End of the Enterprise

from The Golden Age for July 10, 1929, page 655

(depending on your device you may need to click on the graphic to see it in full) 

The New Era Enterprise (originally called The St Paul Enterprise) was an unofficial Bible Student newspaper for much of its history. It started publication in 1910, and was devoted increasingly to Bible Student news from 1914. Its first editor, William Abbott, became a Bible Student. The paper published pamphlets from time to time including the public speaking booklet The School of the Prophets in 1922.

For historical research it is invaluable, especially in its life stories in obituaries, and many well known names appeared in its columns.

Most library sources say the paper ended in 1930, but they all carry a question mark after that date. However, The Golden Age referred to its passing in the extract reproduced above. The writer noted that it had folded “sometime ago.” This information ties in with the extant file on microfilm belonging to the Minnesota Historical Society. The last issue on microfilm is for May 1, 1928.

As The Golden Age became more well-known it took over the role of The Enterprise in some respects. Also The Enterprise was heavily criticised in the article “The Misleading Press” by Judge Rutherford (see Golden Age for December 2, 1925). The paper had censored one of his speeches while claiming to print it complete, and had been selling subscriptions on that understanding. From then on it was only a matter of time before the paper folded.

Of interest in the above clipping – C E Stewart had been the editor of The Enterprise from 1918-1922, and felt the need to warn readers not to send money to its defunct offices. Stewart left the post in 1922 to go into Bethel, to work first on The Golden Age and then become part of The Watch Tower editorial committee.

John Adam Bohnet

His face and head with its distinctive bald pate looked out of various convention reports between 1907 and 1927, including the one above from 1911. He testified at two legal trials involving Charles Taze Russell. He was responsible for the pyramid monument near CTR’s grave. He was the man who actually grew “miracle wheat.” He compiled at least one small book and wrote numerous articles and letters for Watch Tower publications, as well as various newspapers. And unlike many of those who were very close to Russell, he stayed loyal to the Watch Tower Society after the change in administration. Although occasional anecdotes about his work in the 1920s have appeared in modern Watchtower literature, he is not as well remembered as many less public figures of the day. This article tries to redress that balance for John Adam Bohnet.

In 1915 Bohnet was asked to write his life story for the Bible Students unofficial newspaper, the St Paul Enterprise. Many of the facts about his conversion and early work with the Society are taken from this account, first found in the August 27, 1915 issue and then republished unchanged on February 8, 1916.

Additional facts about his life over this period are taken from his testimony in two trials, Russell vs. Russell (1906) “the divorce trial” and Russell vs. Washington Post (1913) “the miracle wheat trial.” Bohnet was a key witness in both trials, where he was quizzed about his own history and his connections with CTR and the Watch Tower Society. For a fuller summary of his St Paul Enterprise testimony, see Separate Identity volume 2, pages 261-271.

Adam’s parents, Johann Adam Bohnet (1830-1926) and Christina Dorothea Unkel (1829-1924) were born in Freudenstadt, Germany, but came to America in 1852 and settled in Michigan, ultimately in Ann Arbor. They had four children, all born in Michigan. Our subject John Adam (May 11, 1858 – April 14, 1932) was the first, and as the story will show, both his parents and some of his siblings also became Bible Students.

Bohnet’s parents were Lutheran, and though he was baptized in infancy he never made that faith his own. His father was a blacksmith, and Adam started his working life in farming, before moving from Michigan to Portland, Oregon, in 1883, to work first at brick making and then to work for a San Francisco publishing firm in Seattle. After experiencing set-backs he contemplating renouncing what little faith he had, but then an encounter with a revivalist preacher at the YMCA reawakened his spiritual interest. He became a Bible Class leader for the M.E. Church, linked to travelling widely for his firm. He described his commitment at Ogden, Utah: “My pew on Sunday was never vacant, and my loose change jingled merrily on the collection plate.”

Returning from a business trip he found his own Church temporarily closed so visited a Presbyterian Bible class nearby where an unnamed leader invited him to his home and enthused about a book that had “wonderfully opened the Bible to him.” Bohnet never saw the book because the owner had loaned it out, but another copy had been ordered from the East. When Bohnet called to say goodbye before departing for Nevada on business the book had arrived. In fact, three books had arrived, the first three volumes of Millennial Dawn. A letter Bohnet wrote to the National Labor Tribune for May 18, 1911, confirmed that this first encounter with the Divine Plan of the Ages was in 1892.

Bohnet was always quite outspoken, and his comments on his first encounter with Volume 1 as his train rattled towards Reno are typical: “While on the train next day I read with interest and astonishment the preface of Volume 1 – the wording of which, to my regret, was changed for all subsequent editions…” He struggled on the noisy train and then read through the night at his hotel. He was convinced he had found the truth. The local Methodist preacher was less than impressed – Bohnet described him as “bitterly antagonistic” – but there was no stopping Bohnet. He wrote: “By the Lord’s grace I was instrumental in locating and assisting out of Mystic Babylon, within the next twelve months, twelve dear saints.”

