Mena Films

From: The Day Book, Volume 6, Number 122, 20 February 1917 — Page 12

Philip Siderksy

 I want to use his photo in the last chapter of Separate Identity vol 3. But this is the best I can find. Can you make it better?

The character of one of Russell's opposers

 The New York Journal, January 30, 1899 - Spelling and punctuation as in original. 

L FOR HIS MISSION FRAUD

Sidersky Represented the Group as His Own Band of Proteges.

=PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILDREN.=

Scheming Proselyter Exposed by a Man Who Recognized His Own Little Ones.

ADOLPH BENJAMIN, who was chiefly instrumental in securing evidence against Herman Warszawiak, declares he has unearthed an “outrageous” scheme for swindling persons interested in the advancement of Christianity.

A man calling himself the “Rev.” Philip Sidersky exploited himself as a missionary to the Jews and director of an educational institution at Rosenheim N. J., near which place the Baron Hirsch colonies are situated. Mr. Benjamin spent several days in investigating this “school.”

His attention was first attracted to the institution when he visited the office of the Christian Herald, in this city, early last week. The editor had ready for publication a long article on the benevolent movement in Southern New Jersey, and with it was a photograph showing a large group of children, some two score in number, and described as “Proteges of the Emanuel Home Mission.”

Benjamin had never heard of the school, though he is acquainted with most of the institutions of that character, both in this country and in England; but Sidersky he recognized as a disciple of Warszawiak, whom he had assisted to depose.

the photographs and started on a trip of investigation to Rosenhayn. He reached there on Tuesday afternoon, and went to the house of a friend of his named Philipowltz, proprietor of a clothing manufactory in that place.

The Deception Exposed.

In the course of the evening he disclosed his mission to his friend, and showed him the photographs. The sight of it produced astonishment in his host, who recognized at once a picture of a group of the children of the public school, taken early last October. In the group he pointed out three of his own children.

Benjamin, after that, lost no time in going to the address of Sidersky, and found that he lodged with a villager named Meyer Cohen. On the outer wall of the house was a sign, describing it as the Emanuel Home Hebrew Mission.

Requesting to see some of the scholars he was informed by the landlord that there had never been any, and that the “missionary” simply hired one room in the house at the nominal rent of $2 monthly. The lodger himself spent not more than three days a week in the room he had. Cohen appeared rather vague in his conception of what the sign on the house really meant.

Could Not Find Sidersky.

Mr. Cohen then visited Captain Kilborn, one of the trustees of the public school,

showed him the photograph and explained the purpose for which he had come. Kilborn, he says, declared that Sidersky had long been under suspicion, but no proof had ever been secured against him. Mr. Benjamin, after his conversation with Kilborn, remained two days longer in Rosenhayn to confront the alleged “missionary” with what he considered proof positive of his moral turpitude, but was unable to find him.

He learned incidentally that a certain Gustavus Cohen had been working in sympathy with Sidersky and advocating his pretended movement for the education of Jewish children in the Christian faith.

His Confidence Misplaced.

So he sat down and wrote to the editor of the Christian Herald the following letter:

1523 Fairmount avenue

Philadelphia Jan. 26, 1899.

Editor of the Christian Herald:

Dear Sir –

I am glad that you have sent Mr. Benjamin to inspect and investigate the mission and work at Rosanhayn. He has done it effectively and I have no doubt of great benefit to me. It will save me being mixed up with a scheme which might have injured my reputation and the position I hold in England besides hindering my work in this country

Mr. Benjamin has carefully and judiciously gone into the question of Jewish missions and missionaries, and I am quite satisfied from his statements, proofs and vast experience that they are conducted in a way not creditable.

I am also pleased with the spirit and disposition Mr. Benjamin displayed in our discussion, although opposed to each other in Christian belief or Jewish thought. I can only say had we more men like him we would have less frauds committed with Jewish or any other missions.

