Charles Taze Russell (hereafter abbreviated as CTR) plays such a large role in early Watch Tower history it is not surprising that his family history is of interest. This article endeavours to fill in some of the gaps in the usual histories. It will also include links to other articles on this blog that provide further details.
Russell is a
Protestant name. There were many Russells in what is now known as Northern
Ireland at the start of the 19th century. Other common names were
Lytle (or Lytel) and Tay or Tays (possibly named after the Scottish river Tay).
It was common for a former surname, perhaps of a mother, to be preserved as the
middle name in the new generation. This helps explain names like Joseph Lytle
Russell and Charles Tays (or Taze) Russell. This can also assist in tracing a
family tree backwards. It was also common, as it is today, for forenames to be
repeated down through the generations. Of course, when people had large families,
they soon ran out of repeatable forenames.
We are told that
the Russell family were of Scots-Irish ancestry; early records saying
Scotch-Irish ancestry.
The pressure on
Presbyterians to join the Church of England caused some from the Scottish
lowlands and also Northern England to immigrate from the 17th
century onward. The Highland Clearances forced many others in Scotland to leave
home, and the British Government was keen to encourage more to move to Ireland
with land grants like the Plantations of Ulster. On the one hand it damped down
tensions and poverty in Scotland and the borders, and on the other it helped dilute
both the language and Catholic faith of the native Irish. The political consequences
of those policies are still with us today.
The Protestant
communities that then developed in Northern Ireland were predominantly
Presbyterian from their Scottish roots. As conditions became difficult in this
new home more and more went to America. The term Scots-Irish eventually came to
be a term used in America to identify this wave of Protestant immigrants. It distinguished
them from the large numbers who came from Ireland a little later due to the
potato famine. The latter tended to be Roman Catholic.
So the Russell
family may have literally come originally from Scotland, or they may just have
been lumped into the catch-all title Scots-Irish. Either way, they were
Protestants, Presbyterian, who lived in the region of County Donegal (from Charles
Tays Russell’s grave marker) and Londonderry (from Joseph Lytle Russell’s
newspaper obituary). Donegal and Londonderry border on each other. Today
Donegal is the most northern county in the Republic of Ireland, and Londonderry
(often shortened to Derry) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland.
A key industry
in Northern Ireland was making what is still called today, Irish linen. In the
early part of the 19th century Northern Ireland hand-spinning faced
severe competition from machine-spinning as the industrial revolution trampled
all before it. Even so, prior to the First World War, Belfast was the largest
linen producing area in the world, and had the nickname, Linenopolis. But
changing times in the early 19th century would cause some in the industry
to look to America. So we have Charles Tays Russell who reportedly came to
America to work with Irish born Alexander Turney Stewart, who made his fortune importing
Irish fabrics, before later cleaning up making uniforms for the Union side in
the American Civil War. There will be more about Charles Tays later. One step
further on we have Charles Tays’ one time business partner, his brother Joseph
Lytle Russell, establishing a haberdashery store – a business that was expanded
in due course with his son, CTR.
To establish the
family tree of Charles Taze Russell, there are two key documents. First, there
is a family tree prepared by one Robert Speel. Robert was a descendant of the
Russells through CTR’s half sister, Mabel. Mabel, the daughter of Joseph Lytle
Russell and his second wife Emma Ackley, married Richard Packard. One of their
daughters, Mildred, married a Robert Speel. Their son was also called Robert
and the family tree most readers here will have seen is credited to one of the Roberts.
It is a labor of
love, prepared before the internet provided access to documents. Its main
resource, apart from word of mouth of living relatives, was the Last Will and
Testament of CTR’s Uncle, Charles Tays Russell. This uncle of CTR (after whom
he was named) did not marry and left a number of bequests. His estate was
divided out between surviving siblings and in some cases, their children. This
document gives us names and also locations for these people in the 1870s.
Understandably
the family tree is incomplete. It also contains one glaring error in the first
section reproduced below.
2b is listed as
Sarah Russell (1799-1846) one of children of Thomas and Fannie Russell.
