This
is the story of one of the key resources for researching Watch Tower history in
the last years of Pastor Russell and the first few years of Judge Rutherford’s
presidency. It is not the history of doctrine and belief – that is well
established in the various publications of the Society over the years – but the
day by day history of the actual Bible Students, over a more than ten year
period.
The
resource is a newspaper called originally the St. Paul Enterprise (and later
The New Era Enterprise). For convenience we will normally just call it the Enterprise in this article. It ran from
1910 until around 1928, but the period from 1914 to 1922 was the most productive
for Watch Tower history. It disappeared from general view for many years, but a
local history association in St. Paul put surviving copies on microfilm and
this has made it more accessible for those interested.
The background
The Enterprise started life as a local
secular newspaper for the St. Paul area in Minnesota in 1910. It was the
brainchild of William Lincoln Abbott (1868-1917).
Abbott
came from a newspaper family, and had a long-standing printing business in St.
Paul. The paper covered local news and local politics and was similar to hundreds
of different small news outlets that came and went throughout America.
The
Bible Students were anxious to get CTR’s sermons into as many papers as
possible, and a Bible Student syndicate was created to do this. Sample sermons
were sent unsolicited to papers, with an offer to provide them on a regular
basis without charge. By 1913 there were reported to be over two thousand
newspapers handling this material.
When a
sample sermon on the subject of Armageddon landed on the Enterprise desk in late 1912 it was in the middle of a local political
campaign. Abbott was campaigning for Woodrow Wilson and the Democratic Party at
the time. A rival candidate, former president Theodore Roosevelt for the
Progressive Party had the slogan “We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the
Lord.” Abbott mistakenly assumed CTR’s copy was a political swipe at Roosevelt
and it was swept up and printed without him even reading it.
From the Enterprise for Friday, November 1, 1912
The
error was soon noted, not least by “a number of clergymen” who protested its
inclusion.
The
story was told a number of times. The cutting below comes from the Enterprise for November 21, 1916, as
part of the Memorial number for CTR who had died three weeks before, when they
reprinted that first sermon on Armageddon.
As
indicated in the above report, it was time to enter stage left, one Charles L.
Dick (1876-1946). Dick was a member of
the local class of the International Bible Students and he asked for the
sermons to be included on a regular basis in the Enterprise.
The
businessman in Abbott set Dick a challenge.
Get the Enterprise a hundred
more subscribers and he would run the sermons for a year. Dick immediately got
to work.
From a
later account in the November 10, 1917, paper, written by W H Bradford:
Returning
to these events back in November 1912, the paper on November 22 (and for
several issues thereafter) carried the following notice:
Although
there were clergy objections, the correspondence columns were soon filled with
Bible Students enthusing about the sermons. As an example, the December 27, 1912,
issue carried long letters from two local Bible Students, W H Bradford and L J
Lundgren.
Both
men would later serve as editors of the paper.
The
result was that the sermons appeared each week, and also news of Bible Student
activities. What cemented the relationship and ultimately set the Enterprise apart from hundreds of
similar broadsheets was that gradually the owner/editor William Abbott became
interested in the Bible Student message. Going back to the November 21, 1916, account
quoted earlier, it said of Abbott:
William
Abbott was baptised into the faith in October 1915.
One
might imagine that Abbott’s conversion and the paper’s change of focus would be
welcomed by many, and no doubt it was. However, there were problems from two
sources.
First,
there were those who had seen their secular paper taken over by Bible Students.
In the
July 25, 1916, paper, Abbott wrote:
Then
there were Bible Students who were concerned about the influence the Enterprise might have as a rival to The Watch
Tower, with Abbott’s “newly converted” status. In the same July 25, 1916,
article, he tried to reassure them:
The
seeds for future problems after CTR died just three months later are clearly
seen in Abbott’s comments here.
The
paper constantly tried to reassure its readers that it was not in competition
with The Watch Tower; its pages were for sermons from accepted sources, and
testimonies and news of general interest to Bible Students.
A letter
from CTR dated May 22, 1913, gave tacit support and was reprinted more than
once, signed “Your well-wisher.” A
letter from the Pastor Russell lecture bureau dated 24 November 24, 1914, was
reproduced in the paper for December 11, 1914:
By
1915 it was admitted that the paper could no longer survive without Bible
Student subscribers and there were several campaigns, aided by some pilgrims,
to gain more readers. (See for example Abbott’s article about the Chicago City
Temple in the February 26, 1915, issue). The die was cast. There was no turning
back.
