Miller, William (1782–1849)

William Miller was a farmer turned revivalist who predicted that the world would end “about the year 1843.” His movement represents one of the most dramatic instances of American millennial fervor and spawned several new religious movements, the largest of which today is the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Early Life

William Miller was born on February 15, 1782, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to Captain William J. (1756-1812) and Paulina Phelps (1764-1835) Miller. He was the first of their 16 children. In 1786 his parents relocated to Low Hampton, New York, to homestead from the “wilderness” a claim of about 100 acres. Its location near the bank of the Poultney River, only six miles from Lake Champlain, afforded wider access to sell food and other goods raised on their farm. Captain William J. Miller fought in the American Revolution, escaping from New York City when Lord Howe invaded in August 1776. After the war he became a captain in the New York state militia. Paulina Miller’s parents were Ebenezer (1758-1835) and Lucy (1752-1842) Phelps. Her father was a Baptist minister, known for his “plain, scriptural” preaching. On both sides of the family, William Miller’s relatives were known for both their piety and patriotism.

As a young man, William Miller embraced Deism. He married Lucy Smith (1782-1854) in 1803 and relocated to Poultney, Vermont. They would have ten children:¹ William S. (1805-1877), Bellona (1807-1882), Satterlee Ebenezer (1809-1886), Langdon (1812-1886), Robbins (1814-1888), George Will (1816-1874), Electa Maria (1819-1822), “infant son” (1821), John (1822-1893), and Lucy Ann (1825-1895).²

In 1810, Miller organized a unit of the Vermont militia, which elected him a lieutenant. The militia fought in the War of 1812, and Miller rose to the rank of captain by the time the war ended in 1815. After the war, Miller returned to Low Hampton.

Conversion and Approach to Scripture

At the core of Miller’s religious experience was a multi-stage conversion that led him away from his youthful Deism. The first stage happened in the fall of 1812 as he returned from Rutland to Poultney, Vermont, with concerns about Deism’s denial of a future existence. In the midst of war, having lost family members including his father to disease, he experienced an existential crisis.³ Second, during the battle of Plattsburgh (September 6-11, 1814) he felt that it was only through divine providence both that the American side won the battle and that his own life was spared.⁴ Third, in May 1816, he took the Lord’s name in vain, which convicted him of his sinfulness. Fourth, in the summer of 1816, while reading a sermon by Alexander Proudfit,⁵ Miller felt powerfully drawn to the person of Christ:

[S]uddenly the character of a Savior was vividly impressed upon my mind. It seemed that there might be a Being so good and compassionate as to himself atone for our transgressions, and thereby save us from suffering the penalty of sin. I immediately felt how lovely such a Being must be; and imagined that I could cast myself into the arms of, and trust in the mercy of such an One. . . . I felt that to believe in such a Savior without evidence, would be visionary in the extreme. I saw that the Bible did bring to view just such a Savior as I needed; and I was perplexed to find how an uninspired book should develop principles so perfectly adapted to the wants of a fallen world. I was constrained to admit that the Scriptures must be a revelation from God; they became my delight, and in Jesus I found a friend.⁶

The fifth and last stage, he reported, came in the fall of 1816 when he conversed with a Deist friend about the prospect of a “glorious eternity.” His friend asked him how he knew for sure that the Bible was true. He advanced the very same skeptical arguments Miller himself had formerly advocated. This encounter prompted Miller to return to systematic study of the Bible:

I replied that if the Bible was the word of God, every thing contained therein might be understood, and all its parts be made to harmonize; and I said to him that if he would give me time, I would harmonize all these apparent contradictions to my own satisfaction, or I would be a Deist still.⁷

After this five-step conversion process that developed from 1812 to 1816, Miller engaged in two years of intense Bible study. He employed Scottish Common Sense Realism and Baconian deduction not only to find answers to his existential questions, but also to systematically develop a coherent understanding of world history and Bible prophecy that proved completely transformative. He later described his own methodology in detail:

I determined to lay aside all my prepossessions [presuppositions], to thoroughly compare Scripture with Scripture, and to pursue its study in a regular and methodical manner. I commenced with Genesis, and read verse by verse, proceeding no faster than the meaning of the several passages should be so unfolded, as to leave me free from embarrassment respecting any mysticism or contradictions. Whenever I found any thing obscure, my practice was to compare it with all collateral passages; and by the help of CRUDEN, I examined all the texts of Scripture in which were found any of the prominent words contained in any obscure portion. Then by letting every word have its proper bearing on the subject of the text, if my view of it harmonized with every collateral passage in the Bible, it ceased to be a difficulty. . . . I was thus satisfied that the Bible is a system of revealed truths, so clearly and simply given, that the “wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein.”⁸

A key aspect of Miller’s approach to the Bible was that it had to be internally coherent. This was especially true when studying Bible prophecy. He concluded that a day in prophecy is equivalent to a literal year. “I knew,” he wrote, “that if the Bible was what it purports to be, it must in some way all be harmonized.”⁹ He deduced that the 2,300 days of Daniel 8:14 specified a period of 2,300 years that began with Artaxerxes’s decree in 457 B.C. to rebuild Jerusalem. He interpreted the phrase “and then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” as a reference to the Second Coming of Christ. By 1818, Miller concluded that Christ would return in about 25 years.

