Miller, Eli Burgess (1855–1900)

Eli B. Miller was a pioneer Adventist educator and missionary, the first professor of elocution or homiletics in Adventist history, and contributor and editor of Bible Readings and some of the earliest Sabbath School lessons.

Early Life

Eli was born in Ohio on December 15, 1855, to Hickman (1817-1896) and Elizabeth (1825-1903) Miller. His parents became Adventists in 1856 in Ohio.¹ They moved with their children to Burlington, Michigan, in 1862. Eli was baptized by John Byington in 1869.² Eli entered Battle Creek College on his eighteenth birthday and graduated in 1879, receiving the first degree ever granted by a Seventh-day Adventist educational institution. He subsequently taught at Battle Creek College for the next 18 years.

Eli was the first corresponding secretary of the International Sabbath School Association.³ The diminutive five foot, six inches, dynamo, while still a student in 1878, was active in organizing the local Battle Creek Church’s Sabbath School. Likely, Eva A Miller and Eli’s work with pioneer Adventist educator, Goodloe Harper Bell, brought them in close contact. Eva was Bell’s assistant in the classroom and assisted with the preparation of his grammars.⁴ On August 5, 1880, Eli married Eva (1858-1942), and together they would serve as a ministry team.⁵

Teaching Career

Eli was known as a very caring professor whom students could approach for help, especially with practical things, like finding a place to live at Battle Creek College.⁶ During school breaks, he would assist with evangelistic meetings.⁷ He sided with Alexander Mclearn when a controversy erupted between Bell and McLearn at Battle Creek College.⁸ The conflict ultimately contributed to the school's closing during the 1882-1883 school year. After the dust settled, which resulted in both McLearn and Bell leaving the school, Eli was one of the faculty remaining to reopen the school. By 1882, Eli was listed as having a ministerial license and held evangelistic meetings while the school was closed.⁹ He frequently attended Adventist camp meetings and led the Sabbath School Association for Michigan.¹⁰ During the early 1880s, Eli produced early Sabbath School lessons.¹¹

In 1885, Eli was listed as having an M.A. degree and working as a professor of natural science; Eva was an English professor.¹² Eli, however, was especially well known for his classes in elocution and traveled to teach intensive two-week classes for pastors in the “science and practice of elocution.”¹³ He may be the first individual in Adventist history to specialize in public speaking and homiletics. One church leader described his teaching in elocution as so vital that “not one of our preaching brethren can afford to miss this course of instruction.”¹⁴

In the early 1880s, he was part of the Bible Reading Bureau, with W. C. Sisley, Uriah Smith, W. H. Littlejohn, and M. J. Chapman to develop the original Bible-Reading Gazette, the forerunner of Bible Readings for the Home Circle.¹⁵ By 1889, as he became known, Professor Miller was in charge of the Bible department at Battle Creek College, and co-authored, with his wife, his first book, titled First Lessons in the Old Testament, a condensation of his lectures at the college for children.¹⁶ Also, beginning in 1889 and continuing until they left as missionaries, Eli served as a member of the Foreign Mission Board. In 1890, he belonged to a “standing committee” at the college for missionary work in Africa, South America, Mexico, and the West Indies.¹⁷

Eli worked closely with W. W. Prescott to create the pivotal 1891 Harbor Springs educational convention.¹⁸ The major emphasis of this meeting was pedagogy and missions. With such a strong interest in missions, it is not surprising that on July 20, 1892,¹⁹ Eli and Eva left Battle Creek, Michigan, for South Africa where he became the first president of the newly formed Union College (later named Claremont College). They visited Europe and Palestine on their voyage to South Africa.²⁰ The missionaries arrived in South Africa on December 1, 1892.²¹ They arrived just in time to attend the annual session of the South African Mission held in the newly constructed College building on December 4^th.²² They were amongst the founders of the first Adventist college outside of North America that officially opened on February 1, 1893.²³ They along with Harmon Lindsay and Sarah Peck were sent as educators to build up the new school.²⁴ The school quickly attracted students. During that first semester, they had 40 boarding students and several additional day students.²⁵

