Aurora 1917

The Aurora Convention was held over August 8-13, 1917 at Fox River Park, Aurora, Illinois. This candid snapshot of a car with the cross and crown pennant at the front features (from left to right), Daniel Toole (1875-1938), John Adam Bohnet (1858-1932), Richard Harvey Barber (1869-1967), Allen Middleton Saphore (1882-1951) and Louie F Zinc (1857-1943). Bohnet is driving.

The tentative program as listed in the St Paul Enterprise had Toole, Bohnet and Barker as speakers along with J F Rutherford and W E Van Amburgh. The program had talks during the daytime and showed the Photodrama in the evenings.

Toole and Zinc were from Canada. Bohnet and Barber both served as Society directors at one point. Saphore and Zinc both later ceased fellowship with the IBSA. Some dates taken from Who’s Who.

For a detailed history of J A Bohnet, see:

https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2022/04/john-adam-bohnet.html

World War 1 and Bible Prophecy

In 1914 what came to be known as The Great War and later World War 1 started. Also, according to the Bible Students, the epoch known as the “Gentile Times” came to their end. This was a message promoted for nearly 40 years. Charles Taze Russell’s first known writing on the subject of the chronology appeared in George Storrs’ Bible Examiner magazine in October 1876.

When 1914 ushered in the war, much publicity was given to the Bible Students’ views. A well-known example was the article in the New York World for August 30, 1914:

However, with the Bible speaking clearly about end times and world distress, along with the unprecedented scale of conflict that unfolded in 1914, it was not surprising that others outside the Bible Student community made a connection. This article reviews just a handful of alternative views the public could choose from.

Typical of the genre was the work of H C Morrison who wrote The World War in Prophecy, published in 1917.

Heny Clay Morrison (1857-1942) carried the title Reverend and was a DD. Although from a Methodist background, he was editor of the Pentecostal Herald, and his book was published by the Penticostal Publishing Company.

Writing in 1917, Morrison believed a dispensation was ending and saw “the signs of the times” in current events, He states on page 94 that “the times of the Gentiles are almost ended.” A literal Millennium will follow with (page 93) “the inauguration of the Kingdom of God on earth.” But apart from blaming Germany and the Kaiser for nearly all current woes he is rather short on detail and there are few scriptural references. However, I would imagine this position would characterize many books published in America and Britain at this time.

Several writers would access the prophecy of “seven times” and calculate them as totalling 2520 years. One example was that of Jessie M Collis. Her small book The Great War as Foretold in the Bible was published in London in 1915.

In it she quotes from a book published the previous year: The War and Prophecy by W.S. Collis M.A. (probably a relative). This states “that ‘the Times of the Gentiles’ have run their course, and that the full period of 2520 years vassalage…to the world powers expires this year (1914).” Great things are expected for 1933 regarding the literal establishment of the Kingdom of Judah in Jerusalem.

The 2520 year time period also features in a book by George Harold Lancaster (1882-1950). Lancaster was a Church of England clergyman, whose work has subsequently been referenced in works on Anglo-Israelism (the belief that the ten lost tribes can be traced down to Britain and perhaps America). He published Prophecy, the War, and the Near East (fourth edition in 1918).

Lancaster spends some time discussing the Gentile Times and the 2520 year period, but has a variety of possible starting dates. For example, on page 171 he makes vague prediction for 1923 and 1934 yet ahead.

Returning to the belief that the Gentile Times ended in 1914, we have the book World War and Bible Prophecy (1918) written by Harry F. Howard (1873-1948).

Howard was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He was a building contractor who spent his career constructing roads. But his obituary in the Portsmouth Herald for 27 October 1948 mentions that he also wrote “numerous works on religion and Bible prophecy.” The cover of World War and Bible Prophecy explained what he believed God had revealed on both the course of the war and its aftermath.