Bohnet attended the 1893 Bible Students convention at Chicago, where he was baptized and met CTR in person for the first time. He noted that his beard and hair seemed as black as coal.

CTR and Maria as part of group picture at the 1893 convention.

Bohnet does not appear in this particular photograph.

As we will see later, Bohnet became an indefatigable letter writer. His first was published in Zion’s Watch Tower for the September 1 and 15, 1893 double number and he kept up a steady stream over the years down to 1931. From very early on he described his witnessing experiences, and was soon on the list of speakers representing the Watch Tower Society. The 1894 annual report in the December 15 ZWT mentions him on page 393 as one of a number of “traveling salesmen, colporteurs and business men” who used their spare time at their own expense to visit groups and give talks. According to a letter in the St Paul Enterprise for February 13, 1917, he gave his first ever chart talk in Portland, Oregon, in October 1894.

At this point we might note that many years later Bohnet described how CTR gave him the address of Benjamin Wilson, the translator of the Diaglott, and how he called on Wilson in Sacramento, California for several revealing conversations. The report is found in the St Paul Enterprise for April 4, 1916, and it should be noted by modern writers that in the conversation Wilson flatly denied ever being a Christadelphian. While there is no reason to doubt the account, Bohnet’s article says this was in 1892. That appears too early for his biography – would CTR really entrust such an important visit to a neophyte he’d not even met at the time? This writer assumes that the visit on Wilson, who lived until 1900, probably happened around 1894.

Zion’s Watch Tower magazine for August 15, 1894, put out a call out for a stenographer to assist CTR at the Bible House. Bohnet quickly saw an opportunity, and as he wrote: “I knew nothing about shorthand writing. But immediately wrote Brother Russell that I was sending to Chicago for stenographic instructions; and when sufficiently proficient would join him.”

Blandishments to stay in his present employment in San Francisco fell on deaf ears, and in April 1895 a very determined and focused John Adam joined the Bible House family as CTR’s stenographer.

As a secretary Bohnet’s work involved taking dictation and typing out a number of confidential documents. These included letters CTR wrote to his wife and her relations and also drafting Joseph Lytle Russell’s last will and testament. He was also called on to give testimony in the Russell vs. Russell hearing of 1906. At the Bible House most workers lodged outside, but from 1894 the Russells lived in. CTR had to go away for a few days in 1897, which could have meant leaving his wife Maria on her own. Bohnet witnessed a telephone conversation where CTR tried to arrange through Ernest Henninges (then office manager) for Bible House worker Clara Taylor to stay with her. Maria declined the offer as she had other plans. In fact, she was shortly on her way to stay with her brother Lemuel in Chicago and never came back under the same roof as Charles.

Going by a date he gave in his father’s obituary, Bohnet’s work at the Bible House was to be interrupted in 1896. In his life story he explained it this way. Traveling back from a speaking assignment he had a fall and badly damaged an ankle. Not wanting to be a burden on a busy Bible House family he arranged to go back home to Ann Arbor to his parents’ home to recuperate. He had another secondary motive which was to share his faith with his family. As noted above this was very successful and we will learn more about some of his family later.

Bohnet was not back in harness at the Bible House for very long. Learning that the Society needed to borrow money, late in 1897 he suggested to CTR that he should go back into business with his old firm and make a financial contribution which would allow for several others to replace him in the office. After assuring CTR of his steadfastness to the truth he received this reply. He said that in substance, CTR’s words were:

“True, we need more money, and since you have this opportunity, which may be of the Lord’s appointment, and it is your desire to help out in the running expenses, go, and God bless you. But bear in mind, my dear brother, you are still counted as a member of the Bible House family.”

The exchange as told may seem somewhat unusual. All we can say from this distance is that his account was published while CTR was still alive, and was known to read the Enterprise from time to time.

Back in the secular field, Bohnet still did what he could for the message but for the next seven years worked in Washington DC for a company promoting a proprietary remedy called “Viavi.” (Russell vs. Brooklyn Eagle transcript, page 64). It was marketed for “female complaints.” Checking contemporary literature there’s a suggestion it might have been partly marketed as a female contraceptive. It seems a strange choice of employment for a confirmed bachelor. He left this company’s employ around 1904, which was probably just as well as the California State Journal of Medicine for April 1907 was to go after them with all guns blazing. Next, according to court testimony, he worked selling home supplies from a base back in Pittsburgh. This failed, and he went back into the Bible House. It would appear that this time it was CTR helping HIM.

In 1905 he published a scripture compendium by subject called “Features of the Plan of God.”

Back in the Bible House he worked at correspondence and in the dispatch department and was soon going out as a visiting speaker again.

A huge change took place in Watch Tower history in 1909. The Society moved its headquarters from Allegheny to Brooklyn, New York. Here the Bible House family became a much larger Bethel family.

Bohnet was the man they left behind. He still visited groups to give talks, and became extremely well known as a convention speaker. However, the main item of business he cared for was the Watch Tower Society’s own cemetery.

