Calhoun County MI Archives Biographies.....Byington, John October 8, 1798 - January 7, 1887
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Robin Ellis -- July 20, 2007, 12:28 pm

Author: Wikipedia 

John Byington was born Oct. 8, 1798 in Hinesburg, VT, and was the son of a 
Methodist Preacher who served in the Revolutionary Army. 

John was a Seventh-day Adventist minister and the first president of the 
General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. His father, Justus, was a soldier 
in the American Revolutionary War, an itinerant Methodist Episcopal preacher, 
and later one of the founders of the Methodist Protestant Church, becoming an 
early president of its Vermont Conference. At 7 years of age John first came 
under the conviction of sin, and in 1816 at the age of 18 was converted. He 
became active in Methodist laity work, but at 21 years of age his health 
failed, and for three years he suffered depression. He returned to work 
dividing his time between farming and preaching.

Byington was active in the antislavery movement and when the leadership of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church opposed abolitionism, he withdrew from that 
denomination and joined the new antislavery Wesleyan Methodist Connection. He 
helped to erect a church and parsonage that are still standing at Morely, New 
York. He went as a lay delegate to the Wesleyan organizational General 
Conference meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1844; and later became a Wesleyan 
minister pastoring the church at Lisbon, New York. He regularly entertained 
Native Americans and fugitive slaves in his home (his home was reputed to be a 
stop on the "Underground Railroad" at Buck's Bridge, New York, where he lived 
on a farm).

In 1844 he heard a Millerite sermon in Cleveland, Ohio, but was not overly 
impressed. In 1852, upon reading a copy of the Review and Herald he began to 
keep the seventh-day Sabbath. Shortly afterward James and Ellen White visited 
his home at Buck's Bridge. For three years he conducted Sabbath meetings in his 
home, then he erected and owned a church building on his property. This is 
reputed to have been the first Seventh-day Adventist-built church. In 1853 in a 
nearby home his daughter, Martha taught what is thought to be the first 
Adventist elementary school.

His Daughter Martha later married George W. Amadon.

James Spinger White (Founding President) proceed John as president in 1863

At the request of James White, Byington relocated to Battle Creek, Michigan in 
1858. He worked closely with James White and J. N. Andrews in helping to plan 
for the growing Sabbatarian Adventist movement. In 1863 at the initial 
organization of the General Conference in Battle Creek, Michigan, he became the 
denomination's first president - an office he held for two one-year terms (1865-
1867). James White, who was elected first, declined the position.

John was suceeded by John Nevins Andrews as President.

John is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery (Lot670, Rt. 1), 
Battle Creek, Calhoun, MI

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