According to Howard the World War fulfilled prophecy and 1914 marked the end of the Gentile Times. In support of this, he quoted from various sources which included A E Hatch’s Handbook of Prophecy (1913) and issues of The World’s Crisis from 1915 (both publications of the Advent Christian Church), and also material from newspapers like the Boston Globe and the Christian Herald.

Of perhaps greater interest, his supporting references included Charles Taze Russell. From page 5 of his book:

Several other books on prophecy and the Great War were also to mention CTR directly or indirectly. One of these was by Marr Murray. In 1915 he published Bible Prophecies and the Plain Man, with Special Reference to the Present War.

Murray was quite a prolific author at the time. Other works included The Christians’s War Book, The Russian Advance, and Drink and the War from the Patriotic Point of View. In this era, someone of this name translated books into English from Russian, and was also a prolific short story writer. Whether this is the same person it has not been possible to establish.

His book on prophecy discusses the seven times computation of 2520 years  (see pages 19-20) and, depending on where you start the calculations, gives various possible concluding dates for the Times of the Gentiles, the last being 1923.

And then he mentions the work of Pastor Russell, unfavorably. In listing apostasy in the last days, top of his list is Watch Tower theology – from page 31 – “Millennial Dawnism, which denies the deity of Christ.”

According to Murray, God is on the Allies side in the conflict, and he presents a whole chapter on whether the Kaiser is the foretold Antichrist.

His reasoning includes the following (transcript from page 302):

“The Kaiser also possesses the number of the Beast. He was born on January 27^th, `859. On January 27^th, 1914 he was just 660 months old and 6 months later the war broke out. From the date of his birth to the opening of the great war in which he has flung down his challenge to fate was within a few days of 666 months. Moreover, in the words “Der Kaiser Wilhelm II” there are eighteen letter or 6 + 6 + 6.”

Having set this all up, he then decides that the real Antichrist is still to come, because the real Antichrist is a military genius, and on current performance, the Kaiser isn’t…

Another writer to mention CTR in a negative light is Theodore Graebner.

Dr. Theodore Conrad Graebner (1876-1950) was a prominent Lutheran minister (Rev. and DD) and author. He was a professor of theology and editor of papers like the Lutheran Herald and Lutheran Witness for over 40 years. His father, grandfather, four siblings and one son, all became Lutheran clergy.

In 1918 he published Prophecy and the War.

Unlike our other examples, the whole point of Graebner’s book was to attack those who believed the war had prophetic significance. Graebner emphatically did not. He attacked the concept of the Gentile Times ending in 1914, and he attacked calculations like the “seven times” and “a day for a year.” He also reserved his special ire what he called “the soul destroying heresy of Pastor Russell.” According to Graebner its believers were destined for hell.

For our final example, we return to one who did believe in prophecy being fulfilled, but who had an interesting slant on this. And yet another one who felt the need to single out Pastor Russell for dishonorable mention, this time in personally fulfilling Bible prophecy.

Deitrich William Langelett (1871-1965) was born in Illinois, USA, but his parents came from Hanover. His book The World-War in the Light of Prophecy (by the Rev. D W Langelett but copyrighted by Pastor Langelett), was first published in German, but translated and published in English in America in early 1915.

His special take on the Great War is expressed on the title page.

It is interesting that Langelett felt the need to take a swipe at Watch Tower theology in some detail. Starting on page 83 Langelett’s explanation of Revelation 16 v.13 is that unclean spirits come out of the mouth of the dragon – which is the Devil – and out of the mouth of the beast – which is England – and finally out of the mouth of the false prophet – which is Charles Taze Russell. The unclean spirits include hostile attacks made by Russell “against every holy institution of Church and State.” Most of the space is then taken up with Langelett’s detailed explanation of the Gog of Magog prophecy of Ezekiel. According to the title page the villain Gog has to be England, and he further explains that Magog is India. In his version of replacement theology the land of Israel that Gog unsucessfully comes up against is none other than Germany and Austria.

