The Ellen G. White Letters and Manuscripts: Volume 1

BACHELLER, Roxanna. See CORNELL, James and Roxanna.

BAKER, Joseph (c. 1801-after 1873) and Mary (c. 1796-1876)

Former Millerite preacher Joseph Baker, a farmer of Lebanon, New Hampshire, became a Sabbathkeeper after being contacted by Joseph Bates in 1850. Soon thereafter he became a sought-after preacher for the Sabbatarian Adventists and traveled widely in New England, New York, and Canada on preaching tours. He also was an able writer and served on the publishing committee of the Review for two years. For reasons that may have been connected to failing health, there are no records of Baker's evangelistic work after 1854. 1EGWLM 785.4

Ellen White's major comment on Joseph Baker appears in a letter written in November 1851. Apparently, together with a minority of other believers in Vermont and New Hampshire, Baker had accepted Joseph Bates's contention that the Second Advent would take place in October 1851. Ellen White described how, after the passing of that time, Baker was “much discouraged and sunken” while attending a conference in Johnson, Vermont, in November 1851, together with the Whites. Prior to the conference Baker and others had resisted Ellen White's visions, which had opposed the 1851 time setting. 1EGWLM 785.5

The Johnson conference was a turning point for Baker. “It is high time,” he declared, “for me to decide there is no half way work about this business; the visions are all of God, or there are none of them of God. Well, you say, what is Brother Baker going to do? Believe the visions.” During the same conference Baker was confirmed in his public ministry as Ellen White saw in vision that “God had a work for him to do, … to feed … the starving sheep.” 1EGWLM 786.1

See: 1850 U.S. Federal Census, “Joseph Baker,” New Hampshire, Grafton, Lebanon, p. 19; obituary: “Mary Baker,” Review, July 20, 1876, p. 31; [Letter from Joseph Bates], Present Truth, November 1850, p. 88; search term “Baker” in Words of the Pioneers; Ellen G. White, Lt 8, 1851 (Nov. 12); Arthur L. White, Ellen G. White: The Early Years, pp. 207-210. 1EGWLM 786.2