2. Pittsburgh Presbyterians

Many of those from Scots-Irish stock who immigrated to America belonged to the Presbyterian Church. The Russell family were no exception.

Their family tree can be traced back (so far) to a Thomas Russell who married Fannie Grier (Russell) in Londonderry in what is now Northern Ireland. According to the Aunt Sarah Russell Morris document (see article on Mary Jane Russell on this blog) the Russells had thirteen children, ten of whom survived to adulthood. Most of them came to America. Some settled in New York and New Jersey, but our particular interest is in those who ended up in the Pittsburgh area. Charles Tays, James and Joseph Lytle Russell were three brothers, who all lived and ultimately died in Pittsburgh. They were all buried together in the Allegheny cemetery in a family plot originally purchased by James.

Relying on his obituary for details, one of the first to reach America was Charles Tays Russell in the early 1820s. By 1831 he was in Pittsburgh with a store. We now know that he joined the Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh in 1834.

The Third Presbyterian Church Pittsburgh was established in 1834, and as members joined they were given a number. In the very first year of its operation, Charles T Russell, became a member, and was given the number 47. Here is his entry in the church admissions register.

The entry states he was admitted on January 22, 1834, by certificate, which means he came from another Presbyterian Church with a letter of introduction. We do not know which one that was, or whether it was in Pittsburgh or elsewhere.

The right hand column details what eventually happened to these members. The entry for Chas T Russell shows that he was “suspended.” Had he simply left for another church the entry would have read “dismissed” – which can be a bit confusing for readers unfamiliar with the terms as they were used in the register. Had he misbehaved and been expelled the register would have stated that, and quite likely would have given salacious detail of his offense. However, the entry “suspended” in this context suggests that Charles Tays simply lapsed. He stopped attending, he ceased making contributions, and eventually the church wrote him off. There is no evidence of any subsequent involvement in religious affairs for the rest of his (admittedly) sketchy history. And his obituary does not tell us who conducted his funeral service.

It does confirm the family’s Presbyterian background. Other arrivals from this family would have automatically gravitated towards the Pittsburgh Presbyterians.

We have no church record for his brother James. We know James was in Pittsburgh in 1840 because of the census. He purchased the family plot for ten graves in the Allegheny cemetery in the mid-1840s in Section 7, plot 17. His wife Sarah was the first to be buried there in December1846, and he joined her a year later in December 1847.

Our particular interest is in another of the Russell brothers, Joseph Lytle, because he became father to Charles Taze Russell, named after his uncle but with variant spelling for the middle name. As noted in the previous article, the Watchtower Society’s history video Faith in Action part 1 (Out of Darkness) suggests that he came to America already married in 1845. But this information, likely based on his obituary, is incorrect. As the previous article outlines, Joseph Lytle’s application for citizenship in 1848 stated that he had been in the United States for five years. This can now be confirmed because his name occurs in a Pittsburgh newspaper for 1843.

The Pittsburgh Daily Post began a regular column in 1843 listing the names of all those who needed to collect mail from the Pittsburgh post office. It is a great shame for researchers that the feature did not start in earlier years. In the issue for Monday, October 16, 1843 (repeated in the following two daily issues) we find Joseph L Russell.

 One notes that the name Joseph has an unusual spelling. This is either a misprint in the paper or some creative spelling on the part of whoever sent the letter, perhaps from the old country, Ireland. Whatever the reason, this is probably why this newspaper reference has not been discovered until recently.

Above the name of Joceph (sic) L Russell is James Russell, who was likely his older brother. A month later in the issue for Saturday, November 18, 1843, we find the oldest brother, Charles T Russell, also being asked to collect his mail.

So Joseph L Russell was in Pittsburgh in October 1843. His older brother Charles Tays Russell had been there for more than a decade and had joined the Third Presbyterian Church in January 1834. The next discovery is that Joseph Lytle chose to join the same church in 1845.

Here is the same church register that featured Charles T Russell as member number 47.  We are now up to member number 551, Joseph Russell.

Joseph was admitted to this church on March 7, 1845, by certificate. This means that like Charles Tays before him, he had come from another Presbyterian Church with a letter of introduction, but again we don’t know from which church, whether in Pittsburgh or elsewhere. I cannot quite picture him traveling across the Atlantic clutching a letter of introduction, so he likely belonged to another American Church before joining the 3^rd Presbyterian. We also note in the right hand column that he was ultimately “dismissed” so changed churches again.

