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Separate Identity Vol. 2
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- Let's Go Rob a Pyramid!
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16 comments:
I'm probably still the only reader from México, which makes me happy and at the same time sad
Can you find anyone else who would be interested in at least reading the book - or are Mexican Witnesses mostly content with the story in the 1995 Yearbook? By the way, what ever happened to Roberto Montero, the branch overseer who arrived in 1933? He simply drops out of the story later in the book, although his son (and daughter, too, I think) are quoted.
I don't know much about brother Montero, I know he was overseer of the mexican branch from 1933 to 1943. He was baptized in 1914 and worked at Bethel when CT Russell was still alive. At least his daughter was still in the organization in 1995, but its weird that nobody has a picture of him, not even in Bethel.
When you visit Bethel in Mexico, there is a wall with pictures of all the branch overseers since the beginning of the mexican branch, and Roberto Montero's picture is missing. Here's a picture I took of that wall: http://www.leocuellar.com/2017/11/02/roberto-montero/
Sorry, the link in the previous comment is not working, this one should work:
www.leocuellar.com/2017/11/02/roberto-montero/
Hi Leonardo!
Here is a link from his grandson:
Http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/montero/40/
Here some biographical hints, and maybe it is still possible to contact him.
Hi Andrew, Leonardo and Bernhard,
I do not know why Roberto Montero appears to have been forgotten. However, I have come across examples of individuals who were at one point prominent and were not included in later histories. Invariably I have found that these have left the truth. I have often wondered if the principle of 1 Samuel 2:30 comes into play with those being remembered who have honoured Jehovah to the end of their lives.
All good wishes,
Gary
Hi everyone. Yesterday I talked with a brother that was member of the Mexican Branch Committee since the 60's and asked him if he knows what happened to Roberto Montero. He told me that brother Monero had a problem in 1943 and he left the organization. A few years later he repented and returned but after that he didn't go back to the Full Time Service anymore nor he had any other special assignment until his death, but he died faithful. He told me that is the reason the organization doesn't mention him again after that year.
Thanks for your research, Leonardo. Your explanation makes perfect sense:
Brother Montero suddenly vanishes from the record, apparently when he was no longer exemplary, but in harmony with the principle stated at Hebrews 6:10 - "For God is not unrighteous so as to forget your work and the love you showed for his name by ministering and continuing to minister to the holy ones." - his work during the time of his exemplary service has been recounted under his name.
His dying faithful only confirms the propriety of including his early work at the Branch. Also, it was a kindness that his problem, whatever its nature, was not detailed.
Gary - yes, I've noticed the same, most notably in the case of Jesse Hemery, who served as Branch Overseer in Britain from 1901, and was an officer of IBSA until about 1946. The 1973 Yearbook mentions him quite a bit during the Paul S. L. Johnson crisis of 1917, but very little after that. Apparently Hemery parted company with the Witnesses about 1951 and spent the last years of his life associated with the Goshen Fellowship.
There are similar cases in the Scandinavian histories: the Yearbooks mention both August Lundborg in Sweden and Carl von Luttichau in Denmark relinquishing branch responsibilities, but in neither case do the accounts include the fact that both men also chose afterwards to associate with the dissenting Bible Student movement.
very interesting clarifications here
thank you all for sharing this most interesting background on Montero.
Chris
Andrew - Yes, Jesse Hemery fits this category well. There is little mention of him later in his career for good reason. On the otherhand, it would be impossible to cover the early history of Bible Students in Britain without mentioning him, hence his inclusion in the 1973 Yearbook and in subsequent histories, official or otherwise. Did Hemery associate or create the Goshen Fellowship? Jerome would likely know. The British Bethel appear to have been remarkably patient with Hemery who in his old age seems to have departed from the organisation in spirit and attitude much earlier than 1951.
Jesse Hemery had a life interest in a flat attached to the Craven Terrace London Bethel, so I would suspect there were problems when he left association with the IBSA. When my mother was contacted by the witnesses in the UK in 1950 and baptised in 1951 it was much talked about. He published his own material from 1951 onward, and is usually credited with founding the Goshen Fellowship. He lived to be 99 and died in late 1963. There were several small breakaway movements in Britain and I met someone in 1964 who said he had attended a Maranatha conference before he died. There were two fleshly sisters named Hart in London Bethel who had been with Hemery since 1911 (see 1911 census). One left with Hemery and one stayed with the IBSA. When the one who left came back for her sister's funeral she was asked why she had left and said words to the effect that "Brother Rutherford asked me to always look after Brother Hemery." Jesse Hemery's wife died in 1937 - her death is recorded in an independent Bible Student publication, although she was with the IBSA when she died. Hemery's daughter Bertha, after living in Bethel with him got married to a Frederick Crane in the first quarter of 1915, and I haven't been able to trace her subsequent history. I heard that a cache of Hemery's papers were sold on eBay some years ago, but I only heard after the event and have no further details.
All of which is sort of off the point for the time period this blog researches, but I have been known to stray off the point in the past...
I searched again for Bertha and found that Frederick William Crane and wife Bertha had a son named Jack Hemery Crane. He died fighting at El Alamein in 1942, Here is his memorial:
http://www.wimbledoncollege.org.uk/_site/data/files/About%20Us/History/Roll%20of%20Honour/WW2%20College/EAE3FE124D6BDFFBE754F302DC4D3233.pdf
Although the link to Jack Hemery Crane's memorial is how I found him, it doesn't seem to be working direct from these comments. However, anyone who wants to check the memorial can put "Jack Hemery Crane" (with inverted commas) into a search engine like Google or Yahoo and this will be the first reference. You then delve further to find that the memorial is for Wimbledon College, not that far from Ealing where his parents lived. Then you find that Wimbledon College was a Jesuit Roman Catholic Secondary School.
As Alice would say (with American spelling), curioser and curioser...
Thank you for this fascinating information Jerome. Jack Hemery Crane's decision to fight would not, of course, reflect the attitude of his grandfather in 1942 (or I suspect in 1951) and need not have been the attitude of his mother or father.
Someone pointed out to me yesterday that a picture of Roberto Montero appears on page 51 of A Great Battle in the Ecclesiastical Heavens. I checked out and it does. Photo number 6 is him at age 20. You can see the picture here:
http://www.leocuellar.com/2017/11/02/roberto-montero/
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