The Ellen G. White Letters and Manuscripts: Volume 1

GURNEY, Heman Stetson (1818-1896) and Ann Eliza (1831-1921)

Heman Gurney, a blacksmith and lay preacher from Massachusetts, is most remembered for his enthusiastic participation in the closing stages of the Millerite movement and the early stages of Sabbatarian Adventism. In the spring of 1844 Gurney accompanied Joseph Bates, both of abolitionist convictions, on a risky evangelistic foray into slaveholding areas of Maryland. After Bates became a Sabbatarian Adventist in the spring of 1845, Gurney was one of his first converts and participated in several of the Sabbath and Sanctuary Conferences of 1848. 1EGWLM 836.3

In 1853 Heman Gurney married Ann Eliza (Gifford) Randall, a widow, and daughter of William Gifford, friend of Joseph Bates and fellow Millerite and temperance advocate. They moved to Jackson, Michigan, in 1856 and to Memphis, Michigan, in 1865. In both places Gurney was elected church elder and was active in lay preaching. In 1869-1870 he served as president of the Michigan Conference. Through the years he contributed a large number of short, pithy articles and letters to the Review, which the editor, James White, appreciated: “We want more articles, short, and to the point, like Bro. Gurney's …” 1EGWLM 836.4

In his article “Recollections of Early Advent Experience” Gurney gives some insights into his views on the visions of Ellen White. It appears that he first met 18-year-old Ellen Harmon (White) early in 1846 when she came to Advent Hall in New Bedford, Massachusetts, to relate her visions. Like his mentor, Joseph Bates, Gurney was cautious about accepting their authenticity. “I wished to prove all things,” he relates, and subsequently traveled to the Harmon home in Portland, Maine, to make enquiries, visited “a number of weeks with the [Harmon] family and in their vicinity and became convinced that … God had called sister [sic] Harmon to an important work.” Acting on his conviction before returning to Massachusetts, Gurney shared the cost with James White of republishing Ellen Harmon's earliest visions in April 1846 in the broadside To the Little Remnant Scattered Abroad. After this he continued, “I often met sister [sic] Harmon. … I have seen her in holy vision often. I have been encouraged by the visions, and sharply reproved by them [see Ms 11, 1850 (Dec. 25)]. … I never have doubted their inspiration.” 1EGWLM 836.5

See: Obituary: “Herman [sic] S. Gurney,” Review, Sept. 8, 1896, pp. 577, 578; obituary: “Ann Eliza Gifford,” Review, Mar. 3, 1921, p. 23; Benjamin Shurtleff, Descendants of William Shurtleff of Plymouth and Marshfield, Massachusetts, vol. 1 (Revere, Mass.: no publisher, 1912), p. 360; [James White], “This Week's Review,” Review, May 3, 1864, p. 180; H. S. Gurney, “Recollections of Early Advent Experience,” Review, Jan. 3, 1888, p. 2; search term “H. S. Gurney” in Review and Herald online collection, www.adventistarchives.org. For a survey of Heman Gurney's association with Joseph Bates, see George R. Knight, Joseph Bates, pp. 60-64, 80, 81, 121, 122. 1EGWLM 837.1