This Sarah is not one of the Russell children, but was the wife of James Russell, who is listed as 2a. James bought the family cemetery plot in the Allegheny cemetery in 1846, shortly before she died, and she was the first to be buried there. He followed one year later. However, he bought the plot with his wife in mind, not his sister. Realistically that makes more sense. If Robert Speel examined the burial registers at the Allegheny Cemetery he would not have found the correct relationship, because it is not listed. The register only gives her name, and then date and cause of death. Only by visiting the grave site and checking the surviving grave marker can we see that Sarah was the wife of James.
Sarah, wife of Jas. G Russell, died Dec 14, 1846
Photograph by the author
We now know a
little more about her. That brings us to the second key document. It is
entitled “Descendants of Thomas Russell and Fanny Grier of Londonderry,
Ireland, as dictated by Aunt Sarah Russell Morris, Oct. 1900.” This can be
accessed on the “Family Search” website under the family of Alexander Russell.
It is a
typewritten document with a few pencilled notations on it.It particularly
concentrates on the family of Alexander Russell (2e in the Robert Speel chart).
The compiler, who is called Aunt Sarah Russell Morris, was born in 1834, so
would have met a number of relatives or at least known about them while they
were still alive. She was one of Alexander Russell’s daughters, so a first
cousin of CTR, although there is no indication that they ever met.
In researching
the Russell family history I made contact with living descendants of this
branch of the family, who gave permission for me to use the document.
Nonetheless, they could supply no extra information on the early days. I
checked back on what I could, using Ancestry, and was able to independently
verify much of the information on Alexander and his descendants. However, the
further back you went and the further afield you went from Alexander and his immediate
family then it became far more difficult to find supporting witnesses. Still,
there is no reason to assume that Aunt Sarah made it all up. The information
she provided raises a question or two, but we will raise these issues as we now
go through her testimony to provide the fullest account we can of CTR’s
extended family.
The family tree
starts with Thomas and Fannie Russell (according to Speel) and Thomas and Fanny
Grier of Londonderry (according to Aunt Sarah). This information may well have
come from the notice of someone’s birth or marriage. Stating they were “of
Londonderry” suggests they never made the journey to the United States. Their
last child, Fanny or Fannie (who we know never left Ireland), died in June
1867, aged 55, so she was born around 1812. Unfortunately, going back from
around 1812 there are a lot of Thomas Russells with wives named Fanny or Fannie
in Londonderry, and it has not been possible as yet to establish which couple
produced our particular dynasty.
One point of
possible note: there was a Rev Joseph
Lytle who was Presbyterian Minister of the 1st Letterkenny
Presbyterian Church from 1803 to 1841. His Uncle, also a Rev Joseph Lytle, was
the previous minister of this congregation but died in 1805 and had no family This
Lytle family came from Desertoghill Parish in East Londonderry. The tithe maps
show six men named Thomas Russell in the Letterkenny area, so some of them
could have been members of that church. Of course, it could all just be
coincidence.
Aunt Sarah notes,
as we have already, that Russell is a Protestant name. She stated that Thomas
and Fanny had thirteen children, three of whom died in infancy.
The surviving
ten children in (we assume) order of birth were as follows:
1.
James
2.
William
3.
Charles
4.
Joseph
5.
Thomas
6.
George
7.
Alexander
8.
Ellen
9.
Mary Jane
10.
Fanny
Let’s review
them one by one.
James
James was the
oldest who survived to adulthood, and was born c.1796. His register of death
from 1847 simply states that he came from Ireland. He may have been the first
to go to America, paving the way for others. His history, as given by Aunt
Sarah, suggests a possible trail-blazer, a patriarch of the family, but he
ended up in Pittsburgh and died comparatively young, five years before CTR was
born. Aunt Sarah tells us that James married Sarah Ann Risk. We learn elsewhere
in the document that the Risk family were Episcopalians in Faun, Ireland (which
is most likely Fahan in County Donegal), and father George Risk (married to a
Sarah) was an excise officer. We also note from the history of Alexander
(below), who married Sarah Ann’s sister, Margaret, that James and Sarah were
already a married couple in America in Elmwood Hill, New York, by 1832.