It was an interesting viewpoint, especially as expressed in America. One wonders how Langelett fared when America entered the war in 1917 on the side of the Allies. After the war he no longer called himself either Reverend or Pastor. By the 1930 census he is a tallyman in a lumber yard, by 1940 a farm laborer, and by 1950 he is listed as unable to work, although he was 79 at the time. He never married, appears to have had no family, and received a Lutheran funeral when he died in his mid-90s in 1965.

So summing up, these are just a selection of books that came out while the Great War was raging. Anyone reading their Bible about signs and then observing world events would at least have to consider making a connection. And the work of Pastor Russell in heralding the end of the Gentile Times in 1914 would be well-known at that time. The spread of the Bible Student message through mass meetings, the Photodrama of Creation and the printed page made sure of that. It provoked a negative reaction from several writers, but even that may have sent some readers in search of Watch Tower publications to check for themselves.

A New Year postcard

Postcard dated November 10, 1911 sent by the brothers of San Germano Chisone (Italy) on the occasion of the new year.

Recipient: Adolphe Weber, Les Convers (La Chaux-de-Fonds) Suisse

The postcard reads:
San Germano 1 ° -1 ° -1912
Love from all of us Clara Cerulli, A.Cerulli.
Joyful year your sister Fanny [widow of Lugli Balmas]
Loving greetings from your brother Remigio [Cuminetti]
Good year Amelie Soulier, Cesarine Bounous
Receive a warm greeting from your brother F.S. (François Soulier)
Blanc Lorenzo
Malanot Marie
Bounous Henriette
(written vertically) B. Magdelaine
Albertine Lantaret

Colossians IIIv

(Images supplied by Franco)

George Butterfield - A Forgotten Benefactor

This is the story of an almost forgotten donor to the Watch Tower Society, whose financial contributions played an important part in its history. Two of his donations in the second decade of the twentieth century totalled around $15,000. If we allow for over a century of inflation this would not be far short of $400,000 in today’s values.

His full name was George Augustis Butterfield. He lived until 1959.  Much of his life story comes from an obituary in The Bismarck Tribune, North Dakota for April 7, 1959.

The reproduction of the cutting is quite poor, but we will quote from this as needed in the rest of this article.

His early days are described as follows:

“He was born in Garrison, Iowa. He grew to manhood in that state and in 1900 drove a covered wagon to a site near Haxtun, where he homesteaded and began farming.”

The obituary noted that George had been married three times and outlived all three wives. His first wife was Allie (Alice) Rice, born c.1872. They were married in 1894. There is no record of any children in the 1900 census and they divorced in 1901. His second wife was Ethylin Addie Woods (1878-1947). They married in 1903 and had three children, but divorced in 1910.

When George eventually started his interest in the Bible Student message is not known. Two newspaper accounts have been found in that part of the United States linking the name George Butterfield with religion, but they may refer to a different person or persons. The name is a surprisingly well-used one in newspaper and genealogical records of the day.

The first account comes from two Iowa newspapers. The Daily Times for April 8, 1913 and The Gazette (Iowa) for April 4, 1913.

The Times has an unfortunate combination of terms – linking George Butterfield, religion and demented.

Whereas The Gazette (Iowa) adds a crucial detail:

According to The Gazette this disturbed George Butterfield was “a young man.” Our George would have been 45 years old at this time.

The other reference to a George Butterfield comes from the Bible Student newspaper the St Paul Enterprise.  In its issue for November 5, 1915 the St Paul Enterprise mentioned a colporteur of his name losing his voice.

If this one is our George he obviously got his voice back later, but the account as it stands does not suggest a person of means.

On perhaps firmer ground, genealogical records show that OUR George’s parents, Edgar and Sarah, died within a few weeks of each other in April/May 1915. Edgar was both a farmer and a landlord, so George may have inherited some of his assets. George’s own death certificate described him as farmer (retired) in both grain and cattle. Farming in Colorado was very profitable at that time (see Boulder County’s Agricultural Heritage by Deon Wolfenbarger, 2006) which may have allowed George to build up a reasonable fortune on his own account. 

