Another postcard

Below is a nice postcard reproduction of an official issue by the British branch of the Bible Students, The headquarters address of Eversholt Street predate the more familiar Craven Terrace, and the date of the postcard being sent is February 24, 1911.

The previous article on this blog showed what can be gained historically from studying the messages sent in this way. Alas, this card was not so productive, but nonetheless, a little history was gleaned. The message side of the card is below.

The actual message provides very little actual Bible Student information, other than the use of the abbreviation “Sis” for “sister.”

The recipient was a Mrs Ferguson of 131 Elgin Road, Seven Kings (in the UK county of Esses). The 1911 census identifies this as being a Catherine Ferguson, originally from Ireland. She is 35 with four living children. These include Lily (who is eight and is mentioned on the postcard) and a son, Dugold, who is four and probably the “dear Boy” mentioned on the card. There is no husband at the address and Catherine is down as the “head.” However, when husband Colin died in 1921 the probate registers give the Elgin Road address and list Katherine Ferguson (variant spelling) as the widow. Colin left not far short of two thousand GBP in his estate. That they were reasonably well off is shown back in the 1911 census when the household included a live-in domestic servant.

And there the trail goes cold.

All we know about the sender, who obviously chose a Society postcard to send, is that she is “your loving Sister Ainslee” (or possibly “Ainstee”). Without a forename or address the search for her is pretty hopeless, although an independent Bible Student magazine in its “Gone from Us” feature did list a “Sis. J. Ainsley” of Wallsend who died in May 1948. Maybe the writer? Maybe not.

This therefore is one of those cases where the graphic on the front of the card is of the greater interest.

The Channel Islands

Many readers of this blog will be collectors of Watch Tower related postcards, official IBSA issues, the Photodrama cards, the Lardent cards and the like. While the picture side is the obvious attraction, sometimes the message side gives us historical information that we would not have had preserved otherwise. This article is about one such example.

In 1986 the Awake magazine had an article about the Channel Islands, British owned but quite near the coast of France. It stated (Awake April 22, 1986, page 19):

“Seeds of Bible truth were sown here back in 1925 when Zephaniah and Ethel Widdell arrived from England with their bicycles to organize a regular program of Bible studies. As a direct result of their work, congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses were soon formed in both Jersey and Guernsey.”

A postcard message now takes that history back a further fourteen years to 1911.

But first, where did the 1925 account come from? One must remember that there was never any official attempt to document the growth of interest in places like the Channel Islands at the time. We have to rely on people looking back long after the event. In 1970 the Society sent a lengthy letter to all old-timers asking for their reminiscences. The letters sent by return will have numbered into their hundreds, possibly thousands, around the world, and formed the basis for the various histories that subsequently appeared in the Yearbooks. These covered not just countries like the United States and Britain, but everywhere. This testimony was supported by documented proof in some cases. For example, the son of one of the editors of the St Paul/New Era Enterprise was moved to send his files to the Society. However, in other cases it was simply the anecdotal memories of older people looking back. The account in the 1986 Awake may date from that 1970 initiative. No-one alive in 1970 had any memory of events before 1925 for the Channel Islands. However, the 1925 account of the Widdells arriving to organise a “regular program of Bible studies” might suggest some prior interest.

That is why the ‘find’ of a post card from 1911 is so useful. It is reproduced in full below. Grateful thanks are due to Franco, who owned the original and made it available.

The picture is simply a Guernsey location. The sender was A W Bowland of 4 Union Street, St Peter’s Port, Guernsey, and the date of the message was 9/11/11, which (the way the British write dates) would be November 9^th, 1911. The recipient was A Weber, Tour de Garde, Convers [Canton], Berne, Suisse.

The message transcribed, reads:

Dear Brother, Thanks for card. We have received parcels safely today. We also thank you very much for Millenial Cards. Glad to say we are still selling a good number of volumes here. With much love in the Lord. Yours in his service, A W Bowland.

The card was sent to a very well known figure, Adolphe Weber (1863-1948). Weber became a Bible Student in America and worked as a gardener for CTR for a short while in the 1890s. He went back to Europe and was involved in the German language Watch Tower. His story can be found in a number of Yearbook histories for various European countries and also in the Proclaimers book on page 409 with his photograph.

The writer was A W Bowland, who wrote to Weber in English. I could only find one male named Bowland (the variant Boland) in Guernsey in the 1911 census, which was taken in April 1911, living in a street quite near Union Street in St Peter Port, from whence the postcard was later sent that year. This Bowland/Boland was a labourer working in the stone industry, aged 31, with a wife and two children. However, the initials don’t match. So the writer of the card could have traveled to Guernsey after the census was taken, perhaps to specifically do colporteur work.

If that was the case, there was a British Bible Student Alfred Whittome Bowland, who was born in 1884 in Cambridgeshire. In the April 1911 census he is lodging with a family named Beavor in Middlesex, one of whom, Ernie Beavor, would have a long history with the Watch Tower Society. Alfred lists his occupation in 1911 as ‘Colporteur Bible and Tract.’ Later in 1916, while living at St Austell, Cornwall, he was a conscientious objector, listing himself as colporteur for a ‘Bible Tract Society’ and adding that he was an IBSA member. In 1938 he wrote a letter to The Watchtower (June 1^st issue) headed LORD IS USING PHONOGRAPH TO HIS PRAISE where he wrote “it has been a happy privilege to be twenty-seven years in the full-time service” – which would go back to 1911. He was currently working in the “special business house service.” The next year, in the UK 1939 census register, A W Bowland and wife Gertrude are listed as evangelists, but now in Northumberland. This same A W Bowland died in Swindon at the end of 1967 or early 1968 (death registered in the first quarter of 1968).

