Smith, Leon Albert (1863–1958)

Leon Smith, son of noted pioneer Uriah Smith, was a longtime Adventist editor and writer.

Early Life and Education (1863-1877)

Leon Albert Smith was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, on April 21, 1863, to Uriah Smith (1832-1903) and Harriet Newell Stevens Smith (1831-1911), the second of five children.¹ Throughout Leon’s childhood, Battle Creek was the hub of Adventist operations. Leon’s father, Uriah, a pioneering church leader and editor of the Review and Herald, was elected the first Secretary of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists on May 21, 1863—just one month after Leon’s birth.²

At the age of seven, Leon was listed in the Youth’s Instructor as having donated 50 cents to the paper.³ From then on, “L. A. Smith” was never far from Adventist publishing—either as contributor or editor. Leon enrolled at Battle Creek College on January 3, 1877, at age 13, taking the Teacher’s Course, a two-year plan of study.⁴

Early Career and Ministry (1878-1892)

Leon followed his father’s career path and “early entered denominational work.”⁵ At the age of 20, he moved to Oakland, California, to work at the Signs of the Times publishing office (later known as Pacific Press). Referring to several recent additions to the staff, W. C. White reported in February 1884 that “our friends who lately came from the East have fallen into line” and mentioned that Leon was rendering “good service.” Because a large cohort of the press workers were barely out of their teens, the managers of the publishing house hired Robert Sawyer and his wife to have “a father’s and a mother’s care for our large family of young people.”⁶

At the 1885 General Conference session, Leon Smith and I. S. Miner were chosen as a two-man committee to gather statistics for the Adventist Yearbook.⁷ In 1886, Smith published a scathing attack in the Review on Darwin’s theory of evolution. In the piece, Smith attempted to link “the dogma of man’s immortal soul” with the belief in evolution by natural selection. He argued that “the Darwinian monkey is not man’s true progenitor,” and wrote that those who accepted “the repulsive and unscriptural theory of evolution” were “far advanced on the direct road to atheism.”⁸

By the mid-1880s, Smith was “editorially associated” with the Review and Herald.⁹ In February 1887 his name appeared on the masthead as assistant editor under his father Uriah.¹⁰ In one of his editorials later that year, Leon made a case for a renewed focus on biblical laws and doctrines. He argued that “correct doctrine” was essential to “true spiritual advancement.” Doctrinal adherence insured, “if faithfully practiced, final salvation.”¹¹ In the controversy surrounding the 1888 Minneapolis General Conference, Smith came to believe that both sides of the debate were at fault.¹²

In a candid letter to Leon Smith in 1890, Ellen White wrote, “The position that you take is very similar to that of the Scribes and Pharisees, constantly criticizing but refusing to come to the light.” She counseled him to recognize his need for greater humility: “Brother Leon Smith, you are a young man, and you need a much deeper experience in humbly walking with God. . . . Our young men laboring in the cause of God need a thorough change of spirit, and to so humble their hearts before God that He can make them living channels of light. . . . Jesus is waiting to open to their minds and hearts a new and living way that they have not walked in.”¹³

In 1891, after being elected to the committee of the recently-organized National Religious Liberty Association, Smith wrote to Ellen White, asking her advice on debating with non-believers in Ann Arbor, Michigan.¹⁴ White advised him against it: “Do not seek to cultivate those qualities that will make you sharp debaters, for if you do, Satan will weave into your spirit his own attributes; rather seek to be like Jesus.”¹⁵

England, Marriage and Religious Liberty (1893-1906)

On June 27, 1893, Leon Smith married Amelia Swain (1868-1943) in Jackson, Indiana.¹⁶ Amelia was a native of Seymour, Indiana, and lived with her parents until she married Leon at age 24.¹⁷ Leon and Amelia would have three children, Dorothea (1897-1994), Wilton Archibald (1899-1982), and Barbara Lolita (1903-2005).¹⁸

