Photodrama memorabilia

A few items from Tom's collection.

Neutralizing a Perceived Subversive Threat

Guest post by Gary

‘Neutralizing a perceived subversive threat': Censorship, threats, persecutions and prosecutions used to keep 'at arm’s length' a peaceable religious community in World War One America

At 3 pm on 24 February 1918, Pastor William A. Baker was due to deliver a Bible lecture entitled "The End of the World, Relation of the World War Thereto" at Grants Pass, Oregon. Accommodation had been booked in advance and advertised several days before in the local press. However, on arriving both the speaker and those invited to attend were surprised to find the doors "nailed up" and their access barred. Baker, a Portland resident small in stature but known to his friends as the “Little Giant," was invited to discuss the matter on the following day and appeared, with a colleague, at the court house before a committee of 30-40 men from the local counsel of defence along with the Mayor, the Sheriff and the Manager of the Opera House he was to use. His introductory 'good morning' greeting met with silence. He was promptly told to answer the following four questions with only a simple yes or no: Are you a member of the Red Cross? Are you a subscriber to the Liberty loan? Have you purchased thrift stamps or savings certificates? Are you wholeheartedly and unreservedly backing the government's war program? To each question he answered 'no', but when he attempted to qualify his answer to the final question, he was told that no debate would be tolerated. He was then instructed to leave the room and a vote was taken to deny him the right to speak at any event locally or to distribute literature in the city. (1)

So, what had led to the cancellation? The local counsel of defence had read newspaper reports concerning actions taken against members of the International Bible Students Association in Canada, which suggested, to their mind at least, that the 'Russellites' - as they were colloquially called in America - would be unsupportive of the war, perhaps disloyal, and even seditious. Consequently, the Ashland Tidings reported on the same incident a few days later using the heading 'Pro German Not Allowed to Lecture'. In many respects this minor episode in the life of an American city in the Great War mirrored the wider attitude of American society toward the Bible Students for the following year. Until it was over, and the national aim achieved, Bible Students such as Baker would barely be tolerated. Even after the conflict, when the attitude of many in society had softened, their reputation remained. It was not hard for Bible Students to contemplate a teaching they had held long before they had become so unpopular: they were "no part of the world" but were, rather, "citizens of a heavenly kingdom". (2)

Three days later the Rogue River Courier reported on its front page of the sudden investigation of the Brooklyn, New York, office of the International Bible Students under the heading 'Government Raids Russell Headquarters', noting that literature had been seized and turned over to the public attorney who was to determine if it was seditious. It commented that the raid was "said to have been made in connection with the arrest recently of followers of the Russell sect in Toronto, Ont., where five persons are on trial with publishing and circulating a book called The Finished Mystery". No mention was made by this issue of the paper regarding the earlier events in Grants Pass, but the connection was made in public consciousness, and for many the earlier decision now appeared justified by reason of the government's more recent action. (3)

By way of protest, a letter from Pearl Easterling, a local Bible Student, appeared in the Ashland Tidings on 4 March 1918 attempting to correct the 'Pro German' headline of a few days earlier. It explained that the Bible Students were not opposing the war measures but, since the US government saw reason to make allowance for those whose conscience didn't allow them to fight, simply making use of this right. It explained that it was "preposterous to suppose that the I.B.S.A. is pro-German when its members first suffered martyrdom at the hands of the German autocracy" where, it claimed, "over one hundred had been shot for their religious convictions." However, the protest fell on deaf ears as increasing newspaper reports appeared, in Oregon and elsewhere, of Bible Students being arrested for distributing literature that was under suspicion. (4) In Medford, Oregon, for instance, a crowd of several hundred threatened violence. George Maynard, whose house was being used as the centre of local Bible Student activity, was seized by a mob who stripped him and "painted a huge iron cross upon his body, giving him until Monday to leave" according to the Laramie, Wyoming, Boomerang, of 15 April 1918. The paper also warned locals of the imminent arrival of a certain Pastor W.A. Baker who was due to speak at the Lyric Theatre. The intention of the article, headed "100 Percent Americans. Awake!", was clear. (5)

"Suppressing one densely packed theological rant"

Bible Students could never be 100% American, and this was a time when anything less just wasn't enough. To many these reports justified the claim that Bible Students were seditious. Besides, even if this had not been the intent of the Bible Students, the increased public attention given to them served notice to any would-be traitors that Uncle Sam was not to be messed with. Religious historian Philip Jenkins noted that the setting involved one publication in particular:

        In 1918, when federal and state authorities were deeply concerned about pro-German subversion and sabotage across the United States, much of their activity focused on suppressing one densely packed theological rant, namely The Finished Mystery. (6)

Indeed it was this Bible Student book which highlighted their premillennialist views and the profound indifference of Bible Students to 'Babylon the Great' and her daughters, the religions of the world which had too often compromised the standards of God in exchange for favors received at the hands of worldly governments. It is usually assumed that The Finished Mystery was an attack on all religions other than Bible Students. It is true that it was highly critical of the role of religion in supporting the war, but not all clergymen were condemned. In fact, it quoted from two at length who were as equally disgusted with those who praised the Prince of Peace on the one hand, while championing the God of war with the other. (7)

The authorities took great exception to pages 247-253, especially the following comment:

Nowhere in the New Testament is patriotism (a narrow minded hatred of other people's) encouraged. Everywhere and always murder in its every firm is forbidden. And yet under the guise of patriotism civil governments of the earth demand of peace-loving men the sacrifice of themselves and their loved ones and the butchery of their fellows, and hail it as a duty demanded by the laws of heaven. (8)