The 1910 census lists Bohnet as “Superintendent United Cemetery.” This was originally a series of three small cemeteries put together and called United Cemeteries, in Ross Township about five miles north of Pittsburgh.

As to why the Society would deal in business like a cemetery company, the Society’s secretary-treasurer W E Van Amburgh explained in the court case Russell vs Brooklyn Eagle (1913 – trial transcript pages 203-204) that many donations for their religious work were conditional; the donation could in fact turn out to be just a loan, depending on the circumstances of the donor. Consequently, they needed assets that could generate income and in case of emergency could be turned back into cash. A cemetery company seemed a good idea at the time – to quote direct from Van Amburgh: “The Society thought well to have some place where we could have a good asset…they found a farm, and they arranged for a United Cemeteries company as being the most stable, it could not run away, something satisfactory that could always be used as an asset.”

The cemetery charter was granted in 1905, and in 1907 CTR’s last will and testament made provision for his own burial there, in a special area reserved for Watch Tower workers. The whole area they owned totalled 90 acres, but only about 18 acres ever became a cemetery. The rest was either unused or kept as farming land. Getting permission was not difficult because there was already an established Roman Catholic Cemetery on the adjoining property.

As noted above, when the headquarters staff all moved to Brooklyn, Bohnet stayed behind in Pittsburgh to look after the cemetery. Below is a picture taken around 1920-1921, looking down the hill over the Society’s plot. CTR’s grave marker is there, and then there is a pyramid monument, rather like a modern War Memorial with names inscribed on the sides. It was in the center of the Society’s plot and was installed at the beginning of 1920 (see The New Era Enterprise, February 10, 1920). Two small grave markers can be seen for Bible Students Arabella Mann and Mary Jane Whitehouse, which sadly have long since disappeared. The pyramid too was removed in 2021 after severe vandalism made it unsafe. On the slightly rising hillside in the background is an old farmhouse, which became the cemetery superintendent’s house. This is where Bohnet lived. He is in the aforementined 1910 census at this address, along with another family of helpers.

It should be noted that the headstones in front of the house are not actual graves. At the time the picture was taken the cemetery company sold headstones and these were samples for purchase.

During the 1910s, when Bohnet was well known as a convention speaker, he was photographed many times. He was also involved with the pyramid in the above photograph. It was reported that it came from his design, and when CTR died in 1916 he supervised various funeral details, and then also supervised the eventual installation of the monument over 1919-1920.

Having come from a farming background, while in residence he used some of the spare land for farming purposes, which included what came to be called “Miracle Wheat.” This has been discussed elsewhere on this blog, but basically Bohnet was impressed with the wheat, and donated seed for sale through the pages of the Watch Tower magazine in 1911. An unexpected drop in prices from the original source and an attack by a tabloid-style newspaper created difficulties and led to the aforementioned Russell vs Brooklyn Eagle trial in 1913. Bohnet gave evidence and also revealed more of his personal history in examination and cross examination. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but in retrospect he would probably have done better to have just sold the seed direct, and made his own personal donation to the Society’s work.

In October 1916 CTR died and was buried in the United Cemeteries. In January 1917 Joseph F Rutherford was elected as president. In the division that followed, Bohnet put his full support behind Rutherford. When, in July 1917, Rutherford appointed four new members to the board of directors of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Bohnet (still resident in Pennsylvania) was one of them.

Events then moved quite rapidly for him. The cemetery company had ticked over and generated a certain amount of income, but it was not spectacularly successful. The decision was taken to realize the asset in 1917. It was probably wise. The land cost them $27,000 in 1905, but with a functioning business on it they realized $90,000 in December 1917.  

But it all happened very quickly. Bohnet was still advertising for cemetery help in April 1917 (Enterprise: April 17, 1917) but by December 1917 the property, apart from selected areas for Bible Student burials, was gone. The purchaser was the Catholic Northside Cemeteries association, which owned the adjoining cemetery.  It meant that both Bohnet’s work as superintendent and the house that went with it disappeared.

As a Society director one might have thought that a life in Brooklyn Bethel beckoned. Instead, Bohnet became a Pilgrim, an official visiting speaker sent out to groups by headquarters. He missed a memorial service at CTR’s grave on May 30, 1918 (a federal public holiday called Memorial Day when businesses were closed and people could gather together), because he was away on a Pilgrim visit (Enterprise: June 25, 1918). Apart from trips back home and coming back to Pittsburgh to supervise the installation of the pyramid, he spent the next ten years “on the road.”

To give an idea of the distance he covered, we can examine the speakers’ appointments on the back page of The Watch Tower. In 1918 he visited congregations in Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin. In 1919 he added Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina and Texas. In 1920 he added Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New York and Oklahoma. We could go on, but the picture is clear – Bohnet did not stick to one small area of the United States, he was sent everywhere.

