John Paton's Diary (1900)

In 1981 Lucile Swain Hough donated a typwritten transcript of the diary of John Henry Paton for the year 1900 to the Almont Public Library. Paton and his extended family lived at Almont, Lapeer County, Michigan, for most of his life. His magazine The World’s Hope was published there from 1882 to 1916.

Paton of course was an early associate of CTR and wrote for Zion’s Watch Tower before starting his own paper to promote Universalist views. He is a good source for historical research because he tried to keep in touch with many people, and his paper reveals the subsequent history of a number of early associates of CTR after they parted company with him.

What happened to the original diary is unknown. How accurate and complete is the transcript is also unknown. What we have is not very detailed, often brief notes about events and people, many of whom will mean nothing to a modern reader. But there are a few insights, and this article tries to extract the few items that link up with Watch Tower history.

The title page tells us who provided the transcript.

Lucile Hough was a grand-daughter of John H Paton. Her mother, Annie Paton Swain (1883-1969) was a daughter of John Paton. Lucile would have known John Paton as a child; she was 12 years old when he died and was living at the same address in the 1920 census.

Paton traveled widely, especially making use of the railways, electric cars in cities, horse and buggy, and also the new fangled motor car. However, it was the railway that made longer journeys possible. The same would hold true for Charles Taze Russell. Paton regularly listed where he stayed (or “staid” as he always spelled it) and where he dined. He commented regularly on the weather and how his health was. Back home he saw to it that his paper The World’s Hope had full copy and came out on time.

Paton had been ordained as a Baptist minister, before switching to Advent Christian, and then had furrowed his own path with Nelson Barbour, CTR, and finally his own independent Universalist ministry. However, he was quite prepared to preach anywhere that would have him. From the diary, he seems to have had most invitations from Baptist and M.E. Churches. As shown by his death certificate he viewed himself throughout his life as a clergyman, a “preacher of the gospel” but with the title “Rev.”

As the Rev. John Paton, he expected financial reimbusement for his efforts. This comes up quite early on in the diary. Visiting Richland on Sunday, January 14, he commented “Preached three times for M.E. minister, morning and night in Richland.” But after listing his sermons - “Rec’d no money.”

Like many of the era, he supplemented his income from preaching and publishing by engaging in some small scale farming. So there are entries like November 26: “cow taken sick.” November 27: “cow suffering.”  November 28: “cow died.” But all was not lost – after preaching at Peck and Yale (north of Detroit) on December 20: “Rec’d $10.25 towards a new cow.”

A few personal details emerge. Paton had been involved in the American Civil war and regularly attended military reunions. One such in the diary was on August 23, 1900, in Detroit. Paton wrote: “Attended reunion of my old regiment and met about 100 of the boys. Aunt Addis went with me on the river with regiment.”

One such reunion four years earlier had been photographed. I am grateful to John Paton Marshall, a great grandson of John H. Paton, who made the photograph available. This one was taken at the Chicamauga and Chattanooga Military Park on September 18, 1895, and shows men of the 22nd Michigan Infantry, Volunteer 1st Division Reserve Corps. The cross at the very bottom of the photograph shows where John Paton is placed, and to his right are two of his brothers, first brother David and then standing to the right of him brother William.

Paton was also a Freemason and on December 3 attended the lodge meeting at Peck and Yale where a new “master” was installed.

Paton’s brief comments shed light on contemporary controversies at times. In the mid 1890s there was interest in the wider Bible Student community in a movement founded by Cyrus Teed, who rebranded himself as a Messiah figure named Koresh, and who founded a commune in Estero, Florida. One of his distinctive beliefs was that the earth was hollow with the sun as a kind of giant battery in the center. There was controversy in Pittsburgh in 1895 when one of the Watch Tower Society directors, Augustus Weimar, among others, defected to what became called Koreshanity. When Koresh died his followers believed he was only in a state of suspended animation, so refused to bury him until the issue was forced by public health officials. His mausoleum on the coast was demolished by a hurricane and his coffin washed out to sea and lost. This bizarre tale and the connection with certain former Watch Tower adherents was discussed in The Watch Tower and the Koreshan Unity if you use the search facility on this blog.

One might have thought that the interest in someone so off-the-wall would have soon petered out in the mid-1890s. But here in Paton’s diary for 1900, in an entry for June 18 from Peck and Yale he showed that many in his circle were also fascinated. Paton simply wrote: “All seem gone on Koresh.” Alas, there is no further comment on the subject.

 

It has been fun checking some of the names, but most have been readers of The World’s Hope or friends and family who do not have any obvious link to Watch Tower history.

One name took some time. On September 1 Paton visited Hattie (Brown) Rice. At the time he was visiting places like Pontiac and Orchard Lake, within striking distance of Detroit.

