The Search for Charles Buehler

(This is a considerable re-write of an article published here about six years ago. I have outlined in detail the research paths followed which may be of help to newer researchers looking for trails in their own research.)

One of my projects is to do a book on the various cemeteries in Pittsburgh that feature in Watch Tower history, particularly for the benefit of visitors/tourists to the area. A title like “Grave Matters” or “Grave Affairs” is likely. (Insert groan.)

Much of the research was done when I visited the area myself in 2014, and various articles appeared on this blog at the time, which will form the basis for the “new” work. But of course, everything needs re-researching in case there is more that can still be found.

This brings us to the strange case of Charles Buehler. A transcript of a death certificate, but alas not the original, has now become available on Ancestry. You would need to visit a record office in person to obtain the original, and since I live 3325 miles away from Brooklyn (give or take), that is a little impractical. (Any readers who can literally make the trip please contact me back-channel.) But the transcript does provide more information to help with identification – or muddy the waters.

But first, why is the death and burial of Charles Buehler of interest? In 1905 the Watch Tower Society through a holding company, The United States Investment Company, purchased farm land for a cemetery. In his last will and testament CTR asked that he be buried there, and in 1916 he was. The whole area was sold off at the end of 1917, apart from a couple of small sections just reserved for the Bible Students. The most famous one had a pyramid monument erected in its center, and this is the magnet for visitors to see.

The pyramid was designed as a family monument for Bethelites and Pilgrims with sufficient spaces for all their names on its sides. As it happened, only nine names were ever recorded, and were on three of the sides, leaving one side blank. The engravings were all done before the pyramid was installed and related to burials between 1914 and 1919.

The whole project was abandoned until burials restarted in 1943, with two exceptions. One was CTR’s sister, Margaretta Russell Land, who was buried next to him in 1934. The other was our mystery man, Charles Buehler, who was buried on this site on March 27, 1925. This is the one solitary burial throughout the whole of the 1920s, but there was no name added to the pyramid inscriptions.

The location of the grave is interesting. Below is a plan of the site, and the grave plots as they exist now including the four taken out by the pyramid. (Originally they hoped to cram in more burials, but a curved hillside site presented logistical problems, and the original plan that you can make out on the sides of the pyramid monument was soon rejected.)

The plan is looking across the site – to the left is in the bottom of the hill and to the right is the top. You can see where the named Bible Students on the pyramid sides were buried – apart from CTR himself, they were in little clusters at the corners of the site. In the top right hand corner were John Perry, Grace Mundy, Henry Addington, Lorena Russell (no relation to CTR) and Flora Cole. In the top left hand corner were Arabella Mann and Mary Whitehouse. In the bottom right hand corner was John Coolidge, whose stone still survives. But the bottom left hand corner was unused. However, it was obviously the plan to start at the four extremities of the Society’s site and work their way inwards. There were going to be problems when they met in the middle, but that was someone else’s headache in the future.

The one unused quadrant of the whole site, section T-47, is where the grave of Charles Buehler is found, in the far corner again, in plot H4. That fits the pattern, but then as noted above there were no further interments (apart from Margaretta Land) until the 1940s when the policy was to now sell off all the remaining plots.

So who was Charles Buehler? It is not an uncommon name in historical records, which makes the search more difficult. It is usually attached to families who came from Switzerland to the United States.

There are three known references to Charles Buehler in Bible Student materials. The first is the 1909 Convention Report. The 1909 Denver Colorado Convention program contained a symposium on The Fruits of the Spirit. C G Buehler gave the segment on Long-Suffering at the St Joseph convention, and his photograph was attached and reproduced below.

When I wrote originally I thought this might be our man, except that the newly discovered death certificate shows that the Charles buried in United Cemeteries was only about 22 in 1909. I think we must accept the above photograph as being of an older man, although as noted below likely related. Then (as far as this researcher’s labors are concerned) there is silence until 1922. In that year the Bible Students’ unofficial newspaper, The New Era Enterprise (formerly the St Paul Enterprise – named after the place, not the apostle) mentioned the Buehler name twice in connection with funeral reports.

