The Ellen G. White Letters and Manuscripts: Volume 1

KELLOGG, Smith Moses (1834-1927) and Maria Susan (c. 1837-1911)

Born in Hadley, Massachusetts, Smith M. Kellogg was the son of John Preston Kellogg and half brother of John Harvey Kellogg. He attended Oberlin College for a time in his youth and in 1858 married Maria Dickinson, daughter of Preston and Celesta Dickinson, who were among the first group of Adventists to keep the Sabbath in Michigan. Smith Kellogg engaged in various types of business enterprise, including broom manufacture and patent medicines in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois. The last 23 years of his life he was blind. Smith and Maria Kellogg remained church members throughout their lives. Smith is listed as a “licentiate” minister in the 1888 Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. 1EGWLM 856.2

Smith Kellogg is mentioned in three letters from Ellen White to his parents in the 1850s and 1860s. She acknowledged that Smith had caused his parents much grief by his course of action in his youth and in his marriage, but she counseled them in 1861 that “Smith has been trying to return to the Lord” and urged the parents to bring about a reconciliation. In the same letter she gave a positive assessment of Maria: “Maria loves God. She loves the truth and will be a help to Smith.” 1EGWLM 856.3

See: Obituary: “Smith M. Kellogg,” Review, Feb. 9, 1928, p. 22; Timothy Hopkins, The Kelloggs in the Old World and the New, vol. 2, p. 1315; M. G. Kellogg, Notes Concerning the Kellogg's [sic] (Battle Creek, Mich.: n.p., 1927, reprint 1990), pp. [119, 120]; Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Battle Creek, Mich.: Review and Herald Publishing House, 1888), p. 3; 1870 U.S. Federal Census, “Smith M. Kellogg,” Michigan, Branch County, Union, p. 24; Ellen G. White, Lt 6, 1856 (c. 1856); Lt 15, 1861 (c. 1861). 1EGWLM 856.4