Over the years he became an untiring writer for first the Enterprise, and later The Golden Age magazine. He staunchly supported the direction taken by the new administration of the Watch Tower Society with its emphasis on personal evangelism with campaigns like the Golden Age work from 1919. In the splits that occurred at this time he urged all to return to the IBSA, but wasn’t averse to laying into those who had left. The original split with its “committee of seven” (Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose [1959] page 73) Bohnet dismissed in the Enterprise for August 23, 1921: “It seems to be inoffensive – doing little or nothing” and contrasting it with the activity of the Watch Tower Society.

His greatest ire was reserved for the Standfast movement, which suggests in context that it may have had a greater impact on readers at the time. Bohnet ridiculed it and debated its teachings (see for example: St Paul Enterprise for March 11 and 18, 1919). The Standfasters were to fragment, one group started a commune, another insisted on membership cards and it wasn’t long before they generally disintegrated; although they were still in sufficient memory to be mentioned by J F Rutherford in The Watch Tower for September 15, 1931, page 279.

Bohnet’s choice of subjects in the Enterprise was eclectic. Excluding actual reprinted sermons, here are some more examples, with the issue date of the St Paul Enterprise in parenthesis: a letter explaining that rumors of his death were greatly exaggerated (July 9, 1915); his aforementioned life story (August 27, 1915); how and why they moved the headquarters from Allegheny to Brooklyn (October 1, 1915); a campaign mounted to obtain a Ford motor car for CTR (October 1, 1915) subsequently vetoed by CTR (October 22, 1915); visiting Benjamin Wilson (April 4, 1916); reviewing the funeral of CTR (November 14, 1916); Noah’s Ark found on Mount Ararat (January 16, 1917); a recent visit made by a sister on Maria Russell (February 20, 1917); a tribute to William Abbott, late editor of the Enterprise (March 27, 1917); a letter urging all to vote for Rutherford et al at the forthcoming election of Society officers (December 18, 1917); attacking the Standfasters as noted above (March 11 and 18, 1919); visiting the “Brooklyn eight” in Atlanta Federal prison (March 18, 1919); and visiting a seriously ill Rutherford after his release (June 24, 1919).

At the end of 1919 the St Paul Enterprise became The New Era Enterprise. Bohnet continued his contributions. He marketed a cancer cure (January 6, 1920) which hits problems (January 27, 1920); he installed the pyramid monument on the United Cemeteries site from his own design (February 10, 1920); Miracle Wheat was now Weber Wheat and winning prizes (October 19, 1920); a suggested substitute for coffee (June 15, 1920); problems with the other Bible Student supporting paper, the National Labor Tribune (November 16, 1920); vigorous backing for the Golden Age work (December 14, 1920); a character assassination of Judge Howe who presided over the trial of the “Brooklyn eight” (December 14, 1920) and resulting complaints from Enterprise readers (January 11, 1921); God was now blessing the Watch Tower Society with a swipe at those who had left as noted above (August 23, 1921); vigorous encouragement for readers to embrace the Golden Age work (December 27, 1921); a recipe for cleaning wallpaper (January 19, 1922); praising The Harp of God as a masterpiece (January 24, 1922); the only true Bible Students were those still with the Society (March 7, 1922); and perhaps most entertaining, a fanciful alternative version of the Garden of Eden. Maybe it still existed in Armenia. Maybe Enoch transferred there and still lived there. Maybe if a plane flew over the area, Enoch might throw an apple at it… (April 18 and May 2, 1922 double issue, followed by some lively correspondence thereafter).

From 1923 Bohnet’s personal contributions to the Enterprise more or less dried up, although he was still featured in news items such as giving the Millions talk over a local radio station (March 6, 1923). There is a letter in the June 1926 issue where he corrected inaccuracies about the Russell family – he (Bohnet) typed up Joseph Lytle Russell’s last will and testament and CTR declined to accept an inheritance. His last known contribution for the paper was writing his father’s obituary in 1927, which we will come to later.

As his output for the Enterprise dropped off, Bohnet began to write regularly for the new magazine, The Golden Age, edited by Clayton J Woodworth. Perhaps the most important of his articles was in The Golden Age for April 9, 1924, where he outlined the “true story” of the Miracle Wheat episode. Having been the one to grow the wheat on cemetery property he was well placed to write this article.

As already noted, his Pilgrim work took him all over the United States and numerous advertisements for talks in different regions can be found on newspaper databases throughout the 1920s. In addition, he spoke on several radio stations. His activity has been briefly remembered in more recent Watchtower literature.

For example, the Watchtower for September 1, 1983, features the life story of Grant Suitor who became Secretary-Treasurer of the Watch Tower Society in 1946.  Referring back to the 1920s he wrote: “J A Bohnet made a particular impression and was of special help to me. He was a man who had characteristics that endeared him to some people but had the reverse effect on others. He loved Jehovah and evidently was modest, but he kept this quality somewhat concealed under a gruff exterior.” A talk he gave moved the Suitor family to all get baptized. The article contains a small picture of Bohnet. The 1975 Yearbook (page 49) gives a very human pen portrait of Bohnet as a pilgrim visitor, making a kite for a young boy and helping him to fly it.

