The Russells' Music Publishing Business

As well as the haberdashery stores, the Russells (Joseph Lytle and son Charles Taze) were involved in various business ventures, some of them detailed in the booklet A Conspiracy Exposed (1894). One of the more unusual ones was music publishing. While long forgotten today, it is curious that it was mentioned in a court case in 1913.

The case was the famous 1913 Russell vs. Brooklyn Eagle trial, generally known as the “miracle wheat” trial. In a review of Russell’s various business ventures, W E Van Amburgh included a music business. The reference is in the transcript on page 320, section 959.

 

Van Amberg (sic) did not become a director of the corporation until 1901, and this exchange took place in 1913. He would have had no first-hand knowledge of the Russell stores. Yet out of all of the past business ventures it is curious that the music store should still be referenced.

The one known example of the Russells’ connection with the music business dates from more than 40 years before, from 1872. The book Separate Identity Volume 1 by Bruce Schulz and Rachael de Vienne reproduced the cover of The Evening Prayer, a piece of sheet music written by Blessner and Pershing for a local Pittsburgh college.

 

If you examine this facsimile of the cover, you can see the music was published by J. L. Russell and Son of the Pittsburgh Music House. The full document with words and music can be accessed from the Library of Congress website for any who really want to see what it is like.

The words were written by Rev. Dr. I. C. Pershing of the Methodist Episcopal Church and President of the Pittsburgh Female College. The music was by G. Blessner.

It was dedicated to the Rev. Bishop M. Simpson (1811-1884) who was president at one time of the M.E. Church Missionary Society.

The Pittsburgh Female College was founded in 1854.

 

Although it was described above as a sectarian institution under the control of the Methodist Episcopal Church, their charter stipulated that students were to be accepted from all religious denominations.

The Rev. Israel C. Pershing (1826-1898) became principal of the college around 1860 and remained so until 1886 when he was accused of fraud.

Gustave Blessner (1808-1888) was head of music in the 1870s, and the college had a choir and put on musical concerts.

Blessner was a highly prolific composer and a lot of his music can still be accessed today. It covered a wide spectrum, from the Sacred (To Thee We Pray – 1879) to the less than sacred (Silly Dilly Dally Dolly – 1872). One of the latter oeuvre, Nanny’s Mammy (1850) starts off…

    A spinster of uncertain age

    (But somewhat past the middle stage)

    Who thought herself extremely sage…

You get the picture. There are shades of Gilbert and Sullivan here.

Blessner’s modern claim to fame is that he wrote the music for the first known song to have the word “Blues” in the title: “I have got the blues today” (1850). The chorus goes:

    I was the gayest of the gay

    But I have got the blues today.

It’s about a singer who gets drunk.

Of course in these instances Blessner wrote the music but was not the lyricist.

However, one wonders if his music lessons at the straight-laced-ladies-only M.E. College were sometimes rather fun.

Anyhow, although a great amount of Blessner’s music was published and can be found online, the Evening Prayer is the only composition so far found that was published by the Russells, and then only in tandem with other music publishers. It could be it was the only item they did publish, maybe because it was a local item sung by the college choir for one of their concerts.

 

Pittsburgh Daily Post (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)  16 Dec 1872 

But if anyone can find more examples, please do say.

Debates

Debates sometimes featured in the early Bible Students’ witnessing efforts. CTR was featured in two famous ones, against E L Eaton in 1903 and later against L S White in 1908. The text of both debates was transcribed and published. In 1915 J F Rutherford engaged in debate with J H Troy. Again the text was published, originally in the 1915 convention report, transcribed in the main by Rutherford’s son Malcom. 

In the UK a debate was held in Scotland in 1896 between Bible Student Charles Houston and a Scottish Free Church clergyman Donald Davidson which was extensively reported. Houston would have probably become a well-known name in UK Bible Student history, but he died young. For the story of this debate you can check back in this blog or download the book on it on the Lulu site (search terms: The Houston-Davidson debate). (I know this is a shameless plug, but the download IS free).

