Footprints of the Pioneers

Chapter 9—Fort Howland

Henry White

TOPSHAM! Topsham! How the narrative of the early times weaves in and around the towns of lower Maine, and when it comes to Topsham, rings a bell! Topsham, thirty miles from Portland, northeast, and just across the Androscoggin River from the larger Brunswick; Topsham, scene of conferences, of healings, of charities, of sacrifices, of great decisions. Topsham was the home of Stockbridge Howland, and his house, for his sturdy defense of truth and his ready succor to the needs of the cause, was called by James White and those who fought by his side, Fort Howland. FOPI 82.4

It is a sturdy house, of characteristic New England massiveness, thirty feet by forty, two full stories and another snuggled under its roof. It stood on the corner of Main and Elm streets, facing the south, surrounded by its ample yard and with its outworks, the white-painted picket fence, defining its boundaries. Now the house has been moved across the street, and faces north; no longer on the corner, but two doors down. It is now 7 Elm Street. Not so spic-and-span when we visited it, perhaps because of the war years, it stands like so many of the country’s military sites, a dingy relic of old Fort Howland. Here, in this house, lived Stockbridge Howland, a workman of the class that is now called civil engineer, builder of bridges and mills, road maker, planner of public works. In the 1844 movement he accepted the views of William Miller, and became a sturdy exponent of the imminent Second Advent. Taking an active part, he rode horseback over several counties, distributing literature and teaching his faith. In consequence the opponents of the Advent message, declaring that he was neglecting his business and that he was mentally incompetent, secured the appointment of a guardian. This guardian shortly found his hands more than full, for Howland referred to him all his business affairs, which were many, while he devoted himself to his great business. Soon the county wished to build a new and superior bridge across the Kennebec River, and they decided there was no one who could do the job but Stockbridge Howland. But when they came to him, he said, “Gentlemen, you will have to see my guardian. You know I am not considered competent to attend to my own business; and do you come to me to build your bridge?” The guardianship suddenly ended. ⁴⁷ FOPI 83.1

Here in this house, in 1845, Frances Howland, his daughter, was healed by prayer. ⁴⁸ Here in 1846 (but in the Curtiss house, not this) occurred the conference at which Joseph Bates was convinced of the prophetic gift of Ellen G. White. ⁴⁹ Here in 1847 the Howlands gave to the young couple, James and Ellen White, with their baby, free use of room’s in which to set up housekeeping with borrowed furniture; and from here, during the next few months, James White went forth to work on the railroad and then in the woods, to earn about fifty cents a day. ⁵¹ Here, with nine cents’ capital, Mrs. White made the decision between three pints of milk for the babe and enough calico for a garment to cover his naked arms. Here, while they were facing away from God’s work, and hoping for a normal family life, the babe became sick unto death, and in resignation they turned their faces duty ward, and he recovered. Here they left their little, meager home, in the spring of 1848, to go forth into the work that was not to end for him for over thirty years, and for her nigh seventy. Here, too, was held the conference of the scattered leaders, in the fall of 1848, where first they gave consideration to a publishing work, which came into being the next July. ⁵³ FOPI 84.1

Here in this house was the home of the White’s firstborn, Henry, for five years of his infancy, tenderly cared for by Father and Mother Howland and their daughter Frances, while his parents were traveling; and here in his sixteenth year Henry, the exuberant, songful Henry, “our sweet singer,” laid down his life while on a visit. ⁵⁴ Here continued Stockbridge Howland and his wife until 1872, when they removed to Battle Creek, living there until their death. ⁵⁵ FOPI 85.1

God in His providence used men and women of various capabilities and different powers to forward His work. “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him.” “That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.” “And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” ⁵⁶ FOPI 85.2

Here is a middle-aged, retired ship captain who devotes his sea-commerce fortune and his personal labors to the cause of God, until the fortune is exhausted, but his faith and power of winning are increased mightily. He is an apostle. FOPI 86.1

Here is a young, dynamic preacher of the coming Christ, energetic, but so poor in this world’s goods that his overcoat is patched and the patches patched. He labors with ax and scythe to make a living for his little family; but God calls him to leave all that and go out by faith to preach and to publish. He is a prophet. FOPI 86.2

Here is a young woman, stricken down in her radiant childhood, and doomed, it seems, to a life of physical misery and helplessness. But God calls her into communion with Him, and sends her forth as a messenger of light and power. She is a teacher. FOPI 86.3

Others there are like them, young men, young women, whose talents are captured by the Lord of life, and swung into service in His cause. No one is a specialist in one department only: they partake of apostle ship and the prophet’s role in statesmanship, and the teacher’s work, and medical ministry, and government, in various combinations and degrees. They are the captains of the host of the Lord. FOPI 86.4

But though there were captains many,
What should the captains do
If there were none of men beside
To thrust and parry, to march and ride,
And to follow the captains through?

