St. Paul Enterprise - April 23, 1915

I need more details. Ideally I need a copy of this letter. Anyone?

This Blog

 I have a significantly declining readership. Any suggestions?

Separate Identity vol 2

If you've read it and have positive things to say about it, please leave a review on Amazon.

Some of our readers ...

Some of our blog readers may find this a useful addition to their research collection:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Elhanan-Winchester-Course-of-Lectures-on-the-Prophecies-that-Remain-to-be/274230727891?hash=item3fd96cd4d3:g:4l8AAOSwLkReLkDY

On "Jerome's" Blog

https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/

Dig Away! Share.

I would like to encourage all readers who like research to be prepared to go wherever the moment takes them.  A book like Separate Identity requires discipline and that is fine. But if you just have a keen interest in all things historical, then you can go off on all sorts of tangents. That I freely confess is what I do. Many are dead ends, but occasionally some yield gold.

Two recent examples from my own research for a couple of blogs illustrate this.

I had the announcement of Charles Ball’s 1889 funeral from a newspaper. It was a filler, no more than that. But then I decided to follow it up. I found his gravestone, which led to other questions and ultimately led to finding out exactly when he joined the Russell household. That then led to establishing when his younger sister, Rose, joined the household. This has been a debated question over the years, but was now resolved. It shot down a theory I had been peddling for decades, but hey – that’s OK, if we are wrong we are wrong, and truth should out.

The other journey started with the funeral of Andrew Pierson, former vice president of the Society.  I had a newspaper cutting, again just a filler. The usual sources neglected to state who took his funeral. That led to finding that George Fisher had done this. That led to the disagreements that Fisher, one of the Brooklyn 8, had with J F Rutherford in the mid-1920s. That led to letters JFR wrote about the problem that were published in Golden Age. They were written from an address in Monrovia, California. That led to examining where Mary Rutherford lived at the time. That led to a far better understanding of the Rutherfords’ domestic arrangements in the 1920, and partly dispelled a lot of inaccurate speculation made over the years. One thing led to another, which led to another.

So, if time allows, dig away. Go where it takes you. And if you find out something positive worth sharing, then share away.

A Lecture

Not directly on topic, but worth your attention.

It Does Help if You Get the Basic Facts Right

In the Golden Age magazine for September 13, 1922, three films were advertised for purchase by the Kinemo Film Corporation. Back in 2016 there was a series of articles on this blog about them, the most detailed one being found at:

https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2016/08/kinemo.html                                                                               

The three films were made over 1920-1921. There was one on Palestine, one on the Great Pyramid and one on Imperial Valley, California. The latter was seen as an example of what could be done to cultivate land and make an area into a paradise.

There is quite an amazing review of the Imperial Valley one by Paul Johnson in his paper for September 1925.

"BRO. RUTHERFORD TAKING A TRIP THROUGH IMPERIAL VALLEY, CALIFORNIA"

"The picture shows Bro. R. and party in an automobile, ready for the tour. Then it shows them driving to some of his friends, to ask them if they would allow their son to go with him through Imperial Valley to take pictures. The boy's parents readily consented to let him go with the judge, though they were all prepared to start on a trip of their own through the mountains. The boy kisses his family good-bye, jumps into Bro. R.'s car, and away they go. Then the pictures go on to show Bro. R. passing through the valley on foot, examining fruit, vegetables and many other things grown there. According to the pictures, everything certainly was in good condition. Of course, the picture shows Bro. R. walking through these gardens, which takes up quite a time. On one occasion he is pictured as looking around and laughing as he turns over a very large pumpkin, saying: `It reminds me of the pumpkin pies mother used to make.'

