Malcom
Cameron Rutherford was born in Boonville, Missouri, on November 10, 1892, the
only child of Joseph F Rutherford and Mary Fetzer. Rutherford Snr. will be
referred to as JFR throughout this article.
Although
he purchased some books from a colporteur in the 1890s, JFR only fully embraced
the Bible Student faith in 1906. JFR gives that as the year of his and Mary’s consecration
and we can assume that Malcom felt similarly at the time.
In
approximate date order we are going to review in this article what we know of
Malcom’s life story. This includes evidence of his active support of the Bible
Student faith for a number of years.
First,
there is his signature in a copy of the Daily
Heavenly Manna for the Household of Faith. (See the following article
‘Malcom and the Manna’ for pictures and more details).
The
Manna was produced in 1907 to serve
(amongst other things) as a birthday record. (The rare first edition of 1905 did not have this feature). But from 1907 onward you would sign your name on your
birth date, and in some cases might leave the shortest of messages. The volume
Malcom signed belonged to a well-known Bible Student, E.W. Brenneisen. It has
Malcom’s signature and his home as Boonville and the date for the entry is
November 10. The same is true for Mary Rutherford on August 17. JFR’s signature
is missing, but according to a 1918 letter, he started in Pilgrim work on June
2, 1907, so was likely away from home or at a different event when they signed.
By 1910 the whole family were in Brooklyn Bethel. So it may be that the Manna signing happened between 1907-1909,
unless of course they just signed their home town as Boonville while living
elsewhere later on in time.
JFR
had a lot to do with the move to Brooklyn in early 1909 and in the first census
return to cover the Brooklyn Bethel the whole family are there. They are
actually quite easy to miss.
The
main census of Bethel in Kings, Brooklyn, was taken on April 29-30, 1910, and
lists CTR and a collection of familiar names, but the Rutherford family is
missing. However, there is a census page dated May 14, 1910 by a different
enumerator, with the word “supplemental” at the top, which gives a few extra
names for 122 and 124 Columbia Heights and People’s Pulpit Association. And there we find Jos(eph) F Rutherford, Mary
Rutherford and Malcom C Rutherford all living together with a few other
well-known Bible Student names, including Charles W Hek, nominal editor of the
Bible Students Monthly.
For
the Rutherford entries, Joseph is an Attorney and Malcom a Mail Clerk; and
under “Industry” is “Bible and Tract Society”. Joseph and Mary are down as
assistants, and Malcom (aged 17) is down as a boarder.
Joseph and Mary c. 1918
In
1911 Malcom gets a higher profile. His photograph at age 18 is found in the
1911 convention report as “Pastor Russell’s stenographer” on the
Transcontinental Tour. It is reproduced at the start of this article. The date
for the photograph if actually taken on the tour would be between June 9 and
July 12, 1911.
Later
that same year, in November, a passenger list for the Mauritania, traveling
from Liverpool, UK, back to America, has Malcom down as Pastor Russell’s
manservant. Malcom’s parents are not on the trip, so it was not a matter of
giving him some sort of job while they all traveled together, rather Malcom was
there specifically in that role.
Ships’
passenger lists show that Malcom, now aged 22, accompanied his parents for at
least part of a trip to Europe in 1914. According to JFR’s booklet Militarism they were in Hamburg when war
was declared. According to Jehovah’s
Witnesses in the Divine Purpose (1959) JFR traveled by boat from Hamburg to
Britain and then remained in Britain until September. Then the whole family
(including Malcom) arrived back in New York from Liverpool, England, on the
Mauretania in late September 1914.
Back
in America, Malcom is mentioned in a letter JFR wrote in December 1914. It was
written from Brooklyn but was looking for accommodation for his wife, Mary, in Florida for health reasons. He wrote that Mary had been in poor health for
some years and the winters of New York were severe. JFR mentions that they would be glad to have
Malcom join her “provided he can get something to do to occupy his time and
earn something to help pay expenses. He is a good stenographer and would do
office work, but prefers something out of doors.” Working in southern fruit
orchards was a possibility.
The
following April (April 1915) we can assume the whole family had now relocated to California because Rutherford
Snr. was involved in a well publicized debate with Baptist John H Troy in Los
Angeles. Malcom was with him. The report of the debate in the May 1, 1915 Watch Tower, has JFR describing his son
rendering assistance by his side.
In
the wake of publicity given to the Rutherford-Troy debate, a Mrs Robertson of
Boonville, was moved to write to the St
Paul Enterprise newspaper. Her letter, dated August 1, 1915 spoke highly of
Malcom.
