In December 1851 James and Ellen White left Saratoga Springs for a midwinter tour, visiting scattered groups of believers and churches in northern and western New York. James's report in the Review at the end of the seven-week tour was optimistic:
We reached home the thirteenth, and found our friends in good health and spirits. Sister [Annie] Smith, who has had the care of the paper in our absence, seems happy with her charge. Our health is improved by traveling. We are all very happy to see the cause of truth rapidly advancing (The Review and Herald, February 17, 1852).
On the back page of the same issue he made an interesting proposition regarding the work of publishing the message:
We think the time has come when a press should be owned by Sabbathkeepers. Now our work is being done on the Sabbath, which is very unpleasant and inconvenient. It also costs much more than it would if we had an office of our own. Will the committee take this matter in hand? (Ibid.).
James called a conference to meet on Friday, March 12, 1852, in the home of Jesse Thompson, nine miles (15 kilometers) from Saratoga Springs where the 14 numbers of volume 2 of the Review and Herald had been published. Among those attending that conference were Joseph Bates, Hiram Edson, S. W. Rhodes, and James and Ellen White. They were joined by the Review staff and nearby believers. The report of the work done that Friday was faith challenging.
The subject of publishing the paper was introduced. Several brethren spoke of the disadvantages of having it published as it has been, and of the propriety of having an office at the control of Sabbathkeepers. And after investigating the matter it was decided by a unanimous vote (1) that a press, type, et cetera, should be purchased immediately, (2) that the paper should be published at Rochester, New York, (3) that Brethren E. A. Pool, Lebbeus Drew, and Hiram Edson compose a committee to receive donations from the friends of the cause to purchase the press, type, et cetera, and to conduct the financial concerns of the paper, (4) that the brethren abroad be requested through the next number of the Review and Herald to choose agents in their churches to receive donations for the purpose of establishing the press, and carrying forward the publishing of the paper, and (5) that those donations that are immediately sent in should be sent to Hiram Edson, Port Byron, New York.
It was thought that $600 would be sufficient to establish the press at Rochester (Ibid., March 23, 1852).
Establishing a Publishing Office in Rochester, New York
Steps were taken immediately to carry out the actions of the conference held on March 12. A printing press was purchased in New York City, and the stocks of papers and pamphlets, along with the Whites' meager household equipment and personal belongings, were packed and shipped from Saratoga Springs. As money was scarce, they had to borrow to pay the freight westward across the state.
In Rochester they found, at 124 Mount Hope Avenue, a home thought sufficiently large to accommodate the publishing house family and the printing equipment. The rent of $14.50 a month seemed to be within their ability to pay. As the house stood on about an acre of land, there was space for a garden. Ellen White described their circumstances in a letter written to the Howland family on April 16.
We are just getting settled here in Rochester. We have rented an old house for $175 a year. We have the press in the house. Were it not for this, we should have to pay $50 a year for office room.
You would smile could you look in upon us and see our furniture. We have bought two old bedsteads for 25 cents each. My husband brought me home six old chairs, no two of them alike, for which he paid $1, and soon he presented me with four more old chairs without any seating, for which he paid 62 cents for the lot. The frames were strong, and I have been seating them with drilling.
Butter is so high we do not purchase it, neither can we afford potatoes. Our first meals were taken on a fireboard placed upon two empty flour barrels. We are willing to endure privations if the work of God can be advanced. We believe the Lord's hand was in our coming to this place (Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White (1880), 287).
The Publishing House Family
At first there were James and Ellen White; little Edson, and his nurse Clarissa Bonfoey; Stephen and Sarah Belden; and Annie Smith. Soon Jennie Fraser was employed as cook. For a short time Thomas and Mary Mead were members of the family and office force. Then came Oswald Stowell, who acted as pressman.
In the autumn, Warren Bacheller, a boy of 13, joined the force and served as roller boy while learning typesetting. In the spring of 1853, Uriah Smith joined the family, and in the autumn, George Amadon, a young man of 17, also became a member of the little company. These three were to grow gray in the service of the Review and Herald. Later on they were joined by Fletcher Byington, a son of John Byington, of northern New York....
It was necessary to employ a skilled printer to superintend the work and teach the beginners. For this position a very competent man was found in Lumen V. Masten, with whom Elder White had become acquainted in Saratoga Springs (WCW, "Sketches and Memories," The Review and Herald, June 13, 1935).