Three months before the wedding, on March 6, 1893, the General Conference Committee on Distribution of Labor recommended that Leon “go to London [England] to connect with the editorial work on Present Truth” in association with Ellet J. Waggoner.¹⁹ Leon informed the Foreign Mission Board that he wanted to take “a wife to England” and received from the board the assurance he desired that her travel fare would be covered.²⁰ Soon after the wedding, Leon and Amelia sailed to England.²¹ Smith worked at the offices of the Present Truth in London, 48 Paternoster Row. He characteristically ended a Present Truth article published in August 1895 by stating to whoever did not accept Christ’s offer, “it is nobody’s fault but your own.”²²

In 1895, Smith was appointed assistant editor of the American Sentinel, a paper devoted to religious liberty, with editorial offices in the New York City branch of Pacific Press. Published in Oakland, California, when it was initiated in 1886, the Sentinel’s original masthead read, “Corrupted freemen are the worst slaves.”²³

In his new role, Smith became increasingly immersed in church-state issues. In January 1896, he published an article on “Patriotism” in the Review.²⁴ By 1900, Smith was co-editor (along with C. P. Bollman) of the Sentinel, newly renamed the Sentinel of Liberty and moved to Chicago. Its express purpose was “to defend the rights of the people of this country in view of the rise of a religio-political movement” that advocated unconstitutional legislation.²⁵

In 1901, Smith returned to the Review and Herald Publishing Association to serve again as an assistant editor of the Review and Herald under his father and as a member of the publishing house’s book committee.²⁶ By 1902, Leon shared the title of Review editor along with his father, Uriah, and W. A. Spicer. W. W. Prescott served as managing editor.²⁷ Uriah died unexpectedly from a stroke on March 6, 1903. The Review carried an extensive front-page obituary, with tributes from Prescott and General Conference President Arthur G. Daniells. Leon was mentioned as “one of the editors of the Review and Herald.”²⁸ Prescott became editor after Uriah’s death, with Leon, along with Spicer, resuming the role of assistant editor.

Southern Publishing Association (1907-1918)

By 1907, Leon and Amelia had moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where Leon connected with the Southern Publishing Association, organized in 1901. He was the first editor of the Report of Progress (later Southern Tidings) when it was started in July 1907 as the Southern Union Conference paper.²⁹ Smith also became editor of the Watchman, the Southern Publishing Association’s “general missionary paper.”³⁰ In October 1909, he was made a member of the General Conference’s Foreign Translations Committee, together with W. C. White, A. G. Daniells, and L. R. Conradi.³¹

On December 30, 1910, the General Conference Publishing Committee asked Smith to revise his late father’s well-known work, Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation (1882). Still in Nashville, Smith was asked to bring the book “up to date, and also endeavor to reduce the number of pages to about 700.”³² That same year, controversy surrounding the interpretation of the prophetic “daily” in Daniel 8 reached a climax.³³ Smith was a leading advocate of the old, historic view, and rebuked those who disagreed with him. Ellen White, in turn, rebuked Smith. “The action of Brother Leon Smith in publishing a tract containing condemnation of his brethren and of their belief was not endorsed by God,” she wrote in August 1910.³⁴

In 1912, Leon Smith became Secretary of Religious Liberty for the Southern Union.³⁵ In 1914, the Southern Publishing Association released Smith’s The United States in Prophecy.³⁶ It would become one of his best-known works.

Later Life (1919-1958)

After approximately 12 years in Nashville, Leon and Amelia moved back to Battle Creek. In 1921, the General Conference Press Bureau (predecessor to the Communications Department) asked Smith to serve in the role of literary editor. One of his first tasks was to write a booklet on Adventist theology.³⁷ The Smiths remained in Battle Creek until they moved to Glendale, California, in 1922, where Leon continued to write, edit, and publish. As part of his activities, he continued assisting the Press Bureau as literary editor.³⁸ In 1930, the General Conference Committee voted to supply Smith with the “denominational periodicals” deemed “essential to his work.”³⁹

Amelia died on August 29, 1943, two months after the couple’s 50^th anniversary. She was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.⁴⁰ “After a time,” Leon Smith moved back to Nashville and married Ada Marie Gollithan (1877-1961), a native of Davidson County, Tennessee.⁴¹

In January 1953, as his 90^th birthday approached, the Review noted that Leon had been attending Sabbath School for almost 90 years.⁴² That same month, he published a poem in the Review entitled “Seek Ye the Lord.”⁴³ Leon Smith died on April 19, 1958, in Nashville, Tennessee.⁴⁴ He was buried in Glendale, next to Amelia.