On a personal note, I knew Ernie Beavor in the early 1970s when he stayed at my parents’ home, and also when A W Bowland died in Swindon I was “pioneering” in the next congregation. Unfortunately, I wasn’t researching this particular article at the time…

So what does the postcard show? It takes the work in the Channel Islands back another fourteen years from the time the Widdells worked the area on bicycle. The Bible Students’ evangelising work was happening there way back in 1911. Since the card states: “we are still selling a good number of volumes here” perhaps even earlier. It may be that several Cornish colporteurs could have had ‘working’ holidays in the Channel Islands.

This all illustrates that even the smallest piece of ephemera is well worth checking in the search for a more complete picture.

With grateful thanks to Franco who supplied the postcard, Bernhard who provided the lead for Alfred W Bowland, and Gary who provided further research on World War 1 conscientious objectors. Truly a team effort.

From Zion's Watch to The Watch Tower - Why?

Guest post by Gary

First produced in July 1879 as Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, on January 1, 1909, the magazine’s title was changed to The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence. But why was this?

The book Jehovah’s Witnesses – Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom explained that the name of the magazine changed “in order to focus attention more clearly on the objective of the magazine.”(1) But more can be added which it was not necessary for the passing mention in the Proclaimers book to include.

Popular religious ideas in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century featured the thought, still held by many today, that the Jews who had become dispersed throughout the nations would eventually return to the Holy Land under the slogan of “Zionism.” Indeed, Pastor Russell shared such a belief which is apparent in his writings and perhaps reflected in the name originally chosen for the magazine he published. But it was not until the 1930s that Jehovah’s Witnesses adjusted their perspective from the natural nation of Israel to “Spiritual Israel.”(2) So why was it that reference to Zion was dropped from the name of the magazine as early as 1909? 

The answer is provided in the magazine’s last issue of 1908 which explains that some members of the public were wrongly assuming the magazine was related to John Alexander Dowie, who in 1900 had founded the city of Zion, Illinois, 40 miles north of Chicago.  To quote:

“With the New Year we expect to drop the word "Zion's" in the title of our Journal, because many of the friends inform us that the word is objectionable, having been so much used by Mr. Dowie and his followers. They report that our Journal is frequently cast aside under the supposition that it is published under Dowie's auspices, or in some manner affiliated with Zion City, which he founded. The new name, THE WATCH TOWER, is the one by which the Journal is usually mentioned.”(3)

So who was Dowie and why did Russell see need to distance from him?  Dowie was a Scottish-Australian immigrant who, like Russell, believed in an end-times restoration of true worship. Unlike Russell, Dowie believed this restoration necessitated a return to apostolic gifts including faith healing. In contrast, Russell believed that “the necessity for miracles as introductions to the Gospel message is no longer manifest” and that, consequently, “We are inclined to look with suspicion upon miraculous healings of the present time, whether done by Mormons or by Christian Scientists or by Christian Alliance people or by Mr Dowie and his followers or others.”(4)

A charismatic figure, Dowie had settled in Chicago and in 1893 gained considerable attention at the World’s Fair.  He launched his own publishing house, Zion Publishing, and started a weekly newsletter, Leaves of Healing which ran until 1909. Between 1894 and 1901 Dowie founded the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church which is said to have attracted some 6,000 adherents by the start of the twentieth century, some of whom were keen to invest money in Dowie’s new city, founded in 1901, and its Zion Bank which, of course, was controlled by Dowie. In 1899, Dowie claimed to be "God's Messenger" and, by 1901, was considered by followers to be Elijah the Restorer.  

Dowie taught adherents to abstain from tobacco, alcohol, pork, doctors, medicines and “apostate churches.”

Additionally he welcomed African-Americans into his new city which had only one church.  All seemed to be going well with this utopian city, but as it grew in size and prosperity, Dowie adopted an increasingly lavish lifestyle, building himself a 25-room mansion and adorning himself in ornate ecclesiastical robes modeled after those worn by Aaron, the high priest of Israel.

Picture of Dowie from Wikipedia

Unsurprisingly perhaps, Dowie proved spiritually and financially untrustworthy as the entire structure of Zion soon fell into debt, and eventually crashed with Dowie becoming unable to handle his affairs. By 1905, he had suffered a stroke and left Zion to recuperate. While absent he was deposed from his business affairs and religious leadership by a colleague whose investigators claimed huge amounts of money were unaccounted for. A splinter group rejected the new leadership and left Zion with some embracing the budding Pentecostal movement.  Meanwhile Dowie attempted to recover his authority through litigation, but ultimately retired and accepted an allowance, which was paid until his death in 1907.

Evidently therefore, the deletion of the word “Zion’s” shifted focus away from a disreputable competitor, as Russell was keen to distance his magazine from even the slightest semblance of Dowie.  In so doing, the magazine could “focus attention more clearly on its objective” as Herald of Christ’s Presence.

References:

(1) Jehovah’s Witnesses - Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom p.724

(2) In discussing Jeremiah 31:31-34, for instance, the book Jehovah, published by Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1934, stated conclusively: “The new covenant has nothing to do with the natural descendants of Israel and with mankind in general, but . . . is limited to spiritual Israel.”

(3) Zion’s Watch Tower December 1908, p.372, R4294. Another concern, at the time, was that African churches and papers used the word ‘Zion’ extensively, which led some to inquire whether the magazine was written for black people when, in fact, the Watch Tower aimed for a multiracial audience. 

(4) Zion’s Watch Tower January 1904 p.14, Reprints p. 3301.                               

