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Emmett J. Hibbard

From Review and Herald, July 31, 1924.

Hibbard, Emmett Jacob (1860–1924)

By Milton Hook

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Milton Hook, Ed.D. (Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, the United States). Hook retired in 1997 as a minister in the Greater Sydney Conference, Australia. An Australian by birth Hook has served the Church as a teacher at the elementary, academy and college levels, a missionary in Papua New Guinea, and as a local church pastor. In retirement he is a conjoint senior lecturer at Avondale College of Higher Education. He has authored Flames Over Battle Creek, Avondale: Experiment on the Dora, Desmond Ford: Reformist Theologian, Gospel Revivalist, the Seventh-day Adventist Heritage Series, and many magazine articles. He is married to Noeleen and has two sons and three grandchildren.

First Published: January 26, 2023

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Emmett J. Hibbard, minister and evangelist, taught Bible subjects at several Adventist institutions and authored numerous doctrinal articles for church periodicals.

Family Background

Emmett Hibbard was born on January 19, 1860, in Lowville, Pennsylvania, a rural community in the northwestern part of the state. His older siblings were Lyman Albert (b. 1849) and Ella (b. 1855). His parents, Israel and Clarissa Adeline Moore Hibbard, raised their three children on the family farm where Emmett, as a teenager, toiled.1 Emmett’s mother belonged to the Methodist faith, but his father professed no religion. After attending public meetings, Emmett became a Seventh-day Adventist and was baptized at Lowville in 1884 by D. B. Oviatt.2

On February 23, 1880, Emmett married Flora May Allen, also of Lowville, whom he had known since childhood. The couple would have five children: Frederick DeForest (b. 1881), Charles Elbert (b. 1883), Clarissa May (b. 1884), Ava Grace (b. 1886), and Florence Gertrude (b. 1888).3

Early Ministry

Following his baptism, Hibbard canvassed denominational books for a year followed by a year (1885-1886) teaching church school at Wellsville, New York. He then transitioned to ministerial work, giving Bible readings in Olean, New York, and Warren, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Conference granted him a preaching license in 1888, and during that same year, he raised a church of some 35 members in Conneautville, western Pennsylvania. He remained with the Pennsylvania Conference for six years, 1888-1894. During this period he was vice-president of the conference and also at times served as president of the Sabbath School Association, the Health and Temperance Association, and the Tract Society. He was ordained at Elmira, New York, in 1892 by I. D. Van Horn and A. T. Jones.4

Educator, Author, Evangelist

In 1894 Hibbard connected with Battle Creek College as Bible teacher, a role he held until 1897.5 He then transferred to be president of Walla Walla College for the academic year, 1897-1898.6 He returned to Battle Creek to teach Bible subjects to nursing classes at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, 1898 through 1901.7 During this period he published a series of articles in Advent Review and Sabbath Herald titled “The Two Laws,” positing a sharp dichotomy between the “ceremonial” and “moral” laws in the Hebrew scriptures.8 These were later published in tract form by Pacific Press Publishing Association.9

Hibbard transferred to the Bible department of Healdsburg College in 190110 and remained for two academic years. In 1903 he joined the ministerial team of the California Conference.11 He remained on the West Coast until retirement. For five years, 1903 through 1908, he labored in the San Francisco area. He experienced the April 1906 San Francisco earthquake and published in Signs of the Times his response to those who believed it was merely a natural phenomenon.12 Earlier, he had published two noteworthy articles in the same periodical, one about the Second Coming13 and another outlining the concept of the priesthood of all believers based on I Peter 2:9.14

A highlight of this era was an evangelistic campaign in which Hibbard assisted evangelist William Ward Simpson in Oakland. Simpson introduced the innovation of large papier mache models of the beasts of Daniel to illustrate his lectures. Parts of the models were detachable for dramatic effect. The goat of Daniel 8, for example, had a great horn and when it was snatched away then four others burst out from the head using a compressed air apparatus.15

Hibbard transferred to teach Bible subjects at Fernando Academy (later San Fernando Valley Academy) within the Southern California Conference, 1908 through 1913.16 During these years he published a series of 20 articles in Signs of the Times titled “Man’s Sin and Saviour,” the first issued in July 1910.17 In 1913 he relocated to St. Helena in order to teach Bible and pastoral training at nearby Pacific Union College.18

Final Years

Hibbard returned to ministry in the Bay area three years later but soon thereafter nervous exhaustion overcame him and he went into semi-retirement in the North Pacific Union Conference.19 He was granted honorary ministerial credentials and nurtured the church community in the Portland tabernacle.20 He continued to publish articles, including two in the Signs of the Times titled “Faith and Its Counterbalance”21 and “The Sabbath Renaissance.”22

Emmett J. Hibbard passed away peacefully at age 64 on June 16, 1924, and was laid to rest in Rose City Cemetery, Portland, Oregon.23 His wife, Flora, passed away at Kelso, to the north of Portland, on December 13, 1951, aged 90, and was interred alongside her husband.24

Sources

“A Successful Series of Meetings.” Signs of the Times, December 5, 1906.

