17 Years

Last May was this blog's seventeenth anniversary. It has, I believe, become a valuable resource for historians and the merely curious. What do you think?

Only known photo of Jonas Wendell

Our thanks to Bernhard for his hard work. He rescued this from the previously posted group photo, a truly significant contribution to preserving our history.

A. D. Jones writing as A[lbert] Royal Delmont

 Library of Congress files:

Rescue this photo?

 Anyone have the talent or equipment to clean this photo? [Click on image to see it entire.]

Topeka State Journal - November 21, 1903

 A. D. Jones using a pseudonym. A major life-crash. 

A temporary post

 This is in very rough draft, the introductory matter to chapter three, Separate Identity, vol. 3. This post will come down within the week. Comments are welcome. Fact checking is even more welcome.

3 Albert Delmont Jones and William Conley

 

Early Years

 

            Albert Royal Delmont Jones played a significant though until now unexplored role in Watch Tower history. He was the son of Albert Delmont Jones, Sr. (born c. 1835) and Martha McCleary. His father, “a well-known riverboat engineer,” most often used his middle name in place of his first. Albert Senior was a Civil War veteran, serving as an engineer on one of the Mississippi gunboats.[1] After the war he returned to riverboat service, serving on the famous Boaz and on a lesser-known boat. He was a staunch Republican until near his death when doubts over tariff policy led him to question party loyalty: “I’ve been a Republican, voting that ticket, thinking it was right, and thinking by doing so it was keeping up wages for the workingman, but I … have begun to think that we are only helping the capitalists and not benefiting the public and ourselves.”[2]

remainder of this post has been deleted.

J B Kepner revisted

      

     The discovery of the undertaker’s bill for Pastor Russell was behind a recent article on Josiah Bushy Kepner. This covered what happened when CTR died. If readers of this post have not read that previous article, it would be of benefit to first do so, and it can be found here:

     https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2024/05/j-b-kepner-of-waynoka.html

     The position taken in that article was to give a bit of Kepner’s background and to defend him from harsh criticism of his work. While this writer still believes the basic premise behind that article, in the interest of completeness and accuracy we need to look at the criticism is more detail. I am very grateful to correspondent Freddy who provided additional material that needs to be considered.

     W H Wisdom made the criticism in his 1923 book Memoirs of Pastor Russell that “through some more bungling the body was removed from the train at the first small town, where it was very improperly cared for in the way of embalming.”

     From where did Wisdom get his information?

     There are two accounts from the early 1920s that likely provided Wisdom with his material.

     The first, and least compelling, is a letter found in the New Era Enterprise newspaper. This was the newspaper used by Bible Students at the time for news and views and much found in it cannot be found elsewhere.

      In the 27 December 1921 Enterprise, Joseph Greig while visiting Texas, including Pampa (where CTR actually died on the train), wrote a short column “Pastor Russell’s Death Route.” Recounting the story he said: "Orders were given to remove the body at Wynoka, Okla., where an old gentleman cared for the embalming. One who knew this person said while he was not expert in his profession by reason of poor eyesight, nevertheless, he was possibly the only embalmer who never extracted the blood, but used his fluid in connection with the blood as a preservative."

     

There are several problems with Greig’s account. “Old gentleman” has to be subjective – Kepner was slightly younger than CTR. Then the concept of embalming by just introducing embalming fluid without replacing cadaver blood does not make sense. The whole point of embalming was to replace the blood to preserve the body  temporarily and give a lifelike appearance for viewers. The procedure was quite straightforward for anyone with the basic training and equipment – with or without good eyesight. Embalming fluid was pumped into the body, generally through the carotid artery, and was able to displace the blood through an incision in a vein (often the jugular). It used the human circulatory system to work. Sometimes massage was applied to help the embalming fluid to circulate fully. The procedure was refined during the American Civil war and after the body of Abraham Lincoln was so treated became quite standard practice where a body needed preservation for transportation or a delayed funeral.

     This account came from someone touring Texas, who never visited Waynoka in the next State and never met Kepner, although he was still very much in business in Waynoka at the time. It was written several years after the event. It falls into the category of “an unnamed person told me…”

     Of greater weight is a talk given by A H MacMillan on The History of the Society from 1910-1920.  The talk was transcribed, as was a short question and answer session after it, and some of the material – almost word for word – was to appear in MacMillan’s book Faith on the March (1957). Taken from this transcript:

    

MacMillan was scathing about Menta Sturgeon. Quote: “Poor Sturgeon didn’t know enough to take care of a sick chicken, much less a dying man. What he said himself about Brother Russell was enough to kill the man if he was half alive.”

