by Jerome
The pyramid monument on the United Cemeteries property, showing the names of Arabella Mann and Mary Jane Whitehouse.
Note: there have already been two articles on this blog about the Rosemont
United Cemeteries site where CTR is buried. The first was on the mystery box of
books once inside the pyramid and the second was harmonising the discrepancies
in the numbers of recorded graves on site. Strictly speaking, this article
should have been the first – giving an overview of the site.
In June 1907 Charles Taze Russell (hereafter
abbreviated to CTR) made his last will and testament. In it he wrote:
“I desire to be buried in the plot of ground owned by
our Society, in the Rosemont United Cemetery, and all the details of
arrangements respecting the funeral service I leave in the care of my sister,
Mrs. M. M. Land, and her daughters, Alice and May, or such of them as may
survive me, with the assistance and advice and cooperation of the brethren, as
they may request the same.”
The cemetery was obviously a going concern by this
time. It was founded two years earlier, in April 1905 with a board of trustees
and subscribers. The full name was the Rosemont Mount Hope and Evergreen United
Cemeteries. CTR was originally down as one of the trustees. (See post on this
blog dated July 16 for a reproduction of the relevant part of the original
documentation.)The full story of how the Watch Tower Society came to own a cemetery can be found by examining the trial transcripts of the Brooklyn Eagle “miracle wheat” trial and the 1907 Russell v. Russell hearing. The former is because “miracle wheat” was actually grown by John Adam Bohnet on the farm by the cemetery, and the latter because the hearing was endeavouring to establish CTR’s personal assets, as opposed to those of the Watch Tower Society.
CTR had continued to use personal assets to generate
income for his religious work from the very start of Zion’s Watch Tower. Some
of these dealing he described in the 1894 publication “A Conspiracy Exposed”
when answering critics. He also explained why he preferred to keep his personal
name out of such dealings “to avoid any unnecessary notoriety.” Investments
were necessary because many donations were conditional – the contributor could
claim his donation back at any time in case of need.
One way of keeping CTR’s name out of things was
through what he described as “a little holding company” – the United States
Investment Company, which he personally organised with his own money.
Ultimately, CTR donated all these assets to the Watch Tower Society in return
for voting shares – one vote for each $10 donated.
The reason for this preamble is that the Watch Tower
Society obtained a cemetery as an investment by providing William E Van Amburg
with the money to purchase the land. It was next door to an existing parish cemetery
established in 1888 and owned by the Roman Catholic St Philomena Church, so the
change of use was logical, and it contained a farm. Plat maps of the 1890s show
the farm and land belonging to a Margaret Wible, with the St Philomena Cemetery
to the south – putting paid to wild conjecture that it was originally a Russell
family inheritance.
So Van Amburg ‘bought’ the land and then ‘sold’ it to
the United States Investment Company. They in turn organised the cemetery
company. But in reality, as a holding company for the Society, it was the Watch
Tower Society that provided the money and really owned it. The deal was that
half of the income generated would be used for the preservation and upkeep of
the cemetery, and the other half to go to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.
A well-known Bible Student, Dr Walter E Spill, by profession
an osteopath, was chairman of the cemetery company in 1913. As an amusing
aside, in cross-examination during the Brooklyn Eagle trial he volunteered the comment
that none of his patients had (as yet) been buried there.
There is conflicting testimony at different times as
to how practical this investment really was and how successful a venture it
proved to be, and in 1917 the Watch Tower Society decided to sell off most of
the land, apart from sections kept back for their own use. What had by now been
renamed the North Side Catholic Cemetery was the purchaser. Legal documents
show the United States investment company transferred these assets to the Watch
Tower Bible and Tract Society on January 10, 1916, and the Society then
transferred the same to the North Side Catholic Cemetery on December 13, 1917,
as recorded January 18, 1918 in Deed Book Volume 1914, pages 273-274.
The main plot retained by the Society was the area where
CTR was buried in November 1916.
The January 15, 1918 St. Paul Enterprise (hereafter
abbreviated as SPE) reported on the Annual Convention held at Pittsburgh,
January 2-6, 1918, and noted that “the special monument which has been ordered
by the Society [for the cemetery], is not yet completed, so none had the
privilege of viewing it.”
The special monument would be the pyramid in the
center of the Society’s plot. By the time of the 1919 convention report
(covering January 2-5, 1919) a five foot deep concrete foundation was in place,
and visitors were taken to the nearby marble works to see the work in progress.