When the US Department of Justice termed distribution of the book a violation of the Espionage Act on 14 March 1918 it started their campaign at "Neutralizing a perceived subversive threat", as Lon Strauss has aptly commented. (9) It only became a matter of time before various states took action against Bible Students responsible for both its publication and distribution. Just three days later at Third Avenue, San Bernardino, California, a small number of believers met in a private house to discuss the Bible. On this evening something unusual happened. A knock was heard on the door and four men outside asked if they could join in with the study. They were welcomed in, given Bibles and joined in the conversation. Afterward, one of the men approached a female believer, Emma J. Martin a 48-year-old widow of a well-known local doctor, to request and receive a copy of The Finished Mystery book. What she did not know was that these men were working as government agents and had deliberately visited to spy on the group. Consequently, the following day she and three others among the group were arrested and imprisoned on charges of sedition. As a Christian, Emma Martin did not believe anything in 1918, a year after the United States entered the war, that she hadn't believed in 1916, a year before America joined the conflict. While she had determined her stand on war sometime before, she had not approached the men intent on converting them to prevent their involvement in the draft. Rather, they had deceptively sought her assistance. (10)

Threats, intimidation and invasion of the home and confiscation of Bible literature, usually at the hands of the American Protective League, became common. For example, on 27 March 1918, at Corpus Christie, Texas, Mrs Clara Hanke was threatened and attacked and her home raided with Bible study textbooks confiscated. On two occasions in the following month the raids were repeated, accompanied by more threats and by the invasion of her bedroom when she was resting on her bed. (11) Similarly, in March 1918, at Alba, Missouri, one hour before midnight the home of 71 year old Mary E. Thayer was invaded without warrant, her person threatened and her effects seized.(12) Likewise, Alta Randall's home at Tulsa, Oklahoma, was entered by officers who confiscated Bible study textbooks without warrant, accompanied by abusive, threatening and violent language. (13)

'Slackers'

Labelling individuals in small close-knit communities aggravated underlying tensions, of course, and it is not hard to understand why many citizens started to avoid Bible Students in case it was somehow thought they supported their views. The social and financial implications of such actions would create further hardship for the businesses, families and individuals involved in an event that foreshadowed the experiences of many Jehovah's Witnesses in America some 21 years later. And yet, as we know, many did face such acrimony. August Swanson, a farmer from Minnesota, recalled visiting Bible Students in Spring 1918:

These friends had refused on religious grounds to support the war in any manner. Consequently, their neighbors and fellow townsmen had begun a boycott against them. They could not buy or sell; they were threatened with mob violence and annoyed in various other ways. In the public square, close to the railway station, had been erected a large monument of concrete, painted yellow. Upon its four sides in large black letters were all their names, with the word “SLACKERS. (14)

Scarred for Life

Being interrogated concerning their beliefs and religious literature by self-appointed citizens with well-intended patriotic sympathies was unpleasant enough, but it pales into insignificance compared to the experience of others. Stanley Young, for instance, a physician's son from Reading, Pennsylvania, was arrested and interrogated by Bureau of Investigation agents for several hours for distributing Bible Student literature. During this a U.S. Attorney threatened that the government would shoot him, while a U.S. Marshall "was toying with his revolver and brandishing his blackjack." After releasing Young on bail, officials continued to harass him, with one individual, possibly an APL agent, assaulting him in a local restaurant. As a result of a concerted campaign, Young eventually suffered a nervous breakdown and confinement in a Harrisburg asylum. Ultimately the government filed no charges against him, but Young recalled that the experience "enlightened me as to the character of some Government employees and the shameful misuse of power given them." (15)

Others faced local vigilante groups. One being John Baltzer Siebenlist of Shattuck, Oklahoma. The Golden Age magazine of 29 September 1920 put the cause of Siebenlist's experience down to the fact he had visited a distribution collection centre to pick up literature for local Bible Students. But this over-simplifies a much more complex issue, as will be explained. There were a number of factors which aroused suspicion in the eyes of local vigilantes and had already thrown Siebenlist to top of their hit list. The first involved nationality. Born 10 July 1888 in Satov, Russia, on the boundary of the German border, Siebenlist immigrated to America with his family twelve years later so that he eventually become a naturalised American. However, while Siebenlist had a name that was obviously German - as is the case for many Americans - he continued to use German as his first language. As such he might easily have been considered an "enemy alien". Secondly, when he signed the draft form on 5 June 1917, he claimed a conscientious objection for religious reasons, stating also that he was an IBSA minister. But the local registrar seemed unconvinced and added a note, "He clerks in grocery practically all the time."(16) This likely triggered local problems for him since, in some people's eyes, it seemed as if he was trying to get a ministerial exemption, when his "real" job was grocery clerk. Thirdly, at school his son Theodore was known to have refused to buy a Red Cross pin as early as September 1917.(17) But the final straw, as far as the locals were concerned, came in 1918 when the Bible Students were perceived to be seditious as a result of The Finished Mystery ban. Retribution followed swiftly. Members of the local council of defence picked up Siebenlist at work and took him to Main Street where they publicly humiliated him by forcing him to stand on a copy of The Finished Mystery, kiss the flag, and swear allegiance to America. (18) But this display of forced loyalty satisfied the vigilantes only temporarily. Since Siebenlist was still a marked man, when he later visited a dispatch depot to collect literature for the local Bible Student class he was again in trouble. Theodore later recalled:

