CHAMBERLAIN, Mary Ann (née BILL) (1819-1900) and Ezra L'Hommedieu (1798-1855)

Mary Ann and Ezra Chamberlain were among the first Adventists in Connecticut to keep the Sabbath. After Ezra died in 1855, Mary, who was his second wife and more than 20 years his junior, studied medicine and homeopathy and received her M.D. from the University of Michigan. She subsequently served as doctor at the recently established Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, Michigan, for several years up to 1875. While there Ellen White commended her for serving with “earnestness and energy for small pay.” Later she worked at the Rural Health Retreat (which became St. Helena Sanitarium) in St. Helena, California, 1883-1884. During this period, however, Ellen White challenged Mary Chamberlain on her use of “little homeopathic doses for almost every ailment. … I was obliged to tell her that this practice of depending upon medicine, whether in large or small doses, was not in accordance with the principles of health reform.”1EGWLM 806.1

Ellen and James White first met the Chamberlains in 1848 in response to Ezra's letter urging the Whites to attend a conference in Rocky Hill, Connecticut (later designated the first of the “Sabbath and Sanctuary Conferences”). During the next two or three years Ezra Chamberlain featured quite prominently in the Sabbatarian movement at conferences, as a traveling preacher, and as agent for the Review in Connecticut. Apparently, however, he was not very effective as a speaker. Ellen White received visions in 1849 and 1852 showing that “it was not his duty to travel” and that “he was not one of the messengers.” Existing records indicate that during his few remaining years, till his death in 1855, Chamberlain's sphere of activity was mostly limited to the vicinity of his hometown.1EGWLM 806.2

See: Obituary: “Mary A. Chamberlain,” Review, Apr. 17, 1900, p. 256; Lillian Hubbard Holch, ed., Sizer Genealogy: A History of Antonio Dezocieur Who Changed His Name to Anthony Sizer, pp. 205, 206, 208; obituary: “E.L.H. Chamberlain,” Review, Jan. 24, 1856, p. 134; Health Reform Institute (Battle Creek, Mich.), “Minutes of the Health Reform Institute Board: Selections, 1867-1897” (Berrien Springs, Mich.: Center for Adventist Research, Andrews University, n.d.), minutes for Sept. 19, 1875; “St. Helena Sanitarium: Golden Jubilee 1878-1928,” Ellen G. White Estate, DF 14, p. 13; Ellen G. White, Lt 10, 1850 (Mar. 18); Lt 4, 1852 (Oct. 25); Lt 26a, 1889 (Mar. 2); The Health Reform and the Health Institute (PH138), p. 32; Spiritual Gifts [vol. 2], pp. 91, 93; SDAE, s.v. “E.L.H. Chamberlain.”1EGWLM 806.3