Then the picture changes. It shows Bro. Rutherford's party with a newspaper giving the picture of a terrible automobile accident. Then the auto is shown falling down the side of a steep mountain, the occupants falling out and all being killed—they were the boy's family. Thereupon Bro. R. is seen trying to comfort the boy. It also shows Bro. R. writing a letter and handing it to the boy, telling him not to open it until when in 1925 he would hear of Abraham being resurrected. Later, the pictures show the boy in 1925 reading a morning paper with large head lines: 'ABRAHAM RESURRECTED IN PALESTINE.' Suddenly it dawns on the boy to read the letter the judge had given him. He looks at the calendar, which shows 1925; then he opens the letter, which tells him to telegraph Abraham and ask him that his famliy might be resurrected and restored to him. Finally, the boy is shown very happy as he telegraphs Abraham in Palestine in 1925."

This would be a fascinating film to see with JFR in such a prominent acting role. It’s a shame the Oscars didn’t start until 1929. There is only one slight problem with all of this – the description and review is FALSE FROM START TO FINISH.

                                                                                                             

We can see the actual film today because a copy has survived, although missing a little footage at the end of the reel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zIClU8TQtM&feature=youtu.be           

The Imperial Valley film is just a travelog, taking you around the area, showing roads being built, ditches beng dug and produce being harvested, as an illustration of what could be possible for the earth in the future. That is about it. JFR appears briefly in long shot looking over a field, a bit like an Alfred Hitchcock cameo.

When you read the small print Johnson tries to excuse himself:

“The Editor never saw these moving pictures, but sometime ago one of the brethren sent him a brief description of them.”

So that’s all right then. It’s someone else’s responsibility. 

Taking his words at face value, one of the brethren must have been just  “messing around.”                                                        

And none of his readers apparently noticed.

With grateful thanks to Zion’s Herald for bringing this amusing item to our attention.

For a revised series of articles on the ill-fated Kinemo project you can also use the search term: Kinemo, at:    https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/

Some of our Readers ...

Some of our readers will find this useful ...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/THOMAS-NEWTON-ON-THE-PROPHECIES-LEATHER-BOUND-2-VOLUMES-1824-REVELATION-BIBLE/373074235347?hash=item56dcf50fd3:g:0WoAAOSwUQBe2N~7

C. B. Downing Letter - China Mission

Below is an undated letter written by Calista Downing to a Mrs. Foster. This is probably not the place for me to complain about deteriorating health, but as my eyes fail along with the rest of my body, I cannot read this. Can you transcribe it? [click on images to see them in their entirety.]

The Rutherfords in Monrovia

In 1954 there was a little human interest story on the front page of the Daily News and Monrovia Daily News for June 8, 1954. An old lady named Mrs J F Rutherford was pictured with the mailman, “Buck” Bailey, who had been delivering for about thirty years. It was claimed he’d done the equivalent of walking around the world four times in that time.

Reproduced with permission from newspapers.com

This photograph and news story has an interesting link to Watch Tower history because the old lady was Mary, widow of Joseph F Rutherford, who was then living at 159 Stedman Place. The suggestion in the newspaper was that the postie had been delivering to her for thirty years. In fact, according to the Monrovia-News-Post for July 15, 1935, the Stedman Place property only had a planning permit that year.

However, a check of Google maps shows that immediately backing onto the 159 Stedman Place plot was 160 North Primrose Avenue. And this is where Mary had been for most of the 1920s, one assumes on Bailey’s postal round. And it could well be that the original plot for the North Primrose Avenue address had been extensive enough to allow the construction of a brand new property on it in 1935, fronting onto the parallel road.

Mary’s address was given as 160 North Primrose in a number of trade and street directories throughout the 1920s. One example below listed all the existing numbers in the street in 1928. Here you can see Mary at number 160.

It is noted that some numbers are missing. This is likely because the properties were either not constructed or occupied at this time, as the whole area was under development. Mary’s home, number 160, was constructed in 1922 so it is likely she moved into a new property that year or shortly thereafter.

Interestingly the same year as the above directory entry, 1928, the address was featured in advertisements as a contact address for IBSA publications.

