Pittsburgh Presbyterians (1 of 3)

by Jerome

(Addenda part 1)

Well over a year ago Rachael asked me to write up all the bits and pieces that had been discovered since volume one of Separate Identity was published in 2014. Using mainly my own old articles I put something together and sent it off. Having recently been trying to sort out the muddle on my 2 terabyte hard drive I came across this material and, after checking with Bruce, am turning it into three stand alone articles to be posted at intervals. This first one below needed further revising, because still more information had been discovered since it was written. (With apologies for slight formatting glitches which I just don't seem to be able to sort.)

The nature of writing on history is that there is always potentially something else to discover, some new document to be unearthed, or some re-evaluation of existing evidence. This has certainly proved true with the Separate Identity series, where volume one provided much new material that turned previous assumptions on their head.

As much as possible we will try and cover the new information in chronological order.

We know that several members of the Russell family ended up in the Pittsburgh area. Charles Tays Russell, James Grier Russell and Joseph Lytle Russell were brothers, who all lived and ultimately died in Pittsburgh. They were all buried together in the Allegheny cemetery in a family plot originally purchased by James. An umarried sister, Mary Jane Russell, is also buried there.

They were part of a large family belonging to Thomas Russell and Fannie Grier (Russell) of Londonderry in what is now Northern Ireland. According to the Aunt Sarah Russell Morris document (see article Mary Jane Russell posted here on April 1 this year) the Russells had thirteen children, ten of whom survived to adulthood.

Relying on his obituary for details, one of the first to reach America was Charles Tays Russell. In 1822 he was in New York. By 1831 he was in Pittsburgh with a store. We now know that he joined the Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh in 1834.

The Third Presbyterian Church Pittsburgh was established in 1834, and as members joined they were given a number. In the very first year of its operation, Charles T Russell, became a member, and was given the number 47. Here is his entry in the church admissions register.

The entry states he was admitted on January 22, 1834, by certificate, which means he came from another Presbyterian Church with a letter of introduction. We do not know which one that was, or whether it was in Pittsburgh or elsewhere.

The right hand column details what eventually happened to these members. The entry for Chas T Russell shows that he was “suspended.” Had he simply left for another church the entry would have read “dismissed” – which can be a bit confusing for readers unfamiliar with the terms as they were used in the register. Had he misbehaved and been expelled the register would have stated that, and quite likely would have given salacious detail of his offense. However, the entry “suspended” in this context suggests that Charles Tays simply lapsed. He stopped attending, he ceased making contributions, and eventually the church wrote him off. There is no evidence of any subsequent involvement in religious affairs for the rest of his (admittedly) sketchy history. And his obituary does not tell us who conducted his funeral service.

It does confirm the Presbyterian background of the family in Londonderry, in what is now called Northern Ireland. Other arrivals from this family would have automatically gravitated towards the Pittsburgh Presbyterians.

We have no church record for his brother James. In the early 1830s James was with another brother Alexander in the greater New York area at Elmwood Hill. James and Alexander married sisters. Alexander married Margaret Risk on June 21, 1832 at Bloomingdale, NY, and James had previously married Sarah Ann Risk. The Risk family were originally Episcopaleans from Faun (probably Fahan, Co. Donegal, Ireland). A search of Presbyterian Church records for the greater New York area would be a daunting task, and it is known that Alexander ended up attending the Dutch Reformed Church in New York. One of his daughters, Cornelia S Davenport, worshiped at the Plymouth Bethel in Brooklyn, NY, long before it became the Brooklyn Tabernacle.

Returning to Pittsburgh, we know that James and Sarah had moved there by 1840 because of the census. James planned to stay there forever. Literally. He purchased a family plot for ten graves in the newly opened Allegheny cemetery in the mid-1840s in Section 7, plot 17. Wife Sarah was the first to be buried there in December1846, and he joined her a year later in December 1847. He was the oldest of the Russell family in America, but because he died quite young was soon “forgotten.”

