Chapter from a new book

A recently published book (September 2014) GRAVE MATTERS is a detailed examination of the United Cemeteries in Ross Township, Pittsburgh. It contains a preface, introduction, fifteen chapters and two appendices, with numerous photographs covering well over 100 years of history. Further details are in the post that follows this one. But here is a sample chapter – Chapter 8 – THE PYRAMID.

8. THE PYRAMID

The above photograph from the early 1920s shows CTR’s grave, and then a large pyramid monument further down the hill, which remained in place until 2021. The pyramid was in the center of a special area that still belongs to the Watch Tower Society. In the middle of the photograph are two small grave markers (sadly long gone) for Arabella Mann and Mary Jane Whitehouse, both of whom died before the pyramid was installed. Their graves mark the front edge of the Society’s land. Their names were inscribed on the pyramid, and we will come to their stories in a later chapter. At the bottom of the hill was the cemetery office and superintendent’s house where John Adam Bohnet once lived. As cemetery superintendent he had enjoyed this large house as his home when the Watch Tower Society owned the whole cemetery. In front of the house in the photograph are several large grave markers. As noted earlier, these are not graves, but sample monuments for purchase.

The previous chapter outlined how the cemetery as a whole, including the superintendent’s house, had been sold to the adjoining Northside Catholic cemetery at the end of 1917. At the time the pyramid was installed, United Cemeteries was obviously still a very active concern.

In the 1920 census a family named Schweiger lived in the cemetery house. Frank Schweiger (aged 43 in 1920) was President of United Cemeteries, his brother Matthew (aged 51) was Cemetery Ground Keeper.

Some of the family were still there twenty years later in the 1940 census. Frank was now listed as cemetery foreman. When the family died they were all buried in United Cemeteries.

The next home on the 1920 census schedule was also a cemetery house, housing a family named Brunner. The father Joseph (aged 56) was a gravedigger, his son George (aged 32) a cemetery laborer, another son Aloysius (aged 26) was an undertaker’s chauffeur, and daughter Mary (aged 22) worked as a cemetery office clerk. It was a real family business. There was also a young son, Joseph (aged 14) with as yet no occupation. However, following the trail through the years young Joseph grew up to become Superintendent of the Northside Catholic cemetery in 1954.

Although they were listed next on the 1920 Cemetery Lane census, the paucity of houses strongly suggests the Brunners were further along the road alongside the adjoining Catholic Cemetery. Being much larger than United Cemeteries, it needed a larger staff. The whole family were buried there when the time came.

So although owned by Northside since late 1917, United Cemeteries continued as a separate business for decades.

Returning to the special plot in United Cemeteries that the Watch Tower Society retained, for over one hundred years, the main center of attention was the seven feet high pyramid in the middle of the site. The attention was not always welcomed. There was evidence on one side of the pyramid where something akin to a sledgehammer and a pyramid side once met. The monument was broken into on two known occasions. Following more extensive vandalism in 2020 the decision was eventually taken to have the structure removed. This story, an end of an era, is told in this book in chapter 14.

Here in this chapter we will consider how the whole idea of such a monument ever came about, and how it was executed.

Pyramid symbols were featured in the theology of the Bible Students from the start. The famous Chart of the Ages in Food for Thinking Christians (1881) and then The Divine Plan of the Ages (1886) used the symbol as an illustration of unique persons and groups within each Age, with their different roles and status. In addition, chapter 2 described how the Great Pyramid of Giza was understood to be God’s stone witness, not to replace, but to support scripture. If you were going to have a monument, this was a logical shape to choose in that era. It was not a grave marker, there was nobody buried inside it or beneath it; rather it was a communal monument for the whole site. Much as a war memorial records all the names of those remembered, so the pyramid sides were to record the names of all those buried on site. However, as noted in an earlier chapter, only nine names were ever recorded. We will consider the history of all nine persons in later chapters. But that had been the original intention.

The idea of a pyramid monument on site can be laid at the door of John Adam Bohnet, the cemetery superintendent of United Cemeteries. He suggested it to CTR in 1912. This was observed when the monument was installed. We will come to the account later in this chapter, but it was noted in The New Era Enterprise newspaper for February 10, 1920.

