Miller, Walter Henry Baxter (1864–1930)

Walter Miller, a printer, was an early convert to the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) faith in Melbourne, Australia. He worked for the Echo Printing House and the Pacific Press in California, and was manager of the Signs Publishing Company in Victoria.¹

Early Years

Walter Henry Baxter Miller was born in Gisborne, Victoria, Australia, on July 27, 1864. He was the eldest child of James Henry Miller (dates unknown) and his wife, Elizabeth (Rands, 1845–1919).² Their two other children were Herbert Lee Miller (1873–1916)³ and Alfred George Miller (1876–1932).⁴ When Walter was still a small child, his parents moved from Gisborne to the gold-mining town of Maryborough (Victoria), and his brothers were born there.

Conversion

The Millers were members of the Disciples of Christ Church (later Church of Christ), and about the early 1880s they and two other families from their church in Maryborough moved to Melbourne and joined the South Melbourne Disciples of Christ Church.⁵

When he was about twenty, Walter and his childhood friend from Maryborough, John Woods, became partners in a printing business⁶ in Clarendon Street, South Melbourne.⁷ S. N. Haskell and J. O. Corliss visited the shop and spoke to John about getting some letterheads printed.⁸ They were the leaders of a group of five men, two of whom brought their families, sent by the SDA Church in the United States of America, who had arrived in Melbourne the previous month (June 1885) to commence sharing the church’s distinctive doctrines in Australia.⁹

This group had brought with them boxes of tracts and other literature to distribute,¹⁰ and while preparing for public meetings held in July,¹¹ they spent most days giving them out to passersby.¹² Noticing, with some discouragement, that many recipients soon dropped their tracts, Corliss decided to leave some on fence railings and park benches where some interested person might pick one up.¹³ Walter picked one up from a bench in Albert Park¹⁴ (although many since have repeated his sister-in-law’s assertion that he took it from a picket on the fence surrounding the Exhibition Gardens)¹⁵ and was intrigued with its title, “Which Day Do You Keep, and Why?”¹⁶

Their church had a Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Society, and, thinking that question would be a good one for their next discussion, its members accepted Walter’s suggestion as the topic for their meeting of August 27, 1885,¹⁷ which was to be open to any attenders.¹⁸ Walter was assigned to talk about the keeping of the seventh day, and John about the first.¹⁹ Their discussion title was “When, where, and how was the Sabbath changed from Saturday to Sunday?”²⁰

John and Walter made the connection between the tract and the men who had come to get letterheads printed, and, hoping to get some good points for his side of the discussion, Walter went to Sumarlide in Richmond, where the pastors were living.²¹

It was the Sabbath when Walter first went to Sumarlide, and a Bible study on Daniel 2 was in progress.²² Walter had never seen anything like the charts on display, and was fascinated.²³ After some discussion about the topic of the tract, Corliss offered to make a presentation at the meeting the following Thursday night.²⁴ His offer was accepted, and after the society members had discussed the topic, he presented historical evidence showing Saturday was still the Sabbath.²⁵ He was so convincing that Walter and his mother invited Corliss to take a Bible study in the Miller family home on the next Tuesday, September 1.²⁶

They spread the word among their friends, and many of them came to the study. John’s mother asked for a Bible study to be held in her home, and others followed, with many from Walter’s and John’s church attending.²⁷ On October 25, 1885, when Corliss and M. Israel commenced a series of meetings in North Fitzroy,²⁸ these folk formed the core of the approximately 100 who attended.²⁹ During November, 41, including Walter and his mother, and John and his mother, covenanted to obey the commandments and to worship together on Sabbaths.³⁰

On January 10, 1886, the first SDA church in Australia was organized in Melbourne with 28 members,³¹ Walter and his mother among them.³²

Joining the “Work”

Walter and John immediately volunteered their services to the church, and assisted with the production of the magazine the church commenced publishing at the end of 1885.³³ While awaiting the sale of their business, they “set the type for the Bible Echo and Signs of the Times . . . in their own shop, and the pages were taken by cab to be printed . . .”³⁴ at our little printing office in North Fitzroy. Their business sold, they joined the fledgling Melbourne Tract and Missionary Society in October 1886.³⁵ Early in January 1887 Walter was appointed to a planning committee in the society.³⁶

