In Search of the Elusive Clara

The name Clara A Taylor in the previous article was supplied along with her dates as a director from a very reliable source. Initially researchers looked at a Clara Arletta Bragonier Taylor (1856-1946). She lived in the State of Pennsylvania, but had a husband who was a railway man and also had children. It seemed strange that this Clara would work in Bible House for so long without mention of other family members. I managed to make contact with descendants of this Clara, some of whom remembered her in person, but had no knowledge whatsoever of any WT connections.

Then I went to the trial transcript for the 1906 divorce/separation hearing. And there was our Clara – as a witness. And she was single. Taylor was not a married name. As the article describes, she worked in the Bible House before Maria left, and she knew Ernest Henninges and others. Crucially, she was there in 1897 but not in 1896, and didn’t live in the Bible House under normal circumstances. She was also still around in 1906 when the hearing took place, and is in group photographs from 1906/07. And they show a much younger person than one would expect for the above mentioned Mrs Clara  A B Taylor.

Perhaps our Clara got married? Could that be why the name Taylor disappears from the record? Checking sources from that era, there was a Clara Phillips who wrote in to say that she had taken “The Vow” in the August 15, 1908 WT. No connection could be found. And when they moved to Brooklyn, the 1910 census had a Clara Tomkins working at the new headquarters. However, Menta Sturgeon’s testimony in a 1913 hearing (the “Miracle Wheat” case) showed that this Clara was also single, so again there was no connection.

And there are a great number of Clara Taylors in the records for that time.

The only recourse possibly left that I can think of, is to check the death notices in the Bible Student publications over the decades since then. They tended to record the death of anyone once connected with any branch of Bible Students, including those who stayed with the Watch Tower Society. But life is too short. I wave a white flag and leave that task to others.

CTR in Glasgow (1908)

Use once only...

Brian supplied the information that steel needles only have a four minute life. (Otherwise you trash your discs). The "Instructions to Phonographers" for the Photo Drama of Creation told them to replace the needle on the phonograph after every record side was played.

A Book Review

Like topsy it just growed.

That paraphrased nod towards Uncle Tom’s Cabin can be applied to this series of books. It started off small, or at least as a limited project. Then it grew. And grew.  It is still growing. That is not a criticism but singles out this book as different from the rest when it comes to Watch Tower and related history.

The two authors, Bruce Schulz and the late Rachael de Vienne, first produced a book on Nelson Barbour, the forgotten prophet. That was intended as a journal article, but it grew into a book. A follow-up, Separate Identity, was designed as a stand alone book, tracing the history of the Watch Tower Society from its pre-history with young Charles Taze Russell up to its emergence as a separate movement. That one volume has now grown into two, and a third is needed to complete the story.

This makes the books special. Had there been a commercial publisher, an editor would have been ruthless and cut them down to size. Out would have gone the details, the digressions, the multitude of footnotes and references to send obsessive researchers down other research trails. A casual reader interested in Watch Tower history has other options, but for a serious researcher the Schulz and de Vienne series fills in the gaps and rescues numerous individuals and events from obscurity. No-one else has ever done that.

Do you need to have volume one before reading volume two? Ideally it would help, but is not essential. Volume one doesn’t even get up to the first issue of Zion’s Watch Tower. The volume under review basically starts with the original Watchtower magazine, goes onto Food for Thinking Christians, and sets the scene for a worldwide witnessing work that indeed started small, but grew. It If your interest only really starts in 1879, then you can leap straight into this volume, although you will find references to the first volume in it.

The authors strive to be neither apologists nor polemicists, but even-handed, going where the evidence takes them. Like most readers this reviewer has a point of view which doesn’t always square with everything in the book, but they can be credited with a valiant effort to be fair.

If your interest has got you as far as looking up this book and reading the reviews, then takes my word for it - this has to be a book for you.

See: http://www.lulu.com/shop/b-w-schulz/separate-identity-organizational-identity-among-readers-of-zions-watch-tower-1870-1887-volume-2-culture-and-organization/paperback/product-24467519.html

The Search for Charles Buehler

(This article first appeared on another blog. If you have read it there, then please note there are no changes in the version that follows. By all means skip it. It is a considerable re-write of an article published elsewhere about six years ago. I have tried to outline the research paths followed which may be of help to newer researchers looking for trails in their own research. The proposed book mentioned in the article is planned to appear here in due course, at least in embryonic form.)

