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.

The Brooklyn Eagle gets it wrong again

From The Brooklyn Daily Eagle for Sunday, June 23, 1918.

A prominent enemy of the Bible Student movement, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper had this top of the page feature in June, 1918. Modern analysis would describe this as somewhere between “a tad premature” and “spectacularly wrong.”

The Scrap Iron business

There is an interesting swipe at CTR in Nelson Barbour’s Herald magazine for May 1880, page 72. It was one of many, and one must remember that readers of the Herald were also receiving Zion’s Watch Tower at this same time. Barbour’s comment is typical of him –

Transcribed, it reads:

“Perhaps C T Russell could write some well digested matter if he had less money and more time. He is certainly an intelligent and first-class business man, or he could not successfully carry on the iron trade, run three gentlemen’s furnishing stores, lecture on Sunday, and run a theological paper. And under all the circumstances, even if what he writes is not very Scriptural, I think he shows great diversity of talent.”

But it raises a question. “Carry on the iron trade.” What was that?

I am very grateful to Separate Identity volume one by Schulz and de Vienne for supplying the answer. From page 51 of my edition:

“Thurston’s Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny City for 1879-1880 shows Joseph Russell as one of the principals of the firm Russell & Thomas, a scrap iron business located at Duquesne Way and Fourth. The Thomas of this partnership was N. M. Thomas. Active management of this business fell to C. T. Russell, who was junior partner in the venture. A business report says they generated between seventy-five and one hundred thousand dollars in trade annually…This business disappears from the record about 1881 with the dissolution of the partnership. J. L. Russell then formed in partnership with C. G. Redrup the Pittsburgh Scrap Metal Co. Ltd., dealing in scrap metal and used machinery.”

A Bible House photograph

 Most readers will be familiar with the photograph of the Bible House family, taken outside the building, and generally dated to around 1907.

In fairly recent times another picture has been discovered, taken inside the building. This interior shot below was taken around the same time because it includes many of the same people.

The picture comes from a photo book that once belonged to Rose Leffler Hirsh (1877-1984). Rose Leffler married Robert Hirsh in 1915. The marriage took place at the Brooklyn Tabernacle and was conducted by CTR. Robert as a single man is there in both the above photographs.

The interior photograph was taken in the Bible House parlor. Below is a colorized photograph of the parlor.

Below again (and with grateful thanks to Bernhard) is the new group photograph also colorized and with the names of the people, where known, added below. (You may have to click on the photograph to enlarge it to see all the details).

1.           Frederick W Williamson

2.           Frederick L Scheerer

3.           Robert H Hirsh

4.           George C Garman

5.           Carl E Franklin

6.           Elizabeth Williamson

7.           Susan S Nation

8.           Jesse G Herr

9.           Sr. Patton

10.       L S Lewis

11.       Emma L Hamilton

12.       Francis Winton

13.       Alice E Bourquin

14.       Unknown

15.       Morgan T Lewis

16.       Gabriella Logan

17.       Frank A Hall

18.       Clara A Taylor

19.       Hattie S Williamson

20.       Laura Whitehouse

21.       Albert E Williamson

22.       Unknown

23.       Elizabeth M Nation

24.       Almeta M Nation

25.       Isaac F Hoskins

We can also date the photograph to around 1907 because the group includes Francis Winton (12). Francis died on 11 January 1908, sadly on the day after his wife’s funeral. Susan Winter is not in the parlor picture, but she is there in the exterior one, sitting in the front row with her husband.

Francis had an interesting history. From the Pittsburgh Press obituary column for January 13, 1908:

The death certificate for Francis:

Both Francis and Susan gave their address as the Bible House. Both deaths were reported by A E Williamson of the Bible House. Both were interred in the United Cemeteries, owned by the Society, but this pre-dated the special section created for full-time workers, where CTR was ultimately buried.

Addenda

The Bible House photographs were issued as a postcard set of sixteen cards (but not with the picture that forms the basis of this article). With grateful thanks to Andrew F for the image below.

From 'Unorganized' to 'Too Organized'?

...You can please ‘some of the people, some of the time, but …’

Guest post by Gary

Scholars who study Jehovah’s Witnesses have often noted their keenness to measure activity by numbers. This is most obvious in terms of the monthly field service reports that publishers file with their congregation’s secretary, but also in terms of congregation meeting attendances, assembly and convention attendances and the annual Memorial figures. 

 

In addition, in recording the monthly numbers of publishers Witnesses are markedly different than any other religion in counting active members as opposed to passive attenders. Comparing these figures provides the Society a numerical measurement of progress, of course, and - to some degree - an indication of how well the message is received in various lands. In turn, Witnesses draw encouragement as they read annual reports and see evidence of their ministry bearing fruit.  

