To Ellen White the stopover on May 4, in 1905, in Los Angeles was all too short. She was with the party of workers traveling east to Washington, D.C., to attend the 1905 General Conference session. During the past several months her mind had been repeatedly called to the Redlands-Riverside-San Bernardino area, some sixty miles east of Los Angeles, as a place where the church should have a sanitarium--it would be the third such institution in southern California.
"I hope," she wrote to Elder E. S. Ballenger on February 26, 1905, "when you see a suitable place in Redlands, which could be used as a sanitarium, offered for sale at a reasonable price, you will let us know about it. We shall need a sanitarium in Redlands. Unless we start an enterprise of this kind, others will."--Letter 83, 1905.
Three days later she wrote: "In closing, I would ask you not to forget that sometime a sanitarium will be needed in Redlands."--Letter 89, 1905. Six weeks later she wrote to Elder J. A. Burden, manager of the Glendale Sanitarium: "Redlands and Riverside have been presented to me as places that should be worked.... Please consider the advisability of establishing a sanitarium in the vicinity of these towns."--Letter 115, 1905.
Elder Burden reports that at about this time, in the course of a conversation at Elmshaven, Ellen White told the president of the Southern California Conference and one of his committee members that there was a "Sanitarium waiting near Riverside and Redlands," and she thought it was nearer Redlands. She told them they could find it if they wanted to (DF 8, J. A. Burden, "The Location and Development of Loma Linda," p. 96).
In response to the repeated messages, a committee was appointed to look for such a site. They felt it must be the Loma Linda resort hotel they had visited earlier, but as it carried a price tag of $85,000, they had turned from it. Now the business had completely failed and the hotel had closed up on April 1; the committee found that it could be bought for $45,000.
On Thursday, May 4, when the eastbound train stopped at the Los Angeles station, a few of the brethren, including Elder Burden, boarded the car to tell Sister White about Loma Linda. She was immediately interested and excitedly urged, "Look up all the particulars and write me at once in Washington."-- Ibid.
She wanted to hear more, but the train was pulling out and the men hurried off. In parting she was urged to watch for the place, which could be seen from the right-hand side of the car. But her berth was on the left side, so it is unlikely that she saw it as the cars sped by.
The conference-bound party reached Washington on Tuesday morning, May 9. The session opened on Thursday morning. Friday afternoon, May 12, the promised letter describing Loma Linda was placed in Ellen White's hands.
She read it aloud to her son W. C. White:
"Dear Sister White,
"While on the train at Los Angeles, we spoke to you of a property for sale near Redlands which seemed to be well adapted for sanitarium purposes. I asked those with you to call your attention to it as the train passed the place. I am sending you a little pamphlet that contains a few views and a brief description of the property, but words and pictures can but faintly describe its beauty. It is simply ideal and grand for a sanitarium.
"The buildings are in excellent condition, well furnished, heated with steam heat, and lighted with electricity. Everything is complete to begin business at once. The main building has forty-six rooms, and there are four cottages having four rooms each, with bath and toilet. Three of these cottages have four porches each, with broad windows so that beds can be wheeled right out on the porch, and patients can sleep in the open air. There is another beautiful building--a two story cottage of nine rooms, with bath and toilet. Another building which has been used as a recreation pavilion, and has four nice rooms, would make a fine gymnasium and chapel.
"There are barns and sheds, and a house for the workmen. There are ten acres of good bearing orange orchard, fifteen acres of alfalfa, eight acres of apricots, plums and almonds. The rest of the grounds are beautifully laid out in lawns, drives, and walks, there being more than a mile of cement walk. The principal buildings are on a beautiful knoll about 125 feet above the valley. The main building is surrounded with pepper-wood trees from thirty to forty feet high.
"There are five horses, four cows, 150 chickens, thirty-five turkeys, some hogs, farm implements, buggies, carriages, and wagons.
"The place has an ample supply of water from the mountains. An artesian well, which has a good pumping plant, yields an abundance of water, if for any reason the mountain water should fail. The water is piped all over the seventy-six acres.
"The place cost the present owners $150,000. They have tried to run it as a tourist hotel, but it was a failure, and they lost money, so it was closed the first of April. The stockholders are financially embarrassed, and have ordered the property sold for $40,000. The furnishings alone in the buildings cost $12,000, and have been used for only about two years and a half.
"A number of us went to see the place today, and we were deeply impressed that this is the place which the Lord has shown you, near Redlands and Riverside, in which sanitarium work should be carried on. It is five miles from Redlands.
