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Johann Adam and Christina Doratha [Dorothea Unkel] Bohnet

            Census records indicate that both were born in 1830, but Christina’s grave marker gives her birth date as 1829. Birth location records are confused. One suggests that John Adam was born in Austria. Another suggests that they were both from Württemberg. A family tree says they were both born in Freudenstadt, Württemberg. Another family record says: “John Adam Bohnet and Christina Doratha Unkel were born in the same place in Germany, sailed on different ships from Germany to the United States and disembarked in New York City on the same day. John sometimes went by his middle name Adam. He was a blacksmith by trade. His blacksmith shop faced Carpenter Road. Christine raised flowers to sell, tulips and gladiolas.”

            Christina’s obituary says they lived “together in the same home ever since their marriage, and [they are] said to have been the oldest married couple in the state [of Michigan].”[1]  They immigrated to America in 1854, settling in Minnesota. They were on the American frontier, and their life reflected that. The 1880 United States Census verifies the family record, listing Adam as a Farmer and Black Smith. We have little record of their early years in America, but Christina’s obituary tells an interesting story: “In her early maidenhood [she] crossed the Atlantic in 39 days, in a sailing vessel, and worked as a hired girl, 16 hours every day, for $1.00 Per week, for years in a family near Ann Arbor. After supper each night during apple season she peeled and sliced a bushel of apples by hand and dried them for winter pies. On wash days she was up at 4:00 a.m. and had her wash on the line before breakfast hour.”

            We do not know their marriage date. We know something about her early married life:

She took the fleece direct from the sheep, carded it, spun it into yarn on a foot tread spinning wheel and knitted by hand all the stockings for herself, her husband and her five children as long as they attended school and she did this by the light of her home-made, tallow candles. Talk about a woman working’ she was a wonder of wonders; slight of frame and swift of movement; even up to her last sickness [at age ninety-five] she could catch a fly with her hand. She suffered without complaint. She was love and justice personified, and the generous almost to a fault, never turned away from her door a hungry beggar.[2]

           

            Johann and Dorothea became Watch Tower adherents through their son. John Adam Bohnet, their first child, was born May 11, 1858. He and his four brothers and sisters grew up in a rural community, mostly immigrant except for children and mostly Lutheran. Other than a later comment from J. A.’s pen we know nothing about their childhood beyond the expected. They were farmers and the children worked on the family farm. Wearied of farming, John left home and Minnesota in April 1883, making his way to Portland, Oregon, where he worked “four summers” brick-making. About 1887 he “engaged with a publishing concern of San Francisco.” This was King Publishing Company. He did well, and “in six months was advanced to local manager at Seattle. By 1892 he represented the company on the West Coast, opening post office boxes and advertising in local papers for book agents.

Images:

The Sacramento, California, Record-Union

June 10, 1893.

The Carson City, Nevada, Morning Appeal

May 07, 1892.

Salt Lake, Utah, Herald

July 21, 1893.

            As he told it later, Bohnet ignored sound business advice that could have led to wealth (“I could easily have become a millionaire”) but “tenaciously stuck” to his business and failed. In the biographical sketch from which much of this is taken, he does not say how he failed, though it seems to be a tendency to ignore good advice and a certain amount of poor business sense. A contemporary newspaper article fills in some details. Bohnet hired Warren C. Greenfield, a sixteen year old theater usher to sell books on subscription. Greenfield sold the books to non-subscribers at a greatly reduced price and kept the money. Bohnet had him prosecuted for embezzlement, but, though the trial uncovered a conspiracy to defraud by two young theater ushers, no money was recovered. Undeniably, Bohnet had been gullible, and it appears that he was ‘on the hook’ for nearly one hundred dollars, a huge sum in 1894.[3]

            Business failure brought a crisis of faith. “My religious proclivity suffered a shock,” he wrote, “and was downward.” We do not know what the connection was. Bohnet doesn’t tell us, though we can suggest that the crisis was building for some time. Bohnet suggests that much. When he wrote his brief biography in 1915 he was a very conservative, very religious man who regretted elements of his youth. The full paragraph from which we derive this says:

My parents being devout Lutherans, I was sprinkled for baptism in infancy, but was not confirmed in that faith. A saintly mother taught me reverence for the Lord, and, from my earliest recollection I went to him in prayer. Throughout boyhood and youthdom, [sic] however, there was little thought of living a consecrated life. My experience until maturity did not differ materially from that of other children. Ball playing, fishing and Swimming on Sundays were special delights and seemed to me not harmful.[4]

            Notice the wording. The ordinary pursuits of childhood only “seemed ... not harmful” from his adult perspective – This despite Russellite rejection of Sabbath keeping. From his adult perspective they were harmful, not befitting a consecrated Christian. Bohnet sought a unified theology, a harmony of “the different creeds of so-called Christendom,” reading “various religious works.” This was not casual reading, but reading with a purpose – his continued belief was dependent on the outcome, and he was drifting into agnosticism.