The same account was supported in the official program for the Watch Tower Society’s annual meeting held in Pittsburgh in October 1921. It gave a few more details:

Some have queried Bohnet’s claim of CTR’s approval for his design. Personally, the writer has no reason to doubt Bohnet’s word as such – in his published writings over nearly 30 years he comes over as an honest, sincere man; although the actual size and scale of the project may have grown a bit since CTR’s demise. CTR had requested in his will that his funeral service be very simple and inexpensive; so the finished edifice, even if for all the Bethel family, may have evolved into something a little more elaborate than a passing rough sketch from 1912.

Bible Students received more information about the plans when they attended conventions in Pittsburgh in January 1918 and 1919.

The 15 January 1918 St. Paul Enterprise reported on the convention held over January 2-6, 1918, and noted that “the special monument which has been ordered by the Society [for the cemetery], is not yet completed, so none had the privilege of viewing it.”

By the time of the 1919 convention report (covering 2-5 January 1919) a five foot deep concrete foundation was in place, reinforced with strands of barbed wire, constructed by Bohnet. Visitors were taken to a nearby marble works to see the work in progress. 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. An artist’s impression of the finished production showed a pyramid with open books on its four sides, the pages designed to receive the names of those buried there. These would be headquarters staff (from “Bethel”) and traveling ministers (“Pilgrims”) along with their families. A space for J F Rutherford was already earmarked.

From the 1919 convention report

The 1919 report said they had been trying to obtain the right material for about five years (or since 1914) and the pink granite eventually used came all the way from Marble Falls City in Texas. The idea of trying to source appropriate materials since 1914 has a ring of truth about it because the first Bible Student burial took place on the special section of the Society’s cemetery site in December that year. The deceased, 25 year old Grace Mundy, was buried in one of the four corners of the site. Subsequent burials (apart from CTR’s own) followed this pattern, almost as if they were marking out the extremities of the site and working from the outside inwards when using it.

According to the Donatelli Company which took over the Cemetery Lane site in the 1960s, the original company chosen to build the pyramid 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 Proprietor, Monumental Works, in Cemetery Lane.

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 Cemetery, on Cemetery Lane. But it was Eugene who cut the stones for the pyramid. His son, Edmund, then sandblasted the sides to carve out the names of those buried nearby. 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 proprietor (monumental business).

Picture of Edmund from 1927 newspaper and an undated business card. The business is described as: Edmund Kohler, Modern Cemetery Memorials.

When Edmund 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 another company, Fred Donatelli Cemetery Memorials. As noted above, they still operate there and we will come back to them in chapter 14.

Returning to the artist’s impression in the 1919 convention report, the design was to change slightly in its final execution. However, it had its four sides, each with an open book (a Bible) showing two pages. Each book had spaces for 48 names over the two pages, giving the total of 192 names; that is, if the site had been used as originally intended. Above each book was a cross and crown motif and the inscriptions noted in the Enterprise cutting above.

The four sides leaned toward the center and were anchored in place by a capstone. The edges were all designed to be sealed making a hollow whole.

The installation of the pyramid was completed in time to be given a full write-up in the 20 February 1920 issue of the Enterprise. The front page article was entitled “The Pyramid Monument on the Bethel Burial Lots.”

The account started with some facts and figures about the monument. It was made of Texas red granite that was “extremely hard to cut and is imperishable.” It measured “nine feet at its squared base and seven feet high in the clear from the ground surface.” A headstone for CTR made from Barre granite was shortly to be installed. In the sparsely populated area of the day, the monument was “visible for miles.”

A particular feature was the idea of buried treasure. The Enterprise story related:

“Within the monument is a hollowed stone, which contains a copy of all the Society’s literature, photographs of the Pastor, a copy of the Society’s charter and other data which some day in the not far distant future may perchance come to light, now effectively sealed up.”

Sadly, history would find that “imperishable” and “impregnable” do not mean the same thing.

What happened to it years later is detailed in a later chapter.

The article concluded with a fanciful comment that probably reflected how many people felt at the time:

“The Bethel lot will be sacred in the future when other lots in the place will be forgotten. And who knows the Ancient Worthies may someday stand reverently before the monument with bowed heads and read the names traced thereon!”

