Jonas
Wendell in August 1868
Photograph
restored by Bernhard and reproduced with permission.
Most readers will
be familiar with the name Jonas Wendell. CTR recounted how his interaction with
him helped re-establish his faith in the Bible.
Wendell was an
evangelist for the Advent Christian Church and aspects of his history have been
covered before on this blog, particularly in
https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-trials-of-jonas.html
Jonas’
evangelising work in Pittsburgh was spread over several years. CTR was a young man,
still a teenager by today’s nomenclature, when he started on his religious
journey after contact with Wendell.
It was written up
by CTR on at least two occasions.
First, in the
supplement issued with the first issue of Zion’s
Watch Tower sent TO THE READERS OF THE HERALD OF THE MORNING and dated June
1879:
“I have been a Bible student
since I first had my attention called to the second coming of our Lord, by Jonas
Wendell, a Second Advent Preacher, about 1869, who was then preaching the
burning of the world as being due in 1873. But though he first awakened my
interest on the subject, I was not a convert, either to the time he suggested
nor to the events he predicted.”
Years later, he
expanded on this in the booklet A
Conspiracy Exposed and Harvest Siftings (1894), page 95 (Special edition of
Zion’s Watch Tower for 25 April 1894):
“Among other theories, I stumbled
upon Adventism. Seemingly by accident, one evening I dropped into a dusty,
dingy hall, where I had heard religious services were held, to see if the
handful who met there had anything more sensible to offer than the creeds of
the great churches.
There, for the first time, I
heard something of the views of Second Adventists from the preacher, Mr. Jonas
Wendell, long since deceased. Though his Scripture exposition was not entirely
clear, and though it was very far from what we now rejoice in, it was
sufficient, under God, to re-establish my wavering faith in the divine
inspiration of the Bible, and to show
that the records of the apostles and prophets are indissolubly linked. What I
heard sent me to my Bible to study with more zeal and care than ever before.”
So CTR believed
that it was “seemingly by accident” that, about 1869, he dropped into a meeting
that Jonas was conducting.
While we don’t
know exactly when this happened, there were lots of opportunities for this to
happen starting in 1869, and several of these received some publicity. And
there would be others in Pittsburgh and Allegheny who would make a conscious
choice to visit due to the level of promotion Jonas and others achieved.
Let’s examine
what we know about Jonas’ activities in Pittsburgh.
The first known
mention of Jonas in Pittsburgh in available records is a speaking assignment on
Friday, 1 January 1869. Below is from The World’s Crisis for 23 December
1868.
Events moved
quickly. Six weeks later, Jonas was writing to The World’s Crisis with
the results of his preaching campaign. The letter was dated 10 February,
although not published by the paper until 17 March 1869. Starting with just six
interested persons, there were now over thirty in attendance, and regular
meetings were to be started.
The full letter
gives an example of one of Jonas’ main strategies. He challenged a local
minister to a debate on conditional immortality. The Methodist minister
accepted but then backed out.
The regular
meetings were advertised in the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette for a number
of weeks, and after a couple of one-off locations, settled down on Sunday, 14
February at Quincy Hall. This was the
former Soldiers’ League Room and Library, on Leacock Street, just around the
corner from Federal Street in Allegheny. It was hired out to various groups,
both religious and political, and became a “go-to” venue for groups without
their own dedicated meeting place. The ACC was still using this venue for
meetings over ten years later.
In the example
reproduced below from the Gazette for 20 March 1869, the meetings were
not just on Sunday, but also on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings.
These notices ran
from January through to the end of March. Subjects Wendell covered included:
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The certainty of Christ’s coming
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The necessity of Christ’s coming
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The time of Christ’s coming
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New Birth
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Rich Man and Lazarus
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The Eighth of Daniel
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Prophecy
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The Church waiting
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Evidence of Discipleship
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The Christian Hope
True Worship of God
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Our near proximity to the end
The Eighth of Daniel and our near
proximity to the end
Most
advertisements ended with a short slogan. These included “Seats free and no collection”
– a phrase used to very good effect by CTR himself in time to come – and “An
opportunity for asking questions on the subjects will be allowed.” The latter
would no doubt be a huge selling point for anyone with an enquiring mind like
CTR’s.
Although Wendell moved his ministry elsewhere
after the end of March, the effects remained. The Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette
for 12 May 1869 carried a letter from someone who claimed to be a minister and
who hid behind the pseudonym ANIMA. The issue was conditional immortality.
The letter is
reproduced below.
A local man, John A Best, immediately fired back in the Gazette for 13 May.
Best’s address
identifies him from trade directories as a Pittsburgh grocer. His challenge
involving money was a familiar one, and as far as conditionalists were
concerned, without risk. There was no apparent follow-up dialog in the
newspaper.
Jonas was back in
Pittsburgh in 1870.
A series of
advertised meetings at Quincy Hall is found in the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette
and The Pittsburgh Commercial, all featuring Jonas. They start in March
and run through to the end of May 1870, although there may have been missed
weeks when he was back home in Edinboro. The first advertisement gives some
details of his message for 1870. From the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette for
12 February 1870:
It may be noted
that there were to be three meetings on the Sunday, and then they would
continue “during the week.”
A similar notice
appeared in The Pittsburgh Commercial of the same date.
