The Upward Look

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Biographical Notes
Ellen G. White, 1827-1915

The Early Years, 1827-1860

Born on a late fall day in a farmhouse near Gorham, Maine, Ellen Harmon spent her childhood and youth in nearby Portland. She married James White in 1846, and the struggling young couple lived in a variety of New England locations as they sought to encourage and instruct fellow Advent believers by their preaching, visiting, and publishing. After eleven irregular issues of The Present Truth, they launched the Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald* in Paris, Maine, in 1850. Thereafter they followed a steadily westward course—to Saratoga Springs, New York, and then Rochester, New York, in the early 1850s, and finally, in 1855, to Battle Creek, Michigan, where they resided for the next twenty years. UL 8.1

1827, November 26Born at Gorham, Maine.
1836 (c.)Broken nose and concussion at Portland, Maine.
1840, MarchFirst heard William Miller present the Advent message.
1842, June 26Baptized and accepted into Methodist Church.
1844, October 22Disappointed when Christ did not come.
1844, DecemberFirst vision.
1845, SpringTrip to eastern Maine to visit believers; met James White.
1846, August 30Married James White.
1846, AutumnAccepted seventh-day Sabbath.
1847-1848Set up housekeeping at Topsham, Maine.
1847, August 26Birth of first son, Henry Nichols.
1848, April 20-24Attended first conference of Sabbathkeeping Adventists at Rocky Hill, Connecticut.
1848, November 18Vision to begin publishing work—“Streams of Light.”
1849, JulyFirst of eleven numbers of The Present Truth, published as a result of the vision of November, 1848.
1849, July 28Birth of James Edson, second son.
1849-1852Moved from place to place with her publisher-husband.
1851, JulyFirst book published, A Sketch of Experience and Views.
1852-1855In Rochester, New York, where husband published Review and Herald and Youth's Instructor.
1854, August 29Third son, William Clarence, born.
1855, November Moved with the publishing plant to Battle Creek, Michigan.
1855, December “Testimony for the Church,” number I, a sixteen-page pamphlet, published.
1856, SpringMoved into their own cottage on Wood Street.
1858, March 14“Great Controversy” vision at Lovett's Grove, Ohio.
1860, September 20Fourth son, John Herbert, born.
1860, December 14Death of John Herbert at three months.