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Friday, October 12, 2018

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.



15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Exceptionally well-crafted and detailed article - as we've come to expect from Jerome

Andrew Martin said...

Excellent work, Jerome, as always!

Just a comment on the spelling of Malcom/Malcolm's first name. I'm still undecided which spelling is the correct one.

Malcom was born in 1892, I suppose near Boonville, Missouri, where his father practiced law? My grandfather was born in 1910, in Schuyler County, 120 miles to the north, and up there they didn't even RECORD births! Which became an issue when he applied for Social Security. My point is that a number of counties in Missouri had a history of inconsistent recordkeeping.

It's possible his parents wanted to name him "Malcom". I believe it's equally possible they tried to name him "Malcolm", and whoever recorded the birth misspelled it, although one would think that as a lawyer, his father could have gotten that fixed.

"Malcom" was the name used in the convention report of 1911. That's the source of one of the photos on his "Find-a-Grave" page. I always discounted that, because there seemed to be so many other errors with names in the WT of that era (e.g., F. H. Robison referred to as "F. W. Robison".

The spelling "Malcolm" appearing in the St. Paul paper isn't too convincing either, because of the very deserved reputation papers have of getting things wrong. Even now, a year ago, when I submitted by mother's obituary to the local paper here, they took it upon themselves to change the construction of one sentence - and they were wrong! Thankfully, we caught it in the proofs, and the funeral director made them change it back. It wasn't a typo, either; just uninformed arrogance on their part. Again, my point is that the St. Paul paper could easily have decided they knew better than "Malcom", and changed his name to "Malcolm".

Based on both of his draft registrations, it's apparent he preferred to use the spelling "Malcolm", legal or not. Considering how many boys lied about their age in order to enlist, I doubt there was much way of checking the veracity of draft registrations, either, in those pre-Social Security card days.

Even West Point records are not exempt. Did you know that when the future General Grant was recommended for West Point, his congressman, who'd always heard him called "Lyss", assumed that his name was Ulysses Simpson (his mother's maiden name), instead of his actual given name, Hiram Ulysses (which he always hated, because his initials spelled "HUG"). Just as Grant took the opportunity to leave behind a name he hated, perhaps "Malcom" was trying to leave behind a spelling that annoyed him?

Will we ever really know . . .

Thanks again for all your devoted research on this subject and others.

jerome said...

Thanks Andrew for kind words and some interesting comments on the variant spellings of Malcom/Malcolm. I thought it interesting that someone chose to revert to "Malcom" on his grave marker. When he couldn't answer back!

Bernhard said...

Great stuff! Many thanks to Brian and Jerome!!

Gary said...

Great article again Jerome. Thank you.

jerome said...

I have had some back-channel questions about the letter from Malcom giving support for his father and Divine Plan theology that was published in the St Paul Enterprise three months after he had joined the army.

It should be noted (if readers track down the original reference) that the bulk of Malcom’s letter deals with obscure family-related odds and ends (and nothing to interest us) and there is nothing controversial in it. That makes sense – with JFR in prison for the reason he was, and the general climate of the times in America, you would have to be very careful what you wrote so as not to be in trouble yourself.

The letter was written in July 1918. If we assume JFR received it promptly he either sat on it for three months before sending it to the Enterprise, or he sent it promptly and they sat on it. I am sure the Enterprise was VERY careful what they printed and when they printed it.

As for Malcom joining the services – there were three call-ups in America – the last was in early September 1918 for men aged 18-45 and his enlistment date of September 10 would fit this.

The information about Malcom’s war service comes from the US Department of Veteran Affairs BIRLS deaths file, 1850-2010. (BIRLS stands for Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem). This file records that he was assigned to the ARMY and gives both his date of birth and death, which are correct. Unfortunately, 80% of US army records for World War 1 were destroyed in a fire in 1973, and the 20% surviving are not readily accessible. So he could have been in the quartermaster’s stores in America, or he could have been on the front line with General Pershing in Europe – we just don’t know.

Whatever the situation, arrangements made for Mary Rutherford’s care when she could no longer cope with Brooklyn involved Malcom.

Andrew Martin said...

Thanks for adding the additional information - and the reasons for not reproducing all of the letter, which I suppose would be of genuine interest to biographers, and not most of the rest of us.

jerome said...

If anyone REALLY wants to read all of Malcom's letter and doesn't have access to the Enterprise file, they can send me a message back-channel and I will try and extract the page and send it to them. But I think you will find it disappointing.

Amy Goddard said...

A fascinating read.

Chris G. said...

Hello Jerome
Do we know where Mary Rutherford is specifically buried? One would assume San Diego, but where? Thanks for any assistance here.

jerome said...

Hi Chris

Mary Rutherford is buried in Live Oak Memorial Park in Monrovia. The link below will take you to Find a Grave and her page, which also shows the burial plot if you access all the photographs. There is no marker. If for any reason the link doesn't work just go to the Find a Grave site and type in Mary F Rutherford, died 1962, Monrovia, and you will find it.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/82732978/mary-m-rutherford

Unknown said...

Hola, ¿¿alguien tiene algún link o la carta completa de Malcolm a su padre??, ¿Dónde puedo encontrarla?

B. W. Schulz said...

I do not read or speak Spanish. Use English please.

Unknown said...


Where can I find all the letter that Malcolm wrote to his father when he was in prison?
Is there a link or file for this?
Beforehand thank you very much

jerome said...

I have responded via the contact form giving a link to the letter as published in the St Paul Enterprise along with a complete transcript.
J