1868–1916
Summary
David Paulson, M.D., was an Adventist physician, sanitarium founder, and the principal builder — with his wife Mary Wild Paulson — of the Hinsdale Sanitarium near Chicago and the Life Boat Mission for Chicago’s poor. Trained in medicine through the Battle Creek Sanitarium and the American Medical Missionary College, Paulson received in June 1906 one of Ellen White’s most enduring statements on the inspiration of the Bible and her own writings — the letter that became Selected Messages, vol. 1, pp. 24–31. He died in 1916 at the age of forty-eight.
Early Career and Sanitarium Work
Per the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, Paulson was born in 1868. He trained at Battle Creek under J. H. Kellogg’s medical mission and later, with his wife Mary Wild Paulson (also an M.D.), founded the Hinsdale Sanitarium near Chicago. Together they led a wide-ranging ministry on behalf of Chicago’s poor and disadvantaged, including the Life Boat Mission and the Life Boat magazine, founded in 1898. Kate Lindsay was one of the early supporters of the Hinsdale work.
Ellen White’s Counsel on the Smaller-Sanitarium Plan (1902)
In 1902 Ellen White wrote Paulson with a direct appeal in connection with the building plans for sanitariums: “Brother Paulson, pray most earnestly for Dr. Kellogg. He is going directly contrary to the light that God has given in regard to the building of smaller sanitariums. The evils of erecting a very large sanitarium in any place should be fully understood. The Lord has revealed to me that if, in the place of having one mammoth sanitarium in Battle Creek, smaller sanitariums could be established in several cities, His name would be glorified. The centering of so much in one place is contrary to God’s order. Small plants should be started in many places” (Manuscript Releases, Letter 110, 1902, par. 3; refcode 17LtMs, Lt 110, 1902, par. 3).
In 1903 her counsel grew sharper as the pantheism crisis unfolded: “Brother Paulson, I awoke at one o’clock, and have arisen to write out these words of instruction from the heavenly messenger. I plead with you, for Christ’s sake, to break the spell. Many of our people are now terribly deluded. And many of our medical workers are helping Satan in his work. God calls upon His people to be in unity with Him. He loves those who strive to do His will, and He acknowledges them as His co-laborers” (Manuscript Releases, Letter 220, 1903, par. 11; refcode 18LtMs, Lt 220, 1903, par. 11).
The 1906 Letter on Inspiration
When Paulson wrote Ellen White in 1906 saying he had been “led to conclude and most firmly believe that every word that you ever spoke in public or private, that every letter you wrote under any and all circumstances, was as inspired as the Ten Commandments,” she replied with one of the clearest statements she ever made on the nature of her own inspiration. Her opening paragraphs are preserved in Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 24, par. 1: “Your letter came to me while in southern California. For some weeks the consideration of matters connected with the development of our sanitarium work there, and the writing out of the views given me regarding the earthquake and its lessons, have taken my time and strength” (Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 24, par. 1; refcode 1SM 24.1).
She continued: “In your letter you speak of your early training to have implicit faith in the testimonies” (Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 24, par. 2; refcode 1SM 24.2).
Her response was unmistakable: “My brother, you have studied my writings diligently, and you have never found that I have made any such claims, neither will you find that the pioneers in our cause ever made such claims” (Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 24, par. 3; refcode 1SM 24.3).
Death (1916)
Per the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, Paulson died in 1916 at the age of forty-eight, in the prime of his medical missionary career. His wife Mary continued the Hinsdale work, eventually remarrying as Mary Wild Paulson-Neall. She died in 1956.
