The 1922 Cedar
Point, Ohio, convention of the IBSA is a remembered historical event for
several reasons. But a little known one that can now be added is that a member
of CTR’s early Bible class from the mid-1870s was there, and was interviewed in
the New Era Enterprise newspaper about those early days. His name was Thomas
Hickey and in 1922 he was billed as “the only one now living who was a member
of Pastor Charles T. Russell’s first little class in Allegheny”.
The above report
is found in the New Era Enterprise for December 26, 1922, page 2. We will
transcribe the account a little bit later, but first, some background
information about Thomas Hickey.
He was born on
November 11, 1844, in Tredegar in South Wales, UK. In the 1851 census returns
for Tredegar, his father (unnamed) is noted as immigrated, leaving a wife,
Joanna Hickey, to support three young children as a dressmaker.
Tredegar was a
boom town in the 19th century linked to expanding iron works with
their tram road and then steam links down the valley to the aptly-named
Newport. But horrendous sanitary conditions and cholera epidemics made it a
place to leave if you could. Your religion was probably one of several
competing varieties of Baptist or Methodist non-conformism.
According to the
Wales-Pennsylvania project, at one point one-third of the population of
Pennsylvania was Welsh, and even today there are 200,000 people of Welsh
ancestry in the State. From the original
Welsh Quakers moving to Pennsylvania, there were soon floods of industrial
workers from Wales - slate quarrymen from the North, and from the South coal
miners and iron workers, whose skills would be welcomed in industrial centers
like Pittsburgh. At the time Hickey lived in Pittsburgh there was a large Welsh
St David’s Society there, which still flourishes today.
So Hickey followed
a well-trodden path to reach Pittsburgh. He was married to Gwendolyn Bowen with
one child, John, when they made the decision to leave Wales and travel to the States
in the 1860s. He ultimately had seven children, but all the others, barring
one, were born in the States. The exception was his fourth, daughter Anna, who
was born around 1874 back in Wales, so - assuming the census enumerator got it
right - they must have made a trip back to the old country.
In the 1870 census
Thomas is now in Pittsburgh as a puddler in a roll mill. (A puddler was a
specialized furnace worker, who converted pig iron into wrought iron.) In the
1880 Pittsburgh census he is still listed as a puddler, with wife Gwennie, and
the seven children. At least three of the children are known to be born in
Pittsburgh, David (born 1876), Samuel (born 1878) and Joseph Benjamin
(1879-1962).
And it was at this
time that he attended early meetings with Charles Taze Russell.
The account in
full from the Enterprise reads as follows:
(quote)
Among the thousand
attending the convention is the venerable Thomas Hickey, of Newcastle, Pa. He
is the only one now living who was a member of Pastor Charles T. Russell’s
first little class in Allegheny.
He relates that
the first convention held was in a building on Federal St., Allegheny, when
less than a hundred were present. This was about 1875. The first testimony
meeting was held in 1876 in the home of Brother Russell, when six consecrated
hearts were present. This gives an amazing contrast when compared with this
great convention of over 12,000, with many, many times that number at home all
over the world.
In listening to Mr
Hickey relating his experiences, it can be seen that this movement grew, not by
any organized effort, but simply and spontaneously by a gathering together of
consecrated Christians to study their Bibles as their hearts yearned to do.
“Charlie would
give them little talks,” he said, “and after awhile he began to go around and
speak here and there. When they started to call him Elder Russell, the question
arose as to what would be the proper title for their minister. When they asked
Brother Russell, he answered simply, ‘We will just go on without any name, for
are all one in Christ Jesus.’”
Mr Hickey said he
never expected to attend such a convention as this one, and considers it the
greatest privilege of his life.
(end of quote)
We have to accept
that this is anecdotal evidence from an old man about events nearly fifty years
before. We don’t know how good his memory was, or how accurately he was
reported by the Enterprise writer, but it gives us a flavour of those early
times.
A search in the
early ZWTs provides a number of references to a “Brother Hickey” but these all
appear to be Samuel I Hickey, a former Presbyterian minister, who had quite a
high profile in those early days. So all we have is the Enterprise interview,
and also Thomas’ obituary in his local paper.
The above obituary
from the New Castle News, January 14, 1927, firmly identifies Thomas as an
active member of the International Bible Students Association. It states that
he moved to New Castle 22 years before, which would be around 1904, and his
final employment status was as a boiler maker.
There is a Thomas
Hickey in New Castle trade directories for the 1890s, and this Thomas is
described as working in the Vulcan Iron co., so there may be an error in the
obituary dates and this is him. Or maybe the 1890s feature some other Thomas
Hickey. It was not an uncommon name.
Thomas was
certainly well-known enough in his New Castle community to warrant the 1927
obituary, which also detailed two fraternal societies he belonged to, one of
which was back in Pittsburgh.
One wonders how
many of his surviving five children, fifteen grandchildren and seventeen
great-grandchildren continued in the same religious persuasion.