(5) For further reading on Dowie, see From Sect to Cult to Sect: The Christian Catholic Church in Zion, Ph.D dissertation by Warren Jay Beaman, Iowa State University, 1990.

JFR and the assembly hot dog

A postcard from Magdeburg from 1926. With grateful thanks to Markus who provided the image.

The story behind a picture

 Back in September 2020 this blog published an article “Whatever happened to the faces in the old photographs?” – a line taken from the song Mother Country by John Stewart. It was about a detailed photograph from a Photodrama of Creation showing in Toledo, Ohio from February 1914. It was in such high definition in the original that you could make out many of the faces.

Readers may wish to go back to that article which presented some selective enlargements. From them it was possible to see the faces in the original photograph. No doubt the Photodrama made a big impression on all those standing there, including a number of young people.

It prompted an interesting response from correspondent Moses G. who had photographs of the theater where the Photodrama was shown in four parts for one of the first times. He also supplied correspondence about the showing and people who were there. All the material that follows is gratefully credited to Moses.

The Camden-Post newspaper (Toledo, Ohio) for February 2, 1914, carried the story.

First, the venue was generally called Burts Theater, in Toledo, Ohio. Here is a postcard from that era showing it.

It still exists today. Here is a more recent photograph of the venue.

Most likely attending that very early showing was a young colporteur, Walter Kessler from Auburn, Indiana, who wrote a letter to Wayne Brooks from Oil City, Pennsylvania. Moses has a collection of letters stretching from 1905 to the 1940s, showing these men and others working as colporteurs, working in the Bethel Home, and also working with the Photodrama of Creation.

Walter lived from 1892 to 1973.

The letter relating to the Photodrama indicates that maybe Walter was one of those in the photograph of the people in front of the theater in the original post. It is dated February 27, 1914.

In the letter, Walter writes that he saw the Photodrama at Toledo three weeks before. So far we do have not have a photograph of him to try and pick him out from the group photograph. What we do have is his draft registration card when he was called up in 1917. It shows he claimed exemption as a minister with the IBSA. Sometimes these form have a photograph attached, but sadly not in this case.

Returning to his 1914 letter, it is full of news about different individuals and thus is a store of information about names from the past.

Walter indicated that he supported his colpoteur activity for a short time by working for a new automobile company called “Imp Auto Cycle.” It operated in Auburn, Indiana, for only two years, 1913-1914. Here is one of their advertisements.

One final thought from his letter. He mentions a Brother Higbe from Toledo using his auto to advertise the Photodrama. Perhaps it looked like the model in this 1914 photograph.

Russell-Rutherford postcards

 After J F Rutherford became Watch Tower Society president in 1917, it was not uncommon for postcards to be sent showing both his photograph and that of Charles Taze Russell. Below are two examples.

The photograph of CTR appears to be the same, but reversed for one printing; however, there are two different photographs for JFR.

Nun or none

Collecting Watch Tower literature for many includes collecting variants of publications. Sometimes changes were made due to refinements of belief, other times proof reading glitches or copyright issues played a part. Sometimes what was produced caused questions to be raised. One example of the latter is the picture found in the book Riches (1936).

The original line drawing showed a witness preaching to an elderly gentleman. In the background is a nun who appears to be holding out a collection bag to the householder, while discouraging the witness from his work. The only problem was that, if you looked at the picture quickly, it might appear to some that the nun was “blessing” the witness’ efforts. A quick check of the text in the book would immediately disabuse anyone of that idea, but feedback showed the advisability of changing the picture. As a result, a new picture was drawn, which replaced the nun with a phonograph.

This meant that there were soon two editions of Riches in circulation. As a result, some wrote in. More than one copy of the standard reply has survived, but the one pictured below was sent to a John Shearrow from Alliance, Ohio. The identical address on a 1940s registration card identifies him as John Cunningham Shearrow (1890-1962) who married and had one daughter, but no further information has been gleaned.

The letter advised any with the “nun” copy to carefully remove the page, and these could still be placed without any picture at this point. As there was no text on the reverse of the picture, this was quite easy to do.

So collectors can find at least three versions of Riches, one with the nun, one with a page neatly cut out, and then a later printing with a replacement picture.

The family Knorr

This blog concentrates on the era of C T Russell, but sometimes material comes to light that reaches beyond that. Below is a cutting of a wedding announcement from 1903.

The groom was D Ellsworth Knorr. Certificates for his birth, marriage, death, and some census returns make the D stand for either Donal, Donell, or Donald, although with the census the enumerator could easily just have misheard. Generally in life the issue was fudged with just an initial: D Ellsworth Knorr. This is how trade directories and his death certificate read. Maybe the query rumbled on during his lifetime, a bit like Malcom (or was it Malcolm) Rutherford? 

There are quite comprehensive details of this Knorr family on Ancestry. D Ellsworth Knorr was the son of Aaron Herb Knorr. His grandfather was Samuel Knorr. The line is traced back to Hans Knauer born 1720 in Airfeld, Bavaria. D’s mother was Mary Margaret Schmidt (1835-1900). As shown by the cutting D married Estella Bloss.

He spent most of his life as a movie theater manager in Allentown. In 1910 the famous thespian, Sarah Bernhardt visited the theater and D Ellsworth Knorr, as manager, showed her to her seat to witness a new projection system. (Event reviewed in his obituary in The Morning Call, for April 10, 1964.)

D Ellsworth (1872-1964) and Estella (1882-1973) had three children.

Robert Ellsworth Knorr, 1903-1972.

Nathan Homer Knorr (1905-1977)

Isabel Estella Knorr, 1906 – 1999.

Incomplete records on Ancestry and newspapers.com show that both the mother Estella and daughter Isabel had funerals linked to Kingdom Halls.

