16
The Publishing Ministry
April, 1852, we moved to Rochester, N. Y., under most discouraging
circumstances. At every step we were obliged to advance by faith.
We were still crippled by poverty, and compelled to exercise the most
rigid economy and self-denial. I will give a brief extract from a letter
to Brother Howland’s family, dated April 16, 1852:
“We are just getting settled in Rochester. We have rented an old
house for one hundred and seventy-five dollars a year. We have the
press [
A Washington hand press was bought for $652.93. This was
the first publishing enterprise owned and operated by Seventh-day
Adventists.
] in the house. Were it not for this, we should have to pay
fifty dollars a year for office room. You would smile could you look
in upon us and see our furniture. We have bought two old bedsteads
for twenty-five cents each. My husband brought me home six old
chairs, no two of them alike, for which he paid one dollar, and soon
he presented me with four more old chairs without any seating, for
which he paid sixty-two cents. The frames are strong, and I have been
seating them with drilling.
“Butter is so high that we do not purchase it, neither can we afford
potatoes. We use sauce in the place of butter, and turnips for potatoes.
Our first meals were taken on a fireboard placed upon two empty flour
barrels. We are willing to endure privations if the work of God can be
advanced. We believe the Lord’s hand was in our coming to this place.
[24]
There is a large field for labor, and but few laborers. Last Sabbath our
meeting was excellent. The Lord refreshed us with His presence.”....
We toiled on in Rochester through much perplexity and discour-
agement. The cholera visited the city, and while it raged, all night long
the carriages bearing the dead were heard rumbling through the streets
to Mount Hope Cemetery....
Pressing on into New England—We had appointments out for
two months, reaching from Rochester, N. Y., to Bangor, Maine; and
this journey we were to perform with our covered carriage and our
good horse Charlie, given to us by Brethren in Vermont....
We had before us a journey of about one hundred miles, to perform
in two days, yet we believed that the Lord would work for us. [
Little
Edson White, afflicted with cholera and healed in answer to prayer,
accompanied his parents on this trip. At first it seemed that the child
would die from the rigors of the journey, but his strength returned