Ellen G. White: The Early Elmshaven Years: 1900-1905 (vol. 5)

The Activities at Elmshaven

We turn our attention now to what was going on at Elmshaven from the standpoint of establishing Mrs. White's work there. She occupied the northwest bedroom, at the top of the stairs. This overlooked the prune orchard, which had two thousand trees and stretched just below the knoll and a quarter of a mile to the west. She was to retain this bedroom until her death. Her office occupied the front bedroom across the hall, facing the south. The large writing room with a bay window that she later used as an office had not yet been built. She suffered somewhat because the room in which she worked had a stove instead of a fireplace. Very seldom did she light a fire in it, choosing rather to dress warmly enough to write. 5BIO 46.2

The bedroom across the hall on the north side of the house was shared by her helpers Sara McEnterfer, Sarah Peck, and Maggie Hare. Kitty Wilcox, niece of M. C. and F. M. Wilcox, who for a short time served as cook, stayed in the small attic room over the kitchen. The large downstairs formal parlor under Sister White's bedroom was converted to a bedroom and used by Mr. and Mrs. Druillard, for a time members of her staff. Others who intermittently helped with Ellen White's literary work in those winter months were Eliza Burnam and Lillian Whalin, daughter of John Whalin, both borrowed from the Pacific Press. 5BIO 46.3

The W. C. White family were living in five rooms rented from the Atwoods in a home at the north end of the narrow valley, some ten minutes’ walk from Elmshaven. 5BIO 46.4

The little farmer's cottage, with vertical boards and battens, some thirty yards to the east of the main house, was raised two feet and equipped as an office where her secretaries could work. W. C. White ordered self-inking rubber stamps, one with Ellen White's signature, another with his own, another to say “Read and let others read,” and another cautioning, “Not for publication.” He secured paper, envelopes, receipt books, typewriters, files, wire trays, alphabet dividers, three Bibles, Young's, Strong's, and Cruden's concordances, and a good supply of Ellen White's books. At hand was the “letter press” and letter books with their tissue-thin paper that carried copies of the letters and manuscripts—a thousand pages to a bound book—ingeniously reproduced from an indelible-ribbon copy. 5BIO 46.5