Nathan of course became president of the Watchtower Society, from 1942 to his death in 1977. Ancestry provides his High School Yearbook photo, details of his marriage to Audrey, and other aspects of his life.

Because of copyright and privacy issues I am not reproducing any of this material, and also as stressed at the outset, it is events from the CTR era that mostly concerned us here.

So perhaps we could just end on an event (or rather a non-event) from the 19^th century.

Maria Frances Ackley married CTR in 1879. She had previously been a school teacher.

The year before her marriage she received some unwelcome publicity in the newspapers. From the Pittsburgh Daily Post for January 19, 1878:

The name of the boy she was accused of assaulting? Knorr.

It appears that a fellow teacher in the North Avenue School, Mary Lecky, was concerned that someone might think it meant HER. There was a hasty bit of damage limitation. The Pittsburgh Daily Post for January 22, 1978, carried a clarification:

Putting this in context, we must remember that corporal punishment was allowed at this time and the complaint may have been malicious. However, for a 27 year old female teacher to be accused of “cruelling whipping” a 12 year old boy still seems unusual.

There is no information in the newspapers as to how the investigation turned out, but we must assume Maria was cleared of misconduct. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for July 3, 1878 carried a report of the latest election of teachers. For the Second Ward, North Avenue School, Marie F Ackley was elected again; as was Mary Lecky.

However, with that kind of experience and after a decade of teaching (with yet more of the same looming ahead) perhaps Maria was getting tired of it all. Getting married, as her two older sisters had done before her, was the normal escape route for a single woman.

Just over a year later, on March 13, 1879, she married Charles Taze Russell.

Still, I am pleased to confirm that there is absolutely no connection with Nathan Knorr’s extended family. While they came from Pennsylvania, it was a different part of the State and also from a different era.

Pastor Russell arrested

From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 22, 1914. According to the full story, the police stopped the showing of the Photodrama half way through and arrested Pastor Russell who was present in person. The issue was showing moving pictures on a Sunday. Also Adam and Eve weren't wearing any clothes! He was arrested on Sunday night and "discharged from custody" on the Monday. Did he actually spend a night in jail? The case was thrown out.

Lost Films

There are several “lost” films in the history of the Watch Tower Society. The 1914 Photodrama of Creation was a big success and since at least twenty complete sets were produced, most of it survived – both in private hands as well as official archives. But subsequent Bible Student films have not fared so well.

There was a Photodrama “sequel" produced by Bible Students in 1917 called Restitution. Details of this are featured in an older article on this blog AT THE MOVIES. Sad to say, only a few minutes have as yet been discovered. It was renamed several times in a troubled history and was finally rebranded as Redemption and sold in pieces on 16 mm film in the late 1920s. If you use the search facility to access the above referenced article you will see a link to where the surviving footage can be seen on YouTube.

Some film was taken by secular sources. In 1913 when CTR arrived at the Hot Springs, Arkansas, convention, his arrival was filmed (see 1913 convention report page 66). The Hot Springs New Era newspaper for June 7, 1913, also said that the baptism ceremony was filmed by the same cameraman. But at the end of the year (Hot Springs New Era for 30 December 1913) in response to an IBSA enquiry, there were recriminations between cameraman, studio and express company when the negatives disappeared in transit. So I wouldn’t hold your breath for film of Pastor Russell alighting from a 1913 train any time soon.

When the Chicago 1921 Pageant of Progress exhibition was filmed, the IBSA stand was reportedly featured (see write-up by Fred Franz’ brother Albert in New Era Enterprise for September 6, 1921). However, most newsreel material was very short-lived. Once shown, if shown at all, such films were usually melted down to reuse the silver and nitrocellulose base.

But returning to the Bible Students’ own endeavors, the bumper year for lost films seems to be 1922.

That year the Bible Students held a convention at Philadelphia over four days, April 13-16. It started in the Moose Hall and later transferred to the Metropolitan Opera House for the public meeting, where Joseph F Rutherford gave the public lecture. The review of the whole event as found in the New Era Enterprise newspaper for May 30, 1922, page 4, mentioned a special film show.

So on the Friday evening, at Moose Hall, to an audience of around 1500 people, 8 reels of moving pictures were shown. For that size of audience it would have been on regular 35 mm film and would have been the length of a modest feature film. The convention program showed what this film contained.

Whether this was raw unedited footage or a professional presentation we do not know, but what is obvious is that these films were soon edited down quite severely to make two one-reelers, one on Palestine, and one on Imperial Valley. This was as part of the Kinemo project, described in the New Era Enterprise for July 11, 1922, and also in The Watch Tower for May 1, 1922.

 There were three films in total in the original Kinemo project, the two aforementioned and a third on the Great Pyramid. They were produced on safety film (rather than dangerous nitrate stock) on a substandard film gauge, 17.5 mm. They could only be seen with a special Kinemo projector, designed for home or parlor use. All three films featured Joseph F Rutherford in cameo appearances.

Using the search facility on this blog under the heading KINEMO you can find a series of articles on this project. The three Kinemo films survived in private hands and have now been painstakingly copied frame by frame, and the articles will give the YouTube links to watch them today.

But the question we are left with is – what about the remaining six reels as shown in Philadelphia in April 1922?

The 1922 convention that everyone remembers today is the much larger event held later that year in September at Cedar Point, Ohio. This too provides a tantalising glimse of lost films.

In readiness for the 100^th year anniversary of the events, the Watchtower Society put out a call for some footage actually taken at this Cedar Point convention. This request was based on an advertisement in the New Era Enterprise over several issues in October and November, 1922.