"The question is, what shall we do? We must act at once, for the company is anxious to sell, and there are others who want it....
"We do not wish to move hastily, and we should like to hear from you and the brethren in Washington who have gone from this field, as to how you and they feel about the matter. I wish that if it is at all possible you would take the matter up in council with them, and have them wire us. I do not know how long we can hold the offer open, but will try to do so until we hear from you. I think that those here who are considering the matter feel such a strong conviction that we should have the place that they will pay down a deposit, even if we lose it, rather than let the property pass out of our hands before we can hear from the brethren in Washington.
"How I wish that you could have stopped off and seen the property while on your way to the conference; but it may be that you can return this way and see it then. I hope that you can send us some counsel as soon as you receive this letter.
"Wishing you much of the blessing of the Lord in the conference, I am, Yours in the work, J. A. Burden."--J. A. Burden to EGW, May 7, 1905 (Special Testimonies, Series B 3:33-35).
When she finished reading, she told Willie that she believed the place was the one that had been presented to her several years ago. (28 WCW, p. 442).
She later wrote that the description given by Brother Burden answered in every respect to that of places she had been instructed would be opened to the church, at prices below their original cost. The terms offered Elder Burden were $5,000 down and like amounts in August (due July 26), September (due August 26), and December (due December 31), making $20,000. The remaining $20,000 would come due in three years (The Story of Our Health Message, 349, 350).
What could they do? Burden in California called for an immediate answer. Conference officers and Ellen White were across the continent in Washington, D.C. It seemed that there could not have been a more inopportune time to deal with such a weighty and far-reaching matter. All in Washington were deeply involved in the General Conference session that had just opened. The Southern California Conference with 1,332 members was now involved in an indebtedness of about $75,000, stemming from the recently acquired San Fernando College and Glendale Sanitarium, the longer-established vegetarian restaurant and treatment rooms in Los Angeles, and the health-food business there.
Three weeks earlier, at the Southern California constituency meeting, a new president had been chosen--a good man, but far from a seasoned executive. He had been charged to hold the line as far as indebtedness was concerned. The General Conference, too, was facing overwhelming financial problems. There was the possibility of having to raise between $75,000 and $90,000 to meet the deficit of the old medical association. So there was little to encourage the hope of help from that source.
Ellen White's Telegram, "Secure the Property"
And yet, as W. C. White reported shortly after this experience, Elder Burden's description of Loma Linda "answered more closely to what had been presented" to his mother than any property she had ever seen. The Lord had been moving on her mind to appeal to the members to do something immediately in establishing a sanitarium in "Redlands and Riverside," and "this place described by Elder Burden seemed" "perfectly in accord with our needs." What could they do?
"We must take action at once," Ellen White told her son.
"Willie," she queried, "will you do as I ask?"
"I usually do," he responded.
Then came her request: "I want you to send a telegram to Elder Burden to secure the property at once."
As Willie was leaving the room to send the telegram, she called him back and extracted a promise to send the telegram immediately, before taking counsel with anyone regarding the matter (28 WCW, p. 443).
He promised, and the telegram was sent. Only the overwhelming conviction that Loma Linda was the place God wished His people to have could have led Ellen White to take such a course of action so foreign to her relationship to church organization. True, she had just a few months earlier assisted in the purchase of the property near San Diego and in starting the Paradise Valley Sanitarium. This had been done with the knowledge of the Southern California Conference but without their official support or financial backing. On another occasion she explained her instruction to W. C. White as follows: "I did not consult with anyone, because I thought this would hinder us, and I believed that we could carry the matter forward without putting the burden on the conference."--Letter 153, 1905.
Friday's telegram was followed by a letter to Elder Burden on Sunday, May 14, which opened:
Your letter has just been read. I had no sooner finished reading it than I said, "I will consult no one; for I have no question at all about the matter. I advised Willie to send you a telegram without spending time to ask the advice of the brethren. Secure the property by all means, so that it can be held, and then obtain all the money you can and make sufficient payments to hold the place. This is the very property that we ought to have. Do not delay; for it is just what is needed. As soon as it is secured, a working force can begin operations in it. I think that sufficient help can be secured to carry this matter through. I want you to be sure to lose no time in securing the right to purchase the property. We will do our utmost to help you raise the money. I know that Redlands and Riverside are to be worked, and I pray that the Lord may be gracious, and not allow anyone else to get this property instead of us....
Here is the word of the Lord. Open up every place possible. We are to labor in faith, taking hold of a power that is pledged to do large things for us. We are to reach out in faith in Los Angeles and in Redlands and Riverside.--Letter 139, 1905.