In reality, the Ancient Worthies would have had some difficulty. The years were not kind to the pyramid. The red coloration disappeared. The weathering of the monument and the way the light hit it made decipherment difficult. For example, an internet search of memorial inscriptions for this cemetery only yielded about three names for the pyramid as recorded by volunteer transcribers. If you go back to 1967, there was an article by George Swetnam entitled “A Man and His Monument” in the Family Magazine section of the Pittsburgh Press (25 June 1967, page 7). This had a line drawing of the pyramid and the writer listed eight names. But Swetnam was obviously struggling. Writing about CTR, he noted:

Of the seven buried, as he had planned, at least five were Pittsburghers, Arabella Mann, Chester Elledge, Grace Mound, H.L. Addington and Flora Cole. Mary J. Whitehouse and Lorena Russell (no known kin to the Pastor) may have Been but this is uncertain. Addington died youngest at 35, Miss Cole, eldest, at 78.

Grace Mound has to be an error for Grace Mundy. More curious, Swetnam mentions the name of Chester Ellidge. That can only be a drastic misreading for John Coolidge, which is surprising since a proper grave marker still survives on site for him. In the light of subsequent events, it is also unfortunate that Swetnam reminded the world there was something worth stealing inside the pyramid.

If we go right back to the February 1920 Enterprise article, it also lists eight names carved into the pyramid sides, but with the expectation of many more to follow. 

As noted above, in reality there were nine names in total, but that was all. Swetnam missed the name John Perry, and The Enterprise had an editorial glitch, because their missing name, Lorena Russell, was buried there back in December 1915.

Likely for reasons of space, some names on the pyramid sides were abbreviated with just surname and initials. However, the full names of the nine are:

North Face

   Arabella Mann

   Mary Jane Whitehouse

 

South Face

   Charles Taze Russell

   John Milton Coolidge

   (This name was easily missed by visitors because it was nearly at ground level)

 

East Face

   Grace Mundy

   Laurena May Russell

   John Perry

   Henry Lawrence Addington

   Flora Jane Cole

 

West Face

   (No inscriptions)

The next two chapters will discuss what is known about these people, and some have interesting histories and connections. For now we can dispel one potential for speculation: Laurena May Russell was not related to CTR.

However, that was it. For all the hype in the 1919 convention report and the 1920 Enterprise article, all the names were of people who had actually died before the pyramid was erected. No further names were ever added; and only two more interments took place until the 1940s. The site basically was just left fallow. Bible Students who left the Watch Tower Society would hold memorial services at CTR’s grave in conjunction with annual reunion conventions in Pittsburgh, but other visitors would be few. One dryly remarked in a 1929 convention report: “Either the friends have not been dying or the plan has been changed.”

The reason for the project’s abandonment is quite easy to see. When the construction of the monument got underway, J F Rutherford was in prison. Once he was released, the headquarters that had temporarily transferred back to Pittsburgh now returned to their proper home in Brooklyn. Pittsburgh may have been CTR’s original home, but it was no longer the Society’s home. Shipping bodies from Brooklyn all the way to Pittsburgh would be a nine hour rail journey and could be expensive. Also, Pittsburgh was unlikely to be near surviving relatives. The Brooklyn Bethel family soon had other more practical arrangements in New York on Staten Island. It made far better sense for headquarters staff and their families who died to be buried there. We will review these replacement arrangements in Chapter 15.

In addition, the concept of a pyramid as a suitable symbol was dropped by the Society in 1928.

Over the years of virtual disuse, some of the small headstones for others named on the pyramid disappeared; either through wear and tear, vandalism, or even just the encroachment of grass over them. Whatever the reason, only one early stone (apart from CTR’s) survives today. As noted above, it was for John Coolidge. It is a curiosity, because the stated plan was for all the markers (apart from CTR’s) to be of white marble, 12 inches across and 6 inch high, and very close to the ground. The Enterprise newspaper explained:

Early photographs of the markers for Arabella Mann and Mary Jane Whitehouse (below) show this was done, although the stones may have been a little larger to allow the base to be sunk into the ground, rather than just laid flat on the surface.

However, Coolidge’s marker appears to be higher out of the ground.

It may be that the stone for John Coolidge has risen or the earth has sunk in this area over the last hundred years. Because this marker stands out more, maybe that is why it has survived. We will discuss the history of John Coolidge in Chapter 10.

Grave Matters

A new book has recently been published on the United Cemeteries, entitled GRAVE MATTERS. It is 170 pages and fully illustrated.

