Hiram Edson - Later Life

Later Life

At the close of a revival in 1855, Edson was ordained as a local church elder. For many years after the "Great Disappointment" when Jesus did not come as expected, he continued as a lay preacher, working with Joseph Bates, J. N. Andrews, and J. N. Loughborough. He continued to farm in the summer to pay his expenses. In 1850 Edson sold his Port Gibson farm to help support the Sabbatarian movement, and sold a second farm two years later in Port Byron, NY so that James White could purchase a printing press in Rochester. The Sabbatarian Adventist movement was formally organized as the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1863. Edson was credentialed as a minister in 1870.