FIRST SESSION OF WEST INDIAN CONFERENCE
In June, 1906, at a meeting held in Port
of Spain, Trinidad, it was decided that the
time had come to more closely unite the dif-
ferent mission fields operated by our Mission
Board in the West Indies. At that time there
were four organized conferences and five mis-
sion fields scattered around the circle of the
Caribbean Sea,
THE WATCHMAN
and four hundred people, was filled to its ut-
most capacity, and an overflow meeting was
held in the basement.
On Sunday the Union Conference held its
first session. The preliminary work was all
accomplished, committees appointed, and in
the afternoon the Jamaica Conference held its
first session. On Sunday night Elder Warren
addressed a large and interested gathering of
more than one thousand
2
people in the town hall.
A deep impression was
made upon both our peo-
ple and the people of the
city at the very begin-
ning of the meetings.
Those who had la-
bored for years in the
pioneer work in the
West Indies felt grateful
to God that such an aus-
picious beginning had
been made, and that
brighter times were be-
fore our work in this
field. On Monday, at
half-past three in the
afternoon, there came a
most violent shock of
Postoffice and Town Hail, Kingston, after the Earthquake
At this meeting the preliminary steps were
taken for the organization of these fields into
a union conference, to he known as the West
Indian Union Conference. A constitution
was adopted, and a general meeting called
to convene in Jamaica in January, with a fuller
representation of all the fields.
The Jamaica Conference was the strongest
conference within the West Indies, and the
city of Kingston was the second city in size,
and was to be the headquarters of the Union
Conference. There were many of our local
brethren laboring in the ministry in the dif-
ferent fields who had never had the privilege
of attending one of our training schools, and
it was decided to hold a ministerial institute
in connection with the Union Conference ses-
sion, and at the same time make a strong
evangelical effort for the city of Kingston.
The Lord blessed in all the preparations
for the meetings. Steamboat communication,
which is frequently very poor, was such that
a full delegation from all the fields was in
Jamaica in time for the meeting. Elders
E. W. Farnsworth, I. H. Evans, U. Bender,
and Luther Warren, from the United States,
came to help in the institute and evangelical
effort. Professor C. B. Hughes and wife,
from Texas, arrived in ample time to assist in
the launching of the West Indian school en-
terprise.
The brethren in Jamaica had made all prep-
arations for the accommodation of the dele-
gates and the conducting of the special meet-
ings. A large tent had been sent down from
the States, but owing to its being delayed,
the town hall was engaged for a week and
was nicely decorated.
On Sabbath, January 12, the Adventist
hurch in Kingston, which seats between three
earthquake, lasting more
than thirty seconds,
which utterly demol-
ished the business portion of the city of King-
ston, stopped all commerce, and threw thou-
sands of people out of doors, homeless and
penniless. More than one thousand people
109
its buildings left habitable, it was with anxious
hearts that we counted our numbers in the
shadow of the calamity. But it was with
feelings of gratitude that we found only one
out of that number missing. Brother Norman
Johnson, one of the brightest and most ca-
pable of cur young workers in the West In-
dies, was known to have been in the business
part of the city at the time of the earth-
quake. Up to the time of our leaving, no
trace of Brother Jolmson had been found.
It was with sad hearts that we realized that
the strong, energetic presence of this faithful
laborer would no longer be felt in our West
Indian field, but we believe he was ready to
die.
There were several features in connection
with the disaster that taught us clearly that
the days of special providences are not past.
The last thing on Sunday evening some one
suggested that it might be well to have light
work on Monday, and send a representative
committee to the school farm to investigate
matters connected with the establishing of
that institution. The hour was late and the
sessions for the morrow had already been ap-
pointed, and to some it did not seem best to
postpone the meetings. But some way the
matter carried, and a committee of eighteen
left early Monday morning for the industrial
school site at Bog Walk.
For this reason there
representation, comparatively speaking, in the
service at the church at three o'clock on Mon-
There were likely not more
was only a small
day afternoon.
than one hundred people within the building.
Effects of the Earthquake on the Hamburg-American Line Offices
are supposed to have perished in the ruins
of the wrecked city. The disaster was so
appalling that those in the midst of the de-
struction could scarcely grasp its meaning.
With more than four hundred Seventh-day
Adventists in the city at the time of the dis-
aster, and not more than two per cent. of
The main auditorium was in the second story,
and the church was a brick structure. Elder
J. A. Strickland was in charge of the service
at the time of the earthquake. As the build-
ing began to rock and sway, the first thought
was of terror, but a hymn was started, and
Elder Strickland stepped between the people