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Henry Scott

Photo courtesy of South Pacific Heritage Centre.

Scott, Henry (1857–1908)

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 28, 2020

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Henry Scott was a printer who came as one of 11 individuals to commence the work of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia and the South Pacific. He was one of the founders of the Echo Publishing Company in Melbourne and the printer of The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times. He remained in Australia for seven years before returning to America to work with the forerunner of Pacific Press.

Early Experiences

Henry Scott was born on October 18, 1857, in Omco on the Fox River, Wisconsin. In the 1850s Omco was known for its pine forests and lumber mills. His father, Luman Scott, was a blacksmith. As a young man he travelled west to California and found work in 1880 at Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, Oakland, printing The Signs of the Times. In the second year of Healdsburg Academy, 1883/1884, he attended and was baptized.1 He developed a keen interest in reading the books offered for sale by his former employee, buying a new one almost every month in 1884.2 In the summer of 1884 he assisted N. C. McClure with an evangelistic crusade at Petrolia in the Mattole Valley.3 He was granted a ministerial licence by the California Conference and chosen to be a part of the camp meeting committee.4

Mission Service Overseas

Scott’s ability as a printer warranted his inclusion in the party of 11, seven adults and four children, who sailed to Australia in the pioneering SDA mission team. They left San Francisco aboard the SS Australia on May 10, 1885.5 Arriving at Sydney on June 6, they took the SS Wentworth to Melbourne, where they disembarked on June 9 to begin their work. They rented premises at a home called “Sumerlide” in Highett Street, suburban Richmond. The printing of literature was vital for their crusade, so a small jobbing or treadle machine and type was purchased, and Scott installed it in his bedroom, where he produced, advertising material. In November he set the type for a four-page periodical issued as a forerunner of The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times. With the type in place he wheeled the galleys in a hand cart to a local printshop to complete the job.6

In December 1885 suitable premises for their own printshop were rented on the corner of Rae and Scotchmer Streets, North Fitzroy, and became known as the Echo Publishing House. A large Wharfedale power press and gas engine were donated and installed. With this machinery fully operational Scott was able to print the second issue of The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times for February 1886. It was a 16-page periodical similar to The Signs of the Times, which he had printed earlier in Oakland. Six months later Scott also began printing Our Australasian Youth and Sabbath School Guide (later adapted to The Young People’s Magazine).7

Prior to the sailing of the SDA band from San Francisco, some Californian church members were in the habit of mailing literature to folk in Melbourne. They highlighted these names and addresses in a Melbourne street directory and gave it to Elder Mendel Israel prior to his departure. Israel and Scott used it to trace and visit these individuals, including John Stockton and his family, who were the first to accept the invitation to attend Bible classes.8

Outside of the printshop Scott took a special interest in establishing friendly relations with church groups dedicated to temperance principles.9 When the SDA missionaries began their own temperance society in mid-1887, Scott himself was elected its initial president. It was titled the Australian Health, Temperance, and Social Purity Association.10 Scott also served as vice president of the Melbourne branch of the Sabbath School Association.11 When the Echo Publishing Company was legally formed in March 1889, Scott was elected a director and its vice president.12 In 1890 he was listed as its secretary and a director.13 Throughout these activities he was the elected lay elder of the infant Melbourne SDA Church.14

On Sunday, April 21, 1889, Scott married 19-year-old Elizabeth Pearce. The Pearce family were among the early converts in Ballarat, Victoria. Her father was a carpenter. The marriage service was performed by George Tenney.15 The following day Tenney officiated at the wedding of Elizabeth’s older brother, Edwin, to Emma Hellier, a member of another family of early converts.16 Such weddings were the beginning of what was to become a vast interrelated network of SDA families in Australasia. Two daughters were born to Henry and Elizabeth.17

On January 25, 1892, Scott and his family sailed from Sydney aboard the SS Mariposa, bound for San Francisco in order to be near his aging parents.18 He returned to printing with his former employer at Oakland, now called Pacific Press Publishing Company. He labored there until 1902, when it became necessary to retire near Thermal, California, and care for his ailing wife. Unfortunately, it was he who passed away first, on February 27, 1908.19 On December 26, 1908, Bessie passed away in Ventura, California. Her funeral service was conducted by the local pastor of the Presbyterian church.20

Sources

“Australian Missionaries.” Signs of the Times 11, no. 19 (May 14, 1885).

