FRISBIE, Joseph Birchard (1816-1882) and Delphia Jane (1830-1908)

J. B. Frisbie began preaching for the Protestant Methodist Church in 1843 and was ordained in 1846. In 1852, while engaged in a series of public debates with Joseph Bates on the Sabbath issue in Sylvan, Michigan, he conceded that Bates had the stronger position. Delphia Jane began to keep the Sabbath as a result of these meetings, but Joseph Frisbie hesitated some months before taking a firm stand in March 1853. Later the same year he began preaching for the Sabbatarian Adventists, and for the rest of the decade traveled widely in Michigan, enjoying considerable success in raising new groups of believers. The 1860s and 1870s were more problematic for Frisbie. Theological doubts removed him from ministry for extended periods, as did struggles with chronic ill-health.1EGWLM 830.3

The only existing letters from Ellen White to J. B. Frisbie date from the early 1860s. These war years were a time of crisis for Frisbie, according to his friend and obituary writer, John Byington. “Doubts came into his mind,” and for a time he even “ceased the observance of the Sabbath.” Ellen White counseled Frisbie in 1864 that “if you are not in a condition to bind up and strengthen the church, your place is at home or attending to your temporal matters.” There was also a time Frisbie's “mind was thrown into a train of doubt” about the visions of Ellen White. Nevertheless, these doubts were surmounted, and Frisbie's son, W. E. Frisbie, recalls his father's strong affirmation in 1882, the year of his death, that “there was no doubt in his mind but that Mrs. White was an inspired prophet of God.”1EGWLM 830.4

See: Obituary: “Joseph Birchard Frisbie,” Review, Nov. 21, 1882, p. 735; obituary: “Delphia Jane Frisbie,” Review, Feb. 6, 1908, p. 31; History of Washtenaw County, Michigan, p. 778; Leo Van Dolson, “Elder J. B. Frisbie: S.D.A. Pioneer in Michigan” (term paper, Andrews University, 1965), p. 32; EGWEnc, s.v. “Joseph Birchard Frisbie”; Ellen G. White, Lt 10, 1864 (c. 1864); Lt 11, 1862 (Nov. 9).1EGWLM 830.5