As a result of further research I’ve concluded that it is probable that someone other than Barbour sent Russell The Herald of the Morning. Barbour mentions sending “papers” to Paton. In the same discussion he mentions Russell becoming acquainted with what he taught by reading his magazine. It seems likely someone else sent it to Russell.
The above is wrong, of course. The post found herein reminded me of what I already knew. Russell says Barbour sent it to him.
The J. S. White who spoke to the Cooper Institute Adventists is not James White, but an Advent Christian evangelist of similar name. This makes more sense.
I need help identifying Robert Bailey of Howardsville, Michigan. There are at least two good candidates who lived elsewhere at other times. One was a photographer born about 1826 in England. He lived in Jackson, Michigan in 1880. The other was Robert M. Bailey, a grocer. He was born December 12, 1826, in Vermont and settled in Adrien, Michigan.
Bailey was one of the first Watch Tower evangelists. He was converted by Paton about 1880. Any information would be helpful.
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7 comments:
Russell's account reads:
"It came about in this way: I received a paper called The Herald of The Morning, sent by its editor, Mr. N. H. Barbour."
I hope you will do some research on Peyton Bowman. He is mentioned in the WT around the 1886-1887. He also had ties at the same time with the Advent Christian Church and the Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith.
Still the questions remains how did Barbour get Russell's name? Russell's account of his life during the years of 1869/70-1876 before meeting Barbour is limited. It is likely that he only revealed what was necessary to explain his association and his disassociation with Barbour and Paton, for the benefit of his readers, and was not meant to be an autobiography, for which it is quite incomplete. His statement that he learned no single truth from the Adventists and his denial that he ever was an Adventist, although possibly truthful from his perspective, has created the impression among the Bible Students/JWs for decades that he had no dealing with the Adventists after his encounter with Wendell. However, if Russell did not request Barbour's paper himself, how did Barbour ever he get his name and address, unless Russell had some ties to Adventism?
The most fruitful period of WatchTower history research may yet be Russell's activities prior to meeting Barbour. There are enough clues in Russell's account, but little specific information. We have information now to get a better picture of the Adventists of that period than the Bible Students have ever had.
Russell says the arrival of Barbour's magazine was unexpected. Barbour pulled names out of Adventist publications and mailed out papers to those people. It's not a mystery. He says he did this in more than one place.
Russell was very forth coming about his Adventist associations. All he claimed was that he wasn't one himself. In the sense that he and the group at Allegheny held themselves to be independent, this is true.
Russell read an immense amount of religious literature including Second Adventist material. He shows this by quoting from it in Zion's Watch Tower and elsewhere.
Most of those to whom he wrote in the era before 1890 knew his associations well. They had shared them. There is no evidence that he tried to hide anything about an Adventist past.
Peyton G. Bowman is mentioned once in Zion’s Watch Tower. A letter from him to Russell and Russell’s reply is found in the August 1887 issue on page 7. The other references to “Brother Bowman” are to A. C. Bowman.
Payton Bowman was a Methodist before becoming an Adventist, and his name appears in Minutes of the Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church 1839-45 as a Methodist minister. He was born in 1809 and died in 1891. He represented “the Jeffersonian wing ‘of the Democrat party and supported the cause of Black civil rights when it was very unpopular.
There are three individuals named Payton G. Bowan. His son, also named Peyton Bowman was a thoroughly disagreeable person. In 1894 Bowman, jr. was arrested for the murder of a young man in the barroom of the Florence Hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. A report in the New York Times says, “The boy was killed as soon as he showed his head in the saloon where Bowman was, having previously stated that he would make Bowman apologize for hitting his father.” He seems not to have been convicted, and a mob threatened to lynch him.
Payton Bowman seems not to have continued any association with Russell, and none of his namesakes were connected in any way to Zion’s Watch Tower.
Thanks for your quick comments on Bowman. Bowman is also mentioned in one of the Advent Christian history books, I don't recall, but it must be the Advent Christian History. I remember there is a photograph of him. He was one of their preachers. Also Bowman is mentioned in the history book of the Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith, "Historical Waymarks of the Church of God", on p.14, and he is in a group photo on p. 15.
From R966 -there was a letter from Bowman. The spelling of the first name is Peyton. I hope that doesn't affect your research. Russell mentioned in his response that he had heard Bowman preach in Phila. 12 years ago, which would be approximately in 1875. Perhaps this was during the Exposition in 1876, or on his regular business trips to Phila. for his store. It is possible that Russell might have visited the Adventist church in Phila. when he was there.
PEYTON G. BOWMAN.
[DEAR BROTHER B.:--I well remember hearing you speak as a champion of Second Adventism in Philadelphia, Pa., about twelve years ago. You had come among them from the Baptists, I think.
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