Where we can be more positive about the story is when George started making donations. The first example is found in the transcript of the Rutherford vs United States trial. He made a contribution that was used towards the publication of The Finished Mystery. The transcript below has Joseph F Rutherford being cross-examined by the prosecution:

A few pages later in the trial transcript, the “certain sum of money” was specified:

It was clarified that George had not just made a loan, this was a straight donation and in line with existing arrangements he received Watch Tower Society voting shares in return.

The trial resulted in eight defendants being found guilty and sentenced to long years in prison. The Brooklyn properties were either sold off or closed down and operations returned to Pittsburgh. However, once the eight were released in early 1919 the decision to move back to Brooklyn on a permanent basis happened very quickly. It was another donation from George that helped make that possible. The account was given by A H MacMillan in his book Faith on the March in 1957.

Over pages 110-111 MacMillan describes how he had a visitor at the temporary headquarters in Pittsburgh. A man walked in “who had been associated with the work for many years and whom I knew well. He was a man of considerable means from one of the Southern states.”

They went to a private room and MacMillan continued: ”He began to take his shirt off as I talked to him. I thought he had gone crazy. He looked a little dirty and travel-worn, whereas ordinarily he was a tidy and well-kept man. When he got down to his undershirt he wanted a knife. Then he cut out a little patch he had on there and took out a bundle of money. It was about $10,000 in bills.”

The visitor had sat up all night in a train sleeper guarding the money. Seeing people he knew and trusted at the headquarters he gave MacMillan the money.

MacMillan quoted him as saying “I didn’t know who was in charge of the work, but now that I see you brothers here whom I know and I trust, I am glad that I came!’’ MacMillan responded: “We’re certainly glad that you came too.”

MacMillan’s account only called the visitor by his first name, George. But when the story was repeated word for word in the 1975 Yearbook on page 121 the account was prefaced: “One morning a Christian, George Butterfield, a person of considerable means, walked into the office.”

George had still been alive, although very elderly, when MacMillan’s book first came out. However, by the time the same account was given in the Yearbook he had died, so now his full name was given.

It was after these events that George was to marry for the third time.

Wife number three was Nellie Krakel (1889-1957), and she came from a Bible Student background. At the time of the marriage there was a considerable disparity in their ages. George was 51 and Nellie was 29. From The Democrat, of Kearney, Nebraska, for January 16, 1919 – George and Nellie were planning to exchange single blessedness for married blessedness.

Nellie had previously been listed in the 1917 St Paul Enterprise newspaper as ecclesia secretary for Sterling, Colorado. Her family were Bible Students and when her father, Henry Krakel, died in Sterling, his Bible Student obituary in The New Era Enterprise for November 1926 listed Nellie Butterfield as one of his children.

The 1920 census has George down as married to Nellie and working as a book agent. However, his obituary stated that “in 1925 George retired from farming and traveled throughout the mid west in connection with the Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

George and Nellie were to have one child, Edgar Leland Butterfield (1921-2007).

In the 1930 census the family of three are in Nebraska, and George’s occupation is given as colporteur, working on his own account as a distributor.

Their one son Edgar grew up to work for the Watch Tower Society. In his Draft Registration document dated February 16, 1942, he gave his employer’s address as Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 124 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn and his next of kin as George Butterfield of Haxtun, Colorado. He also made the newspapers when he failed to report for the draft. From the Greely Daily Tribune for February 6, 1943:

Edgar was to marry Antonetta Bradley (born 1928) and raise a family. In a 1952 Colorado trade directory they are running a sewing machine company.

Returning to the previous generation, George’s wife Nellie died, seemingly quite suddenly, in 1957. The newspaper report from The Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction, Colorado) for June 25, 1957, noted that a “presiding minister for Jehovah’s Witnesses” conducted the funeral.

Returning to George’s own obituary, when this happened in 1957 he went to live with Edgar who was now based in North Dakota.

