Not so wild wild suspcion

The evidence is so slim as to be suspect, very suspect, but we're working on the supposition that Brother van der Ahe was Chris von (also van) der Ahe, the owner of the Browns baseball team. All we have is the possibility that he met a Watch Tower evangelist in New York. We think the possibility is strong. He had a connection to Pittsburgh, were he was well known.

We need to prove or disprove this. We're up against a brick wall. Can you do better?

We believe his interest was short lived. We believe that personal difficulties started it and ended it. But, everything is just suspicion. Help!

We probably have to give this up, as fun as it would be to have a drunken baseball club owner in the story. Our focus has switched to William Van der Ahe, aka vonderahe and vondera, etc. He appears to have been a clerk, maybe in Russell's Federal Street Store. HELP!