Ontario -- Description and travel; Ontario -- History
The camp-meeting generally lasted a week, and I would not for a single
moment wish to convey the idea that much good was not accomplished by
these gatherings, although they certainly were not without some traces
of fanaticism.
The “Millerite scare,” as it might be called, was another instance of
the extent to which religious fanatics could influence their hearers and
affect their lives. From some manuscript left by my mother, and the
account given me by my father, and by my uncle, David Annis, I have
gleaned the following anecdotes of this curious event in our country:
During the winter of 1842-3 the Second Adventists, or Millerites, were
preaching that the world would be all burnt up in February, 1843.
Nightly meetings were held, generally in the school-houses. One E--H--,
about Prince Albert, Ont., owned a farm of one hundred acres and
upwards, stocked with cattle and farm produce, as well as having
implements of agriculture. So strongly did he embrace the Second Advent
doctrines of the Millerites that he had not a doubt of the fire to come
in February and burn all up, and in confirmation of his faith gave away
his stock, implements and farm. Sarah Terwilligar, who lived about a
mile east of Oshawa “corners,” on the Kingston Road, made for herself
wings of silk, and, on the night of 14th of February, jumped off the
porch of her home, expecting to fly heavenward. Falling to the ground
some fifteen feet, she was shaken up severely and rendered wholly unfit
to attend at all to the fires that were expected to follow the next day.
(See page 220.)
The house in the illustration is the one from the windows of which the
attempt to fly was made. The wings were made of silk. Though, in the
picture, they appear to do their work, they did not prevent the wearer
falling to the ground about fifteen feet, and suffering the result in a
broken leg.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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