Frederick
Wheeler
1811 - 1910
March 16, 1844 - First Sermon on the Seventh Day
Sabbath
Photo and information from:
Jim Nix Collection
Frederick
Wheeler (1811-1910), was a pioneer
SDA minister, reputed to be the first ordained Adventist minister to preach in
favor of the seventh-day Sabbath. Not much is known of his early life or
experience, except that about 1840 he was an ordained minister of the Methodist
Episcopal Church and became its circuit rider in the vicinity of Washington and
Hillsboro in New Hampshire. In 1842 he became acquainted with the Millerite
views and thereafter was active in the propagation of the Adventist views. As
later he reported, he became convinced that the seventh-day Sabbath was sacred
through personal study he had undertaken some time in March, 1844, after a
discussion with Mrs. Rachel
Oakes (later Preston) a Seventh Day Baptist of Washington, New Hampshire.
He preached and farmed in the neighborhood of his home until 1851, when he met
James White, who invited him to go farther a field with his ministry. In 1857
he moved to the State of New York, and in 1861 settled on a farm near West
Monroe.
From
the Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, Volume 10, page 1584, 1976. Review and
Herald Publishing Association.