How Madison reproduced itself as seen through one of its early units

The founding families of Highland as reported in the Review and Herald

1908-1960

Includes them as part of the Madison, Tennessee lay movement and serves as an example of its approach to Adventist education

Mentions of the pioneers and their work after the purchase of a farm near Fountain Head, Tennessee in 1907. It now consists of Highland Academy, Highland Elementary School and Signature Health Care, Portland, Tennessee.

Contains observations by prominent Adventist authors William C. White, S.N. Haskell, D.H. Kress and Arthur Spaulding

Foreword by Albert Dittes

The founders of what has become the Highland Adventist community had the gift of public relations, along with that of teaching, administration, farming, fundraising and other things. They kept their name before the Adventist public as well as made themselves known in the community.

Thanks to the Internet, we now have access to every copy of the Review and Herald published since starting out as Present Truth in 1849. In using the search engine, I put the name Mulford, for founder Braden Mulford, in there and found many fascinating articles about the school in the Review, starting with the March 12, 1908, issue and going on for many years afterwards. Some of the early articles appeared under the name of the parent institution of Madison College, Madison, Tennessee, but Braden Mulford and his wife, Pearl West Mulford, were also writers.

I printed these articles and have decided to introduce some of them with a background explanation. Together they tell the story of the dedication and sacrifice required to start a self-supporting Adventist school or unit as the Madison people preferred to call it because the complex consisted of a school, farm and sanitarium. This story also reflects the mission of Madison College in the South. That enterprise begun by E.A. Sutherland and Percy T. Magan in 1904 left a lasting mark, with serious minded Adventist missionaries all over the world still wanting to emulate its example. The story of Fountain Head, which later became Highland, shows how they did it.

The first article is by E.A. Sutherland reporting on what his students are doing. Braden Mulford and Charles Alden were among the first to go out. They started a school in Ridgetop, Tennessee around 1906. Mulford went out by himself a year later and bought a farm at Fountain Head. Sutherland mentions both of them in his report of the work of Madison to that date.

The Nashville (Tenn.) Agricultural and Normal Institute

By E. A. SUTHERLAND

WHEN we look around us and see the great work that we came here to do, we are inclined to become impatient by the delays made necessary by the building of our school plant. We long for the time to come when we may give our entire time and strength to the preparation of teachers who will go to the people of the South with a system of education that will lead many to the knowledge of the message.

Last year we enrolled over eighty students in the training departments. Our family numbers over fifty this year. The church-school enrolment is not included in this.

The farm mission schools which have been established by teachers trained in the school at Madison are making progress. Two new ones have recently been started. One of these has been established in Cuba 'by Brother Guy Holmes, of Milton Junction, Wis., and the other at Fountainhead, Tenn., by Brother Braden Mulford, who has been assisting in building up the Alden farm mission school at Ridgetop, Tenn. Miss Bessie Kinsman, of Austin, Minn., one of our students, has joined, as a teacher, the school we started in Cuba two years ago. Brother John Hohn and wife, of Spokane, Wash., have recently connected with the two teachers who have been conducting the mission school at Paradise Ridge, Tenn. During the last year a number of families from the North have entered the South as self-supporting workers.

I believe that it is quite well known that the Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute depends upon the products of its farm to meet its operating expenses. In this we have not been disappointed during the past year, although we have suffered the effects of a very severe drought.

We recently enjoyed a visit from Elders A. G. Daniells and W. C. White, and Prof. Frederick Griggs. A part of the time was spent in carefully looking over the school enterprise, and some plans were made which will be a great help in completing the work.

A full report was given by the school to the Southern Union Conference delegates at Nashville, covering much of the work done during the past three years. It seemed to be the general impression after listening to the report, that a strong effort should be made to enable the school to complete its work of erecting 'buildings as soon as possible.

It is over three-years since we began the establishment of the Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute. During this time, we have carried on the regular school work, erected all the buildings with our own hands, solicited the money with which the building material has been purchased, and at the same time have developed and cultivated a worn out farm, from which we have produced sufficient to meet the operating expenses of the school. This work could be greatly lightened if we were not obliged to take so much of our help to erect the buildings, and if we did not have to enter the field to secure money for building material.

We are praying that God will stir the hearts of all who are interested in this work to assist us to finish our 'buildings during the year 1908. Then we could devote our time and strength to the training of teachers, and the starting of farm mission schools. This is one of the best methods of reaching a multitude of souls with the message.

The teachers and students of our school have banded together to do their utmost to complete the task of building by Dec. 31, 1908. At the school one often hears the words, spoken earnestly and in faith, " Let us finish by Dec. 31, 1908."

We believe there are many who will co-operate with us in this movement, and help us to accomplish this work during the present year.

Getting started in the South

The Seventh-day Adventist movement started slowly in the Southern United States despite repeated appeals of Ellen White to enter this area. Professors Sutherland and Magan encouraged Adventist families to move south and start extension schools of Madison in other unentered areas. Once some did so, they started having annual conventions starting in 1908. This next Review article reports on their first convention. The Mulfords represented their Fountain Head school at this event.

Vol. 85 Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C.,

December 17, 1908

No. 51

The Convention of Self-Supporting Missionaries

By P. T. Magan

DURING the past few years every department of work in the third angel's message has made great advancement. Schools, colleges, sanitariums, and publishing plants have been established and equipped with great rapidity. All these have been greatly blessed of God in spreading the last warning message to the world.

At the same time, in a more definite and positive manner than ever before, there has been a movement upon the part of the lay members of this faith to engage in self-supporting missionary work.

Conditions in the Southern United States have seemed especially adapted to missionary effort of this character, and there has been much instruction from the spirit of prophecy relative to this point. In 1891 it was written with special reference to the Southern field: —

" God will accept many more workers from the humble walks of life if they will fully consecrate themselves to his service. Men and women should be coming up to carry the truth into all the highways and byways of life. Not all can go through a long course of education, but if they are consecrated to God, and learn of him, many can without this do much to bless others. Thousands would be' accepted if they would give themselves to God. Not all who labor in this line should depend upon the conferences for support. Let those who can do so, give their time, and what ability they have; let them be messengers of God's grace, their hearts throbbing in unison with Christ>s great heart of love, their ears open to hear the Macedonian cry.

" The whole church needs to be imbued with the missionary spirit; then there will be many to work unselfishly in various ways as they can, without being salaried."

In the REVIEW AND HERALD of Nov. 26, 1895, it was written: —

" Where are the families who will become missionaries, and who will engage in labor in this field? Where are the men who have means and experience so that they can go forth to these people, and work for them just where they are ? There are men who can educate them in agricultural lines, who can teach the colored people to sow seed and plant orchards. There are others who can teach them to read, and can give them an object-lesson from their own life and example. Show them what • you yourself can do to gain a livelihood, and it will be an education to them. Are we not called upon to do this very work?"

And. again: — " God calls for missionaries, and asks us to take up our neglected duties. Let farmers, financiers, builders, and those who are skilled in various arts and crafts, go to this field to improve lands, and to build humble cottages for themselves and their neighbors. Christ says to you. Lift up your eyes, and look upon this Southern field; for it needs the sowers of seed and the reapers of grain."

And lastly: —

" It is not ministers who can preach that are needed so much as men and women who understand how to teach the truth to poor, ignorant, needy, and oppressed people. ... It needs men and women who will not be sent to the Southern field by our people, but who will feel the burden to go into this neglected portion of the vineyard of the Lord."— Testimony, June 21, 1899.

The preceding Testimonies, and others of a similar nature, have caused a considerable number of men and women to engage in this kind of work in the Southern field. As time has,passed, these have felt their need of meeting together for prayer and counsel and study.

As a result of this, a convention of self-supporting workers was called to meet at the Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute, Madfson,' Tenn., opening October 15, and continuing for ten days.

It was especially desired by those who have been active in the self-supporting movement that there should be a goodly representation of leading men from the regularly organized work in attendance .at this gathering. We have' felt that, while self-supporting work is in its infancy, a mold which God can bless must be put upon it, and that we should all speak the same things, and be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

We have sincerely felt that there must be a spirit of brotherly confidence between the conference employed worker and the self-supporting worker. We knew that this spirit was reciprocated by many of the brethren at the head of the work, and consequently we were glad to welcome a large delegation of our general laborers to this meeting, among whom were Elders A. G. Daniells, S. N. Haskell, George A. Irwin, R. A. Underwood, George B. Thompson, C. F. McVagh, W. A. Westworth, and John W. Christian, and Prof. Frederick Griggs, and others.

The attendance at the convention was quite general in its nature. A large number of the brethren and sisters, from the North, East, and West, who are interested in self-supporting work, paid a visit to the South for the special purpose of attending this meeting and getting a glimpse of this kind of work for themselves.

The representation of self-supporting workers was also very good. Many of the teachers from the small schools, which have been started as a result of the work of the Nashville Agricultural, and Normal Institute, were in attendance. Among these were Brother and Sister C. F. Alden, from the school at Ridgetop, Tenn.; Brethren Christian and John Holm and their wives, from the Paradise Ridge School; Brother and Sister Braden F. Mulford, from the school at Fountain Head, Tenn. Elders Haskell and Irwin acted as chairmen of the' convention, and the writer as secretary.

At nine o'clock each morning Elder Haskell conducted a Bible study in the chapel at Gotzian Hall. These studies were a great inspiration to all. That God remarkably blessed his servant in bringing forth things new and old from the Scriptures was very manifest to the entire gathering.

From 10 A. M. to 12:30 each day was taken up with papers, talks, and discussions having special relation to self-supporting missionary work. These were participated in by teachers, doctors, medical missionary nurses, canvassers, periodical workers, missionary farmers, carpenters, and others.

The afternoon program was much the same as that of the forenoon, and the day was closed with two studies of one hour each, in the evening, on the Bible and the spirit of prophecy. Several excellent Bible readings of a practical nature were given by Sister Hettie Haskell.

Elder William C. (Willie) White, son of Ellen White, knew about Fountain Head, as he indicated in the following article about Madison. The Hillcrest School mentioned in this article was a school for black children located near the Bordeaux section of Nashville. It closed around 1912. Alden’s school was near Ridgetop, Tenn., and Mulford’s school was, of course, at nearby Fountain Head.

Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C., April 1, 1909

Vol. 86, No. 13

The Madison (Tenn.) School and Its Influence

By W. C. WHITE

IT was my privilege to spend Sabbath, January 9, at the Madison school. At the beginning of the Sabbath, Elder A. G. Daniells and I met the teachers and students in their new commodious assembly hall. Their eagerness to hear and our willingness to talk, led to the holding of four meetings in the twenty four hours of our visit. Elder Daniells spoke that evening and early Sabbath morning, with thrilling interest, upon the world-wide progress of the message. Then he hastened to Nashville, to speak again in the Memorial church. At the forenoon service I spoke on the work that students may do while attending school — as nurses, and as teachers of Bible truth in homes and in Sabbath schools. In the afternoon the ordinances of humility and fellowship were celebrated, nearly all the students taking part.

Progress

Since our visit in January, 1908, marked changes had taken place in the personnel, the equipment, and the surroundings of the school. Many whom I had met in former years were gone, and there were scores of new faces. On inquiring, I learned that twelve or more of the older students had been drawn from time to time to enter the employ of the Southern conferences and institutions; eight were teaching in foreign fields; and a score or more were connected with the ten schools that have been established during the last two or three years in the needy mountain districts.

Several times I had visited the school when the only assembly room was the large, low-ceiled parlor of the original farmhouse. One year ago the school had outgrown that room, and was using for an assembly room a cottage put up without partitions. During the summer of 1908, Gotzian Hall had been built, and now for the first time the school has found a roomy, comfortable home.

The Water Plant

Central Tennessee is a well-watered country, but occasionally there are severe droughts. The school farm had several wells, but in the driest times the flow of water was scanty. When the school family was small, there was no serious trouble, except the necessity of pumping water from the river for the horses and cattle. But a sanitarium needs a large and constant supply of good, pure water, and when the plans and location of the sanitarium were settled, it was found that water must be brought, from the river, or many cisterns must be built.

After much study it was decided to install a water, plant that could be relied upon at all times to furnish an abundant supply, (a) to the sanitarium; (b) to the school boarding-house and all the resident cottages; (c) to the stables and stock-yards; and (d) for the irrigation of the kitchen garden in time of drought.

On one of the highest elevations between the river and the buildings, a forty-three-thousand-gallon tank was put up, constructed of red cypress. From this tank to the river, a distance of thirty-five hundred thirty-six feet, a three-inch supply pipe was laid, and on the river bank a ten-horsepower gasoline engine operates the pump, which is set in a cement casement twenty-six feet below, near the level of the river. From this large tank, water is supplied to the sanitarium, the boarding-house, the cottages, and to smaller supply tanks in the two large pastures.

The Sanitarium

The sanitarium was completed, and was ready for opening as soon as the severe January weather was over. It is a model of simplicity and economy, and is so built that it can be operated for five patients or for twenty-five, on a scale of expense corresponding to the amount of work it has to do.

Dr. Newton Evans is the surgeon and physician-in-chief. He has recently built a cottage and located his family near the sanitarium. He .also maintains an office in Nashville, and is teaching in one of the medical colleges there. Dr. Lillian Eshelmann Magan is the house physician. While waiting for the sanitarium to be put up, she has built up quite a practise outside.

With the little sanitarium in full operation, the Madison school can do a good work in training' medical evangelists for the home and foreign fields.

A Center of Influence

The Madison school promises to be an important factor in our educational work in the South, as a center of influence, a place to which those who are pioneering in hard places can look for counsel and encouragement. Not only are young men and women gathered from the North and given a practical training for service, but when they leave Madison, they are not forgotten, and in times of special need they are sometimes helped to secure necessary assistance.

Just recently an advance step was taken in the inauguration of quarterly conventions. It is now planned that once in three months a convention shall be held at Madison or at Hillcrest or some other accessible place, where the teachers from the hill schools will be invited to come together for a two-days' council. In these councils, teachers will relate their experiences in meeting difficulties, in developing self-support, in doing evangelistic work, in winning the confidence of the people. So far as the students of Madison schools are able to attend, they will gain a valuable education, and the teachers will learn much from one another.

Concerning the convention recently held at Madison, Prof. E. A. Sutherland says:— " We gave considerable attention to the proper method of using our Sundays in the mission schools. Practically all the teachers are attending Sunday schools and services, and some of them are planning to hold Sunday-schools in their little schoolhouses. Most of them have Sunday evening meetings. They say they could have meetings every Sunday evening if they had competent help. We are arranging to give them this help. Near Alden's school one of the best .families in the neighborhood has just begun to keep the Sabbath.

Several have begun to keep the Sabbath at Mulford's school. This is encouraging, and we rejoice greatly that the quiet work is having its effect. The schools are full, and are doing a good work.

"On Sunday we gave much time and study to the question of self-support. You would have been intensely interested to hear the plans of the leaders of these schools in making their living from the soil.

" We also spent much time in studying methods of teaching those not of our faith, and had an exchange of experiences from the various teachers. There were twelve in attendance from these schools.

"Our students were deeply interested in what was said at this meeting. The next meeting will be held at Hillcrest in three months. Our plan is to have a two-days' meeting every quarter. The one that has just been held is the second meeting of this nature."

A Recent Report

In a letter dated Feb. 26, 1909, Brother Sutherland writes as follows: " This winter we are having the best school since we came South. Most of the students are earnest young people who are preparing for work in the Southern field. Several were taken in who were not Christians; these have taken their stand for the truth since entering the school. Nearly all the students are earning their school expenses. " We have a great deal of work in connection with the dairy, the school home, and the sanitarium, also building, farming, and clearing the brush off the land. The general round of duties and improvements keeps us very busy. We need two or three more persons in the school who are able to carry heavy responsibilities. The work is quite wearing on some who are here.

"We are making some headway with the sanitarium. It has been quite a problem to get this enterprise started, but we have faith that God has ordered that it should be established, and that he will in his own way make it a success. We are thankful for one thing, and that is that we are able to conduct it without financial loss. Our patronage has been sufficient thus far, to prevent this. A few operations have been performed, and a number of persons have been helped in regaining their health. We have several nurses who are busy all the time. Drs. Evans and Magan are our physicians. They are faithful, and we feel that the Lord has greatly blessed us in giving them to us.

"One of the most encouraging features of our work is the success that is attending the little mission schools that are being established throughout the country. They appeal to the people. There are about five hundred children and youth attending the schools that have been established here since we left Battle Creek. Several persons have begun to keep the Sabbath during the last year, as the result of these little schools. The schools are just starting. We hope, after a year or two, to see much fruit from them.

"We are holding meetings among the young people of these communities. Not very long ago I held a meeting at one of our little schools, and there were about two hundred persons present. They listened very attentively to the instruction. The people are more reverential than those in the North. If we approach them in the right way, we can have a strong influence over them. There are many, we believe, who will embrace the third angel's message if we properly present the truth to them."

Combining work and study

Pearl West enrolled at Union College, Lincoln, Nebraska, in September, 1897, and last attended in 1899 but did not graduate, according to the school records. She was teaching school in Africa when her sweetheart, Braden Mulford, wired her that he had found the site for a school they had envisioned in Fountain Head, Tennessee, and asked if she would come home and marry him. She accepted, and Percy Magan presided over their wedding ceremony on June 6, 1908, according to Sumner County, Tennessee, court clerk records.

Her brother, Forrest West who had married Lula Mulford, sister of Braden Mulford, joined them in this endeavor. Other family members also became part of the enterprise.

In this article published in the Review a year after her marriage, Pearl West Mulford wrote about “How to Adapt Manual Labor to the Students with whom we have to deal.”

Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C., May 6, J90

9

How to Adapt Manual Labor to the Students with Whom We Have to Deal

By PEARL WEST MULFORD

FOR years we have been called upon to establish schools where the students may gain a knowledge of practical labor, while receiving their mental training. Feeble attempts have been made from time to time toward starting such schools, but each time we were brought face to face with the question, " How shall it be done?" and instead of solving the problem, the industrial phase of the work was usually abandoned.

Why are we called upon to establish industrial schools? I quote from the " Testimonies: " " The health can not be preserved unless some portion of each day be given to muscular exertion in the open air. . Stated hours should be devoted to manual labor of some kind,—anything which will call into action all parts of the body." " Brain and muscle must be taxed proportionately if health and vigor be maintained."

Again: " Physical labor will not prevent the cultivation of the intellect. Far from it. A sound body is required for a sound intellect. It will soon be seen that those who unite work and study, make greater advancement in their books than those who devote all their time to study."

" The effect is equally good upon the morals. Some do not appreciate the value of agricultural work." " This work is essential to the education most favorable to spiritual advancement; for nature's voice is the voice of Christ, teaching us innumerable lessons of love, and power, and submission, and perseverance."

We are here to teach by precept and example what constitutes a true home and how to make one. With this in mind, let us consider how and where the industries should be taught. Would you take a student to the gymnasium to teach him how to swim? — Certainly not, and just as foolish would it be to go to the schoolroom to learn how to conduct a home. It is in the home that homemaking should be taught. It is on the farm that farming should be taught. Go onto the building if you would learn carpentry, or to the poultry-yard if you would understand how to raise poultry. The schoolroom instruction on how to make bread may be as explicit as possible, but let the student go home and attempt to carry out that instruction, and we would all be much surprised should she go back taking a loaf of nice, light bread with her as the result. We learn to do by doing, and not by being told how to do.

But the problem by which we are confronted is this: The children do not live with us. We have them, perhaps from 9 A. M. to 3: 30 P. M. Their parents need them at home outside of school hours. Shall we, because we have them but a short time, give them only book knowledge? Here is the answer: "If the youth can have but a one-sided education, and it is asked, Which is of the greater consequence, the study of the sciences or the knowledge of labor for practical life, we unhesitatingly say, the latter. If one must be neglected, let it be the How to Adapt Manual Labor to the Students with Whom We Have to Deal

FOR years we have been called upon to establish schools where the students may gain a knowledge of practical labor, while receiving their mental training. Feeble attempts have been made from time to time toward starting such schools, but each time we were brought face to face with the question, " How shall it be done?" and instead of solving the problem, the industrial phase of the work was usually abandoned.

Why are we called upon to establish industrial schools? I quote from the " Testimonies: " " The health can not be preserved unless some portion of each day be given to muscular exertion in the open air. . Stated hours should be devoted to manual labor of some kind,—anything which will call into action all parts of the body." " Brain and muscle must be taxed proportionately if health and vigor be maintained."

Again: " Physical labor will not prevent the cultivation of the intellect. Far from it. A sound body is required for a sound intellect. It will soon be seen that those who unite work and study, make greater advancement in their books than those who devote all their time to study."

" The effect is equally good upon the morals. Some do not appreciate the value of agricultural work." " This work is essential to the education most favorable to spiritual advancement; for nature's voice is the voice of Christ, teaching us innumerable lessons of love, and power, and submission, and perseverance."