Files of all the street directories are not all accessible, but this one below from 1925 is of particular interest. We note that there are two people living at 160 North Primrose.

So the occupant is Jos F Rutherford and his wife Mary. If any doubt that this could be our JFR, check out this cutting from March 9, 1925.

Rutherford is classed as a resident and his given address is 160 North Primrose. This information was repeated over several years. A brief look takes us up to at least 1928, where the August 6, 1928 newspaper gives his address as 180 North Primrose, which I would suggest is just a typo. Sometimes the paper calls him a Monrovian. From a 1927 newspaper:

So it was accepted locally that JFR was a resident, living 160 North Primrose Avenue. We might assume this was just winter months, but there were other times of year noted as well. Note here a visit made in August 1925.

This wasn’t a big secret. It was supported by the Golden Age magazine for March 25, 1925, pages 407-409. This reproduces two letters written by JFR in February 1925 over the George Fisher situation. One letter is a copy of what was sent directly to Fisher, and the other was written to Clayton J Woodworth, editor of Golden Age. The contents are not our subject here, although anyone with access to Golden Age can check it out, but here is the start and finish of Woodworth’s letter.

So JFR writes from Monrovia. The actual address is omitted, which was probably wise in view of the Golden Age’s wide circulation.

As was common with all Watch Tower officials (apart from perhaps CTR and Maria) their personal family affairs were kept private. But it can be reasonably established that, while Mary Rutherford lived in Monrovia and her son Malcom lived nearly, JFR also spent part of his year there throughout the 1920s. It may be that the increasing workload and the need for extra staff like stenographers contributed to the move to the larger Beth-Sarim in the 1930s. A May 27, 1942, Consolation magazine article referred to JFR and what it called his “office force” using the property at Beth-Sarim.

The family’s continued contact also shows up in May 1938 when Malcom and his wife Pauline shared part of an ocean voyage with JFR and some of his staff.

JFR died at Beth-Sarim, San Diego, in 1942. There were issues about his burial as discussed in the above mentioned Consolation magazine. One of the headlines reporting the situation still claimed JFR as an old Monrovian.

The story mentioned that Mary Rutherford “still resides here at 159 Stedman Place.”

After JFR’s death, his son Malcom with wife Pauline lived with Mary for a short time in the 1940s. They are listed as with her at the Stedman Place property in the Monrovia Street directory for 1944. When Mary died in 1962, Malcom inherited the property and he and his second wife Eleanor lived there until at least 1970.

Not at all relevant ...

I was there. I still have my program ... [click on embedded link for full view]

Update

In an earlier post I asked for original copies of the 1925 Golden Age. I now have about half that year. If you have extras you want to donate to my research collection, query first.

Rose and Charles Ball

A few years ago I wrote an article on How Old Was Rose Ball? Due to Maria Russell’s contradictory testimony in Russell vs Russell (1906) there were several possibilities on Rose’s age when she joined the Russell household in Pittsburgh. In fairness to Maria, she was trying to remember events from nearly twenty years before, and we can’t discount the stenographer having an off day. Equally, the information written by J F Rutherford in the Ecclesiastical Heavens booklet was written nearly thirty years after events, and was not based on first hand knowledge.

However, as a result of further research I am now happy to accept that my main premise in the above mentioned article has been proved wrong. I still think there are points of value in the article; hence it has not been deleted. But we can now establish that Rose Ball joined the Russell household in late 1888 or early 1889. She would have been 19 years old, but could have looked younger at the time.

The evidence comes from examining the life of her brother, Charles U Ball. Charles joined the Russell household and workforce before Rose did. Rose then wrote and asked if she could come and join him? We know when Charles died and now also know when he came to Pittsburgh. This is that story.

The basic story of Charles and Rose came out in Russell vs Russell (1906). Quoting from the Paper Book of Appellant, page 90, the exchange went like this.

CTR: “We had a young man in the office by the name of Charles Ball, who came to us from Buffalo, and was deeply interested.”