On
October 31, 1916 Pastor Russell died, and JFR was elected as president of the
Watch Tower Society in January 1917. The news story from the St Paul Enterprise for January 16, 1917
(quoting in part from the Cincinnati
Weekly Enquirer) gave a biography of JFR, with a paragraph that mentioned
Malcom. Malcom’s previous occupations as “manservant” and “stenographer” are
here given an enhanced title:
Malcom
next appears in the record in 1917. America entered what became known as World
War 1 on April 6, 1917, and the Selective Service Act of May 18, 1917 enforced
conscription, as America’s armed forces were much too small for the purpose.
Malcom’s draft registration card is available on genealogy sites, and provides several
important details about him. First we have what the Ancestry website calls his “soldier
photograph” taken on (or shortly after) 5 June 1917 when the draft commenced.
We
do not have a birth certificate for Malcom, but the registration card confirms his
birth date as November 10, 1892 (often mistranscribed as November 16 due to
careless writing). It states that he was
24 at the time, was currently single, and living in Los Angeles. He gave his
occupation as book-keeper and clerk for H G Pangborn and Co. in Los Angeles. A
notable fact is that Malcom claimed exemption from the draft on the grounds
that he was a member of the International Bible Students Association.
Many
readers will know that Malcom ultimately joined the army, but the circumstances
that faced many Bible Students of the day need to be explained.
As
noted above, the Selective Service Act of May 18, 1917 enforced conscription. There
were ultimately three main registrations for the services in America. The first
started on 5 June 1917, and was for all men between the ages of 21 and 31. This
is when Malcom registered, had his photograph taken, and requested exemption.
The
second registration was a catch-up in early 1918 for those who had subsequently
reached age 21. And then as the war
dragged on, there was a third and far more inclusive call up in early September
1918 which extended the age range from between 18 through 45. Those previously registered
but not as yet called up, like Malcom with his request for exemption, faced a
worrying prospect. Malcom would now face a moment of truth and be asked to
report. He would already have needed to
tell the authorities about his changed circumstances, since he was now a married
man. But this time Malcom had to face the draft board.
General
Pershing had pushed for more American troops to be sent to France. By August
1918 there were nearly 1,500,000 American troops there. Then came the September
draft and by the time of the armistice of November 11, the number of American
troops had passed the two million mark.
So
it was on 10 September 1918 that Malcom faced the draft board, accepted
conscription and was assigned to the Army.
We
do not necessarily have to read too much into this. As the Proclaimers book states on page 191:
“During the war years,
the circumstances in which individual Bible Students were thrust varied. The
way they dealt with these situations also varied. Feeling obligated to obey
“the powers that be,” as they referred to the secular rulers, some went into
the trenches at the front with guns and bayonets. But having in mind the
scripture, “Thou shalt not kill,” they would fire their weapons into the air or
try simply to knock the weapon from the hands of an opponent.”
As
a Bible Student Malcom would not have volunteered; however, in company with
many others he would have obeyed the order to report to the draft board.
By
this stage of the war and with the complication of the Finished Mystery being
banned and JFR being in jail, Bible Students who were called up were being
exhorted to obediently report for the draft but then request (or insist) on
non-combatant service. (See: Watch Tower,
May 15, 1918, page 158, and the American based article ‘Non-Combatant Service
Defined.’) In some parts of the world like Germany, which made no provision for
alternative service, this was a real problem as covered by the Proclaimers book
quotation above. However, in America how you fared was a bit of a lottery. But
we can assume that when Malcom responded he requested non-combatant service,
and as a trained stenographer had a skill that could be readily used by the
authorities.
It
appears he was assigned to work at the Kern Draft Board in Bakersfield,
California. Three months later and after the armistice he was transferred back
to San Francisco prior to discharge. This information comes from a news item in
the Bakersfield Morning Echo for December 5, 1918.
“Corporal Percy V. Lea and Corporal M.C. Rutherford,
of the U.S. army, who have been assisting Kern Draft Boards Nos. 1 and 2 for
the past three months, have been ordered to return to San Francisco and report
to Board No. 13 in that county. They will probably be mustered out soon. The boys
will leave for the north Saturday. The young soldiers have made many friends in
the county, especially among the men called for the draft.”
1918
was an eventful year for Malcom. As well as serving in the army for three and a
half months, as noted above, he also became a married man.
Pauline
Short was born on August 12, 1896 in Missouri, the third daughter to Walter
Short and Addie Reed. She and Malcom were married on March 28, 1918. Her pet name was Bobby. Within
a few weeks of the wedding Malcom’s father had been arrested (on May 8) on the
grounds of violating the Espionage Act and on June 20, 1918 sentenced to four
counts of twenty years, to run concurrently.
