Naughty Ellen White

By Dirk Anderson, 2026

One of the most insightful stories from Ellen White's childhood comes from her own mouth. It is a little anecdote she told on herself in Australia — seemingly with pride — providing a window into the real Ellen White: a calculating, manipulative child who grew into a calculating, manipulative woman.

Origin of the Story: W. A. Colcord

Willard Allan Colcord (1860–1935) was no fringe critic. He was a respected Seventh-day Adventist leader who served as General Field Secretary for the Religious Liberty Department and worked closely alongside Ellen White during her years in Australia in the 1890s. He was a colleague, not an enemy. His account of a story Mrs. White told about herself, published in The Gathering Call, carries the weight of a firsthand witness who knew her well and had ample opportunity to observe her character up close.

Like the SDA historian George Knight, who argued that understanding the human side of Ellen White is essential to fairly evaluating her legacy, Colcord believed that character matters. What he witnessed in Australia stayed with him for decades. It was a story Ellen White told herself, in her own home, apparently with some satisfaction.

Naughty Ellen

Here is the account in Colcord's own words:

DROPPING SPOONS THRU THE FLOOR

Was This Witty or Wicked?

Here is a little story I heard her relate about herself once over in Australia in her own home. She seemed to tell it as a smart trick she had played on her parents once when she was a child.

The family had some silver spoons which had become brassy through wear. She wanted her parents to get some new spoons. They did not seem to respond readily to her wish, perhaps on account of being comparatively poor. So what did she do? This is what she did. Every now and then she would take one of these brassy spoons and drop it down through a crack in the kitchen floor. Before long, the spoons began to get scarce, and she would hear her mother inquire, "I wonder what is becoming of my spoons." Little Ellen said not a word, though she very well knew what was "becoming of them." She would simply watch her chance, and before long drop another spoon down through the crack in the kitchen floor.

In this way she forced her parents to get new spoons. And they never learned what became of all the old spoons until the kitchen floor got so bad they had to tear it up and put down new flooring, and there down on the ground, were the spoons their daughter Ellen had secretly dropped there.

This story I heard from her own lips. It shows about how much the "soul of honor" she was. She played tricks on her own parents. In order to have her way, she would make away with their things. She was determined to have her way, and she was smart enough to think up deceptive ways to compel them to come to her terms.¹

Witty or Wicked?

Consider what young Ellen actually did. Over a period of time — not once in a moment of childish impulse, but repeatedly and with patience — she stole household property from her own family. These were not her spoons to dispose of. They belonged to her parents, who were, by Colcord's own observation, comparatively poor. Rather than accept her parents' wishes, Ellen chose a covert campaign of attrition. She acted surreptitiously. Then, she kept her mouth shut while her mother wondered aloud where her possessions were going.

This was more than a childish prank. It was sustained, calculated deception — a weeks- or months-long exercise in manipulation designed to override her parents' decision. She did not ask her parents to change their minds. She engineered circumstances to force them into compliance, while ensuring they never knew what hit them.

Colcord's question — "Was This Witty or Wicked?" — answers itself.

The Narcissist Revealed: She Bragged About It

No one condemns Ellen for making a childhood mistake. We have all done the same or worse. However, here is the key difference. Most people experience pain and regret when remembering those childhood failures and are loathe to recite their mistakes to others. Not Ellen White.

This is revealing: Ellen White told this story herself. She did not confess it in shame. She did not mention it as a cautionary tale about the dangers of deception. Colcord records explicitly that "she seemed to tell it as a smart trick she had played on her parents." She was seemingly proud of it. She recounted it to a small audience in her own home with the air of someone sharing a clever exploit.

This is the sign of a narcissist. The ordinary person who did something deceptive as a child feels at least some residual embarrassment and is reluctant to retell it. The person with an inflated, grandiose ego does not. In their internal accounting, getting what they want by any means necessary is not a moral failing. It is proof of their superior cleverness. Little Ellen did not see herself as a child who stole from her poor parents. She saw herself as a child who was smart enough to solve a problem her parents were too dull to solve themselves.

This is precisely the psychology that would later animate Mrs. White's prophetic career: an ironclad conviction that she knew better than everyone else, that her desires and judgments were aligned with God's will, and that those who did not comply simply needed to be maneuvered into the correct position — for their own good, naturally.

A Prophet Who Gloried in Her Aptitude to Deceive

Ellen White spent decades promoting herself not only as God's chosen messenger but also as an authority on family issues. She instructed youth on how to obey and honor their parents. She sternly denounced those children who "gloried in their aptitude to deceive their parents."²

The bitter irony is that Ellen White built an enormous body of writing — often on the themes of honesty and integrity — all the while she was surreptitiously stealing the words of others. She thundered against deception in others. But when she sat in her own home in Australia and recalled the clever little scheme she had run on her poor parents, she did not seem troubled by any stain on her own character. She seemed entertained.

Conclusion

Colcord ends his account with a blunt verdict: "She played tricks on her own parents. In order to have her way, she would make away with their things. She was determined to have her way, and she was smart enough to think up deceptive ways to compel them to come to her terms."

He is describing a child. But he might as well be describing the prophet. A prophet who deceived others to get what she wanted. Power. Fame. Fortune. What is most frightening is the complete absence of guilt.

In a small house in rural Australia, Ellen showed her true colors. A woman proud of her cleverness at deceiving others. That should frighten any Seventh-day Adventist.