The National Labor Tribune, Oppy, and CTR's funeral

 

     The National Labor Tribune, published in Pittsburgh, was a supporter of the ministry of CTR from at least 1905, when they started publishing his sermons. The Bible Student content grew until the paper became a rival of the St Paul Enterprise. While the Enterprise became fully given over to Bible Student matters, even resulting in a change of title to the New Era Enterprise in December 1919, the Tribune still retained its position as a newspaper. Still, there were regular sermons from CTR, and eventually regular contributions from other Bible Students. This has solved at least one mystery. The book below was published in 1918 by J A Oppy (and modern reprints are available from various print on demand sources).

     Who was he? Checking the pages of the Tribune, Oppy was an elder of the Siloam Springs class of Arkansas, and regularly contributed material to its columns.

     The above was a series started in the 16 November 1916 issue, which provoked a debate with J A Bohnet in succeeding numbers.

     But it identified Oppy as a Bible Student elder.

     John Amandus Oppy was born in 1847, and converted to the Bible Student message around 1912 according to the article MISTAKES in the Tribune for 4 January 1917. He lived until 1931. The census return for 1910 describes him as a farmer, the 1920 census as having no occupation and his death certificate from 1931 as a minister. A newspaper advertisement for his book, actually lists two authors, J A and A B Oppy. From the Fairbury Blade (Illinois) for 10 January 10 1919:

     Abraham Briggs Oppy (1841-1920) was John’s older brother.

     However, by the time the book was published in 1918, the Oppys had left “mainstream” Bible Student thought. In it they calls CTR “a well meaning man” (page 27) but criticise his “blind followers” (page 69) for not recognising their (Oppy) truth – that while the Gentile Times had ended in 1914, the Kingdom was not to be fully established until 1945 – specifically on September 20^th and even more specifically, at 10 o’clock in the morning. At that point the marriage of the Lamb would occur with the first resurrection (page 56). Yet before that point was reached, literal Israel “will become the head nation on the earth, the earthly phase of God’s Kingdom” (page 75). And returning to page 69, “The Turk will (have been) driven out of Palestine, and the Jewish people restored there. The Temple will be rebuilt, in all its glory and grandeur, and Jerusalem become the grand metropolis of the world.”

     I don’t think added comment or analysis is called for.

     But I digress...

     The Tribune for 16 November 1916 published its own funeral report for CTR. While not as extensive as those in the Enterprise and in the special 1 December 1917 memorial edition of the Watch Tower, it does provide a few extra photographs that have not, as yet, appeared elsewhere.

     Here are close ups of four pictures, three from the cutting above and one from the next issue of 23 November 1916.

     Note that one picture has the number 8 on it. This was part of a set of eighteen photographs sold through the rival Enterprise paper for a number of weeks in late 1916, available from the George T Nichols studio or direct from N E Nelson. The picture of Bohnet and Nelson at the grave was number 1 in this series, and the picture of young Margaret Nelson at the graveside was number 17. Margaret (1903-1983) would grow up to marry a dentist, Dr Lenhart, and raise a family in the greater Pittsburgh area.

     Regrettably, the reproduction of the photographs is poor, because they are taken from newsprint that is well over one hundred years old, and only from microfilm copies rather than originals. Sadly the actual prints have not as yet surfaced, and at this late date it is unlikely they ever will, although one can always hope.

     We note that two of the photographs feature members of the Nelson family. Nels Edward Nelson was highly committed to the Tribune, and more about his history and involvement in the paper can be found on this link: 

https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2025/09/nels-edward-nelson-guest-article-by.html

     Following CTR’s funeral, the Tribune continued to publish material for Bible Students and those interested in their message, for example serialising THE DIVINE PLAN OF THE AGES throughout 1917. And many will be familiar with the special issues devoted to campaigning for the release of J F Rutherford and his associates in 1918-1919. From the special 27 March 1919, number:

Can we put a date to this

 

If our Blog Readers can help with this, it would be amazing

From an Italian Historian of Watch Tower Faith

Question: among the many individuals identified and studied during the research phase, there is one particular name that is still missing: FRANK FERRARA (possibly Ferraro or Ferrari), whose Italian name may have been Franco or Francesco.

 

He appears to have been an Italian immigrant to the United States (???), residing in New York, N.Y., at 520 E. 118th St. He was married and apparently had no children.

 

According to the information collected so far, Frank Ferrara had been a Catholic friar/religious brother in Italy for approximately 25 years. He subsequently left the religious life and emigrated to the United States (???), where he became a Bible Student and was reportedly very close to the Bethel circles of that period.

 

However, on December 10, 1939, while travelling by automobile with two fellow Italian-born associates, Salvatore Raimondo, who was driving, and Cesare Pucci, all residents of New York, N.Y., they were involved in a tragic automobile accident in New Haven, Connecticut. Both Frank Ferrara and Cesare Pucci died in the accident.

 

The accident was reported by the local newspapers in New Haven, Connecticut. The case subsequently went to court. On April 10, 1940, Salvatore Raimondo was acquitted of the charges relating to responsibility for the accident and was released on $150.00 bail. This latter piece of information was also reported in the local New Haven newspapers.

 

My request, therefore, is to identify Frank Ferrara with certainty, in order to investigate his life in greater depth and, in particular, to reconstruct his history in Italy before his emigration to the United States, using reliable Italian sources and documentation.

 

I hope that someone may be able to provide me with reliable and documented information about Frank Ferrara, so that I can further investigate and reconstruct his story in Italy as well.

 

Thank you in advance for any information, archival references, bibliographical sources, or documentation that may help identify him.

 

Pace Emanuele – Historian

 

P.S. Please send me the link to the page on your blog where the question will be posted, so I can follow it for any answers, if there are any.Thank you.