One
month later, on July 21, 1918, Malcom wrote his father a letter of support. It
was long, over four thousand words, and showed Malcom’s continued commitment to
the Bible Student faith with references to the Divine Plan and quotations from
scripture, as well as indicating he was in association with other Bible
Students. Understandably the letter is rather guarded in its comments and the
bulk of it is about non-religious matters. Because of its historical interest,
the whole letter is transcribed in one of the following articles.
The
letter was published in full in the St Paul
Enterprise on December 10, 1918.
This
publication was nearly five months after the letter had been written. In the
intervening time, Malcom had been called up, joined the services, and was
awaiting demob which came on December 24, 1918.
In
March 1919 JFR and his companions were released from prison, all charges were
ultimately dropped, and a highly successful drive started with the September
1919 Cedar Point, Ohio, convention to revitalise the IBSA.
Malcom
now disappears from the IBSA story, apart from the reference in the Proclaimers book, page 89, footnote:
“Brother Rutherford was survived by his wife, Mary,
and their son, Malcolm. Because Sister Rutherford had poor health and found the
winters in New York (where the Watch Tower Society’s headquarters were located)
difficult to endure, she and Malcolm had been residing in southern California,
where the climate was better for her health. “
Mary’s
health problems and the advisability for a warm climate had already been
stressed way back in JFR’s letter 1914 as reproduced above.
In
the 1920 census Malcom and Pauline are living at 124 Eastlake Avenue, Assembly
District 66, Los Angeles. His mother, Mary Rutherford, is living at 128 North
Eastlake Avenue, which appears to be the same street and was actually Malcom’s
given address when he completed his draft registration card as a single person
in June 1917. The census return on this one occasion describes Malcom’s
occupation as an attorney. However, all other directories and census returns describe
his occupation as a court clerk. This was still quite prestigious in the Los
Angeles Court system, and in 1954 he received an award for thirty year’s
service. From the Daily Post and Monrovia
News-Post for 7 May 1954, page 12:
A
service pin. Wow!
When
JFR died in 1942 the obituaries mentioned his surviving relatives as Mary and
Malcom. For example, from the
Philadelphia Inquirer for January 11, 1942:
Malcom
seems to have left the religion of his parents by the 1920s. The Californian
Voters Registration index from 1924 onwards consistently registers him as a Republican.
But it also appears that he remained in touch with all his family.
In
1938 Malcom and Pauline were on the same ship as JFR and Bethel associates
Matthew Howlett and Berta Peale. Malcom and Pauline had gone to Hawaii at the
end of April 1938, perhaps for a vacation, but then on the return trip joined
JFR on the S.S. Mariposa at Hawaii, arriving back in San Franscisco on May 16,
1938. The graphic shows the younger Rutherfords and Berta Peale among the first
class passengers. The “DO” stands for ditto and refers to the parties as being
from and domiciled in the USA. JFR was returning from a visit to Australia.
Then
in 1944, after JFR’s death, Malcom, Pauline and Mary, were all together. According
to the 1944 Monrovia City Directory Malcom C Rutherford (clerk) and Pauline S
Rutherford were living at 159 Stedman Place, Monrovia. At the same address is
Mary Rutherford widow of J F Rutherford. This was Mary’s home so Malcom and
Pauline have moved in with her. This is an address we will come back to later. Mary
was to live on until 1962 and her obituary mentions her continued association
with Jehovah’s Witnesses. From the Proclaimers
book, page 89 footnote:
“Sister Rutherford died December 17, 1962, at the
age of 93. Notice of her death, appearing in the Monrovia, California, Daily
News-Post, stated: “Until poor health confined her to her home, she took an
active part in the ministerial work of Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
The
news item was picked up by the Boonville
Advertiser on February 15, 1963:
"Word has been received here
of the recent death of Mrs. Mary Rutherford, 93, former resident of Boonville,
who had made her home in Monrovia, Calif., for the past 40 years…Surviving are
a son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Malcolm C. Rutherford, of Arcadia,
Calif. Paul L. Sergeants, minister of the Arcadia, Calif., Jehovah's Witnesses,
officiated at the funeral service.”
However,
by 1963 it was a different Mrs. Malcolm C. Rutherford, but we will come to that
later.
Malcom
and Pauline’s decades in Los Angeles and Monrovia occasionally made the news.
In 1924 there was a legal case, when a financial judgment on a foreclosure of a
mortgage was granted against them.
Then
in 1929 Pauline was chosen for jury service in a high profile case. A Rev. R P
Shuler was charged with criminally libelling the Knights of Columbus. The
newspapers took a group photograph of the whole jury. From the Los Angeles Times for February 28, 1929:
From
that we can extract the one known published photograph of Pauline Rutherford,
Malcom’s wife, when she was 32. The quality from a microfilmed newspaper is
poor, but grateful thanks is due to Bernhard who worked on it to produce a color version.
