35 Facts About Frank Sandford

Frank Weston Sandford was a charismatic Christian religious leader in the United States who attained notoriety as the founder and leader of an apocalyptic sect known as "The Kingdom".

Frank Sandford was detained by authorities and sentenced to seven years in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.

In 1918, Frank Sandford was released on good behavior and returned to the "Shiloh", resuming his responsibilities after previously attempting to install his son, John, as leader.

On March 4,1948, Frank Sandford died and his body was secretly buried by his followers.

Frank Sandford was born in Bowdoinham, Maine, the tenth child of a farming family.

Frank Sandford threw away his tobacco and announced his conversion publicly, not only at church but at Nichols Latin School, where worldly cosmopolitanism was the preferred pose.

Frank Sandford graduated in 1886 with honors and was chosen to give a commencement address.

For one summer Frank Sandford captained a semi-pro baseball team and was approached by professional scouts.

Soon thereafter, at age 24, Frank Sandford dropped out of seminary after he was called as pastor by the Free Will Baptist church in Topsham, Maine.

Frank Sandford was frenetically energetic, and within three years his revivals resulted in three hundred conversions and more than a hundred baptisms.

Shortly thereafter, Frank Sandford read Hannah Whitall Smith's The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life.

In 1896, Frank Sandford became convinced that God had told him to build a home for the Bible school on a sandy hill near Durham, Maine.

Except for celebrating Jewish Feasts and keeping the Sabbath on Saturday, Frank Sandford's theology was, at this point, not far from mainstream evangelicalism.

In 1897, Frank Sandford had witnessed and praised the miracles of contemporary faith healer John Alexander Dowie.

Frank Sandford believed the Epistle of James compelled Christians who were sick to call church elders for prayer and the laying on of hands, and he criticised Christians who sought treatment from physicians.

In September 1900, Frank Sandford announced that there would henceforth be an official chain of authority: God the Father, God the Son, the prophet whom God had chosen, ordained ministers subordinate to the prophet, everyone else subordinate to the ministers, with women and children subordinate to their husbands and fathers.

Frank Sandford developed a three-tiered membership in his religious system: those willing to be "100-fold warriors" would be supported by 60- and 30-fold members who would live in their own homes and continue to work.

In 1902, after visiting Jerusalem, Frank Sandford received a divine message that indicated that in some way, he was the biblical David.

Frank Sandford returned to Maine to find his community at what he considered a low spiritual ebb, with many members ill from diseases including smallpox.

Frank Sandford intended to "subdue the world for Christ" by intercessory prayer, claiming nations and isles for Christ by sounding brass instruments as they passed by.

Oddly, Frank Sandford added a taxidermist to a crew of reasonably experienced seamen, and he included on a ship already filled to capacity both "eyes for stuffed animals and birds" and a large harp on which he took lessons.

At this point, Frank Sandford decided to bring back all his followers from Palestine, and Whittaker reluctantly agreed to accept passage to the US on another Shiloh ship, the three-masted barquentine Kingdom.

Frank Sandford was treated with utmost courtesy until they reached the Maine coast, at which point Sandford refused to let her land until she was "adjusted" to her husband.

At the time Frank Sandford was aboard Coronet, and authorities began watching ports to serve him the legal papers.

Frank Sandford determined that they would not find him, and that a mission station should be opened immediately in Africa and perhaps another in Greenland.

Frank Sandford took everyone aboard Coronet, which now became fearfully overloaded with people and undersupplied with food and water.

Nevertheless, Frank Sandford heard the supernatural direction, "Continue," which he interpreted to mean to sail on to Greenland.

Frank Sandford even insisted that Shiloh residents drop whatever they were doing at 11:30 and 4:00 and exercise with him.

Frank Sandford was made a gatekeeper and given a pass that allowed him to spend some time out of doors.

Frank Sandford volunteered to teach a group of prisoners how to read and write, and especially enjoyed conducting a weekly Bible class that began with one student and grew to more than a hundred.

Frank Sandford's return sparked new contributions and new healings, even food enough for two meals a day.

Nevertheless, three days after his arrival, another of Frank Sandford's daughters ran away, and a few months later he left Maine for the sect's Boston headquarters.

Frank Sandford prayed, farmed, raised sheep, studied astronomy, taught small groups, and gradually regathered his scattered followers into centers in different parts of the country.

Frank Sandford continued to be supported by the tithes of his followers, and his retirement was "satisfying and serene," although his papers and books were twice destroyed in house fires.

Frank Sandford had, of course, not died as Elijah in Jerusalem, but as an unheralded inhabitant of a Catskill village.