     Reading Sturgeon’s detailed description of CTR’s last hours and his attempts to care for him; and in the heightened emotion of the moment “spiritualizing” some of those events, one can understand MacMillan’s comments.

     MacMillan also blamed Sturgeon for the body having to be removed from the train at Waynoka, where Kepner Undertaking was the only game in town. Sturgeon had chosen to publicize the death and Railway and State regulations kicked in. As MacMillan states “if he had any sense and kept his mouth shut” the situation could be been avoided.

     In his talk MacMillan was to further criticise Sturgeon for not giving the Bethel family the news. Sturgeon wrote to his wife, Florence, in Bethel, and told her. Only by intercepting the letter did MacMillan and others learn the news, before the newspaper reporters started banging on the doors.

     MacMillan could be caustic about Sturgeon because by the time this talk was given Sturgeon had ceased fellowship with the IBSA. He ultimately left all strands of the Bible Student movement and ended up canvassing for a Universalist group, The Concordant Bible Society.

     MacMillan’s distain for Kepner came across in his continued description: “They pulled the body off the train in Pampa, Texas, and took him to a furniture store.” As noted in the original article it was quite normal in small towns for the undertaker to have another business. A man selling furniture and perhaps making furniture could easily diversify into coffins, and if qualified, to provide the whole funeral experience.

     That was the next point MacMillan made. In his estimation, Kepner was not qualified. His account continues: “There a man who didn’t know how to embalm tried to embalm the body and made a mess of the whole thing.”

     Did Kepner know how to embalm? As the original article explained, he was licensed and the only licensed embalmer in the city. When he moved to Waynoka in 1913 and took over new premises The Woods County Enterprise (Waynoka) for April 18, 1913, stated he had been in business for 30 years and  praised him as a graduate of the best schools of embalming in the U.S.

     

Even allowing for self publicity, embalming was something Kepner did. He remained in active practice for over a decade after attending to CTR, only retiring in 1929.   His company, managed by his second wife likely hired someone else to do the embalming, and was still advertising in the 1940s. While embalmers may bury their mistakes (literally!) this man ran a successful business for decades. There was no hint of any issues in the many references to him in the newspapers of the day.

     We must remember that his brief was not to present a body for lying in state, rather to preserve it to meet existing laws for transportation. Kepner appears to have done what was needed. Contemporary accounts of the events surrounding CTR’s death spoke highly of him and there was no criticism from those who first saw the body before it continued on its journey.

     However, for lying in state, after a long journey being bumped about on cars and railroads, more work would be needed, including final cosmetic touches.

     MacMillan is then critical of finding suitcases packed around CTR’s feet in a twenty dollar casket. But this was not a casket for viewing; it was a simple coffin (actually costing thirty five dollars) to meet the requirements of transporting a body across America. Possessions that had been taken off the train with the body also had to be forwarded, personal effects, clothes etc. and the logical thing was to store them in the coffin if there was room. This may have been Kepner (and Sturgeon) just being practical, but MacMillan seems to have taken it as insensitive and disrespectful.

     So what was the problem? Everyone was very upset. Their beloved Pastor Russell had died. He looked old before his time, had been failing in health for quite a while, and sadly died in great pain. Opening the coffin in New York and seeing him was very distressing. There was turmoil in Bethel at the time. After giving the Bethel family the news, MacMillan described how “they met in little groups to talk and whisper, "What is going to happen now?"” Once the glue that held them together – Pastor Russell in person – was gone, then there were going to be problems, as events later proved.

     So there was an inclination to lash out. Sturgeon came under fire and Kepner came under fire. But after further work by New York undertakers several thousand were able to view CTR in a proper casket, first in the Bethel Home, then in the New York City Temple and finally, six days after he died, in Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Hall before the interment at United Cemeteries.

Strange Goings-On at United Cemeteries

     The Watch Tower Society owned a cemetery for a number of years in the latter days of CTR. Originally purchased in 1905 it covered around 90 acres and was a combination of three original cemeteries, named Rosemont, Mount Hope and Evergreen. Much of the land was never used for burials but included farmland on which, at one point, the cemetery supervisor John Adam Bohnet grew Miracle wheat.