In September 1822 Miller composed a 20-point statement of belief. His beliefs reflected a deep commitment to Calvinist theology, notably a limited atonement and predestination (articles 11 and 18). Articles 12-17 outlined his eschatology: this earth is the eternal abode of the saved (12); the impenitent will be removed from earth to hell (13); Jesus’ personal, glorious return (14); “I believe that the second coming of Jesus Christ is near, even at the door, even within twenty-one years—on or before 1843 (15);”¹⁰ there was no value in affiliation with a particular “sect” but in the Bible alone (16); and a literal millennium between two resurrections (17). The last two articles affirmed baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper.

As Miller formulated his own religious convictions, he was not “fully settled” about what his responsibility was to disseminate what he had discovered with others. He began to share “occasional hints of my views” to friends and neighbors beginning in 1831, but was initially discouraged by what he perceived as little interest in his new understanding. Yet the more he studied the Bible, the “more and more convinced” he became “that I had a personal duty to perform respecting this matter. When I was about my business, it was continually ringing in my ears, ‘Go and tell the world of their danger.’”¹¹

Disseminating the Advent (1831-1833)

Miller began to express his views more forthrightly in 1831 and 1832 through personal letters and accepting speaking invitations. In February 1831 he wrote to an Elder Andrus an eight-page missive on “The Time of the 2^nd Coming” in which he argued: “the 1^st proof we have, as it respects Christ’s 2^nd coming as to time, is in Dan’l 8:14, ‘unto 2300 days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed’—by days we are to understand years, sanctuary we understand the church; cleansed we may reasonably suppose means the compleat [sic] redemption from sin, both soul and body, after the resurrection, when Christ comes the 2^nd time ‘without sin unto salvation.’” He added that “the civil Power of the pope (antichrist) did end in 1798 and “in 45 years more Dan’l vision will end, and Christ will come . . . The Kings, Antichrist and the Mahom[e]tans are ‘the 3 unclean spirits’ who fight ‘against those who contend for Liberty and the rights of conscience, and 1843, or 1847 at most, Christ will come the 2^nd time.”¹² Like many prophetic expositors, Miller was not definite but would increasingly focus on “about the year 1843” as the time for Christ’s return.

Still, Miller reported how he resisted the need to not only write, but to publicly share his views. He described an internal struggle that ultimately led to his own pledge to “Go and tell it to the world.” Soon his nephew, Irving Guilford, invited him to speak at their church.¹³ According to David L. Rowe, Miller first publicly shared his views on August 14, 1831.¹⁴ One of the most significant developments for Miller was the preparation of a series of articles sharing his beliefs more widely in the abolitionist Baptist newspaper, the Vermont Telegraph, under the initials “W.M.” The handwritten 16 articles appeared in print beginning May 15, 1832.¹⁵ He now “began to be flooded with letters of inquiry respecting my views,” he wrote, “and visitors flocked to converse with me on the subject.”¹⁶ The times were uncertain as a global cholera pandemic prompted increased interest in end-time events and Bible prophecy. His articles were printed in tract form, and then by November 1833, printed again. Print became a primary means to disseminate his religious convictions.

On September 14, 1833, Miller received a recommendation from area Baptists to further share his views. Later that year, on the night of November 12-13, 1833, a particularly dramatic display of the Leonid meteor shower further prompted interest in the study of the impending eschaton. The publication of his views in the Vermont Telegraph, advocacy through writing letters, and speaking in nearby churches became the framework for a series of local revivals and increased activism. Through the 1830s Miller would travel with increasing frequency through New York, Vermont, and Lower Canada (Quebec).

Unlike typical revivalists, notably Charles Finney,¹⁷ whom he met one time while in Boston, Miller eschewed the “anxious bench” and instead made very direct and impassioned appeals for conversions.¹⁸ He felt that such efforts should not be contrived, but that the revivalist should let the Scriptures and Holy Spirit do their work. “Depend wholly on the word of God,” he wrote to his pastoral friend Truman Hendryx, “Keep your sword the right side up, the edge to the heart, and your arm well nerved . . . be not afraid of hurting your hearers. . . . Be like a rock in the ocean.”¹⁹ According to Sylvester Bliss (1814-1863), Miller’s work as an evangelist led to repeated “revivals of religion” through conversions.²⁰ Altogether Miller was a very successful revivalist who in his own way mastered the art of making appeals and bringing about revivals as he increasingly traveled in wider forays from his home through the 1830s.

Miller was a reformer who developed a steadfast friendship with Henry Jones (1788-1854) who was an ardent temperance and abolitionist advocate. Jones’ acceptance of Second Advent views deeply impressed Miller.²¹ The two carried on an extensive correspondence which contributed to Miller’s acceptance of abolitionism in the fall of 1833.²² Miller was somewhat less enthusiastic about temperance reform, continuing to smoke tobacco, a practice he believed calmed his nerves and trembling hands, although he warned that it would be a disgrace to be found drunk when Christ returned.²³

Increased Visibility and Publications (1834-1839)

After a rogue edition of Miller’s Lectures was published in 1835, Miller produced a new and expanded edition of his 16 lectures printed by Elder Isaac Wescott in Troy, New York. This authorized 1836 edition would feature a chapter for each sermon and become the standard and most important work of his life. The lectures were reprinted in 1838 and, with some minor modifications, again in 1840, 1841, and 1842. The 1840 printing was done by the abolitionist printer B. B. Mussey in Boston; all subsequent editions were printed by Joshua V. Himes who provided purchasers the option of having a modest folding chart detailing Miller’s views pasted in for a nominal charge.

