On Monday morning, June 12, 1905, Mrs. Ellen G. White visited Loma Linda for the first time. As she arrived with her son by a horse-drawn express wagon from Redlands, she gazed at the main building. “Willie, I have been here before,” she exclaimed.
Willie (who would know, he was her constant attendant and companion) responded, “No, Mother. You have never been here.”
“Then this is the very place the Lord has shown me, for it is all familiar.” As she inspected the facility with about 20 other church members, she said repeatedly that she recognized it as the very place she had been shown four years before in the fall of 1901.
Then she sat down in the recreation hall and spoke of the educational work someday to be conducted in Loma Linda. That afternoon in the parlor of the luxury hotel, she spoke on one of her favorite subjects, “The Great Medical Missionary.” John Burden invited Mr. Milton Eskey, the manager of the Loma Linda Association, to join the group. At first he declined, saying that people would probably want to discuss the project in private.
Having assured him that he would be welcome, Burden later described the impact of Mrs. White’s address: “I think I never heard her paint in such glowing terms the work of the true medical missionary as she did at that time. . . .The tears fairly flowed down the manager’s cheeks as he sat beside me, and as she closed he said, ‘I would give the world to be with you people in a work such as this. It was what we had in mind but we did not know how to carry it out. I am glad you people are obtaining this property as I know our plans will now be realized.’”
In spite of clear evidence that God was leading, the financial realities still loomed darkly. The remainder of the down payment was due in three days. After Mrs. White retired from her travels, some observers who had accompanied her said that the Loma Linda Association, with all of its talent and financial resources, had already failed to operate a successful healthcare institution in Loma Linda. What, then, should lead the small church group to think they could succeed? Four previous failures—and the last one occurred after a very impressive effort.
The consensus of the afternoon debate was that it would be “the height of folly” to think the small church could succeed with its meager resources. Writing about it years later, Burden reported that “some felt desperate at the thought of the conference assuming more financial responsibility.” Contributing largely to their distress was the fact that the Paradise Valley and Glendale Sanitariums were only partially equipped. Also, they both lacked competent help, especially capable physicians. Assuredly, Loma Linda could not draw support from either of those institutions.
Indeed, Mrs. White’s interest in Loma Linda was so intense that she not only looked at all of the patient rooms in the main building and the cottages, but also she inspected the kitchen, dining room, and store rooms, where she found quantities of canned fruit and supplies.
The group could make no decision, that day. The next morning, however, a larger meeting of church members in the Carr Street Seventh-day Adventist Church in Los Angeles voted unanimously to move forward with the purchase of Loma Linda. In order for the venture to succeed, however, broader support had to be secured. The conference would not proceed from the recommendation of only one church. The next day, a select San Diego group voted that the conference should not get involved. Nonetheless, they decided to convene a meeting representing all the congregations of the conference on June 20, five days after the $5,000 down payment had to be completed.
Interestingly, outside observers evidently did not consider the possibility of another failure at Loma Linda. The new endeavor enjoyed positive reviews by a Redlands newspaper. On June 15, 1905, the Daily Facts noted: “The Adventists have eating houses and sanitariums of the character in many of the larger cities of the United States and foreign countries, and they have proven very successful. It will not only be an important acquisition to the City of Redlands in a commercial way, but it will prove an assistance to many who are ill.”
By 1905, nearby Redlands had already enjoyed a golden decade as the show place of Southern California. An influx of wealthy easterners had built stately homes on the Terrace and had spent their money lavishly to beautify the city. For a city that was only 17 years old, Redlands (population 10,000) was quite remarkable. It encouraged cultural pursuits, promoted industry, supported 20 churches, and accommodated seven miles of electric trolley lines.
Members of the conference committee of the Southern California Conference at the Los Angeles meeting had indicated that they would assume responsibility if the June 20, 1905 meeting approved the transaction. Encouraged by Mrs. White’s strong recommendations, local church members contributed the remaining $2,600 needed for the June 15 down payment. The July payment (another $5,000) was due in just 41 days.
The June 20 meeting was pivotal. Delegates of nearly all of the 22 churches in the Southern California Conference met at the Carr Street Seventh-day Adventist Church in Los Angeles to endorse the purchase of the Loma Linda property.
G. W. Reaser, the new conference president, advised the delegates of the importance of the decision they would make that day. According to the minutes of the meeting, “He then stated that Sister White had said that this sanitarium should be the principal training school on this coast.” At this point White interrupted him and said, ‘THIS WILL BE.'” Mrs. White must have pronounced these three words emphatically as they are the only words in the entire minutes to be capitalized and underlined.
To be continued…