 However, not all invitations to debate were accepted. Following the Russell-Eaton debate, CTR received a challenge through the pages of the Christadelphian Advocate magazine. The strand of the Age-to-Come movement that developed into the Christadelphians was to split into several different fellowships. An original statement of belief was later “amended” by a sizeable group, leaving those who disagreed as “unamended” Christadelphians. The unamended group was responsible for the Christadelphian Advocate, founded in Iowa in 1885 by Welsh immigrant Thomas Williams.

As you can see from the main article in this issue, CTR was not their favorite person. A member of the Christadelphian ecclesia started publishing materials the editor viewed as heresy. In a swipe at him, the beliefs of CTR and ZWT came in for attack. Amongst the issues that clearly marked out the differences between Christadelphians and Bible students were two mentioned in the paragraph below from October 1903:

 

In 1904 CTR was challenged by one of their members to debate with the Advocate’s editor.

 

CTR’s response was polite but negative.

It was also noted that the invitation had not come directly from the editor but just one of the paper’s readers, although the paper had chosen to publish the correspondence.

In 1906 the attempt was made again. CTR’s response was published in the Advocate:

Much as those outside the Christadelphian fellowship tended to lump different Christadelphian groups together, so to a degree did Christadelphians when looking at the developing Bible Student movement. So John H Paton appeared on their radar.

From 1905:

 

This shows that while Paton’s magazine had a more limited circulation than ZWT (and they confused his magazine title World's Hope with his book Day Dawn), he was still quite well known in these sort of circles.

Having failed to tempt CTR, Williams challenged Paton to a debate. Paton accepted and the two men and their adherents squared up to each other in February 1906.

The results were published in a booklet by the Christadelphian Advocate.

CTR’s debates tended to dwell on conditional immortality and whether or not there was a hell-fire. Paton’s debate centered on his main Universalist platform.

How much the event influenced the respective sides, other than confirm their existing positions, is debateable. But the Christadelphian Advocate felt confident enough to publish the results. Although they did choose to cry “foul” in their introduction.

The May 1, 1915 WT published an article from CTR on the subject of ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF DEBATES. In it CTR wrote:

"Although the Lord's providence did seem to open up the way for the "Eaton-Russell Debate" and later, for the "White-Russell Debate," and through these Debates led the way on to the publication of the Sermons in hundreds of newspapers throughout the world, nevertheless the Editor is not, and never was, much of a believer in the advantages of debating. The Debates mentioned were valuable chiefly as entering-wedges for the newspaper work…So far as the Editor is concerned, he has no desire for further debates. He does not favor debating, believing that it rarely accomplishes good and often arouses anger, malice, bitterness, etc., in both speakers and hearers. Rather he sets before those who desire to hear it, orally and in print, the Message of the Lord's Word and leaves to opponents such presentations of the error as they see fit to make and find opportunity to exploit.--Hebrews 4:12."

Bernhard's book

 If you recently bought Bernhard's book on Bible House, there is now an extra section of material that will be incorporated into future editions, relating to different items found in CTR's study. It totals nine pages.

If you would like to contact Bernhard direct (his email is on the title page of the book) he will send this additional material to you.

Pastor Russell's chair

Some of us collect books. Some of us collect newspapers, postcards, magazines and ephemera, all in connection with a love of early “truth” history. But an added dimension for those with the contacts – and the house space – is collecting furniture.

This is the brief story of Pastor Russell’s chair.

The familiar photograph of CTR in his study at the Bible House shows him sitting at his desk in a high padded chair. When everything moved from Allegheny to Brooklyn in 1909, a number of items were passed on to others. This appears to have been the case with the chair.

For many years the custodian of the chair was Martin C Mitchell. Mitchell was born in 1895. He may have worked at the Bible House in his early teens. We know he was immersed in 1910 at the age of 15. During World War 1 he claimed exemption as a conscientious objector associated with the IBSA.

