1 - Malcom's history

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.