Small bit of work in progress

 I'm posting this unedited selection for comments, and with the hope that it will prompt blog readers to find more about these people.

Response to 1883 Failure

 

            Barbour appealed for letters of support. A very few trickled in, and he published them in the Herald of the Morning. If he wanted a measure of continuing support, he must have been disappointed. However, examining them gives us some insight into those who continued to see Barbour as the font of truth.

            Alfred Harrison Fleisher [c 1832 – 1914] of Birch Lake Township, Minnesota, a very small village near Hackensack, wrote that even if others “could do without The Herald,” he could not: “Had I not become perfectly acquainted with its teachings I might, in this hour of trial, say, I have no further use for it. But our senses have been so much exercised through its teachings, that we can now be patient. We have a glimpse of the land, and know that our journey will soon be ended, and that we shall reap, in due time, if we faint not.” Divested of its floridity, in the past he firmly believed Barbour, and he was reluctant to abandon belief. Note, too, that he points to the Herald’s teachings, ignoring the Bible which is supposed to be the foundation of Christian faith.[1]

            Fleisher was at least a casual Barbourite evangelist. A “Brother Brown,” not otherwise identified, believed that “the hand of God was manifested in sending A. H. Fleisher to introduce to me what appears to be ‘the faith once delivered to the saints.’” Brown believed that God was “leading in this movement.” If either of these men persisted after a subsequent ‘failure’ in 1885 is doubtful.

            Some of those answering Barbour’s call to affirm their belief in his speculations saw the Barbourite movement as a continuation of Millerism or as the fulfillment of the Parable of the Virgins. Hamilton R. Perine [March 24, 1833 – April 24, 1915], who started reading Herald of the Morning in 1873, saw “in its teaching” a “continuation of the true advent movement as taught in the parable of the ten virgins.” He believed that God called him to “a place” in his “army,” meaning the Barbourite movement. How he could see a miniscule movement as an army of Christians is puzzling. Despite a continuing chain of failed expectations, he remained loyal to Barbour. In 1898, Perine was still expressing loyalty, despite repeatedly failed expectations, writing that his “confidence in this, as a prophetic movement, is unchangeable. Have been a reader of your writings since 1873; have been confident all through this quarter of a century, that we were in a shining pathway that would lead us on to the consummation of our hopes. Have never doubted this; hence, disappointments have not destroyed my confidence and rejoicing.[2]

            Perine came to Barbourite belief through a circuitous path. As noted in Separate Identity, volume one, He was present at the August 2, 1874, meeting that organized what became a Church of God Seventh Day Missouri State Conference.[3] Church of God, Seventh Day, was formed to sustain Seventh-day Adventist doctrine without recognizing Ellen White as a prophet. How he was introduced to Barbour and his doctrine is unknown.

            George S Vilott [May 6, 1842 – Aug 23 1920] and a William C. Hays of Mankato, Kansas, wrote a joint letter, saying: “We two are all we know in this part of Kansas who are in full sympathy with the Herald.” We know nothing about Hays, but rather more about Vilott. Child and young man he lived in Indiana. During the Civil War he served in a sergeant in the Company H of the 36th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He may have been wounded. His pension records list him as “Army Invalid.” He moved to Kansas after the war where he and another Vilott, probably his brother, took up farming in Jewel County. He was elected to the Kansas State Legislature in November 1894. An obituary describes him as “a Christian, holding to a creed of his own, as he had made the bible [sic] one of the great studies of his life.”[4]

 

 

 

            Others who wrote in their support have left minimal or no records. Caroline “Carrie” B. Barnum [1833 – October 20, 1907] of Kendall, New York, lived with her aged mother.[5] With a “Miss Ferguson,” she wrote saying they supported Barbour based on ‘the evidence’ and that they saw him as “God’s instrument.” An Elizabeth Tyler of Michigan believed Barbour’s articles were spiritual food. She called it “meat for me,” an allusion to Hebrews 5:12.[6] There are at least two possible identities for her, neither of which have much to recommend to us.

            James Sloan, writing from Lapeer, Michigan, continued to believe despite successive disappointments because Barbour’s manipulation of types of prophetic numbers seemed harmonious: “I thank God that we have been led from one degree of light to another, until now we can see almost to the other side.” As Barbour did, he saw each failed expectation as a step further into divinely-given understanding. Unfortunately, calling a serious error ‘victory’ did not make it one. Sloan believed God would “sift out all the tares” from their movement. This is an allusion to Jesus’ harvest parable. – Matthew 13:24-30

            His exact meaning is unclear. In the Barbourite view, the tares were false Christians, but Sloan’s reference seems to be directed against those disappointed by the 1883 failure and who left the movement. Sloan is difficult to identify. There are two possibilities, father and son of the same name. The most likely is an Irish born [1813-1889] immigrant who settled in Michigan in 1833-34. He was a prosperous farmer and sold his services as a carpenter and joiner.[7]

            Mary R. Campbell, of Douglass, Butler County, Kansas sent her support:

 

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[1]               Fleischer to Barbour, Herald of the Morning, October-November 1883, page 14. Fleisher was a Civil War veteran, serving as a private in Company D of the 4^th Iowa Volunteer Infantry. His death date is recorded in his pension records. The 1880 Census gives his occupation as engineer.

[2]               Letter from H. R. Perine to N. Barbour, Herald of the Morning, June/July 1898, page 47.

[3]               R. C. Nickles: History of the Seventh Day Church of God, 1999, page 78.

[4]               Elected to office: The Topeka State Journal, Nov. 8, 1894, Night Edition, page 3. Sources conflict as to his party affiliation, some calling him a Republican and others a Prohibitionist. His obituary is reproduced at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/41615528/george-s-vilott [as found February 14, 2021.]

[5]               She was the child of C. H. and Pamela Barnum. Her proper first name is found in census records. 1850, 1870 and 1880 Federal Census Records. New York, State Death Index, 1880-1956. The 1870 Federal Census says the family owned real estate valued at $5500 and that they had a personal wealth of $600. These are, for the era, considerable sums.

[6]               “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.”

[7]               Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Michigan, Chapman Brothers, Chicago, 1890, page 319. 1870 and 1880 U.S. Federal Census records.