- Rachel Oakes Preston
Infobox Person
name = Rachel (Harris) Oakes Preston
image_size =
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1809|3|2|df=y
birth_place = Vernon, VT
death_date = death date and age|1868|2|1|1809|3|2|df=y (age Age|1809|03|02|1868|02|01)
death_place =
occupation = Founding member of theSeventh-day Adventist Church , author
spouse =Amory Oakes (widowed),Nathan T. Preston Rachel (Harris) Oakes Preston (
2 March 1809 -1 February 1868 ) was aSeventh Day Baptist who persuaded a group ofAdventist Millerites to accept Saturday, instead of Sunday, as the Sabbath. ThisSabbatarian group organized as theSeventh-day Adventist Church in 1863.Born in
Vernon, Vermont , Rachel, daughter of Sylvanus Harris, first joined theMethodist Church. After marrying Amory Oakes, Rachel moved toVerona, New York , where her husband soon died. In 1837 Rachel and her daughter, Rachel Delight Oakes, joined the Seventh Day Baptist Church of Verona. In 1843 the widowed Rachel and her daughter moved toWashington, New Hampshire , where her daughter would teach school. While attending the "Christian Brethren" church with her daughter, Rachel tried to present her views on the seventh-day Sabbath. However, the congregation, being Millerites, were focused in preparing for theSecond Coming ofChrist , which they earnestly thought would occur sometime during 1843-1844.Due to Rachel's influence, Frederick Wheeler (1811-1910), an ordained minister of the
Methodist Episcopal Church , and promoter of the prophetic teachings of William Miller, preached his first sermon on the seventh-day Sabbath to his "Christian Brethren" congregation on16 March 1844 .Further due to Rachel's influence,
William Farnsworth (1807-1888), after theGreat Disappointment of22 October ,1844 , stated publicly to the "Christian Brethren" congregation his conviction that Saturday, being the seventh day of the week, was the Sabbath. His brother Cyrus (who became the husband of Rachel’s daughter Delight), and several others, also made their convictions known.Later, when Rachel married Nathan T. Preston, she was referred to as Rachel Oakes Preston.
See also
*
History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church References
* [http://www.tagnet.org/washington/photographs/people/rachel_oakes_preston.html Rachel Oakes Preston] from the
Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia
* [http://remnantprophecy.sdaglobal.org/Librarypdf/Advent-history1800s/FootPrintsOfThePioneers.pdf "Footprints of the Pioneers" by Arthur Whitefield Spalding, 1947; pg 12]
* [http://www.giveshare.org/newsletter/newsletter58.html#rachel "Rachel Oakes Preston: A Word Fitly Spoken"] Giving & Sharing Newsletter 58, December 2000
* [http://www.giveshare.org/churchhistory/sda/racheloakespreston.html "Rachel Oakes Preston and the Washington, New Hampshire Sabbath Adventist Church"] Giving & Sharing website: Church History (Adapted from the Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, Vol 10, pg 1149. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1976)
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