The Washington hand press, other needed equipment, and the type purchased in New York cost more than $600. Hiram Edson advanced the money on a short-term loan; James White called for donations with which to pay this debt, if possible by mid-June, and work began. The first issue of volume 3 of the Review, bearing the publication date of May 6, was ready in type before the press arrived, so was "struck off" on another press in the town. The masthead lists as a publishing committee Joseph Bates, J. N. Andrews, and Joseph Baker; James White was named editor. The paper would appear semimonthly. The "terms" were stated: "Gratis. It is expected that all the friends of the cause will aid in its publication, as the Lord has prospered them" (Ibid., May 6, 1852). A poem from the pen of Annie Smith titled "The Blessed Hope" filled column one and half of column two of the first page. The articles related to the third angel's message, and Elder White's editorial reviewed the past and dealt with present work.
The Tour East
Soon after the Whites had settled in Rochester, a letter from Ellen's mother informed them that her brother Robert was dying of tuberculosis at the family home in Gorham, Maine. James had trained the staff quite well while at Saratoga Springs, and Lumen Masten was on hand to manage the office. So with their faithful horse Charlie to convey them by carriage, he and Ellen planned a trip east that would take two months. The Review of June 24 set his plans before the companies of believers:
We now design making a tour east, and spending several weeks, holding conferences where they are most needed (Ibid., June 24, 1852).
In mid-June, while visiting a nearby company of believers over the weekend, they were pleasantly surprised. James White wrote about this:
Brother Drew being informed of our intended eastern tour, and seeing that our carriage was about falling to pieces, purchased and gave us a suitable carriage for which he paid $85. For this we thank God, also our brother, His steward (Ibid., July 8, 1852).
The couple planned to take 3-year-old Edson with them. As the summer wore on, cholera struck Rochester with heavy mortality. Just as they were to start on their carriage tour east, little Edson was stricken. Their first resort, of course, was to pray for his healing. "I took him in my arms," wrote Ellen White, "and in the name of Jesus rebuked the disease." He felt relief at once. As a sister commenced praying for the Lord to heal him, Edson looked up and said, "They need not pray any more, for the Lord has healed me" (Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 144). But James did not dare start on their journey until Edson had improved sufficiently to call for food. He did that afternoon, Wednesday, July 21, and they started, for they had nearly 100 miles (160 kilometers) to cover in the next two days to fill their first appointment at Oswego.
James had charted the itinerary, allowing time to drive from one appointment to the next and giving word in advance through the Review. The journey by carriage rested both James and Ellen White.
Charlie was very fond of apples. As they drove where apple orchards lined the roads and big red apples lay in the path of the travelers, James would loosen the checkrein. Charlie would gently slow down from a seven-mile (11-kilometer) pace, select a good apple within easy reach, pick it up, and then throw his head high and dash on at full speed, chewing the apple as he journeyed (WCW, "Sketches and Memories," The Review and Herald, April 25, 1935).
Ellen White described their travel experience:
The Lord greatly blessed us on our journey to Vermont. My husband had much care and labor. At the different conferences he did most of the preaching, sold books, and took pay for the papers. And when one conference was over, we would hasten to the next.
At noon we would feed the horse by the roadside and eat our lunch. Then my husband, with paper and pencil upon the cover of our dinner box, or the top of his hat, would write articles for the Review and Instructor (Life Sketches of James White and Ellen G. White (1880), 292).
The Youth's Instructor was a monthly journal James White had started recently to reach the youth of the emerging church. Each copy contained Sabbath school lessons, the first prepared for children and young people. James later recalled that he thought out the lessons while the "carriage was in motion"; then, while the horse was eating, he wrote them out.
With faithful Charlie pulling their carriage, James and Ellen White drove into their yard in Rochester on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 6, returning from their 1852 trip east.
The Review office staff had not missed an issue in the 11 weeks the editor was absent. This proved to James White that others could carry many of the routine tasks to which he had given attention in the previous three years. Every other Thursday 2,000 copies were "struck off" on the hand press and mailed to 1,600 homes (WCW, "Sketches and Memories," The Review and Herald, June 27, 1935). The Youth's Instructor, started in August, was mailed to nearly 1,000 homes. Now there was need for more space in which to work. The first important action after getting back was to rent office space in downtown Rochester on South Saint Paul Street, on the third floor of an office building, and move the printing work to this new location.
Publishing The Visions
In 1849 when James White began to publish Present Truth, the reading audience was limited to those who had been in the first and second angels' messages. It was this same group he addressed in 1850 in the five numbers of the Advent Review. To a large degree it was this same group that he hoped to reach through the Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald.