Dad was picked up again and held another three days. This time he was fed very little. His release this time was another story. About midnight three men simulated a jail ‘break-in.’ They put a sack over dad’s head and marched him to the west edge of town barefooted. This was rough terrain and full of sandburs. Here they stripped him to the waist and whipped him with a buggy whip that had a wire at the tip. Then they applied hot tar and feathers, leaving   him for dead. He managed to get up and walk and crawl around town toward the southeast. Then he intended to head north and home. However, a friend of his found him and brought him home. I never saw him that night, but it was a terrible shock to mom, especially with a tiny baby in the house, and Grandma Siebenlist fainted when she saw him. My brother John had been born only a few days before all of this happened. However, mom held up under all the strain very well, never losing sight of Jehovah’s protective power ... Grandma and Aunt Katie, dad’s half-sister, began nursing him back to life. The tar and feathers were imbedded in his flesh; so they used goose grease to heal up the wounds and gradually the tar came off. . . . Dad never saw their faces, but he recognized their voices and knew who his assailants were. He never told them. In fact, it was hard to get him ever to talk about it. Yet, he carried those scars to the grave.” (19)

Perhaps the most notable case of persecution occurred on 30 April 1918 at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, and involved four male Bible Students imprisoned for selling The Kingdom News. Charles Franke, Edward J. French, CB Griffin and 61-year-old WB Duncan were taken from the jail, tarred and feathered, and driven far from town. Duncan was compelled to walk 26 miles to his home and barely recovered, while Griffin was virtually blinded and died from the assault a few months later. A Mrs D. Van Hoeson also had been jailed but appears to have been spared, while at a similar time, in Mammoth Springs, Arkansas, Charles Franke's sister, Minna B. Franke, was mobbed and compelled to close out a $10,000 stock in one day and leave town.(20) It is apparent that some local officials protected Bible Students from vigilante mobs providing sanctuary in local prisons until the fever-pitch mentality passed. Yet, in other cases, these openly encouraged individuals taking the law in their own hands. For instance, The Golden Age also recorded the experience of J. Eagleston, who had been jailed for 15 days in prison tanks, some with no bed or mattresses, insufficient covering or food, before receiving his trial. When the jury disagreed, 5 to 7, the Judge suggested in court that "if there is no law to settle these cases, they will be settled, if it is done by the American people themselves."(21) What did he mean?

Opposition faced by the entire community

All faiths holding traditional pacifist ideals experienced considerable pressure during this time, such as the historic peace churches of the Mennonites, the Society of Friends (Quakers), and the Church of the Brethren (Dunkards). And individuals from newer faiths holding fast to their pacifist convictions included members of the Christadelphians, Churches of Christ, Seventh Day Adventists and the Pentecostalists. But the IBSA appears to have been unique in that it grabbed attention for more than just the conscientious objection of its males of drafted age. These 'new kids on the block', with no earlier peace history to fall back on, experienced opposition affecting all levels of the group, young and old, male and female, from those some might consider 'rank and file' members to several leading directors serving at their Brooklyn headquarters. Ultimately government raids of the premises led to the trial of Joseph Rutherford, the president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the Society’s secretary-treasurer, two co-authors of The Finished Mystery, three other members of the Brooklyn headquarters staff and the Society’s Italian translator, under charges of attempting to cause insubordination and refusal of duty in the armed forces and obstructing the recruiting and enlisting of men for war.(22)

At some public expense, Judge Harland B. Howe from Vermont was transferred in to officiate. His appointment was no accident. Earlier he had presided over the case of The United States v. Clarence H. Waldron, involving a Baptist minister with millenarian beliefs and strong Pentecostal tendencies. Waldron had become unpopular with a section of his congregation who held more traditional views and sought opportunity to alienate him from the community, finding reason in his pacifism to accuse him of attempting to undermine the U.S. government in a time of war. At the trial Judge Howe did not allow testimony regarding the anti-Pentecostal religious prejudice of Waldron’s accusers. As a result, the jury returned a guilty verdict and Howe sentenced Waldron to 15 years in federal prison. (23) It was apparent that something similar was expected of Howe in the Rutherford case, and he did not disappoint. The religious motivation of the Bible Student accusers was ignored and, not surprisingly, the IBSA directors were all found guilty of the charges made, leaving Judge Howe to conclude that that these Bible Students were "A greater danger than a division of the German Army". Consequently, the seven directors each received 20 year sentences to be served at the Atlanta Penitentiary. (24)

Post-war the case was reviewed and recognised as a miscarriage of justice, so enabling Rutherford and his colleagues to be released. In 1919 Judge Ward concluded:

The defendants in this case did not have the temperate and impartial trial to which they were entitled and for that reason the judgment was reversed. (25)

Ironically the original trial and sentence had been heavily reported by the press throughout the United States, including excerpts from the forbidden book, to the extent that "the press did the very thing the Russellites had been sentenced to twenty years for doing, and gave it more publicity than the followers of Russell could possibly have given it."(26) Additionally, the miscarriage of justice supported their Biblical distrust of manmade governments (27) while their imprisonment made martyrs of the IBSA leaders and set their anti-war agenda for the following 100 years, starting with a resolution they sent to the Washington Arms Conference on 27 November 1921 making it clear that IBSA would not be involved in any future war, "in any form."(28) In 1931 they sent a further resolution to numerous world leaders stating that, "our faith forbids ... us from engaging in war or in any other enterprise that would work harm or injury to mankind." It also made rulers aware of the new name they had taken on, "Jehovah's witnesses." (29)

Heads held high above the parapet

By way of a corrective, it should be repeated that Bible Students were not, by any means, the only group treated adversely in war time America. Regular surveillance, bullying, public scorn promoted by newspaper propaganda, vigilantism and occasional mob violence were in no way limited to them. In the prevailing political climate any individual, religious or political, perceived through their actions as not being 100% behind the State initiatives aroused suspicion, especially if they had a German surname or origin and even if they maintained a low profile and displayed care in their speech. But the high profile ministry of active Bible Students, directors and colporteurs in particular, who saw themselves as "ambassadors for Christ", ensured their heads were always held high above the parapet and, in so doing, made them most vulnerable to attack. Given the wartime paranoia, their identification, investigation and persecution became inevitable.