We are here to teach by precept and example what constitutes a true home and how to make one. With this in mind, let us consider how and where the industries should be taught. Would you take a student to the gymnasium to teach him how to swim? — Certainly not, and just as foolish would it be to go to the schoolroom to learn how to conduct a home. It is in the home that homemaking should be taught. It is on the farm that farming should be taught. Go onto the building if you would learn carpentry, or to the poultry-yard if you would understand how to raise poultry.

The schoolroom instruction on how to make bread may be as explicit as possible, but let the student go home and attempt to carry out that instruction, and we would all be much surprised should she go back taking a loaf of nice, light bread with her as the result. We learn to do by doing, and not by being told how to do.

But the problem by which we are confronted is this: The children do not live with us. We have them, perhaps from 9 A. M. to 3: 30 P. M. Their parents need them at home outside of school hours.

Shall we, because we have them but a short time, give them only book knowledge? Here is the answer: "If the youth can have but a one-sided education, and it is asked, Which is of the greater consequence, the study of the sciences or the knowledge of labor for practical life, we unhesitatingly say, the latter. If one must be neglected, let it be the study of books."—"Education," page if),

We have made but a small beginning in our school at Fountain Head [Tenn.], but I am willing to give you the benefit of our limited experience. We spend the last hour and a half of each day's work in manual labor. We have organized a sewing class, taking in all the girls and the little boys. These are divided into two classes. The tiny ones, under one teacher, are learning to take the " over and over " stitch in making quilts, while the older ones are learning to do practical sewing, such as darning stockings, making and mending garments, etc. During class time the children are allowed to converse, and we correct one another's language. The older boys engage in some line of useful labor, receiving' at the same time instruction and spiritual lessons. Thus far the building of the new schoolhouse has afforded ample class work in carpentry. Later we hope to take them into the orchard, where pruning and spraying will be taught.

In pleasant weather our sewing classes give way to an outdoor class, the work of which thus far has been the clearing up of our schoolyard. The students are made to feel that the yard is their own, and that it would not be right to ask the boys who are supporting themselves by hard labor, to stop their work to clear up the schoolyard. So the older boys grub out the stumps, while the rest of us rake, burn, or pick up the leaves, sticks, and brush, learning at the same time how God will make the rough places smooth, and take out even the roots of sin from our hearts.

By spring we hope to have a gravel walk out to the road, and bulbs, flowers, and shrubs on each side of the walk. Then we have a piece of land adjoining our school grounds on the east, which we hope to turn into a strawberry patch, to be planted and taken care of by the children. We also have grape-vines, which need pruning and training; this, too, will afford lessons for the children. While most of the children are working on the schoolyard, two girls clean the schoolroom, one doing the sweeping and the other the dusting. They report when finished, and then their work is inspected, and a chalk mark is made wherever dust or dirt is found. The two girls keep this work for a week at a time. Each child's desk is considered his house, and the floor is the dooryard. These are inspected each evening before dismissal. During this period some of the girls are sent to the house, where they are taught practical housework. The one who is learning to make bread, puts the yeast to soak, stirs up the sponge, and leaves them to be stirred together in the evening by the teacher. She goes early the next morning, mixes it into a hard loaf, and places it where it will keep warm. Then she goes again and bakes it during the noon period. At each of these visits she is given scientific, instruction about yeast, the nutritive value of foods, and spiritual lessons.

Those who wash the. dishes are taught to first set back the chairs and sweep up the crumbs. They are taught how to clear the table and pile up, the dishes, what to wash first, how to rinse, and how to wash out the dish-cloth when finished. Proper care of the dish towels is also taught. We resort to various ingenious devices for increasing speed and cultivating thoughtfulness. Those who pare potatoes are taught to do it sparingly, and at the same time to be careful to remove all the eyes. Economy is a lesson of no little importance. It is our intention to devote Friday afternoons to instruction and demonstration-of simple treatments, using the students as patients and nurses as far as possible. What we have thus begun we hope to make much more complete as the work progresses.

Part of the Madison family

“Among the Southern Schools”

S.N. Haskell, a prominent pioneer Adventist minister, served as chairman of the board of the Madison School started in 1904. In this 1911 article entitled “Among the Southern Schools,” Haskell updates the Review readers about the work of Madison and the 22 extension schools resulting from it to that date.

Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C., May 4, 1911

Among the Southern Schools

By S. N. HASKELL

ON the evening of March 2 we left Oakland, Cal., for Madison, Term., and arrived at the junction about three miles distant on the evening of March 6. The next morning a colored man took us over to the school, where we spent about two weeks.

At the present time the school has about twenty small, one-story buildings, all of which were built by the students themselves. In addition to these there is the sanitarium, which has a good patronage, Gotzian Hall, and a school building The sanitarium will accommodate from twenty to twenty-five patients. All the buildings are neat and attractive; they are built for actual needs, nothing for show. The students and teachers eat at the same table. Other provision is made for the sanitarium patients.

The Madison school is self-supporting, its object being to train men and women to go into the hill country and establish other self-supporting schools. As the result of this effort, over two hundred teachers are now engaged in teaching in the South. According to their plan, teachers who enter a new field will in a short time gather around them a company composed not only of the children who attend the school, but also of the better class of people in the neighborhood, who wish to be taught more advanced methods in agriculture, as well as in spiritual and educational lines.

As a direct result of the work of five of these schools (Madison, Hillcrest, Goodlettsville, Fountain Head, and Sand Mountain), churches with an aggregate membership of one hundred twenty-four have been organized, and two more are about to be organized. Three of the churches named above were established without a cent of expense to the conference.

As a result of the work of the Madison school, there are now twenty-two self-supporting schools in the South and other needy fields. These schools are located in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, Arkansas, Cuba, and Central America. They have an attendance of from four hundred fifty to five hundred pupils, and this represents coming in contact with at least two thousand persons, many of whom would never hear the message were it not for some such work as this. The training-school gives a practical experience in faith, and in the development of laborers who will go out and work for souls under the most trying circumstances.

The ingenuity of those taking the responsibility of this self-supporting work is often taxed to make ends meet. The funds received from friends in the North, East, and West do not purchase the land and sustain the school, nor does the farming industry, of itself, support it.

On the Madison school farm the workers have fine blooded stock, both horses and cows, which is often sold for fancy prices. At Hillcrest they have rare poultry, the eggs of which are sold in different places, some having been sent even to Washington, D. C. Where these schools are near cities, choice flowers are cultivated, and the bulbs are sold.

None can see the school farm at Madison, and note the improvements made upon it, without recognizing the fact that the Lord has blessed the work in a special manner. The time has now come when the facilities of this school will have to be enlarged. It is fully prepared to train missionary farmers, medical missionaries, and teachers, but it is now planned to give a course of practical field work in canvassing, city missionary work, etc. In view of this need, the workers are planning to do some building during' the summer, and this will make it necessary for them to have at least twenty more young men on the place. The school is also in a position to give work to about ten young women of the right stamp.

I gather from the treasurer's report that the Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute paid to the students last year the sum of $7,620 for work done in the institution. This money, of course, was used to meet the school expenses of the students.

The yearly expense for the average student in the Madison school is from $100 to $125. The expense of one young man who has been there during the past year amounted to one hundred dollars for eight months. For a young woman for the same length of time it was about sixty dollars. The teachers in the school have drawn from the school only thirteen dollars a month. Out of this they paid back to the school the regular expense for board, rent, and incidentals. I have before me some extracts of letters written by teachers in different parts of the South. One working in Chestnut Hill writes: "The children who attend our school are very anxious for an education. The carpenter class is so interested that the boys work before school, at recess, and at the noon hour. They hardly wait to eat their dinners. The class at present is making bookcases, sewing-baskets, paper-racks, tables, and other useful articles for their own homes. They have cut and split considerable wood, and the boys helped build our hotbed and cold-frame. The girls are doing excellent work in the sewing class. They are making quilts and rugs, and are learning to make clothes for themselves. "

Those from the North and East and West who have helped these schools will have a rich treasure laid up for them in heaven. No other enterprise among us has turned out so many self-supporting missionaries as this school. We have visited several of these schools, and what we have written has been gathered from statistics and facts that were given us, and which we have seen demonstrated. When we consider that it is only six years since the enterprise started, we can speak on its behalf. It certainly has verified the testimony of the Spirit of God in this self-supporting work. It has demonstrated that God has raised up men and women to contribute to, and help forward the work of, these schools.

It is hoped that there may be at least twenty young men and ten young women who will answer the present call from Madison; also that there will be men and women who will sustain the Hillcrest school, which is doing excellent work in training colored workers to establish self-supporting schools among those people.

Elder W. R. Burrow, president of the conference in which the Madison school is located, makes the following statement: "In reply to questions regarding the Madison school and the branch schools conducted by Brethren Alden and Mulford, I can say that I have visited these schools, and have watched with interest the work they are doing. The Madison church and the two churches at Goodlettsville and Fountain Head, Tenn., have been built up by them without the cost of a dollar to our conference. ' We received from them, this last conference year, nearly five hundred dollars in tithe. These churches are in the best of standing in our conferences, and I wish for more help like them."

Speaking of the children educated in these schools, he says: "It is a pleasure to see boys and girls who have had limited opportunities for an education given the chance these schools offer. They go to school, and are taught without a price. It does not seem to me that any one but those who have the last message of God would make such a sacrifice as the teachers in these schools are making. I am glad they are with us."

We trust that the Lord will continue to prosper this good work, and that many other lights will be kindled throughout the South, to gather out souls for the soon coming of our Saviour.

Reaching the community through farming

Famed Adventist author and historian Arthur Spaulding wrote about a 1912 agricultural rally held at the Fountain Head school “for the benefit of the farmers and neighbors.” Forrest West, brother-in-law of Braden Mulford, became a respected farmer in the community. One of his daughters named Lila married a John Lundquist and lived out her entire life in Fountain Head, later known as Portland. Another daughter named Myrtle married George Fuller and lived in Collegedale, Tennessee.

The founding families worked hard to be part of the community.

Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C., September 5, 1912

A Tennessee Rally

By ARTHUR W. SPAULDING.

IT is the custom of the farm mission schools in Tennessee to hold quarterly conventions in their different groups, for consultation and for the study of the questions and conditions in which they are mutually interested. The last gathering of the Sumner County group was connected with an agricultural rally for the benefit of the farmers and neighbors.

The rally was held on the grounds of the Fountain Head school, where Brethren Mulford and West have for four years been building up a work whose value to the community has been recognized by many influential citizens. In these four years not only have a church and a flourishing Sabbath-school been established and a prosperous day-school been in operation, but the material conditions of the people, physical and economic, have been fostered through the many forms of influence which the school has exercised,

The meeting was presided over by Prof. E. A. Sutherland, president of the Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute. Several teachers and students from this school were also in attendance, as well as Prof. Chas. F. Alden and wife, from the Ridgetop school, representatives from the Sumner County schools, and about one hundred of the neighbors.

