1790–1856
Summary
Elon Galusha was the most prominent Baptist minister to embrace William Miller’s advent message in 1843. Born June 18, 1790, in Shaftsbury, Vermont — the seventh of nine children of Vermont governor Jonas Galusha — he led a leading Baptist congregation in Lockport, New York, before publicly embracing the second-advent doctrine and being chosen president of the May 1842 Boston Millerite General Conference. Per the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists (Douglas Morgan), Galusha was “a prominent Baptist minister and antislavery activist based in western New York state who became an influential advocate of the Second Advent message beginning in 1843.” He died in 1856.
Vermont Origins and Baptist Ministry (1790–1843)
Per the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, Elon Galusha was born June 18, 1790, in Shaftsbury, Vermont, the seventh of nine children of Jonas Galusha (1753–1834) and Mary Crittenden Galusha (1758–1894). His father served as governor of Vermont in 1809–1813 and 1815–1820. Elon was converted in 1810 and entered the Baptist ministry. He married Elizabeth Bottum on August 25, 1815, and they had three sons: Elijah, Elon, and Judson.
Loughborough’s Great Second Advent Movement records Galusha’s prominence in the Baptist denomination at the moment he embraced the advent message: “Elon Galusha, of Lockport, N.Y., a noted Baptist minister, whose writings and ministrations on the subject of the Lord’s near coming made a great stir in that denomination” (The Great Second Advent Movement, p. 124, par. 4; refcode GSAM 124.4).
Inviting William Miller to Lockport (November 1842)
Bliss’s Memoirs of William Miller records the invitation that brought Miller to Lockport: “Receiving a pressing invitation from Rev. Elon Galusha, pastor of the Baptist church, and sixty-eight others, in Lockport, N. Y., to visit that place, he lectured there from the 21st to the 30th of November. The salvation of some souls, and a general expression of interest in the subject of his discourses, were the result of his labors” (Memoirs of William Miller, p. 247, par. 2; refcode MWM 247.2).
President of the Boston General Conference (May 1842)
Bliss records Galusha’s election as president of the early Millerite General Conference: “After the names and residence of members were ascertained, the Conference was fully organized by the choice of Rev. Elon Galusha, of Lockport, N. Y., President, and S. Bliss and O. R. Fassett, Secretaries” (Memoirs of William Miller, p. 300, par. 11; refcode MWM 300.11). The same conference appointed a committee of twelve — including Miller, Litch, Himes, and Galusha — to “arrange business for the action of the Conference” (Memoirs of William Miller, p. 301, par. 1; refcode MWM 301.1).
Loughborough also records Galusha as a signatory of the May 31, 1844 Boston address: “We will at this point introduce a testimony from an address to the advent conference of believers assembled in Boston, Mass., dated May 31, 1844, and signed by Wm. Miller, Elon Galusha, N. N. Whiting, Apollos Hale, and J. V. Himes” (The Great Second Advent Movement, p. 177, par. 2; refcode GSAM 177.2).
Miller’s Letter (April 5, 1844)
A few months before the Great Disappointment, William Miller wrote to Galusha. Pioneer Pictorial Profiles preserves the substance: “On April 5 [1844] Miller wrote to Elon Galusha that he was” (Pioneer Pictorial Profiles, p. 21, par. 3; refcode PPP 21.3) looking every day and hour for Christ to come.
The Address Cautioning the Movement (May 1844)
In May 1844 Galusha was a signatory — with William Miller, Apollos Hale, and J. V. Himes — of the major address cautioning the Millerite movement against any spirit of revenge toward the churches that had opposed them: “An address, signed by William Miller, Elon Galusha, W. N. Whiting, Apollos Hale, and J. V. Himes, cautioned against the danger of” (Coming Out of Darkness, p. 87, par. 3; refcode COOD 87.3) yielding to such a spirit.
Death (1856)
Per the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, Galusha died in 1856 at the age of sixty-six. He had been a leader in the abolitionist movement throughout his life and had been instrumental, after the Great Disappointment, in calling the Albany Conference of 1845 that organized the surviving Millerite faithful into a continuing movement.
