Judge Rutherford's grave

While this is way outside the time frame for this blog, a couple of interesting pictures have come to hand, and this is probably the best platform on which to share them, with permission.

CTR was buried at the Society’s own cemetery plot in United Cemeteries, Ross Township, Pittsburgh, in 1916. The 1919 convention report stated that a grave plot had also been put aside on site for J F Rutherford for when the time came.

However, Pittsburgh soon faded into the background in major Society events. By the time JFR died in January 1942, he was spending his time between the Brooklyn N.Y. headquarters, the Staten Island radio station, WBBR, and Beth-Sarim in San Diego, California. He died at Beth-Sarim.

He’d wanted to be buried on the Beth-Sarim property, but that was not to be. The full story can be checked in Consolation magazine for May 27, 1942.

Ultimately he was buried in the Society’s graveyard adjacent to WBBR on Staten Island, New York. The WBBR property, which included dwellings and a small farm as well as the radio transmitter, adjoined the historic Woodrow Road Methodist Church. This had a variety of graveyards surrounding it, some pre-dating the church.

Hayden Covington, in an interview shortly before he died, described how he, along with William and Bonnie Heath, traveled across the United States by train to bring the coffin to New York.

The brief graveside funeral was conducted by Nathan Knorr and was reported in the press:

Source of cutting unknown

The same news story was reproduced in a number of papers including The Carlisle Sentinel (Pennsylvania) for April 27, 1942, and The Los Angeles Times for April 26, 1942. These added an extra section before the last paragraph in the press release above.

“Today’s services were brief. The body was taken in a hearse from a funeral home to the cemetery without cortege. At the cemetery entrance a small group of followers was waiting. They carried the casket from the hearse to the grave.”

The policy at the time was to have no grave markers at all on this site, which had been in use at least since 1932 when Robert J. Martin, a Society director and Factory Overseer, died. This remained the case for JFR. Because of this the place did not receive many visitors. However, that changed slightly in 1950.

In 1950 the Society held the Theocracy Increase Assembly in New York over July 30 – August 6. During that time a series of photographs was issued – possibly as part of a photobook. They appear to have been produced by a private company, from this information stamped on the back of one of them.

Over the assembly period visitors were offered tours of the Brooklyn factory and Bethel Home, as well as the WBBR radio station property with the Society’s cemetery adjacent. The photo series included various assembly scenes, and a visit to Kingdom Farm (where Gilead School was then housed). Many of the scenes look like they may have come from official sources.

However, a visit to J F Rutherford’s grave was included and the “snapshot” nature of the picture suggests this was very unofficial.

Since the whole point about the cemetery was that there were no markers for anyone, we have to accept that these visitors were at the right spot.

Perhaps based on that photograph and the positioning of the tree, at least one visitor to the 1950 assembly had his own photograph taken at the same location.

The WBBR propery was sold in the late 1950s, and the cemetery was last used in the mid-1960s. To replace it, a new cemetery was created at Wallkill. What was called The Watchtower Farms Cemetery had a new policy to provide small grave markers with just the name and dates of the deceased.

In 2015 a visitor took this picture of the Woodrow Road site.

It is interesting to note that of the eight who went to jail together in 1918, six of them (in reality all those who remained in fellowship) continued to work together as one and were ultimately buried together at this location.

With grateful thanks to Tom S., Chris G., Kris M. and Vincent B. for the images.