This venture (or something similar) was suggested in the Convention Notes as found in the Enterprise for October 31, 1922.

It was hoped that someone somewhere still had this footage. It would have been special for the 100^th anniversary year if it had survived and could be restored, but this did not happen. Extant photographs of the event show a full sized camera filming J F Rutherford as he spoke out of doors in “The Grove.” Time may tell if it ever did survive anywhere. It should be noted that as well as the 17.5 mm Kinemo version, it was also possible to buy a standard 35 mm print from the same source.

However, motion pictures were also shown at this convention, which provides even more “lost” films to consider.  Again from the Enterprise for October 31, 1922:

The views of Egypt, Palestine and Imperial Valley were obviously the current Kinemo trilogy in some shape or form, but what about the other films?

The description talked about “Views of the Bible House (back in Pittsburgh?) and other organization buildings and offices in Brooklyn, the Bethel Home, etc., the printing and binding of books and pamphlets, etc.” These films were shown on three evenings, Friday to Sunday.

But what happened to them thereafter?

 Since the Society did not choose to retain 1922 footage that was actually sold to the public at the time, this does not bode well for these other films ever surfacing.

But stranger things have happened.

We might end by asking why such films became “lost?” The Society’s experience during the Great War, and its view of the future, meant that archiving was not always a high priority, certainly not for material viewed as ephemeral at the time. Even when the Society produced a reprint of the first 40 years of (Zion’s) Watch Tower they had to appeal to private collectors to help them complete their file for the project. And who would know that a hundred years after these events there would be interest in these old moving pictures? We might easily make the same mistakes today in choosing what or what not to keep in our personal video DVD collection.

Material in private hands may survive for a while, but when people die their relatives often throw things out because they don’t realize their significence. Like many collectors I have repeatedly followed up leads only for them to end this way. It is good that now there is far more interest in preserving the past and that technology allows for greater sharing.

Original Directors

Here is a composite picture of five of the original Watch Tower directors put together by Bernhard. The two missing (for whom we as yet do not have photographs) are Joseph Firth Smith and John Bartlett Adamson.

Paul Johnson comes to Britain...

Photodrama memorabilia

A few items from Tom's collection.

Neutralizing a Perceived Subversive Threat

Guest post by Gary

‘Neutralizing a perceived subversive threat': Censorship, threats, persecutions and prosecutions used to keep 'at arm’s length' a peaceable religious community in World War One America

At 3 pm on 24 February 1918, Pastor William A. Baker was due to deliver a Bible lecture entitled "The End of the World, Relation of the World War Thereto" at Grants Pass, Oregon. Accommodation had been booked in advance and advertised several days before in the local press. However, on arriving both the speaker and those invited to attend were surprised to find the doors "nailed up" and their access barred. Baker, a Portland resident small in stature but known to his friends as the “Little Giant," was invited to discuss the matter on the following day and appeared, with a colleague, at the court house before a committee of 30-40 men from the local counsel of defence along with the Mayor, the Sheriff and the Manager of the Opera House he was to use. His introductory 'good morning' greeting met with silence. He was promptly told to answer the following four questions with only a simple yes or no: Are you a member of the Red Cross? Are you a subscriber to the Liberty loan? Have you purchased thrift stamps or savings certificates? Are you wholeheartedly and unreservedly backing the government's war program? To each question he answered 'no', but when he attempted to qualify his answer to the final question, he was told that no debate would be tolerated. He was then instructed to leave the room and a vote was taken to deny him the right to speak at any event locally or to distribute literature in the city. (1)

So, what had led to the cancellation? The local counsel of defence had read newspaper reports concerning actions taken against members of the International Bible Students Association in Canada, which suggested, to their mind at least, that the 'Russellites' - as they were colloquially called in America - would be unsupportive of the war, perhaps disloyal, and even seditious. Consequently, the Ashland Tidings reported on the same incident a few days later using the heading 'Pro German Not Allowed to Lecture'. In many respects this minor episode in the life of an American city in the Great War mirrored the wider attitude of American society toward the Bible Students for the following year. Until it was over, and the national aim achieved, Bible Students such as Baker would barely be tolerated. Even after the conflict, when the attitude of many in society had softened, their reputation remained. It was not hard for Bible Students to contemplate a teaching they had held long before they had become so unpopular: they were "no part of the world" but were, rather, "citizens of a heavenly kingdom". (2)

Three days later the Rogue River Courier reported on its front page of the sudden investigation of the Brooklyn, New York, office of the International Bible Students under the heading 'Government Raids Russell Headquarters', noting that literature had been seized and turned over to the public attorney who was to determine if it was seditious. It commented that the raid was "said to have been made in connection with the arrest recently of followers of the Russell sect in Toronto, Ont., where five persons are on trial with publishing and circulating a book called The Finished Mystery". No mention was made by this issue of the paper regarding the earlier events in Grants Pass, but the connection was made in public consciousness, and for many the earlier decision now appeared justified by reason of the government's more recent action. (3)

By way of protest, a letter from Pearl Easterling, a local Bible Student, appeared in the Ashland Tidings on 4 March 1918 attempting to correct the 'Pro German' headline of a few days earlier. It explained that the Bible Students were not opposing the war measures but, since the US government saw reason to make allowance for those whose conscience didn't allow them to fight, simply making use of this right. It explained that it was "preposterous to suppose that the I.B.S.A. is pro-German when its members first suffered martyrdom at the hands of the German autocracy" where, it claimed, "over one hundred had been shot for their religious convictions." However, the protest fell on deaf ears as increasing newspaper reports appeared, in Oregon and elsewhere, of Bible Students being arrested for distributing literature that was under suspicion. (4) In Medford, Oregon, for instance, a crowd of several hundred threatened violence. George Maynard, whose house was being used as the centre of local Bible Student activity, was seized by a mob who stripped him and "painted a huge iron cross upon his body, giving him until Monday to leave" according to the Laramie, Wyoming, Boomerang, of 15 April 1918. The paper also warned locals of the imminent arrival of a certain Pastor W.A. Baker who was due to speak at the Lyric Theatre. The intention of the article, headed "100 Percent Americans. Awake!", was clear. (5)

