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The Letters

            To avoid making an already complex chapter more detailed than need be, we will limit ourselves to letters from or to believers and interested persons living in Minnesota and Michigan. From these we can document how The Watch Tower’s prompting to evangelize found practical expression.

Minnesota

            One of the first attempts to evangelize in Minnesota was by a resident of Yankton, Dakota Territory. [Now Yankton, South Dakota] While we know the names of some adherents active in Yankton in later years, we cannot identify this person. Nevertheless, his (or her) letter reveals someone motivated to share a message that changed their life – that freed them from what they saw as God dishonoring doctrine:

I never shall be able to sufficiently praise God for the light we have received. Three days ago I received five more “Foods,” which are being fed to hungry souls, some being sent to Minnesota, Montana, Iowa, &c., to those who will prize them, read and distribute to others. Some we have heard from are bearing glorious fruit. How quickly holy souls receive and believe when they see the precious truth of God! How ashamed we are and abased before God to think we have dishonored his word all these long years; but glory, honor and praise to Him who, in answer to prayer, has enlightened our minds with the truth. Our hearts are full of praise day and night that it has reached our ears. And now we want everybody to know the truth. Let us keep humble and fully consecrated.[1]

            Food for Thinking Christians reached an Advent Christian missionary who was on a preaching tour of Kansas. He described himself as a “preaching member of the Minnesota Conference of Christian Adventists” but said he was leaning toward Age-to-Come views rejected by that church. In a letter to Russell, he explained:

I have long been leaning toward the age-to-come views, much as one would grope in the dark – seeing much truth in it; but with the light I had, could not make all points harmonize. It remained for your September number of “Watch Tower” to supply the missing link. I am thankful to God for it. I received it (humanly speaking) by the merest accident, but I believe it was sent of God.

Now, dear brother, I would like a few copies of “Food for Thinking Christians.” I will treat and place each one as though it were pure gold. I want to send one to my brother, a minister, and to others. I am anxious to do all I can. Am very poor, but if God blesses will contribute to your Tract fund.[2]

           

            In 1888 a lone adherent living in Fillmore County, Minnesota, wrote to Russell, addressing him as “Dear Sir,” rather than Dear Brother. She contributed to the Tract Fund and ordered two volumes of Plan of the Ages. This was her second purchase. She explained:

dear sir: – Enclosed you will find a money order for five dollars, which I wish to give to the Tract Society with the exception of enough to pay for two Dawns, paper covers, to lend to friends. I am very anxious to have all who will read and think, have access to those wonderful books. Those ordered came all right and were soon delivered. If circumstances will permit I shall take more orders. O, that I could only convince my own family that it is time to look into such matters. They are not opposed, but think it is not necessary. I am all alone, but none the less determined to be faithful to the end.

            While we do not know how this woman obtained her first copy of The Plan of the Ages, we see her convinced by it, and passing it on to others.

            An Oscar C. Melin, a Swedish immigrant farmer with family spread through out the upper Midwest and into Alberta, Canada, accepted the message about 1890. Writing to Russell in 1891, he reported a small group in Fargo, North Dakota: “We are a little flock here of four families, or nine members, which meet together every Sunday and try to build us up in the most holy truth.” He felt blessed by the Lord, reporting that some of them couldn’t read English. They translated for each other. They had a crop failure in 1890 and did not know how they would survive the winter. Hard scrabble farming meant that they could do little to spread the message. Circumstances changes later, and Oscar was able to preach. In 1895 Knud Pederson Hammer, a Baptist clergyman turned Watch Tower evangelist, reported: “I have just returned from Minnesota, where Bro. Melin has been preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. Many Swedes are stepping into the light there.”[3] Members of the Melin family persisted with the Watch Tower fellowship at least to 1915, when a brief note by Fred [Fredrick] W. Melin appeared in The St. Paul, Minnesota, Enterprise.[4]

            An un-dateable event that probably occurred in the decade of the 1890s was recounted in a letter to The Herald of Christ’s Kingdom, published in its July 15, 1927, issue: “It was the tract, “Where Are the Dead?” that brought the Truth to my attention. I found it laying in a seat in the waiting room of the Great Northern Railroad at Willmar, Minn. Finding that tract was the turning point of my life, and wonderful indeed are the blessings that have followed it.” The letter was signed “H. J. H.” from Minnesota, leaving us with no firm identification.[5]

