Chapter 2—The Homemaker

It is easy to picture Mrs. E. G. White as an indefatigable writer and an earnest speaker, but not often is she thought of as a capable housewife and mother, carrying many home responsibilities and caring for and training her children.EGWMR 103.1

During the first years of their married life James and Ellen White had no regular income, for there was no systematic support for the ministry. They had no fixed place of abode, but they “resolved not to be dependent” (Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 105), even though much of their time was given to the work of God. They found life not too easy, for the Lord allowed trials to come lest they “should settle down at ease,” “unwilling to leave” a pleasant home. (Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 106.) Often entrusting the care of their children to others, they traveled from place to place, tarrying at times for but a few weeks or months at any one location. Sometimes they kept house in a spare room, or attic, with borrowed furniture (Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 123), and sometimes they boarded with the families with whom they stayed.EGWMR 103.2

In establishing the publishing work at Rochester, New York, in 1852, a building was rented to serve both as home and office, but they were “compelled to exercise the most rigid economy and self-denial” to keep the enterprise going. The cheapest secondhand furniture, some of it badly needing repair, was secured, and the food budget was so restricted that for a time they used “sauce in the place of butter, and turnips for potatoes.” (Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 142.) Ellen White, however, counted it a pleasure to have a settled home where the entire family could be together.EGWMR 103.3

Soon after moving the publishing work to Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1855, the Whites were privileged to have a home all their own; and although away much of the time, home life was maintained to provide their children with the proper environment. From this time until the death of James White, in 1881, they maintained a home in Michigan. They also had a home in California for a period in the seventies, dividing their time between the growing work on the Pacific Coast and the Battle Creek headquarters.EGWMR 103.4