Early in 1889 this society was replaced by a limited liability company that was formed called the Echo Publishing Company, Ltd., and Walter became the company secretary.³⁷

Marriage and Family

Also working on the printing of the Echo was twenty-year-old Bessie Bell, who had learned to set the type for the paper.³⁸ She and Walter worked well together, also taking on joint responsibilities in 1887 in the new Australian Health, Temperance, and Social Purity Association, as corresponding secretary and secretary, respectively, for the body.³⁹ They married four years later⁴⁰ and two sons were born to them, Walter Burnham Leo (1892–1959)⁴¹ and Linden George (1897–1954).⁴²

Bessie was born Elizabeth Thomasina Bell on July 11, 1865, in East Melbourne to Scottish immigrants James Bell and Elizabeth Somers.⁴³ She was the fifth of six children in the family, her siblings being John (1855–1921),⁴⁴ Robert Somers (1857–1942),⁴⁵ James (1861–1935),⁴⁶ Jane Gibson “Jeannie” (1863–1931, wife of Jesse Pallant),⁴⁷ and Agnes (1867–1944).⁴⁸

Bessie’s mother was a widow when the family became Seventh-day Adventists. She had heard her brother-in-law had left their Presbyterian church to follow a new “sect” so sent Bessie’s older brother, John, to go and set him straight.⁴⁹ He returned, convinced that Uncle William was right and Saturday was the true Sabbath. Within two weeks all of Bessie’s family except one brother, James, was worshipping with the SDA group.⁵⁰

Career

Walter continued working for the Echo Publishing Co., Ltd., retaining the position of secretary until April 1893.⁵¹ In December 1891 he was appointed as the vice president of the Australian Sabbath School Association, serving there also until April 1893.⁵²

Ellen G. White arrived in Melbourne, Australia, at the end of 1891. She took a strong interest in the publishing work,⁵³ and at her insistence Walter was sent to get further training in SDA publishing in the USA.⁵⁴ On April 10, 1893, Walter and Bessie sailed for California, where Walter joined the staff of the Pacific Press Publishing Association at Oakdale.⁵⁵ They stayed there two years and Walter gained experience in several areas, including as printer’s traveler⁵⁶ and auditor.⁵⁷ They arrived back in Melbourne in October 1895,⁵⁸ and Walter rejoined the Echo Publishing Company.⁵⁹ He also resumed the position of vice president of the Australian Sabbath School Association.⁶⁰

In February 1899 he returned to California to become the superintendent of the Pacific Press.⁶¹ His mother and two brothers accompanied Walter, Bessie, and their two sons, with his brothers both joining the Pacific Press staff.⁶² During this time he did more and more writing, with his devotional pieces and children’s stories appearing in denominational papers all over the world. In 1903 he was editing Our Little Friend.⁶³ His first book for children, Uncle Ben’s Cobblestones: Familiar Talks About Common Things, was published in 1904. After nearly five years the Miller family once again returned to Melbourne, and Walter became the superintendent at the city office of the Echo.⁶⁴

At the time of his arrival back in Melbourne, plans to move the publishing company to a rural location were in progress.⁶⁵ On March 12, 1906, work commenced in the village of Warburton in the hills east of Melbourne. The new plant was named the Signs Publishing Company and operated with a reduced workforce, as no more commercial printing was going to be done.⁶⁶ There were still a number of commercial contracts to be completed, and Walter was put in charge of that in Melbourne.⁶⁷ Then the Echo buildings were sold, and its business closed.⁶⁸

