French songbooks

A few years ago Miquel kindly sent me some photographs of historical French language Songbooks that came to hand.

 

This songbook, a second edition printing from 1919 corresponds to one of the Zion's Glad Songs series.

 

This 1928 songbook corresponds with the 1928 Songs of Praise to Jehovah, which basically replaced Hymns of Millennial Dawn for IBSA meetings.

 

 

This 1948 songbook corresponds with the 1944 Kingdom Service Songbook, which was the book released for when singing was reintroduced at general congregation meetings in 1944 in English language congregations.

 

Spanish songbook

A few years ago Miquel kindly sent through the two interesting photographs above. This is the Spanish version of Hymns of Dawn, and as such is extremely rare. This version was published in 1925. It differs from the English language version in that some hymns were taken from the original, while others were taken from Spanish evangelical hymnals of the day.

This is a second or new edition of the Himnario de la Aurora del Milenio. The first edition dates from 1919, and may have been published as a supplement to the Spanish Watch Tower. 

Basil

 

Basil Stephanoff from Separate Identity volume 2

The book Jehovah’s Witnesses - Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom mentions briefly one Basil Stephanoff in connection with the preaching work in Macedonia. On page 406 it has this to say:

“What about Turkey? During the late 1880s Basil Stephanoff had preached in Macedonia in what was then European Turkey. Although some had seemed to show interest, certain ones who professed to be brothers made false reports, leadng to his imprisonment.”

So who was Basil Stephanoff?

The primary information we have about him comes from two letters he wrote to Zion’s Watch Tower. The first gives the basic information extracted for the Proclaimers book. The second, from 1894, has him writing in support of CTR in view of the scenario described in A Conspiracy Exposed. It also showed that Basil was now in America.

A brief history of him is found in Who’s Who in the History of the (Bible Student) Movement before 1920. To quote in full:

“He was active in Macedonia (European Turkey) and Bulgaria in the late 1880s. He was imprisoned because (he claimed) false testimony at the hands of false brethren. He escaped to America, settling in Michigan. He was still a Watch Tower adherent in 1894 but drifted away by 1903 when we find him involved with the Masons and on his way back to Macedonia to fight against the Turks. A religious journal calls him a General in the Macedonian resistance.”

A more detailed history is found in Separate Identity: Organizational Identity Among Readers of Zion’s Watch Tower: 1870-1987 volume 2, pp. 552-553.

Organizational Identity reviews his religious history. Basil was a man who had a finger in a number of theological pies. Over the years he was involved with what became the Church of God (Anderson), the Mennonites, the Baptists, the Children of Zion Church, Butler’s Essoteric Fraternity, as well as fighting for the Macedonian Nationalist cause. His association with Zion’s Watch Tower was hardly exclusive.

At the time the above research was being prepared for Separate Identity, I did my own research for what we might call Basil’s “human story.” It appeared on a blog and was almost immediately forgotten, because it was not relevant to the blog’s focus as such. All it did show was that in those early days people often dipped in and then dipped out of involvement with Bible Students and the Watch Tower Society. Some were searchers after truth with good motives, others had “feet of clay.” The latter are often more interesting to research – at a suitable historical distance. Some early associates of CTR fell into the latter category. Lapses from moral grace don’t have to be the exclusive preserve of religious people, but the contrast between theory and practice is often fodder for the tabloid press. And this is history – these people aren’t our relatives to cause us any embarrassment today. So this is what I discovered about Basil.

Basil’s personal history has its mysteries. At one point in researching his back story, I rather gleefully assumed I had a case of bigamy here, but alas, a discovery of not one but two divorces settled that in Basil’s favor – if that is the right expression to use. But I am getting ahead of myself.

The fuller chronicle of Basil that makes the history book explains he was in the United States in the 1880s, although on census returns he only ever admitted to entering the country in 1891 or 1892. We know from passenger lists that he travelled from England to the States in January 1892, giving his occupation as labourer.

Within a short space of time Basil gets married to Annie Brook, on April 12, 1892, in the Children of Zion Church, and his marriage certificate (registered in Kent County, Michigan) gives his occupation as minister of the gospel. The officiating minister at his wedding is H A Olmstead, Pastor Children of Zion Church.  Annie is a dress maker and comes from England. A 1900 census return says she came to America in 1886, six years before Basil, and a 1920 census return says she became a US citizen in 1892.