There was a Hugh Brown Rice who featured in very early Watch Tower magazines at the same time as Paton. It would have been nice to make a connection, but that has not been possible.

Hugh Brown Rice was someone who nearly wrote for Zion’s Watch Tower, but never did. His story is covered in the article H B Rice – an Impecunious Man, which can be found by using the search facility on this blog. Hugh Brown Rice wanted to be an Age to Come evangelist linked to The Restitution paper, but as business ventures failed and his family grew, financial pressures kept thwarting him. He eventually got a “proper job” and by the end of his life ended up quite financially secure.

The only two people named Hattie Brown Rice I could trace were a Hattie Brown who married a Rice, and then as Hattie Brown Rice married again. The other was a Harriett Blanche (with the sobriquet “Hattie Brown”) Rice born in 1872. Neither seems to have any connection with Hugh Brown Rice of fleeting Watch Tower association. But neither do they have any obvious connection wth John Paton.

Tiptoeing onto firmer ground there were two areas he visited where some familiar names from Watch Tower history appear.

There was Chicago where he spoke at meetings at 6006 Green Street over September 18-19. On the 19^th he wrote: “Had good meeting at night. Sister Russell present… Bro. Keith present.”

Taking “Brother Keith” first – Benjamin Wallace Keith had played one key role in what became Watch Tower history. As an associate of Nelson Barbour he had noted that the Emphatic Diaglott rendered the Greek word “parousia” as “presence” rather than “coming.” When brought to Barbour’s attention this was a key factor in the teaching of an invisible second presence for Jesus Christ. Keith supported Barbour and wrote for his magazine and knew CTR well when he came on board. When Barbour and CTR split, Keith supported CTR and the fledgling Zion’s Watch Tower magazine. He was listed on the front page as a regular contributor from its start in July 1879 until early 1881.

When John Paton split from CTR and founded The World’s Hope, Keith chose that path and was often mentioned in its pages. Keith’s story can be found in Separate Identity volume one.

Perhaps of even greater interest is a reference to “Sister Russell.” Was this Maria or someone else of the same name? Paton would have known Maria quite well as he officiated at her wedding to CTR back in 1879. Also Maria would have cause to visit Chicago because her brother Lemuel, a lawyer, lived there. It was to Lemuel in Chicago that she first went when she left CTR in 1897. If this is our Sister Russell, it appears that she still kept in contact with some from the old community and had fellowship with them in 1900.

There are two other references to the name Russell in the diary. From December 14: “Expected to go to Assyria (probably the township in Michigan), but received no reply to my letter to Bro. Russell.”  There seems no way of knowing whether Paton would have written to CTR this long after their parting, or whether this was an unrelated “Brother Russell.” Either way, he didn’t get an answer.

The other reference to the name was in Indianapolis on July 29, Paton wrote: “Did not preach, but visited. Attended meeting of Russell people.” We note that, unlike some visits to Baptist and M.E. Churches, he wasn’t invited to speak on this occasion. But it also shows that long after the original parting of the ways there was still some contact between many individuals.

As well as Chicago there was one other area Paton visited where names from the past appeared. Over July 10-12 he was in Pittsburgh.

On July 10 he wrote: “Saw Mrs Carnahan, Conley & Walshan’s. Staid at Bro. Mann’s.

On July 11 he wrote: “Called at Dr. Buvinger’s and Bro. Englands, & had lunch at Mrs. Buvinger’s.”

On July 12 he left Pittsburgh for Elyria and wrote: “Avis met me at Station…Had evening meeting at Bro. Sherwood’s.”

So on July 10 he saw, among others, Mrs. Conley.  She was the widow of the first Society president, William Henry Conley. Conley had faded from view in the early 1880s and when the Society was incorporated in 1884 was no-where to be seen. He surfaced again with a letter of support over the Conspiracy Exposed and Harvest Siftings issue in 1894. But his religious journey had taken him elsewhere. Paton continued to visit him and in Conley’s obituary published in The World’s Hope for August 1, 1897, stated how “many times during these (more than twenty) years I have shared the hospitality of that the Christian home.” Had Paton not been away on his travels to receive the news too late, he would have attended the funeral. Conley’s obituary in Paton’s magazine was written by W.I. Mann.

So on the same 1900 trip to Pittsburgh, Paton visited Mann as well, and as he put it “staid” with him.

W I Mann as he was in 1900.

(With thanks to Bernhard who supplied the photo)

William Imrie Mann (1844-1930) had been around in the Nelson Barbour days, and when Zion’s Watch Tower started he was listed as contributor in the first issue, the same as Keith (see image above). He compiled a new hymnal for the paper’s readers called Songs of the Bride in 1879. When Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society was incorporated with CTR as president, Mann was vice-president. He resigned as a director in December 1891 and was officially replaced on April 11, 1892.