As noted in the previous article, Joseph Lytle was to transfer from the Third to the Second Presbyterian on December 1, 1849. Here again is the Second Presbyterian register that provides that information.

To explain the abbreviations ex = examination and cert = certificate. So Joseph L. Russell was admitted to the church on examination and certificate on December 1, 1849. This confirmed that he had been a member of another church in good standing before transferring to the Second Presbyterians.

The event is also mentioned in the Second Presbyterian Session Minutes from December 1, 1849, as reproduced below.

These minutes add the extra information that pulls the story together: Joseph L. Russell was previously a member of the Third Presbyterian Church (New School) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In fact it was this reference that opened the door on the research into the Russell brothers’ religious affiliations, as outlined in the article that follows this.

December 1, 1849, was an interesting time for Joseph L to change churches. It may have been linked to the impending birth of a first child as noted in the previous article, or it may have been a simple geographical relocation within the greater Pittsburgh area. At present we do not know.

What is still missing is any information about Ann Eliza in surviving records of Pittsburgh Presbyterian churches. We have no marriage record for her and Joseph or any baptism record for her children. However, the church Joseph Lytle joined (and we assume Ann with him) was also the church Ann’s brother, Thomas, attended at some point. Thomas Birney’s obituary from 1899 as referenced in the previous article states that he joined the Second Presbyterian Church in 1845. That date cannot be verified because we have no record of this in extant church records. Neither do have any record of his marriage to Mary Ann Covell. However, between 1857 and 1872 six of his children were baptised in that church, including a daughter named after her aunt, Ann Eliza.

Second Presbyterian baptism register. Ann Eliza, daughter of Thomas

and Mary Ann Birney, born October 29, 1856, baptized September 12, 1857.

So in summary, Joseph Lytle Russell and Ann Eliza Birney came to the United States as singles. Joseph was in Pittsburgh as early as 1843 and Ann was there from at least 1848. They met and married in Pittsburgh, likely after meeting through Pittsburgh Presbyterian Church contact. Joseph had previously joined one Presbyterian Church in 1845, the same church his older brother Charles Tays had joined back in 1834. Ann Eliza’s brother was Presbyterian and his children were baptised there in the 1850s.

So at the time that Joseph and Ann started their family, first Thomas and then Charles Taze Russell, they were Presbyterian in faith.

3. Following the Trail

For the benefit of fellow researchers who read this site, how was the above information discovered? Remarkably easily, and basically in the reverse order to the way the material is presented.

Using Ancestry I did a search for Ann Eliza Birney, CTR’s mother. Almost immediately a birth came up in this name from 1855, in the records of the 2^nd Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh. It turned out to be the daughter of Thomas and Mary Ann Birney. Thomas was Joseph Lytle Russell’s brother-in-law. They had simply named one of their children after her aunt. The 2^nd Presbyterian records showed that Thomas and Mary Ann had six children baptised there, although there are no extant records of their marriage. Still, here was definite proof that one branch of the family had been 2^nd Presbyterian.

With a little help from the Presbyterian Historical Society the church sessions records showed Joseph Lytle joined this church in 1849, and crucially that he had transferred from the 3^rd Presbyterian Church. All the surviving records for 3^rd Presbyterian are online, and conveniently past church members had compiled a rough alphabetical list of all members past and present. There were several Russells on the list – some obviously no connection - but two were. There was Joseph, who joined in 1845, and the extra big surprise, the original Charles T(ays) Russell who joined in 1834, the year the church opened. I still visually checked the complete listing of members in date order just in case the compilers had omitted a stray Russell, but they hadn’t.

Records of around 40 different Presbyterian churches in Pittsburgh are now available to online researchers, so the next step was to visually check them all. That wasn’t as difficult as it sounds – many were outside the time frame which narrowed the search considerably. But the only results found for the Russell and Birney families are in the preceeding articles. Of course, it may be that more records will surface in the future to fill missing pieces in the jigsaw.

