Joshua Himes was born on May 19, 1805 in Wickford, Rhode Island, USA. His father (Stuckeley Himes) was a successful merchantman and West Indies Trader and his mother (Elizabeth Vaughn Himes) came from one of the wealthiest families in the region. Joshua spent his early years living in the finest house in Wickford. His parents belonged to the Episcopal church and provided a Christian education for Joshua at the knee of Rev. Lemuel Burge and the prominent Episcopal Bishop Griswold. His parents had planned to send him to Browns University to study theology and become an Episcopal priest.
When Joshua was 12, his father’s business partners betrayed him, leaving Stuckeley with a large debt. He could no longer pay for the education of Joshua so he sent him out to work. He became an apprentice to a cabinet maker in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
In November 1825, at the age of 20 he married, Mary Thompson Handy. They eventually had nine boys. Having been baptized into the First Christian Church at the age of 18, at the age of 22 he was ordained into the ministry.
Over the next few years he preached in several different locations before becoming pastor of the First Christian Church in Boston in 1830. There he rose to prominence, reviving a church that was near death. There were seven families in the church when he arrived and in two years, he had the chapel filled. Joshua also became active in the educational, temperance, peace, and abolitionist reform movements of the day.
Joshua was very progressive and active, and consequently a number of the congregation felt that he moved too fast for the majority of the group. As a result, he and his close friends withdrew and formed the Second Christian church. They elected him as their pastor. From a little handful numbering less than fifty, this congregation grew under the leadership of the youthful pastor until the Chardon Street Chapel, with a capacity of about five hundred, was built for their church home.
In 1839 Himes went to listen to William Miller in Exeter, New Hampshire, on a recommendation from a friend and was so impressed by what he heard that he invited Miller to speak at the Chardon Street Chapel in Boston. He invited Miller to stay at his home while in Boston. Prior to this, Miller had not preached in any big cities. The two men became close friends.
Miller preached twice daily when he was in Boston and the interest was so great that hundreds were turned away at the door. After these lectures, Himes became convinced of the imminent return of Christ, and sought opportunities for Miller to preach. He joined Miller in preaching the Advent message and was a prime mover in opening doors to other Christian churches in large cities. Joshua eventually became an Adventist minister himself, leaving the Chardon Street Chapel.
Joshua Himes was also a writer and editor. In 1840 he published and edited the first Millerite newspaper, The Signs of the Times. In it he published the lectures of William Miller to spread the message of the Adventist Movement. He also published hundreds of pamphlets as well as the second and third editions of Miller’s lectures. Joshua also published the first Millerite prophetic chart, designed by Charles Fitch and Apollos Hale in 1842. Then on November 17, 1842 he began to print another newspaper, The Midnight Cry, in New York. The first volume of 26 issues was printed daily. He printed 10 000 for each issue. After the 26 days he began to publish it weekly. Himes’ promotional work brought Millerism to the attention of the world stretching into Canada and England. It was from these published writings that Joseph Bates and Charles Fitch were convinced of the Advent Message.
Joshua was very enthusiastic organizing extensive lecture tours for Miller and himself as far west as Cincinnati, and he began organizing general conferences and camp meetings. These became so popular that before long, Joshua Himes purchased the largest tent in America at that time, seating 6,000 people.
Like Miller, Himes at first opposed the setting of October 22, 1844, as the exact date for the return of Christ, but he accepted it shortly before the date arrived. The date passed without incident, and Himes and Miller were the subjects of intense scrutiny and accusations. Himes published his defense, first in the Boston Post, then in periodicals like The Liberator, refuting some of the more serious accusations made against him, the movement, and its impact on followers.
After the Great Disappointment, Joshua made a great effort to (without success) try to reorganize the disappointed Adventists around the original Advent faith at a conference at the Albany Conference in April 1845. He and Miller convened the meeting inviting all members of the faith. From this meeting the believers were divided into several branches. Miller, Himes and Josiah Litch joined the Albany Conference while still believing Jesus was soon to come, but they did not set a date. Several groups abandoned their hope of Jesus’, soon coming. Another group believed the date was correct but the event was in error. This group became the Seventh-day Adventist Church as we know it today.
Himes never accepted the Seventh-day Adventist’s belief on the Sabbath and Sanctuary and in 1863 he joined the Advent Christian Church, becoming a prominent leader. He then moved his family west to Buchanan, Michigan. He did though, continue to look for Christ’s return all his long life.
In 1879, when Joshua Himes was 75, he was living in Elk Point, South Dakota and through an unfortunate misunderstanding, he left the Advent Christian Church and returned to the church of his birth, the Episcopal Church. Here he fulfilled his father’s dream by becoming an ordained Episcopal priest. He spent his declining years in the ministry of that church, but he never lost his hope and love for Christ’s coming.
In the final year of his life, with his health declining, he went to the Battle Creek Sanitarium where he remained for a long course of treatment for cancer. He received much help temporarily from the treatment, and greatly enjoyed associating with old friends of the advent movement with whom he had a bond of interest and friendship. They never forgot his energetic leadership in the years prior to 1844.
While there, he was invited to attend the regular Seventh-day Adventist camp meeting. Toward the end of the meetings, he was invited to speak and although he was ninety years of age, and afflicted with a dreadful malady which was to carry him to his grave, he spoke with his old-time fire and vigor. There stood the old warrior as he stood under that huge canvas, addressing that great congregation as when he was a central figure in the 1844 movement.
His last words to Doctor Kress at the sanitarium were, “God accomplished the purpose of the message He gave to us; and when our work was done, the Seventh-day Adventists were raised up to carry the work forward to completion—in calling the people in all the world to move forward into the eternal land of promise.”
On the train home from Michigan, he happened to meet J.N. Loughborough; Loughborough stated that some of the last words Joshua Himes spoke to him were that he was thankful he had never opposed the work of Mrs. E.G. White even though many first day Adventists of the former movement had made special attacks upon her work.
At that time Ellen G. White was in Australia and Joshua Himes had sent her a donation. This was her letter to him in appreciation. “Elder J. V. Himes: My Brother in Christ Jesus: I received your donation of forty dollars. In the name of our Redeemer I thank you. Be assured we shall invest this money in the best possible way to accomplish the most good for the salvation of souls. . . . The spirited participation evidenced by your donation for this field has rejoiced my heart; for it testifies that you have not lost the missionary spirit which prompted you first to give yourself to the work, and then to give your means to the Lord, to proclaim the first and second angels’ messages in their time and order to the world. This is a great gratification to me; for it bears an honorable testimony that your heart is still in the work; I see the proof of your love to the Lord Jesus Christ in your freewill offering for this ‘region beyond.’ . . . Letter 31a, 1895, pp. 1,2. (To Elder Joshua V. Himes, Jan. 17, 1895.)” –Manuscript Releases, vol. 3, p. 256
In spite of the best of care he had received in Michigan, his cancer proved incurable, and on July 27, 1895, he was laid to rest at his home at Elk Point, South Dakota. Uriah Smith, in writing an obituary, correctly stated: “All through that movement [1844 movement] he was the leading and most aggressive human instrumentality, pushing on the cause of publishing, preaching, and organizing the various enterprises connected with that work. Mr. Miller acknowledged and appreciated his great services, and Seventh-day Adventists have always respected and honored him for the noble part he acted in that great prophetic religious awakening.”
Joshua Himes was buried in a cemetery in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in a spot he specifically selected. True to his Adventist roots, he wanted to be buried high on a hill, so as to be among the first to hear it when the Angel Gabriel blows his trumpet at Christ’s Second Coming.