Joseph Harvey Waggoner

From https://www.aplib.org/biographical-sketches-of-the-pioneers/

Though a man with little formal education, J. H. Waggoner was a giant in literary accomplishments, a master of Greek and Hebrew, a knowledgeable theologian, an accomplished editor, a pioneer in health reform and religious liberty, and a tower of strength as a pioneer in the closing message of truth.

When Waggoner first learned of the Adventist message in December, 1851, he was editor and publisher of a political newspaper. Evidently Waggoner doubted that he could be saved because he had not been in ‘the 1844 movement’. Ellen White encouraged him to hope in God and to give his heart fully to Jesus, which he did then early in 1852. He threw his tobacco wad into the stove on the day he accepted the Sabbath, and he stood with Joseph Bates as a strong advocate of temperate living.

By 1853, Waggoner had unreservedly dedicated his life to the propagation of the message. Having learned the publishing trade as a youth in Pennsylvania and Illinois, Waggoner’s talents were employed many times in editorial capacities. He followed James White as editor of the western Signs of the Times, and he was the first editor of both the Pacific Health Journal and the American Sentinel (a Religious Liberty journal).


From https://ellenwhite.org/people/106

Waggoner, Joseph Harvey (1820-1889). Evangelist and editor; father of *E. J. Waggoner. In his youth Waggoner joined the Baptist Church. When Sabbatarian Adventist preachers came to Wisconsin in 1851 and convinced him of the binding obligation to keep the Sabbath, he joined their ranks and began to preach their doctrines. Although, like other Adventist pioneers, he continued to work at his trade (printing), he intermittently held meetings in nearby towns. In 1878 he moved to California to become the manager and later editor of Signs of the Times. Self-taught, Waggoner was an indefatigable student and wrote many influential books in early Adventism, such as The Kingdom of God (1859), The Atonement: An Examination of a Remedial System in the Light of Nature and Revelation (1868), and From Eden to Eden (1888).

Over a period of 25 years Ellen White wrote many letters to Waggoner, all dealing with either his relationship with his wife, Mariette (1823-1908), or his harsh, overbearing, and critical temperament. Because it seems that Waggoner's wife refused to be transformed by the gospel message, Ellen White considered her influence on him to be detrimental to his work and, hence, recommended that he not bring her along when he held evangelistic meetings in other towns (Letter 4, 1860; Letter 6, 1870). Ellen White also warned him that, at the instigation of his wife and because of her unsanctified influence, he tended to be too harsh and judgmental of others (Letter 3, 1872).Ellen White's strongest rebuke came while Waggoner worked at the Pacific Press office in Oakland, California, when he got involved in an adulterous relationship with a married woman, *Lottie Chittenden, a situation that Ellen White bluntly chastised him for (Letter 10, 1885, in Testimonies on Sexual Behavior, Adultery, and Divorce, 182-184; cf. Letters 73, 74, 51, 1886; Testimonies on Sexual Behavior, Adultery, and Divorce, 184-193; Manuscript Releases, 21:378-387).

Given the situation in which he had placed himself, she pleaded with him: “There are but few who know to what extent this intimacy has gone, and God forbid it shall be known and your influence lost to God's cause and your soul lost. I beg of you to not take it upon you to pronounce judgment against anyone but yourself” (Letter 10, 1885, in Testimonies on Sexual Behavior, Adultery, and Divorce, 183, 184). In response to her counsel, Waggoner left California for Battle Creek, but Ellen White continued to labor with him for deeper repentance (Letter 51, 1886, in Manuscript Releases, 21:380). She wanted to invite him to Europe, but not until she was sure his heart had been changed and not only his outward behavior (Manuscript Releases, 21:378).

Evidently she was convinced of his thorough reformation, for in 1886 he went to Europe, where he became editor-in-chief of Adventist periodicals in German and French until his death in 1889. He was buried beside *J. N. Andrews.

Further reading: obit. RH, Sept. 3, 1889; SDA Encyclopedia (1996), vol. 11, p. 849.Denis Fortin