Michigan—On Sabbath, Oct. 7, 2006, Stanley W. Cottrell, a pastor and tour director at Historic Adventist Village, was guest speaker at the Burlington Church. At the worship service, Dennis Todd and Robert Ritzenthaler presented notebooks to Cottrell for Historic Adventist Village with articles on the history of the Burlington and Wright Churches. The notebooks are the first prepared by these two Adventist history enthusiasts who will eventually provide a collection of notebooks with the history of Michigan Seventh-day Adventist Churches in Allegan, Jackson, Otsego, and possibly others. Each notebook will include a brochure for a self-guided tour of these historic places.
Following a fellowship dinner, Cottrell shared some Adventist history with the congregation. The group then traveled less than a mile from the church to a cemetery for a special ceremony to place a "Footsteps of Adventist Pioneers" flag marker at the grave of Adventist pioneer Ellet J. Waggoner.
Ellet J. Waggoner was born in Baraboo, Wis., attended Battle Creek College in the earliest years of the institution, and obtained a medical degree from Bellevue Medical College, New York City. For a few years, he served on the staff of Battle Creek Sanitarium. However, since his heart was in evangelism, he left the practice of medicine and entered the ministry. In 1884, Ellet J. Waggoner worked at Pacific Press as assistant editor of Signs of the Times under the tutelage of his father, J.H. Waggoner, the editor-in-chief. Two years later he and A.T. Jones became editors of the paper. This post Ellet J. Waggoner held till May 1891.
In 1888, Ellet J. Waggoner and Jones gave a memorable series of sermons on righteousness by faith at the General Conference Session in Minneapolis, Minn., and specialized in preaching on that subject for several years thereafter.
In the spring of 1892, Ellet J. Waggoner arrived in England with his family to become the editor of Present Truth. In the winter of 1899–1900, he and W.W. Prescott conducted a training school for workers in England. Ellet J. Waggoner was the first president of the South England Conference (1902). In the summer of 1902, he returned to the United States. Afterward Ellet J. Waggoner was briefly on the staff of Emmanuel Missionary College.
Because of domestic difficulties that led to divorce and remarriage, Ellet J. Waggoner became separated from denominational employment some time after his return from England. The last six years of his life were spent teaching at Battle Creek College (the later school of that name), under John Harvey Kellogg's management.
Ellet J. Waggoner was born in 1855 and died in 1916.
Ellet J. Waggoner's father J.H. Waggoner was a more prominent pioneer of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Although he attended school for only six months, he was indefatigable in private study becoming a preacher, teacher, and writer.
In 1857, J.H. Waggoner came to Burlington from Jackson to hold a 21-day evangelistic tent meeting with retired sea captain Joseph Bates. In spite of storms and having their horse and wagon stolen, they completed their series and continued westward. This was before the name Seventh-day Adventist was chosen for the group of believers that "keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 12:17). The name would not come until 1863 when J.H. Waggoner and two other committee members recommended it at the first General Conference Session in Battle Creek.
The Burlington Church was organized by J.H. Waggoner on Oct. 8, 1862. The building was erected in 1876 and has been used continuously by Seventh-day Adventists since its dedication by Uriah Smith on Dec. 31, 1876.
In the late 1870s, J.H. Waggoner moved from a home in Burlington, now owned by Winona Fiebelkorn, to Oakland, Calif., to become only the second editor of the Signs of the Times magazine.
In 1889, while establishing the new work of the church in Europe, he died at the age of 69.
Bill and Rene Tassie, Burlington Church correspondents, and Stanley W. Cottrell, Historic Adventist Village tour director