One of my projects is to do a book on the various cemeteries in Pittsburgh that feature in Watch Tower history, particularly for the benefit of visitors/tourists to the area. A title like “Grave Matters” or “Grave Affairs” is likely. (Insert groan.)

Much of the research was done when I visited the area myself in 2014, and various articles appeared on this blog at the time, which will form the basis for the “new” work. But of course, everything needs re-researching in case there is more that can still be found.

This brings us to the strange case of Charles Buehler. A transcript of a death certificate, but alas not the original, has now become available on Ancestry. You would need to visit a record office in person to obtain the original, and since I live 3325 miles away from Brooklyn (give or take), that is a little impractical. (Any readers who can literally make the trip please contact me back-channel.) But the transcript does provide more information to help with identification – or muddy the waters.

But first, why is the death and burial of Charles Buehler of interest? In 1905 the Watch Tower Society through a holding company, The United States Investment Company, purchased farm land for a cemetery. In his last will and testament CTR asked that he be buried there, and in 1916 he was. The whole area was sold off at the end of 1917, apart from a couple of small sections just reserved for the Bible Students. The most famous one had a pyramid monument erected in its center, and this is the magnet for visitors to see.

The pyramid was designed as a family monument for Bethelites and Pilgrims with sufficient spaces for all their names on its sides. As it happened, only nine names were ever recorded, and were on three of the sides, leaving one side blank. The engravings were all done before the pyramid was installed and related to burials between 1914 and 1919.

The whole project was abandoned until burials restarted in 1943, with two exceptions. One was CTR’s sister, Margaretta Russell Land, who was buried next to him in 1934. The other was our mystery man, Charles Buehler, who was buried on this site on March 27, 1925. This is the one solitary burial throughout the whole of the 1920s, but there was no name added to the pyramid inscriptions.

The location of the grave is interesting. Below is a plan of the site, and the grave plots as they exist now including the four taken out by the pyramid. (Originally they hoped to cram in more burials, but a curved hillside site presented logistical problems, and the original plan that you can make out on the sides of the pyramid monument was soon rejected.)

The plan is looking across the site – to the left is in the bottom of the hill and to the right is the top. You can see where the named Bible Students on the pyramid sides were buried – apart from CTR himself, they were in little clusters at the corners of the site. In the top right hand corner were John Perry, Grace Mundy, Henry Addington, Lorena Russell (no relation to CTR) and Flora Cole. In the top left hand corner were Arabella Mann and Mary Whitehouse. In the bottom right hand corner was John Coolidge, whose stone still survives. But the bottom left hand corner was unused. However, it was obviously the plan to start at the four extremities of the Society’s site and work their way inwards. There were going to be problems when they met in the middle, but that was someone else’s headache in the future.

The one unused quadrant of the whole site, section T-47, is where the grave of Charles Buehler is found, in the far corner again, in plot H4. That fits the pattern, but then as noted above there were no further interments (apart from Margaretta Land) until the 1940s when the policy was to now sell off all the remaining plots.

So who was Charles Buehler? It is not an uncommon name in historical records, which makes the search more difficult. It is usually attached to families who came from Switzerland to the United States.

There are three known references to Charles Buehler in Bible Student materials. The first is the 1909 Convention Report. The 1909 Denver Colorado Convention program contained a symposium on The Fruits of the Spirit. C G Buehler gave the segment on Long-Suffering at the St Joseph convention, and his photograph was attached and reproduced below.

When I wrote originally I thought this might be our man, except that the newly discovered death certificate shows that the Charles buried in United Cemeteries was only about 22 in 1909. I think we must accept the above photograph as being of an older man, although as noted below likely related. Then (as far as this researcher’s labors are concerned) there is silence until 1922. In that year the Bible Students’ unofficial newspaper, The New Era Enterprise (formerly the St Paul Enterprise – named after the place, not the apostle) mentioned the Buehler name twice in connection with funeral reports.

The January 24, 1922, issue had a funeral report for one R Fritz who had died in an accident. The report, written by the widow, then residing in Kansas, reported “we secured the use of the community hall seating over 600 for the services and sent to St Joseph, Mo., for Brother M.E. Riemer, who sent Brother C.G. Buehler in his stead. The discourse was grand...giving the divine plan as briefly as possible and the people were very attentive. We have heard many favorable comments, some saying it was the best they had ever heard.”