     Most of the land was sold off at the end of 1917 to a neighboring cemetery concern, leaving only certain small areas for Watch Tower adherents. The most famous of these areas had a 7 feet high pyramid in the center designed to list on its sides all the names of those interred. Although the pyramid has now gone, the grave marker of CTR is still a feature of the site.

     Because it was a commercial operation originally and anybody could purchase a plot, the site sometimes featured in news items quite unconnected with the Watch Tower Society. Here are a couple of examples.

      The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper for 3 March 1908 carried the headline “Mourners Roll Down Steep Hill.”

     It should be noted that the driver’s injuries were not serious, although one of the horses had to be destroyed. The site is quite hilly and a funeral party took a road turn awkwardly and literally did roll down the hill – fortunately not adding to the fatalities.

     Then the next month, on 3 April, 1908 attempts to rob the stables of an adjoining farm for valuable harnesses resulted in shots being fired. A news item on 15 April 1915 noted that burials had now reached 1,700.

     However, what was probably the biggest news story of all to feature the cemeteries was on 12 April 1914 when the front page of a newspaper carried a photograph of an exhumation taking place. There can only be one thing worse than a burial in the pouring rain and that is an exhumation in the pouring rain.

Pictures reproduced with permission from newspapers.com

     

The headline across the page read “Body Disinterred in United Cemetery Identified as That of Mrs. Myrtle Allison.” The sub-heading read: “Damning Evidence Given up by a Grave – Scandal Still Grows.”

     

Some papers carried Mrs Allison’s picture with the story.

     

This was not the sort of publicity United Cemeteries wanted, although no blame could be attached to them.

     In early 1913 a divorcee named Myrtle Allison, who ran a boarding house in Wilkinsburg, was referred to a Dr Charles Meredith and his “private maternity hospital” in Bellevue, Pittsburgh. There, in March 1913, she had what was forever after referred to by the press as “an illegal operation.” This had to be an abortion. Discharged, she presented herself to another doctor who diagnosed septicemia. He contacted Meredith, who arranged for her collection back to his hospital. She then disappeared.

     Shortly afterwards there was a burial at United Cemeteries in the name of Daisy Davies. Over a year later a general investigation of Dr Meredith caused this very public exhumation reported on by the newspaper. At one point, a familiar name, J. A. Bohnett (sic) cemetery superintendent, was mentioned as guarding the opened grave.

    

Although Daisy had been buried in a cheap wooden coffin with a liberal application of quicklime, it was possible to identify from dental evidence that this was, in fact, Mytle Allison. A post mortem identified the results of “an illegal operation.” There were several arrests, but fortunately for Dr Meredith, the medical evidence cleared him of the charge of murder. He was sent down for five years convicted of performing a “criminal operation.” He claimed parole on the basis that he’d been promised a lighter sentence of only around two years if he pled guilty, but was turned down in December 1914. This time the charge was finally spelled out as “abortion.” Further attempts at parole were opposed by the Medical Board. On his release, he forged a new career in the lumber industry, but when he died in 1959, aged 92, his Find a Grave entry reinstated him as Dr Charles C Meredith.

Pastor Russell's Yacht

     CTR and the Bible Student movement used every modern means available to spread the word. One of the lesser known and lesser successful methods was the use of a large yacht (using both sail and fuel) in New York harbor.

     This is that story.

     CTR had been on an extensive world tour which included the Holy Land and Egypt, parts of Europe and a final tour in Britain. He returned on the liner Lusitania at the beginning of June, 1910. According to the New York Times for June 4, 1910, he was made the gift of a two mast schooner for missionary work.

     The description included a canvas banner with the name “Angel” and the inscription “God is Love.”

     Several news outlets carried a picture of the vessel and its banner.

     CTR described the event in the pages of The Watch Tower July 15, 1910, pages 231-232.