Legacy

As an editor, Leon Smith contributed to the development of publications at all of the denomination’s major publishing houses in North America and England. As a writer, he staunchly defended conservative Adventist views and advocated for religious liberty.

Sources

“Addenda.” In Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination: The Official Directories. Washington, D.C.: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1912.

“Amelia Smith obituary.” ARH, December 30, 1943.

“Amelia Swain.” FamilySearch. Accessed September 1, 2024, https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/9VW5-W71/amelia-swain-1868-1943

Battle Creek College Records. Vol. 1, 1876-1894, 14. Accessed September 1, 2024. https://adl.b2.adventistdigitallibrary.org/concern/published_works/20121726_battle_creek_college_record_book?parent_query=Battle+Creek+College+Record+Book.

Campbell, Michael, Vitalii Yakushin, and Jim Ford. “Register of the Uriah Smith / Mark Bovee Collection.” Center for Adventist Research, James White Library, Andrews University, 2018.

Catalogue of Battle Creek College: College Year 1877-78. Battle Creek, MI: Review and Herald, 1878.

“Foreign Mission Board Meeting, April 23, 1893.” Records of the Foreign Mission Board, Vol. 2. Accessed August 29, 2024. https://adl.b2.adventistdigitallibrary.org/concern/published_works/20215981_records_of_the_foreign_mission_board_of_the_seventh_day_adventists?parent_query=Records+of+the+Foreign+Mission+Board%2C+Vol.+2.

“Founder’s Day Address, 1924, by Justus G. Lamson.” E. K. Vande Vere Collection, Box 6, Folder 11. Center for Adventist Research, James White Library, Andrews University.

“Four Hundred Forty-Fifth Meeting: General Conference Committee.” General Conference Committee Minutes, March 25, 1930. Accessed September 1, 2024. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1930-03.pdf.

Froom, LeRoy E. Movement of Destiny. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1971.

“General Conference Proceedings.” ARH, December 8, 1885.

“General Conference Proceedings.” Daily Bulletin of the General Conference, March 7, 1893.

Hetzell, M. Carol. “Sabbath Schools in the News.” ARH, January 8, 1953.

“In Memoriam: Uriah Smith.” ARH, March 10, 1903.

“Leon Albert Smith.” FamilySearch. Accessed August 29, 2024, https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LHS7-72F/leon-albert-smith-1863-1958.

“Leon Smith obituary.” ARH, June 19, 1958.

“List of Periodicals.” In Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination: The Official Directories. Washington, D.C.: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1910.

“List of Periodicals Published Issued under the Auspices of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination.” The General Conference Bulletin, Second and Third Quarters, Nos. 6 and 7, 1902.

“Money Receipted.” Youth’s Instructor, December 15, 1870.

“National Religious Liberty Association.” Daily Bulletin of the General Conference, November 5, 1889.

Norman, R. Steven III. “A Century of Spreading Tidings: 1907 to 2007.” Southern Tidings, December 2007.

Oliver, Barry David. SDA Organizational Structure: Past, Present and Future. Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1989.

“One Hundred Eighty-Fifth Meeting: General Conference Committee.” General Conference Committee Minutes, November 30, 1910. Accessed August 29, 2024. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1910.pdf.

“One Hundred Thirty-Fourth Meeting: General Conference Committee.” General Conference Committee Minutes, July 15, 1919. Accessed August 29, 2024. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1919.pdf.

“R. & H. Book Committee.” ARH, June 11, 1901.

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

“Sixty-Seventh Meeting, General Conference Committee.” General Conference Committee Minutes, October 22, 1909, 119. Accessed August 29, 2024. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1909.pdf.

Smith, Leon A. “Our Load.” The Present Truth, August 22, 1895.

Smith, Leon A. “Patriotism.” ARH, January 7, 1896.

Smith, Leon A. “Seek Ye the Lord.” ARH, January 15, 1953.

Smith, Leon A. “The Bible and the Bible Only.” ARH, February 4, 1890.