I have a theory that maybe Ann Eliza was at one time affiliated with a Philadelphian Presbyterian Church. We know that later in her marriage she and Joseph lived in Philadelphia. We know that she had business interests there because after Joseph’s own business failed he ended up as her “agent in Philadelphia” in her will. And near the end of her life Ann and Joseph were mentioned in a Philadelphian church register. The trouble is that while Pittsburgh had around 40 Presbyterian Churches, Philadelphia had far more. If an Ancestry index doesn’t throw up any information, it would take a very long time to search them all. A VERY LONG TIME. Sometimes, life is just too short.

Photodrama of Creation ticket

The dates show this ticket from the U.K. to be for 1915.

A letter from Maria (1894)

 In late 2014 a handwritten letter from Maria Russell was sold on eBay. The collector who purchased the original kindly reproduced the contents for others to see, and it is here transcribed in full.

It was written by Maria quite soon after she had traveled to congregations to defend CTR from accusations made by S D Rogers and others. (see: A Conspiracy Exposed and Harvest Siftings, extra number of ZWT for April 25, 1894, and subsequent correspondence in columns of ZWT). At the time it was written Maria was visiting the home of her sister, Emma, in Ashland, Virginia, along with Emma’s family, her husband Joseph L Russell (CTR’s father) and daugher Mabel.

Start of the letter

 

End of letter

 Transcript of complete letter

Ashland, Va.

July 19^th, 1894.

Mrs W N Fuller

Dear Sister in Christ

     Your welcome letter of June 27^th was duly received and the pamphlet requested was sent you and as I did not have time to reply before I left home I do so now from here where I am spending a short time with my sister for rest and change.

     We appreciate very much the sentiments of your letter and feel very thankful that the storm has passed and that so little damage has been done. God has wonderfully overruled in it all and made the wrath of man to praise him; and all has worked together for good to his saints – the called according to his purpose who still love and serve him. What could more increase our love and confidence in him.

     We do indeed feel sorry for the erring ones, but there is no sign of repentance on the part of any of them. Their only regret is that they have not succeeded in wrecking the work and ruining the reputation and influence of Bro. Russell. How sad and deplorable must be such a condition of mind and heart.

(page 2)

     I am glad to know that your interest in the truth continues to grow and that your faith and hope increases. I hear from you occasionally through Sister Vero. Yes, how precious the truth is to us and what could we take in exchange for it? It is dearer to me every day and all my ambition is to attain that whereunto I am called. I can never for a moment feel that I could be satisfied unless I win the prize of our high calling; and yet I constantly realize my unworthiness. In Christ alone is my hope.

     The good work both h at home and abroad still goes forward, and even though clouds and darkness are about how we blessedly realize that the Lord is present and doing his strange and wonderful work. How fast events are progressing toward the full establishment of his kingdom. Truly Zion hears and is glad and the daughters of Judah rejoice. My heart is full of joy and praise when I think of these things.

     Give our love to your dear mother and family. My sister here – Mrs J.L. Russell – also sends greeting to you in the Lord. She and her husband and little daughter are also in the same faith and hope. She and I came into the truth together. Hoping to hear from you again, I am as ever

              Yours in the Beloved

               Mrs. C. T. Russell.

Fringe Items

A sample of the kind of advertisements that started appearing in the St Paul Enterprise newspaper in 1917. If any survived they would be highly collectable today.

I rather like the "Four pages, over 2,000 yards..."

Find a Grave

This article has grown out of several articles published in the past elsewhere. Its main purpose is to show photographs of headstones for people connected with Watch Tower history in some way, using the Find a Grave website. That site should be credited for the photographs, although I have also received permission from the original photographers to reproduce their work. So grateful thanks goes to Sherry, Doug, Shiver, MrsJB, JennO, Duane, blt, Neil, Chris, Mojo, Joann, Kathie and Beverley. In some cases the pictures used here are alternatives to those currently found on the site, simply because I didn’t need permission to use my own photographs.

Contacting those who originally took the photographs has had follow-on benefits. I have made contact on occasion with descendants of these people, some with tales to tell. On one occasion a long standing mystery was solved when the photographer kindly went back to the cemetery and took an additional photograph. This was the case of Malcom Rutherford (Judge Rutherford’s son) and his two marriages. The story is told in the series of articles on Malcom elsewhere on this blog.