Some of the research first appeared online over a decade ago. Details of the book can be found on the Lulu site. Just visit Lulu Books, and specify LULU BOOKSTORE. The usual URL is: https://www.lulu.com/shop

Then in the search box type in GRAVE MATTERS. Just be careful because several other writers have used this title, but it should be obvious which one is the history book, with its pale blue cover (above) and description.

The blurb for the book is as follows:

The unusual story of the Watch Tower Society's own graveyard in Ross Township. Originally 90 acres, now just a small area remains associated with Watch Tower, including the grave of Charles Taze Russell. The account includes Russell's funeral, the tale of his sister who is buried alongside him, the Miracle Wheat episode (which was grown on site) and the background of the names engraved on the sides of a pyramid monument in the center of the site until recent years. Also, the strange story of "treasure" buried in the pyramid back in 1920 and what happened to it? Who would have thought that a small piece of land just 64 feet square would provide so much history.

Robison to Weber - 1912

This postcard above is from 1912 and was written in German by Frederick Robison to Adolf Weber during a return trip to America after a tour in Europe. (Image supplied by Franco).

A closer look at the message is below:

 

It reads:

"Lieber Bruder Weber: grüsse aus Irland. Die Reise des Comitees ist jetzt heimwärts gerichtet. Bald sind wir da. Deiner in Christo J.H.Robinson"

English translation:

Dear Brother Weber, greetings from Ireland, the journey of the Committee is now directed homeward, and soon we will be there, Yours in Christ, F H Robison.

(Editorial note: this was the return journey from the tour made by C T Russell and others investigating foreign missions. See Watch Tower for April 15, 1912. Weber had once worked as a gardener for CTR in Pittsburgh, afterward spearheading the work in his native Switzerland and Robison was to be one of the Brooklyn eight imprisoned in 1918.)

 

A Thin Seventh Volume

One edition of Studies in the Scriptures that is particularly collectable is the 7^th volume The Finished Mystery in its printings from 1927 onward. This was much thinner than previous editions, because half of the original contents were now omitted.

The forward in this printing is particularly interesting because it only mentions the work of Pastor Russell and C J Woodworth.

The original full-size 7^th volume not only covered the book of Revelation, as compiled by Clayton J Woodworth, but also the book of Ezekiel as compiled by George H Fisher. Fisher and Woodworth had been long time friends and worked on the project in the first half of 1917. Both were imprisoned as part of the Brooklyn Eight in 1918-1919. However, things changed in the 1920s and Fisher became distanced from the IBSA. (See the letter J F Rutherford wrote him as reproduced in full in the Golden Age for March 25, 1925, page 409.)

Fisher died in July 1926 and The New Era Enterprise carried a brief obituary in its issue for August 1926. His work on Ezekiel was now omitted from the 7^th volume. However, the whole volume was soon to be replaced by five new books - two on Revelation (Light volumes 1 and 2 in 1930) and three on Ezekiel (Vindication, volumes 1-3 in 1931-1932).

Grave Number 2095

 

In 1948 Jimmie Skinner wrote the song Doin’ my Time.

The version I remember from the 1950s went

Doin’ my time

With a ball and chain;

They call you by your number

Not your name.

Someone to whom this ultimately applied was Albert Delmont Jones aka Albert Royal Delmont. His life story has been covered on this blog in the past (for example see - https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2019/11/1-introduction-to-albert-delmont-jones.html) with his work with Charles Taze Russell, his magazines, his marriages, his fraudulant schemes, and ultimately his death alone and in obscurity.

But a little more original source material has to come to light. Hence, Albert’s number. When he died his grave marker had no name – just his number, 2095.

Rewinding slightly – Albert disappears from the 1920 census, although if any other researcher can find him there please do so and enlighten us. Down on his luck with his heady days long behind him he turns up in the 1925 census for Buffalo, New York. A slight malfunction of a pen probably turned an entry for Albert R Delmont into Albert K Delmont, but the age is right.

Albert is living with more than 25 other men as a roomer in three linked dwellings. The head of the family, one Geo Van Nese, calls himself a "hotel proprietor." This appears to be a hostel for single men. Albert, who owns up to being 70 years old, is retired.

At the beginning of February 1929 Albert moved into the New Castle Hospital in Delaware. We know this from his death certificate which is now available on Find a Grave. He died there on May 15, 1930 and the death certificate said he had been there for 1 year, 3 months and 12 days. He had been attended there by a doctor since the end of February 1929 for Chronic Diabetes. Insulin injections transformed the treatment of diabetes in the 1920s and Albert was quite fortunate to live as long as he did, especially after what we might assume as to his lifestyle.

