WHITE, ELLEN GOULD (1826–1915), prophetess and cofounder of the Seventh-day Adventist church. Ellen Gould Harmon was born November 26, 1827, on a farm near Gorham, Maine. As a child she moved with her family to Portland. When she was nine or ten, an angry schoolmate hit her in the face with a rock, knocking her unconscious for several weeks. The accident left her a semi-invalid, unable to continue her schooling (except for a brief period at the Westbrook Seminary and Female College) and unlikely to fulfill her ambition of becoming a scholar.

Raised a Methodist, Ellen in 1840 joined the Millerites, who believed that Christ would return to earth in 1843 or 1844. When he failed to appear on October 22, 1844, the date finally agreed upon, disappointment and confusion swept through the Millerite camp. In December, while praying with friends for guidance, seventeen-year-old Ellen went into a trance, the first of...