Birla

On this blog a couple of years ago, I reproduced the letter below. It was in response to a debate that occurred in The Evening Journal (Wilmington) Deleware in its 7 December 1914 issue. The local Ministerial Union had tried unsuccessfully to get the paper to stop printing CTR’s sermons. The letter as printed in the 22 December issue was one of several commending the newspaper on its “open door” policy. The interesting point is that the writer, Mrs Birla A Kent, wrote from 124 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn – that is the Brooklyn Bethel.

So who was she? When you start digging, there is always something of a story to tell.

Birla (sometimes Berla, sometimes Burla) was the former Birla Morris and was born in Indiana c.1883. (Her death certificate from 1951 gives the year 1881 but this is likely an error). Birla’s father was George Morris and her mother, the former Rachael (Ray) McMillan. In 1905 she married Rafael Arrillaga Urrutia and thus became Birla Morris Y McMillan de Arrillaga. In 1910 the couple were living in Puerto Rico where Rafael was born.

Shortly thereafter the marriage must have failed because Rafael would marry again in 1912 and live on until 1933.

On 5 January 1914 in Brooklyn, NY, Birla M De Arrillaga married Benjamin Ray Kent (1889-1964). There is an R B Kent on a list of deacons for a New York class, which may or may not be the same person. Benjamin Ray and Birla obviously lived at Bethel in 1914, for her to use that address in her letter of December 1914.

On 5 June 1917 Benjamin Ray completed his draft registration card, and stated that his occupation was Ordained Minister and Stenographer. He was now living and working at Turner Springs, Florida. He also claimed exemption from the draft on account of being a member of the International Bible Students Association.

It is not known whether either Benjamin or Birla retained their interest in the Bble Student message.

In a 1924 city directory Benjamin R and Birla A Kent are listed as a married couple in Fort Worth, Texas. In the 1930 census for Sweetwater, Nolan, Texas they now have one child, Alan Ray Kent, aged 2. Birla’s age is given as 46, so she would have had Alan Ray quite late in life, at the age of 43-44.

Sadly Birla’s second marriage did not last. In the 1940 census, she is now married to a Clair W. Lawson (formerly Larsen from Sweden) and Alan Ray Kent is aged 12 and listed as a step-son of the family head. The marriage took place in 1936. Benjamin Ray Kent also married again in 1940 to a Jettye Kirkpatrick.  You can trace some of the subsequent family history through sites like Ancestry and Find a Grave.

One suspects that when Birla wrote her letter in 1914 she would never have believed that someone would be poring over her family history well over a hundred years later.