Important note: Grateful thanks are due to correspondent Bernhard who supplied
some of the information below. Regrettably I am not able to give references in support
of some dates, but I have no reason
whatsoever to doubt the accuracy of the information.
The title “Three Sisters” may bring to mind a famous play by Anton Chekhov, likely
inspired by the three Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and
Anne.
However, this article is going to briefly consider three who were classed as sisters within the framework of the ZWT fellowship. They all had something remarkable in common – they all served as directors of Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society (from 1894
the
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society)
during the time of CTR’s presidency.
If this concept is a surprise to modern readers, there are two facts about those early days that must be recognized. First, women had a much more public role in the Society’s affairs in those days. CTR’s wife,
Maria, for example was an associate editor of the Watch Tower for a number of years. (See Proclaimers book footnote, page 645).
And second, it must be realized that the role of directors in those early days was mainly figurative. In A
Conspiracy Exposed (pages 55-60)
CTR explained that for legal reasons the
Watch Tower Society needed directors, but it was always
understood that matters were so arranged to allow him (along with Maria at that time) to retain control. There was no annual meeting; and elections, such as they were, took place on the first Saturday of each New Year. Hence John B Adamson in that same document complained that as a director he never made a decision. Later, Maria in the separation hearing testimony, made a similar comment about her role as secretary-treasurer. Directors
would include some of CTR’s contacts in Pittsburgh and Allegheny,
and in many
cases, those who were on hand by living in
or at least working in the Bible
House. But they didn’t “direct” – they were just names on paper. As time went on, a number of
members of the Pittsburgh Bible House family (and later Brooklyn Bethel family) simply stepped in and
filled gaps as directors – often for quite brief times – under the administration of CTR.
People ceased to be directors for all sorts of reasons.
Sometimes someone died (like Henry Weber), sometimes someone resigned because
they withdrew from fellowship with Russell (like J B Adamson) and sometimes
someone was just too ill to continue (like William C MacMillan).
So who were our
three “sisters” who were directors?
The first female director,
was of course, Maria Russell herself. Maria Frances Ackley was
born in 1850.
She married CTR in 1879 and later that year worked with him as the fledgling ZWT magazine was launched. Her sister Emma married CTR’s father, Joseph, the following year, 1880.
In 1881 Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society was formed with William Conley as
president, and CTR as secretary-treasurer and his father Joseph as vice-president. On Monday, December 15, 1884
this
society was legally incorporated in Pittsburgh. Maria became a director and an officer of the new incorporated Society – as secretary-treasurer. On paper this meant that she replaced CTR who had previously held that position, but who now became president of the new official arrangement.
Maria remained as secretary-treasurer in name until the annual meeting on January 5, 1895. Although no longer an officer, she remained on the books as a director until February 12, 1900 when she
resigned. She was replaced by either Albert
E Williamson
or Clara Taylor (two new directors were required at this election).
Her subsequent history
is quite easy to trace. The contemporary newspaper St Paul Enterprise in its
Memorial number when CTR died gives an account her in the funeral cortege. She later moved to Florida with her sister, Emma, and died in St Petersburg, Florida, in 1938. There is some biographical material for her on the Find a Grave site, under Maria F Ackley Russell.
The second female director was also a Vice-President of the Society for a very short time. This was Rose Ball Henninges. Early census returns list her as Rosa (rather than Rose) J Ball - but no-one seems to know what the J stood for. She and her brother, Charles,
came to Pittsburgh. Charles died in March 1889 and Rose became part of the Russell household and then Bible House family. She is
included in many group photographs of the day, along with
a young man named Ernest Charles Henninges, whom she would marry in 1897. (He too would
be a director at one point).
A young Rose Ball sitting in a group photo with her
future husband Ernest Henninges in 1893.
Rose became a director
on April 11, 1892. Two directors were replaced on that date, William I Mann and Joseph F Smith, so
she replaced one of them. On January 7, 1893, Rose became Vice-President for a year, until the next year’s elections on January 6, 1894.
After that she remained as a director until she resigned on February 12, 1900 (the same official date as for Maria Russell). As noted above, she was then replaced by either Albert E Williamson
or Clara Taylor.
A few years after her marriage to Ernest Henninges, Rose and Ernest travelled abroad to further the cause. They spent some time in Britain (you can find them in the 1901 UK census) and then Germany,
before eventually travelling to Australia.
They spent the rest of their lives there. A split occurred between them and CTR over the understanding of “the New Covenant” and they founded their own journal in 1909, which ran until 1953.
Charles died in 1939, and Rose in 1950. She was survived by two sisters still living in America, Miss Lilian Ball of Buffalo,
NY, and Mrs Daisy Mabee of Paterson, NJ.