The exercises were held outdoors, and were under the great oaks and chestnuts, where also a hygienic dinner was served to the company. The visitors, after an inspection of the farm and buildings and the expanding canning industry of the school, expressed much surprise and gratification at the evidences they saw of a definite work being done by this school for its community, the importance of which the government, and they as its representatives have of recent years begun to see.

The question is often asked how the expenditure of such efforts for the betterment of the people is of value in teaching them the last gospel message. The answer is that the higher the physical and material conditions of a man, the better opportunity is given him for comprehending and accepting spiritual truth. You may preach against tobacco, but so long as tobacco seems to be the only profitable money crop, he is likely to persist in raising it and in using it. Right here our schools are striking at the foundation of the habit, by establishing canneries and advocating the raising of tomatoes, beans, and other vegetables, which make a better profit with less work than tobacco, while at the same time, in their schoolrooms, they are showing the physiological and economic evils of the weed. They tell of the danger, and they provide the way of escape,

This far-sighted policy, combined with care for the sick, and other phases of the self-supporting school work, has shown fruits already in the beginning of a change in public sentiment and customs. And in view of the favorable attitude of public-spirited officials toward a few of our schools with which they have become acquainted, we see in these schools a mighty lever for the truth, not only in their immediate communities, but to an extent that can not now be accurately measured.

The agricultural rally closed in the afternoon, and was followed, that evening and the next morning, by a most inspiring council relating to the spiritual efforts and the development of the self-supporting auxiliary work.

Part of a great cause in the South

Industrial as well as agricultural

Prominent Adventist physician D.H. Kress, M.D. spoke highly of the Mulford and Alden schools in this account of a 1912 gathering of the Madison-affiliated self-supporting workers. Note how he describes the mission of the Madison lay movement.

Takoma Park Station, Washington, 0. C., September 26, 1912

Convention of Self-Supporting Workers

By D. H. KRESS, M. D.

THE Nashville Agricultural and Normal Institute of Madison, Tenn., has just closed its annual meeting in the interest of self-supporting missionary work. The entire meeting was of a practical nature. The workers met together for the purpose of counsel, and to study the best methods of tilling the soil, conducting self-supporting schools, and of bettering in general the community in which they are located.

A sweet spiritual atmosphere and a spirit of consecration and unity seldom seen in these days, existed among the workers. While obstacles have to be surmounted, and much self-sacrificing work has to be done, in starting and conducting a rural school, not a discouraging note was sounded by any one present. Unconsciously, the workers gave the impression that they had enlisted for life, and were planning to that end.

The entire meeting was an inspiration to all who were present. I was pleased to see the advance made by this organized effort to conduct self-supporting work. This movement is in harmony with the demands of the message. All can not go forth as paid employees of the conferences. Many are standing idle because no man has hired them; but if they will move out by faith on the promise, " Whatsoever is right I will give you," they will find that their needs are as well provided for as are the needs of the regular conference employees.

If one half of our Seventh-day Adventist farmers, settled in communities where we have so many Sabbath-keepers for the purpose of making money, would sell their houses and lands, and settle in some needy community for the purpose of being missionaries, great blessing would result. The land in the South is cheap, and intelligent cultivation has shown it to be very productive. Those who have already opened schools would welcome help of this kind.

Various industries have already been started by the student workers. Brethren Mulford and West, who are located about thirty miles from the school at Madison, have an excellent sawmill, and a canning industry. These furnish employment to people in the community, and also assist in supporting' the school in its work of training the children. Brother C. F. Alden's work was very highly spoken of by Senator Albright, Mrs. Pearl Williams Kelley, general secretary of the Tennessee Library Commission, and State officials who were present. Brother Alden's school is located in a district where great poverty exists, and where the land was considered almost worthless. Through intelligent cultivation he has demonstrated that this deserted land may be made to blossom as the rose. He has many visitors from various parts of the State. Brother Alden is regarded as an authority on soils, and his services are sought wherever farmers' institutes are conducted.

Plans were also laid at this meeting to open up self-supporting medical missionary work in the city of Nashville. The aim is to secure property outside of the city as a training-center for city workers. The chief burden of the workers is to be a blessing to the community in which they are located by living the Christ-life. The Madison movement was at first regarded with suspicion, but it now has the confidence of the State officials and leaders in reforms.

The words of encouragement by Mr. Taylor Stratton, Senator Albright, Miss Moore, State organizer of schools for the study of domestic science, and other influential persons, were highly appreciated.

An important part of the Southern Union

Another prominent “outsider” to note the work of Madison was the educational superintendent for the Southern Union. By 1921, the Southern Union Conference had moved its school from Graysville to Collegedale, Tennessee. The southern states at that time still had mostly a token Adventist presence, so the brethren in the union office appreciated the self-sacrificing self-supporting workers willing to move into areas with no Adventists all on their own.

Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., May S, 1921

THE RURAL SCHOOLS OF THE SOUTHERN UNION

By JOHN C. THOMPSON,

Ed. Sec. So. Union Conf.

At the present time there are ten rural schools in the Southern Union Conference. Seven of these, besides Madison, are in the Tennessee River Conference. It is unnecessary for me to say much concerning Madison, for the work carried on at this center is well known. It is recognized as a training school for workers preparing to enter the rural school work. We have learned from experience that newcomers usually succeed better if they have had a brief course of training at Madison, where they learn the best methods of coping with the situations and difficulties they will encounter when they get out into work for themselves. The faculty at Madison numbers thirty eight in all. Their course of study includes the theoretical, or textbook, work, as well as the practical, or shop and farm work, so that the students are given a well-rounded course of instruction. This school enjoys a good reputation among the higher schools of learning of Tennessee, such as Vanderbilt University, George Peabody College for Teachers, and the University of Tennessee. Dr. P. P. Claxton, United States Commissioner of Education, has visited the school many times, and has spoken very appreciatively of the work that is being done there and of its adaptation to the needs of the mountaineer and other isolated folk. In fact, he has cited the institution to educators of other denominations as one to be patterned after by them. Dr. B. A. Sutherland is the head of the school and the sanitarium.

Near Fountain Head there are two schools, one conducted by Brother Mulford and his associates, and the other by Brother and Sister Ard and Sister Walen. The latter school is not in operation this year because of a shortage of help; but it is planned to reopen the school later, when other workers shall have joined them. Brother Mulford's school is one of our largest as well as one of our oldest. Their equipment at present consists of a good farm which has been worked up to quite a high state of cultivation; a successful sanitarium, which enjoys a rather exclusive clientele; and a school family consisting not only of children from the general community,— but also a number of Seventh-day Adventist children who have been sent there.

A school which is notable for its example of self-sacrificing Christian effort is at Ashland City. There are two families of Adventists living at this center at present, in addition to the teacher, Miss Bertha Laughlin. This teacher has held steadily to her work for six years,' although she is a capable teacher and has had several attractive offers from elsewhere. No compensation whatsoever has been received by Miss Laughlin, and she has been dependent upon a small sum left by her deceased father to buy the few articles which it was necessary to purchase from time to time. Much of her own clothing, as well as that of the children of the neighborhood, has been secured from barrels of apparel sent in from friends. It has been a custom with Miss Laughlin to cultivate several acres of land in the summertime, to supply her needs during the summer and as far as possible during the winter.

Near Bon Aqua, Tenu, are the schools, located several miles apart, of Elder C. N. Martin and Brother Frank Artress. Both these centers have been established for a number of years, and quite a large number of persons have been brought into the truth as a result of their efforts. Near Brother Artress' place is a new church and school building, which is well adapted to its uses, and is a real credit to the cause which it represents. The conference holds a deed to this property. Many have been the efforts and much the resulting good from the community and school work which has been done by Elder and Mrs. Martin. In fact, these workers have stayed by their post of duty so long and worked so steadily that they now feel it may be necessary for them to go elsewhere to regain health which has been lost in service to neglected people.

One of our newer schools is situated eight miles from Franklin, Tenn., and is under the direction of Brother and Sister E. B. Alien and other workers. A nice church and school building has been erected by Brother Alien, and some twelve or fifteen, if my memory serves me correctly, have come into the truth as the result of an effort held there. Time is proving these people to be thoroughly in earnest in accepting their new-found religion.

One of our oldest established centers is at Lawrenceburg, Tenn. Brother Graves and his family, who are now there, were the first to come, and during their connection with the work at this place they have had different families helping them for varying lengths of time. At the present time their work is of larger proportions than ever before, and these workers are enthusiastic in what they are now doing in anticipation of the future. They have had for some time a nice building which is used for the holding of school and church services. Near by this building is another one which is used for shop work. Thus the boys and girls get a first-hand knowledge of the principles of woodwork, blacksmithing, broom-making, cooking, and sewing. About a year ago, a small but attractive sanitarium building was erected, consisting of two rooms and bath. This sanitarium, along with community medical work, has made an excellent reputation for these workers for miles around. The sanitarium, which is patronized by patients desiring a restful place in which to recuperate, is a means of support to the school, as well as an institution of worth.

The work at Long Island on Sand Mountain, Ala., is under the fostering care of Brother and Sister Scott and Sister Fuller, who have labored for a good many years in this place. School work and some community work are carried on in a section which is reputed to be one of the roughest in the State. The school at MeKinley, Ala., is worthy of special notice, it being the only colored rural school which we have. It is manned by Brother and Sister Cantrell. It was my privilege to visit this school quite recently, and to see the work they are doing, and the standing of the school in the neighborhood. As public opinion in sections of the South is against the education of Negroes, I was much pleased to find that the work in this school has the support and good will of both the white and the colored people of the neighborhood. The school building is poor and the equipment is very meager, but the union conference has been giving some definite study to the enlargement of the work at this place. There is a need for such enlargement, for the school has something like seventy-five boys and girls attending, and the schoolhouse should be made suitable for the holding of religious services.

These ten schools are at present managed by seventy-nine teachers, including all those workers who are actually contributing in any capacity to the work of the schools. According to the latest reports, there are about 350 students enjoying the benefits of these schools. Most of these students are from near-by homes, and the majority receive free schooling. Some pay what they are able, in money or produce. The Southern Union has received $7,070 through the rural school offerings taken during the past five years. Of this money, all but about $200, which is now on hand, has been disbursed to various schools, to place their work on a more secure and efficient basis. The schools have greatly appreciated the receipt of this money, but we wish it had been twice or three times as large. However, I would not place undue emphasis upon our need for money, for this is second to our need for workers. Some of these schools are anxiously looking for additional help; and as we cast our eyes over the map, we can find many, many places where similar centers should be established, to shed forth the light of salvation to an isolated and superstition-bound people. In fact, I am firmly of the belief that we are dependent upon these school and community centers to finish the work in a large portion of the Southern field.

