Manuscripts and Memories of Minneapolis

THE CONFERENCE COMMENCES

About One Hundred Adventists Present at the Opening of the General Conference in Minneapolis. MMM 573.2

The twenty-seventh annual session of the general conference of the Seventh-day Adventists opened yesterday morning at the Lake Street church with a large attendance. There were about one hundred delegates present and enough visitors to fill the church to the doors. Every one appeared full of enthusiasm for the cause, and the session was an animated one. In the absence of the president Elder Uriah Smith of Michigan called the meeting to order. Elder S. M. [sic] Haskell, late of London, was chosen chairman. In the call of conferences it was found that twenty-six in all were represented by from one to five delegates each. The conferences of Arkansas and Australia were admitted to the general conference, and a number of delegates were chosen to represent foreign missionary fields. The following committees were appointed: MMM 573.3

Nominations, J. B. Goodrich, J. Fargo, D. T. Jones; resolutions, R. A. Underwood, A. T. Robinson, R. Conradi, E. J. Waggoner, E. H. Gates; licenses and credentials, R. M. Kilgore, I. D. Van Horn, H. Nicola; distribution of labor, E. W. Farnsworth, A. J. Breed, Lewis Johnson, C. H. Jones, G. G. Rupert; auditing, A. R. Henry, E. [sic] Eldridge, A. T. Robinson, J. W. Raymond, J. Fargo, H. W. Miller; finance, C. H. Jones, A. R. Henry, A. T. Jones, Harmon Lindsay, C. Eldridge. MMM 573.4

After the appointment of the committees there was a short address, and then the conference buckled down to Bible study for the remainder of the day. Messrs. A. T. Jones and Uriah Smith were the principle speakers. In the evening A. T. Jones lectured before a large audience on the National reform movement. MMM 573.5

At least half a hundred delegates are expected in the course of the next two days. To provide for their accommodation another row of tents have been erected on the common, making sixteen in all, and giving the place quite the appearance of a military camp. It is expected that the committees on credentials will report this morning, and then the conference will settle down to the business before it. MMM 574.1

n. a., “Religion in a Rainstorm” St. Paul Pioneer Press, (10/19/1888), p. 6.