Michigan

            There is documentable interest in the Barbourite era. Henry Liederbach wrote to Barbour in 1878, saying that Herald of the Morning readers were scattered all over the state, and letters from some of them appear in the magazine.[6] While Paton and his followers had left or were leaving the Watch Tower fellowship in 1882, others in Michigan continued to further the Watch Tower message, believing that it represented life-saving truth. A letter from Stanwood, Michigan, a village of about 150 in 1880, expressed both determination to circulate Food for Thinking Christians and optimism at the result:

The “Foods” you sent me have been distributed and are doing good work for the blessed Master. A number have been brought to the light through reading them. The truth is setting us free in this section, and we feel in our hearts that it has been instrumental in God's hands in doing much for us. The question with me has been how to present this truth to others in the most effectual manner. I am trying to speak to the people every week two or three times, but I feel my incapacity to such an extent that the cross is heavy at times. I have often thought I would not speak any more in public until I was better qualified if I could have my own way about it. What shall I do, who is sufficient for these things? ... Praise the Lord for his mercy endureth forever. Yours in hope of being one of the Bride company.[7]

            While we might presume that Russell’s Stanwood correspondent was an adherent of perhaps some year’s standing, a letter from Reed City came from a new reader. Late in 1883 he was sent a sample copy of Zion’s Watch Tower either directly by a friend or through a name referral. He found the paper exactly fitting his needs:

Last week zion’s watch tower was sent to me, and I find it just the paper I want. Brought up in the strictest sect of United Presbyterians, I find this new message is like cold water to my thirsty soul, and I wish to learn more of the glad tidings.

Enclosed find one dollar for one years subscription and for the rest send me as many copies of the October number as you can, I want to send them to my friends to whom it will prove glorious news.

I am studying my Bible with new interest and it is wonderful that I have been so blinded to Gods glorious promises all these years. I shall trust to clergymen no longer for I find them small help in time of need.

I am truly grateful to the unknown one who sent me your paper. It is just what I have gone mourning for, for years, not knowing God was preparing “deliverance to the captives.” May he bless you in the good work.[8]

            As we discussed in Chapter One of this volume, the October 1883 Watch Tower was a special issue, sent as a sample copy on name-referral. It was a missionary number, meant to bring recipients into the Watch Tower faith. In this case it worked. As with most of these letters, we do not know final outcomes, but we can note that this writer found the clergy inadequate. He was not alone; it was a common feeling in the post Civil War era.

            Another letter from Michigan found a place in the December 1883 Watch Tower. The letter came from Corunna, a mid-sized for the era community of about fifteen hundred souls. Its author had requested tracts and liked what he or she read:

Twice you have responded and sent me of your literature, which I have read; at first with some fears of becoming entangled, but now with a confidence of being led in the right direction: and having a craving desire to study with you Gods Word, I subscribe for the zion’s watch tower one year.

Your reading matter has made my Bible many times clearer and dearer, even in a short time, and I thank God for seeing even through a glass darkly.

            Food for Thinking Christians and sample copies of The Watch Tower offered free tracts. The Corunna citizen responded to the offer – twice – though with trepidation, fearing entanglement with one of the many non-traditional sects of that era. Instead of his fear coming to fruition, he found increasing clarity. He believed he was beginning to understand the Bible in ways he had not previously.

            By the publication of Plan of the Ages in 1886, there were several small fellowships in Michigan, and at least one active colporteur. The Grand Rapids Telegram-Herald of October 23, 1887, reported:

A religious book is at hand in the form of a little volume entitled “Millenial [sic] Dawn,” the first of a series on the “Plan of the Ages.” The author, Charles T. Russell, has endeavored to obtain original ideas of the truths of the Bible, going directly to the fountain head. Those who are interested in the Scriptures will be interested in the results of the author’s researches. The book bears the imprint of Zion’s Watch Tower, Pittsburg. [sic] An agent is selling it in this city.

