Gold! That simple cry heard around the world ushered in a year that permanently changed the history of California. On January 24, 1848, gold was discovered near Sacramento, setting off a rush that would eventually flood the state with 300,000 fortune seekers. A few months later in that same year, a young woman in Scotland found something more valuable to her than all the gold unearthed in California. Her name was Helen Shiells; she and her family would one day have a large impact on Ventura County, California, and the Christadelphians who lived there.
On an October evening in 1848, she sat in the Waterloo Assembly Rooms in faraway Edinburgh, Scotland, listening intently to a man with a long black beard as he proclaimed his beliefs. The man was Bro. John Thomas, and the things that he said about the Bible captured her attention like nothing she had ever heard before. What she discovered that night would change her life in just as an extraordinary way as the discovery of gold would change California. Barely past her 27th birthday, Helen Shiells would dedicate the rest of her life to the truth that had been proclaimed to her that evening.
The young Scottish woman was not the only one impressed by what John Thomas had to say in Edinburgh in 1848. His powerful addresses there, and in Glasgow the month before, led to the request that he put his beliefs in writing. Out of those requests came Elpis Israel, a Christadelphian standard still read today. Helen Shiells would later encourage her friend Robert Strathearn to read the book, and he would be moved by it to be baptized into Christ. Helen continued to share the gospel with everyone with whom she came in contact all through her life, and would be responsible for bringing at least ten men and women to baptism.
The early years
Helen’s own baptism had occurred fully 16 years before the name Christadelphian was coined in 1864. She was actively living her faith and attending fraternal gatherings as early as the 1850s. In an article in The Christadelphian Magazine entitled “One Hundred Years Ago”, written in 1957, Helen is listed as one of three visitors at the 1856 Edinburgh gathering. This vibrant sister was first mentioned in The Christadelphian Magazine in 1868, when editor Robert Roberts wrote of visiting her and mentioned her influence on Robert Strathearn.
“Sept. 5 permitted of a pleasant drive for several miles by the seashore, in the company of Bro. Strathearn, on a visit to Harelaw, where Sis. Shiells lives, to whom Bro. Strathearn owes, in a great measure, the happy circumstance of his enlightenment in the truth.” Roberts also wrote, “Sis. Shiells… possesses an unusual amount of intelligence and excellence of spirit. For many years she has stood alone in the profession of her faith, and the prospect is that she will be still further tried in this respect, but her faith fails not. She has been for years an encouraging instance of faithfulness in small things.” Bro. Roberts’ words concerning Helen’s faithfulness and isolation would be echoed a number of times over the next 40 years of her life.
Leaving Scotland for America
Less than ten years after Robert Roberts’ commendation of her in The Christadelphian, Helen Shiells’ strong faith would be severely tested. The first blow came in 1866 when she tragically lost her 12-year-old daughter Margaret. Five years later grief struck again when her husband Francis was killed in a farming accident. And just one month after that, while she was still mourning her husband’s death, her 25-year-old son John would also die. In an effort to deal with her losses she decided to leave Scotland and emigrate to America.1Helen’s grief influenced her to leave her native country, but her choice of California as a new home was motivated by her desire to be near one of her children. Helen’s first child, Jane Rosenberg, was living in the small town of Carpinteria, just south of Santa Barbara, California. Jane’s was most likely the first Christadelphian baptism in California; she was immersed in Santa Barbara in 1870.2Jane’s husband Benton Rosenberg, who performed the baptism, would later become a Christadelphian as well.3In 1872, Helen sailed for California to be with the only one of her seven children who would take on the name of Christ.
Just prior to her coming to California, Helen had witnessed a baptism in Scotland that also meant a great deal to her. Helen’s many years of preaching to her friend Jessie Rutherford were finally paying off. Sis. Shiells had the following to say about the baptism: “You will be glad to hear that Mrs. Rutherford has embraced the truth and is going to put on the saving name in a few days. It is a great joy to me. I have known her 19 years, and have tried hard to get her to see the truth, but I was afraid it was water thrown on the ground. I began to despair, but the seed has taken root, for which I thank the Lord. How longsuffering He is. How many years I read to her and implored her to taste and see how good the truth was. You may guess my joy when she sent for me and told me she understood and believed, and loved the truth and wanted to be baptized.”4
For the past 130 years the Rutherfords have been a well-known Christadelphian family in Southern California.