We who are connected with and interested in the rural school work are of one accord, and are looking to the future with hope that this work may be increased and that many souls may be won to OUR Saviour as the result.

Standing the test of time

Several of these academies mentioned in this 1924 Review article later became conference academies and part of the student base of Southern Adventist University.

The “Chestnut Ridge” school was actually Chestnut Hill about seven miles from Fountain Head. It started the year after Fountain Head began and operated for many years but never joined the conference system. Chestnut Hill stopped functioning after the founding families died.

Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., June 12, 1924

AMONG OUR RURAL SCHOOLS

By C. A. RUSSELL

By rural schools we refer to the work being carried on by self-supporting workers in the hill country of the South.

For years, appeal after appeal came to us through the spirit of prophecy in behalf of these large, neglected areas in the great Southland. Work for both the white and the colored race was urged. The following Quotations from the "Testimonies" are typical:

"Let Sabbath-keeping families move to the South, and live out the truth before those who know it not. These families can be a help to one another, but let them be careful to do nothing that will hedge up their way. Let them do Christian help work, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. This will have a stronger influence for good than the preaching of sermons. Deeds,, as well as words of sympathy are needed. Christ prefaced the giving of His message by deeds of love and benevolence. Let these workers go from house to house, helping where help is needed, and, as opportunity offers, telling the story of the cross. Christ is to be their text. They need not dwell upon doctrinal subjects: let them speak of the work and sacrifice of Christ. Let them hold up His righteousness, in their lives revealing His purity."— Vol. VII, pp. 2,?7. 228.

"We must provide greater facilities for the education and training of the youth, both white and colored, in the South. Schools are to be established away from the cities, where the youth can learn to cultivate the soil, and thus help to make themselves and the school self-supporting. In connection with these schools all the different lines of work, whether agricultural or mechanical, that the situation of the place will warrant, are to be developed. Let means be gathered for the establishment o£ such schools. In them students may gain an education that, with God's blessing, will prepare them to win' souls to Christ: If they unite with the Saviour, they will grow in spirituality, and will become valuable workers in His vineyard."— Id., pp. 231, 232. In a recent visit among our schools in the Southern and Southeastern Union Conferences, it was my privilege to visit eight o£ these centers. I found the workers of good courage, and doing real, community uplift work. At nearly every center a Seventh-day Adventist church had been raised up. Many more such churches might have been established had more workers heeded the earnest appeals which came from time to time, and gone into these needy sections of the South, and there lived out the truth before their neighbors.

Pisgah Institute

The first of these schools to be visited was the Pisgah Institute, which is located on a 165-acre farm nine miles from the beautiful and picturesque city of Asheville, N. C. When Brethren Waller, Steinman, and others opened up work at this place ten years ago, it was indeed a pioneer undertaking. Not all is changed. A State highway runs within two miles of the school; much of the land has been cleared and placed under cultivation; suitable buildings have been constructed, largely by student labor; a large amount of fruit has been put out; an attractive little rural sanitarium has been erected and equipped; a fine Jersey dairy herd has been developed: and altogether a splendid school center has been established.

There have been forty baptisms at the school during the time it has been in operation. I found a splendid class of young people and children in attendance — ninety of them. The church is an active one, taking part enthusiastically in denominational activities, including.Harvest Ingathering, Big Week, and regular offerings to missions. Their average, last year, on the Sixty-cent-a-week Fund, was 68 cents.

Baker Mountain School

Through the courtesy of workers at.the Pisgah school, I was enabled to visit several other centers in western North Carolina. The farthest of these from Pisgah was the Baker Mountain School and orphanage, which has been in operation for twenty years under the direction of Brother and Sister W. H. Johnson. The trip to this school was one of the most delightful I have ever taken. The distance was 105 miles, directly across the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. The weather was perfect, and the roads excellent. Our course took us within sight of Mt. Mitchell, the highest point of land east of the Rockies. Covered with verdure to the very summit, these mountains in the early springtime presented a kaleidoscope of coloring not soon to be forgotten. The dark myrtle green of the pines stood out in sharp contrast to the bright living green of the new foliage, while the pure white of the dogwood and the brilliant pink of the red buds added to the attractiveness of the color scheme.

We found the school temporarily housed in the large, barrack-like building which has been occupied by the family since the burning of the home several years ago. A fire which totally destroyed the building occupied by church and school a few months ago, made this last move necessary. The school farm consists of 375 acres. There are 3,000 fruit trees of various kinds, besides small fruit.

The school work is under the direction of Brother and Sister Conger. There were thirty-two in the family at the time of my visit, and nineteen in school. Three hundred children have been sheltered and cared for during the time this work has been going forward.

The Kiwanis Club, of Hickory, N. C. (the nearest city, nine miles distant), hearing of the work which is being done for homeless and neglected children, have interested themselves in this time of the school's great need, and it is expected will aid materially in the erection of buildings to replace those destroyed by fire. The slogan of their club is, " The Neglected Child," and surely they could find no better opening to help in such a noble endeavor than by co-operating with Brother and Sister Johnson in this beautiful wo"rk.

Glen Alpine Rural School

At Glen Alpine Rural School I was delighted to meet friends from Wisconsin,— Brother and Sister F. C. Ports, Miss Gertrude Holmes, and Miss Hamer, all of whom had been connected with Walderly Academy. It was at this place where the last labors of Elder D. T. Shireman were performed, and where he lies sleeping, awaiting the call of the Life-giver. It was four years ago that the work was resumed at this center by the present corps. Their needs are many, especially along the line of buildings; a dining-room for the family of twenty one being not the least.

Mountain Sanitarium and Rural School

One of our older centers in this section of the State is known as the Mountain Sanitarium and Rural School, near Fletcher. It was here that Prof. A. W. Spalding put in several years of hard work, and where he got his inspiration for "Hills o' Ca'liny." Arthur Jasperson and his fellow workers are holding up the banner of truth in this old center. They are also conducting a cafeteria and treatment-rooms in the city of Asheville.

On Sand Mountain

Sand Mountain is an eminence extending from a few miles southwest of Chattanooga nearly to Birmingham, Ala. It is notorious throughout the country as a " moonshine " district. In this forbidding territory are two of our rural school centers. On account of the almost impassable condition of the roads following severe storms, I was able to reach but one of these centers. By walking a distance of four miles, one of which followed an almost invisible trail up the mountainside, I came to the hospitable home of Brother and Sister L. C. Scott. They settled on Sand Mountain fifteen years ago, and for fourteen years school work has been maintained. A comfortable school building has been erected, which is well equipped for school purposes. The attendance at this school has ranged from eighteen to thirty-five. Sabbath services are held in the same building. On reaching the first habitation at the top of the trail, I inquired my way. A young man, perhaps twenty-five years of age, responded, and in a very intelligent way directed me. Then he said, " I tell you those folks have done a lot of good up there on the mountain. All the schooling I ever got came from their little school." Mrs. Scott's mother, Sister Fuller, has assisted in this work from its beginning.

Fountain Head Industrial School

After spending a part of two days at the Madison school, which might well be called the parent institution, I visited Fountain Head Industrial School, about thirty miles north of Nashville. This work has been established for seventeen years. Brethren B. N. Mulford and F. F. West, who started the work, are still carrying it forward.

I found a fine farm of 127 acres, much of which is under a good state of cultivation. The farming and fruit raising on this old, worn-out plantation have been an object lesson to the community. This year it produced three hundred bushels of Irish potatoes and an equal number of sweet potatoes. Twenty-five tons of hay were sold. There were thirty students in the school, and a church membership of thirty-five. A small sanitarium is operated at this center.

Chestnut Ridge [Hill]School

The last school visited. Chestnut Ridge, [Hill] is about twelve miles from the Fountain Head School. This work was started fifteen years ago by Brother and Sister H. M. Walen. Their daughter, Susan, and her husband, H. H. Ard, are associated in the work. There were twenty-three enrolled in the school, all but one being from the community. The farm and fruit are well cared for. Sanitarium work on a small scale is being carried on at this center also. This rural school work is missionary work of the highest order. It requires tact, patience, self-sacrifice; but the reward is great: neglected children trained, the sick cared for, whole communities uplifted, the principles of the message instilled into hearts by precept and example,— who can conceive of a higher, nobler work? Where are other families who will follow the example of these pioneer workers? Who will say, "Here am I; send me"?

How to get out of the cities

The General Conference leadership always did encourage church members to leave the cities and move to rural areas. This report in a 1926 Review highlighted the work of these Madison extension schools in the South, one of which was the unit at Fountain Head.

Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., April I, 1926

Rural Mission Schools

By C.A. RUSSELL, Assistant Educational Sec.

AMONG the first of the rural mission schools to be started was the one at Hildebran, N. C., where Elder D. T. Shireman put in so many years of faithful toil and willing sacrifice. He rests from his labors, but his works do follow him. Prof. F. C. Part, and his family came with others from Wisconsin, and started mission school work in the vicinity. This is now known as Glen Alpine School.

In the "Testimonies," is found an encouraging word concerning this work:

" From the light given me, I know that the work at Hildebran, if properly managed, will be a great blessing to the surrounding country. I have been instructed that we must establish schools in just such districts, away from the cities and their temptations. . . .

"We must provide greater facilities for the education and training of the youth, both white and colored, in the South. Schools are to be established away from the cities, where the youth can learn to cultivate the soil, and thus help to make themselves and the school self-supporting. In connection with these schools all the different lines of work, whether agricultural or mechanical, that the situation of the place will warrant, are to be developed. Let means be gathered for the establishment of such schools. In them students may gain an education that, With God's blessing, will prepare them to win souls to Christ. If they unite with the Saviour, they will grow in spirituality, and will become valuable workers in His vineyard." — Vol. VII, pp. m, 232. Let means be gathered for the support of such schools. In the carrying out of this instruction, an offering for this work is received one Sabbath in the year. April 10 is the time when this offering will be taken up. May a spirit of liberal giving to this near-by mission field roll up a grand total, which will mean not only a great encouragement to the laborers now engaged in this work, but the opening up of new centers in many unentered communities.

THE RURAL SCHOOL WORK IN THE SOUTHERN UNION

By W. P. BRADLEY,

Ed. Sec. Southern Union.

