Comments are helpful; additional research would be stellar:
New Castle, Pennsylvania
The New Castle congregation had its
start in a book canvas by John Adamson. Writing to Russell in late June or
early July 1887, he said:
I am having grand
experiences every day. It seems impossible to get through New Castle. Yesterday
took 46 names and left in afternoon train for home. In no other town have I got
in so many books to the square, and I have excellent talks. Some careful thinkers
are investigating, and awakened sleepers by the dozen. Of course there are
bitter opposers, but as far as noted people are willing to investigate for
themselves, and I have fruit already and expect much fruit. You may increase
the order to here to 300 copies.
By
late 1889, a small congregation formed, the local newspaper reporting that “a
comparatively new form of religious belief has recently obtained among certain
people of this city.” They had, the newspaper claimed, “very decided and
definite opinions as to the date of the millennium.” They met in the office of Andrew
Lewis, [1834-1916] a dentist with offices at 2 Washington Street, “for the
study of the Bible and for prayer, and the discussion of the millennium.” They
claimed to have “Biblical authority” for believing the millennial reign of
Christ near at hand. Lewis came out of the
Methodist Church, where he had been “a charter member.” His obituary does not
mention his association with Watch Tower belief and implies that he died a
Methodist.
This may not be true. We’ve encountered other obituaries prepared by relatives
ashamed of Watch Tower adherence that omit or misrepresent. His last provable
year of adherence was 1891. His father’s funeral was conducted by a “Rev. [William
A.] Wallace” of the Millennial Dawn congregation.”
While
Adamson may have sewn the seeds, the congregation owed its existence to A. C.
Wise, once a United Brethren minister. United Brethren were a German speaking
church with doctrines similar to the Methodist Church. Their clergy were
untrained, and Wise was uncomfortable with public speaking. When speaking
briefly at a Bible Student convention in 1907, he remarked: “I have been placed
on this program without any consultation, and I am not engaged much in
addressing the public, but more from house to house on the great Plan." It
was through his house to house ministry that the New Castle congregation was
formed. The New Castle, Pennsylvania, Daily City News reported: “One Dr.
A. C. Wise, of Neshannock, Mercer county, [sic] is a leader in the new
doctrine, the theories of which he obtains from a book called ‘The Millennial
Dawn,’ for which he is agent.”
Wise
was no sort of doctor. The Daily City News appears to have ‘played it
safe’ by calling a clergyman doctor. Instead he was Aaron C. Wise, a farmer by
trade and an itinerant Brethren preacher with no discernable education. Wise
was on of the organizers of a United Brethren congregation in 1863. He left the
Brethren about 1886 or 1887 to spread the Watch Tower message.
He
was new to the work. In a letter to Russell dated to May 1894 he says he had
been in the work about five years.
That takes us to this period. He explained his view of ‘the work’ in that same
letter: “The work, as I understand it, is to find the ‘wheat’ class, and with
the present Truth intellectually seal them and thus separate them from Babylon.
In doing this, many DAWNS are sold to others who may not now appreciate them,
but who thus assist in bearing the expense of the laborers; and they will be
read by and by.” He reported lecturing “some and quite acceptably, but have no
ambition to make that a special work.”
Wise
loved humor, incorporating it into his evangelism. We cannot place as to time
or place the one example he left, but that seems not to matter. This was his
preaching method:
The Scriptures show us that having ... having thus
consecrated our wills, we may be able to be of service to our fellow beings, neighbors
and friends, and might by the Lord's grace, impress these precious things on
their hearts and minds. How many of these incidents have come to our attention
in our service of the truth! I remember working in a town where they said, “If
you will see a man down there he will talk the Scriptures to you.” And towards
evening I called on him, and this is what occurred. I am a little humorous in
my way of approaching people and I said, “I understand you are quite a teacher
of the Bible and understand it.”
“Yes.”
“I have come in to run you in a corner.”
“Every time you do you will get a five-dollar note.”
And I gave him a little talk on the divine plan of the
ages from the chart, and when I got through he says, “Do you believe that?”
“I certainly do.” And he had not a word to say. Thus
was I instrumental in impressing on his mind the great and glorious truth. I
did not see him afterwards, but I learned he came into the truth.
The
New Castle paper described Wise as “chuck full of the ideas of the book he is
selling.” It reported that he “succeeded in inculcating the doctrines pretty
deeply where he has been at work.” The paper said that a “J. C. McCombs” was “one
of the most zealous ‘Millennial Dawn’ disciples. McCombs, a shoemaker, was, the
paper said, “a deep thinking man and a member of the Methodist church” from
which he had withdrawn over doctrinal difference. City directories suggest that
this was Joseph A. McCombs who in addition to running a shoemaking business
owned other business as well. Nothing is firm here. There is a John C. McCombs
in the record, but he is listed as a railroad engineer.
The
Daily City News said the “object of the millennium expectants is not to
organize or to form any settle or distinct denomination, but the principles are
to be maintained and supported by individual rather than collective belief.” The
paper called the believers in New Castle “earnest and zealous in their
convictions.” By 1900 there were about 28,000 people in New Castle and about 40
adherents.