What was on the menu?
The Enterprise particularly scored as a
beacon for scattered believers who had no regular class to associate with. As
well as reviews of conventions and selected sermons, a key feature was the
correspondence columns. Voices of the
People. What Our Readers Say was rebranded for a while as The Weekly Testimony and Fellowship page.
People’s
testimonies and also obituaries provide us today with a remarkable insight into
the past, taking us back to the very early days of the Bible Student movement.
As just one example, although actually in another part of the paper, the 1922
Cedar Point, Ohio, convention review, included an interview with a Thomas
Hickey. Thomas had been part of CTR’s original Bible Study group back in
Pittsburgh in the 1870’s.
The
letters and contributions came from not just far-flung parts of America, but
other countries too. Frederick Lardent became British correspondent and agent
for the paper. Collectors of motto cards will know his name well. The
international readership made the local title St. Paul Enterprise an anachronism and from December 1919 it became
The New Era Enterprise for the rest
of its history.
CTR
was attacked frequently on both a personal and theological level in the
religious press of the day, and the Enterprise
took it upon itself to jump to his defense. A special 8 page issue published on
November 6, 1914, is of particular value and was reprinted. It prompted the
Lecture Bureau’s response above.
Other
special issues included a very detailed funeral report for CTR. Abbott attended
the funeral, and was asked not to report any details before The Watch Tower did. He had differences
with certain long-time Bible Students and wrote a series of very candid letters
back to his wife in St. Paul. She promptly published them in the Enterprise which came out before The Watch Tower. Abbott’s funeral
letters covered all manner of details not found elsewhere, including Maria Russell
in the funeral procession.
Further
notable issues included the serialisation of the Rutherford-Troy debate, the reports
from the various Cedar Point conventions, and a detailed reporting on the
arrest and subsequent sentencing of JFR and his seven companions in 1918.
During those difficult times the paper chose its words very carefully, but kept
readers informed right through to their release and the charges being finally dropped.
While The Watch Tower gave readers
articles on “the message” and “the signs of the times,” for actual NEWS of what
was going on - this is where the Enterprise
scored. And for historians, it is where it scores today.
We
could add reports on conscientous objectors, past conversations with people
like Benjamin Wilson of the Diaglott,
advertisements for dubious health remedies, “situations wanted” and selling off
old magazines and films. Various extra publications were advertised in spite of
cautions expressed, particularly after CTR’s death. These included Frederick
Lardent’s Comforted of God and Call of the Bride, W H Bradford’s The Rich Young Man whom Jesus Loved, Horace
E Hollister’s Cryptology of the Kingdom,
‘Dorcas’ The Faith, and perhaps most
well known, The School of the Prophets,
a manual for public speaking written by J C Lardent (brother of Fred) and C E
Stewart (then editor of the paper).
A
letter has survived from the Enterprise
editor to the Library of Congress to get The
School of the Prophets copyrighted.
Courtesy of the Robert R. collection
From 1917, the defections from the
IBSA were sometimes covered, but the paper’s stance was firmly on the Watch
Tower Society’s side, and urged its readers to vote in their recommendations as
Society directors. J A Bohnet in particular took it on himself to attack and
debate with the breakaway Standfast movement, which seems to have exercised Enterprise minds considerably at the
time. The Standfasters were mentioned in passing in JFR’s resolution announcing
the new name “Jehovah’s Witnesses” in 1931 although by that time they had basically
disintegrated.
Bohnet
was always an entertaining contributor. He wrote about everything from how to
clean wallpaper, to promoting a cancer cure mentioned in earlier Watch Tower magazines, to fanciful
theories about the Garden of Eden – maybe Enoch was ensconced there and would
throw an apple at any plane flying over that part of Armenia…
Others
contributors included Albert Franz, who had a regular column at one point. He
was an older brother of Frederick Franz, a later Society president.
Changing times
The
first editor was the paper’s founder, William Abbott. On occasion he was
assisted by local Bible Student, William Henry Bradford (b. 1872). Bradford
stepped in as acting editor for a number of weeks during 1915 and wrote
extensively for the paper.