Walter did not transfer to Warburton, but remained in Melbourne to complete the outstanding contracts. When all were done, he then went into business with George Tyrer Petherbridge, another former Echo employee who did not transfer to Warburton.⁶⁹ Together they conducted a successful printing business for a decade.⁷⁰ During this time he wrote another children’s book, Uncle Ben’s Meadow Brook: Temperance Stories for Boys and Girls (1912). Although not now a conference employee, Walter continued to serve on conference committees⁷¹ and assist with Union Conference programs, such as the Sabbath School work.⁷² He retained close connections with the Signs in Warburton, and his youngest son, Linden, worked there as a commercial artist.⁷³ In 1913, and possibly for longer, he directed a choir in Melbourne that was a featured drawing card at the public meetings during the Victorian camp meeting early that year⁷⁴ and also at a mission effort in July and August 1913.⁷⁵

At the Union Conference council held in January 1916 Walter was appointed to be the manager of the Signs.⁷⁶ Walter seemed to have come full circle, as that year was the thirtieth anniversary of the commencement of the SDA publishing work in Australia.⁷⁷ It was also the middle of World War I, and a major concern for Walter was the obtaining of supplies to keep up the output of the press.⁷⁸ A number of providences supplied adequate materials, and they were able to increase production to more than two tons of literature a week.⁷⁹

During 1916 he managed to complete his next children’s book, Uncle Ben’s Cloverfield: Simple Nature Stories for Boys and Girls, but he was so busy during his time in Warburton that writing appears to have taken second place. He still freely took part in church programs, promoting Home Missions (the selling of Adventist literature)⁸⁰ and assisting the training of book sellers⁸¹ in addition to attending the various appointments that were part of his job.⁸²

At the beginning of 1919 he gave notice of his intention to resign from the Signs when a replacement could be found.⁸³ This did not happen until J. M. Johanson, who had previously been the Signs manager, returned from a term of service overseas in October, 1919.⁸⁴

After moving back to Melbourne, Walter once again found time to write. Over the next few years he put together more collections of his stories for children, resulting in another in the Uncle Ben series in 1926, Uncle Ben’s Sunshine Stories: Temperance Tales for Boys and Girls, and the following year a collection of Bible stories, Sweetest Stories Ever Told.

Death

On July 22, 1930, just a few days before his sixty-sixth birthday, Walter died in the Mentone Private Hospital after a sudden illness.⁸⁵ Four years later his final collection of stories was published, Uncle Ben’s Bible Stories.⁸⁶ His writing, which included poetry as well as prose, and even a song or two,⁸⁷ continued to be loved for many years.⁸⁸

His widow, Bessie, died the month before her eighty-first birthday, on June 20, 1946, in Camberwell, Melbourne, VIC.⁸⁹ Together their lives spanned the first sixty years of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia, and they had been intimately involved in its growth.

Sources

Anderson, A. W. “An Epidemic of Changes at Warburton.” Australasian Record, March 6, 1916.

———. “Life Sketch of Brother A. G. Miller.” Australasian Record, May 9, 1932.

———. “Life Sketch of the Late Pastor J. H. Woods.” Australasian Record, February 23, 1925.

———. “The Victorian Camp Meeting.” Australasian Record, March 17, 1913.

“Bell.” Union Conference Record, July 23, 1906.

Brandstater, R. “Miller.” Australasian Record, July 6, 1959.

British Deaths 1Q 1954 Kensington 5c 1231.

Brown, Frances. “100 Years and a Day.” Australasian Record, February 22, 1986.

Brown, R. K. “Adventist Roots in Australia.” Australasian Record, March 16, 1985.

“By the last Australian mail . . .” ARH, December 3, 1895.

“Change of Management of the Signs Publishing Company.” Australasian Record, December 8, 1919.

Corliss, J. O., and M. C. Israel. “Labour in the Suburbs of Melbourne.” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, January 1886.

Delta. “Temperance.” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, October 1887.

“Echo Publishing Company, Ltd.” Union Conference Record, January-February 1898.

Farnsworth, Mrs. E. W. “The Bible Echo.” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, September 29, 1902.

Faulkhead, Emma. “First Woman Sabbath-Keeper in Australasia.” Australasian Record, July 29, 1935.

Head, Charles. “Bell.” Australasian Record, November 13, 1944.

Hodgkinson, A. E., and J. L. Smith. “Victorian City Mission Effort.” Australasian Record, September 1, 1913.