At the time of the marriage Basil is 31 and Annie is 28. His father’s name is down as Stephan Boginoff, which suggests the registrar had a silly moment, since the correct name in all other documents is Bogin Stephanoff. Basil’s mother’s name is Mona. Annie conceives almost immediately and their only son, John Basil Stephanoff is born on January 26, 1893 (information from John B’s WW1 draft card below).

John B became a judo instructor during WW2 and lived until 1976. John B married and had one daughter, whose married name was Jean Schmit, and who died in 1980, but there the trail ran cold for this researcher.

In trade directories for the late 1890s through to 1901 the family are in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Basil is now listed under Boots and Shoes, or shoe dealer in the 1900 census.

But all is not well in the Stephanoff household. On November 5, 1900, Annie files for divorce on the grounds of Basil’s cruelty and the uncontested divorce is granted on June 18, 1901. Annie will stay in Grand Rapids. In quite short order, and while still giving his residence in Grand Rapids, Basil ties the knot again, this time marrying Alvesta S Nagle of Bellevue, Ohio, on October 8, 1902. The marriage is registered in Kent County, Michigan. Basil is still a shoe dealer, Alvesta has no profession, and Basil’s parents are down as Stephanoff and Mona.

But just four months later there are divorce proceedings again. This time the uncontested charge is cruelty plus fraud, and the decree absolute is granted on June 30, 1903.

Alvesta disappears from the record, but first wife Annie with son John B continue to appear in Grand Rapids directories, she as a dress maker and John B when he leaves education as a salesman.

Basil then reappears in Marion County, Indiana, in the 1910 census. The age, place of origin, and year of immigration show it is our man. He has now become a lawyer. And the census specifically asks him whether he is single, married, widowed or divorced. His answer is plain - SINGLE.

Whereas Annie in the Grand Rapids trade directories for 1915 and surrounding years puts herself down as the widow of Basil.

Basil dies of nephritis in Marion County, Indianapolis, on May 19, 1925. He must have kept certain documents with him because his death certificate lists his parents as Bogin and Mona. But he is now listed as a widower, with the name of his former partner unknown. His age is given as 62, which if correct, means he was born in 1862 or 1863, which more of less fits the age he gave when getting married to Annie Brook.

Basically Basil dies alone, and out of touch with his son.

I suppose I was looking for a “bad boy” in Basil, and these snippets from records show someone who could bend the truth at times, along with two failed marriages and the accusation of cruelty.

It makes me think of another “bad boy” who lived at the same time and who also associated for a while with the Bible Student movement. That was Albert Royal Delmont Jones, who was the editor of Zion’s Day Star before his fall from grace. Jones deserted his first wife, the mother of his children, and married a society beauty. She in turn dumped him when he lost his fortune, and his third attempt at matrimony was to someone later convicted of bigamy, and who featured in the Fatty Arbuckle scandal. If that wasn’t enough excitement for one life, somewhere along the line there is a possible fourth marriage, which if true, suggests a less than truthful response to the registrar. All of this can be read by newer readers if you punch in the search terms “Albert Delmont Jones” on this blog to see a 12 part series which covered his life story in some detail.

There are some similarities in these stories of former Watch Tower adherents, Albert and Basil, although Albert wins the prize for major league “bad boy.” But with their tangled personal histories, there is one thing they do both have in common. Both had family who survived them. Both died alone. Maybe they deserved it, but I still find that rather sad.

Peace - or Spot the Difference

 (reprinted and revised version)

A casual visitor to Brecon in South Wales, UK, might be tempted to visit the Brecon Cathedral, parts of which go back over nine hundred years. One of the exhibits in it, dedicated to a local dignitary, is a painting called “Peace, and a little child shall lead them.” The artist was William Strutt (1825-1915) although the caption in the cathedral only names the donors! It was painted in 1896. The picture was based on Isaiah 11 and the animals from left to right are in the order as described in scripture.

 

This has a connection of sorts with the Photodrama of Creation. Here is one of the original slides from the Photodrama. This was reproduced in the scenario, and was also later used by Frederick Lardent in his Bible Student motto card series, as card number L-9. The motto card is not as colorful and the circle is a bit smaller.

The Photodrama spawned a series of postcards. A set of 40 cards was advertised in The Watch Tower in 1917 (see reprints page 6077). Many readers will have seen these sets and they are probably online somewhere as well. Although the set was numbered 1-40, a couple of later numbers have been discovered. Below are cards 44 and 47b.

 

Looking at all the reproductions above, these are actually four different pictures. It’s a case of spot the difference.