No family details are given on the certificate. Albert was survived by several ex-wives (by my reckoning four) and three adult children. But no-one knew where he was. And no-one cared.

New Castle County Hospital started life as the New Castle County Almshouse in 1885.  It was designed to house people who were generally single, elderly or infirm, and crucially – poor. It was an effort of the state to care for people who had no family to help them, a bit akin to the British workhouse.

A postcard exists showing the building.

The caption reads: New Castle County Hospital and Delaware State Hospital for Insane. Near Wilmington, Del.

The building housing Albert was the one on the left. Why anyone would choose to send such a miserable postcard to anyone else is open to question.

If you lived there, then you died there, and were usually buried in a nearby pauper’s cemetery generally called New Castle County Cemetery in the Woods at Farnworth.

Here is where the numbering system came in. Each grave had a small stone marker about 5 inches square. Each stone had a number. If it had been a bad week for deaths, then once a grave was dug it could have multiple occupants.

The hospital closed down in 1933. The building was eventually destroyed by fire, and it was thought that all records had been lost. However, in recent years the Death Book for 1926–1933 was rediscovered and painstakingly recorded in a database by Professor Kathy Dettwyler of Delaware University. The original register gives us the entry for Albert. Below, courtesy of the Delaware Records Office is his entry. It goes right across a double page.

The right hand page reads:

That this is the right Albert is made clear from the census held earlier in 1930 where Albert was still sufficiently lucid to give his place of birth.

Albert’s stone is not visible today. In the early 1960s the bulk of the cemetery was just covered over to make a ramp for an approach road to the Delaware Memorial Bridge. No records were then extant for those buried there and there was scant concern for the graveyard. Below is a modern photograph showing part of the site where a few stones can still be seen, but the numbers in the photograph show these are quite early ones. Albert is definitely buried under the bulk of the site that disappeared in the 1960s.

Photograph by Hal G. Brown.

There is one quirk of fate to complete this tale. After editing a religious paper in the 1880s, Albert tried his hand again with a political journal in 1900. It was called American Progress.

I make no attempt to understand American politics of this era, and Albert no doubt was a product of his times. However, a clear tenet of his paper was that Negroes should be banned from government.

Careful work by Kathy Dettwyler sifted through all the entries in the New Castle Death Book to reveal that Albert was not alone in grave number 2095. You can now check out the details on Find a Grave.

Here is Albert’s entry.

 But in the same grave, plot number 2095, there is also a child.

No gender is given, and Baby Crompton is stillborn. But the original entry for grave 2095 shows that Baby Crompton, forever sharing Albert’s final resting place under the freeway, is BLACK.

There is a certain irony there.

Ernest Charles Henninges

Great Britain:              1900-1901

Germany:                    1903

Australia:                     1903-1909

Ernest Charles Henninges was born on 12 July, 1871. He became a Bible Student c. 1891. He married Rose Ball on 11 September 1897. He died on 2 February 1939.

He was a Society director from 4 January 1896 to 2 January 1909. During this time he was the secretary/treasurer of the Society on two occasions.

The first occasion was from 13 May 1898 to 12 February 1900. He then traveled to the United Kingdom to organize a branch there. He was in Britain from April 1900 to November 1901 (and can be found in the British census for 1901). Back in the States he again became secretary/treasurer from 2 February 1902 to 24 March 1903. He was then on his travels again, first to organize matters in Elberfeld, Germany, from June to October 1903, and then in Australia, arriving in Melbourne on 10 January 1904. His replacement as a director in January 1909 officially severed his relationship with CTR.

(Below) Group photo from first general convention 1893

(Below) Close up of Rose Ball and Ernest Henninges sitting on the grass in the front row of group photograph

(With grateful thanks to Bernard who supplied most of the dates)

"The Finished Mystery" and "Out of the Mouth of the Dragon."

The most controversial book ever published by the Bible Students was The Finished Mystery, a verse by verse commentary on Revelation and Ezekiel published in 1917. As well as some internal issues, it resulted in key Watch Tower headquarters staff being arrested in 1918, and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment under the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917. It should be noted at the outset, as most readers will already know, those imprisoned were released in 1919 and all charges against them were ultimately dropped.

