Ellen G. White: The Lonely Years: 1876-1891 (vol. 3)

The Camp Meetings—E. G. White Would Attend

Notices of the 1876 camp meetings appeared in the Review and Herald and Signs of the Times and announced that the first would be held in Kansas, May 25 to May 29. Others would follow week by week, most opening on a Thursday. The Minnesota meeting would begin on June 20. The decision to devote two books to the life of Christ meant that the first book could be completed early and then she would be free, for a time, from writing. She wrote to James: 3BIO 35.1

We thought we might get my book written in four weeks, and if it is thought best for us to be at the Minnesota camp meeting, we will be there.—Letter 26, 1876. 3BIO 35.2

The Signs of the Times published four days later announced that because of the press of other writing, sketches of Ellen White's life would be omitted for the present (May 18, 1876). 3BIO 35.3

However, on Sunday, May 21, just one week after suggesting to her husband that she might attend the Minnesota meeting in late June, she and Mary Clough were on the train bound for the East. Specifically, she would be at the Kansas camp meeting, scheduled to open on Thursday, May 25. James White triumphantly placed a last-page note in the Review of May 25 that read: 3BIO 35.4