The marked change now appearing in the attitudes of the general public presented a challenge in setting forth truths that would win, and not be cut off through prejudice. James White cautiously refrained from publishing the visions in the 13 issues of volume 1 of the combined journal issued at Paris, Maine. Nor did he make direct reference to the special experience of Ellen White. In the issue of April 21, 1851, he did introduce an article he titled "The Gifts of the Gospel Church."
He defended the proposition of the gift of prophecy in the church, but he did not mention Ellen White. By mid-June 1851 the growing number of church members were calling for the visions in published form. This led him to plan for the issuance of Extras of the Review just for the believers. He explained this in the first, and only, issue of an Extra. It carried the date of July 21, 1851, and was published between volume 1 of the Review, which closed with the June 9 issue, and volume 2, which opened August 5.
It took longer to get out the Extra than was first expected. The printing was done at Saratoga Springs. On July 21, the date carried by the yet-unprinted Extra, Ellen White mentioned the pamphlet in a letter to friends in Michigan:
The visions trouble many. They [know] not what to make of them.... If you desire it, I can write it off for you. As it was coming out so soon in the pamphlet, I thought that you would not wish me to write them all off for you. We now think that you can have the book in about four weeks (Letter 4, 1851).
Elder White promised that it would contain 64 pages (four printing forms), and that 2,000 copies would be printed, at a cost of $5 per 100.
As they were publishing the Extra they decided to turn to a pamphlet or book as a means of making the visions available in permanent form. To begin with, they could use the same type already set for the Extra, and a little book would be more serviceable than the periodical.
Ellen White's First Book
Even though the pamphlet contained only 64 pages, A Sketch of the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White, with more than 20 chapters, is considered the first Ellen G. White book. Most of the chapters were made up of her messages to the church, first published in broadsides or articles. The entire work was republished in 1882 and is the first section of Early Writings.
During its first five years the Review and Herald had not included even one vision given by God to Ellen White, and very little had been said about God's communicating through the visions to encourage, guard, and counsel His people.
True, in 1851 Ellen White's first little 64-page book, which presented many of the visions of the previous seven years, had been published and circulated. But with the intent of not offending the general public, the Review was silent on the visions, and its editor had done no more than maintain that visions in the last days are scriptural. Now, with the confessions of neglect and the determination to place the gift in its proper place in the church, the whole atmosphere changed. The minutes of the conference and the conference address were published December 4, 1855, in the first issue of the Review printed in Battle Creek. This issue carried Uriah Smith's name on the masthead as resident editor, and James White as one of the corresponding editors.
Immediately a change in policy became evident. In the issue of December 18, in a two-page editorial titled "The Testimony of Jesus," James White defended the appearance of the Spirit of prophecy in the remnant church. Beginning with Revelation 12:17, he carried through the scriptural support for the continuing ministry of the gift of prophecy till earth's last days, and closed with the biblical tests of the true prophet.
The events and experiences at the conference of November 1855 may well be considered as marking a turning point in Seventh-day Adventist history. With the church accepting the responsibility for its publishing work, and the Spirit of Prophecy now given its rightful place, added blessing attended the labors of the ministers, the publishing enterprise prospered, and the work moved forward.
Expanding By Tent Evangelism
As the third angel's message accelerated, new talent joined the ranks of evangelists--men like 23-year-old J. N. Loughborough, M. E. Cornell, and J. N. Andrews, who were pioneering the message in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
Sometimes overflow audiences created problems. Meetings had often been held in homes or schoolhouses or small meetinghouses. On one such occasion the attendance at Locke, Michigan, over the weekend of May 19 to 21, 1854, was so large that only half the audience could get into the schoolhouse secured for the occasion. The speakers stood near an open window where the larger, outside, portion of the audience could see and hear as they sat in their carriages and on the grass (JNL, in The Review and Herald, January 27, 1885). While they were driving the next day to Sylvan, they discussed the experience at Locke. James White suggested that by another year they might try using a tent to proclaim the message.
Cornell asked, "Why not have a tent at once?" As they discussed it they decided to propose it at coming conferences at Sylvan and Jackson. The response was enthusiastic, and money was raised and pledged. On Tuesday, Cornell hurried off to Rochester to buy a 60-foot (18-meter) round meeting tent (ibid.).