 

In contrast, looking back into the earliest Watch Tower history it is noticeable how little interest was shown in collating figures, with only annual Memorial attendances and the number of colporteurs giving indication of growth. Interestingly, Henry King Carroll’s comprehensive book The Religious Forces of the United States Enumerated, Classified, and Described, returns for 1900 and 1910 compared with the Government Census of 1890 records meeting figures for nearly every denomination and sect conceivable with the notable exception of the Bible Students.(1)  So, what caused the situation to change? Strange as it may seem, as will be explained, it was likely the American governmental authorities in World War One who we may thank for indirectly kickstarting this trend. 

 

The Draft Act and ‘not an organized sect’

 

Although the teachings of Pastor Russell were broadly recognised as being ‘pacifist’, one of the criticisms made to justify why Bible Students were not to be granted recognition as conscientious objectors in America during World War One, rightly or wrongly, involved their considered lack of organization.A list of pacifist sects was created in the United States by a Mr Hunt of the Census Bureau in 1917 following the country’s entrance to war and in anticipation of the Selective Services Act (otherwise referred to as ‘The Draft Act’).  The list includes the three traditional peace churches, the Mennonites, Quakers and Brethren, and several others, many known for their premillennialist expectations.  At the bottom of the list, as if reluctantly tagged on, appears the name International Bible Student Association, beside a bracketed explanatory note stating, significantly, that this is “not an organized sect.” (2) Hunt’s list is significant and apparently was relied on by a number of draft boards throughout America. The Selective Service Act allowed provision for conscientious objectors to perform non-combatant service, but only if they belonged to a recognised pacifist sect which fitted certain criteria. (3) 

 

To have satisfied the authorities the IBSA had two problems to overcome: Firstly, they were ‘new kids on the block’, a recent religious ‘sect’ as far as the authorities were concerned.  As such, unlike the Mennonites, Brethren or Quakers, they had with no earlier peace testimony that could be called upon in support. Secondly, while the teachings of Pastor Russell were well known in America and obviously ‘pacifist’, the extent to which they were “organized prior to May, 1917” was less clear. In the Spring of 1918 Military Intelligence Division agents visited Joseph Franklin Rutherford and requested sight of an IBSA membership list, to which Rutherford replied, “Our only roll of members is written in Heaven.”(4) At the famous United States v. Rutherford et al trial,one Bible Student conscientious objector acknowledged that the IBSA didn’t “keep any record on the rolls as other churches do” (5) while it was acknowledged that an individual could “become a member without communicating with headquarters.”(6)

 

When asked in 1917 how many International Bible Students Association members there were in America, Rutherford answered that “from the names on our Watch Tower list we would answer, there are approximately 75,000 adherents.(7)  But this list, of course, indicated just the number of subscribers rather than active supporters.Indeed, much questioning during the trial involved the use of affidavits sent from the IBSA to those requesting them in support of their claims for conscientious objection and whether these were requests from ‘consecrated members’ or, as the prosecution implied, a large number of slackers who were using the IBSA to shelter under. 

 

So, when did the situation change? When did the ‘organization’ first start to become organized? 

 

Dr. George Chryssides gives the general era noting:

 

“It was under Rutherford that house-to-house visiting became organised, and was expected of the Society’s members - a practice that has continued into the twenty first century.  Previously, under Russell, the Bible Students’ message was spread by colporteurs ...” (8) 

 

And historian Zoe Knox linked the greater emphasis on public ministry that gave ‘rank and file’ members a greater degree of visibility to “particularly ... since 1922, when Rutherford intensified door-to-door ministry and initiated a co-ordinated, worldwide campaign that led door-knocking to become Witnesses’ trademark.”(9)

 

Knox, no doubt, has in mind the ‘Advertise, Advertise, Advertise the King and his Kingdom’ rally call at the Cedar Point, Ohio, international convention on September 8th, 1922.But did the start of this organized “worldwide campaign” commence even earlier in America itself?  Can we be more precise? The Watch Tower for August 1 and 15, 1919 published the two-part article “Blessed Are the Fearless”, which was re-emphasised at the eight-day general assembly at Cedar Point, Ohio, that followed on September 1-8, 1919, in which Rutherford delivered the ‘The Hope for this Distressed Humanity’ talk. Hence it was in 1919 that the public witness was resumed.  As the Society itself later described the period:

 

“Figuratively speaking, it was a climb to organize all the restored spiritual Israelites for preaching the Kingdom message from house to house.” (Italics are mine) (10)

 

Interestingly, the Proclaimers book states that “Through the service director, the field service of those associated with the congregation, or class, was to be reported to the Society each week, starting in 1919.”(11) Indeed, as a consequence, the very first field service report compiled for the United States in 1920 showed there were 8,052 “class workers” out in service, along with 350 colporteurs.(12)

 

Is it a coincidence that the IBSA moved in this direction following Rutherford’s release from the Atlanta Penitentiary?  Rutherford apparently saw need to record the activity of members as a reaction to his court experience, with the intention of protecting Bible Students in case authorities repeated such arguments in any future confrontation. If so, what better way of measuring active membership than to allow adherents themselves to file regular field service reports? These enabled Bible Students, and later Jehovah’s Witnesses, opportunity to show their willing support for both the Kingdom message itself and the organization being used to promote this message. 