An artist’s impression of the finished production showed a pyramid with open
books on its four sides, the pages designed to receive the names of those buried
there. These would be headquarters staff (from “Bethel”) and traveling
ministers (“Pilgrims”) along with their families. A space for J F Rutherford
was already earmarked. It was
acknowledged that this was a design from J Adam Bohnet, who according to advertisements
in the SPE (see for example Jan 30 1917) had been cemetery manager since around
1907. However, it was claimed in The New Era Enterprise for February 10, 1920
(the re-named SPE, hereafter abbreviated to NEE) that CTR had approved this
plan from a sketch Bohnet showed him back in 1912. The 1919 convention report
suggests they had been trying to obtain the right material for about five years
(or since 1914) and the pink granite eventually used came all the way from
Marble Falls City in Texas.
Some critics have queried Bohnet’s claim of CTR’s
approval for his design. Personally, I have no reason to doubt Bohnet’s word as
such – in his published writings over nearly 30 years he comes over as an
honest, sincere man; although the actual size and scale of the project may have
grown a bit since CTR’s demise. CTR had requested in his will that his funeral
service be very simple and inexpensive; so the finished edifice, even if for all
the Bethel family, may have evolved into something a little more elaborate than
a passing rough sketch from 1912.
The idea of trying to source appropriate materials from
back in 1914 has a ring of truth about it because the first Bible Student
burial took place on site in December that year. The deceased, 25- year-old Grace
Mundy, was buried in one of the four corners of the site. Subsequent burials
(apart from CTR’s own) followed this pattern, almost as if they were marking
out the extremities of the site and working from the outside inwards when using
it.
The installation of the pyramid was completed in time
to be given a full write-up in the February 20. 1920 issue of NEE. The front
page article was entitled “The Pyramid Monument on the Bethel Burial Lots.” It
concluded with a fanciful comment that probably reflected how many people felt
at the time:
“The Bethel lot will be sacred in the future when
other lots in the place will be forgotten. And who knows the Ancient Worthies
may someday stand reverently before the monument with bowed heads and read the
names traced thereon!”
Actually, the Ancient Worthies would have some difficulty.
The years have not been kind to the pyramid. The weathering of the monument and
the way the light hits it can make decipherment difficult. For example, a
current internet search of memorial inscriptions for this cemetery only yields
about three for the pyramid as recorded by volunteer transcribers. If you go
back to 1967, George Swetnam’s article “A Man and His Monument” in the Family
Magazine section of the Pittsburgh Press (June 25, 1967, page 7) lists eight. But
he was obviously struggling. Grace Mundy, mentioned above, is transcribed by
Swetnam as Grace Mound, and he mentions the name of Chester Ellidge. That can
only be a drastic misreading of John Coolidge, which is surprising since a proper
grave marker still survives on site for him.If you go right back to the February 1920 NEE article, it also lists eight names, but with the expectation of many more to follow.
In reality, there were nine names in total, but that
was all. Swetnam missed the name John Perry, and the NEE had an editorial glitch,
because their missing name, Lorena Russell, was buried there back in December
1915.
Likely for reasons of space, some names on the pyramid
sides were abbreviated with just surname and initials. However, the full names of
the nine are:
North Face
Arabella Mann
Mary Jane Whitehouse
South FaceArabella Mann
Mary Jane Whitehouse
Charles Taze Russell
John Milton Coolidge
(name easily missed by visitors because it is nearly at ground level)
East Face
Grace MundyLaurena May Russell
John Perry
Henry Lawrence Addington
Flora Jane Cole
West Face
(no
inscriptions)
A future article will discuss what is known about
these people, and some have interesting histories and connections. For the moment
though, perhaps we can dispel one potential for speculation - Laurena May Russell
was no apparent relation of CTR.
But that was it. For all the hype in the 1919
convention report and the 1920 NEE article, all the names were of people who had
actually died before the pyramid was erected. No further names were ever added;
and apart from CTR’s sister, who owned the plot next to him, no further
interments took place until the 1940s. The site basically was just left fallow.
Bible Students who left the Watch Tower Society would hold memorial services at
CTR’s grave in conjunction with annual reunion conventions in Pittsburgh, but
other visitors would be few. As one dryly remarked in a 1929 convention report:
“Either the friends have not been dying or the plan has been changed.”
The reason for the project’s abandonment is not
difficult to see. When the construction of the monument really got underway, J
F Rutherford was in prison. Once he was released, the headquarters that had
temporarily transferred back to Pittsburgh returned to their proper home in
Brooklyn. Pittsburgh may have been CTR’s original home, but it was no longer
the Society’s home. Shipping bodies from Brooklyn all the way to Pittsburgh was
expensive. Also, Pittsburgh was unlikely to be near surviving relatives. And in
fact, apart from CTR’s sister, no surviving relatives were ever buried there.
The Brooklyn Bethel family soon had another cemetery in New York on Staten
Island, and it made far better sense for headquarters staff and their families
who died to be buried there.
And the concept of a pyramid as a suitable symbol was to
be dropped by the Society in 1928.