“Arriving at the pier early Friday morning, June 3d, we were warmly greeted, especially by the Bethel family…Our attention was drawn to a schooner yacht, "The Angel." As soon as possible we were taken on board of her. In a brief and neat speech the vessel was presented to us and the papers handed over. We replied briefly, expressing our appreciation of the gift and accepting it as Trustee for the Peoples Pulpit Association. We expressed a hope that the vessel might be used and blessed of the Lord in connection with the service of the Truth in New York Harbor. There is room on the deck for an audience of about one hundred and, in stormy weather, the cabin will accommodate about seventy. The vessel is fitted with sails and also with gasoline engines and an electric light plant.  Her outfitting was not quite complete at the time of presentation. It is hoped that she will be ready for service soon. The endeavor will be to use her for the preaching of the Gospel in various languages to the sailors from all parts of the world, to whom also literature will be freely supplied. The different evenings of the week will be divided amongst the various nationalities of the port, "The Angel" lying at some suitable dock convenient for those of the nationality to be addressed. Pray for the Lord's blessing upon this, another opening for the service of the Truth.”

     The newspapers picked up the story and various details were added. The schooner yacht at 125 feet long was quite a substantial size. There was obviously a standard press release because the cutting below (originally from the New York Evening Journal) appeared in a number of different newspapers.

     According to the Evening World (to which we will return later) the yacht in question started life as the Intrepid and was originally built for Lloyd Phoenix. Phoenix (1841-1926) had been a lieutenant in the US Navy and fought in the American Civil War. After the war he went into business and became Rear Commodore of the New York Sailing Club. There is still a trophy awarded in his name in the yachting world today. Over his career he owned three vessels called Intrepid.

     From the New York Tribune for October 26, 1913:

     Assuming the Evening World got it right, the vessel donated to CTR would probably have been the second incarnation, which dated from 1893.

     From The Portland Daily Press for July 17, 1893:

     Whatever its antecedents, in June 1910 CTR stepped off the Lusitania to be met by a welcoming committee and a schooner yacht, all 125 feet of her.

     In the event, after all the initial publicity, not a lot happened. It is noted from CTR’s account that the vessel was not actually ready for use, and there do not appear to be any newspaper accounts of the craft being used as proposed.

     In the cold light of day, a large yacht, albeit second-hand, might be viewed as somewhat ostentatious for CTR. The maintenance and docking fees would be expensive, particularly when compared with other forms of missionary service.

     The vessel reappeared in the media in 1912.

     In February 1912 New York was buffeted by gales, and a number of vessels were reported to be in difficulties. From the Brooklyn Times Union for February 22, 1912:

     “Angel” had now been rebranded “Onward.” By May 1912 it had been rescued and moored at Pier 11, East River. The Evening World (referred to earlier) continued the saga in its issue for May 2, 1912:

     As well as the vessel’s history, its future course was charted.

     According to the story Onward was now bound up the Amazon River. The fanciful account links the boat to Pastor Russell – perhaps this was a scientific expedition to discover the origin of Miracle Wheat? Reading between the lines it would appear that Watch Tower and the vessel had simply parted company, and new owners with new plans had taken it over.

     This was basically confirmed in the Daily Local News of West Chester, Pennsylvania, for May 20 1912:

     Thus it was that Intrepid/Angel/Onward left the Watch Tower fold and sailed off into the sunset.

Not Happy with the Book

 

The Jersey City News, October 29, 1898, Final Edition.

A. D. Jones' Yacht

 The New York Post of December 27, 1896, mentions Jones' "yacht." I believe but cannot prove with irrefutable certainty that this was instead a one-man skiff or similar. I need more information. Can you find it?

When first shown, this film totally impressed me. And, yes, I'm that old.

Click on title to seee the entire film.

Conventioneers

   

  At its start, photo journalism was a costly business involving wood engravings to reproduce the layers of a photograph for printing.  But in the 1890s and early 1900s it became possible to produce pictures quite cheaply by the halftone process. This basically turned original photographs into a series of dots which could be printed. This was OK for a quick read of a newspaper, but not always so good for deciphering and restoring pictures all these years later.

     Previously line drawings had been the norm and this continued well into the early 20^th century. They might have been taken from photographs or just done by the artist on the spot. An example of the latter is of Charles and Maria Russell facing each others at a court hearing in 1906, as reported in the Pittsburgh Press for April 26, 1906:

     

This article is about one typical line drawing from 1899. It is found in the St Louis Post-Dispatch. The issues for October 7 and 8, 1899, give a running  review on a three day Bible Student convention, held in the Tabernacle Church, 19^th and Morgan Streets, St Louis, with an attendance estimated to top 300 people on the final day, the Sunday.

