Ellen G. White
Ellen Gould Harmon White, née Ellen Gould Harmon (born Nov. 26, 1827, Gorham, Maine, U.S.—diedJuly 16, 1915, St. Helena, Calif.), American religious leader who was one of the founders of theSeventh-day Adventist Church and whose prophecies and other guidance were central to that denomination’s early growth.
Ellen Harmon sustained a serious injury at the age of nine that left her facially disfigured and for some time unable to attend school. Her education ended with a brief period at the Westbrook Seminary and Female College of Portland, Maine, in 1839. The following year she underwent a religious experience at a Methodist camp meeting, and she was baptized in 1842. A short time later she followed her family in becoming a follower of William Miller, the Adventist prophet who was preaching the imminent return of Christ (fixed for October 22, 1844). Undismayed later by the apparent failure of Miller’s prophecy, Harmon retained the Adventist view.
In December 1844 Harmon experienced the first of what she would later claim were some 2,000 visions. She began an itinerant ministry to discouraged Millerites, bringing news of the future and messages of encouragement gained from her visions. In 1846 she married the Reverend James S. White, another Adventist minister. They traveled together through New England and gradually moved farther afield, spreading the Adventist faith. She published A Sketch of the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White (1851) and then her Supplement to the Experience and Views of Ellen G. White(1854).
After the Whites moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1855, that city became the centre of Adventist activity. Representatives of scattered Adventist congregations met there in 1860 and adopted the name Seventh-day Adventists. Three years later the church adopted a formal denominational structure. Throughout the work of organization and the establishment of an Adventist orthodoxy, Ellen White’s visions were a guiding force. The scriptural
Ellen Harmon sustained a serious injury at the age of nine that left her facially disfigured and for some time unable to attend school. Her education ended with a brief period at the Westbrook Seminary and Female College of Portland, Maine, in 1839. The following year she underwent a religious experience at a Methodist camp meeting, and she was baptized in 1842. A short time later she followed her family in becoming a follower of William Miller, the Adventist prophet who was preaching the imminent return of Christ (fixed for October 22, 1844). Undismayed later by the apparent failure of Miller’s prophecy, Harmon retained the Adventist view.
In December 1844 Harmon experienced the first of what she would later claim were some 2,000 visions. She began an itinerant ministry to discouraged Millerites, bringing news of the future and messages of encouragement gained from her visions. In 1846 she married the Reverend James S. White, another Adventist minister. They traveled together through New England and gradually moved farther afield, spreading the Adventist faith. She published A Sketch of the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White (1851) and then her Supplement to the Experience and Views of Ellen G. White(1854).
After the Whites moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1855, that city became the centre of Adventist activity. Representatives of scattered Adventist congregations met there in 1860 and adopted the name Seventh-day Adventists. Three years later the church adopted a formal denominational structure. Throughout the work of organization and the establishment of an Adventist orthodoxy, Ellen White’s visions were a guiding force. The scriptural