The last word on this subject can be left to William Ray Walker who summed up the situation as follows:

The Justice Department's tenacious pursuit of the Russellites occurred in an environment   where society interpreted even slight deviations as threats to its survival. The government harassed and censured the Russellites for nothing more than expressing and teaching their        religious doctrines. The case never would have progressed in an era when America felt secure within their communities because the Russellite divergence was strictly religious and did not challenge the social, political, or economic status." (30)

References:

(1) Rogue River Courier, 25 February 1918, 1

(2) Ashland Tidings, 28 February 1918, 8. For Bible Students self-perception see John 15:18, John 18:36, Philippians 3:11

(3) Rogue River Courier, 28 February 1918, 1

(4) Ashland Tidings, 4 March 1918, 4

(5) Laramie Boomerang, Wyoming, 15 April 1918

(6) The Great and Holy War, 141

(7) The two, both well-known pacifists, were Charles Edward Jefferson, the pastor of Broadway Tabernacle Church in New York City, and Rev. John Haynes Holmes, of the Church of the Messiah, Park Avenue and 34th Street, New York City. Holmes later became a leading light in the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and took delight in the numerous cases won by Witnesses at the Supreme Court which created precedents and, in so doing, established the civil rights of religious people of all faiths in America during the 1940s and early 1950s

(8) The Finished Mystery, published 1917, 247

(9) A Paranoid State: The American Public, Military Surveillance and the Espionage Act of 1917, submitted to University of Kansas for graduate degree 2012, 75

(10) The New Era Enterprise, Volume 11, No. 13, 13 July 1920, 4. TheGolden Age magazine, 29 September 1920, 717.

(11) The Golden Age, 29 September 1920, 713

(12) Ibid, 716

(13) Ibid

(14) Bible Student News, Summer 1936, Volume 2, No.1

(15) Young to the Attorney General, 5 April 1920. RG 60, Records of the Department of Justice. Quoted in Only the Heretics are Burning: Democracy and Repression in World War I America, William Ray Walker, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2008, 287

(16) Draft registration papers of John Baltzer Siebenlist, dated 5 June 1917

(17) 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, 99-100

(18) Boynton Index, Oklahoma, 3 May 1918, 6

(19) 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, 99-100

(20) The Golden Age, 29 September 1920, 715, 713

(21) The Golden Age, 29 September 1920, 716

(22) Details of the investigation and trial appeared in The Case of the International Bible Students Association, a 4-page tract written in 1919 by Bible Student Ernest Sexton.                           

(23) Espionage in Windsor: Clarence H. Waldron and Patriotism in World War 1, The Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society, Gene Sessions, Summer 1993, vol.61, No. 3

(24) The New York Herald, 22 June 1918, part 2, 5

(25)  Brooklyn Eagle, 15 May 1919, 1

(26) Preachers Present Arms: The Role of the American Churches and Clergy in World Wars I and II, with Some Observations on the War in Vietnam, by Ray H. Abrams, revised 1969, 183
(27) Psalm 146:3, Jeremiah 10:23, Daniel 2:44, Matthew 4:8,9, Revelation 12:9

(28) Resolution reprinted in The Golden Age, 7 December 1921, 138

(29) Watchtower, 15 September 1931, 278-279

(30) Only the Heretics are Burning, 287

"Well we expect to get arrested"; the hounding of widows, mothers, wives and daughters in 1918 America

Guest post by Gary

Previous studies involving the response of early Bible Students to militarism in World War One have usually concentrated efforts on the leading figures of the movement or those who forged a path as conscientious objectors. In both instances the protagonists have been male. However, recent work by Jay Beaman, a sociologist with an interest in ‘Christian Pacifism’ from the Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon, reveals that female Bible Students in the United States played a significant role in promoting a theology which became increasingly unwelcome when the country joined the war. Drawing on his extensive database, Beaman noted that “what was surprising, besides the ability to gather notes on 1,890 persons of the IBSA faith, was the large number of women in the data, and the specific nature of the conflict with the larger society which had placed them in significant peril.”

Using this data, and in response to the recent suggestion by historian Zoe Knox, this article makes a start in enabling these lesser known “voices of ordinary Bible Students who suffered as a consequence of their anti-war convictions” be heard. Their comments are often brief, consisting of those repeatedly followed by Government agents investigating their activities and consequently working to their own agenda.  But their experiences speak loud and clear.