Because permission has been granted for reproduction it means that readers can probably assume it is OK to copy on these pictures for non-commercial use if anyone so chooses. However, I would always recommend going back to the original source on Find a Grave as some pages contain further information on the individuals. And this is not static – new material is being added all the time to this resource. What wasn’t there for me to discover today could just be there for you to discover tomorrow. Also, I have only listed the headstones and names of individals and not the actual cemeteries in this article, but this information can easily be found on the Find a Grave site.

It is worth noting that there are some individuals connected with Watch Tower history who do not have headstones, but nonetheless have pages devoted to them on the Find a Grave site. However, in this article, apart from some paragraphs on the Staten Island Cemetery where no markers was a matter of policy, these are not covered. This article is, after all, about pictures. But I still recommend that you type in your name of choice and check. And things change. For example, when I first wrote this article there was no photograph of John Corbin Sunderlin’s headstone. Now there is. I say again - always check.

Before we actually get to the pictures, perhaps I can illustrate the spin-off value of this resource with one example. In researching Henry Weber for an article recently published here, a letter was found in ZWT from 1901 written by an Edna Mary Hammond. Edna stated that her introduction to Bible Student publications was through her brother’s Sunday school teacher. This was Henry Weber. Edna is very specific; she was 10 years old at the time. Find a Grave finds – not just Henry Weber, but also Edna Mary. We know from her entry that she was born in 1873 and also where she was born. Do the math and we know that Henry was already circulating CTR’s publications as early as 1883. We also know from Edna’s entry and the surrounding family entries that her sister died as a Jehovah’s Witness. So we have the right name, the right family, the right place and right religious connections. All of this gives us an earlier date than previously known for Henry Weber’s Watch Tower connections.

The Russell family

 Charles Taze Russell

Front row - markers for CTR's father, mother, and three siblings

Back row - markers for Uncle Charles, Uncle James and Aunt Sarah

 Father - Joseph L Russell

 The in-laws, Mahlon and Selena Ackley

 The wife - Maria Frances Russell

The sister in law and step-mother, Emma Russell

Before the Watch Tower

 Henry Grew

(no grave location known, but this is his death certificate)

 Benjamin Wilson

 Jonas Wendell

 George Stetson

 George Storrs

Nelson Barbour

Some of those who went their own way

 William H Conley (first Society president)

 "Our Pet" - Conley's adopted daughter who died aged 10 in 1881

 John H Paton

 Hugh B Rice

 Arthur P Adams

 Otto Von Zech

Ernest C Henninges

(his wife Rose Ball was buried here too but the headstone was never updated)

Post-CTR

Nathan H Knorr and Frederick W Franz

Later years

The Society had its own cemetery, the Rosemont United Cemeteries, in Ross Township, Pittsburgh. Here CTR and a few Bethel family members and Pilgrims were buried, and their names inscribed on a pyramid monument that is still a tourist attraction today. The actual cemetery was sold off in 1917 with only a couple of small areas still reserved for Watch Tower adherents. However, shortly after the headquarters moved from Pittsburgh back to Brooklyn for the second time in 1919, the plan was to all intents and purposes abandoned. There was one burial in 1925, another in 1934 (CTR's sister), and then not until the 1940s were the remaining graves sold off. This cemetery will be the subject of future articles.

It made far more sense to have a cemetery for Bethel workers in New York where they were now headquartered. So a new cemetery was created on Staten Island, New York. In 1922 the Society bought 24 acres of land in Woodrow Road, Staten Island. The area is sometimes known as Rossville and also Huguenot Park. The purpose was to build their own radio station WBBR which started broadcasting in early 1924. There was also some farming done on the land, in what was then very much a rural area.

A new graveyard was established nearby in the same street, alongside an historic landmark, the Woodrow United Methodist Church. The website NYC AM Radio History when discussing station WBBR made the statement:

Judge Rutherford died in 1942 and was buried at Rossville in a Methodist cemetery within sight of the WBBR towers.

This small burial plot was used until at least the late 1960s. There are various references to this cemetery in the Society’s literature when the death of someone well-known from their headquarters staff was announced. For example, the Awake for February 22, 1952 page 26 recounts the funeral of Clayton J Woodworth, along with two other Bethel workers in a triple interment. The article reads (in part):

On Staten Island in New York City the Watchtower Society maintains a place of burial for members of the headquarters staff known as the Bethel family. How appropriate it is that the remains of these men who labored together during their lifetime, Rutherford, Van Amburgh, Martin and Woodworth, should be buried there together!

