I know many of our readers are more interested in side-issues and Watch Tower trivia than solid, significant research. I am not unsympathetic. Solid, significant research is much more difficult to do, and sometimes it's the trivia that leads to something important. And research at depth requires more thought - sometimes painful thought - to understand.
So, having written that, here's a bit of trivia that is part of more significant research.
Arthur Melin: A Barren Land Becomes Fertile, The
Watchtower, October 1, 1994, page 21, talks about his father without naming him. Two letters from his father appear in Zion's Watch Tower. They're signed O. C. Melin. We suspect this is Oscar Charles Melin. O. C. Melin went by Charles.
O. C. Melin plays a part in a volume 2 chapter entitled In All the Earth: Canada. We need a firm identification for O. C. Melin. Can you help.
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8 comments:
The Watchtower article states that Arthur Melin was born on 20 Feb 1905. Ancestry gives this exact date of birth for an Arthur Melin (1905 - 25 Apr 1998). His father was ANDREW Melin (1863-1941). Andrew and wife Marie have their photograph on Ancestry and a funeral report; however, the funeral report as well as listing all the relations states it was conducted by a "Rev Morgal". However, Andrew Melin had a brother (so Arthur's uncle) named Olaf C Melin (1867-1941). Could he be your O C Melin who had letters published in ZWT?
Canadian Census gives Olaf's imigration date as 1911. That does not match the date on his letters to Russell.
You don't give a date for his letters in ZWT or details of the Canadian census, but Olaf C Melin arrived in America on 30 May 1884 aged 16. There is a handwritten passenger list reproduced on Ancestry in support of this. So I suspect this may still fit. Where did you get the name Oscar Charles Melin from?
Oscar charles came from a death record. obviously not our guy. the oc melin i found arrived in 1911. The O. C. you found is probably our guy. please send passenger list.
I have sent you some documents including the “arrival in the USA docs” of Olaf C Melin, but I suspect that trying to link him to the O C Melin found in ZWT – while it would be very nice, is the Scottish verdict “Not proven.”
To explain: First, the life story in the 1994 WT has errors in it. Not surprisingly, since it was written by an elderly person, recounting what he remembers his father told him decades ago, about events before he was born. The article says his unnamed father found a tract in the early 1890s. It makes no mention of other family members being involved.
I have sent you the 1916 Canadian census returns for this family. It is obviously them, the son Arthur is 11, which fits his known 1905 birth. His father is Andrew as already noted and the whole family with all the children have as their religion ABSA - which has to be the enumerator miss-hearing IBSA. They are in the right place, Calmar, Alberta, in Canada. What IS crucial is that the document plainly says they did not immigrate until 1899.
So the life story no doubt has the details of interest and conversion more or less correct, but the date is out.
Whereas the O C Melin you are trying to link with this family wrote to ZWT way back in 1890, and not from Canada but from North Dakota. The Brother Melin with no initials who was doing missionary work in 1895 was in Minnesota.
Arthur’s extended family has an Olaf C Melin (his uncle) but he arrived in the States in 1884 aged 16, which would make him a bit young to fit the ZWT description in 1890 – not impossible, but unlikely. Especially since Arthur’s life story starts with just his father becoming a Bible Student.
The surname Melin is very common for Swedish immigrants. Ancestry gives about 42 thousand for Canada alone, before we even think of North Dakota and elsewhere. Forenames like Charles and Olaf are also very common indeed for this group - and that assumes that the C and O stand for those names, which we just don’t know.
The ideal way to trace the 1890 O C Melin would have been through census returns, but sadly the 1921 fire put paid to most of the 1890 records. But he may have no Canadian connections at all.
An examination of the headings in the 1916 Canadian census forms suggests that the immigration date of 1899 was when the family (then numbering three) reached Canada. The first daughter, now aged 17, was born in the United States. The rest including Arthur were then born in Canada. I confess that I had not considered the possibility of the family going to Canada from the United States rather than straight from Sweden. None of this is suggested in Arthur's WT life story. Of course it doesn't actually tie in any O C Melin (ZWT letter writer) with Canada which is what is wanted. I did find an Olof (Oluf) Melin in the North Dakota census returns for 1900. He was 32 years old and came to the States in the mid-1880s and got married in 1898.
Whether he is the ZWT correspondent and whether he ever had any Canadian connections in the 19th century I have no idea.
we can only go with what we can prove. so this is what we have at this point:
According to a biographical article found in The Watchtower, Andrew Melin, [1863-1941] a Swedish immigrant farmer living in Alberta received a tract about 1890. It moved him to start preaching to his neighbors, “Despite his time-consuming work of homesteading in Calmar, Alberta.” Census records seem to refute that date and take him out of the era we are considering. Census returns for 1916 have the entire family as Watch Tower adherents, but notes that they immigrated in 1899. If Andrew received a tract about 1890, it was while still in Sweden, and any ‘witnessing’ to neighbors in the 1890s was while he was still in Sweden.
The only evidence of Andrew’s adherence is an extract from a letter he wrote to the editor of the St. Paul, Minnesota, Enterprise, a paper the printed Russell’s sermons and sympathetic news. Printed in the February 15, 1916, issue, his letter said:
... Can’t tell you how much we appreciate all the good things the Enterprise contains; so I hated to renew before my subscription expires. It is like an introduction to so many of the Lord’s dear ones. Would like to add my testimony but I am handicapped as I am a Swede and very seldom use the English language, except in reading. I am thankful to our Lord and Heavenly Father that I am able to read and understand and so receive so many blessings through “that servant” and servants whose “Voices” come regularly once a week.
Your brother in Christ,
A. Melin,
Clamar, Alberta, Can.
Can you improve that?
With new material, now this:
According to a biographical article found in The Watchtower, Andrew Melin, [1863-1941] a Swedish immigrant farmer living in Alberta received a tract about 1890. It moved him to start preaching to his neighbors, “Despite his time-consuming work of homesteading in Calmar, Alberta.” Census records seem to refute that date and take him out of the era we are considering. Census returns for 1916 have the entire family as Watch Tower adherents, but notes that they immigrated to Canada in 1899. If Andrew received a tract about 1890, it was while still in the United States, probably North Dakota, where they had first immigrated, and any ‘witnessing’ to neighbors in the 1890s was while he was there. We do have a letter written by an O. C. Melin to Russell from North Dakota saying that a small fellowship existed there totaling nine members from three families. The group had been larger, but an undefined controversy resulting in many leaving the faith.
The only contemporary evidence of Andrew’s adherence is an extract from a letter he wrote to the editor of the St. Paul, Minnesota, Enterprise, a paper the printed Russell’s sermons and sympathetic news. Printed in the February 15, 1916, issue, his letter said:
... Can’t tell you how much we appreciate all the good things the Enterprise contains; so I hated to renew before my subscription expires. It is like an introduction to so many of the Lord’s dear ones. Would like to add my testimony but I am handicapped as I am a Swede and very seldom use the English language, except in reading. I am thankful to our Lord and Heavenly Father that I am able to read and understand and so receive so many blessings through “that servant” and servants whose “Voices” come regularly once a week.
Your brother in Christ,
A. Melin,
Clamar, Alberta, Can.
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