Family and early life
Roswell Fenner Cottrell was born on January 17, 1814, in Brookfield, New York, to John Cottrell and Mary Polly Stillman. The family were Seventh Day Baptists who traced their ancestry to Rhode Island, but he and his father rejected the immortality of the soul, unlike many of their associates. In 1833 the family moved to Mill Grove, near Buffalo, where he taught in public schools for about ten years.
Accepting the Advent message
The family became Sabbatarian Adventists in 1851, after the evangelism of Rhodes. A letter by Cottrell dated October 19, 1851, appeared in the Review and Herald on November 25, 1851.
A prolific writer
- He wrote for the Review and Herald from 1855 and sat on its editorial committee with J. N. Andrews and Uriah Smith in the mid-1850s.
- He wrote a Sabbath School lesson series for the Youth’s Instructor in 1854–1855.
- Estimates of his output run to about 1,600–1,700 articles and poems over some forty years.
- He served as corresponding editor and wrote the introduction to volume 1 of Ellen White’s Spiritual Gifts.
Ministry
Cottrell served as tent-master in New York evangelism in 1856, preached to the Seneca Indians in 1857, and baptized D. M. Canright at Ridgeway, New York, around 1858. He served as president of the New York Conference, 1868–1869, and as chaplain of the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
Positions
In 1860 he opposed formal denominational organization, a position he later publicly acknowledged was mistaken. He opposed voting and in 1865 wrote three articles against Christians fighting in war. He argued against insurance for Christians and was an early proponent of linking Sunday-keeping with the mark of the beast.
Hymns and poetry
He wrote many poems for the Review and Herald. Two of his hymns appear in the current Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, and a creation hymn of his was the first translated into Chinese for non-Christian audiences.
Descendants and death
His grandson Roy Franklin Cottrell served as an Adventist missionary in China from 1908 to 1920, and his great-grandson Raymond Forrest Cottrell was a missionary in Manchuria and later an associate editor of the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary. Roswell Cottrell died on March 22, 1892, at Ridgeway, New York, aged 78. He was still writing the night before he died.