"Suppressing one densely packed theological rant"

Bible Students could never be 100% American, and this was a time when anything less just wasn't enough. To many these reports justified the claim that Bible Students were seditious. Besides, even if this had not been the intent of the Bible Students, the increased public attention given to them served notice to any would-be traitors that Uncle Sam was not to be messed with. Religious historian Philip Jenkins noted that the setting involved one publication in particular:

        In 1918, when federal and state authorities were deeply concerned about pro-German subversion and sabotage across the United States, much of their activity focused on suppressing one densely packed theological rant, namely The Finished Mystery. (6)

Indeed it was this Bible Student book which highlighted their premillennialist views and the profound indifference of Bible Students to 'Babylon the Great' and her daughters, the religions of the world which had too often compromised the standards of God in exchange for favors received at the hands of worldly governments. It is usually assumed that The Finished Mystery was an attack on all religions other than Bible Students. It is true that it was highly critical of the role of religion in supporting the war, but not all clergymen were condemned. In fact, it quoted from two at length who were as equally disgusted with those who praised the Prince of Peace on the one hand, while championing the God of war with the other. (7)

The authorities took great exception to pages 247-253, especially the following comment:

Nowhere in the New Testament is patriotism (a narrow minded hatred of other people's) encouraged. Everywhere and always murder in its every firm is forbidden. And yet under the guise of patriotism civil governments of the earth demand of peace-loving men the sacrifice of themselves and their loved ones and the butchery of their fellows, and hail it as a duty demanded by the laws of heaven. (8)

When the US Department of Justice termed distribution of the book a violation of the Espionage Act on 14 March 1918 it started their campaign at "Neutralizing a perceived subversive threat", as Lon Strauss has aptly commented. (9) It only became a matter of time before various states took action against Bible Students responsible for both its publication and distribution. Just three days later at Third Avenue, San Bernardino, California, a small number of believers met in a private house to discuss the Bible. On this evening something unusual happened. A knock was heard on the door and four men outside asked if they could join in with the study. They were welcomed in, given Bibles and joined in the conversation. Afterward, one of the men approached a female believer, Emma J. Martin a 48-year-old widow of a well-known local doctor, to request and receive a copy of The Finished Mystery book. What she did not know was that these men were working as government agents and had deliberately visited to spy on the group. Consequently, the following day she and three others among the group were arrested and imprisoned on charges of sedition. As a Christian, Emma Martin did not believe anything in 1918, a year after the United States entered the war, that she hadn't believed in 1916, a year before America joined the conflict. While she had determined her stand on war sometime before, she had not approached the men intent on converting them to prevent their involvement in the draft. Rather, they had deceptively sought her assistance. (10)

Threats, intimidation and invasion of the home and confiscation of Bible literature, usually at the hands of the American Protective League, became common. For example, on 27 March 1918, at Corpus Christie, Texas, Mrs Clara Hanke was threatened and attacked and her home raided with Bible study textbooks confiscated. On two occasions in the following month the raids were repeated, accompanied by more threats and by the invasion of her bedroom when she was resting on her bed. (11) Similarly, in March 1918, at Alba, Missouri, one hour before midnight the home of 71 year old Mary E. Thayer was invaded without warrant, her person threatened and her effects seized.(12) Likewise, Alta Randall's home at Tulsa, Oklahoma, was entered by officers who confiscated Bible study textbooks without warrant, accompanied by abusive, threatening and violent language. (13)

'Slackers'

Labelling individuals in small close-knit communities aggravated underlying tensions, of course, and it is not hard to understand why many citizens started to avoid Bible Students in case it was somehow thought they supported their views. The social and financial implications of such actions would create further hardship for the businesses, families and individuals involved in an event that foreshadowed the experiences of many Jehovah's Witnesses in America some 21 years later. And yet, as we know, many did face such acrimony. August Swanson, a farmer from Minnesota, recalled visiting Bible Students in Spring 1918:

These friends had refused on religious grounds to support the war in any manner. Consequently, their neighbors and fellow townsmen had begun a boycott against them. They could not buy or sell; they were threatened with mob violence and annoyed in various other ways. In the public square, close to the railway station, had been erected a large monument of concrete, painted yellow. Upon its four sides in large black letters were all their names, with the word “SLACKERS. (14)

Scarred for Life

Being interrogated concerning their beliefs and religious literature by self-appointed citizens with well-intended patriotic sympathies was unpleasant enough, but it pales into insignificance compared to the experience of others. Stanley Young, for instance, a physician's son from Reading, Pennsylvania, was arrested and interrogated by Bureau of Investigation agents for several hours for distributing Bible Student literature. During this a U.S. Attorney threatened that the government would shoot him, while a U.S. Marshall "was toying with his revolver and brandishing his blackjack." After releasing Young on bail, officials continued to harass him, with one individual, possibly an APL agent, assaulting him in a local restaurant. As a result of a concerted campaign, Young eventually suffered a nervous breakdown and confinement in a Harrisburg asylum. Ultimately the government filed no charges against him, but Young recalled that the experience "enlightened me as to the character of some Government employees and the shameful misuse of power given them." (15)