Newly baptized Jessie Rutherford and her family joined Helen on the long and dangerous journey to California. Also in the group was another Christadelphian, Helen Shiells’ blind sister, Charlotte Lamb. Rounding out the company of travelers were Helen’s children, William and Lilias. Before the group left Scotland, the Harelaw Ecclesia had a well-attended “Godspeed” meeting to wish them well.
A home in California
Helen Shiells became part of the small ecclesia in Santa Barbara in the early 1870s that included Robert Strathearn, Isabella Strathearn, Charlotte Lamb, Jessie Rutherford, Jane Rosenberg, and a Bro. and Sis. Fisher. All of these early California Christadelphians had emigrated from Scotland. Much of the heritage that is enjoyed by Christadelphians in California today was made possible by those who moved here from other countries and states, particularly Scotland and Texas.
The Santa Barbara area was Helen Shiells’ first home on arriving in California, but in 1884 she and her son James (who had emigrated to California in 1869) left the area for the Santa Clara River Valley. They homesteaded near the town of Fillmore, just on the other side of the hills north of the present day Simi Hills ecclesia.5Two years prior to this the Strathearn family had also moved to this same area. The Strathearns and Shiells had remained close, and it is likely that the Shiells moved there to be near the Strathearns. At any rate, this move would turn out to be a momentous one for the Shiells family: oil (“black gold”) would be discovered on their property, eventually making the family wealthy.
About this time they were joined by the first Brinkerhoff Christadelphians, Henry and Jessie, who had been brought to the truth by Robert Strathearn. In 1884 also, John and Elizabeth Reith became Christadelphians through the efforts of Helen’s nephew, Bro. John Armstrong, who had recently emigrated from Scotland. It seems that Helen Shiells had a connection to virtually all the brothers and sisters who lived in Ventura County in the 1880s. Helen was mentioned often in The Christadelphian Magazine in those years, and always in glowing terms similar to those used by Robert Roberts 20 years earlier.
By the end of the 1880s the number of Christadelphians in California, while still small, was beginning to grow. Besides the seven brothers and sisters in Ventura County, there were 14 members in the Pomona Ecclesia, twelve in San Diego, eight in San Francisco, and a handful in Santa Barbara and Stockton.6With the exception of Stockton, all of these cities have ecclesias today.
In an 1886 letter to The Christadelphian Magazine, Bro. Edward Greene (Robert Strathearn’s first American convert) had the following to say about Helen: “She is one of our ‘bright and shining lights,’ and has been instrumental in bringing several of us to see the light!” Her readiness to preach was well known; in 1897 Sis. Elizabeth Reith noted that Helen Shiells “takes pleasure only in things pertaining to the truth. She has been the means of bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, as taught by Dr. Thomas. Surely this is a great honor.” Ten brothers and sisters had met at the Shiells’ home in the hills above Fillmore to break bread, some coming from as far away as Santa Barbara, 60 miles to the west. Meeting to remember Christ at her home had become a yearly affair, as Sis. Reith would report in The Christadelphian in 1898, “Again we have been permitted to hold our annual gathering at the mountain home of our dear Sis. Shiells, at Fillmore, Cal. It is a great joy to our sister to have us gather there, and to us to go. We desire keeping them up till the Lord calls us to the greater and final gathering.” Sadly this old home that meant so much to the early brothers and sisters in Ventura County burned to the ground in 2003, during a wildfire that scorched the hills around the current Simi Hills Ecclesial Hall.
The isolation noted by Bro. Roberts in 1866 continued to be a part of Helen’s life in America. Sis. Reith also wrote, “Our sister lives here quite isolated from any of like faith, except when one like myself has spare time to visit her.” That same year, Helen Shiells herself had this to say about her life in America: “Sis. Reith wrote to you a while ago, telling you that we had a meeting, which is a treat to me, I am so isolated. I seldom see a brother or sister, perhaps once a year. I was wondering when I read in Bro. Roberts’ voyage that he felt so lonesome, how he would like to be practically alone for over forty years, as I have been. How thankful I am to our Father in Heaven for all the helps I get with The Christadelphian and other books to understand His precious word. I often wonder where I would have been drifting by this time if it had not been for dear Bro. Roberts’ faithful adherence to the word of God… I was one of Dr. Thomas’s first converts when he was first in Scotland. I am not lonesome, [since] I have nearly all our beloved brother’s books.”