Smith, Leon A. “The End of ‘This Generation.” ARH, November 2, 1905.

Smith, Leon A. “The Legitimate Result.” ARH, July 6, 1886.

Smith, Leon A. “The Sentinel of Liberty.” Sentinel of Liberty, May 10, 1910.

Smith, Leon A. The United States in Prophecy. Nashville, TN: Southern Publishing Association, 1914.

Smith, Leon A. “The Value of a ‘Creed.’” ARH, May 10, 1887.

Smith, Uriah, and John Byington. “Report of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.” ARH, May 26, 1863.

“The American Sentinel.” The American Sentinel, January 1886.

“The Review and Herald.” ARH, February 1, 1887.

“Three Hundred Ninety-Sixth Meeting: General Conference Committee.” General Conference Committee Minutes, November 15, 1921. Accessed September 1, 2024. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1921.pdf.

“Uriah Smith’s Son Dies at 94.” Battle Creek Enquirer, April 22, 1958.

White, Ellen G. “To Brn. Ballenger and L. Smith.” In The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1987.

White, Ellen G. to Leon A. Smith. October 9, 1891. Letter 27, 1891. Accessed September 1, 2024. https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/14057.7397001#7397004.

White, Ellen G. “My Brethren in the Ministry.” Letters and Manuscripts, Vol. 25, 1910-1915. Accessed September 2, 2024. https://egwwritings.org/read?panels=p14075.10926015&index=0.

White, W. C. “Laborers in the Office.” Signs of the Times, February 7, 1884.

Notes

1. “Uriah Smith’s Son Dies at 94,” Battle Creek Enquirer, April 22, 1958, 7; “In Memoriam: Uriah Smith,” ARH, March 10, 1903, 3, 4.↩

2. Uriah Smith and John Byington, “Report of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists,” ARH, May 26, 1863, 205-206.↩

3. “Money Receipted,” Youth’s Instructor, December 15, 1870, 191.↩

4. “Founder’s Day Address, 1924, by Justus G. Lamson,” Box 6, Folder 11, E. K. Vande Vere Collection, Center for Adventist Research, James White Library, Andrews University, 2.↩

5. “Leon Smith obituary,” ARH, June 19, 1958, 13.↩

6. W. C. White, “Laborers in the Office,” Signs of the Times, February 7, 1884, 96.↩

7. “General Conference Proceedings,” ARH, December 8, 1885, 760.↩

8. Leon A. Smith, “The Legitimate Result,” ARH, July 6, 1886, 425-426.↩

9. LeRoy Edwin Froom, Movement of Destiny (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1971), 259-260.↩

10. “The Review and Herald,” ARH, February 1, 1887, 72.↩

11. Leon A. Smith, “The Value of a ‘Creed,’” ARH, May 10, 1887, 298.↩

12. Froom, Movement of Destiny, 259-260. For an overview of the controversy see Michael W. Campbell, “General Conference Session of 1888,” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, March 20, 2024, accessed September 23, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=B9CB.↩

13. Ellen G. White, “To Brn. Ballenger and L. Smith,” in The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1987), 528-531.↩

14. “National Religious Liberty Association,” Daily Bulletin of the General Conference, November 5, 1889, 148.↩

15. Ellen G. White to Leon A. Smith, October 9, 1891, Letter 26, 1891, accessed September 1, 2024, https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/14057.7397001#7397004.↩

16. “Leon Albert Smith,” Find A Grave, Memorial ID 137290039, October 15, 2014, accessed August 29, 2024, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/137290039/leon-albert-smith; “Leon Albert Smith,” FamilySearch, accessed August 29, 2024, https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LHS7-72F/leon-albert-smith-1863-1958.↩

17. “Amelia Smith obituary,” ARH, December 30, 1943, 23.↩

18. “Amelia Swain,” FamilySearch, accessed September 1, 2024, https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/9VW5-W71/amelia-swain-1868-1943.↩

19. “General Conference Proceedings,” Daily Bulletin of the General Conference, March 7, 1893, 491; Seventh-day Adventist Year Book for 1893 (Battle Creek, MI: General Conference Association of Seventh-day Adventists, 1893), 41, 64.↩