So looking back on George’s life and the Watch Tower – as a grain farmer and rancher he donated very large sums of money to the cause when he could. Later when retired from business he represented the Watch Tower Society as a colporteur for virtually no remuneration. Both showed his serious level of commitment.

(With grateful thanks to G and J who started me on this particular journey and supplied some of the references)

Selling Shirts

Joseph Lytle Russell and his son Charles operated stores selling Gents Furnishing Goods for a number of years. Here are a few newspaper advertisements.

From the Pittsburgh Post for 5 June 1868:

 

From the Pittsburgh Post 23 April 1877:

From the Pittsburgh Commercial for 28 April 1877:

From the Monongahela Valley Republican for 14 August 1879:

It is known that Albert Delmont Jones once worked in one of CTR’s stores. He also branched out into the shirt store business on his own account.

Below is an advertisement from the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette for November 6, 1883. The firm of Jones and Littell is operating from Pittsburgh, but they have several branches. One of these branches is at 335, Fourth Avenue, New York.

As shown below, this was \also the address of Jones’ (Zions) Day Star.

The way things worked out, it might have been better if Jones had stuck to selling shirts.

An Invitation

 From People’s Pulpit, Volume 2, number 4 (1910). Colorized by Leroy.

A Personal Note

 Readers of this blog will note that I do not cover personal matters here. I have another blog under another name for personal posts. This blog is designed to be an archive of materials on different aspects of early Watch Tower history. Readers can use the search facility to see if anything of specific interest has been covered.

But THIS is a personal post and therefore will be delegated to the dustbin of cyberspace after a few weeks.

The previous post was an investigation of C A Ericson. The investigation was inconclusive. But a reader with a mischievous bent submitted it to an AI critique. The results were, shall we say, interesting, and this is a lesson (or warning?) to any who wish to use such tools.

Overall it was quite favorable, although it didn’t like certain aspects, which had actually been quite deliberate decisions on my part. My post was “inconclusive.” Well, yes, that is true because the subject was inconclusive. My post ended abruptly.  True, and that was quite deliberate - to leave the mystery subject still hanging in the air. The puctuation was incorrect, especially in a poem from over one hundred years ago, but that was hardly my fault. You can see a certain pattern here – I don’t mind criticism. Except when I do…

But the piece de resistance was comedy. AI was asked to spice up the writing style with a few jokes. Here is a selection that resulted, although to actually understand them you may need to go back to the actual article.

After discussing conflicting accounts of Ericson’s pastoral experience: “At this point I considered taking up a less confusing hobby, like astrophysics or untangling headphones.”

After discussing Ericson as a Pilgrim speaker but now on the West Coast: “It seems Mr. Ericson took the Pilgrim moniker a bit too literally, and decided to keep on keepin’ on till he hit the Pacific.”

After discussing how common Ericson’s name was: “Trying to find the right Carl A Ericson is like trying to find a specific grain of sand on Redondo Beach. Only the grains of sand don’t get arrested for stealing tires.”

After discussing the problems finding information: “The amount of information was at times at times overwhelming, but I preached on, as I’m sure Rev. Ericson would have wanted.”

After coming to a dead-end on certain lines of research: “I briefly considered changing the name of this blog to ‘Jerome Mystery’ but I persevered.”

After discussing how many people came and went as Watch Tower evangelizers: “So many people appeared from the time of the move to Brooklyn onwards, and then disappeared a few years later (sort of like socks in a washing machine really).”

And there were more…

One bit of advice that AI threw in – if the joke doesn’t feel natural or relevant, leave it out.

Fine – that sorts that all out then.

With yet another example of an abrupt ending.

C A Ericson

When the Watch Tower Society moved its headquarters from Pittsburgh to Brooklyn in 1909 it was to become a time of great expansion in their work. The newspaper sermons, the planning for the Photodrama and connected conventions all served to make the Bible Students very well known. A number of high profile individuals took an interest in their work, and some made great sacrifices to personally spread the message.

