Elie Jerville was a French Bible Student who was well-known in his day. A correspondent kindly sent me some material Jerville received between 1909-1914.
He is reportedly mentioned in the
French edition of Watch Tower in July 1910 (attending a meeting) and March 1911
(speaking at the funeral of J B Tillman). There is also a letter from him in
the standard American issue of Watch Tower for June 15, 1916 (reprints page
5915). Under the heading LETTERS FROM FRENCH BRETHREN Jerville wrote:
"In accordance with
the invitation of dear Brother Russell in his wonderful and comforting article
on "Divine Love," published in the last July French TOWER, I am
intending to write to him.
"May the God of all
grace and peace be with each of you in your activity for the Lord's cause, till
by and by above we shall sing an everlasting alleluia to the honor and glory of
our great Creator!
ELIE JERVILLE,
Corporal at Bailleul.--Northern France."
Jerville survived the war, but appears
to have left fellowship with the parent Watch Tower/IBSA after the death of
CTR.
In reverse order below, there is a
letter written by CTR to Jerville in 1914. Dated 22 July 1914, there is an
error in the address, the city is not Rouboix but Roubaix, but the letter
obviously reached its destination.
Prior to this letter, Jerville received
a postcard dated March 23, 1913, which is signed by three names, Weber, Boillet
and Freytag.
Prior to this postcard, Jerville
received a postcard , dated February 6, 1909, signed by (Adolphe) Weber.
I am afraid that I failed all my exams in the French language very many years ago, but some enterprising reader might like to copy the cards, increase their size to make them readable and translate for us.