20. “Foreign Mission Board Meeting, April 23, 1893,” Records of the Foreign Mission Board, Vol. 2, accessed August 29, 2024, https://adl.b2.adventistdigitallibrary.org/concern/published_works/20215981_records_of_the_foreign_mission_board_of_the_seventh_day_adventists?parent_query=Records+of+the+Foreign+Mission+Board%2C+Vol.+2.↩

21. “Amelia Smith obituary,” ARH, December 30, 1943, 23.↩

22. Leon A. Smith, “Our Load,” Present Truth, August 22, 1895, 537.↩

23. “The American Sentinel,” American Sentinel, January, 1886, 1.↩

24. Leon Smith, “Patriotism,” ARH, January 7, 1896, 3.↩

25. Leon Smith, “The Sentinel of Liberty,” Sentinel of Liberty, May 10, 1910, 273.↩

26. “Directory of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination,” in General Conference Bulletin, Third Quarter, 1901, 544; “R. & H. Book Committee,” ARH, June 11, 1901, 386.↩

27. “List of Periodicals Published Issued under the Auspices of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination,” General Conference Bulletin, Second and Third Quarters, Nos. 6 and 7, 1902, 635.↩

28. “In Memoriam,” ARH, March 10, 1903, 3-7.↩

29. R. Steven Norman III, “A Century of Spreading Tidings: 1907 to 2007,” Southern Tidings, December 2007, 4-7.↩

30. “List of Periodicals,” in Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination: The Official Directories (Washington, D.C.: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1910), 169.↩

31. “Sixty-Seventh Meeting, General Conference Committee,” General Conference Committee Minutes, October 22, 1909, 119. Accessed August 29, 2024. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1909.pdf.↩

32. “One Hundred Eighty-Fifth Meeting: General Conference Committee,” General Conference Committee Minutes, November 30, 1910, 322. Accessed August 29, 2024. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1910.pdf.↩

33. Overviews of this controversy are provided in the “Major Issues” section of Campbell, Michael W. Campbel, “Bible Conference of 1919,” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, April 21, 2023, accessed September 23, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=88Z2; and the “Church Administrator (1897-1919)” section in Gilbert M. Valentine, “Prescott, William Warren (1855–1944),” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, January 29, 2020, accessed September 23, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=E9ZU.↩

34. Ellen G. White, “My Brethren in the Ministry,” August 3, 1910, Letter 62, 1910, in Letters and Manuscripts, Vol. 25, 1910-1915, 431, accessed September 2, 2024, https://egwwritings.org/read?panels=p14075.10926015&index=0.↩

35. “Addenda,” in Year Book of the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination: The Official Directories (Washington, D.C.: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1912), 239, 245.↩

36. Leon A. Smith, The United States in Prophecy (Nashville, TN: Southern Publishing Association, 1914).↩

37. “Three Hundred Ninety-Sixth Meeting: General Conference Committee,” General Conference Committee Minutes, November 15, 1921, 1249, accessed September 1, 2024, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1921.pdf.↩

38. “Amelia Smith obituary,” ARH, December 30, 1943, 23; “Press Bureau” entries in Seventh-day Adventist Yearbooks for 1921-1932.↩

39. “Four Hundred Forty-Fifth Meeting: General Conference Committee,” General Conference Committee Minutes, March 25, 1930, 1115, accessed September 1, 2024, https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Minutes/GCC/GCC1930-03.pdf.↩

40. “Amelia Swain Smith,” Find A Grave, Memorial ID 85519377, February 22, 2012, accessed August 29, 2024, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/85519377/amelia_smith.↩

41. “Leon A. Smith obituary,” ARH, June 19, 1958, 13; “Ada Marie Gollithan Smith,” Find A Grave, Memorial ID 214661656, August 21, 2020, accessed September 2, 2024, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/214661656/ada-marie-smith..↩

42. M. Carol Hetzell, “Sabbath Schools in the News,” ARH, January 8, 1953, 20.↩

43. Leon A. Smith, “Seek Ye the Lord,” ARH, January 15, 1953, 3.↩

44. “Leon A. Smith obituary,” ARH, June 19, 1958, 13.↩