The January 24, 1922, issue had a funeral report for one R Fritz who had died in an accident. The report, written by the widow, then residing in Kansas, reported “we secured the use of the community hall seating over 600 for the services and sent to St Joseph, Mo., for Brother M.E. Riemer, who sent Brother C.G. Buehler in his stead. The discourse was grand...giving the divine plan as briefly as possible and the people were very attentive. We have heard many favorable comments, some saying it was the best they had ever heard.”

Key points to hold onto are the reference to St Joseph and the family name Riemer. Two months later, the March 21, 1922, issue had a funeral report for Amy C Merrett, of Kearney, Mo., who “had had present truth since 1883.” The brief report noted that “Brother Charles Buehler of Kansas City, conducted her funeral.” (Kansas City and St Joseph, Mo., are only 55 miles away from each other).

Unfortunately the file for the New Era Enterprise for 1925 is incomplete, which is a pity because an obituary for Charles himself would probably have removed all mystery.

This Charles G Buehler from 1922 could have been the older man from the 1909 convention report, or the younger man who died in 1925 and was buried in United Cemeteries. Our Charles’ death certificate transcript says he died in the Brooklyn hospital, and his given address was 124 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn. His occupation, obviously in Brooklyn Bethel, was bookbinder. He was born c. 1887 as worked out from his age of 38 at death. He was single. Cause of death is given as septicaemia and osteomyelitis. His “executor” was given as Mr Hugo H Riem, friend (which is likely a truncated transcript for H H Riemer).

Normally Bethelites who died at this time were buried in the Society’s new plot on Staten Island near the radio station WBBR. But, for whatever reason, Charles B was taken to be buried in the otherwise abandoned cemetery in Pittsburgh. There may have been a family reason, the name Charles Buehler also occurs in Pittsburgh records, although as noted above it was not an uncommon name at the time. There are three Charles Buehlers in Pittsburgh directories - for 1884 (a baker), 1902 (a brewmaster), and 1909 (a machinist). Whether different people or relatives of the Charles in United Cemeteries it has not been possible to determine.

It seems most likely that Charles came originally from Missouri. His friend H H Riemer had a connecton there. When the Watch Tower listed names of those who had taken “The Vow,” the class at St Joseph signed from, amongst others, Hugo H Riemer and also a Clara L Buehler. There were actually six Riemer family members including M E Riemer, who was likely featured in the New Era Enterprise quote above. From the August 15, 1908 Watch Tower magazine:

The 1908 street directory for St Joseph lists a Mrs Clara L Buehler and also not one but two different men named Charles Buehler. There is a Charles who is a book agent, and another Charles G for whom no occupation is given. One could have been the older Charles whose picture was in the 1909 convention report (note that his talk was given at the St Joseph convention) and other could have been OUR Charles Buehler.

By the 1910 census the extended Buehler family was grown and scattered and difficult to piece together, but the 1900 census for St Joseph gives the likely branch that included Charles.

We have parents, and then in the full return a total of six children. The parents are the head (indecipherable but sometimes transcribed as Gustave) Buehler and wife, Katherine Buehler. Their eldest child is named Gottfried and was born in Switzerland. The father came to America in 1884, and his wife and first child in 1885. After Gottfried there was Charles, aged 14, who was the first to be born in America. There is a shared gravestone in the Ashland Cemetery, St Joseph, that is for Gottfried Buehler (1857-1926) and Katherine Buehler (1861- 1923) which helps clarify the father’s first name. 

Our Charles’ death certificate gives his parents as Gottfried and Katherine, so it is reasonable to assume that this is the right family and therefore the right Charles. This particular Charles in St Joseph received a life-threatening injury in a gun accident as a teenager, which may have contributed to health issues later on. 

Family records are a headache but those from the Ashland Cemetery suggest that the older Charles G Buehler of the convention report was a relative, maybe an uncle, or cousin once removed, as was Clara L Buehler by marriage to a Samuel Buehler. The older Charles lived on until 1940 but his obituary showed he had severed contact with the IBSA. His funeral was taken by J A Meggison.

So – a chain of possible evidence, conjecture, joining the dots maybe – such is the case of Charles Buehler. Such is the stuff of conjectural research. But the question still remains – why United Cemeteries?