Brown, Marvin H. “Laborers of California Conference 1903.” Pacific Union Recorder, December 18, 1902.

Cady, Marion Ernest. “Healdsburg College Opening.” Pacific Union Recorder, October 24, 1901.

Cottrell, Hampton W. “Elder E. J. Hibbard.” ARH, July 31, 1924.

“Emmett Jacob Hibbard.” FamilySearch. Accessed December 6, 2022. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/KP7T-VL4.

“Flora May Allen Hibbard.” Find A Grave. Memorial ID 176693299, February 25, 2017. Accessed December 6, 2022. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/176693299/flora-may-hibbard.

Hibbard, Emmett J. “Christ Coming: Literal, Personal, Visible.” Signs of the Times, November 2, 1904.

Hibbard, Emmett J. “Earthquake Notes.” Signs of the Times, June 13, 1906.

Hibbard, Emmett J. “Faith and Its Counterbalance.” Signs of the Times, November 11, 1919.

Hibbard, Emmett J. “Man’s Sin and Saviour.” Signs of the Times, July 12, 1910.

Hibbard, Emmett J. “The Priesthood in Type and Anti-type.” Signs of the Times, October 25, 1905.

Hibbard, Emmett J. “The Sabbath Renaissance.” Signs of the Times, June 7, 1921.

Hibbard, Emmett J. Biographical Information Blank, September 5, 1905. Secretariat Missionary Appointee Files, RG 21, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Silver Spring, MD (GCA).

“Our Work and Workers.” Signs of the Times, June 17, 1897.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbooks. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Online Archives. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/Forms/Allitems.aspx.

Notes

  1. “Emmett Jacob Hibbard,” FamilySearch, accessed December 6, 2022, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/KP7T-VL4.↩

  2. Emmett J. Hibbard Biographical Information Blank, September 5, 1905. Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, Record 114919, GCA; Hampton W. Cottrell, “Elder E. J. Hibbard,” ARH, July 31, 1924,↩

  3. “Emmett Jacob Hibbard,” FamilySearch.↩

  4. Hibbard Biographical Information Blank, September 5, 1905, GCA; Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1892, 32.↩

  5. Hibbard Biographical Information Blank, September 5, 1905, GCA.↩

  6. “Our Work and Workers,” Signs of the Times, June 17, 1897, 11.↩

  7. Hibbard Biographical Information Blank, September 5, 1905, GCA.↩

  8. Series in ARH, October 31, November 7 and 28, and December 5, 1899.↩

  9. “Emmett Jacob Hibbard,” Biographical Information Form.↩

  10. Marion Ernest Cady, “Healdsburg College Opening,” Pacific Union Recorder, October 24, 1901, 10.↩

  11. Marvin H. Brown, “Laborers of California Conference 1903,” Pacific Union Recorder, December 18, 1902, 6.↩

  12. Emmett J. Hibbard, “Earthquake Notes,” Signs of the Times, June 13, 1906, 9.↩

  13. Emmett J. Hibbard, “Christ Coming: Literal, Personal, Visible,” Signs of the Times, November 2, 1904, 4, 14.↩

  14. Emmett J. Hibbard, “The Priesthood in Type and Anti-type,” Signs of the Times, October 25, 1905, 5.↩

  15. “A Successful Series of Meetings,” Signs of the Times, December 5, 1906, 13.↩

  16. See “Fernando Academy” in Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1909 through 1913.↩

  17. Emmett J. Hibbard, “Man’s Sin and Saviour,” Signs of the Times, July 12, 1910, 4-6.↩

  18. “Pacific Union College” in Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, 1914 through 1916.↩

  19. Cottrell, “Elder E. J. Hibbard.”↩

  20. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1920, 75-76.↩

  21. Emmett J. Hibbard, “Faith and Its Counterbalance,” Signs of the Times, November 11, 1919, 3-4.↩

  22. Emmett J. Hibbard, “The Sabbath Renaissance,” Signs of the Times, June 7, 1921, 6-7.↩

  23. Cottrell, “Elder E. J. Hibbard.”↩

  24. “Flora May Allen Hibbard,” Find A Grave, Memorial ID 176693299, February 25, 2017, accessed December 6, 2022, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/176693299/flora-may-hibbard.↩

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Hook, Milton. "Hibbard, Emmett Jacob (1860–1924)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 26, 2023. Accessed December 11, 2024. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=B9H2.

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Hook, Milton. "Hibbard, Emmett Jacob (1860–1924)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 26, 2023. Date of access December 11, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=B9H2.

Copy to clipboard Download Word File

Hook, Milton (2023, January 26). Hibbard, Emmett Jacob (1860–1924). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved December 11, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=B9H2.

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