True Crime-Paranormal-Conspiracy Theories Stories Part V #Wattys2023

William Miller and the Adventist Movement

William Miller (February 15,1782 – December 20, 1849) was an American Baptist minister who iscredited with beginning the mid-19th-century North American religiousmovement known as Millerism. After his proclamation of the SecondComing did not occur as expected in the 1840s, new heirs of hismessage emerged, including the Advent Christians (1860), theSeventh-day Adventists (1863) and other Adventist movements.

Early life

William Miller was born on February 15,1782, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His parents were Captain WilliamMiller, a veteran of the American Revolution, and Paulina, thedaughter of Elnathan Phelps. When he was four years old, his familymoved to rural Low Hampton, New York. Miller was educated at home byhis mother until the age of nine, when he attended the newlyestablished East Poultney District School. Miller is not known tohave undertaken any type of formal study after the age of eighteen,though he continued to read widely and voraciously. As a youth, hehad access to the private libraries of Judge James Witherell andCongressman Matthew Lyon in nearby Fair Haven, Vermont, as well asthat of Alexander Cruikshanks of Whitehall, New York. In 1803, Millermarried Lucy Smith and moved to her nearby hometown of Poultney,where he took up farming. While in Poultney, Miller was elected to anumber of civil offices, starting with the office of Constable. In1809 he was elected to the office of Deputy Sheriff and at an unknowndate was elected Justice of the Peace. Miller served in the Vermontmilitia and was commissioned a lieutenant on July 21, 1810. He wasreasonably well off, owning a house, land, and at least two horses.

Shortly after his move to Poultney,Miller rejected his Baptist heritage and became a Deist. In hisbiography Miller records his conversion: "I became acquaintedwith the principal men in that village [Poultney, Vermont], who wereprofessedly Deists; but they were good citizens, and of a moral andserious deportment. They put into my hands the works of Voltaire,[David] Hume, Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen, and other deisticalwriters."

Military service

At the outbreak of the War of 1812,Miller raised a company of local men and traveled to Burlington,Vermont. He transferred to the 30th Infantry Regiment in the regulararmy of the United States with the rank of lieutenant. Miller spentmost of the war working as a recruiter and on February 1, 1814, hewas promoted to captain. He saw his first action at the Battle ofPlattsburgh, where vastly outnumbered American forces overcame theBritish. "The fort I was in was exposed to every shot. Bombs,rockets, and shrapnel shells fell as thick as hailstones",he said. One of these many shots had exploded two feet from him,wounding three of his men and killing another, but Miller survivedwithout a scratch. Miller came to view the outcome of this battle asmiraculous, and therefore at odds with his deistic view of a distantGod far removed from human affairs. He later wrote, "Itseemed to me that the Supreme Being must have watched over theinterests of this country in an especial manner, and delivered usfrom the hands of our enemies... So surprising a result, against suchodds, did seem to me like the work of a mightier power than man."

Religious life

After the war, and following hisdischarge from the army on June 18, 1815, Miller returned toPoultney. Shortly after his return he moved with his family back toLow Hampton, where he purchased a farm (now a historic site operatedby Adventist Heritage Ministry). Throughout this time period Millerwas deeply concerned with the question of death and an afterlife.This reflection upon his own mortality followed his experiences as asoldier in the war, but also the recent deaths of his father andsister. Miller apparently felt that there were only two optionspossible following death: annihilation, and accountability; neitherof which he was comfortable with.