Frank Sandford

Frank Sandford was a “faith healer” and destructive cult leader in Maine who led the “Holy Ghost Society” commune in Shiloh, just outside of Durham. Sandford was fundamental to the formation of modern Pentecostalism; when Pentecostal founder Charles Fox Parham was making plans to start his own Bethel commune in Topeka, Kansas, Parham spent time in Sandford’s commune and in John Alexander Dowie’s Christian Catholic Apostolic Church commune in Zion Illinois. Like Dowie, Sandford convinced his followers that he was the return of Elijah the Prophet from the Old Testament, and claimed that he was given this “mantle” after an “angel” came to visit him.

Sandford grew membership in his cult of personality by claiming to heal the sick, and news of his faith healing power spread throughout multiple states. At the height of his fame, Sandford had over six hundred residents living inside the commune, and many others who believed his Elijah claim. When people started getting sick or dying in his commune, however, membership quickly diminished. To avoid a complete exodus, Sandford began claiming that God had instructed him to take his faithful to “spread the gospel to the world”, and transitioned his commune to two boats. It would be very difficult to leave his cult when surrounded by water.

The tragedy that followed landed Sandford in a position of hard labor in an Atlanta, Georgia federal prison, convicted of manslaughter. One boat was destroyed, and the other was not properly equipped. Conditions on the boats were inhumane, and many converts became very sick and died. Most of them starved, though Sandford himself ate like a king with a larger portion of rations.

Yet both Frank Sandford and John Alexander Dowie, "Elijah prophets", were the prototype for William Branham's stage persona during the Post WWII Healing Revivals.

You can learn this and more on william-branham.org

https://william-branham.org/site/research/people/frank_sanford