Malcom's Bible

by Jerome

(with grateful thanks to Brian, current owner of the book, who provided the graphics from it along with other useful input acknowledged below)

Several decades ago a Bible Student came across a Holman’s Linear Bible (c. 1902 with ZWT references) in a book resale shop in Van Nuys, California. It was in very poor condition, but she noted a picture of Pastor Russell that a previous owner had pasted inside the cover. This prompted the purchase and the volume was subsequently rebound.

It now appears that this Bible had once belonged to Malcom Rutherford, the only son of Joseph Franklin and Mary Rutherford. After the death of his second wife, Eleanor, Malcom spent his last years in that area. (He and both his wives are buried side by side in the Forest Park Memorial Cemetery, Glendale, Los Angeles County, California.)

The link with this Bible to the Rutherford family starts with the picture of CTR pasted inside the book. The picture has been cut from a magazine or paper and has been much folded and taped together before being attached. It is a portrait that was regularly used in convention reports c. 1905-1907.  Just above the picture are two small scripture paste-ins, the kind of thing regularly found in Manna books of the era. One was for a Sister Boerger and the other for a Sister Rutherford.

The sticker on the right is addressed “Dear brother Rutherford” and signed “sister Boerger.” The sticker on the left is addressed to “sister Boerger” and signed “sister Rutherford.”

Searching for “Sister Boerger” has not been successful as yet. There was an Annie Boerger who wrote a filler for the August 2, 1922, Golden Age magazine. But whether she had any connection with the Sister Boerger in the Holman Bible I do not know. If anyone else can assist, please do make a comment.

However, the key names are Brother and Sister Rutherford.

A close check on the flyleaf where one would expect to find the owner’s name yields three names. They are actually very faint and were written in pencil. Either someone has tried to erase them or they have just faded with age. However, modern photographic technique has been able to restore the names, and I am very grateful to the present owner of the volume, Brian K, who has achieved this.

The three names are:  J. F. Rutherford, Mary M. Rutherford, and M. C. Rutherford.

It would have been nice if all the three names were original signatures, but this is not the case. We have J. F. Rutherford’s signature from a personal letter written in 1914, and this is a different hand.

We do not have Mary Rutherford’s signature (unless it is on the paste-in). However, we do have examples of Malcom’s signature. From his WW1 draft registration document in 1917 this is how he signed his name.

Moving forward in time this is how he signed his registration document for WW2 in 1942.

All the names in the Holman Bible are in the same hand. Brian sent me a comprehensive analysis of the handwriting, and is confident that this is in Malcom’s own hand. I have no reason to doubt this.

So, the area where the Bible surfaced, the stickers naming Brother and Sister Rutherford, the names of the three members of the Rutherford family on the flyleaf and a handwriting comparison indicates that this was most likely Malcom’s own Bible.

But why would Malcom keep this Bible, since he did not stay with his parents’ religion? We must remember that Malcom was a Bible Student for a number of years. He was in the supplemental census return for May 14, 1910, living and working in Brooklyn Bethel with both parents at the age of 17. He is listed as a “mail clerk.” He travelled from Liverpool, UK, to the United States on the Lusitania in April 1911 as “Pastor Russell’s valet.” Later that year he appeared in the convention report as one of CTR’s stenographers. He joined his parents on a pilgrim visit to the UK just before WW1 in 1914. According to the May 1, 1915 WT he was stenographer for his father in the Rutherford-Troy debates in Los Angeles. When first submitting his draft papers in 1917 he claimed exemption on the grounds that he was a member of the International Bible Students Association. When his father was jailed he wrote a long letter of support dated July 21, 1918, which was printed in full in the St Paul Enterprise newspaper for December 10, 1918. It occupies four full length columns.

The letter started…

…and ended…

After his marriage to Pauline Lucille Short (generally known as Bobbie) in March 1918 Malcom did eventually join the services and was in the army from 10 September 1918 to 24 December 1918. (One curiosity is that his letter written to his father in July was not printed by the Enterprise until December, by which time he had been in the army for three months.) But he remained in contact with both his parents. In the 1920 census he is living in the same street as his mother. Years later in May 1938 Malcom and Bobbie were on the same passenger list as JFR on the S. S. Mariposa arriving in Los Angeles, California. The 1944 Monrovia City Directory then has Malcom and Bobbie living with Mary in her home. (Whether they moved in to help her in old age, or whether she was helping them out we just don’t know.)

The Holman Linear Bible with ZWT references was published in 1902. Malcom would have been only 10 then, and his parents only fully embraced the faith later. So the Bible could have been a gift from CTR back in the day. It could have first belonged to Malcom’s parents or just his mother. Since he lived with his mother for a while he could have inherited it from her, even as late as her death in 1962. There are all sorts of possibilities, some more credible than others, but on present evidence we just don’t know. If we could find the mysterious “Sister Boerger” it might help, but that would only give us a rough date for the stickers that bear her name, not when they were added to the volume as it now is. And there may have been more subtle evidences of provenance removed when the volume was rebound.

If only for nostalgic family reasons one can imagine Malcom keeping the Bible. But then in extreme old age or after he died, the Bible ended up in a resale shop.

Just one last point needs to be addressed – the spelling of Malcom’s name. The signatures in Malcom’s hand show him spelling it the more conventional way as Malcolm. (The Watchtower Society’s Proclaimers book also spells it that way.) But his birth details leave out the second ‘L’ to spell it Malcom. His grave marker, obviously based on some official documentation, does the same.

Since he had no children and his second wife Eleanor died before him one wonders who organised the funeral and the marker and its inscription. Eleanor had extended family and her marker complements his. Probably her family were responsible.