______________________________________________________________

In early April 1918 a Mr Evans entered the Estate Agents office of Cynthia Belle Scott, a 47-year old of Seattle, Washington.  He said he needed a five roomed accommodation to house his family.  While Scott searched for the details, we can imagine him glancing at a headline in a newspaper he holds and expressing some concern at the war and state of the World, perhaps questioning 'where it all is leading to?' As she finds the details he requests, she agrees that these are indeed "'perilous times' just as the Bible foretold" before going on to highlight some good aspect of the house chosen.  At this point, Evans appears to lose interest in the house and asks her what she meant when she said these things were foretold?  Evans listens intently to her reply and occasionally interjects enquiring whether she thinks the war being fought in Europe is wrong, and how she feels about those fighting in it? How does she view President Woodrow Wilson?  What does she think about Patriotism and what will be the fate of America if the Kingdom she predicts comes about?

After the discussion Scott offers a time to show Mr Evans the house but he politely declines.  Despite his seeming interest, Evans never intended to purchase a house but visited with an ulterior motive.  Evans was one of the hundreds of patriotic men and women who had volunteered to police fellow citizens suspected of having pro-German tendencies and who therefore might be considered a threat to national security. He had started to investigate Scott following a tip-off from a local lay preacher named D.H.Mothern. Mothern had reported a conversation he alleged to have had with Scott a few weeks earlier in which, he believed, Scott made seditious statements indicative of her pacifist and pro-German sympathies.  At the time Mothern warned Scott that "you will be liable to get arrested for saying those things", to which Scott surprisingly replied, "Well we expect to get arrested."(1)

Scott's expectation wasn't realised. Unlike Emma Martin, mentioned in an earlier article, she did not get arrested. However, elsewhere throughout the States at this time, other women of like mind and heart and of all ages faced similar challenges. One source alone lists 36 named female adherents involved in incidents. Of these, 7 faced vigilante mob action, 11 experienced house raids and 15 were arrested, of which 10 were imprisoned, the earliest known to have been a Mrs C.L. Knowles, from Bogosha, Oklahoma. (2)  This list also included Fay R. Smith, from Marshfield, Oregon, who as a result of a complaint by two Presbyterians was jailed for twenty-four days and, as a result, lost her employment. 

 

A different story, but also illustrating the effects of prejudice, involved Madeline Clausen, a young daughter working at the French Battery and Carbon Company at Madison, Wisconsin.  Given the alternative to buy a war bond or quit, she chose the latter and subsequently aroused suspicion and investigation, along with her family, for her decision. (3) Being interrogated concerning their beliefs and religious literature by self-appointed citizens with well-intended patriotic sympathies was unpleasant enough, but it pales into insignificance compared to the experience of others who faced not only government agents but also local vigilante groups excited by and working in league with such individuals. Accounts from the period of women being hounded and run out of town occurred in a number of locations.  For instance, at Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, on 30 April 1918 Minna B. Franke was mobbed and compelled to close out a $10,000 stock in one day and leave town. (4) At Fontanelle, Iowa, Etta Van Wagenen was forcibly driven out of town, (5) while at Bandon, Oregon, Edith R. Smith was run out of town with her son Walter, who was in naval uniform at the time having returned home on furlough. (6)

“Distributing Promiscuously”

As can be imagined, if possession of literature connected to the faith of these women was cause for concern, when some started to proselytise and share this literature, alarms bells started ringing.  One incident, amusing in part, involved a report of two young women "distributing promiscuously copies of the Kingdom News" in Fort Worth, Texas.  Government agents had gone to question them only to find that by the time they arrived the suspects had cunningly left the area using a Ford automobile.  The matter was reported to the local Police Chief.  Several police cars were hurriedly dispatched, presumably with sirens blaring, in chase of the women.  The vehicle was intercepted, and the suspects apprehended and taken to the police office. Upon investigation by Police Chief Porter the women were found to be to Lela F. Woodward and Irene Hertzog.  The Police Chief naturally insisted on knowing who had told them to do such a thing in Fort Worth and noted that "these ladies are very smart and attempted to evade guilt by making the statement that the Lord had told them to distribute these papers." Needing to be seen to be firm, he reported that "I reprimanded them very severely in a gentlemanly manner."  In this way, what might otherwise have been seen by some as a couple of housewives on an afternoon jaunt chatting with a few neighbours somehow became the subject of a sinister plot, danger and criminal melodrama. (7)

 

A "very old lady ... not at all vicious"

Another who attracted considerable attention from the authorities was a 76-year-old widow named Sarah Story, apparently a native of Missouri but spending considerable time in Monroe, Louisiana in March 1918.  While here she would chat with local people about the Bible and distribute The Finished Mystery and other IBSA literature with anybody suitably interested.  These books were left with those willing to pay for the cost of publication.  However, Story also generously left the book with any who were interested but unable to pay due to financial hardship. Apprehended on 4 March 1918 the congenial Story explained clearly her opinion that she "could not see any wrong or harm whatsoever in the circulation of this book" and consequently she saw no reason, including the threat of arrest and imprisonment, why she should stop her ministry.  In a scene reminiscent of Miss Marple, confusion reigned as her gentle but assured disposition disarmed the local authorities who seemed unable or unwilling to deal with this out-of-towner who they must have hoped would soon leave them undisturbed. In time she is assumed to have returned to Missouri. But her case rumbled on until March 1919 when the authorities decided that it was unlikely that any jury would ever possibly convict her in a court of law.  The decision not to take further legal action concluded that she was a "very old lady ... not at all vicious" but "a little abnormal in her religious belief."  In fact, she shared the same belief as many other females victimised and intimidated across the United States during this period.  In terms of disposition she was peaceable like others.  Why then let her off?  By this time the war had ended it wouldn't look good to press charges against such a gentle soul who reminded so many of their favourite Auntie. (8)  Having a slightly whacky, but aged, relative was excusable; after all, did not 'Uncle Sam' himself fit just such an image? (9)  It was thought better to simply label Story as well meaning, though somewhat dotty.