THE Southern Union Conference has been the scene of many heroic struggles in rural school work. This work is not carried on without great difficulties, the workers having to meet with prejudice, ignorance, and even superstition; and to engage in the work nearly always means to part with most of the pleasant conveniences found in the average modern home.

In some localities the efforts expended seem to have been without apparent results, but in others the pioneers are rejoicing in the evidence that their toil has not been in vain, and that the seed which was so anxiously sown is now springing up and bearing fruit. A glance around at some of these rural outposts will be both interesting and inspiring.

In the northeast corner of Alabama, up on Sand Mountain, three families have joined their efforts in spreading light through the community, by educational, missionary, and health work. These are Brother and Sister A. B. Johnson, Brother and Sister Noble, and Brother and Sister Peterson. For several years our people have endeavored to arouse in the community an interest in better ways of living and in the importance of giving one's life to the Master; but thus far, very little concrete results are seen. At the present time, however, the outlook is the most hopeful that it has ever been. It is planned to establish a small sanitarium, and to induce one of our doctors to locate there, so that through the medium of the health work the confidence of the mountain people may be gained and their attention drawn to our message. At Lawrenceburg, in western Tennessee, rural work has been conducted for some time. One family is rejoicing in the truth. The school has been moved to a new and better site, where conditions will be more favorable for carrying on the work and for attracting the attention of the people in the community. The school is conducted by a competent teacher, and a small sanitarium provides a rest home for those who are not in need of direct medical attention, but require a quiet place to recuperate.

One of the newest of the rural enterprises is being conducted from a base near Louisville, Ky. For several years a vegetarian cafeteria has been operated in Louisville from a country location, but some time ago it was decided to locate at Pewee Valley. In the center of the property secured was a beautiful old Southern mansion, which has been converted into a sanitarium with treatment-rooms. The barn has been remodeled to make a very attractive and suitable dwelling-place for the workers. In this building a cafeteria for the workers and a school are conducted. Dr. and Mrs. Moon have connected with the institution recently, and at present the outlook is very bright.

The Fountain Head School and Health Retreat is a well-known institution in the South. The following word from Brother B. N. Mulford will give an idea of the operations being carried on there:

" Our work at Fountain Head is moving along well.- We have every reason to be thankful for all that the Lord has done for us. Seventy-five have been enrolled in our school this year, with an average attendance of fifty. Half of these children come from the homes of our neighbors who are glad to have their children in our school. In our school home we have a family of thirty. Each student in the home is earning his way by his own work, with the .exception of three little fellows. It is possible for ,a good, energetic student— boy or girl — of sixteen to eighteen years of age, to make expenses in this way.

"We have seven in the sanitarium at present. Through this part of the work we are able to help a good many who are suffering. It is also a means of financial help to the place. In fact, it would hardly be possible for the school to continue if we did not have the sanitarium. But there is even a greater blessing that comes from having the school and this work combined, — the contact of student with patient and of patient with student. This means much to those who are seeking health, and it also means much to the young people to have 'to' do with those who need tender care.

"The farm had some reverses last year, due to the extreme continued dry weather. However, enough grain and feed were raised to carry our stock through the year. We also had about 200 bushels of wheat. Our little church has a membership of thirty-five."

One of the most interesting and remarkable rural schools is at Chestnut Hill in north central Tennessee. For a number of years, Brother and Sister Walen and Brother and Sister H. H. Ard have labored to gain a foothold in the rural community, and only recently have they begun to see., any results from their work. From time to time, as they came in contact with the people, they read to them from the Bible, giving them literature to read for themselves, and treating them in sickness, until the time came when a number were ready to take their stand. Brother Ard spends Sundays going from house to house, giving, lending, and selling books and papers, and in many instances the people have made great sacrifices to accept the teachings of the Bible and our message in the face of very strong prejudice.

Last summer H. K. Halladay, home missionary secretary of the Tennessee River Conference, conducted an effort in this locality, and a good church is now organized there. The agents chiefly instrumental in producing this result were the medical missionary work, the literature work, and the school work. Several of the children who attended the school regularly have since become church members. Mrs. Ard has gathered in the girls of the neighborhood, and has taught them healthful cooking and the principles of sewing, so that they can know better how to become useful citizens and good Christians in their community.

Our people who are engaging in these rural enterprises are very thankful for the offerings which have been supplied in the past for buying school and sanitarium equipment, and in some cases in making necessary improvements on the school farms and buildings. There is abundant opportunity and great need for many more who are well-qualified and suitably situated to move into a rural locality, and carry the light of the gospel to those who are honest in heart and hungering and thirsting for spiritual help.

The percent of illiteracy in many of the Southern States is very high, due to the lack of adequate educational facilities in the country and on the mountains; and it is altogether appropriate that our people should assist the workers who make great sacrifices, by giving of their means, thus equalizing the burden all around. Let us all remember these faithful workers in our prayers, and give a liberal offering to meet the increasing demands from every part of the field.

Part of the conference as well as the community

A 1928 report showed the Madison and Fountain Head institutions to be an important part of the Tennessee River Conference.

Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., July 19, 1928

Fountain Head: April 19; Attendance, 65

Forty miles out from the city of Nashville, beautifully situated among the hills, at an elevation of one thousand feet, is the Fountain Head School and Sanitarium. Here I found a self-sacrificing lot of people and a fine group of young folk. The old sanitarium building recently burned, but the brethren are rebuilding. The business men from the near-by cities of Portland and Gallatin are assisting. It is the only hospital within a number of counties, and the Lord has given this work great favor with those who are not of this faith. Brother and Sister Mulford are in charge of the work here. This is a real mountain school of the South.

I spoke in the evening, and also the next morning at eight-thirty, to brethren and sisters and young folk. At the close of the morning service we had a real testimony meeting. One young woman arose and said, "Oftentimes in working around, I have picked up the REVIEW and read an article or two. I never thought that a copy would be placed in my room each week, and I am so glad that this is to be done." A young man arose and said, " I have always thought that the REVIEW was a paper for the older folk to read, but I have changed my mind, and I shall now become a reader of the REVIEW." A young woman from New Mexico said, " Oftentimes at home, while I washed dishes, father would sit and read the REVIEW to me" One mother arose and testified, "When my son graduated from school I made him a graduation of a year's subscription to the REVIEW, Since that time he has subscribed for it himself, and the reading of it has been great help and blessing to him." A brother stood up and spoke as follows: "I have found that the reading of the REVIEW is a great cure for the evil of criticism. The more one reads the REVIEW the less he feels like finding fault. Sister Mulford said, "Never before have I realized so much the responsibility of encouraging young people to read the REVIEW." Brother Mulford assured me that the school would provide the rooms of the young people with weekly copies of the Review and Herald.

The experiment in retrospect

Origins of the Highland Adventist community

In 1933, Braden Mulford looked back on the 26 years he had spent in rural school work.

Takoma Park, Washington, D. C, April 6, 1933

Twenty-six Yeats Development of Rural School Work

By B. N. MULFORD

IT was just twenty-six years ago this February that a group of young men borrowed a mule team and wagon from a certain school with Which to carry their entire belongings to a spot up in the mountains where they planned to open a school. These belongings consisted of a few well-worn clothes some school books, two bookcases that had been made out of some old lumber found on the school farm, two straight, cane-bottom chairs, one rocking-chair, one bedstead, a crosscut saw, some axes and wedges. As a foundation for their food supply, they had a twenty five-pound bag of flour, a bag of cornmeal, fifty pounds of dried prunes, and six jars of apple butter. The cash of the group amounted to less than $50.

These young men wound their way up to the highest point of the highlands in that district, and stopped by "the side of an old log cabin about 12 x 14 feet in size, with a lean-to on the south side. There was a four-foot attic reached by means of a ladder. The size of the building did not concern these young men, but the condition of it did. It had been used for chickens, goats, calves, and pigs, and these creatures had not gone to very much trouble in fitting up the place to receive the new guests. The chinking between the logs was mostly gone. The cobblestone fireplace at the west end of the room was broken down; it smoked nearly as much on the inside as it did on the outside.

With energy and thrift these young men soon had the log cabin in livable condition. One of them scrubbed and cooked, while the others cleared land and brought up wood and water. The passers-by made many encouraging remarks as to the change that had taken place in and about the cabin. They were especially complimentary about the large pile of split wood that had grown up in the yard in easy access from the cabin door. They asked why cut so much wood ahead when the timber was so close, and all one had to do was to slip out into the woods and drag a pole to the chopping block and cut up enough to get a meal. It might be interesting to know that this is the habit of the mountain people. Though they live right in the woods, they seldom have enough wood cut ahead to last a day. When one pole is used up, they will go to the woods for another, dragging it out with their hands.

The Company Grows

It was only for a short time that these young men had to live alone in this way, for soon there came to the place those who had made possible the purchase of the 200 acres of mountain land and the log cabin. These men and women added real leadership and strength to the company. But more than this, they brought furniture and other needed equipment. They also had money from some source, so that there was milk to drink, and in fact the whole matter of diet took on an. immediate change, for the better upon the arrival of the women. It was only a short time before the family had access to two rooms at the front of the log cabin. These were needed, with the growth of the family, and it seemed like a real palace to those who had been there from the beginning. That group of men and women worked hard through that summer, clearing the land and planting and growing the crops. Acres of woodland were turned into fields. The logs from this land were hauled to a mill on the place, where they were cut into lumber. The best of it was sold to obtain needed cash. The rest was hauled to the site that had been chosen for the first new building.

But before money could be had for the necessary cash purchases for this building, it was time to open school in the fall. To solve this problem, the furniture was moved out of one of the living rooms each morning, and seats made of blocks of wood with rough .boards nailed across, were carried inr Here in this room, equipped in this way, were gathered twenty-two mountain children, the first of what later have been termed "the rural schools." Before these children stood a God-fearing teacher, whose salary was her board and a pallet made of poles and trunk ropes. By another year a small building was erected, and the number of pupils increased to thirty. The next year the number grew to forty. Within a short time it was necessary to have another building. This was made possible by the gifts of friends. By the time it was ready to be occupied, the number of children had increased to seventy-five. This growth continued in this first mountain school until there were 100 children coming to sit at the feet of those instructors.

During this same time more land had been cleared and more workers had come to the place. Nurses were going out into the community, taking care of the sick. Funerals were being conducted by members of the group Bible studies in the homes aroused an interest that demanded attention, and a minister came to the Rim and held meetings, raising up a nice church. This is the story of that first mountain school. We could duplicate it many times, for there were others who followed in the path of that first group of teachers, establishing themselves in similar ways and under similar conditions, here and there in the mountains, to such an extent that at one time there were more than 1,500 children attending the schools. The molding influence of these centers was felt for miles around. The Bible became the study book of both the school and the home. Hearts turned to the Lord. Hundreds were added to the church, and many thousands of dollars in tithes and mission offerings flowed into the regular treasury.

