The Story of our Health Message

The Western Health Reform Institute

As already mentioned, the name “The Western Health Reform Institute” was chosen for the new health institution that had been called for in the view given to Mrs. White at Rochester, New York, and related by her before the General Conference assembly. Of the initial steps taken to launch this new enterprise, Elder J. N. Loughborough later wrote: SHM 149.4

“The question arose, ‘How can we, in our condition of limited means, obtain and control a health institution?’ Brother James White was at that time in a critical condition of health and could not take upon himself the management of the enterprise; so the matter seemed to fall upon the Michigan Conference Committee, of which I was at that time president. The committee, with a few of the leading members in Battle Creek, counseled and prayed over the matter and said, ‘We will pledge to the enterprise, venturing out on what is said in the testimony, though it looks to us like a heavy load for us to hold up.’”—“Sketches of the Past,” No. 133, in Pacific Union Recorder, January 2, 1913. SHM 150.1

Drawing up a subscription paper, Elder Loughborough went first to J. P. Kellogg, reminding him of the testimony given by Mrs. White and of the decision to establish a health institution. Taking the paper, Brother Kellogg wrote his name in a bold hand, and opposite the figures $500. He assured Elder Loughborough that he would venture this much in the enterprise whether it should succeed or not. “Understand,” he said, “that five hundred dollars is a seed to start the institution, sink or swim.”—The Medical Missionary, May, 1899, Extra. SHM 150.2