Key points to hold onto are the reference to St Joseph and the family name Riemer. Two months later, the March 21, 1922, issue had a funeral report for Amy C Merrett, of Kearney, Mo., who “had had present truth since 1883.” The brief report noted that “Brother Charles Buehler of Kansas City, conducted her funeral.” (Kansas City and St Joseph, Mo., are only 55 miles away from each other).

Unfortunately the file for the New Era Enterprise for 1925 is incomplete, which is a pity because an obituary for Charles himself would probably have removed all mystery.

This Charles G Buehler from 1922 could have been the older man from the 1909 convention report, or the younger man who died in 1925 and was buried in United Cemeteries. Our Charles’ death certificate transcript says he died in the Brooklyn hospital, and his given address was 124 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn. His occupation, obviously in Brooklyn Bethel, was bookbinder. He was born c. 1887 as worked out from his age of 38 at death. He was single. Cause of death is given as septicaemia and osteomyelitis. His “executor” was given as Mr Hugo H Riem, friend (which is likely a truncated transcript for H H Riemer).

Normally Bethelites who died at this time were buried in the Society’s new plot on Staten Island near the radio station WBBR. But, for whatever reason, Charles B was taken to be buried in the otherwise abandoned cemetery in Pittsburgh. There may have been a family reason, the name Charles Buehler also occurs in Pittsburgh records, although as noted above it was not an uncommon name at the time. There are three Charles Buehlers in Pittsburgh directories - for 1884 (a baker), 1902 (a brewmaster), and 1909 (a machinist). Whether different people or relatives of the Charles in United Cemeteries it has not been possible to determine.

It seems most likely that Charles came originally from Missouri. His friend H H Riemer had a connecton there. When the Watch Tower listed names of those who had taken “The Vow,” the class at St Joseph signed from, amongst others, Hugo H Riemer and also a Clara L Buehler. There were actually six Riemer family members including M E Riemer, who was likely featured in the New Era Enterprise quote above. From the August 15, 1908 Watch Tower magazine:

The 1908 street directory for St Joseph lists a Mrs Clara L Buehler and also not one but two different men named Charles Buehler. There is a Charles who is a book agent, and another Charles G for whom no occupation is given. One could have been the older Charles whose picture was in the 1909 convention report (note that his talk was given at the St Joseph convention) and other could have been OUR Charles Buehler.

By the 1910 census the extended Buehler family was grown and scattered and difficult to piece together, but the 1900 census for St Joseph gives the likely branch that included Charles.

We have parents, and then in the full return a total of six children. The parents are the head (indecipherable but sometimes transcribed as Gustave) Buehler and wife, Katherine Buehler. Their eldest child is named Gottfried and was born in Switzerland. The father came to America in 1884, and his wife and first child in 1885. After Gottfried there was Charles, aged 14, who was the first to be born in America. There is a shared gravestone in the Ashland Cemetery, St Joseph, that is for Gottfried Buehler (1857-1926) and Katherine Buehler (1861- 1923) which helps clarify the father’s first name.

Our Charles’ death certificate gives his parents as Gottfried and Katherine, so it is reasonable to assume that this is the right family and therefore the right Charles. This particular Charles in St Joseph received a life-threatening injury in a gun accident as a teenager, which may have contributed to health issues later on.

Family records are a headache but those from the Ashland Cemetery suggest that the older Charles G Buehler of the convention report was a relative, maybe an uncle, or cousin once removed, as was Clara L Buehler by marriage to a Samuel Buehler. The older Charles lived on until 1940 but his obituary showed he had severed contact with the IBSA. His funeral was taken by J A Meggison.

So – a chain of possible evidence, conjecture, joining the dots maybe – such is the case of Charles Buehler. Such is the stuff of conjectural research. But the question still remains – why United Cemeteries?

Henry Weber

Guest post by Bernhard

Henry Weber has a special place in Watch Tower history. He was a director of the WTBTS from 11 April 1892 until his death on 21 January 1904 (a total of 11 years and 9 months). On Saturday, 6 January 1894 he succeeded Rose Ball as Vice President of the WTBTS, a position he retained until his death.