District of Fitzroy. Marriage Certificates. State Government Department of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Melbourne, Victoria.

“Historical.” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 3, no. 1 (January 1888).

Israel, M[endel] C. “The Australian Mission.” Signs of the Times 11, no. 45 (November 26, 1885).

——— “Opening of the Seventh-day Adventist Mission in the Australian Field.” Union Conference Record 13, no. 41 (October 11, 1909).

“Lantern Slides of Warburton.” Union Conference Record 10, no. 20 (October 1, 1906).

McClure, N. C. “From Humboldt County, Cal.” Signs of the Times 10, no. 24 (June 19, 1884).

“Orders Forwarded.” Signs of the Times 10, no. 10 (March 6, 1884).

“Organization in Australia.” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 3, no. 10 (October 1888).

Scott, L. A. “Bessie P. Scott.” ARH 86, no. 5 (February 4, 1909).

———. “Henry Scott.” ARH 85, no. 22 (May 28, 1908).

“Temperance.” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 2, no. 10 (October 1887).

Tenney, G[eorge] C. “Echo Publishing Company, Limited.” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 5, no. 21 (November 1, 1890).

“The Echo Publishing Company, Limited.” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 4, no. 7 (April 1, 1889).

“The R.M. steamer Mariposa, which sailed . . .” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 7, no. 3 (February 1, 1892).

Waggoner, J[oseph] H. “California Conference Proceedings.” Signs of the Times 10, no. 38 (October 9, 1884).

Notes

  1. District of Fitzroy, Certificate of Marriage 4443 (1889), State Government Department of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Melbourne, VIC; L. A. Scott, “Henry Scott,” ARH 85, no. 22 (May 28, 1908): 23.↩

  2. E.g., “Orders Forwarded,” Signs of the Times 10, no. 10 (March 6, 1884): 158.↩

  3. N. C. McClure, “From Humboldt County, Cal.,” Signs of the Times 10, no. 24 (June 19, 1884): 379.↩

  4. J[oseph] H. Waggoner, “California Conference Proceedings,” Signs of the Times 10, no. 38 (October 9, 1884): 600–602.↩

  5. “Australian Missionaries,” Signs of the Times 11, no. 19 (May 14, 1885): 304.↩

  6. “Historical,” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 3, no. 1 (January 1888): 2; “Lantern Slides of Warburton,” Union Conference Record 10, no. 20 (October 1, 1906): 13.↩

  7. Ibid.↩

  8. M[endel] C. Israel, “Opening of the Seventh-day Adventist Mission in the Australian Field,” Union Conference Record 13, no. 41 (October 11, 1909): [1].↩

  9. M[endel] C. Israel, “The Australian Mission,” Signs of the Times 11, no. 45 (November 26, 1885): 714, 715.↩

  10. “Temperance,” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 2, no. 10 (October 1887):, 157.↩

  11. “Organization in Australia,” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 3, no. 10 (October 1888): 152.↩

  12. “The Echo Publishing Company, Limited,” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 4, no. 7 (April 1, 1889): 112.↩

  13. G[eorge] C. Tenney, “Echo Publishing Company, Limited,” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 5, no. 21 (November 1, 1890): 336.↩

  14. Scott, “Henry Scott,” 23.↩

  15. District of Fitzroy, Certificate of Marriage 4443 (1889), State Government Department of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Melbourne, VIC.↩

  16. District of Fitzroy, Certificate of Marriage 4444 (1889), State Government Department of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Melbourne, VIC.↩

  17. Scott, “Henry Scott,” 23.↩

  18. “The R.M. steamer Mariposa, which sailed . . .” The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times 7, no. 3 (February 1, 1892): 48.↩

  19. Scott, 23.↩

  20. L. A. Scott, “Bessie P. Scott,” ARH 86, no. 5 (February 4, 1909): 31.↩

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Hook, Milton. "Scott, Henry (1857–1908)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 28, 2020. Accessed February 19, 2025. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=BAWS.

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Hook, Milton. "Scott, Henry (1857–1908)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. January 28, 2020. Date of access February 19, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=BAWS.

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Hook, Milton (2020, January 28). Scott, Henry (1857–1908). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved February 19, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=BAWS.

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