The Adventist

 There is no scandal in Edward Delavine Hurlburt’s life. No criminal record, no out-of-wedlock children or multiple wives. In fact, quite the opposite. Edward converted to the Seventh Day Adventist Church and became a missionary and pastoral leader. He was also elected to the first city council of St. Johns, Oregon. 

     Edward was born on a farm just outside of what would eventually be the small town of  Silver Lake, Kosciusko County, Indiana in 1842. His parents, Chauncey and Gracia, were New Englanders who came to the county around the time it was formed in 1836. A cluster of relatives came at that time and in the next few years, including his grandparents, Gurdon Hurlburt and Rhoda Barber Hurlburt; Rhoda’s sister Cynthia Barber Sadd, and Rhoda and Cynthia’s adult nieces and nephews such as Myron, Milo, and Nancy Barber, to name just a few.

     Edward was born after the hardest years, the years of log cabin building and clearcutting the forest to plant crops. His family were staunch Congregationalists, who shifted to the Presbyterian Church. As a young man Edward saw the town of Silver Lake come into existence. 

     He was about to turn 19 when the Civil War began. In the fall, he and his cousin Edward T. Hurlburt joined the 35th Indiana Infantry, Company F, which consisted mostly of men from Wabash County. This was an interesting choice because it was formed as the 1st Irish Regiment, which is what it was usually referred to in the newspapers. Most of the men were Irishmen. The uniform had a distinctive green stripe down the outer seam of the pants. The regiment was shipped out of Indianapolis on December 13, 1861 with a send-off from the Irish ladies of the Hoosier capital, who presented them with a flag. They were sent first to Bardstown, Kentucky, but eventually they took part in the Battle of Chickamauga and the Atlanta Campaign. Their final orders had the regiment in Texas.

      Sadly, there was only one Edward Hurlburt who made it to Texas. Edward T., the son of Gurdon Trumbull Hurlburt and Caroline Inu, was killed in action at the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee. The numbers are simply staggering, shocking to read today and to imagine. Seventy-six thousand four hundred men were engaged in this battle; Americans fighting Americans. Estimated casualties were more than 26,600. Edward’s body was not brought home, but a cross was placed in a Methodist  cemetery in Wabash County for him and 14 other local men killed in battle.

Nebraska

     The land in Indiana was bought, cleared and settled in Edward’s parents’ generation. Now, if a young man wanted to farm, his best bet was moving on to a western state to file a claim for a homestead. In 1869 Edward went with another cousin, Calvin Barber and his wife Hannah, to Saunders County, Nebraska. They each claimed farms side-by-side. In 1870, Edward’s brother Joseph and three of Calvin’s brothers came to Nebraska, too. 

     In 1872 he married Sarah Cowgill, a fellow Hoosier. They were married seven years before they finally had a baby in May 1879, a little girl. Today her existence is noted only on the U.S. Federal Census Mortality Schedule, 1850-1885. Little “M.E.” - possibly Mary Elizabeth or Mary Eliza - died of “brain fever” in January 1880. Her mother died of consumption a month before her. She was the only child Edward would ever have. 

     No doubt devastated by these two deaths, Edward went back home to Indiana for a few years. When he moved back to Nebraska in May 1885, his parents and brother Goodrich moved with him. In December, Edward, 43, married Lucretia Berry in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was a first marriage for Lucretia, 38, an Illinois native.  

A New Faith

     It’s uncertain exactly when Edward joined the Seventh Day Adventist Church, but the first Adventist groups in Nebraska formed in 1875 in Seward and Stromsburg. Two of Calvin’s brothers happened to have homesteads just outside Stromsburg. After Edward joined, he quickly became a leader. By 1882 he was a member of the Camp-Meeting Committee for the state of Nebraska, and the director of District 3 of the State Tract and Missionary Society. (The church divided Nebraska into seven districts.)

     The church itself was still quite young. Its official founding date is May 21, 1863. It had its roots in the Millerite movement of the 1830s and 1840s. That in turn was an outgrowth of  the Second Great Awakening, a tremendous religious revival that swept the United States in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Millerites believed that the second coming of Christ would be October 22, 1844. When this failed to happen, thousands were devastated. This event came to be known as the Great Disappointment.

      However, some adherents formed study groups and eventually the church grew from this beginning. They continue to believe the “advent” of Christ is still imminent, and to keep the sabbath on Saturday. They were guided by Ellen White, who the church believes was given the spiritual gift of prophecy. 