A key turning point occurred in April and May 1839 when William Miller spoke in eastern Massachusetts at several small towns (Randolph, East Randolph, Lowell, Groton, and Lynn). This was the first time Miller had traveled so far from his home and the tour would have a profound impact by expanding his circle of supporters. By the time he reached Lynn he reported that he had given 800 lectures since June 9, 1834. Yet, up until this time, his revival preaching remained rather localized. Now, in his 1839 tour, he established connections with ministers who were not only receptive to his message but who would facilitate much wider dissemination of it. At Lowell, on May 14, 1839, he met with Timothy Cole (1806-1866), who had early on adopted Miller’s views and helped introduce Miller to many of the churches in the Christian Connection. Miller also became acquainted in person with Josiah Litch (1809-1866), another who was already a strong ministerial ally. On this tour he received a letter from Joshua V. Himes (1805-1895), dated October 19, 1839, who invited Miller to speak at his Christian Connection church in Boston. Then, on November 12, 1839, Miller spoke at a Christian Connection gathering in Exeter, New Hampshire, where he met Himes, who again invited him to speak in Boston. From December 8-16, 1839, Miller spoke at Himes’ Chardon Street Chapel, during which time Himes challenged him to take his message to the large cities. As a result of their time together Himes adopted Miller’s views and subsequently became his most trusted friend and supporter. Miller returned to Boston in late December to visit Himes and give a second week of lectures (December 28 to January 5). Then, beginning February 8, 1840, Miller began yet a third set of meetings in Boston, this one lasting three weeks, held at the Marlboro Chapel.²⁴

A Growing National Movement

Himes wasted no time during these three sets of lectures in Boston but began using print to transform what had been a loosely-connected series of revivals into a cohesive movement. After launching the first Adventist periodical, Signs of the Times, on February 28, 1840, he persuaded the reform-minded printers, Dow & Jackson, to buy an interest in the periodical and re-issued the first number under the date March 20, 1840. Himes would rapidly expand the arsenal of publications, which in time earned him the title from his detractors as the “Napoleon of the press.” It was through the medium of print that Miller gained his most significant influence, prompting both ardent admirers and vociferous detractors.

In March 1840 Miller gave his first series of lectures in Portland, Maine, which had a profound impact on 13-year-old Ellen Gould Harmon (later White). Even as he continued to travel, as his health permitted, he was mindful to share his views with his family. In April 1840 it was reported that Miller held a series of meetings in Low Hampton where he baptized seven people including three of his own children.²⁵

As the profile of Adventism increased through print, the growing number of followers necessitated a somewhat loose organizational structure. Himes played a key role by organizing a series of gatherings known as “General Conferences” featuring a variety of speakers and providing a mechanism for fundraising. The first “General Conference of Second Advent Believers” convened October 15-16, 1840, in the Chardon Street Chapel in Boston. A second was held in Lowell, Massachusetts, June 15-17, 1841, and a third in Portland, Maine, beginning on October 12, 1841. In the early fall of 1841, the Berean Society, a second advent association (based upon Acts 17:10) formed to encourage believers to study the Scriptures for themselves and to develop reading rooms. In Boston, Prescott Dickinson became the first president of the society and a reading room was established at 14 Devonshire Street at an expense of $150 for rent and fixtures.

Beginning in 1842, camp meetings became another important means for advancing the movement. Himes was largely responsible for attracting additional ministers who participated in over 125 Millerite camp meetings held between 1842 and 1844.

The movement grew significantly. In early 1842 Himes reported that the readership of Signs of the Times was over 50,000. Initially issued twice per month, the periodical became a weekly publication in April 1842. In June 1842, Miller gave another course of lectures at the Casco Street Christian [Connection] Church²⁶ in Portland, Maine, where young Ellen Harmon, now age 15, heard him speak a second time. Miller crisscrossed New England giving numerous lectures. In May 1841 he estimated that within one year, from October 1839 to October 1840, he had given 627 lectures and traveled 4,560 miles.²⁷

New methods were introduced in 1842 to disseminate the Second Advent message even more widely. One significant development came on July 26, 1842, on the grounds behind the state house at Concord, New Hampshire, where the Millerite “Great Tent” was pitched for the first time. During the heyday of Millerism it was reportedly the largest tent of its time, standing at 120 feet in diameter and reportedly capable of seating 4,000 people.²⁸ During the summer of 1842 Millerites also pitched tents to hold revivalist camp meetings across eastern Canada and New England. It was after attending one such camp meeting in September 1842 at Exeter, Maine, that James White (1821-1881), became a Second Advent revivalist in that state. White would later marry Ellen Harmon and, with her and Joseph Bates (1792-1872), co-found the Seventh-day Adventist church.