The dedication to this work involved personal sacrifices. For example, his Bible Student parents died in their nineties and both had obituaries in The New Era Enterprise, His mother Christina was featured in the issue for November 25, 1924 and his father, John (Johann) in the issue for March 1927. As noted above this last obituary was written by Bohnet himself, and recorded that his pilgrim work had taken him so far away he never heard about either death until after the funerals had taken place.

Bohnet was featured in a photograph in the 1927 IBSA Convention Report (Toronto: July 25, 1927) sitting in a row next to W F Salter and J F Rutherford, looking less than comfortable with a child on his knee. The sub-caption (probably a joke from Clayton J Woodworth) reads: “Take a look at Bohnet fathering some little boy.”

He remained on the regular list of speakers on the back page of the Watch Tower until mid-1928, and was also featured extensively in newspapers for speaking engagements and radio talks, up to that year. He last appeared on the official list of Society representatives in the 1929 Yearbook.

This was a time of change. From 1926 the role of Pilgrims started to change from visiting speakers to supervisors and promoters of active witnessing. This culminated in a name change to Regional Service Director in 1928 (see Proclaimers book page 223). As already observed Bohnet was fully behind the emphasis on personal evangelism, but he would have been 70 years old in 1928. At some point he went back to the family home. Writing from Michigan in the July 1, 1930 Watch Tower magazine he explained his situation:

 “While I am not situated now to engage in the regional director service, much to my regret, I can spare the time and the use of my car to drive sisters to distant towns and villages on regularly appointed days to place books in the service work at my individual expense of gas and oil, and thus herald the glad tidings of Messiah’s kingdom to those who have a hearing ear and an open mind.” He signed off “With much love to all at Bethel, Faithfully yours in Christ.”

The bulk of this letter was praising the book Creation, contrasting the activities of those currently loyal to the Society with those who weren’t. He followed this up with another letter in the February 1, 1931 Watch Tower magazine that enthused about the two volume set called Light and in his usual recurring theme, he urged all those who had left to reunite with the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. The published letter was given the heading “Inspiration to Greater Zeal and Service.” Similar sentiments were expressed in his last letter published in The Watch Tower for April 1, 1931. It was followed by his last article for The Golden Age called “The Myrtle” (about the myrtle tree with an allegorical application) published in the issue for August 19, 1931.

He died on April 14, 1932. His death certificate confirmed that he had never married; that he had gone into the University Hospital, Ann Arbor, Michigan, in March for a gastrectomy, and that he died in hospital four weeks post-operation just short of his 74^th birthday. His occupation was given as “lecturer for the IBSA for the last 30 years.” The information was supplied by his brother Jacob Bohnet. He was buried in the family plot in the Ann Arbor cemetery.

There is one coda to this story. As noted above, when Bohnet went home to recuperate after an injury in the latter half of the 1890s he witnessed vigorously to his family. It resulted in his parents and three other relatives becoming Bible Students. One of these was his sister, Elizabeth Octavia who was born in 1859. Elizabeth married Lyman Pettibone in 1882 and lived to be 102. She died on January 10, 1961. As befitted a very old resident, her funeral made the local newspapers. After giving her family history the paper commented on who was to take the funeral.

Source of newspaper unknown. Cutting from the Find a Grave site.

The funeral announcement notes that someone from the (quote) “Jehovah Witness Church in Ann Arbor” would be officiating.

This means that the family trail of association with the Bible Students/Jehovah’s Witnesses that started in 1892 ran for at least 70 years. Sadly, the modern descendants the writer contacted when preparing this article knew nothing of the connection.

Charles Taze Russell's private secretaries

Guest post by Bernhard

(edited by Jerome)

When Charles T. Russell became president of Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society, on December 15, 1884, his wife Maria Frances became secretary and treasurer. In general, she was his secretary, who proofread his manuscripts and did the usual work of an office assistant. On some chapters in the Millennial Dawn series she co-labored with Charles in arranging them in final form and especially so for volume IV, which consisted largely of quotations from newspaper clippings which they had selected for some years. In evaluating the true function of Maria, it appears that she acted in the capacity of special assistant to Charles as his loyal wife. She was studious, college trained, and capable in her own right. No doubt Charles utilized her talents to the fullest, not only in secretarial functions, but in acting as organizer and arranger of his manuscript notes.

When Maria separated from Charles in November 1897, he needed another secretary, and this was Ernest C. Henninges.

Ernest was born on July 12, 1871 in Cuyahoga (Cleveland) Ohio and died on February 3, 1939 in Victoria, Australia. His father Emil Henninges (1828 – 1892) came from Germany. His mother Kate was born 1840 in Ohio. He had one brother George (born 1858). Ernest’s profession was teaching music in Cleveland at 44 Euclid Avenue.

After he joined the Bible Students he moved to Allegheny in 1891 to work and live in the Bible House. On January 4, 1896, he replaced James Augustus Weimar as a director of the Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society and in May 13, 1898, 6 months after Maria left the Bible House, Ernest succeeded her as secretary-treasurer. Russell trusted him a lot.

