Portal:Seventh-day Adventist Church/Selected biography
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Ellen Gould White (née Harmon) (November 26, 1827 – July 16, 1915) born to Robert and Eunice Harmon, was an American Christian leader whose prophetic ministry was instrumental in founding the Sabbatarian Adventist movement that led to the rise of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Supporters of Ellen G. White regard her as a modern-day prophet, usually expressed in the language that she exhibited the spiritual gift of prophecy as outlined in the New Testament. Adventists do not consider this to conflict with the Reformation principle Sola Scriptura ("by scripture alone"), because the Bible is believed to be superior to her writings. Her restorationist writings showcase the hand of God in Seventh-day Adventist history. This cosmic conflict, referred to as the "great controversy theme", is foundational to the development of Seventh-day Adventist theology. Her involvement with other Sabbatarian Adventist leaders such as Joseph Bates and her husband James White would create a nucleus of believers around which a core group of shared beliefs would emerge. Ellen White believed that at the close of earth's history Jesus Christ would return to this earth to gather His people and take them to heaven.
White was a controversial figure even within her own lifetime. She claimed to have received a vision soon after the Millerite Great Disappointment. In the context of many other visionaries, she was known for her conviction and fervent faith. White is the most translated female non-fiction author in the history of literature as well as the most translated American non-fiction author of either gender. Her writings covered topics of theology, evangelism, Christian lifestyle, education and health (she also advocated vegetarianism). She was a leader who emphasized education and health and promoted establishment of schools and medical centers. During her lifetime she wrote more than 5,000 periodical articles and 40 books; but today, including compilations from her 50,000 pages of manuscript, more than 100 titles are available in English. Some of her more popular books include, Steps to Christ, The Desire of Ages, and The Great Controversy. Adventists believe she experienced over 2,000 visions.
James Springer White (August 4, 1821, Palmyra, Maine - August 6, 1881, Battle Creek, Michigan), also known as Elder White was a co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and husband of Ellen G. White. White's contributions to the denomination were rather notable, in 1849 he started the first Sabbatarian Adventist periodical entitled "The Present Truth" (now the Adventist Review) in 1855 he relocated the fledgling center of the movement to Battle Creek, Michigan, and in 1863 played a pivotal role in the formal organization of the denomination. He later played a pivotal role in the development of the Adventist educational structure beginning in 1874 with the formation of Battle Creek College (which is now Andrews University).
James White was born on August 4, 1821 in the township of Palmyra in Maine. The fifth of nine children, James was a sickly child who suffered fits or seizures. Poor eyesight prevented him from obtaining much of an education and he was required to work on the family farm. At age 19 his eyesight improved and he enrolled at a local academy. He earned a teaching certificate and briefly taught at an elementary school. He was baptized into the Christian Connexion at age 16. He learned of the Millerite message from his parents and after hearing powerful preaching at an advent camp meeting in Exeter, Maine, White decided to leave teaching and become a preacher. Consequently, he was ordained a minister of the Christian Connexion in 1843. White was a powerful preacher and it is recorded that during the winter of 1843, 1000 people were accepted the Millerite message owing to his preaching. At times however, White was met with angry mobs who hurled snowballs at him. During these early travels he met Ellen G. Harmon whom he married on August 30, 1846. James and Ellen had four boys, Henry Nichols (b. 26 Aug 1847, d. 8 Dec 1863), James Edson (b. 28 Jul 1849, d. 3 Jun 1928), William Clarence (b. 29 Aug 1854, d. 31 Aug 1937) and John Herbert (b. 20 Sep 1860, d. 14 Dec 1860).
Roscoe Gardner Bartlett,(born June 3, 1926) is a professor and a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the 6th district of Maryland since 1993.
Bartlett was born in Moreland, Kentucky to Martha Minnick and Roscoe Gardner Bartlett. He completed his early education in a one-room schoolhouse. He attended the Columbia Union College, a college affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and graduated in 1947 with a B.S. in theology and biology and a minor in chemistry. He had intended to be a minister, but having received his bachelor's degree at 21, some considered hime too young for the ministry.
Afterwards, Bartlett attended graduate school at the University of Maryland, College Park. He studied anatomy, physiology, and zoology, earning a Master's degree in physiology in 1948. Bartlett was then hired as a faculty member at Maryland and taught anatomy, physiology and zoology while working towards his Ph.D. in physiology, which he earned in 1952. His academic career included lecturing at Loma Linda School of Medicine, also affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, in Loma Linda, California (1952–1954), and serving as an assistant professor at Howard University Medical School in Washington, D.C. (1954–1956).
Richard Wayne Penniman (born December 5, 1932), better known by the stage name Little Richard, is an African-American singer, songwriter, and pianist, who began performing in the 1940s and was a key figure in the transition from rhythm & blues to rock and roll in the mid-1950s.
Penniman's reputation rests on a string of groundbreaking hit singles from 1955 through 1957, such as "Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally", which helped lay the foundation for rock and roll music, influencing generations of rhythm and blues, rock and soul music artists. Little Richard's injection of funk during this period also influenced the development of that genre of music.
Little Richard's early work was a mix of boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues and gospel music, but with a heavily accentuated back-beat, funky saxophone grooves and raspy, shouted vocals, moans, screams, and other emotive inflections that marked a new kind of music. In 1957, while at the height of stardom, he became a born-again Christian and withdrew from recording and performing secular music.
James Brown, who called Little Richard his idol, credited him with "first putting the funk in the rock and roll beat" via his saxophone-studded, mid-'50s road band, by Smokey Robinson, in 1997 as, "the start of that driving, funky, never let up rock 'n' roll", by Dick Clark as "the model for almost every rock and roll performer of the '50s and years thereafter", and Ray Charles, in 1989, as "the man that started a kind of music that set the pace for a lot of what's happening today." In 1969, Elvis Presley told Little Richard, "Your music has inspired me - you are the greatest.". Otis Redding, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Mick Jagger, John Fogerty, Bob Dylan, Dick Dale, Bob Seger, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and numerous other rock n roll icons have also cited Little Richard as being their first major influence.
Richard Nathaniel Wright (September 4, 1908 – November 28, 1960) was an American author of powerful, sometimes controversial novels, short stories and non-fiction, informed by his status as a gifted but often discriminated against African-American.
Wright, the grandson of slaves, was born on a plantation in Roxie, Mississippi, a tiny town located about 22 miles east of Natchez, in Franklin County.
Wright's family soon moved to Memphis, Tennessee. While in Memphis, his father Nathaniel, a former sharecropper, abandoned them. Wright, his brother, and mother soon moved to Jackson, Mississippi, to live with relatives. In Jackson, Wright grew up and attended public high school.
At the age of fifteen, Wright penned his first story, 'The Voodoo of Hell's Half-Acre'. It was published in Southern Register, a local black newspaper. Here, he formed some lasting impressions of American racism before moving back to Memphis in 1927.
John Harvey Kellogg (February 26, 1852 – December 14, 1943) was an American medical doctor in Battle Creek, Michigan who ran a sanitarium using holistic methods, with a particular focus on nutrition, enemas and exercise. Kellogg was an advocate of vegetarianism, and is best known for the invention of the corn flakes breakfast cereal with his brother, Will Keith Kellogg.
Kellogg was born in Tyrone, Michigan, to John Preston Kellogg (1806–1881) and Ann Janette Stanley (1824–1893). John lived with two sisters during childhood. The family had moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, by 1860 where his father set up a broom factory. John later worked as a printer's devil in a Battle Creek publishing house.
