts of logs floating down the river to be cut into lumber. On Friday they came to Rocky Bluffs, where they saw deep caves. At the entrance of one they saw a young goat, the color of a deer. Ellen White declared, "We would have been pleased to have had that little precious treasure in our home in California, but God has a care for these wild creatures in their own birthplace among the rocks."-- Ibid.
Friday evening, June 9, the Morning Star tied up at Hartsville, ready to spend the Sabbath. Ellen White wrote in her diary:
I felt very thankful to our heavenly Father that mother and her children could be on the boat together. This is the first time I have had the privilege of riding on the steamer Morning Star. The scenery has been very beautiful. It is God's nature's own adorning--a wonderful formation of ledges of rock piled one above another.-- Ibid.
She observed that "we glide along without disagreeable motion. We go on about twenty or thirty miles to Carthage. We are looking for land." But she was not in full harmony with the plans to locate a school at such a great distance from centers of population. She wrote:
We are told land can be purchased cheaply. But I do not consider it wise to locate schools far off from Nashville, for one party of workers will be strengthened by another party of workers in or near Nashville. If these schools are to become strong and efficient they must at times unite their wisdom and their forces and help one another.-- Ibid.
Also, she felt they should be close enough to Nashville that the contacts could lead to practical missionary activities.
On the trip most of the men slept on the lower deck on double-wire camp meeting cots. The women slept on the upper deck, and the pilot slept in the pilothouse. The dining room also was on the upper deck. Each morning Clarence, Willie, and several others put on their bathing suits, which Ellen White described as "very becoming," and had a swim. The current was too strong to swim upstream, so they would dive off the front of the boat, swim along its side, and climb up on the framework around the paddlewheel (25 WCW, p. 315-318).
On Sabbath, instead of having a church service, Willie, Edson, Will Palmer, Sutherland, and Magan climbed a nearby mountain and spent the morning in prayer and fellowship. Mrs. White recorded in her diary that "this precious Sabbath was a day long to be remembered by the passengers on this boat. I believe that all are being benefited."--Manuscript 143, 1904. She found it was a delightful change and rest. In fact, she always enjoyed traveling on the water, on oceans as well as rivers and lakes.
Sunday morning they were on their way north again, nearing Carthage, the most distant point of the journey, some 170 miles north of Nashville by boat.
No Cheap Land
By this time it had become apparent that the main object of the journey to find land at reasonable prices was not going to be accomplished. The land that was expected to be available for $2 or $3 an acre, or $8 or $10, was running about $60 an acre. Willie concluded that the low prices he had heard about were those offered twenty or thirty years earlier. But nobody seemed to mind too much. Ellen White became more and more emphatic that any schools they would establish should be near Nashville. So on Monday morning the Morning Star started back down the river. Much better time was made with the river current carrying them along. In a letter written that day to Elder Daniells, she outlined their plans:
Tomorrow morning we shall reach Edgefield Junction, which is only twelve miles from Nashville. We shall stay there for the rest of the day, for we wish to visit a farm which is for sale at Madison, about seventeen miles from Nashville, and two and a half miles from the railway. It is said that this farm contains nearly 100 acres of good bottom land, more than 100 acres of second-quality agricultural land suitable for grain and fruit, and about 200 acres of pasture land. We think that it can be purchased for about $12,000. It is said that there are on it over $2,000 worth of stock and farm implements.
I desire to look at this farm, and if it be the will of the Lord, I shall do so tomorrow afternoon. The farm has a roomy house, barns, and other buildings, and two and a half miles of good stone fence. Considering its advantages, its price is less than anything else we have seen in this part of Tennessee.--Letter 195, 1904.
She elaborated a bit about its general relationship to Nashville:
I have been instructed that the lands on which our school shall be established should be near enough Nashville for there to be a connection between the school and the workers in Nashville.-- Ibid.
Tuesday, on looking over the Fergusen-Nelson place, near Madison, Ellen White was pleased and thought it would serve well for the new school. Brethren Sutherland and Magan were considerably less optimistic. They had hoped for something better for less money. Ellen White reports that "I felt so thoroughly convinced that it was a favorable location for the work that I advised our brethren to make the purchase."--Letter 215, 1904.
