Elder Daniel T. Bourdeau was was born in Bourdeauville, Vermont on December 28th, 1835. He had a brother, Augustin, who was one year older.
Daniel’s parents joined the Baptist church when he was five years old. At the age of 11 he, himself, was also baptized. At the age of 16 Daniel was sent to study at a Baptist seminary that was founded by Madame Feller at Grand Line, Canada which was a French language institution.
When Daniel was 19 years of age, he began preaching, and one year later was ordained to the Gospel ministry and labored as a Baptist pastor in Canada.
In 1855, at the age of 20, Daniel received some very disturbing news. His parents and brother had left the Baptist church, accepting the teachings and joining the membership of a small strange group of ex-Millerite believers, which he believed to be a cult. This group would take on the name of Seventh-day Adventist five years later in 1863. Daniel was very distressed believing that his family down in Vermont had been badly misled and deceived.
He decided to set them straight. He began to study more earnestly, determined to fortify himself with all the arguments he could think up against the cult to rescue his deluded loved ones. While he was studying he happened to meet a Roman Catholic priest. During their conversation the priest startled Daniel by agreeing with his family. He said that the church of Rome had indeed changed the observance of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, and that he would find no Biblical evidence for that. The priest then stated that the pope had both the authority and the power to make this change.
Daniel was very shocked at this admission. He realized he would have to do some more in-depth study about it. During this time, he received letters from his family giving reasons why they believed as they did. They presented all the arguments in favour of the Sabbath and the prophetical teachings of the group of believers. Daniel, being an honest man, shortly after accepted the truth and the Three Angel’s Messages.
Although he joined the group of Sabbath-keeping believers, Daniel still did not believe that Ellen G. White’s visions were of divine origin. When he was 22 years old, on Sunday June 21, 1857, he was able to witness one of her visions at Bucks Bridge Adventist Church in New York.
While Ellen White was in vision her husband invited Daniel to examine his wife. He accepted the offer, wanting to satisfy his mind as to whether she was breathing or not. He first put his hand on her chest, “long enough to know that there was no more heaving of her lungs than there would have been had she been a corpse.” He took one hand and placed it over her mouth and with the other hand, pinched her nostrils between his thumb and forefinger so it was impossible for her to breathe even if she wanted to. He held her like this for ten minutes. This would have been long enough for her to suffocate under ordinary circumstances. Ellen White was not in the least affected by the ordeal. When he wrote about this experience later at the age of 55 he said he had never doubted the divine origin of her visions again.
Daniel was ordained into the ministry of the Adventist believers in 1858. He, with his brother, spent many years in evangelism in New England and Canada among the French-speaking people.
In 1861, at the age of 26, he married Marion E. Saxby. They got married in a private home in Vermont. James White performed the ceremony and Ellen White offered the prayer at the end of the service. The wedding took place late at night. The hosts of the home persuaded Daniel and Marion to postpone their honeymoon until the next day because it was not convenient to travel in the dark. They persuaded the Whites also to spend the night.
By the time Ellen White made her way upstairs to her room to go to sleep, around 9:00 PM, she found Daniel nervously pacing up and down the hallway in front of his bedroom, which was the room next to her’s and her husband’s.
Ellen White quickly read the situation and, pointing toward the closed bedroom door, she fixed Daniel with a steady gaze and earnestly yet kindly and gently spoke to him, saying, “Daniel, inside that room is a frightened young woman in bed petrified with fear. Now you go in to her right now, and you love her, and you comfort her. And, Daniel, you treat her gently, and you treat her tenderly, and you treat her lovingly. It will do her good…”
Then with a slight grin on her face she said: “Daniel, it will do you good, too.”
Marion proved to be a faithful companion, a help-meet to him in his gospel ministry.
Daniel travelled to California with J. N. Loughborough from 1868-1870. When he returned to the East in 1870 he resumed work among the French-speaking people and also organized churches in Wisconsin and Illinois.
He also spent time in Europe. He spent a year working with J.N. Andrews in 1876. They worked in the publishing department and in evangelism.
In 1882 Daniel returned to Europe. This time he went with his brother. They worked in France, Switzerland, Romania, Corsica and Italy. The Lord blessed their work and sometimes an entire congregation of Sunday-keepers, together with their pastor, would become converted to the Adventist faith.
Daniel returned to America in 1888 and continued as a minister and writer. He had a great burden for working for the French-speaking people, and then later for the English as well.
Daniel and Marion had two children and they went to live in Battle Creek in order to educate them. Their daughter, Patience, became a medical doctor and was the medical director of the Adventist Seminary in Grand Rapids.
He wrote many tracts and other papers of a religious character, and was engaged in the preparation of several manuscripts at the time of his death.
In May of 1905, Daniel attended the General Conference at Washington and returned with renewed spiritual strength, but weakened physically, and failed rapidly until he fell asleep on June 30th. He died at the home of his daughter, Doctor Patience S. Bourdeau, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at the age of 69.
His son worked for the Review and Herald Publishing department until the age of 40 when met with a fatal accident that was quite tragic on the day of Ellen White’s second funeral. A tree he was standing beside was struck by lightning, killing him also.
We do not know why some die young and some old; however, we do look forward to meeting these faithful pioneers of our faith when Jesus returns once again to take us all home to heaven.
After a talk given to the ministers by Ellen. G. White at the General Conference on April 15, 1901, Elder Bourdeau is quoted as saying, “I am of good courage because the Lord is in our midst. I have not said much; I do not claim perfection, but I know that God does love us, and I love Him. I love His cause. I love this people, and I purpose to wake up to this precious instruction given to us. I have no other object in life. May God bless us and give us victory through Jesus Christ.” –General Conference Bulletin, vol. 4, April 16, 1901, p. 269