Ellen Gould White

1827-1915. Most prominent leader of the Seventh-day Adventist* Church. Born at Gorham, Maine, she received almost no formal education because of poor health. Her parents were devout Methodists, but in the 1840s embraced William Miller's* Advent preaching and were disbarred from the church. Miller's preaching and Mrs. White's testimony of her own revelations formed the beginning of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which stresses a strong prophetic and eschatological note and health reform. She became the inspired leader and messenger, marrying Elder James White in 1846. In 1855 they moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, where the church headquarters became located. She spent some time in Europe and Australia after her husband's death in 1881. In 1903 the headquarters was moved to Washington, D.C. A woman of deep religious persuasion, she insisted she was not a leader but simply a divinely appointed messenger. Sixty- four of her works have appeared in print in English.