Mitchell lived until 1974, and after his wife died, the chair passed on to others. It now belongs to Brian K who took the following photographs and has given permission for me to reproduce them here. The condition reflects that many have wanted to try it out over the years! 

Rotating the chair will make it raise or lower, much like a circular piano bench. It also reclines as well as swivels.  The current owner got brave and sat in it and leaned back.  However, not too far.

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?

With apologies to The Sound of Music.

 A series of articles on Maria Frances Ackley’s history before she married Charles Taze Russell. In three parts:

1.      The family background

2.      The early years

3.      After 1870

1. The family background

First, a little bit about the back story of the Ackley family.

Mahlon Foster Ackley (1807-1873) was born in New Jersey. Selena Ann Hammond (1815-1901) was born in Philadelphia. They married and their children were all born in Allegheny. Of the five who survived to adulthood, Maria was in the middle. She had two older sisters, Laura and Selena, and a younger sister and brother, Emma and Lemuel.

Some biographical material about Maria’s parents can be found in Selena Ann Hammond Ackley’s obituary from 1901.

 

The Ackley family history site also quotes another couple of obituaries (unidentified) which provides the following extra information:

“She journeyed by stage and canal with her mother to Johnstown, Pa, where she was married to the late Mahlon F Ackley of Allegheny, who was employed on the Pennsylvania railroad, which was then in the process of construction. Early in the 1840s she came to Allegheny with her husband and had resided there ever since. She saw the city grow from a straggling village to a metropolis. Mrs Ackley was for many years a member of the North Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, and before the formation of that church was, with her late husband, connected with the Arch Street church of the same denomination.”

The 1850 and 1860 census returns list Mahlon as a carpenter and in 1870 as a car maker.

As well as giving her history, Selena’s obituary also gave details of her five surviving children in 1901. Taking them in order of birth they were, Laura J Raynor (1839-1917), widow of Henry Raynor who died in 1873. Selena A Barto (1848-1929), widow of Baptist minister, Charles Edmund Barto who died in 1883.  Then we have Maria Frances Ackley (1850-1938) and Emma Hammond Ackley (1855-1929). And finally there was Lemuel Mahlon Ackley (1857-1921), who became a lawyer in Chicago. Maria went to him first when she left CTR. Lemuel died quite spectacularly when a disgruntled defendant shot him in a courtroom in 1921.

Laura Ackley became a dressmaker before she married. Selena Ackley became a teacher and Maria followed Selena to become a teacher as well.

In the 1870 census both girls (Selena aged 22 and Maria aged 19) are listed as teachers.

Selena (with variant spelling Salina) Ackley is mentioned in the Pittsburgh Daily Commercial for July 24, 1868. At a meeting of the Board of School Directors of the Reserve Independent School District she is elected to work as Assistant in the Spring Garden School.

However, Selena would leave the teaching profession on marrying Baptist minister, Charles Barto. We don’t have a date for their marriage, but their first child was born in 1873. Years later as a widow with two adult children she listed herself as “private teacher” in a census return.

This means we can safely assume that all references to “Miss Ackley” as a teacher in Allegheny or Pittsburgh for the period 1872-1879 refer to Maria.

Maria was asked about her schooling in the 1907 court hearing. She said she had been educated at the High School, Pittsburgh, and then at the Curry Normal School. The latter was for teacher training. It may not be connected but early ZWT meetings c.1880 took place at the Curry Institute.

There are a number of newspaper references in Pittsburgh papers to Maria Ackley, M F Ackley and Miss Ackley, all in connection with teaching.

In the next article we will look at her teaching history, such as it was, prior to 1870.

2. The early years

There are fleeting references to Maria as a child in census returns, but she comes into her own from around 1867. As a teenager (although I don’t think they had been invented back then) Maria received what appears to be her first teaching post.  From the Pittsburgh Daily Commercial Newspaper, September 4, 1867 issue, page 4.