Another new method was conducting large evangelistic campaigns in urban centers. The fall of 1842 marked the first “Big Campaign” held in New York City, and similar campaigns soon took place in other major cities, notably Philadelphia and Baltimore. In conjunction with the New York City campaign, Himes initiated a daily paper on November 17, 1842, titled the Midnight Cry, published under the editorial supervision of Nathaniel Southard. That same month Josiah Litch launched a similar campaign in Philadelphia where he would publish a “penny paper” known as the Philadelphia Alarm. Litch was soon joined by Apollos Hale who in December that year began holding regular public revival meetings in Philadelphia. Both would become prolific authors and were among the most visible in an expanding network of Adventist ministers who amplified the work of Miller into new regions. Later, in February 1844, Litch launched campaigns in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland, where he started another newspaper, the Southern Midnight Cry. When Miller came to the nation’s capital, he gave four or five lectures. “This place is being shaken,” Himes reported, as the Millerites spread various tracts by the thousands.²⁹ The medium of print in a variety of forms helped sustain these urban evangelistic endeavors.

The scope of the movement also expanded geographically. Canada became a strong center for international distribution of literature due to its being a part of the British Commonwealth. One of the most significant individuals involved was Richard Hutchinson who launched a periodical, Voice of Elijah, in June 1843 from Montreal, Lower Canada [Quebec].

More notable converts helped spread the message. One was Isabella Van Wagener, better known as Sojourner Truth, who spoke at two Millerite camp meetings in the summer of 1843. Another significant ministerial convert was Charles Fitch (1805-1844) who preached the first set of revival meetings on the Second Advent in Toronto, Canada, in early September 1843, even though he reported facing stiff opposition. He subsequently moved southwest into Ohio, thus pushing the Adventist message westward. Himes supported this westward drive by starting a new periodical, the Western Midnight Cry, in September 1843, published in Rochester, New York. He recruited George Storrs to serve as the initial editor.

Preaching, Opposition, and Anticipation

As the founder of a major religious movement, Miller’s appearance was rather plain and unremarkable. A. A. Sawin, who reported listening to Miller in Boston, noted the “trembling limbs and faltering voice” of Miller that “were a striking testimonial of the sincerity of his heart.”³⁰ A study of Miller’s handwriting demonstrates that Miller suffered from a debilitating neurological disease, essential tremor.³¹ Another listener who heard him preaching on Daniel 11 described his speaking as “very clear and animating.” As he closed, he was “very happy in his illustration, and riveted the attention of a crowded audience, for more than two hours.”³² Ellen Harmon (White) recalled how Miller would “raise his hands to heaven and exclaim, ‘I thank Thee, Lord; I praise Thy holy name.’” Afterward “a wave of thanksgiving would go through the congregation,” she wrote. “Every heart was thrilled, and the face of the speaker was illuminated with the glory of God.”³³

At times Miller commented on both converts and opposition to his presentations. While visiting Nashua, New Hampshire, in January 1842, he described 20 to 30 “sons of Belial” who came to disturb the meeting. Many in the audience could not hear because of the noise and confusion. To his disappointment, he found the area meeting houses [churches] closed to him. He moved on to speak in other towns.³⁴ The appeal of Miller seemed to be a winsome message that drew both mind and heart as he spoke in a plain, direct manner.

One detailed description of Miller’s effective outreach comes from Clorinda S. Minor (1806-1855) who first met him “at the fireside of a friend.” She later became a well-known Second Advent lecturer in her own right. She offered a pencil sketch and then used words to correct the “numerous misstatements” about him:

I can truly say that my earnest expectations were more than realized in the interview. There is a kindness of soul, simplicity, and power, peculiarly original, combined in his manner, and he is affable and attentive to all without any affection of superiority. He is of about medium stature, a little corpulent, and in temperament, a mixture of sanguine and nervous. . . . Although about sixty-two years of age [1844], his hair is not grey, but of a light glossy auburn, his voice is full and distinct, and his pronunciation somewhat northern-antique. In his social relations, he is gentle and affectionate, and ensures the esteem of all with whom he mingles.³⁵

As attention to the Millerite message grew, it also generated strong denunciations, particularly from established ministers who feared that it would take away or distract members in their congregations. In 1843 Methodists in Bath, Maine, passed a resolution condemning those who advocated the Advent teaching. This did not stop Millerites who, in places where they received strong opposition, had to meet in their homes or operated their own places of worship. About this same time, on September 2, 1843, Ellen Harmon and her family were dismissed from the Chestnut Street Methodist Church in Portland, Maine. Miller strongly resisted the idea that Second Advent believers should leave their congregations or denominations, but as some found themselves pushed out, they formed groups of their own in places where there were enough believers to do so. In Boston, a Millerite “Tabernacle” was erected on Howard Street and dedicated on May 4, 1843.

