Working in the Opening West

Now James and Ellen White were able to get away from Rochester to attend meetings in western New York State. Through editorials and back page notes in the Review he kept the field informed. Letters addressed to the editor kept the progress of the cause and the challenging new openings before the rapidly growing church. During the three months they were in the East, there were an accelerating number of reports coming from Michigan disclosing the almost explosive way in which the Sabbath truth was being proclaimed and accepted in that new “western” State.1BIO 273.1

At about the time White started the publication of the Present Truth in the summer of 1849, Joseph Bates had gone to Jackson, Michigan. From among the Adventists there he raised up a little company of Sabbathkeepers, with Dan Palmer, a blacksmith, and his wife among the first to take their stand. Others in the group were H. S. Case, J. C. Bowles, and C. P. Russell. The leaven was at work, and by early 1852 other companies of believers were springing up. Such names as M. E. and Angeline Cornell of Tyrone and the Kellogg family of Lapeer appeared in reports—new believers bubbling over in their enthusiasm for “the truth.”1BIO 273.2

Joseph Bates reported trips to Jackson in April and again in June in 1852, each attended with success. James and Ellen White could not escape observing what was taking place, and soon after their return to Rochester from the East in October, 1852, they determined to visit Michigan as soon as the work in Rochester would allow.1BIO 273.3

A letter from youthful Merritt Kellogg, an older son of J. P. Kellogg, reported on meetings and baptisms. Interest was increasing and little bands were springing up here and there (Ibid., March 3, 1853).1BIO 273.4