James’ history
gives us a question for future research. Quoting directly from Aunt Sarah:
“James was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, conducted his
Collegiate and Commerical Institute at Elmwood Hill, Bloomingdale, N.Y. now included
in Central Park near West 103rd Street.”
The question?
How did a poor Protestant boy (we assume) get his education at Trinity College,
Dublin? The registers of intake at Trinity College are online, and a careful
check reveals a number of Russells, but no Thomas. Of course, absense of
evidence is not automatically evidence of absense, but it would be nice to
track down his movements further if that is ever going to be possible.
By 1832 James is
married to Sarah and they are living in Elmwood Hill, New York. Aunt Sarah
records that “James and Sarah having no children ‘adopted’ Thomas Russell, son
of (his brother) Alexander.” This Thomas Russell was born in 1833.
At some point
James and Sarah moved from New York to Pittsburgh. There is a James Russell in
the 1840 Pittsburgh census, but no guarantee it is the right one. However,
Pittsburgh became a settled home for them because in 1846 he bought one of the
first grave plots to go on the market in the new Allegheny Cemetery. Two of his
brothers, Charles and Joseph, were living in the same area, and all of them
were eventually buried in the family plot. Dying as early as he did, and having
no children, James was to be forgotten by later generations.
For the history
of this cemetery and the Russell plot see:
https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-russells-and-allegheny-cemetery.html
William
The second child
was William. All we learn from Aunt Sarah is that he had no children. This
suggests that he may have been married, but we have no further information. He
is not mentioned as a beneficiary in the Charles Tays Russell will of 1872 so had probably died by then.
Charles
All Aunt Sarah
tells us about the third child (who we know as Charles Tays Russell) is that he
never married. It would appear that the New York branch of the family
(Alexander et al) and the Pittsburgh branch never kept in close touch, at least
after James died. Nonetheless, Sarah Ann (aka Aunt Sarah) was named in Charles’
last will and testament.
However, we know
quite a bit about Charles Tays because he merited an obituary in the Pittsburgh
newspapers when he died and left a reasonable trail for much of his life.
Obituaries are always a little suspect because the one person who can verify
their accuracy is not there to do so, but this is how his life was reviewed in
his obituary from the Pittsburgh Post for December 27, 1875.
The key facts are that
he came to New York and took lessons in business from A.T. Stewart in 1822 or
1823. The newspaper appears to read 1822, but most sources have Alexander
Turney Stewart opening his first dry goods store in New York in 1823. Charles
Tays then started his own business in Pittsburgh in 1831, eventually switched
to brokerage and insurance in 1867. To this we can add that he joined the Third
Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh in 1834, was in business with Joseph Lytle
Russell for a while, and left a swathe of bequests when he died, which helps us
establish a family tree. For further details and to also read his last will and
testament in full, see:
https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-other-charles-t-russell.html
Joseph
Line drawing of Joseph Lytle Russell by AG and BK based on an original photograph
Joseph is our
main interest in this generation of the family of course. Aunt Sarah only gave
him a sentence or two: “Joseph lived in Pittsburgh, Pa. By his first wife had a
son Charles who became famous as a leader of the Russellite sect. By his second
wife, Miss Ackley, had a daughter, Mabel.”
This suggests
that Aunt Sarah probably never met Joseph or his son Charles. It also indicates
that by 1900 when she gave her account that the perjorative “Russellite” was in
common use.
Joseph’s
history, coming to America at the very latest by 1843, joining the Third
Presbyterian Church in 1845, as had his brother Charles Tays and sister Ellen
before him, then becoming a US citizen in 1848 and marrying Ann Eliza Birney in
1849, is all documented here:
https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2020/04/2-pittsburgh-presbyterians.html
Thomas
All we know about
Thomas from Aunt Sarah is that he loved poetry and engaged in sheep raising. He
is not mentioned in Charles Tays’ last will and testament, which strongly suggests
he had died before 1872.
George
All we have from Aunt
Sarah is a name and no other details.
Alexander
Aunt Sarah was
Alexander’s daughter, so her account of his life and family is the most
comprehensive. We reproduce her comments in full.
