Footprints of the Pioneers

Chapter 10—One to a Thousand

John N. Andrews

PARIS, Maine, like many another New England town, is several Parises. There is South Paris and there is West Paris, and what was the original Paris is now Paris Hill. It is no longer the county seat nor the business center; that is South Paris. But Paris Hill, sitting sedate and benignant upon its long ridge, keeps, in its great old white houses beneath its sweeping elms, the flavor of the past and the historic. FOPI 90.2

Paris holds for us great memories. It was the boyhood and youth home of one of our chief pioneers, John N. Andrews, and the home of the Cyprian Stevens family, two of whose daughters became the wives of John Andrews and Uriah Smith. It was the birthplace of our church paper, the Review and Herald, and the building in which was the print shop that cradled it is still standing. It was the scene of some of the early fierce engagements with fanatics who plagued the Second Advent Movement after the staggering Disappointment. And it was the place where the Lord gave His sustaining grace to His fainting servants, James and Ellen White, as they fought through the whelming waves of poverty, illness, and discouragement, to the establishment of the infant cause upon a firm basis. FOPI 90.3

The father of John Andrews was Edward. His uncle Charles was a man of political importance in Maine, a Congressman. The home of Charles Andrews is still pointed out, but where the Edward Andrews family lived is not known, though possibly the house is still standing. It must have been a house of some size indeed, all houses in Paris Hill are-for, like Stockbridge Howland’s home, it took in the White family while they were living there, and it had previously been the refuge of the Stowell family while they were waiting for the Lord to come in 1844, and for some time afterward. FOPI 92.1

It was in the spring of 1845 that a tract came into the hands of Stowell, a tract written by a minister well known in New Hampshire and Maine, T. M. Preble, a co-laborer with Miller and Himes. This tract, a reprint from an article in a Portland Adventist paper, The Hope of Israel, advocated the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord, a day for all Christians to observe. Stowell laid it aside, but his fifteen-year-old daughter, Marian, picked it up and read it. She was so convinced by its presentation of Biblical proof that she took it to her brother Oswald; a year or two older, and together they resolved to obey. Minimizing their chores and household duties, they quietly observed, in their own hearts and minds, the next Sabbath day. No one else knew of their resolution and their action, for they felt not very sure of the reception they might receive. FOPI 93.1

But the first of the week, missionary zeal overcame Marian’s discretion, and she took the tract to John Andrews, then seventeen years old, and asked him to read it. This he did, and then brought it back to her. FOPI 93.2

“Have your father and mother read this?” he asked. FOPI 93.3

“No,” said Marian, “but I have, and found that we are not keeping the right Sabbath. What do you think, John?” FOPI 93.4

“I think the seventh day is the Sabbath. And if you and I think that, Marian, we must keep it.” FOPI 93.5

“Of course. Brother Oswald and I kept last Sabbath. We’ll be glad to have you join us. But you take Elder Preble’s tract to your father and mother to read.” FOPI 93.6

“All right.” The senior Andrews read it, then brought it back to the Stowells. And both families kept the next Sabbath, meeting for the service in one of their rooms. ⁶³ FOPI 94.1

Oswald Stowell later became an apprentice printer in the Review and Herald office at Rochester, New York, remained with the firm when it moved to Battle Creek, and became the progenitor of notable workers in the cause, girls whose names are hidden in those of their husbands. Marian became Mrs. M. C. Truesdail, who is often called by Loughborough and other writers as a witness upon those early events. Her second marriage gave her the name of Crawford, and under this name she wrote her later reminiscences. FOPI 94.2

John Nevins Andrews was a bright, studious, promising young man. His Uncle Charles encouraged him in his early ambition to enter politics; and if the little tract had not intervened, possibly we might have lost to the halls of Congress a great author, religious leader, and missionary. However, Edward Andrews, his father, had accepted the teachings of William Miller in the early 1840’s, and the whole family, consisting of the parents and two boys, were numbered with the Adventist company in Paris, and passed with them through the Disappointment. Now, with the Stowell family, the Cyprian Stevens family, and others, they accepted the seventh-day Sabbath, and were launched upon careers that took them far from political ambitions. FOPI 94.3

There were few Sabbath keeping Adventists then, and they had no organization, nor indeed much knowledge of one another. The Washington, New Hampshire, company formed one cell, Bates and a few followers made another in New Bedford, Stockbridge Howland in Topsham a third. Mrs. White states that there were about twenty-five in Maine, and about the same number in other parts of New England. ⁶⁴ FOPI 94.4

Moreover, the little flock of Paris Adventists, Sabbath keeping and Sunday keeping alike, were attacked by the fanatic wolves who ranged among the folds of the time, teaching all sorts of fantastic theories and practicing absurdities and sometimes vice. Some taught that they were in the millennium, and should do no work; some that the door of salvation was closed. Some said they should be like little children, and so went creeping and crying over the floor and the streets. ⁶⁵ Some were so humble they could not eat at the table, but must take their food in their hands and eat behind the door. ⁶⁶ So plagued by such extremists was the company at Paris that after two or three years they ceased to have meeting, and were fast sliding back from their faith. FOPI 94.5

In this crisis Ellen G. White received instruction from the Lord that they should go to Paris, where a meeting was called on September 14, 1849. Stockbridge Howland and family went with them. His encounter with the fanatic, F. T. Howland, has been related. Brethren from the south also were present: Joseph Bates from Massachusetts, and E. L. H. Chamberlain and Richard Ralph from Connecticut. The Paris brethren had had no meeting for a year and a half, but now they rallied. FOPI 95.1