Behold, there are “helps.” I think these “helps” are the infantrymen of the host of God. These are the spear men of ancient days, the long bow men, the musketeers, the riflemen, the great mass of the army without whom no heights could be gained, no position held. Without captains they might squander their efforts, milling around in confusion and dissipating in despair; but also without them the captains would waste their strategy and their commands. FOPI 87.1

To recognize the orthodoxy of God’s captains, to see through their mortal garb the shining mail of the warriors of Christ, to pledge support and confidence in their leadership, to give them. aid, this is the inestimable ministry of the “helps.” How many a burdened soul has been cheered, how many a weary frame has found rest, in the homes of the helpers! And out of their abundance or out of their poverty they have outfitted the captains of the command and the men of the front ranks. FOPI 87.2

Such were Stockbridge Howland, of Topsham; and Otis Nichols, of Dorchester, that outlying town now incorporated in Boston; Stephen Belden, of Rocky Hill; Leonard Hastings and Cyrus Farnsworth, of New Hampshire. Jesse Thompson and Bradley Lamson, of New York. Palmer and Smith and Lyon and Kellogg, of Michigan. Women like Clarissa Bonfoey, and Sarah Harmon, and Annie Smith, and Mary Priest, and Maria Huntley; and scores and hundreds of others who gave their hearts and their hands together to the work. FOPI 87.3

Stockbridge Howland was one of the first to accept the seventh-day Sabbath, even before James and Ellen White, perhaps as early as Joseph Bates and John Andrews. His obituary states that he began to keep the Sabbath “in the spring of 1845.” It would seem probable, therefore, that like Bates and Andrews he got the message from Preble’s article in The Hope of Israel or from the reprint which went forth in tract form in that year. FOPI 87.4

The first recorded visit to Topsham of Mrs. White, then still a maiden, Ellen Harmon, was in the spring of 1845. ⁵⁷ She states, however, that Stockbridge Howland’s eldest daughter, Frances, who was so sick and who at that time was healed by prayer, was a very dear friend of hers. It is evident, therefore, that they had met and become friends before that, and it is quite likely that Ellen had previously visited her friend Frances in Topsham. Whether at the time of this visit the Howlands had accepted the Sabbath does not appear, but either so or they soon after did. This change of Sabbath allegiance, however, did not influence Ellen Harmon to do likewise. More than a year afterward, when she and James White, just before their marriage, with a small company from Maine visited lower Massachusetts and called on Joseph Bates, that great exponent of the seventh-day Sabbath, she says that she “did not feel its importance, and thought that he erred in dwelling upon the fourth commandment more than upon the other nine.” ⁵⁸ FOPI 87.5

She was traveling and combating various forms of fanaticism in the very fluid state of Adventist opinion just after the Disappointment. This work took up her attention, and if she gave thought to the Howland family’s new faith, as she must have, it is probable that she regretfully assigned them to a category of the mildly deluded. But when she met so potent and clear-thinking an advocate as Joseph Bates, kind, fatherly, courteous, but invincible, that pressed the question more strongly upon her unwilling mind. FOPI 88.1

James White and Ellen Harmon were married August 30, 1846. They had received from Joseph Bates his Sabbath a Perpetual Sign, and together, during the next few weeks, they studied it and its Scripture proofs, until, becoming convinced, apparently in October, they began to keep the Sabbath. It was November, 1846, when a conference was called at Topsham, meeting in the house of a Brother Curtiss. ⁵⁹ Apparently this was the first general gathering of Sabbath keeping Adventists in the seacoast States. Who all were present we do not know. Joseph Bates was there, and James and Ellen White, of course the Howlands and the Curtisses, and there were doubtless other believers in Topsham. Very likely H. S. Gurney accompanied Bates, and Otis Nichols came from Dorchester, near Boston, for these men had some means and were fairly mobile. There may have been members of the Sabbath keeping company from Paris; for we have testimony that the fifteen-year-old daughter of the Stowells was there the previous year, ⁶⁰ and she would not come alone; very likely her brother Oswald was with her. If Paris believers came in 1845 to a Topsham meeting, much more likely would they come to this important gathering. However, we have no authentication of these latter cases, but there was quite a company present. FOPI 88.2

For some reason Elder T. M. Preble, whose writing started this Sabbath keeping company on the way, was never associated with them, though he was keeping the Sabbath at this time and for another year. It seems strange that there is never any mention of a meeting of Bates and Preble, both of whom were prominent in the 1844 movement, and who certainly now had a community of interest in the Sabbath truth, but we hear of no such meeting; and when Preble began his contacts with Seventh-day Adventists, it was to attack, after he had repudiated his Sabbath faith in 1847. But God had brought His people down to the Waters of Trembling, and out of the test came but the Three Hundred to shout, “The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon!” ⁶¹ FOPI 89.1

Stockbridge Howland did not always remain within his fortifications. We read of his journeys and his labors in other places in Maine. In September of 1849 we see him, with others, at a meeting in Paris, where the little band had been torn by the work of fanatics, Jesse Stephens and F. T. Howland. When the latter (who is not said to have been any relative of Stockbridge Howland) insisted upon interrupting the meeting, Stockbridge arose from prayer, as “the Spirit of the Lord rested upon” him. “His face was white, and a light seemed to rest upon it. He went toward F. T. Howland, and in the name of the Lord bade him leave the assembly of the saints. Said he, ‘You have torn the hearts of God’s children, and made them bleed. Leave the house, or God will smite you!’ That rebellious spirit, never before known to fear or to yield, sprang for his hat, and in terror left the house.” ⁶² It was at that meeting that the young John N. Andrews, then twenty years old, made his final decision for the truth, which started him upon his notable career. FOPI 89.2

The fading light at last drove us from the scene, as in the halo of a hundred memories we turned to take one last look at what remains of Fort Howland. FOPI 90.1