In the Bible House also lived Rose Ball, the foster child of Charles T. and Maria Russell. On September 11, 1897, Ernest and Rose were married at Buffalo, Erie, New York, where her parents Richard J. Ball and Elizabeth Ball still lived. 

At the beginning of 1900, Russell planned to send Ernest and Rose Henninges to England to open an office for the Society. So it was clear that another brother needed to become secretary-treasurer, and this was Otto Albert Koetitz on February 12, 1900, and also another brother, Albert E. Williamson, became Russell’s private secretary. Ernest remained a director. 

In April 1900 Ernest and Rose travelled to Liverpool and then to London, where they opened on April 23, the first office outside the United States, at 131 Gipsy Lane, Forest Gate. They stayed there until November 1, 1901, and then came back to Allegheny. Ernest again became treasurer of the Society on February 12, 1902 and remained such until March 24, 1903. On that date William Van Amburgh became treasurer. In March 1903 Ernest and Rose travelled to Elberfeld (Wuppertal), Germany, and again opened an office for the Society in June 1903. They stayed there until October and then went to Melbourne, Australia, arriving on January 10, 1904.

In 1908 some internal troubles surfaced. James Hezekiah Giesey, Watch Tower vice-president and well-known Pittsburgh architect, along with long time director Simon Osborne Blunden, resigned as Society directors in June. Albert Williamson followed in September. Henninges also resigned as a director in January 1909, and he and his wife left Russell and the Bible Students in the spring of 1909. Henninges founded a new group and journal called “New Covenant Advocate” in Australia and those in America like Giesey, Williamson, along with hymn writer M.L. Mc Phail, formed a similar breakaway group.

Albert Williamson was born on February 13, 1878 in Oneida Township, Haldimand, Balloville, Ontario, Canada. He was the son of James and Elizabeth Bayly (born 1839) and he had a twin brother Frederik William and also a sister Annie. Albert married Hattie (Harriet) Stark (born Allegheny, December 1879) a member of the Bible House family on December 5, 1905. She lived there with her mother Britee C. Stark.  Albert and Harriet had three daughters Dorothy Eleanor (September 9, 1911), Elizabeth K. (1916) and Edith Anna (1920).

He became a member of the Bible House staff in 1899, along with his mother, and later, in 1905, his brother Fred. On February 12, 1900 he became a Watch Tower Society director. He resigned on September 28, 1908. Interesting is that his twin brother Frederick William replaced him as a Society director for one year.

When Ernest C. Henninges travelled to England in April 1900, Albert Edmund Williamson replaced him as Russell‘s private secretary.

The "Crittenden Record, Kentucky“, for February 8, 1907, contained a report about a talk Williamson gave.  Under the heading: THE END OF THE WORLD IS NEAR AT HAND it explained: “October 1914 is the date set for the end to come. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Alleghany, Penn., through Mr. A. Edmund Williamson, announce the above date to be the beginning of the millennium. Mr. Williamson, who is secretary to Charles T. Russell, head of the society, did not, however, announce that there would be a general conflagration of the earth and an incineration of all the wicked on that date, but rather a "great change.""

Williamson was a very eloquent speaker, but more important was his skill as a stenographer. Russell wrote about him (Souvenir Convention Report from 1908):  "In my publishing office we have ten stenoographers, but only one of them could serve in such an emergency—Mr. Williamson—and he consented to assist also. So far as I know none of these gentlemen expect or have received pay for the service, and only Mr. Williamson even has his expenses provided.“  Also in 1908 Russell wrote that he received about 500 letters every Monday and the rest of the week from 250 to 300 a day. So there was a lot of work for him and his secretary.

Sadly in late 1908 Williamson decided to leave the Bible House, but not only the house, he also split from Russell in early 1909. He died in March 1956, when he lived in Essex, West Orange, New Jersey.

Much of Robison‘s history comes from Robison’s obituary in the Concordant Version magazine “Unsearchable Riches“ in 1932, because he was to leave association with the IBSA in 1922. He was born on February 3, 1885 in Greenwood, Indiana and died April 17, 1932 in Manhattan, New York. He was the only son of James A. Robison (1859-1949) and Eva J. Whitenack (1862-1955), of Oakland, California. He had two sisters named Bartha B. and May E. It was there that he spent his youth, graduating from high school at the age of fourteen. It was about this time that he affiliated with the Disciples of Christ. He entered Franklin College to continue his education and there further displayed an aptitude for languages in the study of New Testament Greek.

Later he went to Canada and took out a claim in the Rainy River district of Ontario. He resided there about one year, teaching part time and part time employed in the immigration service. He returned to Indiana in 1904 and entered Butler College in Indianapolis, remaining there until the opening of Winona Technical Institute, also in Indianapolis, and enrolled there as a student of lithography that he might be equipped not only for his present need, but to have the knowledge of a trade, for use in the missionary field. It was his purpose to carry the gospel to Japan independently.