For
the record, the Shuler jury became deadlocked on 10-2 for acquittal, so under
the legal rules that applied, a mistrial was declared.
Pauline
was later heavily involved in the Monrovian Women’s Club over 1944 and 1945,
and her name is frequently listed with many others in the local newspaper as attending
their various activities. Unless being chairman of the tea committee has
special significence it has little relevance here, except to show that the
Rutherfords were local and Pauline filled her time with community activities.
Pauline
was to die quite young at the age of 52 on August 29, 1948. Notice of her death
(which also confirms her pet name Bobby) appeared in the Los Angeles Times for August 31, 1948.
(Pauline)
Bobby’s grave marker (next to Malcom’s) reads…
Malcom
was to remarry. His second wife was Eleanor.
Some
genealogical sources say he married his second wife in 1950, but none give any
primary source references for this. However, this date is about right. It can
easily be established that when the 1950 votor’s list was prepared early in
that year, Malcom was still on his own. But by the time of the 1952 Monrovia
Street directory, he was married to Eleanor.
There
is some confusion about Eleanor and her background. Her grave marker (like
Bobby she is also buried with Malcom) is misleading. But the key to finding the
right family is a funeral notice from 1968.
We
mentioned above that Mary, Malcom’s mother, lived until 1962. Her address was 159
Stedman Place. It would appear that Malcom as her only offspring inherited the
property when she died and moved in, because this is given as his address in
the 1966 Monrovia City Directory.
The
address also features in the funeral notice below. From the Monrovia News-Post for May 16, 1968:
So
we have Esther Brown, her daughter Eleanor Rutherford of Monrovia, her
grandson, Jack W Nedell of Mexico City, and then two unnamed
great-grandchildren. And the address ensures we have the right Eleanor
Rutherford.
Esther
Brown (1878-1968) had been married to Frank C Brown (1873-1941) and they had a
daughter Eleanor Frances Brown, born in Oregen in 1904. Eleanor married Jacques
(Jack) Stanley Nedell in 1927. They had one child, Jacques (Jack) William
Franklin Nedell, who was born in September 1928. The marriage did not last. By
the 1940 census the Nedells were divorced. Their only child, Jack W Nedell, was himself married in 1951,
by which time his mother was very likely the second Mrs Rutherford.
Esther
Brown, as an old lady of around 90 years, seems to have been living with Malcom
and Eleanor in the former home of Malcom’s mother at the time of her death.
Malcom and Eleanor continued at the same address until at least 1970. From the
1970 Monrovia City Directory:
Eleanor
reportedly died in June 1979. Her grave marker reads:
As
noted above there is an issue with this marker. It says she was born in 1914. However,
all the other evidence from the records and family history sources says that
should be 1904. The problem with grave markers is that the one person who can
verify the information is not there to do so, but even so, ten years out
(although just one digit for a stone mason or engraver) is a significent error.
Malcom
lived to be 96, and died in 1989.
His
grave marker reads:
The
three of them are buried together in the Glendale cemetery. In Vesperland Lot
1293, Bobby is in space one, and Eleanor and Malcom are in space two. The grave
markers from left to right are:
BOBBY RUTHERFORD
BELOVED WIFE
1896 – 1948
ELEANOR F. RUTHERFORD
IN LOVNG MEMORY
1914 – 1979
MALCOM CAMERON RUTHERFORD
IN LOVING MEMORY
1892 – 1989
One
final mystery is who supplied the stones? The ones for Malcom and Eleanor
certainly look as if they match and were placed there at the same time. That would
be some years after Eleanor’s death. Malcom had no surviving Rutherford
relatives, so it may well be that someone from Eleanor’s family was
responsible. If Malcom had been too poor to afford a stone, then the army would
have provided one for him as a veteran, but his marker is one that was bought
and paid for.
Footnote on Malcom’s military service
Malcom’s
army service started on September 10, 1918, and he was discharged on December
24, 1918. As a result, he stayed on the military records, as all this
information about his war enlistment comes from the US Department of Veteran
Affairs BIRLS deaths file, 1850-2010.
This file records that he was assigned to the ARMY and gives both his
date of birth (10 November 1892) and date of death (22 June 1989). It also
confirms his enlistment and discharge dates. Unfortunately, 80% of US army
records for World War 1 were destroyed in a fire in 1973, and the 20% surviving
are not readily accessible. However, as noted in the article, he appears to
have worked at a draft office in California during this time.
Note from
an official site: The BIRLS (Beneficiary Identification Records Locator
Subsystem) Death File is a Veterans Benefits Administration database that lists
the names of deceased individuals who had received benefits from the Veterans
Administration while they were alive. These include veterans who received educational
benefits and veterans’ survivors who applied for benefits.
I
do not know what benefits Malcom may have received during his lifetime.