 

It says concerning nominations of the Local Board of the First ward…”Miss Bella Cunningham and Miss Maria Ackley were elected: to fill vacancies occasioned by the resignation of Miss Kate Patterson and Miss M. J. McClain, of the boys' first and second primary department. The nominations were confirmed."

It is interesting that it says she was elected, not moved from another location, which suggests this was her very first teaching post. She was 17.

As Pittsburgh was a boom town with a rapidly rising population there was a need for more schools and more teachers. The Normal School Act of 1857 established training schools for teachers. In Maria’s era there were two in Pittsburgh, the State Normal School at Central High and the privately run Curry Institute. The course was around six months duration and the program concentrated on the 3 R’s – reading, writing and (a)rithmetric. After 1870 the training of teachers became longer and more specialized.

As explained in her testimony in Russell vs. Russell (1907) Maria trained at the Curry Institute. That this had a very good reputation was expressed in this extract from the Report of the Superintendent of Common Schools (published 1866 but relating to the year ending in June 1865). From page 42:

 

The previous page (page 41) showed that teacher examinations were held once a year, and ran over a three day period. Successful candidates could be granted either a provisional or professional certificate. The Superintendent’s Report for 1865 reviewed the potential intake that year in Pittsburgh. Forty sat the exam. Ten failed it. Out of the thirty who passed only ten were granted a full professional certificate, leaving twenty with provisional ones. The reason for the latter was explained in the report:

 

Maria would have sat the exam a little later than this particular report, but it is safe to say that she would have been granted a provisional certificate for her first teaching post at the age of 17. This meant that she was now classed as a teacher and would appear in the Pittsburgh directories as such. These directories published the names of all teachers in all the schools. In the 1868 directory we find Maria listed as a teacher in the First Ward School.

 

It is just possible that Maria may have appeared in the 1867 issue, but some pages are missing from the extant copy, so the 1868 reference is the first we have.

Maria continued to appear in the directory each year for the First Ward School until 1871. Thereafter the format of the directory changed and individual teachers were no longer listed for schools.

The 1865 superintendant’s report made the point that, after gaining sufficient experience, a teacher could move up from a provisional certificate to a full professional one, without having to sit the exam again. Maria obtained her full professional certificate in 1870, and details of this were published in the October 1870 issue of the Pennsylvania School Journal. She received certificate number 660.

 

Now that she was fully qualified by the standards of the day she was able to branch out, as her subsequent teaching career showed.

3. The later years - from 1870

Maria’s personal skills began to be highlighted in the local papers. The Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette for June 24, 1871 described a meeting of the Allegheny Teachers association where Maria gave what amounted to a lecture on public speaking.

 

Maria’s speaking ability would stand her in good stead many years later when she went on the road to defend CTR in the 1894 troubles.

Maria gave another lecture the following year. From the Pittsburgh Daily Commercial for April 3, 1872 – from the annual meeting of the Allegheny County Teachers’ Institute (Second Day) “In the evening, Miss Mariah Ackley read an essay entitled Will It Pay?”

Two more references from 1872. The Pittsburgh Daily Post for June 20, 1872 – “the following teachers have been elected for the 19^th ward public schools: Grammar, Miss Lyons and Miss Ackley.”

Then the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette for July 27, 1872 – “Miss T (?) Ackley was elected teacher to fill the vacancy in Room no. 7 of the North Avenue building.”

 

1873 adds another dimension to Maria’s work when she is now elected as a Sunday School Teacher. From the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette for April 5, 1873:

 

Three years later she is still teaching in Sunday School and is given a pin-cushion to show appreciation. From the Pittsburgh Daily Commercial for January 4, 1876:

In 1877 she is mentioned in the teacher elections for the public schools.

 

She is elected as Marie F Ackley for the North Avenue School. Also elected is a Mary D Lecky. We will come back to her shortly.

