John Byington, by Brian Strayer

First General Conference President, Circuit-riding PReacher, and Radical Reformer

Review & Herald

Probably the image most adventist have of elder John Byington is based on the only photograph they’ve ever seen. Which portrays the aged patriarch as a silver haired, balding, bearded, wrinkled, scowling preacher in a black frock coat and white shirt buttoned tightly around his neck.

But John Byington, the first president of the General conference of Seventh-day Adventists was so much more. A loving family man and successful farmer and businessman. Elder Byington was also a social radical. More than just a token abolitionist, new evidence presented in this biography indicates that he actively assisted fugitive slaves along the famous Undergound Railroad. …