Frank Sandford

American religious leader

Frank Weston Sandford (October 2, 1862 – March 4, 1948) 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".

Born in Bowdoinham, Maine, to a farming family, Sandford was exposed to concepts such as premillennialism, the Higher Life movement, the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, and divine healing in his thirties.

In August 1891, after performing an exorcism and claiming to hear the voice of God warn him of "Armageddon", he established a commune called the "Shiloh" in Durham, Maine.

Commune members were forced to fast, pray for hours-on-end and obey Sandford's orders absolutely.After commune members disagreed about his biblical interpretations, he instituted a chain-of-command in which his orders were limited by only by those of God and Jesus Christ.

Eventually he declared himself the incarnation of the prophet Elijah and King David, and established The Kingdom.Considered by former members and many of his neighbors to be an autocrat who insisted on unquestioning loyalty, Sandford regularly starved his followers, which resulted in deadly outbreaks of smallpox, diphtheria, and other infectious diseases.

The death of 14-year-old Leander Bartlett lead to his conviction for manslaughter and cruelty to children in 1904, though a 1905 ruling by the Maine Supreme Court reversed the convictions.

Sandford then sailed to Jerusalem on multiple missionary voyages.In 1910, he traveled aboard the barquentine Kingdom to Africa with more than seventy men, women, and children.

In March 1911, Kingdom went aground and was destroyed off the coast of French West Africa, an event that inspired Sandford to sail to Greenland in an attempt create a mission station there.

Because he knowingly sailed with insufficient food and supplies, six crew members were stricken with scurvy and died on his return to Portland.

Sandford was detained by authorities and sentenced to seven years in the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.While there, he sent letters to his followers that were distributed among members of his commune.

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

Nevertheless, two years later, the death of another commune member led his sect to be forcibly dispersed in "the Scattering".

After the commune was evacuated by law, Sandford moved to New York's Catskill Mountains to be closer to God.On March 4, 1948, Sandford died and his body was secretly buried by his followers.

All of his belongings burned in various house fires.Although his absence retarded the growth of the small sect, it survived, in attenuated form, into the 21st century with the creation of the Kingdom Christian Ministries in 1998.

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