            A very small fellowship existed in Benona, Oceana, Michigan. Oceana County was a sparsely populated farming area on the coast of Lake Michigan with a mix of Scandinavian, British and German immigrants. Thomas West Brewer, Sr. [Born c. 1843] was a Nova Scotia born immigrant and the son of British immigrant parents. Thomas and Mary Ann Brewer immigrated to the United States from Ontario in 1871 and were in Benona Township sometime before the birth of their first child in October 1873. At the time of their immigration they were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.[9] We do not know when or how they came into contact with Watch Tower theology, and it is useless to speculate. However, judging by the fact that Russell attached Brewer’s signature to his letter as printed in Zion’s Watch Tower, we can presume he was well-known to readers.

            Without presenting numbers, he reported Memorial [Annual Communion Observance] attendance for April 7, 1887. There were “a few of us here who are rejoicing in the freedom wherewith Christ hath made us free,” he wrote. He quoted from Galatians 5:1 where Paul says that to be a child of God one must be freed from bondage to sin. For Watch Tower adherents in the Russell era, this included belief that they had been set free from slavery to false churches.

            Plainly, his letter as printed in The Watch Tower is part of a series, though this is the first to appear in print. They met “once a week for studying, praise and prayer.” He reported that they continued “to be denounced by the blinded worshipers of the ‘image.’” This is a reference to Revelation chapter thirteen. Russell-era interpretation of the phrase “image of the beast,” was that it referred to denominational systems, false theologies worshiped in place of God. Despite religious opposition, Brewer felt that God was with them, writing that “the truths we proclaim are becoming more manifest in the sight of men, as from God.” Brewer reported finding among the Swedish immigrants “a movement” similar to their own:

A family of them rented a farm joining mine. They are good pious people. I paid them a visit after they had become settled, and learned that they in common with numbers of their countrymen here had discarded sects and sect names, salaried ministry, etc., etc. They believe that where two or three meet, there is the true Church, and every one is encouraged to use his or her own talents as the Lord has endowed them. The Bible and the Bible only is their rule of faith and practice. I found that from a study of Scripture they have discovered many truths similar to those we rejoice in.

Mr. B ____, the head of the family, was highly interested in the account I gave him of our Church with no name, but Christian. He would like to have a sample copy of the swedish tower; he can speak but not read English. I believe my dear Brother this is the very class (the meek) which it is our privilege to feed, and Mr. B ____ may desire to spread the truth among his countrymen.[10]

            We cannot identify the Swedish dissenters. Adherence to the Lutheran Church was mandated by law in Sweden. Dissenters, some of whom held to some Lutheran doctrines, fled to American and populated portions of the upper Midwest. For instance, Fredrick Olaus Nilsson, expelled from Sweden in 1850 for violating the Conventicle Act for preaching against infant baptism, was active in Minnesota. He seems to have otherwise held to standard Lutheran doctrine. Laestadians had beliefs somewhat similar to Watch Tower adherents and were particularly well-represented in Michigan and Minnesota. They stood separate from the existing Scandinavian Lutheran churches. But ultimately the Swedish believers in Benona Township, Michigan, are a mystery.

[1888 letter here]

            We do not know if the Brewers maintained their faith, but what slight evidence exists suggests they did. It appears, though on conflicting evidence, that the Brewers eventually moved to Virginia. But because evidence, primarily a census of Civil War veterans, conflicts with Federal Census records, this is uncertain.

            As observed several times in this volume of Separate Identity, some Watch Tower readers read opposition journals, principally Paton’s World’s Hope. Mid-year 1887 an “M. T. G.” from New Buffalo, Michigan, ordered four paper covered copies of Plan of the Ages also asking for “a few copies of the Watch Tower.” This was in response to claims made in Paton’s magazine. Russell addressed them in the March 1887 Watch Tower, and M.T.G. found his rebuttal satisfying: “I have been taking the World's Hope nearly a year, and I know that it claims that the Second Death brings life and salvation to all. I am so glad now to be fully armed on this subject by the article.” It appears she intended to loan Plan of the Ages, apparently to friends who followed Paton into Universalism.[11]

            A letter from Tuscola County, Michigan, came to Russell in late 1887. As printed in The Watch Tower it is signed W. C. W. While we wish we knew who that was, we do not. After blessings and well-wishes to Russell, the writer said:

