George Swetnam

George Swetnam (1904-1999) was a writer who led a full and eventful life. His obituary in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (April 7, 1999) outlined how he was an author of a dozen books, mainly on history, and was also a Presbyterian clergyman. He had been a newspaper editor, a member of various historical societies, and for two years of his life, a hobo. His obituary states “he claimed to have ridden more freight trains than any other Ph.D alive.” He is probably best remembered today for co-authoring A Guidebook to Historic Western Pennsylvania.

He is of interest here because he wrote about Charles Taze Russell from time to time.

In 1958 he wrote Where Else but Pittsburgh, and part of one chapter has six pages on CTR. It is written in popularist style, and while one can easily nitpick some of the erroneous details, it could be called a tribute and a sympathetic portrait.

Swetnam became a columnist and feature writer for the Pittsburgh Press. At least two of his pieces featured CTR. The first in the Pittsburgh Press Sunday magazine for October 6, 1963, was about the demolition of the old Bible House as part of the North Side redevelopment scheme.

The second was an article, again in the Sunday magazine section of the Pittsburgh Press for January 25, 1967. This was about the Watch Tower Society’s burial site with a pyramid monument in the center.

Swetnam listed the names found on the pyramid, but was obviously struggling. The weathering of the stone and the way the light hit the monument could make decipherment difficult. He listed eight names, CTR himself and then seven others.

There were actually nine names inscribed. He missed out the name John Perry, and some of the names he recorded had glitches. Grace Mound was actually Grace Mundy, who died in a fire in 1914. Chester Elledge could only be a drastic misreading of John Coolidge, which is strange because his grave marker is the only one (other than CTR’s) to still survive today of those named. Swetnam said that the oldest who died was Miss Cole, aged 78. Flora Cole actually died aged 70, but it IS hard to decipher the lettering. But she wasn’t “Miss” she was “Mrs” – her son James Cole was the inventor of the Dawn-Mobile featured in a Watchtower article for February 15, 2012.

The other thing this article did was to remind the public that there was a treasure trove of old publications buried inside the pyramid. They appear to have survived until 1993 when the pyramid was finally broken into and the contents stolen.

Not by any reader here I would hope.

Further attacks on the pyramid and the ravages of time eventually made it unsafe, and it was finally taken down in 2021.