One such individual is the subject of this article, Carl A Ericson, or to give him his full original title as used in some early advertising material, the Reverend Carl A Ericson, D.D. of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. From the Omaha World Herald for 21 August 1910:

Carl was a Baptist minister, and we note from the cutting that he spoke in both Swedish and English. Much of his history is unknown. Where he came from is uncertain and where he went at the end of the decade is also shrouded in mystery. Like the Bible character Melchizedek “There is no record of his father or mother or any of his ancestors” (Hebrews 7:3 – NLT) “he has no family line” (NIRV).

Subsequent research may change this, but there were many who appeared after the move to Brooklyn, who worked hard, and then just disappeared.

Carl’s photograph appeared in the convention reports for 1911 and 1912, wearing his clerical robes and looking seriously into the camera. This picture would be reproduced in cropped form in many newspapers of the day.

From the 1911 convention report – full page picture

The 1912 report has the same photograph with a transcript of his sermon “Appointed to a Kingdom.”

We can only identify him for certain in the 1910 census. The whole Bethel family were listed in the returns taken on 29-30 April 1910.

Ericson, Carl A. (mistranscribed as Erusor on Ancestry) is an Assistant to the head of the household, CTR; he is male, white, aged 36 and single. He was therefore born c.1874. The rest of the entry states that he was born in Massachusetts to Swedish parents, and that his occupation is Minister for Bible Society.

What we can glean about his history prior to becoming a Bible Student is taken from various publicity releases for his work with the IBSA.

This advertising leaflet or card from 1910 – in Swedish gave his previous locations.

Now billed as Pastor, Ericson is from the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and his past activity encompasses Chicago, Boston, and Brooklyn, New York.

The Oakland Tribune for 11 July 1914 stated that Pastor C A Ericson was “Graduate Chicago University” and provided the standard photograph. The Turlock Journal for 16 July 1914 (again headed by the standard photograph) gave information on his next locations:

So there were four years in Boston, Massachusetts, followed by a transfer to the first Baptist Church of Long Island, New York. This was noted by The Brooklyn Eagle for 12 March 1909.

The Long Island stint was obviously brief, because a year after the news reports he was a full- time speaker for the IBSA and also giving his address as the Brooklyn Bethel.

So his trajectory was Chicago, Boston, Long Island, and finally Brooklyn Bethel.

However, there appears an alternative history in some press releases. At times his resume includes twelve years as pastor of a Brooklyn Church.  In 1912 The Kansas City Star for 18 April 1912 noted:

Three years later, the San Diego Sun  for 26 February 1916 was more specific. In this account Ericson had been the former pastor of the First Baptist church in Brooklyn for twelve years.

However, another advertisement for the same Bible Student meetings, this time from the San Diego Sun for 18 March 1916, amended the blurb to mention Boston, Mass. and Brooklyn, but without any specific time periods other than a change of direction for the past seven years. This more or less fits the time when Ericson started supporting the IBSA.

So we have Boston for four years, Long Island for a few months and then the Brooklyn Tabernacle in one account, and a twelve year stint at the First Baptist Church in Brooklyn in the other.

Something seems amiss. There may be some unknown reason for keeping the twelve years quiet for most of the time. Or it may be that with the plethora of Ericsons around, there were two Baptists of this name who both passed through Brooklyn at some point, and whose biographies were somehow mangled in press releases.

Ericson’s conversion to Watch Tower theology must have been quite rapid, but this was quite common in the day. As noted earlier, so many people appeared from the time of the move to Brooklyn onwards, and then disappeared a few years later. By March 1910 he was a fully-fledged IBSA pilgrim speaker listed on the back cover of the Watch Tower, and he remained a regular feature there for over a year. Sometimes he stayed with a Bible Student group for several days. One example from 1910 is below:

On other occasions he gave a series of talks at various locals. From early 1911:

His talks in Swedish reached very large audiences. This cutting below from the Willmar Tribune for 23 November 1910 gives figures into the thousands for several venues.