These four had all been imprisoned together way back in 1918.

The Woodrow Road graveyard was accessible to the general public. It was obviously the policy to have no grave markers. It is reported that today you can recognise the area belonging to the Society simply because it is the only section in the cemetery without headstones or markers.

In the 1960s the Society purchased two properties at Wallkill, Ulster County, about 100 miles north of Brooklyn, NY, totalling a reported 1200 hectares (around 3000 acres). These became known as Watchtower Farms, and extensive printing operations were transferred to this area from the early 1970s onwards. A new graveyard was created on this property that is known as the Watchtower Farms Cemetery. It is a private cemetery on private land and is therefore not accessible to the general public. The custom is now to have small grave markers put down as depicted above for Nathan Knorr and Frederick Franz.

Only a few of those buried at Wallkill have photographs on Find a Grave. However, you can still check names. At the time of writing the site lists 175 graves.  But be warned that the list is not complete, and neither is it error free. For example, it lists the grave of A H MacMillan as being at Wallkill, whereas the Watchtower for 1966, page 608, clearly shows that he was buried at Staten Island. The same would be true of Giovanni DeCecca who died in 1965. These two, also imprisoned together back in 1918, were probably among the last to be interred at Woodrow Road.

In conclusion, it is acknowledged that this article does not directly add much to our knowledge of Watch Tower history, but is designed to highlight a resource that the author has found extremely useful. The more who use it, the more it will grow, and the more useful it can be for future researchers.

Three Sisters

Important note: Grateful thanks are due to correspondent Bernhard who supplied some of the information below. Regrettably I am not able to give references in support of some dates, but I have no reason whatsoever to doubt the accuracy of the information.

The title “Three Sisters” may bring to mind a famous play by Anton Chekhov, likely inspired by the three Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne.

However, this article is going to briefly consider three who were classed as sisters within the framework of the ZWT fellowship. They all had something remarkable in common – they all served as directors of Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society (from 1894 the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society) during the time of CTR’s presidency.

If this concept is a surprise to modern readers, there are two facts about those early days that must be recognized. First, women had a much more public role in the Society’s affairs in those days. CTR’s wife, Maria, for example was an associate editor of the Watch Tower for a number of years. (See Proclaimers book footnote, page 645).

And second, it must be realized that the role of directors in those early days was mainly figurative. In A Conspiracy Exposed (pages 55-60)  CTR explained that for legal reasons the Watch Tower Society needed directors, but it was always understood  that matters were so arranged to allow him (along with Maria at that time) to retain control. There was no annual meeting; and elections, such as they were, took place on the first Saturday of each New Year. Hence John B Adamson in that same document complained that as a director he never made a decision. Later, Maria in the separation hearing testimony, made a similar comment about her role as secretary-treasurer. Directors would include some of CTR’s contacts in Pittsburgh and Allegheny, and in many cases, those who were on hand by living in or at least working in the Bible House. But they didn’t “direct” – they were just names on paper. As time went on, a number of members of the Pittsburgh Bible House family (and later Brooklyn Bethel family) simply stepped in and filled gaps as directors – often for quite brief times – under the administration of CTR.

People ceased to be directors for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes someone died (like Henry Weber), sometimes someone resigned because they withdrew from fellowship with Russell (like J B Adamson) and sometimes someone was just too ill to continue (like William C MacMillan).

So who were our three “sisters” who were directors?

The first female director, was of course, Maria Russell herself. Maria Frances Ackley was born in 1850.

She married CTR in 1879 and later that year worked with him as the fledgling  ZWT magazine was launched. Her sister Emma married CTR’s father, Joseph, the following year, 1880.

In 1881 Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society was formed with William Conley as president, and CTR as secretary-treasurer and his father Joseph as vice-president. On Monday, December 15, 1884 this society was legally incorporated in Pittsburgh. Maria became a director and an officer of the new incorporated Society – as secretary-treasurer. On paper this meant that she replaced CTR who had previously held that position, but who now became president of the new official arrangement.