Others faced local vigilante groups. One being John Baltzer Siebenlist of Shattuck, Oklahoma. The Golden Age magazine of 29 September 1920 put the cause of Siebenlist's experience down to the fact he had visited a distribution collection centre to pick up literature for local Bible Students. But this over-simplifies a much more complex issue, as will be explained. There were a number of factors which aroused suspicion in the eyes of local vigilantes and had already thrown Siebenlist to top of their hit list. The first involved nationality. Born 10 July 1888 in Satov, Russia, on the boundary of the German border, Siebenlist immigrated to America with his family twelve years later so that he eventually become a naturalised American. However, while Siebenlist had a name that was obviously German - as is the case for many Americans - he continued to use German as his first language. As such he might easily have been considered an "enemy alien". Secondly, when he signed the draft form on 5 June 1917, he claimed a conscientious objection for religious reasons, stating also that he was an IBSA minister. But the local registrar seemed unconvinced and added a note, "He clerks in grocery practically all the time."(16) This likely triggered local problems for him since, in some people's eyes, it seemed as if he was trying to get a ministerial exemption, when his "real" job was grocery clerk. Thirdly, at school his son Theodore was known to have refused to buy a Red Cross pin as early as September 1917.(17) But the final straw, as far as the locals were concerned, came in 1918 when the Bible Students were perceived to be seditious as a result of The Finished Mystery ban. Retribution followed swiftly. Members of the local council of defence picked up Siebenlist at work and took him to Main Street where they publicly humiliated him by forcing him to stand on a copy of The Finished Mystery, kiss the flag, and swear allegiance to America. (18) But this display of forced loyalty satisfied the vigilantes only temporarily. Since Siebenlist was still a marked man, when he later visited a dispatch depot to collect literature for the local Bible Student class he was again in trouble. Theodore later recalled:

Dad was picked up again and held another three days. This time he was fed very little. His release this time was another story. About midnight three men simulated a jail ‘break-in.’ They put a sack over dad’s head and marched him to the west edge of town barefooted. This was rough terrain and full of sandburs. Here they stripped him to the waist and whipped him with a buggy whip that had a wire at the tip. Then they applied hot tar and feathers, leaving   him for dead. He managed to get up and walk and crawl around town toward the southeast. Then he intended to head north and home. However, a friend of his found him and brought him home. I never saw him that night, but it was a terrible shock to mom, especially with a tiny baby in the house, and Grandma Siebenlist fainted when she saw him. My brother John had been born only a few days before all of this happened. However, mom held up under all the strain very well, never losing sight of Jehovah’s protective power ... Grandma and Aunt Katie, dad’s half-sister, began nursing him back to life. The tar and feathers were imbedded in his flesh; so they used goose grease to heal up the wounds and gradually the tar came off. . . . Dad never saw their faces, but he recognized their voices and knew who his assailants were. He never told them. In fact, it was hard to get him ever to talk about it. Yet, he carried those scars to the grave.” (19)

Perhaps the most notable case of persecution occurred on 30 April 1918 at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, and involved four male Bible Students imprisoned for selling The Kingdom News. Charles Franke, Edward J. French, CB Griffin and 61-year-old WB Duncan were taken from the jail, tarred and feathered, and driven far from town. Duncan was compelled to walk 26 miles to his home and barely recovered, while Griffin was virtually blinded and died from the assault a few months later. A Mrs D. Van Hoeson also had been jailed but appears to have been spared, while at a similar time, in Mammoth Springs, Arkansas, Charles Franke's sister, Minna B. Franke, was mobbed and compelled to close out a $10,000 stock in one day and leave town.(20) It is apparent that some local officials protected Bible Students from vigilante mobs providing sanctuary in local prisons until the fever-pitch mentality passed. Yet, in other cases, these openly encouraged individuals taking the law in their own hands. For instance, The Golden Age also recorded the experience of J. Eagleston, who had been jailed for 15 days in prison tanks, some with no bed or mattresses, insufficient covering or food, before receiving his trial. When the jury disagreed, 5 to 7, the Judge suggested in court that "if there is no law to settle these cases, they will be settled, if it is done by the American people themselves."(21) What did he mean?

Opposition faced by the entire community

All faiths holding traditional pacifist ideals experienced considerable pressure during this time, such as the historic peace churches of the Mennonites, the Society of Friends (Quakers), and the Church of the Brethren (Dunkards). And individuals from newer faiths holding fast to their pacifist convictions included members of the Christadelphians, Churches of Christ, Seventh Day Adventists and the Pentecostalists. But the IBSA appears to have been unique in that it grabbed attention for more than just the conscientious objection of its males of drafted age. These 'new kids on the block', with no earlier peace history to fall back on, experienced opposition affecting all levels of the group, young and old, male and female, from those some might consider 'rank and file' members to several leading directors serving at their Brooklyn headquarters. Ultimately government raids of the premises led to the trial of Joseph Rutherford, the president of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the Society’s secretary-treasurer, two co-authors of The Finished Mystery, three other members of the Brooklyn headquarters staff and the Society’s Italian translator, under charges of attempting to cause insubordination and refusal of duty in the armed forces and obstructing the recruiting and enlisting of men for war.(22)