With a year's instruction at the John Herrin Art Institute in Indianapolis and some knowledge of chemistry to his credit, he made splendid progress and in less than two years accepted a position as poster artist in one of the largest lithographing houses in the United States, located at Cleveland, Ohio. He became one of their foremen in charge of artists. It was while in this position that he pursued the reading of Pastor Russell's works, having become slightly interested during his sojourn in Canada. During all this time his linguistic talents were being exercised more or less in the attainment of a knowledge of Spanish, French and German, as well as New Testament Greek. After reading Pastor Russell's works, he employed a Japanese friend to translate some of the literature into Japanese, still thinking of the foreign mission field, but later abandoned this to become a home missionary, as a colporteur for Pastor Russell's works.

After about one year in this new field of endeavor, he prepared for secretarial service and was called to the Bible House in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. It was there that he met Miss Almeta Nation, whom he married on March 25, 1909. He became private secretary to Pastor Russell and held that position until after the Society's offices were transferred to Brooklyn, New York, in 1909. As private secretary to Pastor Russell he accompanied him on a trip around the world (December 1911 – March 1912) with a committee sent to investigate foreign missions. Japan was one of the places visited.

On his return, Robison became secretary of the foreign work and he had a good opportunity for pursuing the study of languages. His obituary stated that he could translate twenty-three in all, giving discourses in German, Greek, and English. He made week-end pilgrimages in and about New York City, addressing both public and private gatherings.

Robison was one of four men designated in Russell‘s will to be co-editors of the Watch Tower. Apart from when imprisoned with J F Rutherford and others in 1918-1919, he was one of the Watch Tower’s editorial committee until the spring of 1922 when he resigned and went to Washington, D. C., to accept secular work as a commercial artist in the art department of the Washington Post. He afterwards served the government and later became art director for the American Automobile Association, with headquarters in Washington, D. C. He returned to work in New York in 1931, and died on April 17, 1932.

When the first installment of the literal Bible translation “The Concordant Version” was issued it came to the attention of the Society’s headquarters. As the plates of the Emphatic Diaglott were worn out, they were looking for something to replace it, and Robison was delegated to call on the Concordant Publishing Concern in Los Angeles with a view to placing it on the Society's list of literature. A small booklet of the Concordant translation of Revelation was advertised in the Watch Tower for June 15, 1920, but then was dropped in early 1921.

The contact with the Concordant version group, who were Universalists, led to Robison leaving association with the IBSA, resigning from the Watch Tower editorial committee and as an elder of the New York congregation. He spent the rest of the 1920s supporting the Concordant cause and trying to attract his former IBSA associates to it. (For a fuller description of what happened and how the Watch Tower Society dealt with it, use the search facility to see an old article on this blog: The Watchtower and Universalism – the Almont Connection.)

Menta Sturgeon was born 1866/67 in Missouri and died on August 17, 1935. He married Florence A. (born 1871 in Massachusetts) in 1888 and they had one son Gordon (born 1899).

Sturgeon graduated from the Theological Seminary of the Southern Baptist Church and studied Greek and Hebrew. In the late 1880s, he worked for the Kansas & Texas Coal Company, and lived at 4001 N. B 'Way, St. Louis, Missouri. In March 1897 the members of his church unanimously appointed him a pastor, a position he assumed until his resignation in 1904. He was reverend of a Baptist Church in the city, the Tower Grove Baptist Church, located at 4320 avenue. However, he left the church after internal dissension.

He came into contact with Russell's teachings in 1894 through a small book handed to him by his physician, but it was only 14 years later that he attended his teaching when he attended readings Biblical records given by the pastor at Arch Street: first as a simple listener, then as the pastor's interlocutor. In the meantime, he preached independently, and then added his own disciples to Russell's group. Finally, he received a letter from the pastor asking him if he could become a lecturer for him, which Sturgeon accepted, and so in 1909 he left the society in which he worked; apparently it was the Blackmer & Post Pipe Company.

He was a member of the Saint Louis Ecclesia. As a pilgrim, from 1909-1914 he visited central and eastern states of the United States, as well as various provinces of Canada. He was a capable speaker. He came to work at the Watch Tower headquarters around 1910, where he first worked on general supervision and then conducted Bible classes and religious services.

In addition to being Russell's secretary, Sturgeon was also responsible for helping the latter in his medical treatments. He was the last of the Bible Students to see Russell alive. On Russell’s last tour, he had to replace him at times in Los Angeles, and was with him when he died on the train on the return journey to Brooklyn. Sturgeon reported in detail the last days of his life in the Watch Tower publications.

In the split that followed Rutherford’s election as president, Sturgeon supported the four dismissed directors, and was put forward as an alternative choice as president. In the subseqent referendum comparatively few voted for him.

Sturgeon was to leave both the Watch Tower Society and the alternative Bible Student groups, to join Fredrik Robison in supporting the Concordant Publishing Concern. He died on August 17, 1935 and the group’s magazine published an obituary from which some of the above has been taken.