 

Too organized?

 

Unaware of this background, modern critics of the Society ironically believe it is somehow evidence of a dictatorial leadership imposing their will over uncommitted followers! In fact, having been muted and suppressed during the war, by 1919 most International Bible Students responded enthusiastically to the opportunity to publicly witness and report their activity, seeing their situation in Biblical terms:

 

“At that time the lame one will climb up just as a stag does, and the tongue of the speechless one will cry out in gladness.” (13)

 

This remains the attitude of zealous Witnesses today. Whatever criticisms opposers may throw at them, their scrupulous reporting and recording of figures ensures that they may never again be accused of being unorganized!

 

As Zoe Knox notes:

 

“The Society is remarkable, however, in two important ways: it defines every baptised adherent as an ordained minister and makes public ministry a requirement for every adult in the community.” (14)

 

 

——————————————————

 

References:

 

(1) H.K. Carroll, The Religious Forces of the United States Enumerated, Classified, and Described, returns for 1900 and 1910 compared with the Government Census of 1890. Published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1912. A search here for the terms ‘Russellites’ and ‘Millennial Dawnists’ also revealed no results.

 

(2) A copy of the list appears in Mark A. May’s 1919 article entitled “The Psychological Examination of Conscientious Objectors”, The American Journal of Psychology 31, April 1920, 155.

 

(3) The Official Bulletin: Monday, July 9, 1917, Information for Persons Registered under the Selective Service Law, 6, column 3, point 13.

 

(4) Lon Strauss, A Paranoid State: The American Public, Military Surveillance and the Espionage Act of 1917, 2012, 84. Per Strauss, “Rutherford interpreted the act to mean the organization had to have been recognized in existence prior to that date, not necessarily that an individualmust have been a member at that time. In other words, individuals might still join afterMay 18and thus become exempt to the draft law.” This seems the most obvious reading of the legislation.However, Rutherford’s letter To the Secretary or Clerk of the Local Ecclesia, dated 8 August 1917, argues against this interpretation. In this Rutherford explicitly stated that “such affidavit will be made, of course, for only those who are members of the INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION and in good standing and who were such on and before the 18^th day of May, 1917.”

 

(5) Quote from Hans Insberg, an IBSA conscientious objector, questioned in the The United Statesv Rutherford trial, 253.

 

(6) Quote from William E. Van Amburgh during the United States v.Rutherford trial, 1212.

 

(7)Watch Tower, 1 December 1917, reprints 6181, in article entitled ‘In Re Military Service’.

 

(8)George D. Chrysiddes, Jehovah’s Witnesses – Continuity and Change, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, 2016, 91.

 

(9) Zoe Knox, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Secular World, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, 109.

 

(10) Man’s Salvation out of World Distress at Hand! 1975, Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, 150.

 

(11) Jehovah’s Witnesses – Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, 1993, footnote, 212.

 

(12) The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, December 15, 1920, 372.

 

(13) Isaiah 35:6 – see application, for example, in Man’s Salvation out of World Distress at Hand! 1975, 151.

 

(14) Zoe Knox, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Secular World, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, 108.

Names to Faces

Whenever I obtain an old publication of the Watch Tower Society I always check through its pages, in case a previous owner has tucked in a Motto card or newspaper cutting or photograph as a bookmark. I have had some excellent finds this way.

 A set of pocket edition Studies that ended up in Australasia a few years back had two photographs tucked inside them. Alas, the original owner did not think of posterity by writing a name for the person on the back of the photographs, but just some personal comments that would only mean something to immediate family and friends.

We know that the person in the two pictures above was the grandmother of a previous owner of the books (name unknown) and here is the relevance to this blog - she worked with Charles Taze Russell in Bible House.

The black and white photograph has printed on the back,”Taken at Myrtle’s last summer” and the faded color one has “Week of November 30, 1957.”

Does anyone recognize who this might be?

When this material was first published elsewhere, one suggestion was that it might have been a Margaret or Martha Wilson, married to George M Wilson.There were no Wilsons on surving lists of Bible House workers, but they were part of the Allegheny class.