Henry’s German name was Heinrich, and he was born on 3 June 1835 in Klein Seelheim (Hessen), Germany. He married Katherine (Katherina) Schultz (Schutz) in 1866. She lived from Feb.1846-1929. The couple had eleven children. The names of ten are known:

Mary Weber                            1866-1954

William Weber                        1869-1935

Elizabeth Weber                      1871-1960

Katherine Weber                     1873-1960

George B. Weber                    1875-1958

Diana Weber                           1877-1971

Edith L. Weber                        1879-1970

John W. Weber                        1882- ?

Walter Franklin Weber            1884-1910

Ralph Enoch Weber                1887-1981

As so often happens with historical research, some of his children lived until quite recent times, but the opportunity to ask them about their father’s religious activities is alas, gone.

This article will address his secular history first and then his association with CTR.

Secular history

Weber was a horticulturist, and most of the material that follows is taken from The American Carnation – How to Grow It; Illustrated; by Charles Willis Ward –1903; pp. 273-274.

Henry’s father, John (Johann) Weber, was a farmer who died at the age of sixty-three. Henry Weber attended Government schools until he was fourteen years old, when he was apprenticed to a florist, and a few years thereafter was made foreman of his employer’s gardens and greenhouses. At nineteen years of age he entered the British Army, serving during the Crimean War. During his ten years’ service in the British Army he was stationed at various points in Asia, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

In 1865 he decided to come to America, and with his brother John, who had preceded him, embarked in general farming and market gardening, at Mount Savage, Allegheny Co., Maryland. At the end of five years he sold his interest to his brother, and removed to Cumberland, Maryland, where he established a general market gardening and florist business.  In 1879, he bought a tract of land in Garrett County, adjoining the town of Oakland, where he established a florist business specialising in carnations. He became an active member of The American Carnation Society, The Society of American Florists, and other organizations. (Another source states that he was Vice President of the American Carnation Society in 1901).

Shortly after that account was published, Henry died in 1904. His business, H Weber and Sons Co. was directed after his death by son William (1869-1935). The Smithsonian Institute has a collection of business records for the company, which operated up until 1978 when the remaining greenhouses were torn down.

Bible Student history

According to the funeral discourse given by CTR when Henry Weber died, his religious background had first been as an active Episcopalian and Y.M.C.A. worker, before “he was counted of the Lord worthy to know of Present Truth.”

In ZWT for 1 June 1901 pages 190-191 (reprints page 2828) Edna Mary Hammond of Maryland relates how she came to understand “the truth.” She writes to CTR:

I was a very small child (10 years) when your publications were first introduced into our family, through the kindness of Mr Henry Weber, of Oakland, who was then my brother’s Sunday School teacher, and whose name I cannot mention without the sincerest gratitude.

Edna Mary Hammond’s details can be found on Find a Grave. She was born in 1873 and died in 1941. Her younger sister Lulu’s details (1882-1976) state that she was a Jehovah’s Witness.

So if Edna Mary was born in 1873, we would find Henry Weber circulating Bible Student publications in 1883. Edna Mary’s letter specifically singles out Food for Thinking Christians.

Henry’s name first appears in ZWT in 1887. He gave a donation to assist in the distribution of ARP tracts. From ZWT December 1887 page 8 (reprints page 989).

The March 1889 ZWT page 7 (reprints page 1108) carried a letter from Henry in which he described his colporteur experiences, selling 109 books in a little over four days, and expressing how he wished he could give his entire time to “this blessed work.” The letter is prefaced with a comment from CTR that gives a bit more of his background.

[The following is from Brother Weber of Maryland. Though a florist and gardener on a large scale, he is not seeking worldly prominence or wealth, but divine approval and heavenly riches. To do this he uses his garden, hot-houses, etc., as ways and means for honoring the Lord by spreading the truth. He is out as much as possible in the "harvest" field selling DAWN Vol. I. A man of keen business judgment and good address, he enlists his best endeavors in this highest service-- the service of God—and we believe is laying up treasure in heaven.--EDITOR.]

ZWT for 15 January 1893, page 31 (omitted in reprints) contains another letter describing Henry’s experiences and expressing regret that, unlike others, he can’t give his “entire time to this great work.”