 

Extra note:

Others who did secretarial work for CTR over the years included John Adam Bohnet and Edwin Brenneisen. CTR’s stenographers over the years included Charles U Ball (the brother of Rose Ball) and Malcom Cameron Rutherford, the son of Joseph F Rutherford.

The above material was eventually incorporated into a chapter in a book about the Bible House in Allegheny. A review of this book is in the next post.

A book review

(republished)

Long time researcher and friend of this blog, Bernhard Brabenec, has produced a complete book on The Bible House of Allegheny, the first custom built headquarters of the Bible Students. It is over 130 pages in length and profusely illustrated with diagrams and photographs. Below is a graphic of the cover along with a facsimile from part the foreword.

The foreword gives good reasons for owning this volume. The history of the first custom built headquarters for the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society has a lot of interest for anyone who is ever likely to read  history blogs. Who worked at Bible House? A comprehensive list is provided taken from city directories over its 20 year history. What were the various offices like and how did they work? Familiar photographs are provided with a clarity many will not have seen before. Some are colorized, and others provide names of the specific workers. There are photos of the first Watch Tower directors and the personal histories of C T Russell’s private secretaries. The building was so large that initially some space was rented out to businesses, some connnected with the Bible Students, some not. These are described. Gradually the work expanded to take over the whole building and prompt a move to Brooklyn. The building survived until the 1960s and its post-1909 history has Bible Student links. So the book contains all of this, and more.

I can sincerely recommend it to all. Links are notoriously unstable, but if you go to Amazon for your particular country, use the search terms <The Bible House in Allegheny, Pittsburgh, PA> or <Bernhard J. Brabenec>. The Amazon site will allow you preview some of the pages, which will give a better idea of the book than this review can.

Bernhard has produced several other history books of interest. Another recent one is The Photo Album of Charles Taze Russell. This is nearly all photographs, the best copies available and that is reflected in the price of this volume.  There is also the comprehensive Who’s Who in the History of (the Bible Student) Movement before 1920. Additionally, Bernhard has written a very detailed history of Bible Students in Austria. Unfortunately, the latter is only available in the German language at present. But if you follow the trail to Amazon for the Bible House book you will also find links to these other works and more.

Mrs Nobles took an ax...

 My special interest in early Watch Tower history includes the different individuals we come across. There is a wide variety of the good and not so good in the overall story. Separate Identity volume two has a whole chapter on one representative character, Maria Jourdan Westmoreland (1838-1900). She became interested in the Millennial Dawn message and held meetings in her home. Although her name does not appear in Zion’s Watch Tower, a newspaper article from The New York Sun for December 13, 1891 is entitled “The Church in the House of Maria.” It takes a swipe at both Charles Taze Russell and Maria for supporting him. It is thought that Maria may have attended the first Watch Tower convention in Chicago in 1893.

Maria was “a character” – who wrote novels and espoused various causes during her lifetime. The Separate Identity chapter “The Church in Maria’s House” covers this extensively. However, one account that failed to make the cut is the research below. It has no bearing on Watch Tower history as such, but gives a bit more insight into a very forceful proponent of what she believed in. In her day, Maria was a difficult person to avoid.

For want of a better description, the account is called MRS NOBLES TOOK AN AX…

("Mrs Nobles took an ax...")

In the summer of 1895 Maria became involved in a cause célèbre known as the Nobles murder case. An Elizabeth Nobles encouraged a black farm worker, Gus Fambles, to kill her husband. It was a particularly gruesome crime, Gus used a hatchet and Elizabeth was accused of finishing the job before they buried the body – one newspaper claimed this was done while he was still alive.

Both were found guilty and sentenced to death. The thought of a white woman and a black man being hanged together caused consternation and a campaign was started to save her. Maria added her thoughts in The Atlanta Constitution for August 11, 1895.

Billed as “Mrs Maria Jourdan Westmoreland, the well known writer and missionary” her comments basically covered women’s rights and responsibilities. She was not against the death penalty as such, but if Elizabeth was to be spared then surely Gus should be spared also.

She argued with a fine turn of phrase: “If women desire to usurp the place which God, in His infinite wisdom has seen fit to accord to man by making him ‘the head of the woman,’ why, then to be consistent, they must use the prerogative of men, not only in commonplace every day affairs, but if convicted of murder, they must be content to die like men for the privilege.”

After supporting capital punishment with reference to scripture, she argued (with a fine flourish of alliteration): “If the death sentence on Mrs Nobles is commuted to life imprisonment, then a similar clemency must of necessity be extended to her accomplice, the poor, forlorn, forsaken, forgotten, and seemingly friendless negro, Gus Fambles.”

She said that if Mrs Nobles was reprieved she would raise funds for a new trial for Gus. She concluded: “Clemency for one means clemency for both.”

The matter rumbled on through various courts until 1897 when just before the scheduled execution, Mrs Nobles was reprieved. She died in prison in 1916. It was too politically sensitive to hang Gus Fambles without her, so he was reprieved too. He died in prison in 1914.

Below from the Tifton Gazette (Berrien County), February 11, 1916.

Note: Elizabeth was actually 71 not 85.