Perhaps the biggest lesson from this is always write names in pencil on the back of photographs. You never know who may want that information further down the line.

More on Henry Weber

Henry Weber was the vice president of Zion’s Watch Tower Society from 1892-1904 (his death). During this time several long-time associates left fellowship (see A Conspiracy Exposed and Harvest Siftings 1894) but Henry was well trusted and respected.

Henry was a horticulturist, and the one official photograph in general circulation is taken from the book American Florist. Although this book was published in 1900 we don’t know when the photograph was taken.

Henry’s story is covered in an earlier article on this blog, which can be found here.

https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2020/03/henry-weber.html

Because of his long and faithful service, it seems his photograph was on the wall in the Pittsburgh Bible House parlor. Below is a photograph of the parlor and on the wall on the right, above the furniture, is a portrait.

The original 5 x 7 inch glass plate negative of this photograph is owned by Brian K. Using 12,800 dpi scanning and some Photoshop manipulation, the picture below was rescued.

The sitter in this picture is holding a volume of Millennial Dawn. Comparing the covers of the editions of Millennial Dawn from that era, the most likely candidate in the photograph is volume 4, The Day of Vengeance, which was published in 1897.

This photograph can be found in the Watchtower Society’s historical exhibition. Below is a snapshot taken by the author from a display in Brooklyn in 2014.

Now the exhibition has been relocated to Warwick, Henry’s photograph may have been repositioned, but there is no reason for it to have disappeared.

As noted above, Henry died in 1904. His funeral service was conducted by CTR. Some of the family remained in fellowship with the Society for many years. It was noted in The New Era Enterprise for October 19, 1920 that the controversial “miracle wheat” had now been rebranded as “Weber wheat,” and had won prizes for the company. The business H Weber and Sons, was to last until 1978, and its records were ultimately donated to the Smithsonian Institute by a descendant.

One more recent reference shows how long after Henry some of his family remained in association with the Watch Tower Society. The Cumberland Evening Times (Cumberland, Maryland) for April 3, 1971, carried a funeral notice for one of his daughters, Diane. She lived to be 93, and the notice made the point that she was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The People's Pulpit Association

 When the headquarters moved to Brooklyn in 1909 it was deemed advisable to create a new corporation to deal with publishing and property matters, The People’s Pulpit Association. With grateful thanks to Bernhard, here is the letter CTR sent out inviting certain trusted Bible Students to become members. The letter also details the original officers of the association. You may need to click on the image to see it in full.

For further information please see Bernhard’s book

All together now...

 Those with long memories may remember that one of the Russell family’s business ventures was in music publishing. The full story of The Evening Prayer can be found here.

https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-russells-music-publishing-business.html#comment-form

This article covers W E Van Amburgh’s trial testimony and also the background to the sheet music that has survived.

However, any readers of a musical bent, might just want to try and play the piece. Or – on checking it out - may not. In case you are the former, here is the full sheet music in .jpg form, which can easily be copied from here. If you do a close up on the title page you can see clearly the publisher to be J L Russell and Son, Pittsburgh Music House, 85 Fifth Avenue.

Chicago 1893

 A key photograph in the history of the Watch Tower Society is that for the 1893 Chicago convention, the first real national convention the Bible Students held. Most readers here will be familiar with the picture below that was published in the 1914 Chicago City Temple brochure. It shows around 76 of the 360 delegates in a group photograph. You may need to click on it to see the picture in full.

It would be nice to have the clearest photograph possible to try and identify the different Bible Students who appeared in the picture.

Does anyone out there have a better copy that could be shared? To illustrate, below is a selective enlargement from the bottom right hand corner of the photograph. Again you may need to click on it to see it in full. However, I think most would agree that the definition is far better.

The story behind the above is that when I was in America as an international delegate in 2014 I visited a home that had a large card-backed photograph of this scene. Using a cheap camera I took a quick snapshot of just this small section. The “original” from which the snap was taken is now apparently buried under glass in an Assembly Hall display. My reason for just taking a selective extract was that all I wanted at the time was a good photograph of a young Ernest Henninges and his wife to be, Rose Ball. They are sitting together on the ground in the front on the right. As a bonus, in this selective enlargement you can see in the “middle row” towards the left of the picture, CTR sitting with his wife Maria. Their inclusion was accidental, but this adds another picture to the Russell family history.

It was only when back home, several thousand miles away, that I realised what a missed opportunity this had been.

So again, does anyone have a nice clear photograph that can improve on the complete group photograph as shown in this post?

Addendum

The photo below has come to hand, which is cropped, but does show all the individuals in the original picture in better definition to that found in the Our Temple brochure. It is reproduced here for any who want to download it. Of course, if any have a better copy please do say.