Medical Needs

In all these places there was found a dire need for the nurse and the doctor. In many cases it was necessary for those who had but a limited experience to go into the homes of the sick, and administer treatments and advise the family along hygienic lines. This medical work grew in proportion to the ability of each group to fit into the needs. Some were better fitted than others for this phase of the work. These naturally brought the medical work into greater prominence. At this writing there are six or seven places where there are neat, attractive buildings, having a capacity of from twelve to thirty-five beds each. And there are other smaller places. These rural sanitariums and hospitals are doing a marvelous work. They are relieving the sick and suffering, and saving lives. Many who come to these places for surgical or other care and treatment, are entirely without funds. The charity list runs high. However, others come who can pay for their care, and this not only enables the management to keep open these havens for the suffering, but it also gives real cash in sufficient amounts to be a great help in the financial affairs of the school. Many students who are accepted in these mountain boarding schools would not be there were it not for the fact that the little sanitarium on the place helps in the oiling of the financial cart. There must be some cash even away up in the mountains. This cash is largely supplied in many places by the sanitarium in connection with them.

We must not, however, overlook the splendid help that has come in from year to year as the result of the Rural School Day Offering. This has been a great blessing. It has set the work forward in many places. It is hoped that this collection will be increased from year to year. For only a small part of what must be done has been touched. Many of us remember the statement of the Spirit of prophecy regarding this field, "Where there is one school there ought to be one hundred." There are many places where groups of teachers, nurses, farmers, and mechanics might establish themselves upon the soil, and become real leaders to a large community of promising people.

The next generation

Miss Eileen Mulford, the young lady mentioned under “Missionary Sailings” in this 1937 Review, was the daughter of Braden and Pearl Mulford. She lived and worked in France until World War II broke out and later served as a missionary to Madagascar for several years.

Vol. 114, No. 37

Takoma Park, Washington, D.C., U.S.A., September 16, 1937

Missionary Sailings

Miss Eileen Mulford, of Tennessee, responding to a call

from the Southern European Division to connect with the

Collonges school, in France, sailed from New York, Sep-

tember 1, on the S.S. "Normandie."

(This same issue announced the death of Elder W.C. White, who had once carried on an extensive correspondence with the Madison founders and visited Fountain Head.)

Post Fountain Head years of the founders

In this 1939 Review article entitled ”In the Land of My Adoption,” Braden Mulford told the story of his founding of Seventh-day Adventist work at Fountain Head and why he and his family left after 30 years of service. They moved to Grundy County, Tennessee, in 1937 and spent the rest of their lives there.

VOL. 116, NO. 22

TAKOMA PARK, WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A.

JUNE 1, 1939

In the Land of My Adoption

By BRADEN N. MULFORD.

I THINK that all will agree that thirty-four years is sufficient time to give one an opportunity to become acquainted with peoples and conditions. In the language of the returned ten spies, I am free to say, of the Southland, "It floweth with milk and honey." Num. 13:27. Indeed it has been to us a land filled with good things.

Here we find worthwhile people, the descendants of some of the very earliest pioneers of our country.

We felt that we wanted to have some capacity in the work in this field. A location was found about forty miles north of Nashville, Tennessee, and about two miles out from the village of Fountain Head. Here our group, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. F. F. West, Mr. and Mrs. R. W. Edmister, Mrs. Mulford's mother and her two sisters, Mabel and Bessie, gathered with us to begin what was later known as the Fountain Head Rural School and Sanitarium.

We remained here thirty years, lacking six weeks, and, by the blessing of the Lord, saw the place grow from this small beginning to a plant that is valued at more than one hundred thousand dollars. Many of the young men and young women who have entered our doors came without a dollar. These were able to support themselves and establish a strong educational foundation for their lifework. Before we left we had begun to teach the second generation from the community. By permission, we conducted class work to eleven and one half grades.

Our board and our conference asked that we prepare for a full high-school work plant that is valued at more than one hundred thousand dollars. To meet the growing needs of the place and the community, a thirty-bed sanitarium and hospital was built, with three cottages for workers. Here many lives were saved. Families were caused to rejoice when a sick parent or child was nursed back to health. Numbers of definite healings, as the result of prayer, added no small encouragement to those in charge of the work. If we were to care for additional students, who would come to us if we conducted a full high school, we would have to have more land.

A good brother purchased for us about eleven thousand dollars' worth of land. This added sufficient acreage for our further development in agriculture. We constructed a forty-foot addition to our barn, making it 100 feet over all, with a full-size basement. A two-story 32 x 70 foot shop added real earning power for the boys. Here we not only did the repairing and made up finished materials for our buildings, but also did considerable commercial work. Seven thousand chairs were sold from our shop, and a good deal of community auto work was done. We had a church of seventy-five and a Sabbath school of one hundred fifteen. It seemed that in spite of the depression, the Lord, in a marked manner, added strength to the place. All that we lacked, in order to go ahead with our high school plans, was a small building and some equipment. This, we believed, would be supplied through the efforts of friends, as many needs of the place in the past had been supplied in this way.

Though these wonderful additions were made, they did not add any real cash to our box. Because of the depression, we had little cash income at the sanitarium. Charity patients kept rapping at our door, but most others remained at home. We had less income from our large, new sanitarium for four years than we had had in our much smaller quarters. It seemed impossible to get enough cash to meet the daily needs. For a time it was a big question whether we could keep our place open. Five hundred hospitals in the country did close during those awful days. Some of these were institutions with substantial financial backing. We were forced to cut our expenses at every point possible.

Under these conditions we found it necessary to let our insurance lapse for a time. Our sanitarium was practically fireproof on the outside, and we were on duty night and day on the inside. We knew there was some risk, but could find no way to correct the situation. We kept our doors open to the sick, not turning one away, but we could not meet our insurance premiums. Under these conditions, fire took our building and equipment on the night of February 9, four years ago.

From the depths of our soul we could say with Job, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." Job 1:21. With this awful loss, we felt that some younger folks should take hold of the work, but our board urged us to remain. This we did for three years after the fire. From our earnings we paid off three thousand dollars of institutional debt during this time. The last year we were there was the best year in the history of the place from the standpoint of medical earnings. During this same three-year period, the first new brick-veneer medical unit was completed a year before we left. From outside organizations, in response to letters written, more than ten thousand dollars' worth of materials and equipment was donated. This consisted of such practical items as three carloads of tile, two carloads of brick, two carloads of cement, and one carload of plaster. Our conference helped us in cash to the amount of two thousand dollars. A sister gave a cottage to be sold and the amount from the sale used toward the second medical unit. Numbers of smaller gifts came from other sources. All of this was a great encouragement to us, but we felt that because of certain existing conditions it would be better to have a group of younger men and women for the place. So we placed our formal resignation in the hands of our board, and after a number of sittings it was accepted. In September, a year ago, we left Fountain Head to the newly appointed leaders.

A Call to the Cumberlands

It did seem strange to leave in other hands, a work in which we had been engaged for thirty years. We hardly knew what to do. Numbers of positions were open to us, but it seemed that we ought not to accept them. Some years before, we had united with Mr. and Mrs. Edmister and their three sons in getting a tract of mountain land

in the very top of the Cumberlands. During this time these folk' had been on this place doing what they could in the way of self-supporting community work. They felt the need of help and urged that we unite with them in their effort to make of this mountain farm a real demonstration station, and to build a place for the sick as funds and materials might be available. We accepted their invitation and came directly from Fountain Head to this mountain.

So here we are, after thirty-four years, pioneering in an almost virgin field. During eleven and one-half years of this time, a tent has been our home. Ten years of this was at Fountain Head and one and one half years in our new place, within the cloth walls of which I am writing these lines. We have found a mountain brimful of opportunity. Agriculturally speaking, the nearly level, fine tableland gives wonderful advantages in the tilling of the soil, from which will grow practically everything that is grown in the rich valley soils. Our elevation of two thousand feet is, from a health point of view, a real boon. The abundance of sparkling springs and dashing mountain streams adds a freshness to our surroundings. The towering pine forests, interspersed with the oak, poplar, and dogwood, have their part in making the Cumberlands "The Alps of America'' for the sick.

State highway No. 56 passes through our place, and two buses each way pass our door daily. We are only two and one-half miles from Altamont, our county seat. We are 100 miles southeast of Nashville and fifty miles northwest of Chattanooga. We have had as many as five patients at one time tucked away in our crude tent and chicken-house quarters; but our mill can be heard humming down on the hillside, and the piles of lumber are getting higher and higher. Some manufacturers have already given shingles and composition siding.

We hope to see this lumber shaped up into a small medical unit this summer. We have before us a real opportunity to meet the medical needs of a large mountain community. A church of fifteen members has been organized, with C.P. Lillie, a returned missionary from China, as our pastor. Others of our people have moved into near-by communities. This adds definite strength to our work. We are all of good courage and believe that the Lord will use us to do a work in this mountain that is in keeping with the closing efforts of the gospel in other portions of the earth.

Obituaries

This 1943 obituary is of Lula Meta West, sister of Braden Mulford and wife of Forrest West, brother of Pearl West Mulford. One of her daughters, Lila West Lundquist, lived in the Portland area all of her life. Another daughter, Myrtle West Fuller, made her home in Collegedale, Tennessee as did her youngest son, Donald West. Her other son, Leonard West, moved to New York.

VOL. 120, NO. 43

TAKOMA PARK, WASHINGTON, D. C, U. S. A.

OCTOBER 28, 1943

WEST.—Lulu Meta West, nee Mulford, was born at Franklin Grove, Iowa, Jan. 17, 1877 ; and died at her home at Fountain Head, Tenn., Aug. 24, 1943. She completed her education, and then was granted certificates for teaching. In 1898 she was united in marriage with Forrest Freeman West, and not long afterward they were baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist faith. In 1907 Brother and Sister West felt the call of the Southern field, and came to Fountain Head, Tenn., where, in cooperation with others, they helped to establish a school and sanitarium, fostered by Madison College. For thirty years, with the exception of three years spent in Florida for health reasons, Mrs. West was an active figure in the development and maintaining of this institution. Brother and Sister West and B. N. Mulford, Mrs. West's brother, with his wife, remained as managers until six years ago, when they felt it best to place the responsibilities on younger shoulders. During recent years Brother and Sister West have resided in a home not far from the institution, still giving their support to it as they were able. Besides her husband there survive her immediate family, four children and eight grandchildren.