As well as speaking assignments arranged by the IBSA, he also appears to have given a number of lectures under his own auspices in both Swedish and English. The talk titles in newspaper advertisements over 1910-1916, along with variations on the theme “Seats free – no collection” identify these as still part of the same doctrinal package. They also showed that with “seats free” he was of independent means to be able to afford to do this. This was commented on several times. Here is one example.

From The Turlock Journal for 16 July 1914:

Ericson obviously had considerable private means, which ties in with other sightings. In the Post Star (Glen Falls, New York) for 1 August 1913, a  Rev. C A Ericson is selling three quality horses before relocating to the far West in September. Other evidence of personal assets in the West will be presented later.

Some of his speaking engagements had titles a little unusual for regular Bible Student fare. With the ever familiar photograph, here is one example from The Register (Santa Ana, California) for 22 May 1915:

Ericson’s lecture appointments at this time were now on the West Coast in California where he’d obviously settled. Some were still obviously billed as IBSA, like this example from the Long Beach Telegram and Daily News for 22 January 1916:

The talks given a couple of months later in 1916 in San Diego as referenced above draw this period of publicity to a close.

For his activities thereafter we have to turn to the Bible Students unofficial newspaper, the St. Paul Enterprise.

In 1918 Ericson wrote to the Enterprise, which prompted this editorial response in the issue for 16 April 1918:

The other references to Ericson involve the attempted sale of real estate. Confirming that he had substantial personal means, even if it was tied up in property, the Enterprise carried his advertisement in its issue for 3 October 1916:

We note that Ericson was living in Redondo Beach, California, at this time. Two and a half years later he put up another advertisement for what seems suspiciously like the same property, but at a greatly reduced figure. This notice appears in the Enterprise for 1 April 1919:

We note that Ericson is still living in Redondo Beach. The second notice suggests he may also have been handling real estate for others at times; either that or he owned multiple properties. This was carried in the Enterprise up until October of 1919.

During this time period, someone named C A Ericson had a poem published in the local Redondo newspaper. It was an anti-war poem published in The Redondo Reflex, for 11 May 1917.

America had officially entered the Great War on 6 April 1917, but initially public opinion was much divided with so many nationalities in the country. The poem The Prayer of the Nations by C A Ericson has no positive message and doesn’t hint at the “Divine Plan” so it may well not be our man, but is reproduced here out of interest. Its theme would be partly echoed nearly 50 years later when Bob Dylan wrote “With God on our Side.”

THE PRAYER OF THE NATIONS

The churches are praying, and crying to God,

To destroy the enemy and the submarine squad.

In Germany and Britain, they all pray the same:

O Lord; slay our enemies, we ask in thy name!

 

We know God is with us, the Germans all cry,

And so do the British, who are ready to die.

They give up their lives, for the country they love,

And say it’s of God, their Father above.

 

Because we are mighty, extraordinary strong,

We’ll control all the seas, and the countries e’er long.

We’ll sink all their ships, and rob them as well,

We’ll slaughter the enemy, and send them to hell.

 

It’s a terrible thing to murder a man,

The rope and the gallows, are then in demand.

But to sink a great ship, full of lives out at sea,

Brings a name and great honors, rejoicing and glee.  

 

The bombs they are dropping from Zeppelins on high,

Doing their work of destruction, from above, as they fly;

They blow up their cargo, and say, “sink – or – swim!”

And praise the Lord, and blame it on Him.

 

At the front are the soldiers, all ready to fight,

The priest and the parson, are both there in sight,

Blessing the shells, and kneeling in prayer;

Telling the soldiers that God will be there.

 

Just across from these trenches, the enemy, too,

Have their preachers, and priests, the same thing they do;

They both pray to God, and say they are right,

So if Christ’s Spirit’s with each, then how could they fight?

 

Just fancy their God, away off in the sky –

The prayers of the Germans ascending on high;

With the prayers of the English, a coming up too –

Now tell me, dear hearers, What-on-earth-could-God-do?