However, not all was plain sailing in the teaching profession. In early 1878 Maria was accused of assaulting a pupil. It made the newspapers. From the Pittsburgh Daily Post for January 19, 1878:

It appears that her fellow teacher in the North Avenue School, Mary Lecky, was concerned that someone might think it meant HER. There was a hasty bit of damage limitation. The Pittsburgh Daily Post for January 22, 1978, carried a clarification:

 

Putting this in context, we must remember that corporal punishment was allowed at this time and the complaint may have been malicious. However, for a 27 year old female teacher to be accused of “cruelling whipping” a 12 year old boy still seems unsual. Those who enjoy cooincidences may like to note that the name of the pupil on the receiving end was Knorr. Don’t worry – it has been followed up. While the famous Knorr family of Watch Tower history came from Pennsylvania, it was a different part of the State and also a different era.

There is no information in the newspapers as to how the investigation turned out, but we must assume Maria was cleared of misconduct. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for July 3, 1878 carried a report of the latest election of teachers. For the Second Ward, North Avenue School, Marie F Ackley was elected again; as was Mary Lecky.

However, with that kind of experience and after a decade of teaching (with more of the same old same old looming ahead) perhaps Maria was getting tired of it all. Getting married, as her two older sisters had done before her – that was the normal escape route for a single woman.

On March 13, 1879, she married Charles Taze Russell.

Guess Who?

This is a little bit of light reader participation, which some with long memories and diverse readng habits may have seen elsewhere. Can you identify the person photographed with Charles Taze Russell?

The photograph is taken from a larger picture that featured four people. Below is the complete photograph that can be found in a rather poor reproduction opposite page 112 in the 1914 convention report, captioned “Receiving instructions. Re: Immersion service.” The convention report does not reveal who the characters are.

This nice clear print comes from a good copy that originally belonged to Rose Hirsh, wife of Robert Hirsh. The reverse of the photograph identifies who the people are: (from left to right) Robert Hollister, our mystery person, Charles T Russell, and Edward W Brenneisen.

A few clues:

He personally typed out Joseph Lytle Russell’s last will and testament.

He designed the pyramid monument at United Cemeteries.

He grew “miracle wheat.”

His death certificate said he had been a lecturer for the IBSA for 30 years.

 

The answer is in the comments.

1881 Organizational Document

Many readers here will already be familiar with the handwritten organizational document dated February 1881. It outlines the plans of the principals and lists the amounts they donated or pledged to the cause. A discussion of this document can be found in Volume 2 of Separate Identity, pages 169-171.

It is reproduced here, however, so that readers can see it in “full color.”

 

Reproduced with permission from Tower Archives, with thanks

What significance does color have? You will note that there is a purple line down the side of the written word on the left, which covers the whole the document. Additionally, when W H Conley signed the document, he also used a purple pencil or similar.

This would not be accidental. A researcher who has spent much time in Pittsburgh and Allegheny record offices over the years has come across this action several times. And on several other occasions in documents from the 1880s, by the signature in purple someone has written the title “President” or a similar expression to the show the person’s key position in the document.

So William Henry Conley was of course the first president, and signed here in that capacity. It is only a small point, but it’s only by seeing the document reproduced in color that it can it be observed. 

Whatever happened to those faces in the old photographs?

When the Apollo 11 astronauts were hurtling back to earth in 1969 after the first moon walk, ground control picked up some unusual sounds. It turned out one of the astronauts had on his early version of a “Walkman” some music – the track was “Mother Country” by John Stewart. In another life (and definitely under another name) I have recorded some of Stewart’s work and gained radio airplay, but not this track.

A key line in the song is: “Whatever happened to those faces in the old photographs?” I always find this fascinating to consider. And the photograph below from a Photodrama of Creation showing in Toledo, Ohio at the end of January and beginning of February 1914 is in such good definition in the original that you can make out many of the faces.

Here is the photograph along with some selective enlargements. With thanks to Brian for sending it.

Then selective enlargements. Click on them to make them larger.

The Photodrama may have made a big impression on all those young people standing there. So, whatever happened to those faces in the old photographs?

Allegheny Cemetery Registers

For those who take an interest in such things, below are the burial registers for some of Charles Taze Russell's relatives, buried in the family plot.

