The Ellen G. White Letters and Manuscripts: Volume 1

KELLOGG, John Preston (1807-1881) and (first wife) Mary Ann (1811-1841) and (second wife) Ann Janette (1824-1893)

An active layperson and financial benefactor, J. P. Kellogg was the father of Dr. Merritt Gardner Kellogg, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, Will Keith Kellogg of cereal fame, and 13 other children. J. P. Kellogg migrated from Massachusetts to Michigan in 1834, eventually settling in Battle Creek in 1856 for the remainder of his life. Together with his second wife, Ann, he became a Sabbathkeeper in 1852. 1EGWLM 855.3

Successful in both farming and, later, broom manufacturing, Kellogg liberally supported the young Sabbatarian movement with donations and loans. J. N. Loughborough related how in the early 1850s Kellogg sold his farm “for the sole purpose of having means to use in advancing the work.” He liberally supported the young movement with donations and investments in such major ventures as the establishment of the Review and Herald press in Battle Creek in 1855 and the support of the Health Reform Institute, which opened in 1866. Kellogg's financial and administrative talents were also tapped, as he served on the board of directors of the Health Reform Institute and on a number of committees, including the publishing committee of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association. 1EGWLM 855.4

Several testimonies from Ellen White to J. P. Kellogg survive from the 1850s and 1860s. One recurring theme was Kellogg's tendency to gloominess: “You forget the good and can only see the evil and the dark.” She urged him to “turn from these things and believe in God.” In another letter (c. 1864) she warned Kellogg that he had become “too much engrossed” in his business to the detriment of his spiritual health and to the neglect of his family. In her diaries and letters of 1859 and 1860 Ellen White mentioned several enjoyable visits with Kellogg's second wife, Ann. Elsewhere Ann was described as a “good … kind and tender mother” who looked after John Preston's children from his first marriage “as if they were flesh of her flesh.” 1EGWLM 855.5

See: Obituary: “J. P. Kellogg,” Review, May 31, 1881, p. 350; SDAE, s.v. “John Preston Kellogg”; Richard W. Schwarz, John Harvey Kellogg, M.D., pp. 13-17; J. N. Loughborough, The Great Second Advent Movement, pp. 287, 561; Timothy Hopkins, The Kelloggs in the Old World and the New, vol. 1, pp. 288, 636; Ellen G. White, Lt 18, 1860 (Nov. 2); Lt 15, 1861 (c. 1861); Lt 17, 1864 (c. 1864). 1EGWLM 856.1