But it was a testing time, and in dealing with the problems faced on a day by day basis, various editions of The Finished Mystery were produced. This article is going to look at one paragraph in several of them. For the record, in this article the initials JFR refer to the Society’s President, Joseph F Rutherford, and page numbers in brackets refer to specific pages in the trial transcript United States of America vs Joseph F Rutherford and others (1918).

For a fuller description of how the book came to be produced as a proposed seventh volume of the Studies in the Scriptures series, see the following article on Gertrude Seibert.

https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2020/04/1-gertrude-and-finished-mystery.html

The paragraph that caused the controversy was a discussion of Revelation 16:13 with the subheading “Come out of the mouth of the dragon.”

This defined patriotism as murder, “a narrow-minded hatred of other peoples” and “the spirit of the very Devil.”

The United States joined the World War on April 6, 1917, and was appealing to patriotism to recruit its army. Various religious figures supported this and came in for unsparing criticism in The Finished Mystery.

When the government objected to the book, especially pages 247-253 which included the offending paragraph, several steps were taken to calm down the situation. The printers were instructed to stop production (see JFR’s telegram on page 1309) and Bible Students were asked to physically cut out the offending pages from copies offered to the public (see Kingdom News no. 2).

Above is a copy with pages 247-254 excised. Written in pencil along the remaining stub of the pages is “to comply with government requirement.”

Later some replacement pages were printed for readers to fill the gap. Note the message at the top of the page: “These pages are to be inserted in lieu of the original pages 247-254, which were censored.”

The problem passage had now changed “patriotism” to “hatred” as shown below.

This was not the end of the revision because when replacement pages were actually bound back into the book at source, at some point in 1918 the wording changed subtly from “hatred” to “race hatred.”

The term “race hatred” could of course be applied to all sides in a conflict. That this would become the favored text is shown by The Watch Tower for June 1, 1920, which gives a whole five pages of suggested alterations which readers could make in their copies if they chose.

The notice does not reveal what wording was being replaced, whether “hatred” or the original “patriotism.” (There was yet another key variant which we will come to shortly). And even another revision in the final printings in the 1920s.

However, these amendments of 1917 and 1918 did not make the problem go away. In May 1918 eight members of the headquarters staff were arrested and charged with violating the 1917 Espionage Act. Repeatedly throughout the ensuing trial, the original words condemning “patriotism” were to be quoted by the prosecution.

Nonetheless, not all Bible Students appeared to be in full agreement with the original sentiments as expressed. From the trial transcript (page 552) cross examination of George Fisher by Counsel Isaac Oeland:

Q. Did this language meet with your approval that Satan deals with a certain delusion which is best described by the word, patriotism, but which is in reality murder, the spirit of the very devil; did that meet with your full approval?

A. No, sir.

Q. You knew Mr Woodworth had written that?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. You knew it was to be published and circulated in a book that you had helped to produce?

A. Yes, sir.

Q. And that you did not agree with it?

A. I did not agree with that because my conception of patriotism does not agree with that.

Fisher was still sent down with the other defendants, but would later leave fellowship with defendants Woodworth and Rutherford before his death in 1926.

There is one more element to the story, with yet another version of the offending passages.  In early 1918 a new version was proposed called the ZG. This was planned as a magazine edition of the book, as other volumes had been before. ZA for example was volume one, The Divine Plan of the Ages. G was the 7^th letter of the alphabet so the 7^th volume. This is highly collectable today and throws up some interesting questions.

It was dated March 1, 1918, but never released then. When instructions were given to remove pages from the 1917 book edition, Bible Students were also instructed NOT to circulate this magazine copy, and an alternative March 1, 1918, issue of The Watch Tower was published in its place. The September 15, 1918, Watch Tower reminded Bible Students not to circulate the ZG and referred back to an earlier notification given in the March.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose book on page 90 says that ZG had been printed before the war. For America that would have to be before April 6, 1917. If correct, that would make ZG the first edition, because the trial transcript reveals that the hardback edition was first printed in July 1917. It had mainly been written before the war started (JFR’s testimony on page 974) – that was a key point of the Society’s defense – apart from a few additions including a poem written by Gertrude Seibert (GWS) at the end of the Song of Solomon section and dated June 27, 1917. However, the contract with the Conkey Company for the first edition was only finalised at the end of June 1917 (page 1172) and then very quickly indeed the book was printed in the first half of July to be released at the Bethel on July 17. This was after America entered the war.