Why did they keep on redrawing (not always very successfully) this particular picture? It may have been a copyright issue originally. Strutt complained before he died that his own copyright had expired and he was making no money from the picture. However, a lithograph of the picture was widely marketed and numerous homes had it on their walls. Perhaps that version was still under copyright. However, it still doesn’t explain the Society’s repeated attempts at pastiche to portray the same scene.

It is not the most important research question in the world, but a curiosity. And while we are touching on the official Photodrama series, does anyone have details of any other Photodrama postcards higher than 40? There is a card numbered 47a which has a woman on a veranda overlooking a paradise scene with animals captioned PAX, but apart from that and 44 and 47b reproduced above, I have never seen any others higher than 40.

When the original artist Strutt died his grave marker carried the inscription “Painter of Peace.” A highly prolific artist in his day this was to be his main legacy.

 

Personal Note

Anyone tempted to visit the Brecon Cathedral should be aware that they employ a particularly aggressive company to manage the car parking. The machine took my money but did not spit out a ticket. Having been photographed entering and leaving the car park (not in dispute) I was accused of not paying (very much in dispute). I demanded a print-out of their records for the actual time I was there to see what showed up, and they declined on the grounds of data protection. I therefore declined to pay the “fine.” Correspondence and threats went back and forth for several months before I “won.” I doubt I will be visiting Brecon Cathedral again.

Note

Anyone interested in the varieties of postcard used should read the comment trail from Mike C.

The Parting of the Ways - 1

 The Proclaimers book details how in 1917 and thereafter there was a split between those who stayed with the IBSA and its new president, J F Rutherford, and those who left to form a separate group, which was to split into a number of different groups over time. JFR listed some of these seceding groups in his 1931 resolution when announcing the new name of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Talking about the Society, the Proclaimers book notes (on page 629) “They did not launch a campaign of persecution against such persons (though the defectors often indulged in abuse of their former spiritual brothers.”)

The book notes that they did not persecute those who left. Perhaps the attitude towards the situation in the early days was well summed up Pilgrim John A Bohnet in a fairly gentle put-down in The New Era Enterprise (August 21, 1921 “God Blessing the Society”). Talking about the original group formed by those who left in 1917, he wrote: “It seems to be inoffensive - doing little or nothing....Some people prefer to be associated with a clique that does nothing worthwhile mentioning.”

To the end of his life Bohnet would urge these former associates to reunite and come back into the IBSA fold. See for example his plea in The Watch Tower for February 1, 1931. Some did. Others did not.

The Proclaimers book noted that some who left “indulged in abuse of their former spiritual brothers.”

Perhaps the most outspoken critic of the IBSA in those early days, whose comments seem positively vitriolic, was Paul S L Johnson. After CTR’s death he was sent to Britain and the issues there are described in the 1973 Yearbook.

Johnson was to leave the Brooklyn Bethel along with others in July 1917. He claimed to be a figure foretold in the Bible. He taught extensively on Biblical types and shadows and in many cases believed himself to be the antitype.

This self-view soon caused a rift with the original group who split in 1917 and by 1918 the inevitable happened and he formed his own movement in Philadelphia. (See Proclaimers book pages 68 and 628 and Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose page 237).

However, there is one curious account from 1920 where Johnson visited Bethel. His account of this comes from the fifth volume of his extra series of Studies in the Scriptures from page 237.

It sums up his mindset and why there was little realistic possibility of reconciliation.

Johnson wanted the Society to produce reprinted material from CTR’s pen for his group to use. According to his own description he went to Bethel (quote) “as the hand and mouth of the Lord.” He was asked to put his request in writing and ultimately was refused, although he was advised that could purchase the Society’s own publications (which included CTR’s works) to use however he wished.

According to Johnson the reason given for refusing his request was because he’d come to the Society as (quote) “representative priest” and had also written off the Society as “the great company” - i.e. a secondary spiritual class. Johnson’s response sidestepped this by claiming he’d never said that in this particular letter. Technically that might have been true, although he failed to reproduce the correspondence. But Johnson had said PLENTY elsewhere. 

According to Johnson, his visit to Brooklyn dated from May 17, 1920. And if the account doesn’t have him railing against Rutherford full-steam as he usually did, it does build up into a bit of a rant. The same account shows that on the same day, Johnson, this time as (quote)I “anti-typical Gideon” also called on the original breakaway group, also still based in Brooklyn. He seemed a little surprised that he had the same negative response from them. However, his personal attack on them in his publication Another Harvest Sifting Reviewed makes that unsurprising to oursiders.

So they were strange times, and difficult times as families and friends had to choose and sometimes went in different directions. From the Watch Tower Society’s perspective, however, Proclaimers page 69 says: “Some who withdrew from the organization later repented and associated with Bible Students in worship once again.”

