I appreciate the recent post on Hobbes Place about recent criticsms about Ellen White and the
obelisk on their family plot in Oak Hill Cemetery. Like Hobbes, the fact that there is an obelisk does not bother me. They were, in fact, quite common during Victorian America. The only thing that is known is that by the time of her death this obelisk was on the family plot. Similar artifices from about the same period appear to be quite common throughout the rest of Oak Hill Cemetery (a fun Sabbath afternoon stroll if one has the opportunity to take a tour along with nearby Historic Adventist Village).
What is particularly interesting is that Hobbes noticed that Ellen White's third and largest funeral held in Battle Creek, Michigan (she had an earlier service at her home in Elmshaven and at the California campmeeting before her body was freighted east), held on July 24, 1915, and interred on August 26. Hobbes cites an e-mail written by Bill Fagal in 1999 where he mentions this. Several years ago I did some sleuthing and came across this fact without knowing about Fagal's e-mail. The source, a memo in the White Estate document file by Arthur L. White, who seems to have been as surprised as Hobbes was in 1974 to discover this ("Ellen G. White Death--Question of Deferred Burial, Memorandum by Arthur L. White, 11/4/74," DF 757B). Up until that point Arthur White had relied on a statement in the "In Memorium" booklet published to commemorate the death of Ellen White (it contained the funeral address and other details about her death).
Arthur White mentions that up until that point he had denied rumors that there had been a delay in her burial. Part of this reason, as the rumor went, was to "prevent possible exuming by the curious, particularly by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, for an examination of her brain."
So what changed Arthur White's mind? A letter that he read written by James Edson White to W. C. White dated October 15, 1915. In the letter, Edson writes to his brother:
"There were some matters mentioned in your letter of September 17 which I have not answered. You asked in regard to mother's burial. I think I explained this to you fully, stating that we went to the grounds about three weeks after the funeral and we saw her placed in the grave that had been prepared for her. Of course her face had changed considerably, and yet she was preserved as well as I could expect. When we went to the cemetery Sister Israel took me over in her auto, and we were glad to meet Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Gardner, Mrs. E. B. Jones, and Mrs. L. V. Barton. They are all our people and happened to be at the grave just at the time the change was made from the vault to the grave. Everything went off smoothly and occupied but little time. In regard to the expense of this, I asked the sexton to render the bill through Mr. Farley, the undertaker, who had all these matters in hand, and I presume it had reached you through him."
Unfortunately, like the obelisk, there is no information about why her body was not interred until three weeks later.
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