Fending off the “'beast of the field' upon whom the wrath of God would surely be visited”

Although lacking the gentle disposition of Story, another aged, but equally resilient, Bible Student was Lula Jackson of Fort Worth, Texas. Her home was visited twice by Sheriff Rodgers to demand surrender of Bible study textbooks. But she apparently rose to the challenge calling him a religious persecutor and “'beast of the field' upon whom the wrath of God would surely be visited” and while she admitted having a copy of The Finished Mystery, she said that “it was her religion and that she defied the whole United States to take it from her." The Sheriff may not have been quite so determined and decided that, in view of the fact she was so old and frail, it was best not to arrest her. (10)

Gertrude Antonette Woodcock Seibert’s attachment to the Bible Students was well known.   An entry from the Woman’s Who’s Who of America says she was an active member of the IBSA and credits her for writing the Daily Heavenly Manna for the Household of Faith, a Bible Student publication offering daily texts on Scriptural themes and various poem books supported by her art works. Seibert was under investigation by a Federal Agent on 10 May 1918 who resided in the same hotel as her in New York to track her movements. He called her “one of the leaders of the above Society,” a term that - had she known it - would have amused her. Bible Students didn’t tend to think in terms of rank and even if some did, she held no presumption to being such and, indeed as the Woman’s Who’s Who of America account stated, she was “opposed to suffrage on scriptural grounds.” (11)

 

But what caused females of all backgrounds and ages to be the focus of such vigilant and even vigilante attention from individuals who in normal circumstances might be considered as paragons of virtue?  Each of these women held one faith in common.  In earlier days the name Millennial Dawnists became common, while critics labelled them 'Russellites' after Charles Taze Russell, the leading figure in the movement. (12) By 1910 they identified themselves as members of the International Bible Students Association, a name they retained until 1931 when they took on the name more familiar to most, Jehovah's Witnesses. (13) Central to Bible Student thinking was the teaching of the Kingdom of God which would bring untold blessings to mankind after a period of considerable distress culminating in the battle of Armageddon.  The thought comes across in the Lord's Prayer which includes reference to "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."  However, the idea finds its roots in Old Testament where Daniel speaks of a time when God would set up a Kingdom that would never be brought to ruin and that would destroy man made governments which have always ultimately disappointed. (Daniel 2:44) The Bible explains these have always fallen short because “it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” successfully. (Jeremiah 10:23). (14) For an authority to hear such words expressed concerning some unexpressed time far off probably isn't unduly worrying, especially when it has no reason to expect its own tenure in government to last beyond the next election. However, based on his understanding of chronology and scripture, since as far back as 1876 Russell had been highlighting the year 1914 (15) as significant, so much so that no Bible Student was surprised when the gunshots of Sarajevo led to World War One. It mattered not to the American government whether Russell's understanding was right or wrong, but at a time when they were mobilising every available citizen to support their "war for righteousness," any political, philosophical or religious elements that taught otherwise were an annoyance they could have done without.

In his first book, The Divine Plan of the Ages, published in 1886, Russell reminded believers that neither Jesus nor the apostles interfered with earthly rulers in any way. "On the contrary, they taught the Church to submit to these powers, even though they often suffered under their abuse of power. They taught the Church to obey the laws, and to respect those in authority because of their office, even if they were not personally worthy of esteem; to pay their appointed taxes, and, except where they conflicted with God's laws (Acts 4:19; 5:29), to offer no resistance to any established law. (Rom. 13:1-7; Matt. 22:21) The Lord Jesus and the apostles and the early Church were all law-abiding, though they were separate from, and took no share in, the governments of this world." (16) As a result, Russell explained that those “who aspire to office in the coming Kingdom of God, should neither covet the honors and the emoluments of office in the kingdoms of this world, nor should they oppose these powers. They are fellow citizens and heirs of the heavenly kingdom (Eph. 2:19), and as such should claim only such rights and privileges under the kingdoms of this world as are accorded to aliens." (17) Considering themselves as aliens and temporary residents in this world, the Bible Students 'otherworldliness' enabled them to give their entire attention and effort to preaching the Kingdom of God. "If this is faithfully done, there will be no time, nor disposition to dabble in the politics of present governments. The Lord had no time for it; the apostles had no time for it; nor have any of the saints who are following their example." (18)

In addition to the avoidance of politics, female Bible Students held to the New Testament understanding of male headship and consequently held no aspirations of holding oversight in the Bible Classes that swiftly arose from Russell's teachings.  However, this is not to say that they served little purpose within the Bible Student movement.  Zion’s Watch Tower of 1881 held the headline "Wanted, 1,000 preachers" and invited committed readers, male and female, to serve as Colporteurs devoting their time to the harvest message at a time when "the opportunity for seeking the prize of the high calling to joint heirship with Christ ... is soon to end." (19) It seems unlikely that Russell's target was quickly met, since many male adherents had business responsibilities and sometimes large families to provide for which kept them busy no matter how zealous they were for their newly acquired faith.  However, female readers of Zion's Watch Tower, especially those middle class, single and without dependent children, had more time, opportunity and often greater zeal than their male counterparts.  Consequently, whereas the nominal churches gave little opportunity for female preaching, the Watch Tower message gave them free reign to express their faith publicly.  Further the non-political emphasis of the Bible Student message kept them focused on religious themes while other capable women of the time were minded toward temperance, prohibition, female suffrage and emancipation.