The Parting of the Ways - 2

 

There is a certain poignancy to these two advertisements from the Washington DC Evening Star for October 7, 1922, page 10. In the Church Notices under Bible Students you were given two choices.

There were the regular meetings of the IBSA group at the Pythian Temple Auditorium. G W Walters was a local man, whose lectures were often advertised at this venue over 1921-1922. The visiting speaker was W E Van Amburgh.

But there was also a meeting being sponsored by the Associated Bible Students, which was the name now used by those who separated from the Watch Tower Society. The speaker here was F H Robison. Robison and Van Amburgh had been at Bethel together for many years and were jailed together as part of the “Brooklyn 8” in 1918. But Robison had left Bethel and his position on the Watch Tower editorial committee early in 1922. His journey would lead him into Universalism by 1923.

Here they were at the same city, lecturing at different venues. Interestingly, the timing as advertised would have allowed any wavering or curious to attend both meetings.

Franz Zürcher

Although relating to events a little more recent than the general focus of this blog, this is an account that some may find of interest. Thanks are due to “Franco” who kindly sent the scans used originally.

 

Franz Zürcher (1891-1978) worked at the Bible Students/Jehovah’s Witnesses Central European Office in Switzerland for nearly 55 years. He started in 1923, although his first couple of years were spent taking the Photodrama of Creation film out to Belgium, Alsace-Lorraine, along with locations in Switzerland. For many years he was the Branch Servant in Switzerland. In the 1930s he was the editor of the German edition of The Golden Age magazine. In 1943 he was sentenced to gaol (i.e. jail) for his activities.

He is known for writing a book published by the Society, which apparently was never officially translated into English. Crusade Against Christianity was first published in German in 1938, and then translated into French and Polish in 1939. It detailed the persecution of the witnesses under the Nazi regime, and some of the material appeared in the English edition of Golden Age.

Here are some covers of the three language editions.

First published in German in 1938. The publisher was Europe-Verlag, Zurich-New York.

 

Translated into French and Polish (both 1939)

The French translation was also published by Europe-Verlag, Zurich-New York. However, you will note that the Polish translation added Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Berne.

Franz Zürcher remained an active witness in the Berne Bethel until the end of his life, and is one of the comparatively few witnesses to have an obituary in the Watchtower magazine. See Watchtower for August 1, 1978, page 31.

Report on Foreign Missions

The Joys of Old Documents

 One of the “joys” of historical research is deciphering old documents. Forget issues like Latin or ancient languages, just the vagaries of time on writing materials, coupled with a hit and miss approach by scanners, can create unwanted puzzles.

To illustrate, below is a document where the puzzle has been solved, but it still illustrates the problem when, for example, you don’t have newspaper confirmation of events.

This register of deaths from Washington State is from 1905.

Homing in on one entry, can you make out whose name this is?

To put you out of your misery, this is Barbour, Nelson H. Yes, it is THAT Nelson Barbour, dying away from home on August 30, 1905.

The date can be worked out from other more legible dates on the page.

Travelling along the line we find more information. So what do you make of this?

Deciphering the columns, Nelson was 81 when he died.

He was M – i.e. male

He was widowed.

Where did the death happen? Do – i.e. ditto from the name Tacoma higher up the page.

And Nelson died from?

By a comparison with other entries on the page, Nelson died from “exhaustion.”  The word is more clearly seen for other deceased persons on the page. It seems to be a fairly common event for the time and area. Its vagueness is similar to descriptions often given of people dying from “heart failure.” (CTR is an example of this). It is a sort of catch-all; everyone dies from heart failure, but the real question is, what caused it? What caused Nelson to die from “exhaustion?”

The continuing line goes onto the next page, asking where from, names of parents, etc. but this is all blank for Nelson. The information was not available or at least was not recorded, although they obviously knew where he was from because his body was sent nearly three thousand miles back home to be buried alongside his late wife, Emeline.

Headstone in Throopville Rural Cemetery, Auburn, New York.

Some you win, and some you don't.

 THE STORY OF THE EDGAR FAMILY'S LAST RESTING PLACE

This is a brief tale of a search that in some ways led to disappointment. Being based in the UK I was asked in 2019 if I could find the last resting place of the Edgar family. As well as their speciality of pyramidology three of the Edgars, John, Morton and Minna (two brothers and a sister) also wrote a series of little booklets. One of them by John “Where Are The Dead?” was instrumental in attracting the interest of a young man named Fred Franz before the First World War.