So, apart from Margaretta Land, the whole area
remained unused for around 25 years. It may be that during this time some of
the small headstones for others named on the pyramid disappeared – either
through vandalism or wear and tear, or even just by having grass encroach over
them. Whatever the reason, only one early stone (apart from CTR’s) survives
today. As noted above, it was for John Coolidge. It is a curiosity, because the
stated plan was for all the markers (apart from CTR’s) to be 12 inches across
and 6 inch high, very close to the ground. Very early photographs of the
markers for Arabella Mann and Mary Jane Whitehouse show this was done, whereas Coolidge’s
marker is stuck upright in the ground. It stands out more, and maybe that is
why it has survived.
Stones for Arabella Mann and Mary J Whitehouse
Stone for John Milton Coolidge
But then in the 1940s, it was decided to sell off the remaining
graves and the plots were increased to a more realistic size of eight feet by
four feet. Jehovah’s Witnesses in the greater Pittsburgh area had the
opportunity to purchase plots. In my own visit to the area in 2014 I
interviewed the descendants of several people who bought plots in the 1950s. Of
course, most plots were not used until many years later, when the owners
actually died. Some have still not been used, and others may never be used
because ultimately the owners changed their minds and opted for cremation.
From interviews and a detailed examination of the site
I was able to establish that, at this time of writing, 65 names are on stones. That
is over half of those interred there. Just going by photographs or a casual
quick visit, it might seem less than that, until you realise that some stones
contain more than one name.
An earlier article established that there are a total of
123 plots sold on site. (The grand total was 128, but four were covered by the
pyramid and one is so positioned as to make sale unwise). If we deduct the
nine mentioned on the pyramid and Margaretta Land’s grave, that leaves 113
plots to be later sold off.
In my interviews with local people, I had confirmation
that 94 plots out of 113 sold were to witnesses – or, families of witnesses. (To
clarify the latter comment, a witness may have bought a couple of plots, but
their wife or husband may not necessarily have shared their faith, even if sharing
their final resting place.) There is no reason to believe that the remainder
were not witnesses either; it is just that the people I interviewed didn’t know
them – some having died before their time. Those known for certain to be
witnesses included an old timer who it is claimed was a pallbearer at CTR’s
funeral, and also a graduate of an early class of the Watchtower Missionary School
called Gilead.
There is still another site higher up the hill over
the roadway not far from the memorial obelisk to William Morris Wright where
other witnesses are buried.
So it is perhaps fitting that all those buried in this
special area have a connection of sorts with CTR who is buried there, and who of
course was involved with the original establishment of the cemetery.
Addenda
In preparing this article I did a detailed search of
available records to see if any other Bible Students were buried elsewhere in
the United Cemeteries. This turned up the burial of William Morris Wright, with
his impressive obelisk. You can read about Wright and see a photograph of his
memorial on this blog if you scroll back to June 5 of this year. The only other
Bible Student on site for certain is Edward Hollister.
According to FIND A GRAVE, Edward Hollister (1843-1920)
was buried somewhere on the United Cemeteries site, but I have no grave number
and there appears to be no headstone. Tracing forward through genealogical
sites reveals Edward’s descendants, including one with the middle name McPhail
(which should be a give-away) and connections with one of the groups who broke
away from the Watch Tower Society after Rutherford became president.
There are quite a few Seiberts buried here, but I
found Gertrude W Seibert buried elsewhere in the Mount Union, I.O.O.F. Cemetery
in Huntingdon Country, PA, with her late husband.
4 comments:
A correspondent has kindly advised me back-channel that George M Wilson, buried in the United Cemeteries, was also a Bible Student. Wilson was with the IBSA until the late 1920s, but then left to assist a radio ministry with one of the Bible Student groups.
Do you have an article about the the cemetery became a Masonic cemetery? There are people who accuse him of being a mason but haven't been able to refute that he was buried in a Masonic cemetery.
An article I wrote entitled How Many Graves gave this historical detail about the subsequent history of the United Cemeteries and how the Masons got involved:
Much of the land was sold off to the North Side Catholic Cemetery around 1917, which already owned adjoining property. The North Side Catholic Cemetery became part of the Catholic Cemeteries Association in 1952, and this body sold a large swathe of land to the Masonic Fund Society for the County of Allegheny in 1994. Credulous polemicists who see the grave of CTR and the pyramid with the Masonic building in the background should note this progression of sale which has nothing whatsoever to do with the Watchtower Society, ancient or modern. But for our purposes, when these transfers took place it was necessary to specify which bits of land were being held back and never belonged to either Catholics or Masons.
You will find a lot more on this issue if you use the search term "Masons" on this site, and there is a whole appendix on the subject in Bruce and Rachael's "Separate Identity" book.
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