In defense of her unprecedented action, she declared: "I considered that the advantages of this location authorized me to speak positively regarding this matter."--Letter 247, 1905.
The Conference Declines Responsibility
Through the next three weeks letters and telegrams concerning the Loma Linda property crisscrossed the continent. Southern California Conference officers, after counseling with union conference leaders, telegraphed that the conference could take no responsibility in the matter (The Story of Our Health Message, 349).
An Ellen White letter urged the securing of the property but declared the conference could not be asked to assume the responsibility. But if Burden would move forward, money would come. "If you in Los Angeles will do your best," wrote Ellen White on May 24, "we will do our best.... If you do nothing, waiting for the conference, you will lose your chance."--Letter 145, 1905.
One telegram signed by conference officers and Ellen White urged Burden to delay action till they returned to the West. But circumstances did not warrant this. Burden could delay action on the deal only till Friday, May 26. On that date, if the property was to be held he must make a payment of $1,000 to bind the contract until Thursday, June 15. By then conference officers and Ellen White and her son would be back.
The Search for Money
But there was no money in sight. On Thursday, May 25, Elder Burden and a close friend, Elder R. S. Owen, a Bible teacher at the San Fernando school, took the inter-urban electric car down the coast to call on a farmer who was thought to have some means. He lived about a mile and a half from the car stop. When they got to his cabin, no one was at home. A neighbor thought he was most likely somewhere on the ranch, but search as they would, no sign of the man was found. The two men returned to the car stop and waited.
It was dark now, and as the inter-urban car sped toward them, they failed to signal it for a stop, so it did not even slow up. There would be a two-hour wait for another car, so the men went back to the cabin, which now had a light in it. Finding the farmer, his wife, and daughter, they introduced themselves and soon explained their mission. Elder Burden reports that as the telegram from Mrs. White and the letters that followed were read to the farmer, he suddenly exclaimed, "Praise the Lord!"--The Story of Our Health Message, 355.
He had been praying that the Lord would send someone to buy his place. It had been sold a few days before and now he was ready to make available $2,400 for the Loma Linda enterprise. The next day Elder Burden phoned the representative of the Loma Linda Association that he was ready to do business. The $1,000 was paid, and work was begun on a contract. This was finished the following Monday. Four thousand dollars more had to be on hand by June 15 to make up the first payment of $5,000 or the deposit would be lost.
Now all awaited the return of the California workers from the General Conference. Ellen White was detained in Washington for a week until W. C. White finished special General Conference Committee work. Travel plans called for them to reach Redlands at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, June 12. Local and union conference workers would come out from Los Angeles and meet them at Loma Linda. A great deal depended on this meeting. Would approving action be taken, or would Elder Burden lose the borrowed $1,000 given to bind the contract?
Ellen White Inspects Loma Linda
Elder Burden, his wife, and fellow workers were inspecting the grounds and the buildings as the express wagon from Redlands drove up carrying Ellen White, W. C. White and his wife, and others. Sister White's gaze was fixed on the main building.
"Willie, I have been here before," she said as she stepped down from the wagon.
"No, Mother," he replied, "you have never been here."
"Then this is the very place the Lord has shown me," she said, "for it is all familiar."
Ellen White turned to one of the ministers and declared, "We must have this place. We should reason from cause to effect. The Lord has not given us this property for any common purpose."
As they looked over grounds and buildings, she said again and again, "This is the very place the Lord has shown me."
How closely her observations were noted! Following Elder Burden into the recreation building, she commented:
This building will be of great value to us. A school will be established here. Redlands will become a center as also will Loma Linda. Battle Creek is going down. God will reestablish His medical work at this place.--W. L. Johns and R. H. Utt, eds., The Vision Bold, 179.
It was past noon, and the representatives of the Loma Linda Association invited the entire party into the dining room to partake of a sumptuous vegetarian dinner. Then the manager opened a door and ushered the group into the parlor. All were waiting eagerly to hear from Ellen White; she did not disappoint them. She spoke on the work of the true medical missionary. Burden reports:
I think I never heard her paint in such glowing terms the work of the true medical missionary.... The place and surroundings and theme seemed to blend in such a way as to inspire her with the wonderful work that could be accomplished in those lines if men would follow the plans and methods of the great medical Missionary in their labors to serve a perishing world.--DF 8, J. A. Burden, "The Location and Development of Loma Linda," p. 110.