But in
early 1917, quite unexpectedly, William Abbott died. His funeral was conducted
by Charles Dick. His widow, Laura Mary (May), who
was always billed as Mrs W L Abbott (1874-1950), continued the paper, and in
the circumstances made a very good job of it. But then, starting in February
1918, the paper gained a new editor, Charles Edwin (Ed) Stewart (1873-1949). May
Abbott was to remain as proprietor of the paper until September 1921 when she
sold the printing business to a neighboring printer. Stewart inherited the
mailing list and some equipment to continue the work. His tenure produced a period of
stability for the paper with clear goals and limits, which lasted nearly four
years.
From the June 27, 1921,
issue, the business heading had Stewart as editor and J L Albright as business
manager. When L J Lundgren replaced Stewart in December 1922, Albright
continued in that role.
Ed Stewart had gained
some previous newspaper experience as a press agent during the 1913
transcontinental tour with CTR. He had also written letters and articles for
the Enterprise, and was quite
well-known before being invited to take the post.
His abilities and also
his loyalty to the Watch Tower Society had been noted. Not only did it get him
the job at the Enterprise, but his
continued record as editor was responsible for him moving on at the end of
1922. He was invited by the Watch Tower Society’s president, J F
Rutherford, to come to Brooklyn to assist Clayton J Woodworth with The Golden Age magazine that had started
in 1919.
The details are revealed in a letter Woodworth wrote to Stewart, dated December 25, 1922:
Courtesy of the Robert R. collection
The remainder of the letter was designed to set Stewart’s mind at rest about coming to Bethel, and the dangers of pride in the editorial departments. Robison’s story (the man Stewart replaced) is told here:
https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-watchtower-and-universalism-almont.html
Woodworth ended his letter:
It is
noted in the letter that Woodworth, Rutherford and Stewart all met up at the
1922 Cedar Point convention. The Enterprise
covered it extensively and Stewart made a very good impression. It is also
noted that “the boy” might go with him. This would be his son Ned, who would
have been about eighteen years old at the time. (Full name: Clifford Edwin
Stewart, 1906-1982). However, Ned’s life story sent to the Watch Tower Society in
1951 omits any mention of him going with his father.
Charles
Stewart (Ed) appeared as assistant editor in The Golden Age from the February 4, 1923 issue. Then, after over a
year on The Golden Age, he received
the following letter (reproduced from his son’s 1951 history.
March 19, 1924
Mr C E Stewart, Office
“The Editorial Committee at a meeting last evening
unanimously elected you as a member of that committee to fill the vacancy. We
hope that you will be pleased to accept the place, believing it is a favor from
the Lord to be one of the editors of THE WATCH TOWER."
Stewart’s
name first appeared as part of the editorial committee in The Watch Tower for April 15, 1924, replacing that of George
Fisher. However, in 1926 he re-located back to the St. Paul area, most likely
to care for family responsibilities. It is noted in his son’s 1951 memoir that
he (the son) became “seriously ill” in that year, and took several years to
recover. Back home, Charles Stewart appeared in the Enterprise as a pilgrim and convention speaker and remained a
dedicated Jehovah’s Witness until his death in 1949.
Decline and Fall
As the 1920s progressed, the importance of the
Enterprise declined. The Golden
Age magazine mentioned above took over certain aspects that the Enterprise previously filled. Key
writers like Bohnet basically switched to writing for The Golden Age instead. The Watch Tower Society became increasingly
cautious about other regular publications, especially as there were several
opposition papers in circulation by the mid-1920’s.
As
noted above, once Stewart moved on in 1922, another local Bible Student, Louis
J Lundgren (1871-1959) became editor for the Enterprise. It was here that problems between the paper and the
Watch Tower Society surfaced. Looking at it today, Lundgren started to publish
material that the Society would no longer have touched; such as carrying
advertising for the Concordant Bible
translation in 1923. But the catalyst was an issue relating to events in 1924,
although it did not become public until 1925.
The story was told by J F Rutherford in The Golden Age magazine for December 2, 1925.
