Louisiana Conference President, 1901-1908
His Early Years
Sanford Byerly Horton was born in New Orleans on February 16, 1858, and christened in the Episcopal church. During his young manhood he studied law and enjoyed a successful law practice in New Orleans, Louisiana, for several years. Sanford married Isabella Young on March 6, 1882. Two daughters, Anna and Estelle, were born to this union, but Estelle died at the age of five.
Years of Ministry
Around 1890, guided by political aspirations, Sanford and his family went to Washington, D. C., where they heard and accepted the Adventist faith. He was called to the ministry the following summer. His years of labor were spent in New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D. C., Louisiana, Tennessee, New York, and Michigan. He served as a minister in the Atlantic District before his assignment in 1901, as the first president of the Louisiana Conference (Fattic, 1927). After his seven years as president of the Louisiana Conference, he was secretary of the Southern Union Conference for several years. He was very active in religious liberty affairs and served as assistant secretary of religious liberty in the General Conference, and later was head of that department in the Lake Union (Beeler, 1996).
His Final Days
Elder Horton preached his last sermon in the church of which he was the pastor at Lansing, Michigan, on Wednesday evening, February 9, 1927. He became ill that night, suffering from an acute attack of Bright’s disease (Fattic, 1927). He died in Lansing, Michigan, on February 20, 1927, at the age of sixty-nine, and was buried in New Orleans (Grave, 2012), where Elder W. A. Spicer, president of the General Conference, conducted the services (Fattic, 1927).
Citations
Beeler, Charles R. (1996). A History of Seventh-day Adventists in Arkansas and Louisiana 1888-1996.Keene: Arkansas-Louisiana Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, p. 87.
Fattic, G. R. (1927, Mar. 17). Review and Herald, p. 21.
Find a Grave. (2012, Apr. 3). Rev Sanford B. Horton. Retrieved from findagrave.com/memorial/85294704.
How it all Began 