           He met and invited to his residence a member of The Social Order of United Liberals, and considered joining that group. First organized in Portland, Oregon, in October 1888,[5] It promoted what its members called “the religion of humanity.” Their constitution as printed in 1902 said:

We ... desire to unite into an intellectual, scientific, beneficial, moral and social compact Agnostics, Spiritualists, Theosophists, Materialists, Deists, Atheists, Free Religion­ists, Freethinkers, Infidels, Secularists, Positivists, Non-Conformists, Radicals, Optimists, Pessimists,  Rationalists, Transcendentalists, Reformers, Teachers, Professors, Philosophers, Scientists, Thinkers, Students, Investigators and other persons, who are opposed to superstitu­tion [sic], persecution, intolerance and unalterable creeds.[6] 

[insert historical context here]   

            Who ever it was that intended to recruit Bohnet failed to appear. Later he would feel saved from agnosticism, from a band of associates who “have no thought of God nor of things divine.” He faced a night of emotional struggle, recalling it with characteristically florid language, this way:

That never-to-be-forgotten night a battle royal waged fierce and long within my breast. Throughout those silent night-watches I wrestled within myself – or with Satan – Shall I, or not, join this Liberal band? Meditation on that struggle causes a shudder and a sigh. Fast flew the poison arrows of the wicked one urging me to join. But swifter sped the sharp, piercing darts of the Deity pointing me with sacred solemnity, “this is the way, walk ye in it.” In reverie deep, gazing at the chaste angel faces of the stars that night there arose before me visions of my childhood’s happy home and mother. Soon the wild tempest became a calm. The desire of my mother that her boy become a Christian prevailed, and I knelt silently, and at length in prayer.

            This is his retrospective. A night’s mental anguish did not cure his doubts, no matter how long he prayed. This was a temporary turning point based on memories of his mother’s religious instruction. Conviction came later through more mental struggle. He attended a “talk” at the YMCA by John H. Hector, “a noted colored preacher.” Hector had a reputation for colorful, attention-holding, occasionally humorous, motivating sermons, often two hours long. Bohnet wrote that he gave “a stirring sermon in defense of the Bible.” At its close, Hector called for the rousing hymn “Stand Up! Stand Up for Jesus!” inviting those present to do exactly that. Bohnet kept his seat, unwilling to commit to that about which he still had doubts. He recalled:

Hector Photo

Earnestly he pleaded for those still seated to “stand up for Jesus” during the singing of that familiar hymn. As though with an iron hand I seemed fastened to my seat, quivering the while under intense emotion. Vainly he pleaded. Persistently I resisted. And then as though governed by spontaneous impulse, he urge all who desired remembrance in prayer to hold up their hand. Several hands went up, but not mine. And why not? “Just raise your hand only for a moment,” he said appealingly. Then suddenly stretching both his arms far upward and outwardly he looked fixedly at me with a kindly light in his eye and said, “O won’t you lift up one hand just one moment for Jesus, when for three long hours Jesus held up two hands for you?” That was too much for me. Immediately I arose, stepped forward and took him by the hand, and said,   “God bless you, my brother.”

            As with many raised as conservative Christians, he saw this as divine intervention in his life. Hector’s words and actions were only “as though governed by spontaneous impulse.” The spontaneity was seeming; divine intervention was behind it. In reality, it was a long-practiced method, part of the emotionalism that accompanied Hector’s revivalist sermons. Be that as it may, the event had a lasting and profound effect on Bohnet. He joined the Methodist church.

            He attended first in Seattle, Washington, drawn to the Methodist Protestant Church by the spirited preaching of Clark Davis, its pastor. He though Davis was “a most wonderful preacher” and attended regularly, though he did not become a member of the congregation.[7]

            His employer made him manager for all states west of the Mississippi River. “I could go where I pleased and remain there as long as in my judgment seemed wise,” he wrote. He left Seattle for Butte, Montana. There he joined St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was appointed Bible Class leader.[8] We do not know how long he lived in Butte, but from there he moved to Ogden Utah. “My activity in church work was most pronounced” there, he wrote. “Rain or shine I never missed a service. My pew on Sunday was never vacant, and my loose change jingled merrily on the collection plate.”