     One of the headings talked of “Pentecostal Scenes.”

    

     The Pentecostal movement with its “signs” of healings and glossolalia mushroomed at the end of the 19^th century in America. As a side note here, one of its parent groups was The Christian and Missionary Alliance and this was where William H Conley nailed his colors to the mast after leaving association with Zion’s Watch Tower.

     But the heading “Pentecostal Scenes” did not describe a “Pentecostal” meeting. Rather it seems more to refer to large numbers getting baptised all at one time. In contrast to what might be seen elsewhere, the write-up specifically described the behavior of those who were there.

“The audience at no time allowed its enthusiasm to get the best of it and become frenzied or fanatical. It was happy, but reasonably so. There was no shouting. The “Believers” are a practical people and do not counternance going to extremes on any subject at any time. They counsel moderation and their meetings are always attended with order and deliberation.”

     We note here, and in the headline that the Bible Students were calling themselves “Believers” on this occasion.

     The write-up may be influenced by a press release, but appears quite independent. CTR’s baptism talk lasted two hours – as a reflection of the times it was noted there were both Jews and Negroes in the audience – and the review covered Bible Student belief on the millennium and organization, or rather lack of it.

     Anyhow, to finally get to the point of this article, the paper sent a staff artist to capture the scene. This is the result:

     

The curiosity is that it wasn’t just men, but both men and women in the picture. Why the artist chose these particular subjects is not known, but it gives an interesting flavor of the types of people you might just meet at a late 19^th century Bible Student convention.

Latin Bible

 Yup, its off topic, but very interesting. Click title to view it entire on youtube.

62 1/2 Columbia

 In 1883 Albert and Carrie Jones were living at 62 1/2 Columbia in Newark. This was an apartment in a four story boarding house. Can you find anything else about the Jones' life in Newark, New Jersey?

Can you add to this?

 

The Jane Crossley Affair

             Jane Crossley was the widow of John W. Crossley, a well-known carpet manufacturer and merchant.[1] She entrusted twenty-seven thousand dollars to her brother, Henry B. Adams, a partner with Crossley in the carpet business. A New York Times article suggests that Mrs. Crossley knew she was speculating, but the prospect of riches seems to have blinded her to caution: “Mrs. Jane Crossley conceived a desire to speculate in order to increase her fortune” giving her brother ... $27,000 to invest for her in speculative stocks.”[2] An undated clipping from the New York Tribune says the money was transferred “at various times” which seems to suggest that initially the investments performed well.  In 1891 or 1892 Adams chose A. Delmont Jones as his broker and the Crossley fortune was invested in Staten Island Rapid Transit and St. Paul, Minnesota and Manitou Railroad bonds. Much more risky was an investment in oil stocks. Jones sold the oil stocks at “a great loss and sold the Manitou bonds without Mrs. Crossley’s knowledge.” Adam had taken an eight thousand dollar mortgage on Jones’ furniture to secure the investment, realizing six thousand dollars at its sale. Jane Crossley sued her brother to recover her money resulting in a “mixed up and complicated” case.[3]

            There is insufficient record to expand on Jones’ role. I suspect that he sold the railway bonds to cover some of his own debts. His debts were accumulating and fraudulent claims were unraveling. If so, he paid for that mistake by losing his very expensive furniture.

---

Lewis [Louis] William Frost

 

L. W. Frost [1844-1891] was a trustee of the Delmont Kaolin Company, one of A. D. Jones' schemes. He had a colorful history, running away from home to join the U. S. Navy during the Civil War. A. Lincoln helped him enter the Naval Academy at Annapolis. After the war he enrolled in Columbia University School of Law and became a prominent lawyer in New York City, usually practicing business law but sometimes acting as a defense attorney. 

A legal advertisement appearing in The New York Times, February 20, 1890, calling for a meeting of the shareholders. It was signed A. Delmont Jones and Louis W. Frost. I do NOT know how closely Frost was connected to Jones, and I cannot pursue this further? Can you?

I have a photo. No need to send one if you find it. 

MORE:

Add to this Harry B. Adams, a NYC resident who invested with Jones. I need a clear identity and a basic  biography.

I've lost it.

 I had, and probably still have but misfiled, a newspaper article that told how A. D. Jones accumulated his wealth. I need it desperately and  can't find it online either, but I'm not focusing well - an effect of my current medication.