However, while the bulk of it was certainly written prior to America entering the war (which is the key point, as claimed in the WT for March 1, 1918 (article ‘Religious Intolerance’), the actual printing of ZG may have come later. The Divine Purpose book perhaps meant “written” rather than “printed” and the comment was never subsequently repeated.  As an indication of a later printing date, we have the date of March 1, 1918 on it. How much before intended publication was that decision taken? Also, on the actual Watch Tower cover of extant copies there was a message to send copies to soliders and sailors serving at the front once readers had finished with them. For this to make sense there would have to be Americans actually serving at the front at the time.

In reality it is a moot point, because as noted earlier the publication was pulled and the general issue of ZG did not see the light of day until 1920. (See The Watch Tower for July 1, 1920, page 199). At that time some copies had the original Watch Tower cover with the above message removed and a green title cover added in its place. (See Letter of Instruction to Directors in Bulletin for May 1, 1921). It should be noted that there was no mention of the ZG in the trial, which only focussed on the first edition, and continually kept quoting from that specific passage condemning patriotism. The trial had a lengthy examination and cross-examination of the manager of the Conkey Company who printed the hardback edition. Had ZG been in circulation it would have likely been used by the defense, because the offending passage about patriotism had not just been torn out, the text had been altered with a critical variant.

The change is most interesting, and would fit a publication intended for American soldiers. Instead of an attack on “patriotism” the ZG version substituted “Germany autocracy” and condemned German “human butchery.”

Other changes in this special edition were the removal of the verse by verse consideration of Song of Solomon along with Gertrude Seibert’s poem and the addition of a chapter taking readers verse by verse through the world powers of Daniel 7.

I am grateful to correspondent Gary who has put together information to suggest that the ZG edition, while mainly written before the war – which is not disputed – may have been printed in a very small window in March 1918. His words are printed in red.

Fred H. Robison was sent to visit Secretary of War Newton Baker on March 5, 1918, to see how their sudden objection to the publication could be resolved, He was intercepted en route by MID (military) agents who interrogated him instead and so he never got to see Baker. These quizzed him on the FM and he repeated that it had been completed prior to April 6, 1917. However, he was forced to back down when it was pointed out to him that it could not all have been completed prior to this time since the book included reference to seven billion dollars appropriated by Congress for the war; so, Robison acknowledged he must have been mistaken.

This ties in with Gertrude Seibert’s poem “written expressly for The Finished Mystery” being dated June 25, 1917, so it is evident that while, no doubt, most of the book was written prior to America’s entry into the war, some snippets was added after.

Robison never got to reach Newton Baker but took advice from those he met that “there was no disposition on the part of the Government (to) interfere with our work in general and that if pages 246-253, inclusive, were removed, there would be no known objection to the volume.” As a consequence, it is reasonable to conclude it was very shortly afterward that the the special ZG Watch Tower edition was printed.  As noted it adjusts the reference to patriotism and excludes the relevant passages from pages 247-253 which were largely quotes from two pacifist ministers. This strongly suggests its writing, printing and distribution to IBSA colporteurs and classes occurred almost immediately after Robison’s Washington episode on March 5, 1918, but prior to the Department of Justice banning distribution of the FM, in any form, as a violation of the Espionage Act just nine days later on March 14, 1918. The IBSA then immediately instructed colporteurs and class Secretaries to desist from selling the FM books and hold on to copies of the special ZG Watch Tower edition.

Thereafter, a belated normal edition of the Watch Tower dated March 1, 1918, was swiftly completed and sent out instead, but the fact that this was completed after the publication date is itself apparent since it makes reference to Woodward and Herr being arrested on March 4, Robison’s visit to Washington and then the banning of the book on March 14.

After the war the Brooklyn Eight were all released from prison and shortly thereafter all charges were dropped. Eventually the original text of the book was restored. Examining the 1924 boxed deluxe edition and also one of the final printings in 1927 (the 2,004,000 edition) it is noted that criticisms of “hatred” or “race hatred” or “German autocracy” had all disappeared. “Patriotism” was restored.

The book went out of print towards the end of the 1920s. A new explanation of Revelation and Ezekiel was to be given in Light (two books on Revelation in 1930) and Vindication (three books on Ezekiel in 1931-1932).