Yours faithfully

Gustavus Cohen

Among other ways of exploiting his scheme, “Missionary” Sidersky had used the press to great effect.

The following is clipped from the Philadelphia Record of Saturday, January 21, and is the false account of a lecture supposed to have been delivered by Cohen, then working with him.

The article is dated Rosenhayn, January 20, and says in part:

Provide a reading room where young Hebrews can congregate and be under influences and surroundings calculated to elevate, instruct and eventually lead them to the light of the Master. For that purpose a mission has been commenced at Rosenhayn, among the Hewbrew colonists who came from Russia, Poland and other parts and were helped by the late Baron Hirsch to till the land and become farmers.

 

Here the newcomer has every facility to improve his mind; here he can study how to become a useful American citizen and get an honest living by industry and perseverance. Here he can form a class for the study of different subjects to qualify and improve his daily calling. He can, after a day’s work, spend a pleasant evening, indulge in healthy recreation, innocent games and feel that there is a wider, a brighter and better world in America, his new home, than in the country he left.

 Profit in the “School.”

Before this, on December 12. 1898, Sldesky had used the Philadelphia Inquirer to the extent of three-quarters of a column in praise of his “mission work.”

“I cannot tell how much money this Sidersky has collected by his fraudulent practices,” said Benjamin yesterday, “but I have reason to believe that it is a good round sum.

“I understand that he has been at this 'mission school' scheme and working it to a largo extent ever since last September at least.

“I made it my business to expose the dealings of the missionary Warszawiak, whose disciple this man is. I shall lose no effort in laying the machinations of all hypocrites open to the public whom they seek to defraud with their lies and false pretence of benevolence.

“I shall lose no effort in laying the machinations of all hypocrites open to the public whom they seek to defraud with their lies and false pretense of benevolence.

“The harm they work is especially great because it discourages the charity of persons who are ready to give to benevolent schemes out of the goodness of their hearts. I shyall leave no stone unturned in bringing all such frauds to light and destroying their power for evil in the future.”

Maria Russell

I hope everyone is well and prospering. 

I have an urgent need for a sample of M. F. Russell's handwriting other than the unpublished manuscript that is sometimes circulated. A letter or card signed by her would be ideal. 

Can you help?

For another project

 I need translations of these two items. Can you help?

I need all issues of this magazine.

 This issue is at Harvard Divinity School Library. I do not have access, and attempts to secure a scan have so far been fruitless. Can you help?

A Mystery

 Can you solve it? How did this get to Jerusalem in 1881?

IBSA Talk Invitations

 I have no real details. These are post-card format. The originals are on ebay for a huge amount of money. If you can add information, please do so.

Daniel W. Hull

 Hull was a Spiritualist who claimed MD and MH degrees. He practiced what is now considered quack medicine. He was a resident of Washington State, occasionally wrote political commentary.

He wrote Letters to Elder Russell, later retitled as A Review of Elder Russell on Spiritism. 

I need a basic biography. More than basic, I need as much information as can be found. Can you help?

Further update

This is what I have now; can you add to it?

Daniel Webster Hull

            Daniel Hull was born in Delaware County, Ohio, on April 16, 1833, to James B. Hull, a physcian, and Mary Brundage. He died August 30, 1915, of prostate complications.[1] Little is known of his early life. His brother Moses recalled the family’s move to The Western Reserve in Indiana in 1839. This was true frontier in the 1830s: “Among my early recollections is that of hearing the wolves howl around my father’s cabin door. There were times when we even had to br4ing our dogs into the house to keep them from being torn to pieces by the wolves.” Their life consisted of “grubbing, chopping and hoeing” with a very limited amount of schooling.[2]

            Census records note that Daniel and his wife Mary S. [maiden name unknown – still researching this marriage] lived in New York State for a period and at least briefly in Pennsylvania. The New York State census for 1892 lists him as a salesman and notes three children, two boys and a girl.[3] Hull was a Civil War veteran, serving as a private. At this writing it is impossible to identify his regiment. There are two Daniel W. Hulls, each drawing a pension for Civil War service. An obituary tells us that he “engaged in the newspaper business in Indiana and Kansas.”[4] Hull and his second wife moved to Olympia, Washington, in 1903.

