Auger, Emery Prime (1864–1922)

Emery P. Auger helped pioneer dissemination of Adventist literature in the French language, both in Europe and North America.

Early Years and Education

On February 19, 1864, Emery Prime Auger was born to French-Canadian parents Emerie Prime Auger and Mary Rivard near Ayer Junction, Massachusetts.¹ After the death of his parents when he was still a small boy, Emery’s grandparents took him into their care. He attended South Lancaster Academy in Massachusetts and later took the nurses’ course at Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan.²

Reaching the French

In 1886, while living in Burlington, Vermont, Emery undertook gospel work to reach French-speaking Americans, primarily through canvassing Adventist literature door-to-door. The Vermont Conference issued him a ministerial license on August 12, 1886, at its annual meeting held in Vergennes.³ During the winter of 1886-1887, Auger, with guidance from Stephen N. Haskell, developed a series of Bible readings (or studies) in French.⁴

Later in 1887, Emery was called to the church’s European mission, where he became one of the first Adventist publication vendors in France.⁵ He and his colleagues experienced some scattered success among the Protestant minority but could accomplish little among the Catholic population. On a second itinerary in France, Emery and his co-worker, Brother Prudent, out of funds and malnourished, contracted typhoid fever. The disease took Brother Prudent’s life. Emery recovered but his European mission was over.⁶

Upon his return to the United States in late 1888, Auger was appointed the French canvassing agent for the entire United States. He developed a plan for identifying French settlements to target, and over the next two years concentrated his efforts in Illinois, Wisconsin and Massachusetts.⁷ During these years, Auger also served on a number of denominational committees, including one responsible for the translation of Ellen White’s manuscript Life of Christ into other languages (the work was expanded and published in English as Desire of Ages).⁸

Multifaceted Ministry

Emery married Ohio native Rachel Rossier (1870-1964) in a ceremony performed at South Lancaster, Massachusetts, on May 24, 1891.⁹ Rachel traveled and worked with Emery in the years to come, making her contribution particularly in medical missionary activities.¹⁰ The couple parented four children: Lester Earl (1892-1968), Eugene Thomas (1894-1978), Susan Marie (1897-unknown), and Louise Nellie (1907-1977).¹¹

After their marriage, Emery and Rachel moved to Clay Center, Kansas, and then, in November 1895, to Mississippi. Based first in Burnsville, then Corinth, the Augers engaged in wide-ranging self-supporting ministry—preaching, giving Bible studies, canvassing, and helping the sick.¹²

In 1901, after more than five years in the South, Emery re-connected with his French-Canadian heritage, accepting a call to licensed ministry in the Quebec Conference.¹³ In addition to working to advance the Adventist message, he traveled throughout the province, bringing encouragement and support to scattered believers, many of whom experienced isolation and economic persecution. Again here, his efforts put him at odds with ministers of the established churches, Protestant as well as Catholic. Regardless, he continued to work tirelessly through door-to-door evangelism, private Bible studies, and personal meetings.¹⁴

The Augers returned to the American South around 1905. They resumed mission work in Corinth, Mississippi, and later in New Orleans, Louisiana. Their efforts during these years appear to have been largely self-supporting, though Emery was listed as a missionary licentiate for one year each in the Mississippi Conference (1906) and the Louisiana Conference (1912).¹⁵

In 1914 they returned to the Northeast, where Emery resumed work for “his beloved French people” as a licensed minister in the Massachusetts Conference. In 1915 he began two years as director of the Acushnet Sanitarium in New Bedford, Massachusetts.¹⁶

Emery and Rachel moved to Bern, Kansas, in 1917, primarily in order to care for her aging mother. On the evening of October 9, 1922, while Emery was walking home after helping a neighbor in need, horses accidentally knocked him off the side of the dark road, just outside of Bern. He never regained consciousness and died the following morning at the age of 58.¹⁷

Contribution

Though he faced much adversity and could not point to a large number of converts, Emery P. Auger left a legacy of lasting significance through his pioneering work in opening access to the Adventist message for French-speaking people.

Sources

Auger, E. P. “Missionary Work Among the French.” ARH, May 10, 1887.

Auger, E. P. “Mississippi.” ARH, March 24, 1896 and June 30, 1896.

Auger, E. P. “Mississippi.” ARH Supplement, December 6, 1896.