Holman, Alan. “A Publishing Centenary.” Australasian Record, September 20, 2003.

Hook, Milton. Entry Into the Australian Colonies, Beginnings of Adventism in Australia. Wahroonga, NSW: South Pacific Division Department of Education, 1986.

Israel, M. C. “Opening of the Seventh-day Adventist Mission in the Australian Field.” Australasian Record, October 11, 1909.

Israel, M. C., and J. E. Fraser. “Melbourne Tract and Missionary Society.” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, February 1, 1887.

Jones, Laurence. Beginnings, A History of the Beginning of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Melbourne, Australia. Wantirna, VIC, Australia: Ring Press, 2013.

Litster, W. R. “Miller.” Australasian Record, August 26, 1946.

“Meetings were continued . . .” Bible Echo and Sighs of the Times, February 1886.

Meyers, H. J. “Pallant.” Australasian Record, June 15, 1931.

Miller, Mrs. A. G. “From One of the Earliest Families in the Message.” Australasian Record, July 29, 1935.

Miller, W.H.B. “Echo Publishing Company, Limited.” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, February 15, 1893.

———. “Notes From the Publishing House.” Australasian Record, February 25, 1918.

———. “Signs Publishing Company, Limited, Manager’s Report for the Quadrennial Period, 1915-1918.” Australasian Record, October 21, 1918.

———. “Thirty Years Ago!” Australasian Record, May 22, 1916.

“On Monday, October 13, . . . ” Australasian Record, October 27, 1919.

“On the 10th . . .” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, May 1, 1893.

“Organisation of the Board of Directors of the Pacific Press Publishing Company.” Pacific Union Recorder, July 2, 1903.

“Our force in the office . . . ” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, December 1886.

“Pacific Press Publishing Company.” Signs of the Times, June 4, 1894.

Parker, Myrtle G. “Sabbath School Convention, Hobart, Tasmania.” Australasian Record, November 20, 1911.

“Recommendations of the Union Conference Council Held at Warburton, Victoria, December 31, 1915, to January 10, 1916.” Australasian Record, January 31, 1916.

“Report of the Central Australian Sabbath School Association.” Union Conference Record, January-February, 1898.

Snow, C. M. “Death of Brother W.H.B. Miller.” Australasian Record, August 11, 1930.

“South Australian Camp Meeting.” Australasian Record, April 8, 1918.

South Australian Index of Death Registrations, 1944/648.

Stockton, H. “Former Providences.” Australasian Record, February 8, 1943.

Tenney, G. C. “The Work in Australia.” ARH, May 28, 1889.

“The poem . . . ” Signs of the Times, December 4, 1905.

“The Victorian Conference.” Australasian Record, April 5, 1909.

Turner, W. G. “Home Mission Convention.” Australasian Record, July 2, 1917.

“Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Our Warburton Publishing House.” Australasian Record, April 27, 1931.

“Uncle Ben’s Bible Stories.” Australasian Record, December 10, 1934.

Victorian Index of Birth Registrations, 1857/296.

Victorian Index of Birth Registrations, 1897/3957.

Victorian Index of Birth Registrations, 1865/23279.

Victorian Index of Birth Registrations, 1861/5679.

Victorian Index of Death Registrations, 1919, No. 15872.

Victorian Index of Death Registrations, 1916, No. 4456.

Victorian Index of Death Registrations, 1935/7710.

Victorian Index of Death Registrations, 1932, No. 7326.

Victorian Index of Marriage Registrations, 1891/4338.

“Wanted to buy . . . ” Australasian Record, October 6, 1958.

“Wanted to buy . . . ” Australasian Record, September 30, 1963.

“We are sure that our readers . . . ” Australasian Record, January 4, 1915.

Westerman, W. J. “Brief History of the Development of the Home Mission Work in Australasia.” Australasian Record, July 29, 1935.

White, Ellen G. “The Australian Camp Meeting.” ARH, January 7, 1896.

Woods, J. H. “Bell.” Australasian Record, November 14, 1921.

———. “Early History of Our Work in Australia, Part 1: Day of Small Things.” Australasian Record, January 28, 1924.