Maria remained as secretary-treasurer in name until the annual meeting on January 5, 1895. Although no longer an officer, she remained on the books as a director until February 12, 1900 when she resigned. She was replaced by either Albert E Williamson  or Clara Taylor (two new directors were required at this election).

Her subsequent  history is quite easy to trace. The contemporary newspaper St Paul Enterprise in its Memorial number when CTR died gives an account her in the funeral cortege. She later moved to Florida with her sister, Emma, and died in St Petersburg, Florida, in 1938. There is some biographical material for her on the Find a Grave site, under Maria F Ackley Russell.

The second female director was also a Vice-President of the Society for a very short time. This was Rose Ball Henninges. Early census returns list her as Rosa (rather than Rose) J Ball - but no-one seems to know what the J stood for. She and her brother, Charles, came to Pittsburgh. Charles died in March 1889 and Rose became part of the Russell household and then Bible House family. She is included in many group photographs of the day, along with a young man named Ernest Charles Henninges, whom she would marry in 1897. (He too would be a director at one point).

A young Rose Ball sitting in a group photo with her future husband Ernest Henninges in 1893.

Rose became a director on April 11, 1892. Two directors were replaced on that date, William  I Mann and Joseph F Smith, so she replaced one of them. On January 7, 1893, Rose became Vice-President for a year, until the next year’s elections on January 6, 1894. After that she remained as a director until she resigned on February 12, 1900 (the same official date as for Maria Russell). As noted above, she was then replaced by either Albert E Williamson  or Clara Taylor.

A few years after her marriage to Ernest Henninges, Rose and Ernest travelled abroad to further the cause. They spent some time in Britain (you can find them in the 1901 UK census) and then Germany, before eventually travelling to Australia. They spent the rest of their lives there. A split occurred between them and CTR over the understanding of “the New Covenant” and they founded their own journal in 1909, which ran until 1953. Charles died in 1939, and Rose in 1950. She was survived by two sisters still living in America,  Miss Lilian Ball of Buffalo, NY, and Mrs Daisy Mabee of Paterson, NJ.

As already mentioned in passing, the third female director was Clara Taylor. Clara became a director on February 12, 1900. On this date both Maria F Russell and Rose J Ball (now Henninges) resigned, so Clara replaced one of them. As already noted, the other replacement director appointed that day was Albert E Williamson.

Clara served as a director for less than a year. At the next election on the first Saturday of the New Year, January 5, 1901, she resigned and was replaced by William E Van Amburgh. He would become one of the longest serving directors in the Society’s history (only Milton Henschel, Lymon Swingle and Fred Franz served for longer).

Clara is featured in some group photographs of the Bible House family in the first decade of the twentieth century. Below is a selection from a photograph showing the mailing room c. 1907.

Clara in the Bible House mailing room c. 1907

All we know at present about Clara Taylor comes from the separation hearing Russell v. Russell from 1906. She was called as a witness to support the testimony of J A Bohnet, and was both examined and cross examined in the case.

Her testimony shows that she was working at Bible House in 1897 before Maria Russell left for Chicago to stay with her brother, Lemuel. CTR had been called away from home and telephoned  Ernest Henninges (misspelled Hennings in the transcript) to ask if could arrange for someone to stay over at Bible House so that Maria would not be left on her own. (Most workers lodged outside the building). Clara was asked and agreed, but was then told by Henninges that she no longer needed to do this because Maria had told him via the internal speaking tube that she’d made her own arrangements. That was the sum of her testimony. But it showed that Clara worked at Bible House in 1897 before Maria left. A passing comment indicated that she had not been there the previous year, 1896. She was also still working there in 1906. And crucially for subsequent  attempts to trace her, she was addressed several times as Miss Clara Taylor. So she was single at the time.

When the headquarters moved to Brooklyn in 1909, Clara apparently didn’t go. Or at least, she is not in the census returns from 1910 onwards. Whether that was due to the New Covenant controversy, or just a matter of geography and family, is not known. She may well have married, in which case the surname Taylor would disappear, making tracing her subsequent  movements somewhat problematic.

So Clara remains a bit of mystery, even though she spent around ten years working at the headquarters, and was one of the three sisters who became directors of the Society in the CTR era.

  Details on the so far unsuccessful search for Clara is in the following article.