Victor Tasho Houteff (Bulgarian; Виктор Ташо Хутев ; March 2, 1885 – February 5, 1955) was the founder of the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist organization, known as The Shepherd's Rod. Early life Houteff was born in Raicovo, Eastern Rumelia, (modern day Bulgaria), and, as a child, baptized as a member of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. As a young man, he was engaged in the mercantile trade. In 1907, he and his brothers emigrated to the United States after, according to Victor Houteff's testimony, a mob had taken up arms against his family and forced them onto a boat. Houteff would, on several occasions, return to visit his family, many of whom now live in the U.S. Victor Houteff arrived in the U.S. virtually penniless. He soon found work as a hotelier and grocer in the state of Illinois. In 1919, he joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In the midst of the Roaring Twenties, Houteff journeyed west to California to be closer to Seventh-day Adventist communities, like Loma Linda. In Los Angeles, California, he took a job as a salesman for the Maytag Corporation, selling washers and other household appliances. Houteff soon saved enough money to start his own company, which manufactured wholesome confectionery candies or, as Houteff himself referred to them, "health sweets." Adventism During the 1920s, Victor Houteff, a strict Seventh-day Adventist, became a Sabbath School teacher at the Exposition Park Church in Los Angeles. A keen student of the Bible, Houteff began to delve deeply into it and the writings of Ellen G. White. His Bible study classes in the church lasted longer and became more complex, attracting large groups of Adventists every week. Houteff's particular focus was the Scriptures from Isaiah, in chapters 54-66. Houteff encountered opposition to his interpretation from the established Seventh-day Adventist Church; and, eventually, Houteff and a large number of his Bible class were disfellowshiped. Houteff persisted, moving his class of more than fifty students to a large house across the street from the church, where he continued to study and teach. Houteff attempted to interest the Adventist California Conference in his Biblical findings, which he believed were really a continuation of the Three Angels Message of Revelation 14. The Three Angels Message is one of the basic doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In 1929, Houteff completed his doctrinal studies and submitted them in the form of a book entitled The Shepherd's Rod.