We knew from printed accounts that they were buried in a family plot in the Eastwood Cemetery, Glasgow. There are two cemeteries of this name, an Old and a New, but the date of the first interment identified the site as being in the Old.

Were there memorial headstones? Would there even be a pyramid? That is not as fanciful as it sounds. Here is the grave for Piazzi Smyth.

And here from a Bible Student publication is a grave marker in Yeovil, Somerset, for a Bible Student, William Hallett, who died in 1921.

The cemetery records in Glasgow had not been transcribed, let alone posted on the internet. But I was able to make contact with a Family History Society in Glasgow and a member very kindly did a search for me. Almost immediately the burial registers for the family were found.

John bought three adjoining plots and later a fourth was added, totalling plots numbered A-950-953. Sixteen members of the extended family were eventually buried here. The last interment was in 1968. Any modern generations of the family, if they still exist, obviously moved elsewhere.

The next step was a visit to the area and again a willing volunteer from the area visited the site and took the following photograph. The graves numbered A-950-953 are both sides of the tree in the foreground. One wonders what size the tree was when these plots were sold originally.

There are a few memorials standing, which at least enable one to fix the correct site, but alas, none for the Edgar family. In UK cemeteries vandalism and sheep with itchy bottoms have eliminated a lot of memorials, but it would appear from the photographs that the Edgars never did have a lasting memorial installed.

Realistically, had there been anything like a pyramid there, it would have been found and publicised long before now.

So this is a non-story really. But you never know until you follow everything up what may or may not be discovered.

Nelson Horatio

The name Nelson HORATIO Barbour for the editor of The Herald of the Morning comes from the patent of one of his inventions. His history is sketchy and what could be discovered at the time was published in Nelson Barbour: The Millennium’s Forgotten Prophet by Schulz and De Vienne in 2009.

We know that he was a gold prospector in Australia and came back to American via Britain around 1859/1860. I spent some considerable time trying to find anyone resembling Nelson Horatio Barbour on ships lists and the UK census for 1861.  Eventually I found a Nelson Horatio Barber in the UK – born in same decade, but this man was married with a child. I traced his life story sufficiently to establish there was no connection. A secret marriage and an abandoned family would have been a real find! But why would two men of similar age be named Nelson Horatio Barber/Barbour? And then it clicked. The British commander at the Battle of Trafalgar, with a huge column in London to this day was Admiral Nelson - full name Horatio Nelson. The two names would just naturally go together in public consciousness.

J F Rutherford talks 1914-1917

When what became World War 1 started J F Rutherford was in Hamburg, Germany. This wasn’t a problem as America didn’t enter the war until April 1917. JFR traveled back home and was soon giving the talk “Destiny of Men and Nations.” Below is a cutting from the Washington Times for November 19, 1914.

He took this same talk to his former home area of Versailles. Below is an advertisement for the talk on December 2. The year is not given, but it was likely 1914, which would have been a Wednesday evening. No newspaper reports have surfaced to confirm the date, but it was most probably in 1914. This talk was advertised in various places up to the middle of 1915. It could just possibly have been on December 1915 (which would have been a Thursday evening) but by December 1916 he would have been in Brooklyn prior to being elected as president of the Watch Tower Society.

By December 1917 America was in the war, and the IBSA was in difficulties. JFR’s main talk had also changed subject – slightly.

 

The date for this talk (which has appeared on this blog before) can only be 1917 and America had now entered the war. Below is the location for this talk. It is the building with the tall brick surround in the center of the photograph.

With grateful thanks to Tom who supplied the last two images.

J F Rutherford talks 1920-1921

 On May 22, 1921, at the now historic Kismet Temple in Brooklyn, J F Rutherford gave his famous Millions talk. Below is an advertising leaflet.

 

The Kismet building is still standing and below are two photographs of the exterior.

 

(The one in color is taken from Wikipedia and dates from 2013)

The leaflet provided some interesting informtion. JFR had just returned from visiting Palestine and Egypt. There he had been involved in two of the Kinemo films which were eventually given general release in 1922. JFR did a kind of Alfred Hitchcock cameo appearance in both of them.

The leaflet also mentions events the previous year (1920) when the same subject had been presented at the New York Hippodrome, and where the crowds had been so large some could not gain admittance.

Below is a postcard showing the exterior.

 

The Hippodrome was demolished in 1939. The reverse of the postcard describes its original capacity.

 

A photograph exists of the interior during JFR’s”standing room only” lecture.

 

All photographs and ephemera came from Tom’s collection.  With grateful thanks for sharing.