Norman, "Captain" Henry

Henry Norman, a charlatan who professed to be a wealthy sea captain to early Adventist church leaders in 1899, claimed that he would donate a vast fortune to the Seventh-day Adventist Church for missions. His subsequent disappearance caused a scandal among Adventists.

Encounter with Adventists

In February 1899, Frank H. Westphal (1858-1944) returned to the United States from his missionary post in Argentina, traveling via Great Britain, to attend the 1899 General Conference session in South Lancaster, Massachusetts. On the trip, Westphal became acquainted with a Henry Norman who traveled on the same ship with him from Southampton to New York leaving February 15. A “Capt. H. Norman” was listed as the only English passenger on the ship manifest just above Westphal’s name.¹ On the trip, Westphal witnessed about his faith to Norman who expressed an interest in his beliefs and missionary work. Westphal and his new acquaintance, Captain Norman, arrived on February 27 to attend the General Conference session in South Lancaster, Massachusetts.²

At the General Conference session, a general appeal by Ellen White for money for Avondale College and medical work in Australia was read. As a result, delegates pledged $3,478 with an additional and staggering pledge by Captain Norman, purportedly a Methodist. Norman announced that he would contribute an additional $5,000.³ Norman said that he was donating “to do the Lord’s will,” and because of a bequest from an uncle, he had “all the money that [he] can use.” He was happy if the Adventists could “use it for the Lord.”⁴ Later, during the meeting, he pledged an additional astounding $400,000 for Adventist missions.⁵

After the General Conference session, Norman traveled with Westphal to Wisconsin, where he met Frank Westphal’s sister Minnie. Minnie was persuaded by her brothers to end an engagement so that she could marry Norman. Apparently, while courting Minnie, Norman also tried to convince her to advance him a substantial amount of money.⁶ Meanwhile, Norman was apparently also cultivating a relationship with another Adventist woman.

In Springfield, Ohio, on April 6, it was announced that Catherine E. Miller, an Adventist from that community, had fallen in love and become engaged to Captain Henry Norman. They had met at the General Conference session. Miller worked for the Seventh-day Adventist Church as an editor of the Ohio Conference paper, The Welcome Visitor, and coordinated tract and missionary society efforts in Ohio. The engagement announcement was included in newspapers across the country.⁷ After a whirlwind engagement, it was announced that they planned to leave on a tour of the world on May 1^st. It was noted that he was “a wealthy gentleman and counts his money by the millions.” The newspaper account claimed that he had made his fortune as a boat captain between Melbourne and Singapore, and now owned several vessels. It added that he was between 40 and 45 years of age and “looks like a foreigner.”⁸ Shortly thereafter, he reportedly told his fiancé that unexpected business called him back to New York. He asked Catherine to lend him $300 to be paid back when he returned in a few days.⁹ He subsequently disappeared, never to be seen again.

Norman’s promise of generous contributions to Seventh-day Adventist missions meant that church leaders began to lay plans for significant missionary endeavors. They considered the “selection of a minister-missionary to connect with Captain Norman’s vessel.”¹⁰ J. O. Corliss was chosen to go with Norman.¹¹ Later, due to “uncertainty” about Norman’s whereabouts and whether the promised donations would materialize, Corliss was directed to work at the Pacific Press or Healdsburg College while they waited to hear back from their generous benefactor.¹² In anticipation of going as a missionary, Corliss used up his personal savings on travel and preparatory expenses and subsequently experienced financial hardship. By 1906 the General Conference Committee allocated $1,500 to cover part of the expenses that Corliss had incurred as a result of preparing for his much-anticipated two-year mission trip with Captain Norman.¹³

Aftermath

A Henry Norman, aged 27, who was also the same age as the one listed for the supposed Captain Henry Norman on the original ship manifest, returned to Southampton from New York on July 5, 1899.¹⁴ He was listed as an “actor” with a troupe of other actors returning to England.¹⁵ While it is impossible to know with absolute certainty, it seems plausible that this may have been the same individual although one must wonder if he would use the same name after conning so many Adventists. If so, his confidence trick exploited the goodwill and gullibility of church leaders. After the whole performance was over, no one could remember this allegedly wealthy captain paying for anything in addition to absconding with his fiancé’s savings. What is certain is that this purported captain swindled Adventist leaders. Ellen White expressed her surprise and disappointment: “The Captain Norman, who it was stated in our papers donated such large sums, has proved a fraud. Not one dollar has been realized. He has disappeared, no one can tell where. It is a strange affair, and a great disappointment to us.”¹⁶ She speculated that perhaps he had an “unbalanced” mind or was “under a species of insanity.”¹⁷

Sources

[Campbell, Michael W.] Ellen G. White Encyclopedia, eds. Denis Fortin & Jerry Moon. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 2013. S.v. “Captain Norman.”