In the special edition of ZWT for 25 April 1894, Henry Weber features quite prominently.  On pages 17-19 he actively supported CTR in the controversy involving Elmer Bryan and J B Adamson. Henry personally met with both men, the latter together with CTR, to try and resolve the problems. It got messy. Adamson wanted to get the Dawn colporteurs to sell his own publication, using the Old Theology and WTBTS mastheads, but without informing CTR. He complained about the expense he had already incurred and Weber offered to compensate him out of his own pocket. Adamson then publicly accused CTR’s “spokesman” of trying to buy him off. And on it went.

From page 40 onwards, when Elmer Bryan made his list of accusations against CTR, Henry Weber and M M Tuttle were asked by him to be present when the charges were put to CTR. They supported CTR on every point in the dispute. One incidental that came out from the discussion was that it was Henry Weber, and not CTR, who had used his contacts to organize special railroad rates for colporteurs, which was not fraud but open and above board.

In ZWT 15 December 1894 page 393 (reprints page 1746) Weber is mentioned in a list of names of those business people who were current sharing in part-time colporteur work.

In the 1890s, meetings were held at the Weber home. A letter from Henry Weber in ZWT 1 May 1895 page 112 (omitted in reprints) said in part:

DEAR BRO. RUSSELL:--At the request of the Church at Philadelphia, I met with them, after making arrangements with Bros. Gillis and Jackson to be with the little company at our house. At 2 P.M. we met to consider the subject of baptism, and at 4 P.M. we adjourned for this service to a small church building kindly put at our disposal. Four brethren and six sisters symbolized by water the burial of their wills into the will of their Redeemer and Lord. Between forty and fifty participated in the Memorial service, which was preceded by a praise and testimony meeting.

A further letter in ZWT 15 April 1896 page 87 (reprints page 1966) from Henry Weber spoke of a little company meeting at his house in Oakland to celebrate the Lord’s last Memorial supper. There were seven partakers. This suggests that this was quite a small gathering on this occasion.

Henry had a new house built c. 1898 called Seelheim, and it was probably here that a small convention was held in 1901. J.H. Bohnet attended and sent in his report as published in ZWT 15 September 1901, page 301 (omitted in reprints):

Dear Brother Russell:--To my mind the Oakland convention is the best I ever attended, due perhaps in some degree to the fact that it was in the country, amid nature's surroundings, God's own handiwork, instead of being in a city; and again, due largely to the fact that it was at Bro. Weber's home. We have much to be thankful for to the family who did so well by us all, and to the Lord be the praise for his "goodness and mercy (which) shall follow us all the days of our life." I cannot find words to express my gratitude in having been privileged to assemble with those of like precious faith on this blessed occasion…… Your brother in hope, J. A. Bohnet,--Washington.

A letter from A N Pierson in ZWT 15 October 1901, page 335 (reprints page 2897) to Henry Weber was published with Pierson’s permission, in which he thanked Weber for his hospitality at this same gathering.

“I...ask you to extend my thanks to dear Mrs Weber and the girls for all their work of labor and love, also to the boys that were kept so busy.”

Pierson met CTR at the Weber home. He would later briefly become another WTBTS Vice President. Like Weber he ran a horticultural business.

Henry Weber’s house – built c. 1898

Henry died in early 1904, and CTR travelled to his home to conduct the funeral service. The funeral report was in ZWT 1 February 1904 page 36 (reprints page 3314):

The report read (in part):

ENTERED INTO HIS REST.

PILGRIM Brother Henry Weber has passed beyond the vail, to be forever with the Lord. We rejoice on his behalf. He finished his earthly course on Thursday, January 21st, at 2.15 p.m., at his home --Oakland, Md.--and was buried on Saturday, the 23rd. A large gathering, composed of his family, friends and neighbors, was addressed by the Editor of this journal....Brother Weber left a very interesting family--his wife and one of his sons being confessors of the Lord and his Truth. For the remainder of the family we have strong hopes that the good influence of the father's character in daily life may be still stronger with them since his death – drawing them also to full consecration to the same Savior and his "reasonable service."

Henry was buried in the Weber Family Cemetery, Oakland, Garrett County, Maryland, USA. His wife, Katherine, was laid to rest beside him 25 years later. The cemetery is still in use for Weber descendants.

This photograph from the Weber family cemetery shows the headstone for Katherine Weber nearest the camera. It is most likely that Henry’s stone is the one next to her.

(Some additional material researched by Jerome)