Quite naturally James and Ellen White had a special interest in the tent that he and Loughborough pitched in Battle Creek. Meetings were advertised for Friday, June 2, to Sunday, June 4. Thinking the meetings might run longer, the Whites hoped to get to Battle Creek in time to see the tent and preach in it. James wrote:
We had a great desire to be at the Battle Creek meeting, and to speak to the people in the tent at least once before our return home. And when we arrived in Battle Creek we were happy to learn that the brethren had a cheering meeting, and the tent was on its way to Grand Rapids to our last appointment (Ibid., July 4, 1854).
Loughborough described this first attempt at tent meetings. The tent was located, he reported, on "Van Buren Street, just above the railroad, near the planing mill." He and Cornell worked together in this new, promising evangelistic thrust. Loughborough later reported:
Here, June 10 (Sabbath), the writer opened the tent meetings with a discourse on Daniel 2. This meeting continued only two days, and then we took our tent to Grand Rapids (The Review and Herald, February 24, 1885).
The Ibid., July 4, 1854, announced that 1,000 people attended the Sunday evening meeting, and a good interest was awakened.
Of the meeting in the tent at Grand Rapids, a week later, James White wrote:
On Sixth-day the brethren pitched it on a vacant lot in the city. We were much pleased with its appearance from without, and when we entered it to engage in the solemn worship of God, we felt that the Lord was indeed with us. We are perfectly satisfied that the brethren have moved none too fast in obtaining the tent for this season. On First-day probably about five hundred came out to hear, and if the brethren could have remained another week, the congregation doubtless would have increased to thousands. The people listened with great interest, and when publications were offered, crowded forward to obtain them. The way seems to be fully open to spread the truth (Ibid., July 4, 1854).
After the meetings at Grand Rapids were over, Ellen White was given a vision at the house of Brother Fitch. Loughborough described it as being "full of instruction, reproof, and counsel, for the church present, and also encouragement of success to the tent enterprise." He added:
The use of tents for meetings was a new business to us, and we had some things to learn by experience that may look a little strange to those now engaged in tent labor.
First, we did not then so fully realize that when an interest was first awakened in a place it was best to follow up that interest with a thorough effort, or with a full series of discourses, bringing as many as possible of the interested ones to a decision.
Secondly, we did not suppose people would be interested to come out evenings through the week, and so the most of our meetings were held only over Sabbath and first day of each week.
Thirdly, we looked upon tent meetings as a means for the general arousing of the public mind; and, with this idea, we tried to visit as many different places as possible in one season (Ibid., February 24, 1885).
The use of a tent was a new approach in evangelism for Sabbathkeepers. Different plans were followed in the 14 tent meetings held in Michigan in the summer of 1854. The majority were two-day meetings in which Loughborough and Cornell gave a "condensed view of the prophecies, sanctuary, messages, and Sabbath, earnestly urging the people to obey." This moved some to act.
Several meetings were held a little longer than two or three days, and one meeting was held over three consecutive weekends. Wrote Loughborough:
It was not, however, until the Lord gave us instruction through the Spirit of Prophecy that we fully understood the best mode of prosecuting "the work of the ministry" in connection with tent labor (Ibid.).
He was pleased to report that "in almost every place where our tent was erected there were some to obey the truth, but we saw the best results where we tarried the longest."
A most promising line of evangelism was now opening up. Before the summer ended, the Review was carrying reports of a second 60-foot (18-meter) tent in New England, and the enlargement of the Michigan tent to 90 feet (27 meters). The Review pages were also carrying appointments for meetings in the two evangelistic tents and thrilling reports of the success of these meetings.
At the close of the season James White summed up the success of what had been an experiment. He explained:
Much can be done with tents, and but little can be accomplished in the summer season in any other way. For example: One year since at our conference in Springfield, Massachusetts, a good hall was obtained, and the people were notified by handbills, and through the daily paper, yet on First-day but few were present excepting believers. But on the sixth inst. 1,200 persons were assembled to hear the Word at the tent meeting held in that city (Ibid., October 24, 1854).
The big tent challenged the curiosity of the people and brought out the crowds.
The Move To Battle Creek
At age 34 James White was putting all his life, health, and strength into the publishing of the Review. By early February 1855 he found himself in a desperate situation in regard to the Review office. Not only was he the proprietor, financial agent, and editor, he also was burdened with financial troubles. He was working 14 to 18 hours a day. He and Ellen needed to be free of the care of a large publishing house family who had been working for little more than their room and board in the White home.
He realized the need for a change. "Without capital, and without health," he said, "we cannot much longer bear the burden" (Ibid., February 20, 1855).
Opportunity came in May for a hastily planned trip to Michigan where the brethren in Battle Creek were generally awake to the needs of the cause and eager to establish the Review office in that place.
