John H Paton's obituary

When John H Paton (former associate of Charles Taze Russell and editor of the World’s Hope magazine) died it was to be expected that the local paper, The Almont Herald, would publish an obituary. Unfortunately the Almont library holdings are missing the key year 1922. However, the obituary was picked up and republished by the Yale Expositor (Yale, Michigan) on Thursday, September 21, 1922.

There is one key piece of information this supplies that was previously unknown, namely that George L Rogers conducted the funeral service. This makes a lot of sense. Rogers, like Paton, had come originally from Scotland, and like Paton had first been a Baptist minister in Almont. Like Paton he became a Universalist and would be associated with the Concordant Publishing Concern, a Universalist group which attracted a number of former Watch Tower adherents. These included Fredrik Homer Robison (who lived at Brooklyn Bethel with CTR and was imprisoned with JFR in 1918), Walter Bundy (one time Pilgrim) and Menta Sturgeon (CTR’s traveling companion on his last journey). Robison and Rogers became friends and often spoke on the same Concordant platform over 1923 and 1924. Since Rogers took Paton’s funeral, and since Paton had officiated at CTR’s wedding way back in 1879, one can imagine the two men had a number of things to talk about. It is a small world sometimes.