In my old age I have more patience ... maybe

or just persistence ...

As our regular readers know, Rachael believed that hiding 100 year old – and older – documents from researchers is unethical. She was particularly displeased with three institutions, one of which has in its archive Watch Tower financial information from the 1880s and 1890s. My viewpoint is that solid and persistent research usually opens other paths to the same information, or at least to key elements of it. A member of the Watchtower writing staff told me that he believed that God “shook out” items when they were needed. I don’t think that applies to my research, though one never knows ...

We wrote, and I continue to revise, a chapter entitled Organizing and Financing the Work. Writing that chapter raised questions that only access to the first Watch Tower ledger book could answer, but though we had access to four pages, we were repeatedly denied access to more. I do not know why. So some questions remained.

One concerned the source of donated lands in Florida. The presumption was that the Russells donated the lands. They owned land in Florida later. The ledger book would answer that, but we could not see it. Patience tells ... We now know who donated the lands, and probably why. The answer is unexpected. I can document this. This will appear in the above mentioned chapter.

Another question was about continuing financing. It wasn’t all by donations. Russell invested to finance the work. There was more ... And I will include it in that chapter. It always pays to persist.

Here is a broad hint: