Lemuel

by Jerome

(reprinted)

The main heading in this Pittsburgh newspaper has a vague connection with Bible Student history. Admittedly very vague. The featured murdered lawyer was Charles Taze Russell’s brother-in-law.

When Maria Frances Ackley married Charles Taze Russell at her mother’s residence on March 13, 1879 (the service being conducted by John H Paton) her younger brother, Lemuel Mahlon Ackley, was likely one of the guests. He was born in Allegheny in 1857 and is found in the census returns there for 1870 and 1880.

He started his working life as a local reporter, but then went to law school in Michigan before moving to Chicago in 1887, where he spent the rest of his life.

When Maria left Charles Taze in 1897 she went first to stay with Lemuel in Chicago.

Lemuel turns up in Chicago papers over the years including his own messy divorce proceedings. His estranged wife accused him of only paying limited support in potatoes and increments of 10 cents at a time, and he accused her of assaulting him with a rolling pin. The same account from the Chicago Tribune for 18 March 1909 had him accused of kidnapping his five year old son when his sister, Mrs Amy Russell took him to visit relatives in Pittsburgh. Amy Russell can only be a newspaper blooper for Maria. Lemuel was sentenced to fifteen days in jail on that occasion for contempt of court. All good tabloid material.

Another story involved a property dispute on behalf of another of Lemuel’s sisters, Selena Barto. It was claimed that she’d allowed tax payments to lapse on a property she owned in 1907. A policeman named Kellogg with an eye to the main chance bought up the debt and claimed ownership. It rumbled on and off for fourteen years and in the last few days it was claimed that shots were fired. It became that sort of dispute. Lemuel fought on Selena’s behalf and got Kellogg in court where the judge found in Lemuel’s favour and sentenced Kellogg to two weeks in jail with a fine on top.

Standing there in his full policeman’s uniform complete with pistol and holster, Kellogg drew and fired at the judge. He missed the judge, but fatally wounded Lemuel, before turning the gun on himself. He survived the gunshot wound but never stood trial. Someone later smuggled in poison for him, and he committed suicide on 20 February 1922.

It was such a good story for the Chicago papers that they ran a picture strip story of events.

Lemuel’s photograph is found above. It is of him as a younger man, and can also be found in the volume Chicago Biography c.1891.