            Finding a record of his conversion to Spiritualism has been a fruitless quest, but we find him attending a Spiritualist convention in 1871, and he published a seventy-five page pamphlet that year.[5] Entitled Christianity: Its Origin, Nature and Tendency, its “object” was “to prove the pagan origin of Christianity; to do away with the Atonement, and show that heaven is a condition, not a place.” The review from which this is taken added, “the author supports the views of modern Spiritualists.”[6] Though rejecting Christianity as a derivative of pagan thought, he was not averse to using scripture to make a point.[7]

            It is likely that he was converted through contact with his brother, Moses Hall, who abandoned the Seventh-day Adventist ministry for Spiritualism in 1863. Unlike James Padgett who was a charlatan, both Daniel and Moses Hull were honest, serious believers. Hull wrote in response to Russell’s What Say the Scriptures About Spiritualism? Proofs that it is Demonism. Also, Who are the Spirits in Prison, and Why are They There?[8] 

Explaining his purpose in writing, Russell wrote that he though it necessary because of an increasing appeal of Spiritualism. It was, he wrote: “meeting with considerable success ... entrapping Christians who are ... dissatisfied ... and craving spiritual food and a better foundation for faith.” His aim was “to show the unscripturalness of Spiritism, and to point those who hunger and thirst for truth in the direction of God's Word – the counsel of the Most High.”

---

[1]               Washington State Board of Health Death Certificate number 155, file number 8268, registered number 88, dated September 1, 1915. His parents’ names as found in the 1910 United States Census records for Thurston County, Washington State are Marvin and Helen Hull. A family history, which I believe is more accurate, gives the names noted above. – See C. H. Weygant: The Hull family in America, page 100.

[2]               M. Hull and W. F. Jamieson: The Greatest Debate Within a Half Century on Modern Spiritualism, Progressive Thinker Publishing House, Chicago, 1904, page 4.

[3]               1892 New York Census returns for Groton, Tompkins County, New York. The children were Adelbert, 17 years; Harry, 15 years, Mary, 12 years.

[4]               Dr. D. W. Hull, The Olympia, Washington, Washington Standard, September 3, 1915.

[5]               Henry T. Child, M. D.: “American Association. Official Report of the Eighth National Convention of the American Association of Spiritualists; Held at Troy, N. Y., September 12th, 13th, and 14th, 1871,” Religio-Philosophical Journal (Chicago), September 30, 1871.

[6]               Literary Notices, The Phrenological Journal, July 1871, page 73.

[7]            B. J. Folger: “A Great Mass of Incompetent Men”: Contested Medical Frontiers in Oklahoma: 1880-1940, Master’s Thesis, University of Oklahoma, 2022, page 33.

[8]               First published as Old Theology Quarterly No. 39 (October 1897), it also bore the alternative title What Say the Scriptures about Spiritism?

The Strong Man and the Watch Tower

 

Guest post by Bernhard

Edited by Jerome

     Henry Clay Hatch was one of the most prominent Bible Students of Russell's day. He was an elder, pastor, colporteur, pilgrim, convention speaker, member of the Bethel family, Vice-President and Director of the Society, and also a member of the editorial committee. However, few if any know him by this name.