As the expected eschaton drew near, pressure increased to specify a more exact date. In January 1843, after studying the Jewish calendar, Miller announced that Jesus would return between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. Significant opposition toward Millerites from established denominations led Charles Fitch to call for Millerites to “Come Out of Babylon” in a July 1843 sermon. In the spring of 1844, after March 21 came and went, Miller announced that he erred in his calculation. In August 1844, Samuel Sheffield Snow advocated the “seventh month” teaching that Christ would return on the tenth day of the seventh month, the Jewish Day of Atonement (see Investigative Judgment), which according to the Kairite Jews would occur that year on October 22. Miller, initially reluctant, eventually accepted this date. On October 6, 1844, he wrote: “I see a glory in the seventh month I never saw before. . . . I see that the time is correct, when the seventh month comes—that is the typical time. Then will the people and place be sanctified.”³⁶

When October 23 dawned and the millennium had failed to arrive the previous day, many, perhaps most disappointed believers left Millerism behind them. Thousands, though, who had left their former denominations sustained belief in the literal, imminent second advent of Christ, though their differences on other points of faith eventually led them to form separate denominations such as the American Evangelical Adventist Conference, the Advent Christian Association, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church, all organized between 1858 and 1863 (see Advent Christian Church).³⁷

The Baptist church that Miller was a member of in Low Hampton for many years finally dismissed him from its membership in December 1844.³⁸ In April 1845, he attended and endorsed a conference in Albany, New York, that consolidated the largest sector of the fragmented Adventist movement. For his part, Miller refused to set any more dates. On December 17, 1845, he wrote: “Every possible effort is now put in requisition by Satan, the church, and the world, to bring into disrepute the most glorious point of the revelation of God,—the coming of Christ, the resurrection, and the kingdom,—the very capstone of grace . . . , all dependent on one event,” the “blessed hope” or Second Coming of Christ.³⁹

Death, Reception, and Sources

Miller lost most of his vision by 1848 as the essential tremor continued to debilitate his health. He died at his home in Low Hampton, New York, on December 20, 1849, and is buried in a nearby cemetery. On his tombstone is inscribed: “But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.”⁴⁰ Numerous newspapers including the abolitionist paper the Liberator⁴¹ provided coverage about the death of “William Miller, the Prophet.”⁴² One assessment acknowledged that he was “a man of great mental power” who “was unquestionably an honest and sincere man but his doctrines have been the cause of immense harm to hundreds and thousands who were deluded and deceived by them.”⁴³ Some newspapers reprinted notices of his death mistaking and conflating him as the founder of the Latter Day Saints.⁴⁴ His harshest detractors dismissed him as a “shrewd,” “uneducated,” and “narrow minded man” who had a “fanatical temperament.”⁴⁵ More favorable newspaper editors, in addition to noting his “peculiar ideas on the near approach of the second Advent,” also highlighted that he “was a kind and obliging neighbor—esteemed and beloved by all who knew him.”⁴⁶ Another praised his “strictly temperate” habits and devotion to family, noting that he was “proverbial for his integrity.” It added: “His brain was of large volume, and he was capable of great mental efforts.” Moreover, although “amiable” when criticized he could indulge in “biting sarcasm.”⁴⁷

The most significant source of information about Miller’s life, Memoirs of William Miller (1853), was initially compiled by Apollos Hale and then edited with significant additions by Sylvester Bliss. This expanded upon an earlier series of writings by Miller himself printed in 1845 as his Apology and Defense or Life and Views (1841). These writings were edited by James White in 1875 as Sketches of the Christian Life and Public Labors of William Miller. Another significant work, published the year before by Advent Christian minister Isaac C. Wellcome, was the History of the Second Advent Message that, along with the above materials, provided some additional biographical material about Miller, including primary sources no longer extant. An abbreviated biography, similar to what James White produced, was also done by the Advent Christian denomination in 1895, and reprinted by Seventh-day Adventists in 1915.

Myths about Millerites using ascension robes and their insanity were popularized in the press and systematized by Clara Endicott Sears in Days of Delusion (1924). She gave a negative assessment of the fanatical excesses and ignorance of adherents. Such views, particularly about ascension robes, were debunked by F. D. Nichol in 1952 in a peer-reviewed article in Church History and subsequent monograph.⁴⁸ The work of William Miller continued to be highlighted by a number of scholars largely as a cautionary tale through most of the 20th century.⁴⁹ Scholars in both the Advent Christian and Seventh-day Adventist denominations have responded in a variety of ways. Dissertations by Reuben E. Harkness on the “Social Origins of the Millerite Movement” (1927) at the University of Chicago and Everett Dick on “The Advent Crisis of 1843-1844” (1930) at the University of Wisconsin (later edited and published in 1994) situated the movement in its broader social and historical context. Serious scholarly engagement about his life improved in the 1970s with a series of conferences, dissertations, and monographs. Of significance were two edited volumes: The Rise of Adventism (1974), edited by Edwin Gaustad; and, The Disappointed (1987), edited by Ronald L. Numbers and Jonathan M. Butler. A significant boon to Adventist Studies occurred in 1978 with the compilation of an extensive microfilm collection of Millerite sources.⁵⁰