In 1895 Bro. Cyrus Lewis (who lived in Redlands, California) would help ease her isolation, spending two weeks at the Shiells home in Fillmore. He wrote, “Last fall I took a tour through Ventura County, visiting isolated brethren and sisters. The first I met was Sis. H. Shiells, near Fillmore Station, a true daughter of Sarah, ready to lodge strangers, wash their feet, or do anything she can for the least of God’s children. She resides with her son [James] who is a kind man also ready to entertain any who may call, but not in the faith [that is, James was not a Christadelphian]. Sis. Shiells is intelligent and strong in the truth. Being isolated, she enjoyed very much a visit from one of like precious faith. I stopped with them two weeks, and breaking of bread each first day was enjoyed very much.”7
In the late 1890s Helen would once again lose many of those who were close to her. In 1896 Robert Strathearn, her daughter Jane Rosenberg, and fellow Ventura County resident Bro. John Reith all died. In 1898 her granddaughter Sis. Ada Olsen died in San Francisco before the young woman had reached her thirtieth birthday. San Francisco, with 35 members,8was the largest ecclesia in California by this time, while Pomona was the largest in Southern California with 24 members.9
About this same time, Bro. Robert and Sis. Marion Stocks moved to nearby Moorpark, California. In 1902, Sis. Stocks, writing to The Christadelphian Magazine from Somis, California, mentions breaking bread with Sis. Shiells in a memorial service that included Robert Stocks, Henry and Jessie Brinkerhoff, and Charlie Seagoe. The difficulty of travel in those early days meant relative isolation for many of the early California Christadelphians. This is highlighted by Marion Stocks’ statement that a Sis. Baker living in Santa Paula was “isolated” even though Sis. Shiells lived only about 10 miles from Santa Paula and Sis. Stocks was about 15 miles away.
Sis. Elizabeth Greene had this to say about Sis. Shiells in the 1905 Christadelphian: “Though most of us are in isolation, we manage to get together occasionally, as we did on July 30 at the home of our dear Sis. Helen Shiells, who, though past 84, is still able to contend for the truth as it is in Christ. With few exceptions the most of us have been brought to the truth though her faithfulness. Long may she be spared to work for the Master.”
Helen Shiells would be spared from death for only three more years. She spent the last year of her life in Santa Barbara with her widowed daughter Lilias, who had traveled to America with her so many years before. Helen would be buried in the Goleta Cemetery near Santa Barbara, where a large gravestone still proclaims the faith of this lovely sister in Christ. Her death would also mark the end of Christadelphians in Ventura County for 70 years. A few years before she died, the last of this hearty group of brethren, the Brinkerhoffs, the Greenes, and the Stocks, moved to the Los Angeles area.
The Shiells family
Two of Helen’s granddaughters shared Helen’s faith, becoming Christadelphians after the Rosenberg family moved from Santa Barbara to the San Francisco area in the late 1800s. Helen’s daughter, Sis. Jane Rosenberg, died as a member of the San Francisco Ecclesia in 1896.10My great-grandfather, James Cheetham, Recording Bro. of the San Francisco Ecclesia, had this to say about Jane Rosenberg: “She was quiet, gentle, and much respected and loved amongst us; we miss her very much.”11Two of Jane’s daughters (Helen Shiells’ granddaughters) were baptized the same year Jane died. One of them, Ada Olsen, died in 1898, at only 29 years of age. My great-great grandfather, Bro. William Clark, who had emigrated to San Francisco from Glasgow, Scotland, in 1879, spoke at Sis. Olsen’s funeral.12
The Shiells family would eventually become very well known in Ventura County. In fact, in a book entitled The History of Ventura County, the author says, “Among the prominent families of Ventura County, the members of which have played well their part in its development and in the public affairs of their communities, none takes precedence over the Shiells family.”
