The First Adventist Press in Rochester Season 2 | Episode 17
In the 1850s Rochester, New York was a relatively new town
with lots of new industries and people moving in.
The early Advent believers would settle here for a few years
in a sort of youth commune.
A house was procured for the rent of $175 a year
on what is now 491 Mount Hope Avenue.
The Whites would live here for three and a half years,
from the spring of 1852 to the autumn of 1855.
The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald which had begun in Paris Hill, Maine
before moving to Saratoga Springs, New York,
would now spend a few years here in Rochester, New York.
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It was here in Rochester, New York
that the Adventists would purchase their first printing press,
an original Washington hand press.
For the first time the Review and Herald
would be printed on an Adventist-owned press,
operated by sabbath-keeping Adventist workers.
It would continue here until October the 30th 1855,
when it would move to Battle Creek, Michigan.
The years here in Rochester, though, were filled with sacrifice and dedication.
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The house would have stood right here near this spot on Mount Hope Avenue,
and it was furnished with two old bedsteads for 25 cents,
six chairs for a dollar,
and four more chairs with no seating for 62 cents.
They could not afford potatoes so they ate turnips instead;
butter was expensive, and so they used fruit sauce;
and beans were a regular part of their diet.
The workers, mainly in their teens and twenties,
worked for little more than their room, their food, and their clothing,
and about 12 of them at any one time would live in the White's home
along with the printing press.
Working long hours into the evening,
often till midnight and sometimes all through the night,
they cheerfully set about their task of spreading the message via publications.
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Uriah Smith, who turned down a lucrative job offer
to come and work for his room and board,
had been living here a few weeks
when he commented that he had no objection to eating beans 365 times in succession,
yet when it came to making them a regular part of his diet, he should protest.
Other individuals such as George Amadon,
Warren Bachelor, Annie Smith, J. N. Loughborough,
J. N. Andrews, Nathaniel White, and Annie White
all passed by here in the mid 1850s.
Many would die early deaths.
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Here the workers labored faithfully
without all the tools that would have made their work easier.
When the first books were printed,
they used a shoemakers awl to perforate the backs.
The sisters then use a needle and thread to stitch the books together,
and then a straight edge and penknife were used the trim and cut the edges.
There was no folding machine, and this had to be done by hand as well.
The covers were then pasted on before they were wrapped and packed and sent out.
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Today for many of us we live a life of plenty,
far removed from these early humble beginnings.
The work that began in sacrifice will end also in sacrifice,
and whilst the exact nature of that sacrifice may look different today,
the general principles of dedication to duty
and commitment to the cause remain.
Today we have perhaps more resources than at any other time in history
and access to information and technology that we did not have in years gone by
that make the spread of the gospel much easier.
Let us not act lethargically,
but may the energy and enthusiasm of these past pioneers
motivate and inspire us today.