A number of popular books have appeared in Seventh-day Adventist circles to perpetuate the story of Miller. These include several story books written for children, and a book by Paul Gordon about Miller’s influence upon Ellen White who for her part featured his story prominently in her magnum opus, The Great Controversy (1911). Miller’s home was purchased in 1984 as part of Adventist Historic Properties, Inc., a coalition led by James R. Nix to purchase and restore Adventist heritage sites.⁵¹ The nearby Miller Chapel is owned by the Advent Christian denomination, and they have partnered with Seventh-day Adventist volunteers to help maintain the chapel. Today the two sites are preserved as a museum in Low Hampton, New York, with many original documents on display in the Miller Home. Significant repositories of Miller’s writings include the American Antiquarian Society, Andrews University, Boston Athenaeum, Vermont Historical Society, and Aurora University. In anticipation of the 150^th anniversary of the Great Disappointment, George Knight wrote Millennial Fever and the End of the World: A Study of Millerite Adventism (1993, revised in 2011 as William Miller and the Rise of Adventism). “The Midnight Cry! William Miller and the End of the World” (1994), a 102-minute documentary film produced by Ronald A. Knott was released during the 150^th anniversary year.⁵² David L. Rowe has written the most extensive biography, titled God’s Strange Work: William Miller and the End of the World (2008). In 2024 the Center for Adventist Research began a digitization program to make available the 5,000 items including some 800 letters and manuscripts by William Miller to be available in perpetuity for free through the Adventist Digital Library. An extensive bibliography of Millerite sources shows that over 70 percent of Millerite primary documents are now readily available online as of early 2025.

Select Sources

Bliss, Sylvester, and Apollos Hale, eds. Memoirs of William Miller. Boston, Mass. 1853.

Bean, Raymond Joseph. “The Influence of William Miller in the History of American Christianity.” Th.D. dissertation. Boston University, 1949.

Boyer, Paul. When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Burchfield, Lee Swafford. “Adventist Religious Experience, 1816-1868: A Comparison of William Miller and Ellen White.” Ph.D. dissertation. Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1996.

Campbell, Michael W. “Millerite Revivalism and Post-Millerite Adventist Churches,” in The Oxford Handbook of Seventh-day Adventism. Eds. M. Campbell, C. Chow, N. Miller, and D. Kaiser (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024).

Campbell, Michael W. “William Miller, Millerites, and Adventist Imprints (1820-1850) with a Global Survey of Adventual Materials Including Select Secondary Sources in English,” unpublished paper, 2025.

Collison, Gary L. “Miller, William.” In American National Biography, vol. 15 (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 520-521.

Crocombe, Jeff. “’A Feast of Reason’: The Roots of William Miller’s Biblical Interpretation and Its Influence on the Seventh-day Adventist Church.” Ph.D. diss., University of Queensland, 2011.

Cross, Whitney R. The Burned-Over District: The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800-1850. New York: Harper & Row, 1950.

Dean, David A. “Echoes of the Midnight Cry: The Millerite Heritage in the Apologetics of the Advent Christian Denomination, 1860-1960,” Th.D. diss., Westminster Theological Seminary, 1977.

“Death of Mr. Miller,” newspaper clipping, unidentified, possibly the Boston Atlas, ca. 1849.

“Death of Wm. Miller, the Prophet,” Rome Sentinel, January 2, 1850, 2.

Dick, Everett N. “The Advent Crisis of 1843-1844,” Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1930.

Dick, Everett N. Founders of the Message. Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1938.

Dick, Everett N. “Miller, William.” Dictionary of American Biography, vol. 12 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1933), 641-643.

Dick, Everett N. William Miller and the Advent Crisis. ed. by Gary Land. Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1994.

Doan, Ruth A. “The Miller Heresy, Millennialism and American Culture.” Ph.D. dissertation. Univ. of North Carolina, 1984.

Doan, Ruth Alden. The Miller Heresy, Millennialism, and American Culture. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1987.

Doan, Ruth Alden. ”'Neither Cult nor Charisma’: William Miller and Leadership of New Religious Movements,” in Varieties of Southern Religious History: Essays in Honor of Donald G. Mathews, ed. Regina D. Sullivan and Monte Harrell Hampton (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2015).

Froom, LeRoy Edwin. The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers: The Historical Development of Prophetic Interpretation, 4 vols. Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1946-1954.

Gaustad, Edwin S. ed. The Rise of Adventism: Religion and Society in Mid-nineteenth-century America. New York: Harper & Row, 1974.

Harkness, Reuben E. “Social Origins of the Millerite Movement.” Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Chicago, 1927.

Knight, George R., comp. and ed. 1844 and the Rise of Sabbatarian Adventism. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 1994.

Knight, George R. Millennial Fever and the End of the World: A Study of Millerite Adventism. Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 1993.

Knight, George R. William Miller and the Rise of Adventism. Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2011.

Krug, Howard P. “Charles Finney and William Miller: Revivalists, Reformers, and Millennialists Looking Downward and Upward.” M.A. thesis, S.U.N.Y College at Brockport, 2008.

Land, Gary. “Introduction,” in Second Advent History (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2008), i-xxxvi.

Miller, William. “Mr. Miller's Apology and Defense,” The Advent Herald, and Morning Watch, August 13, 1845, 1-6. [dated August 1, 1845]

[Miller, William]. Joshua V. Himes, ed. Views of the Prophecies and Prophetic Chronology, Selected from Manuscripts of William Miller; with a Memoir of His Life; by Joshua V. Himes. Boston: Moses A. Dow, 1841.

[Miller, William]. Joshua V. Himes, ed. Views of the Prophecies and Prophetic Chronology, Selected from Manuscripts of William Miller with a Memoir of His Life; by Joshua V. Himes. Boston: Joshua V. Himes, 1842.

New York State Census, 1808-1845.