 

Women who choose the path advocated by Russell, such as Emma Martin, gained a tremendous sense of purpose and satisfaction in their life since in their preaching they considered themselves as serving as "ambassadors for Christ" himself. (20)  Indeed, such a ministry, they believed, was preparing them for their future employment as kings and priests in Christ's heavenly Kingdom. (21) Watch Tower articles were quick to stress that zeal spent in such public ministry was not cause for a Christian to boast, and that none could ever earn their salvation through works, since this was only possible as a result of God's undeserved kindness through Christ. (22) Yet, at the same time it seemed only natural that as spirit begotten Christians these individuals would not want to hide their light under a bushel, but rather would unselfishly share with others the grace they had received.

Consequently, acceptance of Bible Student teachings placed all believers on the margins of American Society. (23)  This was not a difficult place to be before the war, and even during the years 1914 to March 1917 when President Wilson had exhorted Americans to display political neutrality "in word and deed."  But when the nation moved to become an avid war participant from April 1917 onward, this changed everything.  Suddenly, to be on the fringe of American society placed members in an extremely uncomfortable position: one in which they could barely be tolerated. Exempt from this vulnerability, perhaps, was the 48-year-old Colporteur Emma Martin, who had lost in death both her child in 1910 and her husband in 1916.  There seemed little further she could lose through keeping quiet about her faith and, from her perspective, everything she could gain.  For the vast majority, however, life in America, especially in Spring 1918, proved quite an ordeal.  Yet, delicate though it was, their theology had already prepared Bible Students for just such an eventuality, as we shall see.  It was for precisely for this reason that Cynthia Scott had said, "well we expect to be arrested."

But what led to Emma Martin being convicted of sedition while individuals like Cynthia Scott and Sarah Story remained free?  As has been said, sedition - like beauty - often appears to belong in the 'eye of the beholder.'  As is common at times of national crisis, the authorities thought it necessary to make an example of some members of society so as to intimidate and discourage others, while individuals found it useful to prove their Americanism by stigmatising those less committed. The incident involving Martin gave those seeking to find it precisely the opportunity they wanted.  No investigation as to the motive of those reporting Martin's activities was deemed necessary. Unlike Story, Martin was in her late forties and not 76 years old.  While no more determined, perhaps her disposition was deemed belligerent by those in authority, unlike the sweet, but dotty, Story.  In the case of Scott, her investigation did not involve The Finished Mystery book and reached a very different conclusion than was the case with Martin. In compiling his report, Evans also visited and listened to Scott's accuser, Mothern, for over an hour, in fact.  Evan's explained that Mothern was employed as a day watchman at the Meecham-Babcock Shipbuilding Company.  "He is obliged to sit in one place out at the end of a dock, where he commands a good view of the yards and his entire time is spent brooding and suspecting everybody that appears on the horizon. ... He is still labouring under a lot of Stone Age ideas ... and he attempts to enlighten the people.  His main argument over and over was that" people who believed as Scott did "were absolutely wrong because they did not believe as he did ..." (24)

Evans stated that Mothern "was not reporting Mrs Scott for her alleged remarks, which he could not prove, as much as he was attempting to get her under the limelight" for holding the belief she had.  Evans summed up his findings by saying that he found Mrs Scott "very broad minded and entirely in accord with the Government except that their faith could not kill; but would suffer death if called upon to do so. They are being persecuted by people who know nothing of Pastor Russell's work."  Interestingly, Evans went beyond his brief in simply investigating Scott and concluded that he believed that "this entire opposition to the belief of the I.B.S.A. is the direct work of the clergy of Orthodox churches." (25) A similar conclusion was reached in Ray Abram's classic Preachers Present Arms. (26)  It continues to be the explanation of Jehovah’s Witnesses to this day.

References:

(1) IBSA MID-FBI data file 170884

(2) The Golden Age, issue 29 September 1920, 712-717. There can be little doubt that the list included some of the most notorious incidents of IBSA prejudice experienced.  Even so, when compared with Government records now available from World War One involving wholesale spying and investigation of individuals from the group it becomes apparent that, at the time, the IBSA knowledge of such surveillance was limited and that the The Golden Age list represents no more than a snapshot of what was going on.  Indeed, it seems apparent that rather than exaggeration, the faith has under-estimated the extent of its unpopularity during this period and recorded merely the tip of the iceberg.

(3) IBSA MID-FBI data file 204882.My thanks are due to Jay Beaman for drawing attention to these valuable files and his remarkable work.

(4) The Golden Age, issue 29 September 1920, 713

(5) Ibid, 715

(6) Ibid

(7) IBSA Old German Files (OGF), FBI 63296, 1-999, 253

(8) Sources for Story’s account include the National Civil Liberties booklet entitled War Time Prosecutions and Mob Violence, 23, IBSA NARA DC RG60 #114 and various local and national newspapers.

(9) See Christopher Capozzola’s description of James Montgomery Flagg’s iconic image of American government in Uncle Sam Wants You – World War 1 and the Making of the Modern American Citizen, 4-5

(10) FBI OGF 63296, 2nd File, 953

(11) Woman’s Who’s Who of America for 1914-1915. WWI US FBI OGF. Jay Beaman records ID 92625

(12) Jehovah’s Witnesses - Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom (1993), 150

(13) Ibid,151. The name was adopted by resolution at the Columbus International convention on 26 July 1931.