The "conference" met in a private house, for as yet the Sabbathkeeping Adventists had no house of worship in Battle Creek. Here he had opportunity to discuss the future of the Review and the Review office.
A Transition Evidencing The Maturity Of The Church
There were a number of men of good judgment in both Vermont and Michigan capable of assuming most of the responsibilities of which James White felt he must divest himself.
At this time Ellen was "shown" that "no longer should those connected with the office bear burdens they have borne.... They must be free in mind, and then their health will improve" (Manuscript 3, 1855).
They spent most of May in Michigan attending and assisting in the tent meetings. Returning home, James reported: "My health gradually improves, and my spirit is getting perfectly free while freed from the cares of the office" (Ibid., May 29, 1855).
In mid-June they took off by carriage on an 11-week trip through New England. As James interviewed leading workers in Vermont he found them eager to move the Review office to Vermont and have the responsibility and burden of conducting it, unless the friends of the cause in some more central position would assume this responsibility.
The Review Office To Go To Battle Creek, Michigan
Having consulted with the brethren in Michigan and Vermont, the two states from which there had been the strongest moral and financial support, on his return to Rochester on August 30, 1855, James White was prepared to make the announcement of what seemed to be the consensus of opinion. He did so in early September under the title of "The Office":
1. We are happy to say that the brethren in Michigan cheerfully take upon themselves the responsibilities of the Review office. They will probably move it to that state this fall. Brethren in Vermont are willing and ready to do the same, but regard Michigan to be more the center of the future field of labor, and are willing that the press should be established in that state.
2. The Review will probably be issued weekly after the press shall be established at Battle Creek, Michigan. It will be our duty and privilege to be freed from the office at present, at least. God has raised up others who are better able to conduct the Review, and bear these burdens, than we are (Ibid., September 4, 1855).
The decision having been made that the press would go to Battle Creek, the men there went into action. The Review of October 2 placed before the church the plans and decisions the Michigan brethren were making:
3. The Advent Review office would remain the property of the church.
4. It would be moved to Battle Creek, Michigan.
5. A financial committee of three would be chosen, whose duty it was to move the office, and publish the Advent Review.
6. The church-at-large would be called upon to send their freewill offerings to defray the expenses of moving.
7. There was a call for a plan on which the editorial department of the Advent Review would be conducted (Ibid., October 2, 1855).
The response from the field was uniform and favorable. The month of November was given over to erecting the little publishing house on the southeast corner of Washington and Main streets in the western edge of Battle Creek, and to moving both the press and the families connected with the Advent Review office. The White family moved into a little cottage that they rented for $1.50 a week. The general conference, which had been called for Friday, November 16, met in the newly constructed house of worship, a building 18' x 24' (six meters x seven meters), provided for the Battle Creek congregation of 24 (Ibid., August 22, 1935). It was one of three church buildings erected in 1855.
Actions of the conference included the appointment of Henry Lyon, David Hewitt, and William M. Smith, all of Battle Creek, to be a committee to investigate the financial condition of the Review office, and the appointment of Uriah Smith as the resident (or managing) editor, and five corresponding editors. These were J. N. Andrews, of Iowa; James White and J. H. Waggoner, of Michigan; R. F. Cottrell, of New York; and Stephen Pierce, of Vermont. The minutes also recorded:
8. That a vote of thanks be tendered to Brother White for his valuable services as an editor, in spreading the light of present truth (Ibid., December 5, 1855).
A Power Press For The Review Office
For five years the Review and Herald had been printed on a press owned and operated by Sabbathkeeping Adventists. The printing of each sheet was virtually a "custom job"--the type was inked, a sheet of paper laid on it, and the lever pulled, making the impression. The same was true of all other publications put out between 1852 and 1857. Wrote James White:
With our hand press, it takes three days of each week to print the Review and Herald. Should the circulation of the Review and Herald be doubled (which we may hope it soon will be), there would be no room for the Instructor; and a large amount of work ... would be shut out (Ibid., March 19, 1857).
A special conference to consider this urgent need was called for Friday, April 10, 1857, in Battle Creek. Joseph Bates was chosen to preside. First attention was given to the matter of a power press.
Two resolutions were passed: (1) "That such a press be obtained for the Review office," and (2) "That all business pertaining to the purchasing [of] the press, et cetera, be confided to the hands of the publishing committee" (Ibid., April 16, 1857).
It was thought that such a press could be secured for less than $2,500. James White made the purchase in Boston on their next trip to the East.