In October 1893, Eli was elected to serve as vice president of the South African Conference.²⁶ When O. A. Olsen, church president at the time, visited he reported:

The Lord has greatly blessed the faithful labors of Professor Miller and the other members of the faculty. While no special pressure has been brought to bear upon any one, the daily study of the Bible and the Sabbath afternoon Bible class, carried on during the year, have proved a great blessing to the entire school; and now the fruits are seen in the children and young people turning to the Lord. A number have already been baptized, and others are preparing to go forward.²⁷

Unfortunately, poor health necessitated the Millers return home.²⁸ At the 1895 General Conference session, church leaders asked Eli and Eva to teach at Walla Walla College for a year.²⁹ They spent a week in Battle Creek, on their journey, hoping that the climate would improve their health.³⁰ The couple then taught at Union College where he was president until the end of the 1896-1897 school year.³¹

Final Years

Because of failing health, Eli traveled to Colorado for a year, after which he returned to Union College to teach. By now it became apparent that he was struggling with tuberculosis. The couple went to Asheville, North Carolina, where he seemed to improve again. In June 1899 he returned to Boulder, Colorado, planning to run a school for poor children while he was there, but he was obliged to give up these plans because of his illness. He returned to Battle Creek, Michigan, where he died on March 1, 1900, and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery.³² After his death, Eva continued teaching and married I. J. Hankins. They returned to Africa as missionaries.

Sources

Canright, D. M. “The Ohio Institute.” ARH, May 6, 1880.

D[aniells], A. G. “The Bible School.” The Bible Echo, February 15, 1893.

“Eli Burgess Miller.” Find a Grave. Accessed July 8, 2022. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19578816/eli-burgess-miller.

“General Conference.” Signs of the Times, December 13, 1883.

“General Sabbath-School Association.” Signs of the Times, December 20, 1883.

Jones Gray, Meredith. As We Set Forth: Battle Creek College, Emmanuel Missionary College, Adventist Heritage Volume 1. Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University, 2002.

“Literary Notices. First Lessons in the Old Testament.” ARH, August 13, 1889.

Michigan, U.S. County Marriage Records, 1822-1940. Accessed September 8, 2022, from Ancestry.com.

“Michigan T and M Society.” ARH, December 12, 1882.

Miller, Eli B. “Ancient Education.” The Christian Educator, September and October 1897.

Miller, Eli B. “The Bible.” Youth Instructor, February 26, 1881.

Miller, Eli B. “The Sources of Educational Systems.” The Christian Educator, July 1897.

Miller, Eli B. “Suggested School Reforms.” The Christian Educator, May 1899, 241.

Miller, Eli B. “The Teacher’s Other Work Than Teaching.” Youth Instructor, June 6, 1888.

Miller, Eli B. and Eva A. Miller. First Lessons in the Old Testament: Adapted for Use in the Day -school the Sabbath-School, and the Family. Battle Creek, MI: College Press, 1889.

Morse, G. W. “Camp-Meeting at Alma, Mich.” ARH, July 5, 1887.

Obituary. ARH, February 26, 1942.

Obituary. Lake Union Herald, March 17, 1942.

Obituary. South African Division Outlook, June 1, 1942.

O[lsen], O. A. “Notes by the Way.” ARH, December 19, 1893.

“Proceedings of the South African Mission.” ARH, January 17, 1893.

“Prof. E. B. Miller.” ARH, March 13, 1900.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook 1885 Containing Statistics of the General Conference and Other Organizations of the Denomination, With the Business Proceedings of the Anniversary Meetings Held at Battle Creek, Michigan, Oct. 30 to Nov. 20, 1884. Battle Creek, MI: Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, 1885.

“South Africa.” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, October 1, 1892.

Spalding, Arthur W. Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1962.