As already mentioned in passing, the third female director
was Clara Taylor. Clara became a director on February 12, 1900. On this date both Maria F Russell and Rose J Ball (now Henninges) resigned, so Clara replaced one of them. As already noted, the other replacement director appointed that day was Albert E Williamson.
Clara served as a director for less than a year. At the next election on the first Saturday of the New
Year, January 5, 1901,
she
resigned and was replaced by William E Van Amburgh. He would become
one of the longest serving directors
in the Society’s history (only Milton Henschel, Lymon Swingle and Fred Franz
served for longer).
Clara is featured in some group photographs of the Bible House family in the first decade of the twentieth century. Below is
a selection from a photograph showing the mailing room c. 1907.
Clara in the Bible House mailing room c. 1907
All we know at present about Clara Taylor comes from
the
separation hearing Russell v. Russell from
1906. She was called as a witness to support the testimony of J A Bohnet, and was
both examined and
cross examined in the case.
Her testimony shows that she was working at Bible House in 1897 before Maria Russell left for Chicago
to stay with her brother, Lemuel. CTR had been called away from home and telephoned
Ernest Henninges (misspelled Hennings in the transcript) to ask if could arrange for someone to stay over at Bible House so
that Maria would not be left on her own. (Most workers lodged outside the building). Clara was asked and agreed, but was then told by Henninges that she no longer needed to do this because Maria had told him via the internal speaking tube that she’d made her own arrangements. That was the sum of her testimony. But it showed that Clara worked at Bible House in 1897 before Maria left. A passing comment indicated that she had not been there the previous year, 1896.
She was also still working there in 1906.
And crucially for subsequent
attempts to trace her, she was addressed several times as Miss Clara Taylor. So she was single at the time.
When the headquarters moved to Brooklyn in
1909, Clara apparently didn’t go. Or at least, she is not in the census returns from 1910
onwards. Whether that was due to the New Covenant controversy,
or just a matter of geography and family, is
not known.
She
may well have married, in which case the surname Taylor would disappear, making tracing her subsequent movements somewhat problematic.
So Clara remains a bit of mystery, even though she spent around ten years working at the headquarters,
and was one of the three sisters who became directors of the Society in the CTR era.
Details on the so far unsuccessful search for Clara is in the following article.
I am sure you know this but despite it is not from the s.XIX it is interesting...
ReplyDeleteIn Spain in 1934 there was a woman that take the direction of journal "Luz y Verdad" (today ¡Desperad!) for a while. You can read this in article "A Historic Step Forward in Spain" (g72 9/8, p.24)
"One part of the history was enlivened by the presence of an eighty-one-year-old Witness who learned God’s truth in 1927. She is blind and of diminutive stature, yet what a bundle of energy she was when speaking! She recalled that during the year 1934 she figured as the Director of the magazine Luz y Verdad (Light and Truth, Spanish equivalent of the present Awake!), since there were no native Spaniards working in the office at that time, and the English-born overseer could not sign the galley proofs that needed government approval."
Her name is not given here, it is sure that she was Carmen Tierraseca.
If you go to the 1978 Yearbook, you will find this at page 142
"Consider, too, the case of Carmen Tierraseca Martín, a seamstress. She received some of our literature from her brother-in-law in Madrid, but forgot about it. In October 1927, however, she was employed at the home of a foreign lady named Mary O’Neill, the wife of Francisco Corzo. Incidentally, the name “Tierraseca” means “dry earth.” But Carmen did not prove to be “dry earth” as far as the seed of truth was concerned.
Regarding her employment at that time, Carmen Tierraseca commented: “I passed the morning sewing in a small room, and after lunch I continued with my work. Sometime after four o’clock I noticed that several people were arriving. I assumed that it was a visiting day for the Señor and Señora and they were probably having a party, to judge by the noise of the conversations. Then, suddenly, there was silence, followed by the smooth and harmonious sound of a piano that was soon joined by voices singing, like the singing of a beautiful hymn. I had never heard anything like it before.”
Well, as you can guess, the Bible Students (as Jehovah’s Witnesses then were known) were having a Christian meeting. Quite by “accident,” Carmen Tierraseca had accepted work in the very house where The Watch Tower was prepared in Spanish."
Many thanks for this.
ReplyDeleteJ
Absolutely!
ReplyDeleteRegards Miguel,
Mike C.
Sister Taylor is mentioned twice in the 1907 Convention Report (part. 2), page 94. (From Benek)
ReplyDeleteThese copies of WT list people who supported VOW in 1908. Clara Taylor is not among these people:
ReplyDeleteThe Watchtower June 15, 1908 p. 4192 [reprint];
The Watch Tower July 1, 1908 p. 206;
The Watch Tower July 15, 1908 p. 219;
The Watch Tower August 1, 1908 p. 238;
The Watch Tower August 15, 1908 p. 4229 [reprint]. (From Benek).