Nichol, Francis D. “The Growth of the Millerite Legend,” Church History 21, no. 4 (Dec. 1952): 296-313.

Nichol, Francis D. The Midnight Cry: A Defense of the Character and Conduct of William Miller and the Millerites, Who Mistakenly Believed that the Second Coming of Christ Would Take Place in the Year 1844. Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1944.

Numbers, Ronald L. and Jonathan M. Butler, eds. The Disappointed: Millerism and Millenarianism in the Nineteenth Century. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1987.

Rowe, David L. God’s Strange Work: William Miller and the End of the World. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2008.

Rowe, David L. “A New Perspective on the Burned Over District: The Millerites in Upstate New York,” Church History 47, no. 4 (Dec. 1978): 408-420.

Rowe, David Leslile. Thunder and Trumpets: The Millerite Movement and Dissenting Religion in Upstate New York, 1800-1850. AAR Studies in Religion 38. Decatur, Georgia: Scholars Press, 1985.

Sears, Clara Endicott. Days of Delusion: A Strange Bit of History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1924.

Sutton, Matthew Avery. American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism. Cambridge, MA: Belknnap Press, 2014.

Taves, Ann. Fits, Trances, & Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999.

United States Federal Census Records, 1790-1840.

Wellcome, Isaac C. History of the Second Advent Message, and Mission, Doctrine and People. Yarmouth, ME: I. C. Wellcome, 1874.

White, James. Ed. Sketches of the Christian Life and Public Labors of William Miller: Gathered from his Memoir by the Late Sylvester Bliss, and from Other Sources. Battle Creek, MI: Steam Press of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, 1875.

Notes

1. For a genealogical tree, see: https://www.ancestry.com/invite-ui/accept?token=lsk8ELKZmbPsq4a7o_49_Q-aEdujuRYwZ2cdhsU9ixM=↩

2. It should be noted that the erroneous claim has been made that one of William Miller’s sons was named after Isaac Newton (cf. Alan Jacobs, “Why Seventh Day Adventists Revere Isaac Newton,” The Atlantic, June 19, 2012). This is a case of mistaken identity and is not substantiated in Bliss’s Memoirs. The closest approximation is an Isaac Newton Miller (1835-1921) whose father was a different William Miller (1809-1879). https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/238745073/isaac-newton-miller↩

3. William Miller, "Mr. Miller's Apology and Defense," Advent Herald, and Morning Watch, August 13, 1845, 1-6. The earliest published version of this important document is accessible at: https://archive.org/details/WilliamMiller.Mr.MillersApologyAndDefence1845/mode/1up↩

4. His participation in the battle would become a defining moment of his life. “At the commencement of the battle, we looked upon our own defeat as almost certain, and yet we were victorious. So surprising a result against such odds, did seem to me like the work of a mightier power than man” (idem., 1). ↩

5. William Miller misspells the name of the author as Proudfoot, but the sermon appears in Alexander Proudfit, Practical Godliness in Thirteen Discourses on the Duties of the Closet, the Family, and Sanctuary (Salem, NY: Dodd and Rumsey, 1813).↩

6. “Apology and Defense”, 1.↩

7. Ibid.↩

8. Ibid.↩

9. Ibid.↩

10. Sylvester Bliss and Apollos Hale, eds. Memoirs of William Miller (Boston, Mass. 1853), 79.↩

11. “Apology and Defense”, 3.↩

12. Cited by L. E. Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers; the Historical Development of Prophetic Interpretation (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, (Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1954), vol. 4, 481.↩

13. “Apology and Defense”, 3.↩

14. Rowe points out that the second Sunday in August was August 14. It should be noted that Miller erroneously referred to this invitation as taking place in 1833, but Sylvester Bliss corrects this date in Memoirs, 98.↩

15. The handwritten originals are in the Jenks Adventual Collection at Aurora University and now are digitized and accessible through the Adventist Digital Library. Hereafter items referenced as “Jenks Collection.”↩

16. “Apology and Defense”, 3.↩

17. Charles Finney, The Original Memoirs of Charles G. Finney, eds. Garth M. Rosell & Richard A. G. Dupuis (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), 325-327. Finney attended Miller’s Bible classes once or twice, he noted, after which he met with him. “He was entirely mistaken in some of his fundamental views” (325).↩

18. Although Miller frowned upon the “anxious bench” it should also be acknowledged how a young Ellen Harmon remembered coming forward to the “anxious bench” during one of his revival meetings in Portland, Maine. See LS 1880, 137.↩

19. William Miller to Truman Hendryx, May 19, 1841, Jenks Collection, Box 6, Folder 50.↩

20. Bliss, Memoirs, iv.↩

21. See William Miller to Truman Hendryx, February 8, 1833, Jenks Collection, Box 2, Folder 36. See also Henry Jones to William Miller, December 27, 1832, Jenks Collection, Box 2, Folder 35.↩

22. See Henry Jones to William Miller, February 21, 1833, Box 2, Folder 37; Henry Jones to William Miller, May 13, 1833, Jenks Collection, Box 2, Folder 40; Henry Jones to William Miller, September 1, 1833, Jenks Collection, Box 2, Folder 41. Note Miller’s satirical response was mistaken by F. D. Nichol as support of slavery, but David L. Rowe has convincingly argued that this was a classic example of Miller’s sarcasm meant to shame someone into reform (Hendryx had not accepted abolitionism by this point). Kevin M. Burton argues that this was an important example of Miller’s radicalism and tactics of reform in his forthcoming biography of William Miller.↩