The price with standing crops was $12,723. The professors, as they recounted the story in later years, told of how, when they witnessed Ellen White's certainty about this matter and remembering the experience in Australia with the Avondale school, they felt they must move in this direction. So that Tuesday they made their decision to purchase.
But it proved to be anything but a simple transaction. Mrs. Fergusen, who had to sign the papers, at first refused to sell the farm to men from the North, declaring, "I'll never sell to a Yankee."--Ira Gish and Harry Christman, Madison, God's Beautiful Farm, p. 23. After several interviews and many prayers, and a demand from Mrs. Fergusen for an extra thousand dollars, she put her signature by her husband's, and the contract was made secure.
There was some hesitation about the extra thousand dollars, and some took it as an omen that they should withdraw. But Ellen White exclaimed, "Do you think I'd let the devil beat me out of a place for a thousand dollars? Pay the extra thousand. It's cheap enough. This is the place the Lord said you should have."-- Ibid., 27.
With the property bargained for, the men hurried North to find friends who would help meet the purchase price. Writing to a friend, Ellen White reported on the four-hundred-acre place:
The size of the farm, its location, the distance that it is from Nashville, and the moderate sum for which it could be purchased seemed to point it out as the very place needed for our school work here. The house is old, but it can be used until more suitable buildings can be erected.--Letter 215, 1904.
Rather exuberantly she noted:
Included in this sale are a number of horses, cows, and other stock, carriages and farming implements, also a house, that would be of use to the school. There are many beautiful cedar trees on the place. Fifty acres of the land is under cultivation, and the crops are in a flourishing condition. Portions of this land can be sold to those connected with the school for dwelling houses.--Letter 249a, 1904.
In another letter she explained the cherished plans and objectives of Brethren Sutherland and Magan:
The plan upon which our brethren propose to work is to select some of the best and most substantial young men and women from Berrien Springs and other places in the North, who believe that God has called them to the work in the South, and give them a brief training as teachers. Thorough instruction will be given in Bible study, physiology, the history of our message; and special instruction will be given regarding the cultivation of the land.
It is hoped that many of these students will eventually connect with schools in various places in the South. In connection with these schools there will be land that will be cultivated by teachers and students, and the proceeds from this work will be used for the support of the schools.--Letter 215, 1904.
Visiting Institutions in the South
While negotiations for the Madison property were under way, Ellen White and her party left on Wednesday, June 15, for a week-long tour of several institutions in Tennessee and Alabama. The first was Graysville, where there was a school and a sanitarium. On Sabbath she spoke in the church and noticed that there were in her audience three ministers from other Protestant churches. On Sunday she made a grand tour of the school buildings, the farm--where she discovered peaches and corn and strawberries--and the Sanitarium, where she urged that the pine trees be preserved, for there is healing in the pines. In their travels by carriage they stopped by homes of Adventists and met the families. She wrote of it: "Whole families, father, mother, and children, came out to speak to me, and I shook hands with each one, not forgetting the children."-- Ibid.
Their travels took them west by train to Huntsville, Alabama, to visit the Oakwood school, which had been established for blacks ten years before. They arrived there Monday afternoon at 1:00 P.M. After looking over the farm, she spoke to the few students who were there for the summer. She told them she wanted one hundred students in the school the next year, and urged them to appeal to their friends to come to Oakwood. She told these students how pleased she was that they were training for service. She said she wanted to encourage them because she knew they had a battle to fight and strong prejudice to work against. She pointed out that the church needed them to work in places where racial hostility prevented whites from working. She assured them of God's help and told them if she never saw them again on this earth she hoped to see them in the kingdom of heaven (Manuscript 60, 1904).
On June 22 she returned to Nashville, where she spent another couple of weeks resting, writing, speaking, and encouraging the workers in the area. During this time she went out to take another look at the Madison property. When the work for the new school was organized, Ellen White accepted an invitation to serve on the board of directors--the only time she ever served in such a capacity. She watched the developments at Madison with deep interest.
On Friday night, July 1, she was given the important vision recorded in Testimonies 9, 28, 29, in which she saw great balls of fire falling from the sky.
While in Nashville she also attended the Southern Union Conference session, which began on July 4.