Notes

1. C. M. Snow, “Death of Brother W.H.B. Miller,” Australasian Record, August 11, 1930, 7.↩

2. Victorian Index of Death Registrations, 1919, No. 15872.↩

3. Victorian Index of Death Registrations, 1916, No. 4456.↩

4. Victorian Index of Death Registrations, 1932, No. 7326.↩

5. Emma Faulkhead, “First Woman Sabbath-Keeper in Australasia,” Australasian Record, July 29, 1935, 18.↩

6. J. H. Woods, “Early History of Our Work in Australia, Part 1: Day of Small Things.” Australasian Record, January 28, 1924, 2.↩

7. Milton Hook, Entry Into the Australian Colonies, Beginnings of Adventism in Australia (Wahroonga, NSW: South Pacific Division Department of Education, 1986), 5, 6.↩

8. Woods.↩

9. Laurence Jones, Beginnings, A History of the Beginning of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Melbourne, Australia (Wantirna, VIC: Ring Press, 2013), 9.↩

10. R. K. Brown, “Adventist Roots in Australia,” Australasian Record, March 16, 1985, 1–3.↩

11. Jones, 12.↩

12. Brown, 1–3.↩

13. Ibid.↩

14. W.H.B. Miller, “Echo Publishing Company, Limited,” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, February 15, 1893, 60, 61.↩

15. Mrs. A. G. Miller, “From One of the Earliest Families in the Message,” Australasian Record, July 29, 1935, 18.↩

16. W. J. Westerman, “Brief History of the Development of the Home Mission Work in Australasia,” Australasian Record, July 29, 1935, 4.↩

17. Jones, 15.↩

18. Faulkhead, 18.↩

19. A. W. Anderson, “Life Sketch of the Late Pastor J. H. Woods,” Australasian Record, February 23, 1925, 6.↩

20. Jones, 15.↩

21. Anderson, 6; W.H.B. Miller, “Thirty Years Ago!” Australasian Record, May 22, 1916, 1–3.↩

22. W.H.B. Miller, “Thirty Years Ago!”↩

23. Ibid.↩

24. Jones, 15.↩

25. Brown, 1–3.↩

26. Jones, 15.↩

27. Faulkhead, 18.↩

28. J. O. Corliss and M. C. Israel, “Labour in the Suburbs of Melbourne,” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, January 1886, 11.↩

29. Jones, 15.↩

30. Corliss and Israel, 11.↩

31. “Meetings were continued . . . ,” Bible Echo and Sighs of the Times, February 1886, 32.↩

32. Appendix, “The Church Roll,” in Jones, 52.↩

33. W.H.B. Miller, “Thirty Years Ago!”↩

34. Anderson, 6.↩

35. “Our force in the office . . . ,” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, December, 1886, 192.↩

36. M. C. Israel and J. E. Fraser, “Melbourne Tract and Missionary Society,” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, February 1, 1887, 27.↩

37. G. C. Tenney, “The Work in Australia,” Review and Herald, May 28, 1889, 345.↩

38. Mrs. E. W. Farnsworth, “The Bible Echo,” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, September 29, 1902, 8, 9.↩

39. Delta, “Temperance,” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, October 1887, 157.↩

40. Victorian Index of Marriage Registrations, 1891/4338.↩

41. R. Brandstater, “Miller,” Australasian Record, July 6, 1959, 15.↩

42. Victorian Index of Birth Registrations, 1897/3957; British Deaths 1Q 1954 Kensington 5c 1231.↩

43. Victorian Index of Birth Registrations, 1865/23279; W. R. Litster, “Miller,” Australasian Record, August 26, 1946, 7.↩

44. J. H. Woods, “Bell,” Australasian Record, November 14, 1921, 8.↩

45. Victorian Index of Birth Registrations, 1857/296; South Australian Index of Death Registrations, 1944/648.↩

46. Victorian Index of Birth Registrations, 1861/5679; Victorian Index of Death Registrations, 1935/7710.↩

47. H. J. Meyers, “Pallant,” Australasian Record, June 15, 1931, 8.↩

48. Charles Head, “Bell,” Australasian Record, November 13, 1944, 7.↩

49. M. C. Israel, “Opening of the Seventh-day Adventist Mission in the Australian Field,” Australasian Record, October 11, 1909, 1–3.↩