Can you find it?

FOUND IT: New York, New York, Press, December 27, 1896.

ALSO, in the Jones v. Jones divorce papers, W. H. Conley noted a meeting between Thomas Benton Riter, his partner in Riter and Conley, a Eugene F. Smith of New York and himself. There are several Eugene F. Smiths, or there appear to be. Can you help identify the E. F. Smith who was a business associate of Conley and Riter? Perhaps a broker or a lawyer?

Update and an Interesting Video

 I've been mostly confined to my comfy chair. Sick and dizzy and feeling like the antique I am. So no writing the last week or so, but it doesn't matter much because my computer is sick, and I've been without it. Apparently, it will take about 200 US dollars to repair it completely, and I just do not have it right now. So, if you do not see many blog posts from me, you now know why.

Brother F. sent me this interesting video. Click on the title to see it at its best on youtube. Enjoy..

A. D. Jones Again

 I need a firm identity and basic biography for William Sultzer, a partner with Jones in the purchase of property in New York State about 1888-1889.

From a court transcript:

Confusion in an Obituary

 From The [Pittsburgh] Index, August 22, 1908.

WILLIAMS- Mrs . Birda Evaline Williams, aged 44 years, wife of Edward A. Williams and president of the Pittsburgh Sunshine Children's Home, died on Wednesday at the Homeopathic Hospital, following operation. Mrs. Williams was born at Bruceton, W. Va ., and was a daughter of Delmont and Martha Jones. She came to Pittsburgh with her parents when a child. 

December 27, 1880, she was married to Mr. Williams and since has resided in North Lang Avenue. She leaves her husband, one son, Sidney F.; a daughter, Mrs. W. E. Jones; one grandchild, two brothers, Delmont Jones, of Pittsburgh, and Albert Jones, of Cincinnati, and a sister, Mrs. Fielding Frasher, Washington, Pa.

J B Kepner of Waynoka

 

     The circumstances surrounding the death of Charles Taze Russell have attracted much comment over the years. This writer can remember one source that mixed weird conspiracy theories with the claim that his body was taken to a “quack embalmer.” Another account sometimes circulated is that CTR’s body was embalmed three times. The recent discovery of a document from an undertaker in Waynoka, Oklahoma, has prompted this article. We are grateful to a friend of this blog for making it available and it will be featured later in this piece. We will use the various accounts in the Watch Tower magazine and newspapers like the St Paul Enterprise to explain what actually happened at that time and why. The story is obviously a sad one for those holding CTR in high esteem, but ultimately is quite straightforward.

     CTR had been seriously ill when undertaking a series of visits to congregations in the far West and South West of America in the second half of October 1916. As his health deteriorated, he, along with traveling companion Menta Sturgeon, tried to get home to New York by train. He died on that return journey near Pampa, Texas, around 2 o’clock in the afternoon of Tuesday, October 31.

     As CTR’s traveling companion, Menta Sturgeon tried to deal with the immediate aftermath of the death but found he could not travel on the railroads out of State without the body being embalmed. He wanted to reach Kansas City, but had no alternative but to stop at Waynoka for a death certificate and a brief inquest. And here, as the below advertisement shows, Kepner was the only choice in town.

From the Woods County Enterprise, April 2, 1915.

     

Kepner was the only one in Waynoka who was licensed to perform the task. We note from his advertisement that he was involved in several other ventures under the one roof. In the Enterprise for November 14, 1916, a Mrs Norah Voyles Keith wrote that “there in the back of a furniture store was all that remained of our beloved Pastor.” This was very common. Undertakers only had full-time work in the larger cities.  Otherwise, many involved in furniture production simply branched out into making coffins. The only extra skill an undertaker needed to learn was embalming. Kepner perhaps had a head start because back in the 1880s he had also been involved in pharmaceuticals. From the Nemaha County Republican for October 9, 1884:

    

     Josiah Bushy Kepner (1852-1944) was the same age as Pastor Russell.  He had been in the undertaking business for nearly thirty years by the time he attended  CTR, first in Sabetha, Kansas, and then in Waynoka, Oklahoma. He had been mayor twice in Sabetha, and was well respected in Waynoka, where he was to serve as president of a local bank.

     His work was well spoken of in the St Paul Enterprise. From the Enterprise for November 21, 1916:

     

Kepner finally retired in 1929, but his second wife kept on the business at least until the 1940s. The advertisement below is from 1943.