Counsel: “What has that got to do with the girl?”                               

CTR: “That was the brother. She wanted to come because her brother was here. After her brother died, she was lonely and Mrs Russell and I both thought a great deal of her. She was a very young looking girl…we treated her in every way as a daughter, and told her we considered her such, and she told us she considered us as parents.”

Some accounts describe Rose as an orphan, but this is not true. A check of genealogical records shows the family to be alive in Buffalo. In fact, if more people had only read the Russell vs. Russell (1906) transcript they would know this. Shortly after stating that CTR and Maria treated her as a daughter, CTR testified:

CTR: “(She) had no relatives there, and we told her she could call herself by our name. She said the only reason she didn’t do that she was afraid if her father heard of it, he would think she had lost her respect for him.”

It may be that there was some estrangement in the Ball family, and that could be suggested by the story of her brother Charles.

Charles came to work for CTR as a stenographer. This is before they moved into Bible House. He died on March 14, 1889. Notice of his death and the funeral from CTR’s home was given in the Pittsburgh Dispatch for Saturday, March 16, 1889.

The key records are not indexed online at this time of writing, but using the date and area, it was possible to find the burial register for Charles with some key information.

It runs across two pages in the register.

The first page gives his name: Charles Ball. His color: ditto, i.e. white. His sex: male. His age at death: 22 (This is actually an error; he was still 21 at the time). Married or single: single. Occupation: stenographer. Date of death: March 14. Cause of death: consumption.  Date of certificate: March 15.

The second page gives his birthplace: Buffalo, N(ew) Y(ork). His last residence and time of residence therein: on March 10 at Clifton Avenue (the Russells’ home) and nine months. His previous residence: Buffalo, N.Y.  Place and date of interment: Uniondale and March 17. And finally the name and residence of the physician signing the death certificate and the name and residence of the undertaker.

So we note that Charles had been living with the Russells at Clifton Avenue for the last nine months, and prior to that had been in Buffalo. So doing the math, Charles came to Pittsburgh around June-July of 1888. At some point after that, his sister wrote asking if she could come as well? So Rose came, Charles died, Rose stayed on.

The thought that there might have been some family estrangement is suggested by what happened with Charles. When he became ill he did not go back home to Buffalo. When he died, his body was not sent back to Buffalo. He did not leave a will, so his personal effects and affairs were sorted out by CTR who, rather than a family member, was granted letters of administration.

Charles Ball was buried in Pittsburgh, in the Union Dale cemetery. For an unknown young man his gravestone is really quite impressive. (Photograph reproduced with permission).

The motif at the top could well be a cross and crown before it was vandalised. And if so, why was it vandalised? And at the bottom of the marker is a familiar scriptural inscription, a partial quotation from Revelation 2 v.10: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”

Charles’ stay in Pittsburgh and his substantial grave stone pose questions we cannot answer. What is known is that sixty years later, he was still remembered. Here is the notice of Rose’s death from an Australian newspaper, the Melbourne Argus, for November 24, 1950.

Transcript: HENNINGES – On November 22, Rose Ball, widow of the late Ernest Charles Henninges, beloved sister of Lilian, Daisy, Charles (deceased) and Richard (deceased), aged 81 years. – Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.

(Reprinted from Jerome History blog)

Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089KPG9FX/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=organizational+identity&qid=1591119077&s=digital-text&sr=1-1#430901

Jeff, whom you know here as ZionsHerald, made this possible. I cannot fully convey the depth of my appreciation for his help.

Donation to the Cause

... no, not money.

I need original issues - not photo copies or scans - of the 1925 Golden Age. I know of some for sale. But What money I have in the research fund must go for documents and photo copies. But ... If you have some early Golden Ages just sitting on a shelf collecting dust, and you're wondering what their fate should be ... I would gladly accept donation of any from 1925 or earlier. Vain hope, I know. But I thought I'd ask.