50. Ibid.↩

51. “On the 10th . . . ,” Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, May 1, 1893, 144.↩

52. Ibid.↩

53. W.H.B. Miller, “Echo Publishing Company, Limited.”↩

54. A. W. Anderson, “An Epidemic of Changes at Warburton,” Australasian Record, March 6, 1916, 6; Anderson, “Life Sketch of Brother A. G. Miller.”↩

55. “On the 10th . . .”↩

56. Snow, 7.↩

57. “Pacific Press Publishing Company,” Signs of the Times, June 4, 1894, 476.↩

58. “By the last Australian mail . . . ,” ARH, December 3, 1895, 784; Ellen G. White, “The Australian Camp Meeting,” ARH, January 7, 1896, 1, 2.↩

59. “Echo Publishing Company, Ltd.,” Union Conference Record, January-February 1898, 23.↩

60. “Report of the Central Australian Sabbath School Association,” Union Conference Record, January-February 1898, 18.↩

61. Snow, 7.↩

62. Ibid.↩

63. “Organisation of the Board of Directors of the Pacific Press Publishing Company,” Pacific Union Recorder, July 2, 1903, 6.↩

64. “The poem . . . ,” Signs of the Times, December 4, 1905, 596; “Bell,” Union Conference Record, July 23, 1906, 12; Alan Holman, “A Publishing Centenary,” Australasian Record, September 20, 2003, 10, 11.↩

65. Ibid.↩

66. “Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Our Warburton Publishing House,” Australasian Record, April 27, 1931, 4, 5.↩

67. Anderson, “An Epidemic of Changes at Warburton.”↩

68. Ibid.↩

69. Ibid.↩

70. Ibid.; Snow, 7.↩

71. “The Victorian Conference,” Australasian Record, April 5, 1909, 5.↩

72. Myrtle G. Parker, “Sabbath School Convention, Hobart, Tasmania,” Australasian Record, November 20, 1911, 6.↩

73. “We are sure that our readers . . . ,” Australasian Record, January 4, 1915, 8.↩

74. A. W. Anderson, “The Victorian Camp Meeting,” Australasian Record, March 17, 1913, 9.↩

75. A. E. Hodgkinson and J. L. Smith, “Victorian City Mission Effort,” Australasian Record, September 1, 1913, 2.↩

76. “Recommendations of the Union Conference Council Held at Warburton, Victoria, December 31, 1915, to January 10, 1916,” Australasian Record, January 31, 1916, 5.↩

77. W.H.B. Miller, “Thirty Years Ago!”↩

78. W.H.B. Miller, “Notes From the Publishing House,” Australasian Record, February 25, 1918, 6, 7.↩

79. H. Stockton, “Former Providences,” Australasian Record, February 8, 1943, 3, 4.↩

80. W. G. Turner, “Home Mission Convention,” Australasian Record, July 2, 1917, 4.↩

81. “South Australian Camp Meeting,” Australasian Record, April 8, 1918, 4.↩

82. W.H.B. Miller, “Signs Publishing Company, Limited, Manager’s Report for the Quadrennial Period, 1915-1918,” Australasian Record, October 21, 1918, 19–21.↩

83. “Change of Management of the Signs Publishing Company,” Australasian Record, December 8, 1919, 8.↩

84. Ibid.; “On Monday, October 13, . . . ,” Australasian Record, October 27, 1919, 8.↩

85. Snow, 7.↩

86. “Uncle Ben’s Bible Stories,” Australasian Record, December 10, 1934, 6.↩

87. Frances Brown, “100 Years and a Day,” Australasian Record, February 22, 1986, 8–10.↩

88. “Wanted to buy . . . ,” Australasian Record, October 6, 1958, 7; “Wanted to buy . . . ,” Australasian Record, September 30, 1963, 15.↩

89. Litster, 7.↩