     

It was eventually taken over by the Marshall Funeral Home (now in nearby Alva, Oklahoma) and it is from their inherited records that the copy of his bill to Menta Sturgeon was retrieved.

     

There are three charges. $5.00 for washing and dressing the body – the washing with disinfectant was normally done twice, both before and after the embalming process. Then there was $20 for the actual embalming, although Kepner doesn’t specify on the bill what fluid was used, and then $35 for the coffin for transportation on the railways.

     The process for embalming that Kepner would have used really came into its own during the American Civil War. Those who could afford it wanted their loved ones who died on the battlefield to be returned to them for a family funeral with – if possible – an open coffin or casket. The procedure was not just to preserve the body but to make it appear as loved ones would want to remember. There was a goulish trade of embalmers following armies around offering soldiers about to go into combat a pre-paid plan. At one point these outfits were banned because of the bad effect on morale. Then, as noted above, the railways objected to unembalmed bodies being transported for health reasons, so it became common practice. Finally there were laws in each State stipulating that the procedure was necessary if the body had to be transported over a certain distance or out of State. The custom really took off after Abraham Lincoln was embalmed. His body went on tour and over a million people saw him lying in State over a 20 day period before his funeral. If it was good enough for Abraham Lincoln then it was good enough for the general population - if they could afford it.

     The actual procedure involved using the circulatory system, discovered by William Harvey, to replace blood with a preservative solution. Originally this was arsenic based, but that wan’t too good for the living.  By Kepner’s day it was generally formaldehyde, and this is still the case today. The procedure took between 2 and 4 hours. CTR’s body was taken off the train around 7 pm on the Tuesday evening, and returned to the train at 3 am the following Wednesday morning.

     So this is the background as to why Menta Sturgeon could not just take CTR’s body back to New York. After the death, Sturgeon was forced to stop at the first place the embalming service could be provided.

     What about the thought that CTR may have been embalmed more than once, up to three times?

     When you think of bodies being embalmed multiple times you think of highly complicated procedures for figures like Lenin, but not for your average citizen.

     But from Waynoka, CTR’s coffin was loaded on and off trains and motor vehicles and in and out of various buildings – the Bethel home, the New York City Temple, Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh, etc. – and his remains were also transferred to a more substantial casket In New York for the funeral services.  It was no doubt necessary to make what the November 21, 1916 St Paul Enterprise simply called “such little touches as the long trip would call for.” These would simply be cosmetic, so that each time CTR lay in State, the mourners could see him as they remembered him, as best as was possible in the circumstances.

     Nearly a week after he passed away, mourners saw him for the last time, on Monday, November 6, at Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh. There exists a photograph taken of the platform and the Carnegie Hall audience on the day reproduced below.

     

You will notice a blur across the photograph in front of the platform. This was actually a queue of mourners filing past the open casket, which the long exposure can only show as a smudge across the picture.

     After this final service in Pittsburgh the body was taken for burial at dusk on the 6^th at the Society’s own plot in United Cemeteries. The casket would be interred inside its packing case and the whole encased in concrete.

ADDENDA

In the interests of being as complete and accurate as possible, I have now been made aware of where the account of three embalments comes from. It is from William Wisdom’s book Memoirs of Pastor Russell published in 1923. The book was reviewed – critically – in The Watch Tower for September 15, 1923. Wisdom states: “Through some more bungling the body was removed from the train at the first small town, where it was very improperly cared for in the way of embalming.”

There are no references given, and this account is in conflict with the contemporary accounts which praised Kepner’s work, but stated that – because of the length of the journey, some small adjustments were made (quote) “such little touches as the long trip would call for.” Kepner’s task was to preserve the body to meet the requirements of the law – extra touches might be applied to allow for extended viewing at several locations, but these would be cosmetic. An undertaker might use cosmetics and fillers to render a more lifelike appearance, but this was not a second or third embalming.

Kepner had been in practice for nearly thirty years and was well respected. His business survived him. And the basic procedure was straightforward and successful. As the above article covers, Abraham Lincoln was embalmed over 50 years before and lay in State at various locations for 20 days before the funeral. His coffin was opened several times after his death, the last time being in 1901 and the body was immediately recognisable – the hair, the wart on his right cheek, all still in place.

I stick to my original analysis.