23. Cited by Richard W. Schwarz, “A Ministry of Health,” Adventist Review, September 15, 1983, 14; David L. Rowe, God’s Strange Work: William Miller and the End of the World (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2008), 58-60, 166.↩

24. For information on this historic chapel, see: https://www.nps.gov/places/marlboro-church.htm↩

25. See announcement in Signs of the Times Related to the Second Coming of Christ, May 1, 1840, 22.↩

26. It should be noted that the congregation has been identified as both a Freewill Baptist as well as a Christian Connection congregation showing the overlapping, porous, and often interchangeable exchange of ideas between them.↩

27. William Miller to Truman Hendryx, May 19, 1841, Aurora University Jenks Collection, Box 6, Folder 50.↩

28. Some people have suggested that Charles Finney’s Oberlin Tent might have been bigger. According to Keith J. Hardman, Charles Grandison Finney, 1792-1875: Revivalist and Reformer, pg. 304, it could seat 3,000 people and was 100 feet in diameter. The Millerite “big tent” could hold 4,000 people and stood 120 feet in diameter. See George R. Knight, William Miller and the Rise of Adventism (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2011), 85.↩

29. J. V. Himes, “Mr. Miller at Washington,” The Advent Herald, and Signs of the Times Reporter, March 6, 1844, 39.↩

30. A. A. Sawin, "Letter from Bro. A. A. Sawin,"The Midnight Cry! June 20, 1844, 391.↩

31. Email from Dan Giang to the author, October 7, 2005.↩

32. “The Conference,” The Advent Herald, and Signs of the Times Reporter, February 14, 1844, 8-9.↩

33. Ellen G. White, “Abide in Me,” Manuscript 154, 1904 [dated August 14, 1904].↩

34. William Miller, “Letter from Mr. Miller,” Signs of the Times and Expositor of Prophecy, March 15, 1842, 186.↩

35. C. S. M[inor], "William Miller by the Fireside," The Midnight Cry! March 7, 1844, [4] 260.↩

36. See Voice of Truth, October 17, 1844.↩

37. Miller, in an estimate generally regarded by scholars as conservative, placed the number who had formed Advent congregations at about 50,000. Daniel T. Taylor’s study published in 1860 estimated the total adherent in all factions of Adventism at 54,000. See Knight, William Miller and the Rise of Adventism, 181, 196-197.↩

38. See announcement in The Advent Herald, and Signs of the Times Reporter, April 30, 1845, 96.↩

39. William Miller Letter, December 17, 1845, written to C. W. Stone’s father, published in the ARH, July 15, 1880.↩

40. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/60532213/william-miller↩

41. See obituary notice The Liberator, December 28, 1849, 3.↩

42. Cf. Boston Evening Transcript, December 26, 1849, 2; “Died” in [The New York] The Evening Post, December 24, 1849, 3; Brooklyn Eagle, December 26, 1849, 2; North Star [Danville, VT], December 29, 1849, 3; “Death of Wm. Miller the Prophet,” The Vermont Watchman, January 3, 1850, 1; “Death of Wm. Miller, the Prophet,” The Woodstock Mercury, and Windsor County Advertiser, December 28, 1849, 3; “Death of Wm. Miller, the Prophet,” The Enterprise and Vermonter, January 2, 1849, 2; “Death of Wm. Miller, the Prophet,” Aurora of the Valley [Vermont], January 3, 1850, 3; “Death of Wm. Miller, the Prophet,” The Brattleboro’ Eagle [Vermont], December 31, 1849, 1; “Father Miller Dead,” The Brandon Post [Vermont], January 3, 1850, 2.↩

43. “Death of Miller,” Brooklyn Evening Star, December 28, 1849, 2.↩

44. Cf. New York Daily Herald, December 25, 1849, 3.↩

45. “Father Miller Dead,” Vermont Patriot, January 3, 1850, 4 [reprinted on January 10, 1850, 2].↩

46. “Death of Prophet Miller,” The St. Albans Weekly Messenger, January 3, 1850, 3.↩

47. “Death of William Miller, the Prophet,” Portland Press Herald [Maine], January 1, 1850, 2. An earlier notice, printed on December 24, 1849, 2, observed that William Miller, “known as the father of ‘Millerism,’ is probably dead.” See Portland Press Herald, December 24, 1849, 2.↩

48. Francis D. Nichol, “The Growth of the Millerite Legend,” Church History 21, no. 4 (Dec. 1952): 296-313.↩

49. Cf. Clara Endicott Sears, Days of Delusion: A Strange Bit of History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1924.↩

50. Jean Hoornstra, ed. The Millerites and Early Adventists: An Index to the Microfilm Collection of Rare Books and Manuscripts. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms International, 1978.↩

51. “Church Finalizes Purchase of Miller Home,” Adventist Review, November 8, 1984, 22.↩

52. [Ronald A. Knott]. “The Midnight Cry! William Miller and the End of the World.” 102 min. VHS & DVD. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 1994.↩