            Sometime late in 1891 or early 1892 Bohnet traveled to Salt Lake City on business. When he returned after an absence of three weeks, he found the Methodist church doors closed and a note affixed to them. The minister was away on vacation, and the church would be closed for two weeks. Disappointed, he made his way home. He recalled:

I heard hymn singing in the court house. A religious service, evidently, I will enter, thought I. Immediately I was in the midst of a Presbyterian Bible class asking and answering most of the questions. Closing the meeting the leader invited me to his clothing store. While there he manifested unusual interest in me and kept talking about a religious book he had read recently and which he said wonderfully opened up the Bible to him. He wanted me to read it.

            The person who showed “unusual interest” in Bohnet was a John T. Hurst (April 15, 1862 – September 10, 1936), a dry goods merchant, the junior partner in the firm of Paine & Hurst of Ogden, Utah. He was prominent enough that Salt Lake City newspaper reported his marriage in some detail, saying that he was “most exemplary and capable.” He stood “high in the community.”[9] We have a letter from him to Zion’s Watch Tower, published in September 1, 1892, issue. Hurst explained to Russell:

We have a union Bible class once a week; and, some three months ago, every time we met it so happened that before the lesson was finished we would drift into the subject of the Millennium. One evening one of the friends said, I have a book called the “Plan of the Ages,” which a lady gave me, that may give some light on the subject. Have not read it, but will loan to you. Since then there has been a well of rejoicing springing up in my soul which I pray will be unto life everlasting. 1 Cor. 2:9, 10 comes to me very forcibly in the light of the Plan of the Ages.[10]

            Hurst enclosed a check for ten dollars, asking for a copy of Young’s Concordance, twenty copies of Millennial Dawn volume 1, ten copies of volume 2 and eight of volume 3. He intended to circulate them, either selling them or giving them away. He enclosed a post card from a friend with whom he shared the volumes. The card read: “Not for ten years of life would I have missed reading Vol. I., millennial dawn. I shall read the others as soon as I can spare moments. How truly wonderful is God’s plan! Human mind cannot grasp its fullness.” As reprinted in The Watch Tower, it was signed “J. A. B____.” – John A. Bohnet.

            Bohnet was reluctant, but considered Hurst a friend. Hurst, despite his insistence that he read the book did not have one at hand. He had loaned out his copy. Bohnet reported: “I rejoiced until he explained that another copy of it had been ordered from the East and should arrive very soon. During the following two weeks I met him almost daily, and he talked of little else but that book.” The promised book arrived about two weeks later, turning into the first three volumes of Millennial Dawn. Bohnet continued the story in his autobiographical article:

image

Seattle Methodist Protestant Church

Bohnet attended this church.

One evening I called at his store to bid him good bye, as early on the morrow I would leave for Reno, Nevada. “The book has come,” he said enthusiastically. My heart sank. And when he produced it there were three volumes instead of only the one. And I was buncoed for the three – 75 cents. I had counted on but one, and that under protest. Behold here I was being taxed for three, and he insisting “they are inseparable.”

            Bohnet tried to read Plan of the Ages on the train, but found the noisy surroundings distracting. He managed the preface and part of chapter one, before giving it up. The preface piqued his interest, and later he described his reaction to it as one of “astonishment.” After supper at his hotel, he went to his room and “began a careful perusal” of the book. “Fascination held me ... until 2:30 o’clock a. m.” he later wrote. Reading Russell’s exposition raised troubling questions. He worried that it was “too late to get into the heavenly kingdom.”

            His brief autobiographical sketch is confusing. He suggests he read only volume one of the three volume set. Yet, worries about the door to the heavenly calling, as Russell had it, would have derived from volume two, The Time is at Hand. On page 235 of that volume we find this:

The three and a half years following the Spring of A. D. 1878, which ended October, A. D. 1881, correspond to the three and a half years of continued favor to individual Jews in the last half of their seventieth week of favor. As in the type that date – three and a half years after the death of Christ – marked the end of all special favor to the Jew and the beginning of favor to the Gentiles, so we recognize A. D. 1881 as marking the close of the special favor to Gentiles – the close of the “high calling,” or invitation to the blessings peculiar to this age – to become joint-heirs with Christ and partakers of the divine nature.[11]

            This is derived from Barbour’s “Israel’s Double” doctrine which Russell adopted making slight additions to it: The timing of the events of Israel’s history correspond to the timing of last-days events. It appears to us that Bohnet read all three volumes. 