In the
1920’s JFR gave a series of lectures at large conventions that were widely
reported. In August 1924 at Columbus, Ohio, the subject was “Civilization
Doomed.”The Enterprise had loudly
proclaimed that it would always print Rutherford’s lectures in full but then
censored this one considerably. A total eleven paragraphs hit the cutting room
floor. What made it worse was that a normal secular paper The Ohio State Journal quite happily printed the lecture in full.
Rutherford was obviously not seeing the Enterprise
by this time because it was over a year before it was brought to his attention,
and he wrote a three page broadside.
He
summed up the background:
Rutherford
then reprinted the eleven missing paragraphs, and noted that the editor of the Enterprise had been soliciting
subscriptions for the paper at IBSA conventions on “the pretense of publishing
the truth.” It had deliberately deleted material “referring to the Devil’s
organization, and that was done for fear of losing worldly support.” He praised
the honor and courage of The Ohio State
Journal in contrast and concluded:
As one
might expect, such a criticism provoked an immediate response from the Enterprise. But it wasn’t designed to
build bridges. In the December 22, 1925, issue Lundgren headed his rejoinder
“Peace and Good Will versus Discord and Intolerance.” As he saw it, his was the
side of “Peace and Goodwill.” The Golden
Age article was a malicious attack using the recognised tools of the
adversary. But never mind, because (quote) “THE ENTERPRISE will continue as
before with its cheering message of love and with a wholesome smile on every
page…”
A more
conciliatory tone was taken in a letter from Albert Franz in the same issue,
which attempted to explain how the unfortunate problem had come about. Franz
argued that it wasn’t just The Enterprise
soliciting for subscriptions at conventions; other papers were doing the same, even
though their promises of printing Watch Tower material were hollow. Of course,
what singled out the Enterprise in
that company was its exclusive claim to represent “the truth.”
In the
next issue, January 5, 1926, the correspondence section was larger than usual
and brimming full of testimonials, although no-one mentioned the elephant in
the room.
There
was obvious fall-out.
Shortly
afterwards long-time business manager Albright disappeared from the paper,
although Lundgren continued as editor. Regular contributors like Franz also
disappeared, for a while at least. Then in June 1926 the bi-weekly paper was
reduced to a monthly. It appeared that the
writing was on the wall.
There
was a certain recovery in 1927. Lundgren departed early in the year, to be
replaced as editor by another St. Paul Bible Student, Albert F Lawrence (b.
c.1894). Research reveals that Albert F was May Abbott’s brother, and was
connected to the same printing business his brother-in-law William L Abbott
started. Albert Franz started to reappear in the Enterprise, notably in an article on the pagan origin of Christmas
in the December 1927 issue. J A Bohnet, while still concentrating on The Golden Age and writing letters to The Watch Tower, also came back briefly
to correct information on Pastor Russell’s history and then to write his own
father’s obituary in May 1927. And in August 1927 Judge Rutherford’s convention
lecture “Freedom for the Peoples” was printed – uncensored one assumes - with
or without permission.
The
last issue of 1927, December, was an eight page special, reprinting a 1926
Bible Student debate. It also announced that a steady increase in subscriptions
meant they could go to a semi-monthly paper from mid-January 1928, with no
increase in subscription costs.
It all
looked good, but it wasn’t to last. With a more secular content than before,
the Enterprise soldiered on until the
issue for May 1, 1928, and then disappeared. The Minnesota Historical Society’s
micofilmed collection gives no clue as to what happened then. Some library
records suggest it may have existed until 1930, but they are in error. The
epitaph to the Enterprise was
fittingly written by former editor C E Stewart (now back in the St. Paul area)
and appeared just over a year after the final known issue of the paper in The Golden Age for July 10, 1929.
P. S. L. Johnson, dated July 14, 1916, in his 10th volume (p. 36) wrote critically about this magazine:
ReplyDelete"Bro. Russell and J. discuss the busybodying of the St. Paul Enterprise in the general work". (From Benek)
Thanks for a well researched article. A few familiar names from our theocratic history. I still have a few years of these papers as .pdf files (1919 - 1921) although I admit I have not read them all.
ReplyDeleteAbbott was scheduled to be the speaker at Russell's funeral. Twenty were appointed, but for some reasons it was considered prudent to reduce the number of speakers (see The Watchtower December 1, 1916 p. 6000 [reprint]). Abbott was now among three people who did not deliver the funeral eulogy. (From Benek).
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