The Ellen G. White Letters and Manuscripts: Volume 1

FOY, John Quincy (1843-1924) and Mary (1863-1949)

Born in Brunswick, Maine, John Foy was a gardener at Battle Creek Sanitarium and lay preacher. His parents, John Green and Dorcas Foy, were among the earliest Adventists in Maine to keep the Sabbath. At age 14 Foy traveled to Battle Creek, Michigan, to learn the printing trade at the Review and Herald Publishing Association. Because of illness he left the press in the 1860s and worked for some years on Ira Abbey's farm in New York before returning to Battle Creek in the 1880s to spend his remaining working life as gardener at the sanitarium. An active layperson, the Review records his engagement in tract and temperance societies and lay preaching. In 1884 Foy married Mary Staines, who worked for more than 50 years as nurse and nursing administrator at Battle Creek Sanitarium before retiring in 1933. 1EGWLM 829.2

Ellen White makes only incidental mention of John Foy, but there is evidence that he stayed for some time with the Whites when he first came to Battle Creek as a teenager. The 1860 census lists “John Q. Foy” as a member of the White household, and some reminiscences by W. C. White suggest that Foy lived with them well before that. 1EGWLM 829.3

See: Obituary: “John Quincy Foy,” Review, Mar. 5, 1925, p. 23; 1850 U.S. Federal Census, “Dorcas Foy,” Maine, Cumberland County, Brunswick, p. 232; obituary: “John G. Foy,” Review, Feb. 26, 1861, p. 119; search term “Foy” in Review and Herald online collection, www.adventistarchives.org; 1870 U.S. Federal Census, “John Q Foy,” New York, Madison County, Brookfield, p. 2; obituary: “Daniel Palmer,” Review, Sept. 18, 1894, p. 607; obituary: “Mary Staines Foy,” Review, June 30, 1949, p. 20; Michigan State Medical Society, Medical History of Michigan. Compiled and Edited by a Committee, C. B. Burr, M.D., Chairman, and Published Under the Auspices of the Michigan State Medical Society (Minneapolis and Saint Paul: Bruce Pub. Co., 1930), vol. 2, pp. 658, 659; 1860 U.S. Federal Census, “John Q Foy,” Michigan, Calhoun County, Battle Creek, p. 6; W. C. White, “Sketches and Memories of James and Ellen G. White: XXVI. The Conference of 1856,” Review, Jan. 9, 1936, p. 8. 1EGWLM 829.4