Part 2: So what happened next?

Up to and including the real estate references in the Enterprise for 1919 we can be reasonably confident that the person we have followed is the former Baptist minister who worked for the Bible Student cause. However, it has not been possible to establish with any certainty what happened to him after then. Once the World War ended, there are a number of sightings of a C A Ericson, or even a Carl A Ericson, often with links to the Baptist movement, but no conclusive ties to our man. Ericson is a very common name for Americans of Swedish origin, as are the initials C and A. Pinpointing the right person is problematic.

One of the first post-war events featuring a C A Ericson was in 1919, and mentions a familiar place – Redondo Beach. A Baptist minister of that name and location, found himself arrested on a charge of theft.

The story is in the Long Beach (California) Telegram and Daily News for 25 June 1919,

He was accused of stealing an automobile tire.

Rather than having a rational discussion, the man who made the accusation punched Ericson in the face instead, and a battered Baptist was arrested. He was charged with theft. Ericson claimed he had just removed the tire so he could get his own vehicle out of a tight parking spot.

It is quite a curious case. This C A Ericson had resources. For the court hearing, he was able to hire an attorney and also stump up $1200 bail (worth over $22,000 today), which seems high for the alleged crime. It also begs the question: if he could afford an attorney and raise that bail, why would he want to steal a tire? I could find no outcome of the trial in the newspapers, which suggests the matter was dismissed or he was acquitted. Only a guilty verdict for a clergyman would have been newsworthy.

Another event came in 1928-1929.

In the Oakland Tribune for 31 December 1928, the Forest Hill Baptist Church of Oakland, California, provides news of a church concert, which mentions their Pastor as being the Rev. C.A. Ericson – who is late of two familiar places, Brooklyn and Boston. In a further story from 1929, Carl A Ericson (now Carl Alexander Ericson) is banned from the church. The cutting below is from the Oakland Tribune for 15 June 1929.

According to the newspaper, Ericson had been unfrocked by the Baptist Union on 7 March, 1929, for “(unspecified) conduct unbecoming a Baptist minister and his ordination was revoked and cancelled.”

He was then accused of breaking into the church and continuing to conduct services in a building the Baptist Union owned. It went to court and Ericson lost. The cutting talks of the Baptist Union winning the first round of this fight, but if there were any subsequent rounds they do not appear to be documented.

Moving on again, we now come to 1934 and 1935 where a retired Baptist minister named – C A Ericson – “of Hollywood” and “graduated from the University of Chicago” and previously from Brooklyn, is speaking at Porterville and Tulare, both in California and about 24 miles apart by road. This Ericson had been involved with YMCA summer camps for the past 15 years at Lake Sequoia. The Tulare Advance Register for 10 February 1934 states that he was ordained in the Baptist Temple, Brooklyn, and served that church for “the past 12 years of his active ministry.” We remember that just a couple of publicity announcements for our Ericson in the 1910s mentioned twelve years in a Brooklyn Baptist church, although this was generally omitted from press releases of the time.

All of these sightings, or some of these sightings, or none of these sightings may be the actual Carl A Ericson who spoke to thousands at a time in the work of the IBSA.

We might have expected that when Ericson died a newspaper obituary would have linked the right people together, or at least have let us know what really happened to him. But while there are quite a few people of that name whose death is recorded none of them provide any clues to link to our subject.

On Find a Grave – a brilliant but incomplete resource – the only one with a birthdate that might fit is: Carl Alexander Ericson, born 1873 in Massachusetts (which location would fit the 1910 census) and who died in 1955 in Los Angeles County (which would fit our last confirmed sighting). This of course might be the Carl Alexander Ericson who had troubles with his church back in 1929, but we don’t know. The simple headstone just gives his name, dates and the message, “In loving memory.”

But from whom?

 

Epilogue: This started life as just a filler based on a newspaper advertisement, but as so often happens, it grew. If any other researcher can untangle the story further in search of the real C A Ericson, please do so, and please leave a comment.