Some days later in the Gazette,
Jonas laid down his usual challenge to debate the subject of conditional
immortality. Someone writing on his behalf provided the invitation. From the
Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette for 23 February 1870:
There was a delay
of about two weeks, and then someone took Jonas up on his challenge. From the Pittsburgh
Weekly Gazette for 8 March 1870:
Bacon was the
pastor of the Pittsburgh Universalist Church. Jonas shot back immediately. From
the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette for 9 March 1870:
The local man,
John Best, sent a notice to The World’s Crisis for the larger ACC
fellowship who might travel into Allegheny to hear the debate. From the Crisis
for 9 March 1870
It was typical of
the time that the discussion was to “continue for one week, or longer if
thought best.”
It is a shame that no record
seems to exist of how this 1870 debate went. These types of meetings were
widely advertised and served as a means of attracting a diverse audience to the
ACC message. At some point, these would include George Darby Clowes, a
Methodist preacher who would eventually become the group’s “under-shepherd”
(and whose obituary was in Zion’s Watch Tower for March 1889) and
William and Sarah Conley, who were called “Brother and Sister” in the
fellowship as early as 1871 (see The World’s Crisis for 3 January 1872).
Conley would later become the first President of Zion’s
Watch Tower Society.
Jonas continued preaching
through April and May 1870, and his regular notices in The Pittsburgh
Commercial carried the homily: “Come and we will try and do you good.” An
advertisement in the Pittsburgh Gazette for 30 April 1870 noted that, as
well as Elder Wendell, “Elder Himes of Michigan would ‘preach the Word’” at
Quincy Hall on 1 May. We assume this was either Joshua V Himes, then editor of
the Advent Christian Times, or his son, William L Himes.
Jonas then appears to have been
elsewhere after May, but the Quincy Hall meetings continued. There is an
advertisement for services now conducted by John T Ongley in the Crisis
for 7 December 1870, related to preaching in January 1871.
In March 1871, the group
temporarily moved from Quincy Hall to a new location, and the same John T
Ongley sent out an invitation to Jonas Wendell to visit. From the Advent
Christian Times for 28 March 1871:
Wendell obviously responded at
some point, because the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette has him back in April,
and also later in the year, in November, and on both occasions back in Quincy
Hall. According to the Gazette for 4 November 1871, Quincy Hall was
“their church,” and the meetings started on the Sunday would continue into the
evening during the week.
At the end of 1871 Wendell moved
on, to be replaced in Pittsburgh by George Stetson. CTR was to speak highly of
Stetson and was ultimately asked to conduct his funeral in 1879. The changeover
can be seen in several issues of the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette and its
Quincy Hall advertisements in late 1871.
The last reference
to mention Wendell on his own at Quincy Hall was the Gazette for 4
November 1871. Then the next week, he and Stetson shared the platform.
Then, in the
paper for 9 December 1871, it is just Dr Stetson.
This links up
with a letter Stetson wrote, as published in the Advent Christian Times
for 27 August 1872, where he said it was “now ten months since I was called and
came to Pittsburg, Pa. to labor.”
Wendell wrote up
these events himself in a letter to The World’s Crisis for 27 December
1871 (letter dated 6 December):
Wendell and
Stetson were close friends and had often worked together. They both shared
Edinboro as a home base at times.
Wendell’s letter
commented on issues the Pittsburgh group faced, and stated his intention to be
back with them in early 1872. It also commented on George Clowes being invited
to serve as under-shepherd.
A year later, in
November 1872, Clowes’ position was firmed up when he was ordained to the
ministry of the Advent Christian Church. Wendell came back to Pittsburgh to
participate in the event. The Advent Christian Times Editorial
Gleanings for 17 December 1872 noted that:
“Br. G.D. Clowes was ordained to
the work of the ministry by Elders Wendell and E. McCullock last month. Bro.
Clowes is a man that is highly esteemed, and respected, and has been a local
preacher in the M.E. church, for a number of years. We think he will be an
efficient labourer in the cause of truth.”
The previous week
(Advent Christian Times for 4 December 1872) noted that this was at the
invitation of George Stetson.
Clowes would
continue to conduct Advent Christian Church meetings at least until the end of
1879, by which time CTR’s separate ministry and Zion’s Watch Tower
magazine was active. Although Clowes was not cited by CTR as a special
influence, and ZWT never mentioned his meetings, he did get a short obituary in
Zion’s Watch Tower. In the issue for March 1889, CTR responded to a
letter from his father, J L Russell:
"On Jan'y 25th our dear Brother Clowes, with whom some of our readers were acquainted, having heard him preach the word of truth at various points near Pittsburgh, passed away full of triumphant faith and glorious hope."
Returning to
Wendell and his participation in Clowes’ ordination, after that November 1872 visit
to Pittsburgh he appears to have gone back home to Edinboro. Around the same
time or shortly thereafter, Stetson did the same. When Jonas planned to go on
further travels in 1873, Stetson accepted the pastorate of the Edinboro church,
starting on 1 May 1873. (Letter from Jonas Wendell in World’s Crisis for
23 April 1873). But then unexpectedly Jonas died after an accident in the
August. Stetson conducted the funeral service (Letter from Stetson in the Crisis
for 20 August 1873). Following on from that, Stetson was to remain as pastor of
the Edinboro church for the last six years of his life.
Jonas Wendell had
been a frequent visitor to Pittsburgh over the four year period 1869-1872. His
first meeting with CTR obviously made an impression on the latter, as was
freely acknowledged, and the same was true for the ministry of his successor,
George Stetson. As to how often Wendell and CTR met up and discussed their diverging
paths thereafter, we can only speculate.
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