(14) All scriptural quotes are from the King James Version.

(15) Per the article by Russell in October issue of Bible Examiner.

(16) The Divine Plan of the Ages, 266

(17) Ibid

(18) Ibid, 267-268

(19) Zion’s Watch Tower, April 1881, 7 [Reprints, 214]

(20) Quote from 2 Corinthians 5:20

(21) Revelation 5:10, Galatians 3:28

(22) See, for instance, Zion’s Watch Tower November 1884 article entitled ‘Faith and Works.’ 5, Reprints, 688

(23) This is a development of the idea expressed on pages 93 & 94 in Gerhard Besier’s keynote lecture at the 2016 Glasgow conference Faith and the First World War,entitled ‘Harmonizing Conflicting Demands and Emotions – Christian Believers During the First World War’. Besier based his comments on Bible Students in World War One Germany. The idea is also implicit in the title of Emily Baran’s study of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Soviet Union, entitled Dissent on the Margins: How Soviet Jehovah’s Witnesses Defied Communism and Lived to Preach About It.

(24) IBSA MID-FBI data file 17088

(25) Ibid

(26) Preachers Present Arms, 183-184

Who Built the Pyramid?

Edmund Kohler from 1927 newspaper

So who built the pyramid?

No it wasn’t Djoser or Khufu or other ancient Egyptians. We are talking about the pyramid monument that stood for a little over one hundred years on the Watch Tower Society’s plot in United Cemeteries, Ross Township, near Pittsburgh, PA.

From 1905 to 1917 the Watch Tower owned a cemetery company called United Cemeteries. Charles Taze Russell was buried there in November 1916. Most of the 90 acre site was sold at the end of 1917 to the Northside Catholic Cemetery, which adjoined their land. The Society just kept back certain small areas for their own use, the most notable one having a central monument in the middle of the plot. A seven foot high pyramid was erected in early 1920, designed to list the names of all those buried nearby.

When the Bible Students held a convention in Pittsburgh in 1919 some visited the grave and also visited the stoneworks “nearby” to see the pyramid under construction. It was natural that as well as new cemeteries springing up off what was now called Cemetery Lane, some companies would also provide monuments to order. One such company built the pyramid.

It was the Kohler Company, founded by Eugene Adrian Kohler (1865-1922). Eugene was born in Germany, came to America in 1892, was married in 1893, and was finally naturalised as an American citizen in 1917. He and his wife Lena had six children including Edmund Kohler (1894-1971), who joined the family business and eventually took it over. In the 1910 census Eugene is listed as Proprieter, Monumental Works.

Eugene died comparatively young from pulmonary tuberculosis, directly linked to his work as a stone cutter. He was buried in 1922 in the former Northside Catholic Cemetery, now known as the Christ Our Redeemer Catholic Cemetery. But it was Eugene who cut the stones for the pyramid. The monument was hollow, made up of four triangular sides leaning towards each other on a concrete base, with a capstone holding it all together. Originally it contained a casket full of books and documents and photographs as a kind of time capsule of Watch Tower progress and history. Ultimately, this “treasure” would cause the pyramid’s downfall.

While Eugene cut the stones for the pyramid, his son, Edmund, then sandblasted the sides to carve out the names of those buried nearby. When the pyramid was put together in early 1920 there were nine names inscribed over three of the four sides. As it happened, the idea was soon abandoned. More were buried there, in fact today one can safely say that the site is fully used, but no further names were ever added to the monument.

Edmund’s history is summed up in census returns from 1920 through to 1950. In 1920 he is stone cutter (monumental works), 1930 he is letter carver (monument), 1940 he is letter cutter (stone cutting company), and 1950 he is proprieter (monumental business).

On an undated business card the business is described as: Edmund Kohler, Modern Cemetery Memorials.

When he died, his obituary in the Tampa Tribune (Florida), 25 January 1971, stated the company’s title was Memorial Art Works.

In the mid-1960s, Edmund retired and the site was sold to Fred Donatelli Cemetery Memorials. They still operate there. The new company inherited some records from the Kohler business including those relating to the pyramid’s purchase and construction. However, in the early 1990s the Donatelli Company was visited by a representative of the Watch Tower Society, who was given the documents. We can be reasonably certain that the pyramid was broken into in early 1993 and the casket of memorabilia stolen. The edifice was left in a dangerous state, and it may be that the documents were needed to see how best to quickly repair it before a side fell on someone and killed them.

Move forward to recent times. The pyramid was broken into again on several occasions – probably because idiots didn’t realise the contents were long gone. It was patched up from time to time. But in 2020 the capstone disappeared (again) which held it all together. Also this time the cross and crown motifs were badly damaged on all four sides.

What was interesting this time is that someone took a photograph of the revealed space. Someone had written in the cement what appear to be the initials F K and the year 1919. Allowing for cement dust to encroach on this in part, we can reasonably assume that the Initials were E K.

Was that Eugene, or more likely Edmund? Yet again the whole structure was in a dangerous state, and the decision was ultimately taken that enough was enough and it was to be taken down and taken away.

It was finally taken down on September 1, 2021, and now lives on in photographs, as a time capsule of how things once were. What was nice to see is that the nine names on the pyramid sides - that disappeared with it - have been restored on simple stones now placed in the same area.

(With grateful thanks to Corky Donatelli who provided valuable information and sent me on my journey and James S Holmes, Watchtower of Allegheny Historical Tour, for the modern photographs)