4 - Malcom's Bible

(with grateful thanks to Brian, current owner of the book, who provided the graphics from it along with other useful input acknowledged below)

Several decades ago a Bible Student came across a Holman’s Linear Bible (c. 1902 with ZWT references) in a book resale shop in Van Nuys, California. It was in very poor condition, but she noted a picture of Pastor Russell that a previous owner had pasted inside the cover. This prompted the purchase and the volume was subsequently rebound.

It now appears that this Bible had once belonged to Malcom Rutherford, the only son of Joseph Franklin and Mary Rutherford. After the death of his second wife, Eleanor, Malcom spent his last years in that area. (He and both his wives are buried side by side in the Forest Park Memorial Cemetery, Glendale, Los Angeles County, California.)

The link with this Bible to the Rutherford family starts with the picture of CTR pasted inside the book. The picture has been cut from a magazine or paper and has been much folded and taped together before being attached. It is a portrait that was regularly used in convention reports c. 1905-1907.  Just above the picture are two small scripture paste-ins, the kind of thing regularly found in Manna books of the era. One was for a Sister Boerger and the other for a Sister Rutherford.

The sticker on the right is addressed “Dear brother Rutherford” and signed “sister Boerger.” The sticker on the left is addressed to “sister Boerger” and signed “sister Rutherford.”

We do not know who “Sister Boerger” was. There was an Annie Boerger who wrote a filler for the August 2, 1922, Golden Age magazine. But whether she had any connection with the Sister Boerger in the Holman Bible is not known.

However, the key names are Brother and Sister Rutherford.

A close check on the flyleaf where one would expect to find the owner’s name yields three names. They are actually very faint and were written in pencil. Either someone has tried to erase them or they have just faded with age. However, modern photographic technique has been able to restore the names, and I am very grateful to the present owner of the volume, Brian K, who has achieved this.

The three names are:  J. F. Rutherford, Mary M. Rutherford, and M. C. Rutherford.

It would have been nice if all the three names were original signatures, but this is not the case. We have J. F. Rutherford’s signature from a personal letter written in 1914, and this is a different hand.

We do not have Mary Rutherford’s signature (unless it is on the paste-in). However, we do have examples of Malcom’s signature. From his WW1 draft registration document in 1917 this is how he signed his name.

Moving forward in time this is how he signed his registration document for WW2 in 1942.

All the names in the Holman Bible are in the same hand. Brian sent me a comprehensive analysis of the handwriting, and is confident that this is in Malcom’s own hand. I have no reason to doubt this.

So, the area where the Bible surfaced, the stickers naming Brother and Sister Rutherford, the names of the three members of the Rutherford family on the flyleaf and a handwriting comparison indicates that this was most likely Malcom’s own Bible.

But why would Malcom keep this Bible, since he did not stay with his parents’ religion? We must remember that Malcom was a Bible Student for a number of years. As noted in previous articles he signed a Manna and was working in Brooklyn Bethel with both parents at the age of 17 in 1910. He travelled from Liverpool, UK, to the United States on the Lusitania in 1911 as “Pastor Russell’s manservant.” The same year he appeared in the convention report as one of CTR’s stenographers. He was stenographer for his father in the Rutherford-Troy debates in Los Angeles in 1915. When first submitting his draft papers in 1917 he claimed exemption on the grounds that he was a member of the International Bible Students Association. When his father was jailed he wrote a long letter of support published in the St Paul Enterprise newspaper at end of 1918. And although he eventually ceased to be an active Bible student he remained in contact with both his parents.

The Holman Linear Bible with ZWT references was published in 1902. Malcom would have been only 10 then, and his parents only fully embraced the faith later. So the Bible could have been a gift from CTR back in the day. It could have first belonged to Malcom’s parents or just his mother. Since he lived with his mother for a while he could have inherited it from her, even as late as her death in 1962. There are all sorts of possibilities, some more credible than others, but on present evidence we just don’t know. If we could find the mysterious “Sister Boerger” it might help, but that would only give us a rough date for the stickers that bear her name, not when they were added to the volume as it now is. And there may have been more subtle evidences of provenance removed when the volume was rebound.

If only for nostalgic family reasons one can imagine Malcom keeping the Bible. But then in extreme old age or after he died, the Bible ended up in a resale shop. But for those who love books and who loved history, it is good to know that it has been rediscovered and still survives.