The entry for James Russell, CTR's uncle who died before he was born. 

James bought the family plot when his wife, Sarah, died.

The entry for Thomas Birney Russell, CTR's older brother.

The entry for Charles Tays Russell, CTR's uncle after whom he was named. 

His entry is the third from the bottom of this page.

As sold on eBay

Film of C T Russell from the Photodrama of Creation.

 

When sold on eBay the blurb gave the following story:

This is a genuine strip of 35mm film from the Photodrama of Creation, taken from one of the introductions, featuring Pastor Russell. There are seven frames in this strip, although only six are shown. (The bottom frame had the seller’s thumb in the way.) I have resisted the commercial temptation to cut the film into smaller pieces to sell individually. That was the fate of other Photodrama films of Russell that ended up on cards as souvenir bookmarks.

The provenance of the strip of film goes back well over 40 years, when someone gave it to me. It had gone through various hands but came originally from an elderly JW who was a projectionist at Princes Theatre, Shaftsbury Avenue, London, when the Photodrama first came to Britain in 1914. I traced this person and where he lived and after some correspondence travelled to meet him. During his time as projectionist he was normally entombed in a metal projection box because of fear of fire. Under carbon lighting of the day, he would strip down somewhat, but still roasted.

When the showings ceased he somehow ‘inherited’ a two minute reel of film which languished in his attic for decades. But he’d now taken to cutting off little bits as souvenirs for friends. I was able to climb into his attic and borrow what was left of the film. Although the sprocket holes were considerably damaged in places, I got a colleague in a London laboratory to run me off 35mm and 16mm prints for the minute or so that remained. The original reel then went back to its owner, and I don’t know what happened to it. I used the reprinted film in several projects, and if you obtain a DVD of the Photodrama today, or just watch it online, my minute or so of reprinted film is incorporated into that restoration.

So that is the story behind these few frames. Although most 35mm film of the date was highly dangerous nitrate stock - leaving safer film for the substandard gauges (17.5mm, 9.5mm, 16mm etc.) - the film of CTR was actually produced on a safer version of stock. That is why it could be copied safely and legally and it is why these few frames can now be offered on eBay.

It sold for 206 GBP in 2016.

J F Rutherford's first book (revisited)

Many years ago I did an article on J F Rutherford’s first book. It can be found reprinted on this blog if you use the search terms “J F Rutherford’s first book.”  However, a later article was written that added a few details. This is posted here.

In 1895 the Boonville Advertiser, the official paper of Cooper County, gave away a free 128 page book entitled Laws of Missouri - Business Manual. The author and compiler was one J F Rutherford of the law firm of Wright and Rutherford.

The book is not dated as such, but one of the advertisements for the Cooper Institute announced that its 26^th year of operation would begin on Tuesday, September 3, 1895, so we can reasonably assume that the volume came out earlier that year.

In the main, only the right hand pages contained text, the left hand pages contained full page advertisements for the various services available in a rural area. There are thirteen law firms in the area for example, but top of the list is Wright and Rutherford, with offices in the Windsor Block. There is a glowing endorsement of Rutherford in the Publisher’s Preface:

“THE ADVERTISER has had Mr J F Rutherford, one of the leading members of the Boonville bar, to compile and arrange the laws herein. His fitness for such work is a guarantee of its usefulness to the farmers and businessmen.”

The table of contents shows the scope of legal matters that Rutherford covered.

One might note such subjects as Conveyance of Real Estate, Divorce and Alimony, Mortgages and Deeds of Trust, and Wills are covered. Knowledge in some of these areas would make J F Rutherford very useful to CTR when he became the Watch Tower’s legal counsel.

Of course, there is nothing whatsoever theological in this volume; Rutherford’s first foray into scriptural interpretation would not come until 1907 with the publication of Man’s Salvation, from a Lawyer’s Viewpoint. But still, for completionists, this is a volume to obtain. As you can tell from the grainy opening picture, alas, I do not have an original.