General Conference Committee Minutes, 1899, 1906.

“In Love: At First Sight Were Millionaire and Adventist Norman and Miss Miller.” The Cincinnati Enquirer, April 7, 1899; Gazette News-Current, April 7, 1899.

Nix, James R. “The Captain Goes to Church.” In Ellen White and Current Issues Symposium 2011, 99-182. Published in condensed form in Adventist Review, June 21, 2012, 16-19.

“To Wed a Millionaire: Miss Catherine E. Miller Soon to be a Bride.” The Wichita Beacon, April 13, 1899.

White, Arthur L. Ellen G. White: The Australian Years, 1891-1900. Takoma Park, MD: Review and Herald, 1982.

White, Ellen G. to Managers and Teachers in the Avondale School, April 13, 1900, Letter 88, 1899.

White, Ellen G. Manuscript 59, August 16, 1900.

“Will Marry Millions: Miss Miller’s Husband Will Take Her Abroad to Establish Missions.” The Philadelphia Times, April 7, 1899.

Notes

1. Capt. F. Mirow, February 15, 1899, S.S. Saale. The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; BT27 Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Outwards Passenger Lists; Reference Number: Series BT27. Accessed from UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 from Ancestry.com [2/22/23].↩

2. General Conference Committee Minutes, March 11, 1899, 1.↩

3. Arthur L. White, Ellen G. White: The Australian Years, 1891-1900 (Takoma Park, MD: Review and Herald, 1982), 4:410-11. https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/670.3227#3236.↩

4. Quoted by James R. Nix, “The Captain Goes to Church,” ARH, June 21, 2012. https://adventistreview.org/2012-1517/2012-1517-16/.↩

5. White, Ellen G. White: The Australian Years, 1891-1900, 4:410-11. https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/670.3227#3236.↩

6. Kayla Goodman, Oral Family History by Michael W. Campbell, February 25, 2023; Nix, “The Captain Goes to Church,” https://adventistreview.org/2012-1517/2012-1517-16/.↩

7. Cf. “To Wed a Millionaire: Miss Catherine E. Miller Soon to be a Bride,” The Wichita Beacon, April 13, 1899, 3; “To Wed a Millionaire,” The Topeka State Journal, April 10, 1899, 2; “In Love at First Sight Were Millionaire and Adventist Norman and Miss Miller,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, April 7, 1899, 6.↩

8. “Will Marry Millions: Miss Miller’s Husband Will Take Her Abroad to Establish Missions,” The Philadelphia Times, April 7, 1899, 1.↩

9. White, Ellen G. White: The Australian Years, 1891-1900, 4:418.↩

10. General Conference Committee Minutes, March 11, 1899, 1.↩

11. Ibid.↩

12. General Conference Committee Minutes, April 26, 1899, 28.↩

13. General Conference Committee Minutes, May 3, 1906, 144b.↩

14. As aforementioned, the Henry Norman on board the ship from Southampton with Westphal had written down his birth year as 1872. A memory statement written seventy years after the incidents in this article described him as older, so it is impossible to note with exact certainty his age. See Capt. F. Mirow, February 15, 1899, S.S. Saale. The National Archives; Kew, Surrey, England; BT27 Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Outwards Passenger Lists; Reference Number: Series BT27. Accessed from UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 from Ancestry.com [2/22/23] and Nix, “The Captain Goes to Church,” https://adventistreview.org/2012-1517/2012-1517-16/.↩

15. St. Paul (American Line) arriving July 5, 1899, in Southampton, England, from New York, New York. The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists.; Class: BT26; Piece: 152; Item: 34. Accessed from UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960 from Ancestry.com [2/22/23].↩

16. Ellen G. White to Managers and Teachers in the Avondale School, April 13, 1900, Letter 88, 1899.↩

17. Ellen G. White, Manuscript 59, August 16, 1900.↩