George Swetnam (1904-1999) was a writer who led a
full and eventful life. His obituary in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette (April 7,
1999) outlined how he was an author of a dozen books, mainly on history, and
was also a Presbyterian minister. He had been a newspaper editor, a member of
various historical societies, and for two years of his life, a hobo. His
obituary states “he claimed to have ridden more freight trains than any other
Ph.D alive.” He is probably best remembered today for co-authoring A Guidebook to Historic Western Pennsylvania.
He is of interest on this blog because he wrote
about Charles Taze Russell from time to time.
In 1958 he wrote Where
Else but Pittsburgh, and part of one chapter has six pages on CTR. It is
written in popularist style, and while one can easily nitpick some of the
erroneous details, it could be called a tribute and a sympathetic portrait.
Swetnam became a columnist and feature writer for
the Pittsburgh Press. At least two of his pieces featured CTR. The first in the
Pittsburgh Press Sunday magazine for October 6, 1963, was about the demolition
of the old Bible House as part of the North Side redevelopment scheme.
The second was an article, again in the Sunday
magazine section of the Pittsburgh Press for January 25, 1967. This was about
the burial site and the pyramid monument.
Swetnam lists the names found on the pyramid, but
was obviously struggling. The weathering of the stone and the way the light
hits the monument can make decipherment difficult. He lists eight names, CTR
himself and then seven others.
There were actually nine names inscribed. He misses
out the name John Perry, and some of the names he records have glitches. Grace
Mound was actually Grace Mundy, who died in a fire in 1914. Chester Elledge can
only be a drastic misreading of John Coolidge, which is strange because his
grave marker is the only one (other than CTR’s) to still survive of those
named. Swetnam says that the oldest who died was Miss Cole, aged 78. Flora Cole
actually died aged 70, but it IS hard to decipher the lettering. But she wasn’t
“Miss” she was “Mrs” – her son James Cole was the inventor of the Dawn-Mobile
featured in a fairly recent Watchtower article – February 15, 2012.
The other thing this article did was to remind the
public that there was a treasure trove of old publications buried in the
pyramid. They appear to have survived until 1993 when the pyramid was finally
broken into and the contents stolen.
Not by any reader of this blog I would hope.
2 comments:
Many thanks for the interesting article. Speaking of Pittsburg, does anyone know what connection existed, if any, between the National Labor Tribune (published in Pittsburgh) and the IBSA?
This isn’t a definitive answer, you would need proper research for that, but the National Labor Tribune (Pittsburgh) was used by the Bible Students for many years. The paper published Russell’s sermons from the early 1900s, and when the Brooklyn 8 were put in prison in 1918 they supported a campaign for their freedom. Talks etc. were printed in the paper. They didn’t become a Bible Students unofficial paper to the extent that the St Paul Enterprise (later New Era Enterprise) did, and I can remember some dispute between the papers as the Labor Tribune backed off its support. Ultimately it fell out of favor - as did the Enterprise - particularly as the Golden Age magazine increased in circulation.
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