Maxson, Willis Henry (1855–1919) and Harriet Phena (Sanderson) (1860–1920)

Early Adventist physicians who worked at a number of early Adventist sanitariums from New York and Michigan to California.

Early Lives

Willis Henry Maxson was born in Pleasant Valley, Richburg, New York, on May 26, 1855.¹ He came from a Seventh Day Baptist family who first emigrated to Rhode Island from England. He was baptized at age 14. One of his first jobs was working as a schoolteacher in a small school for two years in Alfred, New York. Alfred was an early center for Seventh Day Baptists and where they founded a tertiary institution, Alfred University. He also taught Sabbath School in his local church.² By the early 1880s, Willis had become a Seventh-day Adventist.

Harriet Sanderson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on March 7, 1860.³ She converted to Christianity and Seventh-day Adventism at an early age, the only one in her family. She was active in her local church.⁴ As a young woman, she connected with the Battle Creek Sanitarium. In the summer of 1882, Harriet and Willis spent the summer volunteering at the Sanitarium. Both Harriet and Willis graduated with medical degrees from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He graduated in 1883, and she in 1885.⁵

Medical Work

Willis and Harriet married on September 12, 1884, and served as medical missionaries at first in New York and later in Ohio at Mt. Vernon. At the specific urging of Ellen White in 1887, the Rural Health Retreat Association board invited them to serve as physicians.⁶ Unfortunately, on January 8, 1888, conflict with Dr. J. S. Gibbs over the use of drugs instead of natural remedies resulted in their resignations.⁷ The board noted with “appreciation” their “faithful labors” ultimately accepting their resignations.⁸ The couple left to open a sanitarium in the Fresno, California, area.

In 1891, they took an extensive trip to Europe and Palestine “developing and extending their medical efficiency.”⁹ When Dr. W. P. Burke resigned, the board asked if the Maxsons might return to the Rural Health Retreat.¹⁰ While in London their oldest child, Harriet Maud (b. 1891) was born. The Maxsons returned later that year and were employed by the Adventist sanitarium in St. Helena for a second round of service as physicians for the next five years.¹¹ Here three more children were born: Willita May (b. 1893), Eugene Sanderson (b. 1896), and then later, Willis Henry, Jr. (b. 1901).¹² The couple also served on the editorial committee and frequent contributors to the denominational periodical, the Pacific Health Journal, and their writing was also included in other church periodicals.¹³

The Maxons left denominational employment and worked in Oakland, California where they built up the Nauheim Sanitarium, which later became the Oakland Central Hospital.¹⁴ By the 1910s, Willis’ health had begun to fail. In their later years, they remained active members of church participating in activities in Oakland and the Napa Valley. Harriet along with Alma McKibben established a Parent-Teacher Association at Pacific Union College in 1915.¹⁵ The Maxsons were strong supporters of Adventist education and

Willis Henry Maxson died in Berkeley, California, on February 4, 1919.¹⁶ Harriet Sanderson Maxson died at the sanitarium of her brother, Dr. A. J. Sanderson, in Berkeley, California, on September 26, 1920.¹⁷ After each of their early deaths, their funerals were held in Oakland, California. They are buried together in the St. Helena Cemetery in St. Helena, California.¹⁸

Sources

“Dr. Maxson, Builder of Hospital, Expires.” Oakland Tribune, February 4, 1919.

Fortin, Denis. “W. H. and Harriet (Sanderson) Maxson.” In The Ellen G. White Encyclopedia, edited by Denis Fortin and Jerry Moon. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 2013.

Hall, Mrs. S. C. “Appreciation of Dr. Maxson.” ARH, May 22, 1919.

Maxson, W. H. “Round About Jerusalem To-Day.” The Home Missionary, November 1891.

Osborne, Jessie Barber. “Parent-Teacher Association.” Pacific Union Recorder, June 7, 1917.

Rural Health Retreat Association Minutes, January 22, 1878 to July 7, 1892, transcribed by Michael W. Campbell, August 16, 2022, Advent Health St. Helena, St. Helena, California.

Tait, A. O. “Dr. Harriet Sanderson Maxson,” ARH, February 10, 1921.

Wilcox, M. C. “Dr. Willis Henry Maxson.” ARH, April 24, 1919.

Notes

1. Obit., ARH, April 24, 1919, 21.↩

2. Mrs. S. C. Hall, “Appreciation of Dr. Maxson,” ARH, May 22, 1919, 28.↩

3. Obit., ARH, February 10, 1921, 23.↩

4. “Report of New England S.S. Association,” The Youth’s Instructor, February 18, 1880, 35; “Report of New England S. S. Association,” The Youth’s instructor, June 2, 1880, 99.↩

5. See the Alumni Records Necrology File at Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan; “Deaths,” Journal of the American Medical Association (United States: American Medical Association, 1919), 669; Good Health, July 1882, 224.↩

6. Rural Health Retreat Association Minutes, March 30, 1887, 102.↩

7. The letter to the board as recorded in the minutes reads: “Owing to the incongruity apparent and realized in our connection with the professional work at the Retreat, we do hereby offer our resignations with the request that they be acted upon at your earliest convenience. We do this with the kindest feelings toward all connected with the Retreat, and with the sincere wish that God may work through it for the salvation of souls.” See Rural Health Retreat Association Minutes, Jan. 15, 1888, 127. For more on the background, see Denis Fortin, “W. H. and Harriet (Sanderson) Maxson,” in The Ellen G. White Encyclopedia (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 2013), 462-463.↩

8. Ibid., 128.↩

9. A. O. Tait, “Mrs. Harriet Sanderson Maxson,” ARH, February 10, 1921, 23. Dating is based upon reports, cf. W. H. Maxson, “’Howling Dervishes,’” ARH, July 28, 1891, 471 (reprinted in Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, Nov. 1, 1891, 324); W. H. Maxson, “Round About Jerusalem To-Day,” The Home Missionary, November 1891, 249-250.↩

10. Rural Health Retreat Association Minutes, January 25, 1892, 237-238.↩

11. “Matters at the Retreat,” Pacific Health Journal, February 1892, 59.↩

12. http://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/tools/tree/185188597/invitees/accept?inviteId=b3e3d6be-eb3e-434c-871f-a3e3597e3139 [accessed 9/22/22]↩

13. See, for example, the editorial committee list in, Pacific Health Journal, December 1896, 370; W. H. Maxson, “Round About Jerusalem To-Day,” The Home Missionary, November 1891, 249-50; “Publishers’ Department,” Pacific Health Journal, August 1901, 215; Mrs. H. S. Maxson, “Some of the Evils of Wearing Corsets. No.2,” Pacific Health Journal, May 1892, 152-153.↩

14. “Dr. Maxson, Builder of Hospital, Expires,” Oakland Tribune, February 4, 1919, 8; 1913 Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination: The Official Directories (Takoma Park, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing, [1914]), 200.↩

15. Jessie Barber Osborne, “Parent-Teacher Association,” Pacific Union Recorder, June 7, 1917, 13.↩

16. M. C. Wilcox, “Dr. Willis Henry Maxson,” ARH, April 24, 1919, 21.↩

17. A. O. Tait, “Mrs. Harriet Sanderson Maxson,”, ARH, February 10, 1921, 23.↩

18. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/48233561/willis-henry-maxson and https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/48233560/harriet-phena-maxson [accessed 9/22/22]↩