The Birth Of A Divine Revelation

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THE LIFE BOAT

First issue March, 1898
Founded by W. S. Sadler, with introductory editorial.

First editorial Committee: W. S. Sadler, M. E. Olsen, Luther W. Warren, Mina Rumery.

Circulation reported by David Paulson, Co-Editor:

July 1901, approximately 7,000 per month
Jan to May 1902, average of 15,000 per month
June 1902, 25,000/mo.
Feb 1903, 80,000/mo.

Operations moved to Hinsdale, Illinois between March and April, 1905

W. S. Sadler and David Paulson continue to be co-editors through 1902.

Sadler is listed as co-editor into 1905, Associate Editor in 1907.

Sadler was heavy contributor of editorials and articles through 1902.

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COLLEGES ATTENDED BY WILLIAM S. SADLER
INFORMATION ON BATTLE CREEK COLLEGE

Notes from summary account provided by Trustees of Andrews University in 1974, one hundredth anniversary of Battle Creek College.

Battle Creek College was precursor to Andrews University, denominational school now located in Berrien Springs, Michigan.

First started as a select private school in 1868 by G. H. Bell, who later became an instructor on the staff.

School was adopted as a General Conference project in May, 1872.

Enrollment in 1873 was more than 100.

Legally incorporated in March, 1874, under direction of Sidney Brownsberger.

1877-1878 school year enrollment was 413, but included many part time students and courses of study for missionary training, not merely academic studies.

Due to lack of boarding and confused policy academic college enrollment dropped to 43 in 1879.

In 1880 enrollment was 490 (for all departments) with instruction given by G. H. Bell, Uriah Smith, and J. H. Kellogg.

During this early period the College was not Bible oriented, Bible instruction being limited to voluntary attendance at a series of daily lectures by Uriah Smith.

College continued to suffer because of lack of residence facilities; "most students boarded in private homes, some banded together into clubs for group feeding, and many boarded themselves." A new three-story boarding hall was occupied in 1883 and a second dormitory with improved dining facilities was built in 1886. William Prescott, President, who succeeded Wolcott Littlejohn in 1885, set a pattern of etiquette with his wife when they dined regularly with the students.

"The early 1890's, (the years when Sadler was attending the college), were years of deepening spiritual emphasis at the college. By 1894-1895 all students were required to take at last one year of Bible, and all classes were given a more spiritual tone."

A bulletin for 1892-1893 shows 30 students in the college department in 1890, 19 in 1891. A schedule of instruction for the college has four years, with both a Classical and a Scientific curriculum. Courses included Latin, Greek, German, mathematics, (including calculus), astronomy, history, logic, literature, advanced physics, mineralogy, mental science, moral science, and political science. Many text books and reference books are listed.

In 1894 drastic curricular changes were made under Edward A. Sutherland, to remove the worldly academic emphasis and to replace it with Bible oriented classes.

A survey made in 1897 showed that 38 per cent of all ordained ministers in the SDA had received some schooling at Battle Creek college.

By 1899 SDA had 130 church schools, with two-thirds of their teachers having studied at Battle Creek. In 1901 the school moved to Berrien Springs.

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INFORMATION ON AMERICAN MEDICAL MISSIONARY COLLEGE

The American Medical Missionary College was formally organized as the Medical Missionary Training School in Battle Creek in 1883, under the auspices of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Emphasis was on practical training for medical services of various kinds. An 1898 school Announcement makes the following opening remark:

"This is an institution for the training of young men and women to engage in various lines of medical and other philanthropic works on a gospel and Christian basis, under the direction of regularly organized missionary boards."

"The first systematic educational work began in 1877, in the organization of a School of Hygiene, which a few years later developed into a Nurses Training School, the organization of which was complete in 1884."

This effort continued to add courses from year to year until it could encompass a formal program leading to the licensing of Medical Doctors. The Battle Creek operation showed more than forty students in the Medical course in 1896-97, more than seventy in 1897-98, and approximately 100 in 1898-99. Twenty-four were graduated in 1899.

The 1898-99 Announcement includes the following auxiliary courses of study:

Missionary Nurses Training School 2 years
Health Teachers' Course 1 year
Missionary Mother's Course 2 years
School of Scientific Cookery 6 months

Other assorted courses of reduced length.

A Chicago division was incorporated on July 3, 1895.

A school Announcement for the Chicago division for 1898-99 lists a faculty of 14 MD's including J. H. Kellogg and David Paulson, long associate of Sadler. An opening statement makes the following remark:

"This institution, while separately incorporated, is nevertheless maintained by the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and is conducted in harmony with the principles of that institution."

The course covered four years of forty weeks each.

A school Announcement for 1904-05, a year in which Sadler and Lean attended, included the following courses:

First Year: General, Organic and Physiological Chemistry, Physiology, Anatomy, Biology, Histology, and Embryology.

Second Year: Psychology, Medicine and Pathology, Physiological Therapeutics, Dietetics, "Materia Medica" and Toxicology.

Third Year: Theory and Practice of Medicine, Pathology, Surgical Anatomy, Gynecology, Obstetrics, Eye and Ear, and Physical Diagnosis.

Fourth Year: In addition to senior levels of above courses, included were Sanitary Science and Nervous and Mental diseases.

In the 1904-05 and 1905-06 Announcements William S. and Lena Sadler were listed as Juniors. In the 1906-07 Announcement they were listed as Seniors.

In a letter to Willie White, Sadler remarks that he found the academic work at AMMC more arduous than at Cooper College in San Francisco.

After J. H. Kellogg and 100 medical doctors were disfellowshipped in 1907 the college was dropped from the denominational Yearbook. The college was closed in 1910.

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