Martha Amadon
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Buck's Bridge, New York, is a place name associated with Adventism since its earliest days. A church of fifteen members was organized there about 1854 by John Byington, who later became the first president of the General Conference. On his farm at this place, Byington kept a station of the Underground Railroad, the secret system by which fugitive slaves from the South were protected and guided from one 'station" to another by friendly abolitionists who were interested in helping them get to the free States or Canada.
It was at Buck's Bridge, too, that one of the first Adventist meetinghouses was erected, if not the first, and the first church school started. Martha Byington, John's daughter, was the first church school teacher of the Advent Movement. The church, built in 1855, no longer exists, but its foundation stones remain. The church building at Washington, New Hampshire, often called the first Seventh-day Adventist church, is indeed older than the one that stood at Buck's Bridge, but it was built by the Christian Church of first-day Adventists. Several pioneer workers are buried there.
The story of Martha Byington, who later became Mrs. George Amadon, spans more than a century of Adventist development from those pioneer days in New York until she laid down her life at St. Joseph, Michigan, January 2, 1937. Brought up in a religious home, she possessed a keen sense of right and wrong, which helped to temper her fun-loving spirit. One who lived in her home when he was a young man said of her, "She was the most determined woman I ever saw, but she was always right." Her father was a rugged individualist, who became a Sabbath-keeper from a diligent study of the Scriptures in a day when to turn away from Sunday as a day of rest took high moral courage and resolution.
Byington's stout witness for the truth and reputation for firmness and tact in meeting objectors were so well known that when small companies of believers began to arise in Michigan that needed encouragement, Byington was sent for to give them the needed aid. To reach Battle Creek he had to drive to Lake Ontario, cross the lake by boat, ferrying his horse and buggy with him, and then drive on to Buffalo. After crossing Lake Erie by boat, he drove on west to Battle Creek. Martha was with him on this journey, and upon arrival found employment with the Review and Herald Publishing Association. She lived for a time with Elder and Mrs. James White. The journey to Battle Creek was intended to be a temporary one, but the father became so engaged in the activities of the growing church that he never went back to Buck's Bridge except to bring West the rest of the family.
A young man who had attended Oberlin College and had left it to help teach the doctrines held by the Adventist people had found his way to Rochester, New York, when the Review and Herald plant was there. George Amadon, as his name was, had a courage and straightforwardness that attracted the attention of James White, and he was invited to make his home with the family. Teachable, dependable, faithful, and a prodigious worker, Amadon in the course of time endeared himself to the publishing workers as Uncle George. When Martha Byington came to live with the Whites, a friendship between these two young people ripened into love and culminated in their marriage.
George Amadon was a mighty man of prayer, and with his wife provided shelter for many who were homeless and friendless. He knew that there was never a trouble or a situation that the Lord could not solve, and when he or those whom he tried to help were in difficulty his first recourse was to prayer. After the Review and Herald fire, and the headquarters was moved to Washington, D.C., George Amadon was ordained to the gospel ministry and spent his last days working among the churches in the Michigan Conference. For more than fifty years Martha toiled with her husband in the interests of the Advent cause. He died in 1913, but her work was to go on for another astonishing twenty-four years.
As Martha had become a charter member of the first church at Buck's Bridge, she once more became a charter member of the church established at St. Joseph, Michigan. Her work was not spectacular, but as a good neighbor, a true Dorcas for these modern times, she gave herself without stint to the poor, gathering her neighbors together to do sewing and mending while she talked over with them the progress of God's work at home and abroad. In fact, it was her unremitting labors at Battle Creek that led to the establishment of the Dorcas Society of the church, her outstanding contribution to the denominational organization.
With her daughter, Grace, Martha Amadon became well known in the St. Joe Valley of Michigan. Until past her one-hundredth year she attended Sabbath school at Emmanuel Missionary College at Berrien Springs, Michigan. When growing feebleness made her weekly visits inadvisable, the Sunshine Band of the college visited her and were blessed by her ministry as much as they were a joy to her. She loved to recount the incidents of pioneer days, and it was a source of awe to the college young people to hear her tell of how she and her family and friends watched for the coming of the Lord in 1844. She was proud of the many times Elder and Mrs. James White had visited her home. She saw Sister White in vision many times.
In her lifetime Martha Amadon saw the Advent Movement grow from a mere handful of believers to a strong worldwide organization with mission stations in every land. She saw her father, John Byington, elected as the first president of the General Conference. She was present at the opening of the Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek in 1866. She attended the first Seventh-day Adventist camp meeting, at Wright, Michigan, in 1868. She was present at the dedication of Battle Creek College in 1875. Martha saw the first missionaries depart for Switzerland in 1874, and, again, the pioneer missionaries to Australia leave in 1884. From these small efforts she saw the mission work spread to all lands, until at the time of her death there were nearly three thousand workers in these distant fields, and the gospel was being preached in more than seven hundred languages.
It was in sturdy families like that of the Byingtons that the Advent message took root and brought to harvest the fruition of years of toil and sacrifice and outstanding devotion to an unpopular truth. These were not people of the schools and seminaries, but average people of modest education such as the times afforded -- people who made the most of their opportunities and gave without stint of their energies for the promulgation of God's last message to men.