     Henry was born to Irwin James Hatch (born December 20, 1845) and Henrietta G. Pegan. Irwin and Henrietta married on August 11, 1871 and on May 22, 1874 Henry Clay was born in Dowagiac, Michigan. He had one brother Glen. Later his parents were divorced. His mother married again. On July 10, 1888 she married Ira Cradit Rockwell and Henry Clay took on his step-fathers' surname. Sadly Henrietta died in December 31, 1888. Henry Clay stayed with his stepfather as Henry Clay Rockwell

     In his youth, Henry Clay began to engage in physical training. Over time he became a famous athlete, strongman or body builder. He continued to train even after he became a Bible Student, and at the age of 44 (in 1917) he said he could still outclass ninety out of every hundred youngsters of twenty in strength and activity.

     It is unclear when exactly Rockwell became a Bible Student, but it was around 1900, because in 1903/04 he lived in the Bible House, 612 Arch Street, Pittsburgh, and was a member of the Bible House family. After his time in the Bible House Rockwell went into the Pilgrim work in April 1904. The first classes he visited were Buena Vista and Washington in Pennsylvania. At the time Henry Clay was single, but during that year he met Henrietta Francis Duke (Breakey).

     Henrietta was 20 years older than Clay and was a widow. She had been married to John Calhoun Duke on March 21, 1870. She had two sons, Henry and John. She was born in May 1854 in New York and was the daughter of Charles and Eliza Breakey.

     In October 10, 1904 Henry Clay and Henrietta married in Manhattan, New York. Since they now lived in New York Henry Clay became a pastor and elder of the New York class.

     On Tuesday, June 16, 1908 Charles T. Russell appointed him and Isaac Francis Hoskins as a directors of the Watch Tower Society of Pennsylvania. They replaced Vice-President James Hezekiah Giesey and Simon Osborne Blunden. For what reason did Russell choose Rockwell?

     It may be because many members of the Board of Directors were well-known people in local societies, and Rockwell was also well-known.

     The Watch Tower (August 1, 1908) shows that Rockwell‘s wife took “the vow.“ Shortly after that a convention was held in September 1908 in Put-in-Bay and in the photograph below Russell and Rockwell are sitting side by side.

     After Russell moved headquarters from Pittsburgh to Brooklyn, New York, in January 31, 1909, the Rockwells became members of the Bethel family. The lived in 124 Columbia Heights in the former Henry Ward Beecher residence.

     On February 23, 1909, Russell founded the “Peoples Pulpit Association of New York.“ Russell was President, but Henry Clay Rockwell became Vice-President. In the same year Henry toured the northeastern states.

     We find him in a newspaper clipping from June 8, 1913 (The Enquirer, Cincinnati) that shows he was still active in the athletics business: “Passenger Traffic Club - H. Clay Rockwell, General Passenger Agent of the Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern, who is an honorary member of the club, will personally conduct the members and their families.“

     Rockwell was also very busy spreading the Bible Student message. He gave many public talks on different topics in many cities. He was also active in colporteuring. We see him sitting on his bicycle beside the Macmillans on the right side the photo below.

     In 1914 he helped to show the Photo-Drama of Creation. On one occasion Rockwell performed the marriage for Norman William Woodworth with Anna Frances Simler in New Jersey.

     In 1907 Russell wrote his last will and testament and directed that the entire editorial charge of ZION'S WATCH TOWER should be in the hands of “a committee of five brethren, whom I exhort to great carefulness and fidelity to the Truth.“ One of them was Rockwell and we see from this that he was highly regarded by Russell. The document noted:

     The names of the Editorial Committee are as follows:

     WILLIAM E. PAGE,

     WILLIAM E. VAN AMBURGH,

     HENRY CLAY ROCKWELL,

     E. W. BRENNEISEN,

     F. H. ROBISON.

     After Russell‘s death in 1916 William Egbert Page resigned and Joseph Franklin Rutherford became a member of the Committee. But after Rutherford became president of the Watch Tower Society (January 6, 1917) Rockwell resigned from all positions. First he resigned as Vice-President of the Peoples Pulpit Association and on February 8, 1917, he also resigned as director of the Watch Tower Society of Pennsylvania and Robert Henry Hirsh replaced him.

     Henry Clay Rockwell was very close to Russell but at his funeral Rockwell gave no talk. A 1917 report from Paul Johnson shows that Rockwell was at the funeral, where he proposed Johnson as the next president rather than J F Rutherford.

     Shortly afterward, in early 1917, Rockwell left the Brooklyn Bethel family and lived with his wife in 13 Middagh Street, Brooklyn, New York. He not only left the Bethel family but also the Watch Tower Society. Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose (1959), page 73, notes that a rival group was formed in 1918 headed by a “committee of seven.“ Rockwell was part of that committee for a few years before disappearing from any known religious activity.

     On April 21, 1929 his wife Henrietta died in New York. Nine months later Henry Clay married again. On January 24, 1930 he married Pauline Hermine Stutz, who was born 1885 in Switzerland. But the marriage lasted only a few months. In July 1930 Pauline also died. Within 15 months he lost two wives. At this time he was working as a Truck driver for the Wholesale Linoleum Company.

     Henry Clay Rockwell died on February 24, 1950 in Islip, Suffolk, New York and was buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in New York, Lot 2205, Section 86, alongside Pauline Hermine.

Oscar strikes again...

 

From the Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) for February 17, 1935

San Francisco Call, October 7, 1908

 Can we elaborate on this event?

San Luis Obispo, California, Tribune -1896

 I need basic biography of O. A. Florey. Can we find his full name. Does he appear in the Watch Tower? Any information will be helpful.

Update

Oscar Allen Florey was born in Illinois July 31, 1869, and died in Butte, California on July 25, 1946. He married January 20, 1900, Alma O Porter. She was a Canadian. The 1910 Census lists him as a minister and her as a missionary. By the 1920 Census Alma is gone and Oscar is living with his aged father, still listed as a religious worker. The 1930 Census lists him as Gospel Worker - Colporteur. In 1930 his is boarding in an apartment house.

In 1908 he was a delegate to the Prohibition Party state convention.

I could use more information. Does he show up on Watchtower magazines post 1916?

From The Phrenological Era

The following short article appeared in a 1914 issue of The Phrenological Era. It's editor often opposed Russell. Note that he focuses on Russell's 'exposure' of contemporary clergy. I am, as you know, without a research assistant. If you wish to help, please find examples of Russell's comments on clergy.

The article:

THE LAST SQUEAL! - By a copy of "the Bible Students Monthly," dateless, sent us, we note that “Pastor Russell” charged the clergy of the various denominations of Christendom with conspiracy against him. We do not so understand it. They simply denounce his rotten doctrines. He has many critics and opponents out of the churches--men of brains who see he is leading a lot of simple-minded people into ruinous notions by his wily play on words. It is the old resort of mountebanks, when caught in their tricks, to cry "liars and lies." If his teachings had a semblance of reason in them, and his known conduct aside from his pretensions to piety comported with common decency, the ministers of our land would welcome him as a brother. Russell has slung med at the ministry, vaunted himself like a peacock above them, taken water, etc., etc., and now in the last ditch yells "conspiracy." No wonder good people, regardless of church affiliation, are down on such a hypocritical Bible twister. “How to Go into the Silence.”

J. B. Palmer on Reading Millennial Dawn

 

QUESTION. Have you read Pastor Russell's “Millenium Dawn Books''?

ANSWER. Yes. I have them in my library. The author is not afraid of new ideas. He wants to look into them. Pastor Russell spoke to class ensembles here at our institution during his life time, which is further evidence, if needs be, that every man has a right to be heard and the listener has a right to properly place a valuation upon what he hears. 

1953 Convention

 I was there. Were you?

I need help downloading this

 To download the booklet I've linked to below requires access to a participating library or university. I no longer have access to any of that. If you have institutional access, please download this for me. Attach it to file transfer and send it to me, please.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015010777111&view=1up&seq=14

I no longer need this. Thanks to all who helped.