After the rout of the fanatics, “the power of God descended somewhat as it did on the day of Pentecost, and five or six who had been deceived and led into error and fanaticism fell prostrate to the floor. Parents confessed to their children and children to their parents and to one another. Brother J. N. Andrews, with deep feeling, exclaimed, “I would exchange a thousand errors for one truth.” ⁶⁷ FOPI 95.2

It was the final decision for the young man, John Andrews. What wonder that in this confusion of religion among his family and friends, with this fanaticism rampant, subjecting them to the scorn of the community, with his Uncle Charles’ example quietly influencing him toward the emoluments of politics, he should waver in his faith? Had it not been for this timely conference and the labors of Joseph Bates, James White, and Ellen White, that masterly mind and stout heart, which were to battle the foes of truth for the early church, would have been lost to the cause. FOPI 95.3

“I would exchange a thousand errors for one truth. Profitable exchange! With all the winds of doctrine and fantasy blowing, perhaps he could count a thousand errors. Away with them! Away with ambition! Away with pride! Away with popularity! One truth: the truth that Jesus Christ is my Savior, that He is coming soon in glory, that His Sabbath banner shall wave over my head! This is my choice, this my lot!” FOPI 96.1

John Nevins Andrews that day set his feet upon a path that led he knew not through what vicissitudes, what trials, what sorrows, what strivings, what triumphs! But this he knew, that God and Christ and truth were the bright crown of glory, for which all the refuse of the world might well be sacrificed. “The Lord was bringing our Brother Andrews to fit him for future usefulness, and was giving him an experience that would be of great value to him in his future labors. He was teaching him that he should not be influenced by the experience of others, but decide for himself concerning the work of God.” FOPI 96.2

Paris, Maine, was to have a brief history of leadership in the infant cause. Here, a little more than a year later, James White brought his feeble publishing work, carried under his hat, and with a farewell to Present Truth and a hail to the Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, he wrought for nearly a year in desperate need and fainting hope. It would be gratifying to record that the Paris brethren loyally upheld his hands, encouraged and strengthened him. But no such word comes to us. Doubtless John Andrews, the budding writer and preacher, was a loyal helper, for he grew during this time to the proportions of a champion of the cause. But older ones-let us be thankful we cannot identify them-were captious and critical. ⁶⁸ And Paris was destined to fade out of the Adventist picture. FOPI 96.3

We sat in the apartment of George M. Atwood, an old gentleman of eighty-six years, upstairs in the big house on the west side of the main street. He was the successor of the printer, or the successor of the successor of the printer who set the type and ran the press on the last number of Present Truth and the first number of the Review and Herald. He came to Paris in 1885, and purchased the printing establishment from George H. Watkins, who had bought it from George L. Mellen, one of the original founders of the Oxford Democrat and the shop established in Paris in 1833. The shop was housed first in a building across the street from this, a building which burned in 1849. But it was re-established in this place, and by February 12, 1850, the paper came forth from the new shop. ⁶⁹ Thus the printers were ready for the job of the Adventist papers when White came there in October of that year. FOPI 97.1

“Right under here,” said the old gentleman, stabbing with his finger, “right under here was the print shop. It was there that Mellen had his shop, and George Watkins, and then I had it.” He could not tell us of the enterprise of James White; for that was long before his time, and occupying but a year, was only an incident in the printer’s experience. We had to supply that information; but putting all things together, we knew that we were at the spot where James White, through the winter of 1850-1851 and through the spring and on into the summer, came with his copy and came for his proofs, accompanied sometimes, perhaps, by young John Andrews, in whose father’s family they boarded. FOPI 97.2

The print shop was located in the rear of the building, on the first floor. You reach it by a long porch extending the whole length of the house, on the left. Part way along this same porch is the door that leads up to Mr. Atwood’s apartment. The front of the building, in its right-hand corner, is occupied by an antique shop; the rest of it is dwelling house. Tight shrubbery shuts it in on the left, alongside the porch. FOPI 97.3

The wide street, elm shaded, is a beautiful avenue. Two churches, the Baptist and the Universalist, are the public buildings; naught remains now to remind us of the time when Paris, this Paris Hill, was the county seat. Down the road toward South Paris, on the right going back, is the house of Charles Andrews, who died in 1852 while a member of Congress. Edward Andrews and Cyprian Stevens took their families to Iowa in 1855 and 1856; and not long after, Paris, Maine, faded from our annals. FOPI 98.1

One to a thousand! Not only one truth opposed to multiform errors, but one warrior opposed to a thousand foes. Valiantly did the youth who took this resolution maintain his cause through all the remaining thirty-four years of his life: a student, a writer, a preacher, who only once faltered, borne down by ill-health, then recovering, went on to greater battles and greater victories. He was a General Conference president, and our first overseas missionary; and he fell at last at his post in Basel, Switzerland, where he lies awaiting the Life giver. FOPI 98.2

John Nevins Andrews, “one of the three mighties,” who “was with David at Pas-dammim,” where “the Philistines were gathered together to battle, ... and they set themselves in the midst of the parcel, and delivered it, and slew the Philistines; and the Lord saved them by a great deliverance.” ⁷⁰ FOPI 98.3