Auger, E. P. “The New Orleans Church.” Southern Union Worker, December 12, 1912

Auger, E. P. “What Can We Americans Do For the French-Speaking People?” ARH, January 28, 1890.

Auger, Emery P. “Quebec.” ARH, June 9, 1903.

Bourdeau, D. T. “Cheering News From Our French Canvassers.” ARH, May 19, 1891.

Conradi, L. R. “The Work in Central Europe.” ARH, December 6, 1887.

“Directory of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination.” General Conference Bulletin, Second and Third Quarters, 1902.

Eldridge, C. “Report of the General Canvassing Agent.” General Conference Bulletin, October 31, 1889.

“E.P. Auger Dies of Injuries.” Sabetha Herald, October 12, 1922.

“Emery P. Auger.” FamilySearch. Accessed February 19, 2024, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/M9Z3-XKC.

“Emery P. Auger obituary.” Atlantic Union Gleaner, December 13, 1922.

“The French Field, E.P. Auger, Agent.” Home Missionary, March 1891.

Kaiser, Denis. “Ellen G. White’s Life of Christ: An Episode in the History of Early Adventist Translation Work.” Faculty Publications, Paper 26, 2012. Accessed April 17, 2024, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/church-history-pubs/26/.

Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. 2^nd rev. edition. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald, 1996. S.v. “France.”

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbooks. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Online Archives (GCA), https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Yearbooks/Forms/AllItems.aspx.

Spalding, Arthur Whitefield. Christ’s Last Legion: Second Volume of a History of Seventh-Day Adventists Covering the Years 1901-1948. Washington D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1949.

Vuilleumier, V. “The European Field.” Signs of the Times, December 9, 1889.

Whitney, B. L. “Central Europe.” ARH, December 6, 1887.

Notes

1. “Emery P. Auger,” FamilySearch, accessed February 19, 2024, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/M9Z3-XKC.↩

2. “Emery P. Auger obituary,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, December 13, 1922, 10.↩

3. “Vermont Tract Society Proceedings,” ARH, September 14, 1887, 583; “Vermont Conference Proceedings,” ARH, October 12, 1887, 636.↩

4. E. P. Auger, “Missionary Work Among the French,” ARH, May 10, 1887, 301.↩

5. Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 2^nd rev. edition (1996), s.v. “France”; L.R. Conradi, “The Work in Central Europe,” ARH, December 6, 1887, 764; B.L. Whitney, “Central Europe,” ARH, December 6, 1887, 764.↩

6. J. Vuilleumier, “The European Field,” Signs of the Times, December 9, 1889, 10.↩

7. C. Eldridge, “Report of the General Canvassing Agent,” General Conference Bulletin, October 31, 1889, 123; E.P. Auger, “What Can We Americans Do For the French-Speaking People?,” ARH, January 28, 1890, 61; “The French Field, E.P. Auger, Agent,” Home Missionary, March 1891, 4-5; D.T. Bourdeau, “Cheering News From Our French Canvassers,” ARH, May 19, 1891, 316.↩

8. Denis Kaiser, “Ellen G. White’s Life of Christ: An Episode in the History of Early Adventist Translation Work,” Faculty Publications, Paper 26 (2012), 142, accessed April 17, 2024, https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/church-history-pubs/26/; additional committees identified in Home Missionary, March 1891, 2-3, 22, 24-25.↩

9. “Emery P. Auger,” FamilySearch; “Emery P. Auger obituary.”↩

10. E.P. Auger, “Mississippi,” ARH, June 30, 1896, 411; Emery P. “Quebec.” ARH, June 9, 1903, 18.↩

11. “Emery P. Auger,” FamilySearch.↩

12. “Papers Wanted,” ARH, January 30, 1894, 77; E.P. Auger, “Mississippi,” ARH, March 24, 1896, 189; E.P. Auger, “Mississippi,” ARH Supplement, December 6, 1896, 4.↩

13. “Directory of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination,” General Conference Bulletin, Second and Third Quarters, 1902, 609-610.↩

14. Auger, “Quebec.”↩

15. “Mississippi Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1906; “Louisiana Conference,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1912; E.P. Auger, “The New Orleans Church,” Southern Union Worker, December 12, 1912, 396-397.↩

16. “Emery P. Auger obituary.”↩

17. “E.P. Auger Dies of Injuries,” Sabetha Herald, October 12, 1922, 4.↩