This is what ...

This is what happens when we get help solving mysteries:


            Macon Carter van Hook was born in North Carolina sometime in December 1843 to Southern-born parents who after living in Ohio for a period, immigrated to North Carolina. Though attached to the South by birth and parentage, he served as a sergeant in Company K of the 6th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, applying for a pension in July 1865, as an invalid soldier. Russell mentions his work in 1887 and we hear nothing more of him until 1894 when a letter from him appears in Zion’s Watch Tower. Sometime before 1887, he and his family moved to Columbus, Ohio. The 1910 Census shows him as retired, but he continued to present Bible lectures in Ohio. Our last notice of him seems to be an advertisement for a lecture entitled What Happens After Death, given in Portsmouth, Ohio, in January 1914. He died in Columbus, Ohio, April 27, 1917

and this: 

Van Hook, Macon C.  (Veteran.)  Age 18.  Residence Oskaloosa, nativity North Carolina.  Enlisted July 12, 1861.  Mustered July 18, 1861.   Re-enlisted and re-mustered Jan. 26, 1864.  Wounded severely in side May 13, 1864, Resaca, Ga.  Promoted Fifth Corporal Jan. 1, 1865; Fifth Sergeant March 1, 1865.  Mustered out July 2, 1865. 

Thanks to Miquel we now have this:

We don’t know who “Brother” van der Ahe was. The most likely candidates are two Pittsburgh residents living and working near the Russell’s Fifth Avenue store. The Pittsburgh directories spell the name as Vandera. Thurston’s 1869 Directory lists William, a salesman, and Louis, a shoemaker. There is no firm identification of Van der Ahe.

            Macon Carter van Hook was born in North Carolina December 8, 1843 to Southern-born parents who after living in Ohio for a period, immigrated to North Carolina. Though attached to the South by birth and parentage, he served as a sergeant in Company K of the 6th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, enlisting at Oskaloosa July 12, 1861, when he was eighteen and reenlisting in January 1864. He was severely in the right side at Resaca, Georgia on May 13, 1864. He applied for a pension in July 1865, as an invalid soldier and was granted four dollars a month.

            Russell mentions his work in 1887 and we hear nothing more of him until 1894, when a letter from him appears in Zion’s Watch Tower. In 1883 he and his family lived in Miamisburg, Ohio. Sometime before 1887, he and his family moved to Columbus, Ohio. The 1896-1897 R. L. Polk directory for Columbus says he was employed as an “agent.” The 1910 Census shows him as retired, but he continued to present Bible lectures in Ohio. Our last notice of him seems to be an advertisement for a lecture entitled What Happens After Death, given in Portsmouth, Ohio, in January 1914. He died in Columbus, Ohio, April 27, 1917.[1]

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[1]              Residence in Miamisburg, wound, and pension details: List of Pensioners on the Roll: January 1, 1883, Government Printing Office, Washinton, D. C., page 233.