Basil

 

Basil Stephanoff from Separate Identity volume 2

The book Jehovah’s Witnesses - Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom mentions briefly one Basil Stephanoff in connection with the preaching work in Macedonia. On page 406 it has this to say:

“What about Turkey? During the late 1880s Basil Stephanoff had preached in Macedonia in what was then European Turkey. Although some had seemed to show interest, certain ones who professed to be brothers made false reports, leadng to his imprisonment.”

So who was Basil Stephanoff?

The primary information we have about him comes from two letters he wrote to Zion’s Watch Tower. The first gives the basic information extracted for the Proclaimers book. The second, from 1894, has him writing in support of CTR in view of the scenario described in A Conspiracy Exposed. It also showed that Basil was now in America.

A brief history of him is found in Who’s Who in the History of the (Bible Student) Movement before 1920. To quote in full:

“He was active in Macedonia (European Turkey) and Bulgaria in the late 1880s. He was imprisoned because (he claimed) false testimony at the hands of false brethren. He escaped to America, settling in Michigan. He was still a Watch Tower adherent in 1894 but drifted away by 1903 when we find him involved with the Masons and on his way back to Macedonia to fight against the Turks. A religious journal calls him a General in the Macedonian resistance.”

A more detailed history is found in Separate Identity: Organizational Identity Among Readers of Zion’s Watch Tower: 1870-1987 volume 2, pp. 552-553.

Organizational Identity reviews his religious history. Basil was a man who had a finger in a number of theological pies. Over the years he was involved with what became the Church of God (Anderson), the Mennonites, the Baptists, the Children of Zion Church, Butler’s Essoteric Fraternity, as well as fighting for the Macedonian Nationalist cause. His association with Zion’s Watch Tower was hardly exclusive.

At the time the above research was being prepared for Separate Identity, I did my own research for what we might call Basil’s “human story.” It appeared on a blog and was almost immediately forgotten, because it was not relevant to the blog’s focus as such. All it did show was that in those early days people often dipped in and then dipped out of involvement with Bible Students and the Watch Tower Society. Some were searchers after truth with good motives, others had “feet of clay.” The latter are often more interesting to research – at a suitable historical distance. Some early associates of CTR fell into the latter category. Lapses from moral grace don’t have to be the exclusive preserve of religious people, but the contrast between theory and practice is often fodder for the tabloid press. And this is history – these people aren’t our relatives to cause us any embarrassment today. So this is what I discovered about Basil.

Basil’s personal history has its mysteries. At one point in researching his back story, I rather gleefully assumed I had a case of bigamy here, but alas, a discovery of not one but two divorces settled that in Basil’s favor – if that is the right expression to use. But I am getting ahead of myself.

The fuller chronicle of Basil that makes the history book explains he was in the United States in the 1880s, although on census returns he only ever admitted to entering the country in 1891 or 1892. We know from passenger lists that he travelled from England to the States in January 1892, giving his occupation as labourer.

Within a short space of time Basil gets married to Annie Brook, on April 12, 1892, in the Children of Zion Church, and his marriage certificate (registered in Kent County, Michigan) gives his occupation as minister of the gospel. The officiating minister at his wedding is H A Olmstead, Pastor Children of Zion Church.  Annie is a dress maker and comes from England. A 1900 census return says she came to America in 1886, six years before Basil, and a 1920 census return says she became a US citizen in 1892.

At the time of the marriage Basil is 31 and Annie is 28. His father’s name is down as Stephan Boginoff, which suggests the registrar had a silly moment, since the correct name in all other documents is Bogin Stephanoff. Basil’s mother’s name is Mona. Annie conceives almost immediately and their only son, John Basil Stephanoff is born on January 26, 1893 (information from John B’s WW1 draft card below).

John B became a judo instructor during WW2 and lived until 1976. John B married and had one daughter, whose married name was Jean Schmit, and who died in 1980, but there the trail ran cold for this researcher.

In trade directories for the late 1890s through to 1901 the family are in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Basil is now listed under Boots and Shoes, or shoe dealer in the 1900 census.

But all is not well in the Stephanoff household. On November 5, 1900, Annie files for divorce on the grounds of Basil’s cruelty and the uncontested divorce is granted on June 18, 1901. Annie will stay in Grand Rapids. In quite short order, and while still giving his residence in Grand Rapids, Basil ties the knot again, this time marrying Alvesta S Nagle of Bellevue, Ohio, on October 8, 1902. The marriage is registered in Kent County, Michigan. Basil is still a shoe dealer, Alvesta has no profession, and Basil’s parents are down as Stephanoff and Mona.

But just four months later there are divorce proceedings again. This time the uncontested charge is cruelty plus fraud, and the decree absolute is granted on June 30, 1903.

Alvesta disappears from the record, but first wife Annie with son John B continue to appear in Grand Rapids directories, she as a dress maker and John B when he leaves education as a salesman.

Basil then reappears in Marion County, Indiana, in the 1910 census. The age, place of origin, and year of immigration show it is our man. He has now become a lawyer. And the census specifically asks him whether he is single, married, widowed or divorced. His answer is plain - SINGLE.

Whereas Annie in the Grand Rapids trade directories for 1915 and surrounding years puts herself down as the widow of Basil.

Basil dies of nephritis in Marion County, Indianapolis, on May 19, 1925. He must have kept certain documents with him because his death certificate lists his parents as Bogin and Mona. But he is now listed as a widower, with the name of his former partner unknown. His age is given as 62, which if correct, means he was born in 1862 or 1863, which more of less fits the age he gave when getting married to Annie Brook.

Basically Basil dies alone, and out of touch with his son.

I suppose I was looking for a “bad boy” in Basil, and these snippets from records show someone who could bend the truth at times, along with two failed marriages and the accusation of cruelty.

It makes me think of another “bad boy” who lived at the same time and who also associated for a while with the Bible Student movement. That was Albert Royal Delmont Jones, who was the editor of Zion’s Day Star before his fall from grace. Jones deserted his first wife, the mother of his children, and married a society beauty. She in turn dumped him when he lost his fortune, and his third attempt at matrimony was to someone later convicted of bigamy, and who featured in the Fatty Arbuckle scandal. If that wasn’t enough excitement for one life, somewhere along the line there is a possible fourth marriage, which if true, suggests a less than truthful response to the registrar. All of this can be read by newer readers if you punch in the search terms “Albert Delmont Jones” on this blog to see a 12 part series which covered his life story in some detail.

There are some similarities in these stories of former Watch Tower adherents, Albert and Basil, although Albert wins the prize for major league “bad boy.” But with their tangled personal histories, there is one thing they do both have in common. Both had family who survived them. Both died alone. Maybe they deserved it, but I still find that rather sad.