“Alexander came to the
U.S. as a young man and married Margaret Risk, who was visiting her sister
Sarah Ann Russell, wife of James, at Elmwood Hill; they were married June 21st
1832 by Rev. Mr. Alburtis at Bloomingdale, N.Y. They lived in a cottage near Elmwood
Hill where their son Thomas Grier was born in 1833; they then moved to
Patterson, N.J., and lived there seven years where they kept a grocery store.
The following childten were born in Patterson; Sarah Ann in 1834, George in
1836, who died in 1843, and Francis Grier in 1839. The family then moved back
to New York, living at first at Elmwood Hill, Bloomingdale, where Cornelia
Stewart, named for Mrs A.T. Stewart, was born in 1840. Alexander Russell after
his return to New York became a contractor in painting houses and churches. The
family moved to 26th Street, near Sixth Avenue and lived in the
house of lawyer Holt, a batchelor who boarded with them; they later move (sic)
to Broadway very near St. James Hotel; they attended the Dutch Reformed Church
on Fifth Ave and Twenty-First Street where Alexander Russell was an elder for
fourteen years.
Another son, George
Alexander, was born in New York in 1845, he died in 1848. Margaret Risk Russell
died May 30, 1853, aged 45 years.”
As yet we have not
traced a record of his death, but he appears to have died some time between
1872 and 1878. He is mentioned in the Charles Tays will written in 1872, but by
1878 the bequest is being divided between his surviving children.
Here is Alexander’s
photograph. His full name was Alexander Grier Russell.
Ellen
Aunt Sarah’s summary of
Ellen’s life reads: “Ellen was governess in the family of Rev. Dr. Riddle of
Pittsburgh, Pa.; she moved with them to New Jersey and died in New York City,
in Alex’r’s house.” It noted that Ellen never married.
From the mid-1830s
through to the 1850s a Rev Dr Riddle was very active with the Third Presbyterian
Church in Pittsburgh, but then later moved to New Jersey. An obituary for David
H Riddle (1803-1888) in the Public Weekly Opinion (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania) for
20 July 1888, stated: “Dr Riddle was pastor of the Third Presbyterian church of
Pittsburgh for more than twenty years, and afterwards of the Presbyterian
church in Jersey City.”
We have already noted
that Charles Tays Russell joined the Third Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh in
1834, the year it was founded. The same registers show that a Miss Ellen
Russell joined this church on November 17, 1937, by certificate. This means she
came from another church with a letter of recommendation. There is a pencilled
note in the register that she died in 1860.
Mary
Jane
Mary Jane Russell was
obviously not Aunt Sarah’s favorite person. Her summary of Mary Jane’s life
states: “(her) “hobby” was cats; she kept house for her brother Alexander after
his wife’s death; later she lived alone in Pittsburgh and died there. She was
peculiar and very strict; she though much of pedigree, etc.”
Alexander’s wife died
in 1853. As noted above, Alexander himself died sometime in the mid-1870s. A
trust fund was set up for Mary Jane’s support from the estate of Charles Tays
Russell, but it ran short and in 1886 there was a need for a family decision to
dip into the capital. At this point Joseph Lytle Russell in Pittsburgh took
responsibility for managing her affairs, but almost immediately thereafter Mary
Jane died. She was buried in the family plot in the Allegheny cemetery, but no
grave marker was provided.
For further documentation
see the link below:
https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2019/03/mary-jane-russell.html
Fanny
All Aunt Sarah can tell
us is that Fanny married a Mr Harper.
Fanny never left
Ireland. When she died in 1867, her death certificate gave her age as 55, so
her approximate year of birth would be 1812. Her husband, Alexander Harper, was
a farmer and they were then living at Castlefinn, Co. Donegal. Alexander was
illiterate and had to sign he was present at the death by making his mark.
Charles Tays’ will in
1872 noted that Fanny had already died and made bequests to six surviving
children. It also noted where the six were in 1872, to the best of Charles
Tays’ knowledge. Four had gone to America and two remained in Co. Donegal.
See again:
https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/search?q=the+other+charles
In 1891, CTR, our main subject, visited Ireland for the first time. However, there is no indication that he met any extended family members, assuming he even knew who they were by this time.