The manager of the Loma Linda Association stayed by Burden's side. Tears flowed down his cheeks; as Ellen White finished, he turned to Burden and said: "I would give the world to be with you people in a work such as this. It was what we had in mind, but we did not know how to carry it out. I am glad you people are obtaining this property, as I know our plans will now be realized." Burden invited him to stay and help carry forward the work. "Impossible!" he replied. "Only Christians of the highest ideals could carry out such a work."-- Ibid.
In spite of the evidences of God's leading, both in circumstances and in Ellen White's counsel, the group facing such a stupendous project was unready to come to any decision. The financial problems loomed too large.
So before taking any steps it was felt that the matter should be placed before the Los Angeles Carr Street church, the largest in the conference. The meeting was called for ten o'clock the next day, June 12.
While most of the group returned to Los Angeles on the evening train, Ellen White and her party and the conference committee remained to inspect the property more thoroughly. Burden reports that "Sister White's interest was so intense that she had not only inspected the rooms in the main building and cottages, but visited the kitchen, dining room, and storerooms."-- Ibid., 111.
She was thrilled to see the canned fruit and supplies and was deeply impressed with the quality of the furniture, linens, rugs, and silverware.
She did not meet with the conference committee that evening, but there it was argued that if a hundred businessmen and physicians, with all their resources, had failed in their Loma Linda project, what should lead the church group to think they could succeed? Thus with four days remaining until June 15, when the first payment was due, the committee adjourned to await the meeting called in Los Angeles the next day.
By 10:00 A.M. Monday the church on Carr Street was crowded. Sister White reviewed what had been revealed to her of the medical missionary work that should be carried forward in southern California. She told the audience that Loma Linda recalled to her mind visions of properties that ought to be secured for sanitarium work. The church members voted in favor of securing the property for a sanitarium.
The First $5,000 Payment
However, the officers of the Southern California Conference felt that more than one church should be heard from before the conference could be brought into it. June 20 was set for a delegated meeting of the conference as a time for the decision. In the meantime, June 15 would come with its payment of $4,000 due. It took considerable faith and courage just then to meet the payment to complete the first installment on the $40,000. The farmer down the coast had provided $2,400. Brother Burden talked with a sister, Belle Baker. She could see no reason to hesitate and said she would put up $1,000. "You may lose it," Burden suggested. "I'll risk it," she replied.--Ibid., 356.
Then Burden conferred with his friend, R. S. Owen. "I don't have the money," Owen declared, "but I'll mortgage my house for it." He was able to get an unsecured loan for the needed amount, and the June payment was made on schedule.
Five days later, on June 20, the constituency of the Southern California Conference met. They were faced with the matter of whether Loma Linda should be purchased, and if so, whether it would be operated "by private corporation or by the conference assuming the financial responsibility of the enterprise" (Pacific Union Recorder, July 13, 1905.) Ellen White was on hand for the meeting. She spoke for more than an hour on the work that should be done in southern California and urged the securing of the Loma Linda property, as it fully met the descriptions of the properties shown to her in vision that should be in the church's possession. She declared, "This is the very property that we ought to have."-- Ibid.
Still the leading officers of the Southern California Conference hesitated. How, with the heavy debt on the conference, could they become further involved in securing properties and starting sanitariums? Conference officers cautioned the delegates to move guardedly.
Then Elder G. A. Irwin, the newly elected General Conference vice-president, rose to speak. He was on a mission to California, and while passing through Los Angeles had been urged to visit Loma Linda. He had just that morning come from there; he now spoke in favor of securing that institution. He rehearsed a number of incidents in which, when Sister White's counsel was followed and workers and church members responded to the guiding messages, God signally blessed and success came to the work.
Irwin spoke particularly of the Avondale school in Australia from where he had just returned after a four-year term of service. While leading workers had foreseen only failure, Ellen White had urged that the property be bought and schoolwork begun. Elder Irwin pointed out that that college was now one of the most successful training schools in the denomination and was free of debt.
The audience listened attentively as Elder Irwin spoke with measured words:
Although the conference is heavily in debt, I believe it to be to the glory of God that the conference should assume this responsibility.-- Ibid.
Elder Irwin's speech, exuding confidence in the Spirit of Prophecy counsels and urging action, turned the tide. The constituency voted unanimously in favor of securing the Loma Linda property and opening a third sanitarium in southern California. Cash and pledges totaling $1,100 were offered in support of the action. The enthusiastic response of a new church member, the daughter of Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, founder of the Los Angeles Times, who promised to give $10,000 if and when she could get the money released from another commitment, gave encouraging support.