Like Keith, Mann was mentioned in the pages of Paton’s magazine. After his separation from CTR, he was mentioned in a letter CTR wrote to his wife Maria (Russell vs Russell 1906, exhibit 2, letter to “My Dear Wife” dated July 9, 1896). Here CTR lists some former associates who he now accuses of “evil surmisings and slanders and envy,” Mann is the first name on the list.

Another name from the past from the Pittsburgh trip is Buvinger. On July 11 Paton had “called at Dr. Buvinger’s and had lunch at Mrs Buvinger’s.” Although the name does not occur in Zion’s Watch Tower, the Buvingers were early associates of CTR. The original Dr. Buvinger had written letters to Barbour’s Herald of the Morning and George Storrs’ Bible Examiner, before supporting Paton. He died in 1891 but his widow (Mrs. Buvinger) lived on until 1925.

There is an interesting insight into Paton and the Buvingers in The World’s Hope for February 15, 1892 (I must thank Separate Identity volune one for the reference). The widow Emma Buvinger wrote Paton expressing appreciation for what he taught and how her two sons were now much interested. She asked Paton if she could have a photograph of himself and his wife. Paton offered to sell her one for 25 cents. A choice of three poses was offered.

The final names to consider here are those of Avis Hamlin and a Brother Sherwood.

As noted above, on July 12 Paton left Pittsburgh for Elyria and wrote: “Avis met me at Station…Had evening meeting at Bro. Sherwood’s.” The same names occur later in the year when he again visited Elyria. On October 19 in an entry about reaching Elyria by train: “Avis and Bro. Sherwood met me. Meeting at Sherwood’s.” The next day’s entry noted: “had another meeting at night at Sherwood’s.”

Avis was Avis Hamlin and she is mentioned in Zion’s Watch Tower. In the August 1880 issue CTR wrote that he would be visiting Elyria in his travels and noted that “Elyria meetings are in the charge of Sister Avis Hamlin.” These were meetngs of an independent fellowship because in October of that year Nelson Barbour’s Herald of the Morning announced plans to visit Elyria, “where Avis Hamlin may arrange.” According to the write-up in the November 1880 Herald three of the meetings were held at Avis’ home.

The story of Avis and the house church at the home of her friend (and possible relative, Thomas Sherwood) is told in Separate Identity volume one. She supported Barbour for some years, and hosted a visit of CTR, but ultimately chose John Paton in her later years. She would write a letter of appreciation for Paton’s October 1900 visit which he published in The World’s Hope for January 15, 1901. Thomas Sherwood died in 1902 and although Paton took the funeral and wrote an obituary he did not memtion Avis on that occasion (See The World’s Hope, May 15, 1902).

When Paton was greeted by Avis at the train station in 1900 she was already into her eighties. She soon became the oldest local resident in Elyria and as such became a bit of a celebrity. She featured regularly in snippets in the local paper.

For her 90^th birthday she had her photograph in the paper, and her life story partly told. From the Elyria Republican, February 27, 1908:

On the occasion of her 93^rd birthday, the newspaer reported that she recited a selection of poetry for some of her guests and “sang a little song for a favored few.”

With an election coming up, one of the last stories about her was from The Chronicle-Telegram for November 24, 1911.

The reference to “Lacked the Pants” is linked to an anecdote on why she hadn’t tried one of the new fangled aeroplanes as yet. Avis was determined to vote for women’s suffrage in the next election in February 1912. Sadly she wasn’t to make that date, but died on the last day of December 1911.

Regretably, the relevant issue of Paton’s magazine, The World’s Hope, is not available; but one may assume that he gave Avis an obituary, and may even have traveled to Elyria to conduct her funeral.

She was buried in the family grave of Edith Morehouse in the Ridgelawn Cemetery in Elyria.

A memorial exists, but doesn’t seem to have been photographed, and reportedly is now illegible on two of its four sides. However, the names that survive include those of Avis Hamlin herself (1818-1911), Andrew Morehouse (1840-1883) and Edith Morehouse (1849-1898). Andrew was Avis’ son by her first marriage to Samuel Morehouse, and Edith was Avis’ daughter-in-law. Andrew and Edith’s son, Max Morehouse (1865-1923), a prominent businessman, was a regular visitor to grandmother Avis in her final years.

Paton’s diary ended appropriately on December 31, with just a few brief notes for the first week of January 1901. His final entry for 1900: “This is the last day of the last week of the last .month of the last year of the Nineteenth Century. We sat up to see the New Year in. Good by (sic) 1900.”

As noted at the start of this article, it is a shame that the original is missing, and that diaries for other years do not appear to exist today.