Helen’s sons, James and particularly William, became very prominent citizens of Fillmore, California. In 1884 the two of them, along with Helen, purchased 1200 acres near Fillmore. They originally raised animals there, but later also planted oranges, lemons, and walnuts. They were doing very well financially as farmers, but in 1910, two years after Helen died, their income would be multiplied many times. That was the year they leased 880 acres of their property to the Montebello Oil Company. This oilfield was said to be one of the richest in California at the time. In 1916 they were reported to have “a magnificent income”. They used this income to purchase more land in California and Arizona. In a book about famous families in California, it was said, “The brothers own an immense amount of valuable property in different sections of Southern and Central California.”13
Unfortunately, neither of these men became Christadelphians, instead becoming deeply involved in the Masons and politics. Today, the land the Shiells homesteaded in Fillmore is still known as Shiells Canyon and is still producing oil. The town of Fillmore also named a park and a street after the Shiells family.
In brief repose
Sis. Shiells died in Christ in 1908, shortly after the death of her first convert, Jessie Rutherford. Sis. E.B. Cornwall wrote the following to The Christadelphian Magazine at the time of Helen’s death: “Our dearly-beloved sister, Mrs. Helen Shiells, fell asleep, June 13, 1908, aged 86 years. She came to a knowledge of the truth in Scotland 52 years ago [actually 60 years earlier], coming here in 1872, 36 years ago, along with Sis. Rutherford, whose death is recorded in the June issue of The Christadelphian (aged 87), and who was her first convert to the truth. Since then she has helped eight others to put on the Saving Name — probably many more, directly and indirectly. She has been a subscriber to The Christadelphian since its beginning, and has read all the works of Dr. Thomas and R. Roberts, but her Bible was her daily source of comfort… She will long be remembered by many as a noble advocate of the truth, and [for] her large-heartedness to all, especially brethren and sisters. Those of her home country, who came here in search of health, she tenderly nursed, among whom was her nephew, our dearly-loved Bro. John Armstrong, who died more than 20 years ago (late of Edinburgh, Scotland).
“But now we sorrow not as those who have no hope, but believe that her next moment of consciousness will be in the presence of our Lord and Master, when he returns to raise his sleeping ones to everlasting life. She leaves a family of three sons and widowed daughter, at whose home she died; also numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, all of whom will miss her helping hand and wise counsel; but none mourn her loss more than the writer, who has been greatly comforted by her when suffering from severe family affliction and bereavement; [she was] ever reminding me that our light affliction, which is but for a moment (comparatively), worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Amen.”14
Sis. Shiells’ obituary was published on the front page of the Ventura County Free Press. The article had the following to say about her: “She was a strong woman, physically and mentally, as befits those from Scotia’s rugged shores, until a few weeks as active as many women a half century younger… She was a woman of deep religious feeling, a great student of the Bible, which she had read times without number, a Christadelphian in doctrine.” The obituary also mentioned that people had come from as far away as Los Angeles (brothers and sisters from the Los Angeles Ecclesia, no doubt).
Helen Shiells was buried in the Goleta Cemetery near Santa Barbara. Sis. Shiells is still preaching today, as her grave is marked with a large headstone that states:
“Here lies in brief repose
Waiting
the return of the Lord
from heaven
Helen Shiells
1821-1908
Who for 60 years held the faith of
the Christadelphians and died in hope of
a resurrection to life eternal”
A few months ago Helen’s great-grandson, William Shiells Kimble, visited the Santa Barbara Ecclesia in an effort to find out who the Christadelphians were, and why they meant enough to Helen to be mentioned on her gravestone. He has since learned that not only did the Christadelphians mean a great deal to Helen, but that she meant a great deal to them as well.
While Helen’s life was not an easy one, it was a resounding success as she influenced so many others through the faith that she lived. Just as her life was changed by what she learned in Scotland in 1848, the lives of many early brothers and sisters in Southern California were changed by knowing Helen. This remarkable woman truly was a daughter of Sarah and an heir of the promises to Abraham.
- Fillmore Edition Newspaper. Wednesday, October 5, 1988, p. 1.
- The Christadelphian Magazine, 1870.
- The Christadelphian Magazine, 1898.
- The Christdelphian Magazine, 1872.
- The Christadelphian Magazine.
- Various Christadelphian Magazine entries.
- The Christadelphian Advocate Magazine, 1896.
- The Christadelphian Magazine, 1898.
- The Christadelphian Magazine, 1899.
- The Christadelphian Magazine, 1896.
- The Christadelphian Magazine, 1896.
- The Christadelphian Magazine, 1898.
- Quoted in Fillmore Gazette, October 9, 1991.
- The Christadelphian Magazine, 1908.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One