            Laying aside the books, he tried to sleep. It was fruitless. He was up again at four o’clock, and resumed reading, continuing “until the breakfast bell sounded.” He didn’t pause to consult the cited scriptures. “There was no necessity to look up scripture references for verification,” he wrote, “as I had been a Bible class leader for years and had so recently read the Bible through and was quite familiar with the cited texts.” Instead of pursuing his business in Reno, he returned to his room and resumed reading, finishing at eleven a. m.

            Bohnet cogitated “for an hour or longer,” asking himself if he had found an accurate exposition of “God’s plan” or if God had “a better one.” He compared it to his Methodist faith: “Reason informed me, surely he could have none worse. And if this is not the heavenly Father’s plan he would better adopt it, for it beats Methodism.”  That, as he described it, this was a rational process is open to question, but his conclusion was, “Embrace it therefore I must until something better can be found.” He went seeking a Methodist clergyman with whom to share his newly found faith. “Where is the Methodist preacher? I will revolutionize this town,” was his thought as he later recorded it. It was the Watch Tower’s Conditionalism that swayed him: “The dead are dead, and not alive in glory or torment.”

            He names the Reno clergyman as a pastor Brady. This is a misspelling for Bready. While there were two “Rev. Breadys” in Nevada, the one he meant was Robert H. Bready [November 30, 1845 – March 24, 1924.],[12] a “supply” preacher who served for long periods in Reno.

Photo

Robert H. Bready

Supply Pastor to the Reno, Nevada, Methodist Church

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[1]               Obituary, The St. Paul, Minnesota, New Era Enterprise, December 9, 1924.

[2]               ibid.

[3]               Is it Embezzlement? The Los Angeles, California, Herald, March 1, 1894. The article names Greenfield as W. C. Greenfield. California death index gives his first name and birth date.

[4]               J. A. Bohnet: How Pilgrim Bohnet Got “Present Truth,” The St. Paul, Minnesota, Enterprise, August 15, 1915. Most of this biography is based on Bohnet’s memoir as printed in The Enterprise.

[5]               Untitled notice, The Coquille City, Oregon, Herald, November 2, 1886.

[6]               Cornelius Beal: S. O. U. L.: Address, Contract Social and Constitution of the Social Order of United Liberals, the author, Portland, Oregon, 1902, front cover.

[7]               Davis became pastor of the Seattle Methodist Protestant Church in 1885. He was very involved in the Prohibition Party until the 1896 election when he supported the Democrat candidate, William Jennings Bryan. Davis’ wife was Bryan’s first cousin. The Seattle, Washington, Republican [January 18, 1901] called him “the preaching politician.” He was, until his resignation, chairman of the Prohibition Party state central committee and a member of the national committee. He was described as an eloquent speaker. 

[8]               The Methodist Church, South separated from the main body of Methodists in 1844 over slavery. It maintained a separate existence until 1939.

[9]               Two Days Lost, The Salt Lake City, Utah, Herald, April 2, 1896. We do not think that Hurst maintained his interest. In 1894 he was an officer in the Ogden, Utah, Christian Endeavor Society. In 1896 he was elected an officer in the Ogden unit of Ancient Order of United Workmen, a fraternal organization providing insurance and other benefits to Civil War veterans. In 1910 he incorporated Hurst Realty, in Ogden. His wife was an educator, running as a Republican for the school board in 1897. Both were socially active and friends of prominent politicians.

[10]             “Out of Darkness Into His Marvelous Light,” Zion’s Watch Tower, September 1, 1892, page 272.

[11]             Russell repeated the claim that the “high calling” ended in 1881 in Thy Kingdom Come (Millennial Dawn, Vol 3), page 217.

[12]             Robert H. served the Reno Methodists from 1889-1890, and thereafter as a supply minister – That is, he filled in when the regular clergyman was away. His brother John A. Bready served the Carson City church. There is no record of J. A. Bready serving in Reno. During his term in Reno, Robert conducted successful revival meetings. [See: S. P. Davis (editor): The History of Nevada, 1913, page 575; Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church: Jackson Michigan, 1924, pages 94-96; Religious Revival at Reno, The Carson City, Nevada, Morning Appeal, February 22, 1890. Robert was born in Ontario, Canada, and immigrated to the United States in 1879. [1920 Federal Census.]