New Review Separate Identity vol. 1

Straight unbiased verifiable facts and context are the keys to a great history book. And this book delivers. As others have said, the scholarship and amount of research that went into this project is astounding. One thing it taught me was to not look at history from a modern day lens, but to put yourself in someone’s shoes who lived at that time. Things make much more sense when that is done.

Anyway, 5 stars and can’t wait to read volume 2.

Otto Roesch

End Chapter

 I'm writing this out of order, as I often do. I write based on the documents I have. They do not all come to me in a nice order. The last chapter is more analytical than usual. It's a summary of the main points of the S. I. series. So, here's a portion. I'm writing about those spiritualist influenced by Russell and the degree of secondary influence that accrued from their writing. Do you have anything to add?

The Intellectuals

 

            None of those we consider here were intellectuals, of course. They or someone else saw them that way, and I’ve obligingly listed them as such.

 I.

The Spiritualists 

            When Food for Thinking Christians was published, one of the first to publish a critique was William White, the editor of The Psychological Review.[1] [continue] 

William Augustus Redding 

            Redding [November 12, 1850 – October 31, 1931], was a Pennsylvania-born lawyer practicing in Philadelphia, New York City and elsewhere. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1876 and served in the state House of Representatives from 1884-1886, not running for reelection at the expiration of the term. He was a respected patent attorney, though he wasn’t averse to making unsustainable claims. In 1916 he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. Though married as a Quaker he became a spiritualist and a close associate of Ernest Loomis, a Spiritualist writer and publisher. Redding was a prolific author, writing on prophetic themes. Though scarcely admitting it, Redding was heavily influence by Russell’s writing.

            Much of Redding’s writing mirrors that of other 19^th Century Premillennialists, and occasionally one can find – at least in my opinion – an insightful comment on a Bible verse or narrative. If the Spiritualist elements were omitted Redding’s work would join the large list of 19th Century students of prophecy who believed they had solved the problem of end-times numbers. As did Russell, Redding believed he had an important message and that he was if not the prime divinely appointed messenger, at least one of the most important. Redding pointed to 1896 as the end of Gentile times but extended affairs to 1914 on the same basis as did Russell.[2] Without other evidence we could not say that he was influenced by Watch Tower theology in this. Others pointed to 1913-1918, and more specifically 1914 as the end of Gentile Times using the familiar count of 2520 years from an ancient even to modern times.[3]

            But Redding takes us to Russell’s influence in his Mysteries Unveiled: The Hoary Past Comes Forward with Astonishing Messages for the Prophetic Future.

---

[1]               William White was a member of The New Church (Swedenborgian). We have no biography beyond that. The Psychological Review was published by Edward W. Allen. As with W. White, there is little reliable biography for Allen. He was a member of New Church (Swedenborgian) and published one of its journals. He also edited or published at various times The Spiritualist Newspaper, Spiritual Notes and The Spiritual Record, and The Psychological Review.

[2]               Our Near Future: A Message to All the Governments and People of Earth, page 25.

[3]               Among those who pointed to 1914 or years near it were Elliott [Horae, vol. 4, pages 104, 237-238]; Henry Grattan Guinness [Approaching End of the Age]; Blanton Duncan [Near Approach] pointed to 606-607 B.C. as the start of the 2520 years which were to end in 1913-1914. See page 15. W. H. Coffin [The Millennium of the Church, 1843] Dated Gentile times from 606 B.C. to 1914, see page 42.  Richard Gascoyne suggested 1914 as a possible date. [Calendar of Prophecy] The list is long and we need not continue it.

                Various writers used a supposed Great Pyramid measurement to derive the 1914 date. While Russell used Pyramid measures as an adjunct, he did not base his belief on them. Pyramid enthusiasts still point to 1914.

Marr Murray

 

I need a basic biography of Marr Murray, an novelist and prophetic student c. 1910-1920. Can you help?