COTTRELL, John Harvey (1817-1881) and Maryette (1816-1879)

John H. Cottrell was one of the founding members of the church in Mill Grove, New York, in 1851. He was listed as a farmer in available census records. According to J. N. Loughborough, the first evangelistic tent meetings in New York were held “on the farm of Bro. Harvey Cottrell” in Mill Grove in June 1855. He was the brother of well-known Seventh-day Adventist writer and preacher Roswell Fenner Cottrell.1EGWLM 813.4

Although Ellen White would have been personally acquainted with the Cottrells from her visits to Mill Grove in the early 1850s, there is no existing correspondence between them. However, in a letter to a friend in Mill Grove, Ellen White mentioned “Brother Harvey and family” as among those she missed and hoped to see again.1EGWLM 813.5

The most substantial mention of John Cottrell in Ellen White's writings is a paragraph in her “Testimony for the Mill Grove Church,” in which she pointed out problems in his relation to the church in Mill Grove while at the same time recognizing that he and his wife “desire to press fully with the body and do the whole will of God.”1EGWLM 813.6

See: Roy F. Cottrell, “A Brief Sketch of Cottrell Family History,” unpublished manuscript (n.p., 1965), pp. 6, 13 (copy in DF 439 at Ellen G. White Estate, Silver Spring, Md.); obituary, “J. H. Cottrell,” Review, July 19, 1881, p. 62; obituary, “Maryette Cottrell,” Review, Jan. 15, 1880, p. 46; 1850 U.S. Federal Census, “John H. Cottrell,” New York, Erie County, Newstead, p. 212; 1860 U.S. Federal Census, “John H. Cottrell,” New York, Erie County, Newstead, p. 41; J. N. Loughborough, “Recollections of the Past—No. 12,” Review, Mar. 3, 1885, pp. 137, 138; Ellen White to Sister Below, Lt 9, 1856 (Jan. 1); Ellen G. White, “Testimony for the Mill Grove Church,” Ms 3, 1861 (c. 1861).1EGWLM 813.7