“The Board of Foreign Missions.” The Home Missionary, August 1890.

“The Summer Normal Institute.” ARH, June 16, 1891.

“The Work in England.” ARH, November 22, 1892.

“Third Angel Over Africa.” Unpublished manuscript, General Conference Archives, Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A.

“Union College, College View, Neb.” ARH, August 8, 1896.

Whitney, B. L. “Pennsylvania and New York State Meetings.” ARH, April 29, 1880.

Notes

1. Obituary, January 21, 1896, 47.↩

2. “Prof. E. B. Miller,” ARH, March 13, 1900, 176.↩

3. Reflection by A. W. Spalding, quoted in Louise Kleuser, “Origin of our Bible Work,” unpublished document, White Estate DF 313 https://ellenwhite.org/media/document/7423?flowpaper_search=%22E.%20B.%20Miller%22 [accessed 8/7/22].↩

4. Obituary, South African Division Outlook, June 1, 1942, 3.↩

5. Michigan, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1822-1940, accessed from Ancestry.com, accessed 8/9/22.↩

6. See note in ARH, August 23, 1881, 144.↩

7. M. B. Miller & E. B. Miller, “Essex and Greenbush,” ARH, November 7, 1882, 699.↩

8. Meredith Jones Gray, As We Set Forth: Battle Creek College, Emmanuel Missionary College, Adventist Heritage Volume 1 (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University, 2002), 11-12.↩

9. “Michigan T and M Society,” ARH, December 12, 1882, 779.↩

10. G. W. Morse, “Camp-Meeting at Alma, Mich.,” ARH, July 5, 1887, 426.↩

11. “General Sabbath-School Association,” Signs of the Times, December 20, 1883, 573.↩

12. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook 1885 Containing Statistics of the General Conference and Other Organizations of the Denomination, With the Business Proceedings of the Anniversary Meetings Held at Battle Creek, Michigan, Oct. 30 to Nov. 20, 1884 (Battle Creek, MI: Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, 1885), 10.↩

13. See report by D. M. Canright, “The Ohio Institute,” ARH, May 6, 1880, 299. Other examples include ARH, October 10, 1882, 635.↩

14. B. L. Whitney, “Pennsylvania and New York State Meetings,” ARH, April 29, 1880, 288.↩

15. Cf. Bible-Reading Gazette, June 1884, 121; “General Conference,” Signs of the Times, December 13, 1883, 560.↩

16. “Literary Notices. First Lessons in the Old Testament,” ARH, August 13, 1889, 528.↩

17. “The Board of Foreign Missions,” The Home Missionary, August 1890, 174.↩

18. “The Summer Normal Institute,” ARH, June 16, 1891, 384.↩

19. “South Africa,” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, October 1, 1892, 304; ARH, July 26, 1892, 480.↩

20. See note in The Present Truth, August 11, 1892, 256; “The Work in England,” ARH, November 22, 1892, 726.↩

21. See note in The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, January 15, 1893, 32.↩

22. “Proceedings of the South African Mission,” ARH, January 17, 1893, 43-44.↩

23. Arthur W. Spalding, Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1962), 2:52.↩

24. “Third Angel Over Africa,” unpublished manuscript, General Conference Archives, 60.↩

25. A. G. D[aniells], “The Bible School,” The Bible Echo, February 15, 1893, 64.↩

26. See note in Signs of the Times, December 18, 1893, 108.↩

27. O. A. O[lsen], “Notes by the Way,” ARH, December 19, 1893, 796.↩

28. See note that appears in ARH, May 28, 1895, 352. Foreign Mission Board Minutes, March 5, 1895, 144.↩

29. General Conference Bulletin, May 2, 1895, 47.↩

30. See note in ARH, June 18, 1895, 400.↩

31. “Union College, College View, Neb.,” ARH, August 8, 1896, 529.↩

32. “Eli Burgess Miller,” Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19578816/eli-burgess-miller [accessed 8/7/22].↩