Our particular interest is in another of the Russell brothers, Joseph Lytle (or Lytel), because he became father to Charles Taze Russell, named after his uncle but with variant spelling for the middle name. The Watchtower Society’s history video Faith in Action part 1 (Out of Darkness) suggests that he came to America already married in 1845. The commentary states “it was in 1845 that Joseph and Ann Eliza Russell emigrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania, USA.” Subsequent research shows this to be incorrect on several counts. It is probably based on J L Russell’s obituary that states he came to America “about 1845”, but the problem with obituaries is that the one person who can verify the information is not there to do so.

We know that Joseph Lytle’s application for American citizenship in 1848 stated that he had been in the United States for five years. This can now be confirmed because his name occurs in a Pittsburgh newspaper for 1843.

The Pittsburgh Daily Post began a regular column in 1843 listing the names of all those who needed to collect mail from the Pittsburgh post office. It is a great shame for researchers that the feature did not start in earlier years. In the issue for Monday, October 16, 1843 (repeated in the following two daily issues) we find Joseph L Russell.

One notes that the name Joseph has an unusual spelling. This is either a misprint in the paper or some creative spelling on the part of whoever sent the letter, perhaps from the old country, Ireland. Whatever the reason, this is probably why this newspaper reference has not been discovered until recently.

Above the name of Joceph (sic) L Russell is James Russell, who was likely his older brother. A month later in the issue for Saturday, November 18, 1843, we find the other brother, Charles T Russell, also being asked to collect his mail.

So Joseph L Russell was in Pittsburgh in October 1843. His older brother Charles Tays Russell had been there for more than a decade and had joined the Third Presbyterian Church in January 1834. The next discovery is that Joseph Lytle chose to join the same church in 1845.

Here is the same church register that featured Charles T Russell as member number 47.  We are now up to member number 551, Joseph Russell.

 Joseph was admitted to this church on March 7, 1845, by certificate. This means that like Charles Tays before him, he had come from another Presbyterian Church with a letter of introduction, but again we don’t know from which church, whether in Pittsburgh or elsewhere. We also note in the right hand column that he was ultimately “dismissed” so changed churches again.

Joseph Lytle was to transfer from the Third to the Second Presbyterian on December 1, 1849. Here is the Second Presbyterian register that provides that information.

To explain the abbreviations ex = examination and cert = certificate. So Joseph L. Russell was admitted to the church on examination and certificate on December 1, 1849. This confirmed that he had been a member of another church in good standing before transferring to the Second Presbyterians.

The event is also mentioned in the Second Presbyterian Session Minutes from December 1, 1849, as reproduced below.

These minutes add the extra information that pulls the story together: Joseph L. Russell was previously a member of the Third Presbyterian Church (New School) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In fact it was this reference that opened the door on the research into the Russell brothers’ religious affiliations. It led back to the Third Presbyterian records that found not only Joseph Lytle joining in 1845, but Charles Tays becoming a member in 1834.

December 1, 1849, was an interesting time for Joseph L to change churches; which brings us to Ann Eliza Birney, who would become Joseph’s wife and the mother of Charles Taze Russell.

We know that the Birney family, like the Russell family, came from Ireland. We don’t know when Ann Eliza made the journey to America, or to Pittsburgh. We do know that the suggestion she came to America in 1845 already married to Joseph is wrong; she immigrated to America as a single person. The Pittsburgh Daily Post’s request for people to collect their mail from the Pittsburgh post office, so helpful in tracing Charles T and Joseph L, also gives us valuable information about Ann Eliza.

In 1848, in the Pittsburgh Post for Saturday, July 1, on page 2, there is a letter waiting for A E Birney.

It is reasonably safe to assume that this is Ann Eliza, single, in Pittsburgh in 1848. Even more conclusive is the entry the following year. The graphic below comes from the Pittsburgh Daily Post for Wednesday, April 4, 1849, page 2.

So this time, we have a Ladies’ List and it is a Miss A E Birney who is asked to collect her mail from the post office. This tells us that in March 1849 Ann Eliza was still single. Or, to be more precise, whoever wrote her a letter thought she was still single. And we don’t know where the letter came from or how long it took to reach Pittsburgh.