This 1953 Review obituary announces the death of Forrest F. West.

Vol. 130, NO. 29

JULY 16, 1953

WEST.—Forest F. West, born Feb. 12, 1873. at Lebanon, Neb.; died at Fountain Head, Tenn., May 15, 1953. Leaving a mercantile business in 1906, he was led, with his sister, a missionary from Africa, together with their companions, to come to Fountain Head, where the West and Braden Mulford families established a new school and hospital, now Highland Academy and Sanitarium, for service to the surrounding hill area. After 30 years with the youth he left the institution to younger men but continued 15 years longer his active participation in the life of the community where he is so well loved, retiring with his daughter 2 years ago. He leaves to mourn 2 daughters, 2 sons, and 4 sisters.

Braden Mulford’s obituary appeared in the May 20, 1954, edition of the Review.

Vol. 131, NO. 20

MAY 20, 1954

MULFORD.—Braden N. Mulford, born near Essex, Iowa, Oct. 26, 1880; died at Wren's Nest, Tenn., Feb. 23, 1954. In young manhood he accepted the third angel’s message. He assisted in the founding of the Madison College and Sanitarium. He also assisted in the establishment of other self-supporting centers, including the Fountain Head Industrial School and Sanitarium, today known as Highland Academy and Sanitarium. Mourning their loss are his wife and a daughter, Mrs. Henri Drouault, now serving a second term of mission service on the island of Madagascar.

Keeping up the missionary tradition

Henri Drouault married Eileen Mulford, and they went to Madagascar as missionaries.

VOL. 132, NO. 51

DECEMBER 22, 1955

A Dream Comes True

in Madagascar

By Henri Drouault

When, as a young man in France, I was able for the first time in my life to borrow a Bible, I read it from cover to cover. This changed everything. I was converted. I gave my entire life to the Lord. Wondering what might please Him most, I decided to return to Madagascar, to Tamatave, and start work there among the Betsimisaraka tribe. Immediately plans were laid for an early departure a few months hence. My best friend, whom I had interested in the truth, was to go with me.

Of course there was no question of becoming a minister at that time. I thought that, as a Christian, the Lord had put on my shoulders the responsibility of carrying the message. And His call for me was to the east coast of Madagascar. This is how we planned to work: We would buy a piece of property near Tamatave. We would work it with the help of natives and make our living on it. We would preach to our hired workers and make an Adventist center there.

Months passed and we could not go. Instead, the two of us went into the canvassing work. Then years passed and it appeared that the Lord must have other plans. Eventually I went to our French training school. Upon graduation I received a call to go to Madagascar! But this was June, 1940, and the island was soon after blockaded. Instead, we went to the United States, and the dream almost faded away.

However, in 1945, a British troopship brought us to Madagascar. There was much urgent work to be done, and we were permanently located in the center of the island, in Tananarive. When we had to leave in 1948 because of the ill health of our little girl, it seemed that we were leaving forever.

In 1953 we were asked to return to Madagascar, and this time we were located on the east coast, at Tamatave. We were told to look for a suitable property for a training school for the Betsimisaraka. Look we did, and found a wonderful place only twenty miles from Tamatave. Somehow the division found the money to buy it, and we were soon working in earnest toward the establishment of a small school. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, financial help for launching the school was delayed. We had carved from the jungle a little space, and built on it with materials found in the jungle. A little school was started, and we were living on what we already proudly called The Station.

If, when carving our way through the twelve- to fifteen-foot tropical vegetation that was growing wild all over the property, it seemed a little lonely, still we knew we were not alone--and not alone interested in the success of this undertaking. But how was God going to work this all out? Financial help arrived from an unexpected source—the coming Thirteenth Sabbath Offering was delegated to us. The entire picture changed! We surely were not alone, since our Sabbath schools all over the world were going to help!

As I write these lines our little school is going strong. The enrollment is over fifty students this year. We now have four teachers—two national workers, Mrs. Drouault, and me. Already our first graduate has been sent out in field work. He is a Betsimisaraka, the first of his tribe to become a worker! On the tenth of December, among the nine to be baptized, two, a man and his wife, are from our day-laborer force. Others will follow next year.

It is now twenty-five years since I dreamed of doing this for the Lord. With love, hope, and faith we are building on a dream, but it will be thanks to you all that it will stand forever!

Tamatave School Sends

Out First Worker

By Eileen Mulford Drouault

The new mission station of Tamatave, on the east coast of Madagascar, is happy to announce the opening of its second scholastic year with an enrollment of fifty-one students.

The temporary quarters, which at present house students and teachers, limit the enrollment possibilities. But through the generosity of the Sabbath schools the world over, this Station next year will have a classroom building with a chapel, sufficiently large to accommodate this growing station as well as its Sabbath Attendance.

It was with deep gratitude that the station was able to send into the field its first worker on September 28. This joy was doubled because this worker is the first of the Betsimisaraka tribe to carry the message of salvation back to his own people, for whom this station was opened.

How happy we were when we bade.good-by to Emile, with his wife and three tiny boys. He will be a teacher at an out school, one day's journey away. Emile left fine employment as an accountant to become God's messenger to his tribe.

Thank you, friends in the Sabbath schools, for your many kind letters of interest and inquiry. Thank you, Sabbath schools all, for planning for this station, for sacrificing for the Betsimisaraka people, on this thirteenth Sabbath!

Adventist roots of a founder

A cousin of Pearl West Mulford wrote this Review article about the six generations of her family in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Six Generations of Adventists

By Ira McComb

My mother, myself, my children, and grandchildren represent four living generations of Adventism. But our denominational experience goes back two generations before us, thus making six generations in all.

My great-grandmother, Mary Bowers, one of the Adventist pioneers of Wisconsin and Illinois, was very devout, precise, and systematic. She established the Life Boat rest home at Peoria, Illinois. I was about twelve years old when she passed away.

The daughter and her husband, B. F. Bradbury (my grandfather), are next in line. Grandfather was baptized through a hole in the ice in a lake in Wisconsin. My grandparents came to Lebanon, Nebraska, among the original pioneers. Lebanon is eleven miles west of Wilsonville. The Wilsonville church is an outgrowth of Sabbath school services first held in the Bradbury home in Lebanon. Later a church was established in an adjoining precinct, Sett. The name was later changed to Wilsonville.

Next in line is my mother Lola McComb, still living. She had her ninety-sixth birthday on July 11. She is very alert for her age, seldom misses Sabbath school and church services, and has been a real asset to the church. She was treasurer for twenty-five years and has been instrumental in winning others to the faith. Her sisters and her brother died in the truth.

I belong to the fourth generation and am now seventy-three years old. Also in this generation are two sisters and several cousins. The cousins are in self-supporting work at Monteagle and Coalmont, Tennessee. They are Mrs. B. N. Mulford, Mrs. Edna Edmister, and Mabel and Bessie West. Mrs. Mulford was a missionary in Africa for five years back in the 1890's. These folks are now working for God in the Southland, having won many souls to the truth. Mrs. Edmister is director of a hospital and clinic. She is assisted by Mabel and Bessie. They started at Madison when it was a wilderness. Mrs. E. G. White was there then and directed the establishment of the work.

Next is my son, Roswell, who is at present first elder of the Wilsonville church. His wife is Sabbath school superintendent. They have three boys. Jerry, age twenty, is finishing his second year at Pacific Union College. Sammy, age fifteen, is finishing his first year at Platte Valley Academy. Tommy, age four, is the third son.

Along with these is my daughter and her husband with their three girls. Judith Ann, the eldest, is at Berrien Springs, and the other two girls are at Broadview Academy.

We rejoice that God has permitted us to have a knowledge of His truth for all of the years represented by these six generations of our family.

A conference institution

The administrator of Highland Hospital wrote this account of the founding in a 1960 Review.

Highland Sanitarium and

Hospital

By R. C. Mills, Administrator

The Fountain Head Sanitarium and Rural School in Tennessee was established in 1907 by Mr. and Mrs. B. N. Mulford and Mr. and Mrs. F. F. West. These pioneers felt the usual hardships and difficulties experienced by self-supporting workers in getting rural organizations such as this one started, but the result of their faithfulness and hard work was the establishment of a very fine little school and a sanitarium that through the years has been a blessing to the community and has developed an excellent reputation.

The first building was completed in 1912. In 1928 this building burned to the ground from an unknown cause, but patients and personnel were not injured. Contributions from business firms and individuals made it possible to erect a better institution than the first one—one that was capable of caring for 35 patients and equipped with a large hydrotherapy department and a surgical suite.

This second building burned in 1935. Much of the present building was erected in that year, again with materials and funds provided by friends of the institution. An additional wing was provided in 1955 in which is now housed the surgical suite, the cafeteria, the new hydrotherapy department, the laboratory, and a number of patients' rooms.

In the year 1945 the assets of Fountain Head Rural School and Sanitarium were transferred to the KentuckyTennessee Conference Association since the conference had taken over the operation of the sanitarium and the school for the regular conference academy work. At that time the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference committee became the core of the controlling board for the sanitarium. The name of the medical unit was changed later to Highland Sanitarium and Hospital.

The present sanitarium consists of seven buildings with a combined value of $190,000 and equipment valued at $46,000. There are beds and equipment to care for 45 patients. For the past several years the operation of the sanitarium has had favorable financial results.

The total number of patient days of service during the year 1958 was 11,108. Owing to the fact that a large number of the patients are what are called sanitarium, or long-term, patients, the average stay per patient is 14 days. Every fifth admission is a maternity patient, and 150 babies were born in the sanitarium during 1958.

At the beginning of 1958 there was only one full-time registered nurse on the staff. She was borrowed from a doctor's office and was trying to care for the sanitarium nursing department and his work too. Now, through the blessing of the Lord, the sanitarium has four full-time registered graduate nurses, and one part-time. Two others, one a physical therapist, are planning to join the staff soon. These are assisted by eight licensed practical nurses and a number of nurse aids, mostly students from the nearby conference academy. A chaplain and a maintenance man have been muchneeded additions to the staff.

The sanitarium is producing a radio program entitled "Say, Doctor!"— a program of questions and answers being broadcast every Sunday afternoon at two-thirty as a public service feature by radio station WHIN in Gallatin, Tennessee, 1010 kilocycles.

Being in a semirural or small town environment, the sanitarium must keep costs as low as possible. As a consequence, it costs less to be a patient at Highland Sanitarium than at almost any other place in the United States.

The counsel of the Lord is clear that the establishment and operation of small medical institutions has a definite place in the proclamation of the message. It is the desire of the staff of the Highland Sanitarium that the blessing of God may rest upon this little institution and direct all of its activities.

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