At some public expense, Judge Harland B. Howe from Vermont was transferred in to officiate. His appointment was no accident. Earlier he had presided over the case of The United States v. Clarence H. Waldron, involving a Baptist minister with millenarian beliefs and strong Pentecostal tendencies. Waldron had become unpopular with a section of his congregation who held more traditional views and sought opportunity to alienate him from the community, finding reason in his pacifism to accuse him of attempting to undermine the U.S. government in a time of war. At the trial Judge Howe did not allow testimony regarding the anti-Pentecostal religious prejudice of Waldron’s accusers. As a result, the jury returned a guilty verdict and Howe sentenced Waldron to 15 years in federal prison. (23) It was apparent that something similar was expected of Howe in the Rutherford case, and he did not disappoint. The religious motivation of the Bible Student accusers was ignored and, not surprisingly, the IBSA directors were all found guilty of the charges made, leaving Judge Howe to conclude that that these Bible Students were "A greater danger than a division of the German Army". Consequently, the seven directors each received 20 year sentences to be served at the Atlanta Penitentiary. (24)

Post-war the case was reviewed and recognised as a miscarriage of justice, so enabling Rutherford and his colleagues to be released. In 1919 Judge Ward concluded:

The defendants in this case did not have the temperate and impartial trial to which they were entitled and for that reason the judgment was reversed. (25)

Ironically the original trial and sentence had been heavily reported by the press throughout the United States, including excerpts from the forbidden book, to the extent that "the press did the very thing the Russellites had been sentenced to twenty years for doing, and gave it more publicity than the followers of Russell could possibly have given it."(26) Additionally, the miscarriage of justice supported their Biblical distrust of manmade governments (27) while their imprisonment made martyrs of the IBSA leaders and set their anti-war agenda for the following 100 years, starting with a resolution they sent to the Washington Arms Conference on 27 November 1921 making it clear that IBSA would not be involved in any future war, "in any form."(28) In 1931 they sent a further resolution to numerous world leaders stating that, "our faith forbids ... us from engaging in war or in any other enterprise that would work harm or injury to mankind." It also made rulers aware of the new name they had taken on, "Jehovah's witnesses." (29)

Heads held high above the parapet

By way of a corrective, it should be repeated that Bible Students were not, by any means, the only group treated adversely in war time America. Regular surveillance, bullying, public scorn promoted by newspaper propaganda, vigilantism and occasional mob violence were in no way limited to them. In the prevailing political climate any individual, religious or political, perceived through their actions as not being 100% behind the State initiatives aroused suspicion, especially if they had a German surname or origin and even if they maintained a low profile and displayed care in their speech. But the high profile ministry of active Bible Students, directors and colporteurs in particular, who saw themselves as "ambassadors for Christ", ensured their heads were always held high above the parapet and, in so doing, made them most vulnerable to attack. Given the wartime paranoia, their identification, investigation and persecution became inevitable.

The last word on this subject can be left to William Ray Walker who summed up the situation as follows:

The Justice Department's tenacious pursuit of the Russellites occurred in an environment   where society interpreted even slight deviations as threats to its survival. The government harassed and censured the Russellites for nothing more than expressing and teaching their        religious doctrines. The case never would have progressed in an era when America felt secure within their communities because the Russellite divergence was strictly religious and did not challenge the social, political, or economic status." (30)

References:

(1) Rogue River Courier, 25 February 1918, 1

(2) Ashland Tidings, 28 February 1918, 8. For Bible Students self-perception see John 15:18, John 18:36, Philippians 3:11

(3) Rogue River Courier, 28 February 1918, 1

(4) Ashland Tidings, 4 March 1918, 4

(5) Laramie Boomerang, Wyoming, 15 April 1918

(6) The Great and Holy War, 141

(7) The two, both well-known pacifists, were Charles Edward Jefferson, the pastor of Broadway Tabernacle Church in New York City, and Rev. John Haynes Holmes, of the Church of the Messiah, Park Avenue and 34th Street, New York City. Holmes later became a leading light in the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and took delight in the numerous cases won by Witnesses at the Supreme Court which created precedents and, in so doing, established the civil rights of religious people of all faiths in America during the 1940s and early 1950s

(8) The Finished Mystery, published 1917, 247

(9) A Paranoid State: The American Public, Military Surveillance and the Espionage Act of 1917, submitted to University of Kansas for graduate degree 2012, 75

(10) The New Era Enterprise, Volume 11, No. 13, 13 July 1920, 4. TheGolden Age magazine, 29 September 1920, 717.

(11) The Golden Age, 29 September 1920, 713

(12) Ibid, 716

(13) Ibid

(14) Bible Student News, Summer 1936, Volume 2, No.1

(15) Young to the Attorney General, 5 April 1920. RG 60, Records of the Department of Justice. Quoted in Only the Heretics are Burning: Democracy and Repression in World War I America, William Ray Walker, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2008, 287

(16) Draft registration papers of John Baltzer Siebenlist, dated 5 June 1917

(17) 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, 99-100

(18) Boynton Index, Oklahoma, 3 May 1918, 6

(19) 1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, 99-100

(20) The Golden Age, 29 September 1920, 715, 713

(21) The Golden Age, 29 September 1920, 716

(22) Details of the investigation and trial appeared in The Case of the International Bible Students Association, a 4-page tract written in 1919 by Bible Student Ernest Sexton.                           

(23) Espionage in Windsor: Clarence H. Waldron and Patriotism in World War 1, The Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society, Gene Sessions, Summer 1993, vol.61, No. 3

(24) The New York Herald, 22 June 1918, part 2, 5

(25)  Brooklyn Eagle, 15 May 1919, 1

(26) Preachers Present Arms: The Role of the American Churches and Clergy in World Wars I and II, with Some Observations on the War in Vietnam, by Ray H. Abrams, revised 1969, 183
(27) Psalm 146:3, Jeremiah 10:23, Daniel 2:44, Matthew 4:8,9, Revelation 12:9

(28) Resolution reprinted in The Golden Age, 7 December 1921, 138

(29) Watchtower, 15 September 1931, 278-279

(30) Only the Heretics are Burning, 287