     Adventists had strong beliefs about temperance and healthy eating. Ellen White promoted vegetarianism at a time when that was considered something for “crackpots.” She had a vision that led to the creation of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, led by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. The Adventists established many sanitariums, schools and colleges,  many of which still exist today (although the sanitariums are hospitals). Today the Adventist community living in Loma Linda, California is famous for being one of the “blue zones” - one of five places in the world where people live significantly longer than average.  

     The camp-meeting which Edward helped lead was (and is) an important annual gathering, part conference and part spiritual renewal meeting. Members literally camped in large family tents and pavilion tents housed the meetings. They were covered in the Nebraska newspapers with a sort of fascination. 

Missionary and Leader

     After Edward and Lucretia married it was a matter of months before they moved to St. Johns, Oregon. As was so often the case, they did not move there alone. Lucretia’s brother John N. Berry, her sister Ruth and other Berry relatives, with their families, also moved to St. Johns. With all their nieces and nephews, this gave them plenty of family and probably formed the corps of their church, as many were members, too.

     Today St. Johns is part of Portland; then, it was a small town. It is located on a peninsula at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers - absolutely beautiful country. It was unincorporated until 1902, and then was a separate city only until 1915. 

     After Edward’s father died in 1889, his mother joined them in St. Johns. Edward was listed in the city directory in 1893 as a missionary. His name ran in the newspaper church listings as Elder E.D. Hurlburt, leading a little St. Johns flock for years. Sabbath school at 10. Preaching at 11. Prayer meeting Wednesday 7:30 p.m. In 1893 a doctor established a sanitarium in Portland, which must have pleased the Hurlburts.

     When St. Johns became an incorporated city, it of course had to have a mayor and city council. Edward was nominated to serve on the city council, and at the election in March 1903, of the 134 votes cast, he received 127. The St. Johns Review faithfully covered city council meetings, but Edward avoided getting embroiled in arguments and therefore, he simply wasn’t mentioned. 

     Edward died in St. Johns in 1917, and his funeral at the Adventist Church was largely attended, according to his obituary. Lucretia died in 1923 in the Adventist sanitarium in Portland. 

     

Note: Several few years ago, Amy Johnson Crow, a certified genealogist and family history podcaster, issued the “52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge” on her blog. Write a story about one ancestor per week. Her old blog featuring the challenge is called “No Story Too Small.” That’s my philosophy too. Everyone has a story, in fact, many, many stories. I’m interested in even the smallest details of people’s stories, and they can be “tiny stories,” a brief vignette. So of course I’ve accepted this challenge- though I won’t worry about whether I write one a week or not. The schedule isn’t important! This is one of that series. 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Story No. 5: The Adventist

Edward Delavin Hurlburt (1842-1917) Civil War Veteran, Seventh Day Adventist Leader, St. Johns, Oregon City Council Member

Where he Connects In My Tree:  Edward was the son of Chauncey Butler Hurlburt and Gracia Buttrick. He was the grandson of Gordon Hurlburt and Rhoda Barber. Rhoda’s sister was Betsey Barber, who was my fourth great-grandmother. I “orient” myself in the tree mainly by their relationship to Myron Fitch Barbour, my great-great-grandfather.  Myron and Chauncey Butler Hurlburt were first cousins. So Edward was Myron’s cousin’s son.  

Sources:

     The Seventh Day Adventist Yearbook Containing Statistics of the General Conference and Other Organizations of the Denomination, With the Business Proceedings of the Anniversary Meetings Held at Rome, N.Y. Dec. 7-19, 1882, Battle Creek, Michigan: Seventh Day Adventist Publishing Association, 1883. 

     

Newspapers:

     Flag Presented: “Military Items,”  Indiana State Sentinel (Indianapolis, Indiana), 18 Dec 1861, p. 1.

     “The Adventists, The Annual Camp Meeting Now In Progress In Lincoln,” The Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln, Nebraska), 17 Sept 1886, p. 5.

     “S.D.A. Campmeeting,” Columbus Journal (Columbus, Nebraska), 21 Sept 1887, p. 2.

     “St. Johns Citizens Name Officers - First Ticket is Placed in the Field,” Oregon Daily Journal (Portland, Oregon), 14 March 1903, p. 5.

     “St. Johns Elects First Officers,” Oregon Daily Journal, 17 March 1903, p. 11. 

Copyright Andrea Auclair © 2023