I am fully persuaded that the time when “the very elect” should be deceived, if it were possible, is upon us. Within the past year or two I have seen quite a number of new periodicals purporting to give advanced light, pointing out unmistakably many of the errors of “Orthodoxy,” and, although somewhat garbled, many of the truths of God’s Word; and holding up the example of Jesus Christ, as the beacon to guide us up to everlasting perfection. These teachings will be very apt to mislead, and indeed are misleading many thinking Christians who are unlearned in the Word. A noticeable characteristic of these new doctrines is an ignoring of God’s ransom for the lost, but taking, for imitation, the example of our Lord’s suffering for the right, just as any general might inspire his soldiers by telling them how Napoleon’s soldiers faced death at Austerlitz or Lodi, or how Leonidas stood at Thermopylae. They thus ignore the fact that the penalty for sin is death, and that man having sinned is in death; that the laws of God are absolute and eternal, and that there is no escape from the penalty of these laws until the uttermost farthing is paid.[12]

            He was right, of course. A read-through of Peters’ Theocratic Kingdom connects one to a multitude of journals and papers, most small of circulation and now lost, that fit this description. And among adherents, Paton’s World’s Hope¸ Adams’ The Spirit of the Word, and two or three other periodicals found a readership. These fit W. C. W.’s description too. He believed the ‘flock’ could easily be deceived by “these ‘strong delusions,’” a reference to 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 which reads according to the Authorized Version: “For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Admittedly, this is a poor translation of κριθωσιν which means not ‘damned’ but judged. Though the meanings are similar, ‘damned’ suggested hell-fire to most Protestants.

            The thought that some were easily deceived “induced” him “to write ... now, instead of waiting ... until I could get a little money to send. I can sell a few ‘Dawns,’ to some that I have talked with.” He (or she) explained that they had “been an invalid for two years” but were some better, adding, “If you will send me ten April ‘Towers,’ I will place them discreetly; also send me ten paper-bound dawns.” They believed that there was much to do, saying, “I want the means used that will accomplish the most.”

            The April 1887 Watch Tower was a missionary number sent out as sample copies. Russell wanted to reach one hundred thousand readers with it, introducing them to what he believed were the basics of the True Gospel. W. C. W. wanted to help circulate it, believing its message to be vital.

[continue]

           

Biographies

            Though these letters as published in The Watch Tower are anonymous, we have the identities of some who connected with Watch Tower theology. We will limit ourselves to a few Minnesota and Michigan residents, allowing them to represent others with similar experience.

William Egbert Page

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[1]               View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, March 1883, page 2. [Not in Reprints.]

[2]               View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, January 1882, page 1.

[3]               Encouraging Words from Faithful Workers, Zion’s Watch Tower, September 1, 1895, page 280. Members of the Melin family helped evangelize in Canada. [1979 Yearbook, page 86.] We tell K. P. Hammer’s story in another chapter.

[4]               Voices of the People, The St. Paul Enterprise, March 12, 1915. See also the February 16, 1916; January 28, 1918 issue.

[5]               Words of Encouragement, The Herald of Christ’s Kingdom, July 15, 1927.

[6]               Leiderbach to Barbour found in the December 1878 issue, page 82. Leiderbach was born in Hesse-Darmstadt in October 1832 and died in 1917. His wife Wilhelmina was born in Prussia in 1844 and died in 1877. Henry immigrated to the United States in 1852, and they were in Minnesota at least by 1865 when their first child was born. [See Census and cemetery records.] Henry was first a saddle maker, then a farmer. He met and married “Mina” Hoffman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. [Marriage record: February 17, 1853, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison; FHL microfilm 1,013,959.]  They lived in Rockford, Minnesota, where he was a farmer.

[7]               View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower¸ December 1882, page 2.

[8]               Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, December 1883, page 1. [Not in Reprints.]

[9]               Details from the 1871 Canadian census and the 1880 U.S Federal Census.

[10]             Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, August 1887, page 2. [Not in Reprints.]

[11]             Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower¸ July 1887, page 2. [Not in Reprints.]

[12]             Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, August 1887, page 2. [Not in Reprints.]