S.N. Haskell: Soapmaker to Pioneer Season 2 | Episode 33
Stephen Haskell was born in the year 1833 in Oakham, Massachusetts
and would go on to have a huge impact on the world church.
He was converted at the age of fifteen,
and a few years later he would marry his first wife Mary.
At the age of nineteen he heard the message of Jesus' soon return
and started to tell everyone about this.
One day while he was talking to a friend,
he was encouraged that he should start preaching, himself.
At the time he was a professional soap maker,
but he started to preach
and was known as being able to compose sound, logical, and powerful sermons.
[music]
In 1853 he attended a campmeeting in Winsted, Connecticut,
after which he decided to travel through Canada.
On his way he stopped in Springfield, Massachusetts
where he met William Saxby, a tinsmith, who introduced him to the Sabbath.
Despite being initially opposed to him,
he listened to him, and after studying it out,
he realized that it was biblical and committed to keeping it.
A visit later on with Joseph Bates
would further solidify this decision that he had made.
[music]
By now he was living here in South Lancaster
and was active in ministering to the believers in the area,
keeping accurate records of the Sabbath schools, churches, and members.
In 1868 he handed a copy of this report to James White.
He showed J. H. Wagner and J. N. Andrews,
and so impressed were they by his abilities
that they ordained him as a minister,
formed a New England Conference,
and appointed him as the first president.
He was 37 years old at the time.
[music]
Another initiative the he started during his time here in South Lancaster
was the Vigilant Missionary Society.
They started by writing letters of encouragement,
lending books and papers, and praying for people.
Over time, this small society would grow and flourish
until it became the ABC, or Adventist Book Center as we know it today.
S. N. Haskell was a decisive and organized leader,
and served as the president here in New England
whilst also being president in California
and president of the Maine Conference for a time as well.
While he was president here in New England,
he saw the forming of the South Lancaster Academy
which would go on to become the Atlantic Union College.
Standing behind me is Founders Hall, built in 1884,
the oldest original Adventist school building.
[music]
Stephen Haskell would be instrumental
in the start of the work in Australia and New Zealand,
spending 13 months there.
Whilst he was away travelling, his wife Mary would stay at home.
She was a committed Christian and bore her physical pain with patience.
Later on she and Stephen would move here to California where she is buried.
Writing to Ellen White Stephen said,
'I LOVED HER AND SHE LOVED ME,'
in capital letters, as if to emphasize the point.
[music]
The Lord would provide another wife for Stephen, Hetty Hurd.
She was a pioneering type of woman whom he had met several times,
and was an active missionary,
having spent time in England, Africa, and California.
They would get married in Australia in 1897
and would go on to start a training school in New York City
before later moving to California
where they were instrumental in the start of the health work here.
Later on they would move to Nashville, Tennessee,
and it was whilst there that they heard the sad news
that Ellen White had passed away.
S. N. Haskell had previously been asked to share the message at her funeral
and delivered a message of hope and triumph.
[music]
As he reached his final years, he once commented to his wife
that he was frustrated that he couldn't do more in life.
She told him that whereas he used to travel and preach,
now his printed sermons went to places that he never could.
He lies buried here in California next to his first wife, Mary,
because he told the brethren that when he died,
to bury him next to whichever wife was closest.
Years earlier at his ordination, James White had told him,
'Always look to God rather than man for direction in your work.'
May we do the same - to look to God rather than our fellow man
for our directions in God's work.