No record has been found for the marriage of Joseph Lytle and Ann Eliza, but that is not uncommon for this type of record in this era and area. But we can narrow down the date for the marriage considerably from two pieces of information we now have.

First, as discussed above, we know that Ann was most likely still single in early 1849. Second, we have information that enables us to establish when her first child Thomas was conceived.

The information comes from the 1850 census, which has long been available but has been misread in the past. This includes Separate Identity volume 1. Page 4 states that Thomas was born in March 1850. This is a mistake; however, it is a natural one to make, and other researchers on sites like Ancestry have also made it. The problem shows up when we examine the 1850 census return reproduced below.

The rules for the 1850 census were that entries should reflect information as it existed on June 1 that year. So we have Joseph L Russell, aged 32, male, merchant from Ireland. Then Ann E Russell, aged 26, female, from Ireland. Finally we have T Russell (Thomas) male, from Pennsylvania, who at first sight might appear to be 3/12. Reading that as three months old would give the month of March for the birth.

The problem arises with handwriting of the era, using scratchy pen and ink. Numerous enumerators’ hands are found in these census returns, with varying degrees of legibility. So let’s zoom in on that entry for Thomas.

Now we can see that the entry for Thomas is not 3/12 at all, but rather 5/12, which would make Thomas five months old on June 1, which pushes his birth back to January, or even the very end of December. No baptismal record has been found for Thomas. For that matter, no baptismal record has been found for any other of Joseph and Ann’s children including Charles Taze Russell, so this is the best we can do.

But now we have the second piece of information to pinpoint when Joseph and Ann were married. If their first son Thomas was born in January 1850, he was conceived around April 1849. With Ann Eliza addressed as a single person in March 1849, and assuming that Thomas was conceived within wedlock, this narrows down the time for the marriage to a very small window. It is pure conjecture here, but maybe that letter waiting for Ann at the post office in March 1849 related to her impending nuptials.

It should be noted that there is conflicting information in the burial records for Thomas at the Allegheny cemetery. Thomas died on 11 August 1855 and the register says he was 5 years and 3 months when he died. If that were true, he would have been born in May 1849. That would mean that the census enumerator who recorded Joseph and Ann’s circumstances for June 1, 1850, mistook a new baby for a child of five months. That seems most unlikely. Since the burial register pages were copied up after the events any error would appear to be at that end of Thomas’ history – maybe confusing the numbers three and eight with the crabby handwriting of the day, which would take you back again to the January.

It was just before Thomas was born that Joseph Lytle changed churches from the Third Presbyterian to the Second Presbyterian. This may have been linked to the impending birth of a first child, or it may have been a simple geographical relocation within the greater Pittsburgh area. At present we do not know.

What is also still missing is any information about Ann Eliza in surviving records of Pittsburgh Presbyterian churches. However, the church Joseph Lytle joined (and we assume Ann with him) was also the church Ann’s brother, Thomas, attended at some point. Thomas Birney’s obituary from 1899 is somewhat garbled but states that he joined the Second Presbyterian Church in 1845. That date cannot be verified because we have no record of this in extant church records. Neither do have any record of his marriage to Mary Ann Covell. However, between 1857 and 1872 six of his children were baptised in that church, including a daughter named after her aunt, Ann Eliza.

Second Presbyterian baptism register. Ann Eliza, daughter of Thomas and Mary Ann Birney, born October 29, 1856, baptized September 12, 1857.

So in summary, Joseph Lytle Russell and Ann Eliza Birney came to the United States as singles. Joseph was in Pittsburgh as early as 1843 and Ann was there from at least 1848. They met and married in Pittsburgh, likely after meeting through Pittsburgh Presbyterian Church contact. Their marriage appears to have taken place in the earlier part of 1849 and the first son, Thomas, was born around January 1850. Charles Taze Russell would follow in 1852. And at this point in their lives they were Presbyterian in faith.

Part 2 to follow: An Evening Prayer and the Case of Thomas Hickey.

Watch this space.