Roberto

 Roberto was blog editor here for some years until health issues took him away from this blog other than as a reader. He has since died. He was a faithful friend.

The Curious Case of the Errant Envelope

     

     Many documents written by or signed by well-known people from the past circulate among collectors of Watchtower memorabilia. In this post, we'll look at a personal letter Charles Taze Russell wrote to his wife in 1882. The letter, along with its envelope, is reproduced with permission.

     Much can be learned from the envelope, which suggests several stories. It is appears below.

     

     The letter was written from New York, and the postmark shows it was mailed on 12 October 1882.

     The official return address shows this stationery came from the office of Zion’s Day Star, 1159 Broadway, New York. The official notepaper used for the actual letter gave this address and added that A. D. Jones was the editor and publisher.

     Jones had been one of the original contributors to Zion’s Watch Tower. He’d worked at one of CTR’s stores, and the two men had been close friends. When Jones married (for the first time out of several), CTR attended the wedding in Pittsburgh and served as an usher. The event was written up in The Portsmouth Times (Ohio) on 9 January 1878:   

With a little help from AI:

     

     The two men shared a theological bond and also had business interests together. Jones moved to New York and opened a shirt store, and also started a companion magazine to ZWT. Jones’ paper was called Zion’s Day Star. It started with CTR’s blessing, and in the October/November 1881 issue of ZWT CTR gave Jones’ venture his “best wishes.”

     The date on the envelope is significant because by this time CTR and Jones were falling out theologically. After the initial good wishes, the March 1882 ZWT printed a friendly “word from Bro. A.D. Jones of Zion’s Day Star.” But then the September 1882 ZWT showed a rift appearing. In the article THE BODY, THE BRIDE OF CHRIST, CTR mentioned the Day Star by name and wrote: “This is out of harmony with the views presented by our brethren.”

     The next month CTR was in New York and obviously met with Jones because he used his business notepaper to write to Maria. Whatever discussions they had didn’t resolve the issues, and in the December ZWT CTR formally warned his readers about Jones in the article AN UNPLEASANT DUTY. It started:

“Less than a year ago, and frequently since, we warmly commended to our readers a publication called Zion’s Day Star. This we now regret.”

     Returning to the envelope, underneath the official address for ZION’S DAY STAR, CTR wrote by hand his own return address:

101 Fifth Ave
Pittsburgh, Pa.

     Newspaper advertisements for 1881 show this as the official address for Russell’s Shirt House, but was also now used as the official address for ZWT.

     Underneath the return address, CTR wrote the details of the addressee.

 

Mrs. C. T. Russell

Care  Mrs M A Fink

# 57 Macomb Ave

Detroit

     Macomb Ave exists in Detroit, but there are no Finks there in the 1880 census. However, the name Mrs M A Fink does exist in the 1882 directory for Detroit. There we find Mary A Fink, widow of David Fink, living at 32 Macomb Street. (We will return to the discrepancy in the house number shortly).

     Mary is listed as “h” = householder.

    

     The same directory entry gives two other Finks at the same address as “bds” = boarders. They are:

Fink Leon C., chemist Parke, Davis & Co., bds 32 Macomb ave.

Fink, Wm., agt Union News Co., bds 32 Macomb ave

     These are Mary’s two sons. They both had biographies in The Book of Detroiters, edited by Albert Nelson Marquis (1908). From this, we can reconstruct that Mrs M A Fink was originally Mary Ann Fitzsimmons (1837-1909). She married David Finck (1830-1864) in 1852 (note spelling of surname). David and Mary lived in Syracuse, NY, and had three children: William Muir (b.1854), a daughter, Luella (b.1857), and Leon Christian (b.1859).

     William moved from New York to Detroit in 1876 and went into business with an Uncle Fitzsimmons. Widow Mary and son Leon moved to Detroit shortly after the 1880 census, and by 1882 she and the two boys were together at Macomb Avenue.

     There is no indication found anywhere of how Mary entered the Bible Student fold, or how long she stayed there. CTR’s letter calls her “Sister Fink.” There are no references to Fink or Finck in the early ZWTs.

     What is notable is that the street number on the envelope appears to be incorrect. The directory puts Mrs M A Fink at number 32 whereas CTR addresses her at number 67. She may, of course, have temporarily moved house along the same street, although it may simply be that 67 is a mistake. She is at number 32 Macomb Avenue in all the directories over 1881­-1884, before moving elsewhere in Detroit in 1885. The number 67 and the rest of the reference to “care (of) Mrs M A Fink” on the envelope appear to have lines struck through them. This might suggest “Return to Sender.” To coin a phrase from Elvis Presley:

     Return to sender

     Address unknown

     No such number

     No such zone

     If this was the case then the letter would have ended its journey at 101 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh.

     After extracting the above from the envelope, the actual four-page letter it contained comes across as something of an anticlimax. It is reproduced below, followed by a transcript and comments.

     Transcript – CTR’s underlining and strike-through corrections are preserved.

ZION'S DAY STAR,
ISSUED MONTHLY,
NO. 1159 BROADWAY,
Corner 27th Street.

A. D. JONES, Editor and Publisher.

New York, Oct 12th 1882

Mr. C. T. Russell
care

Mrs. M. A. Fink

My dear wife

Yours came promptly this morning (written Tuesday).

I am glad to know of your welfare but sorry that your head troubles you so much. I fear it results from your long fast & I now recommend that you put a light lunch in your pocket before starting on a journey.

I write now especially to propose that you stop on your way home at Mercer Pa. Bro. Adamson specially requested that you visit there. Also it might be advisable if possible to go to Titusville Pa. Both places are on your route.

You had better seek Sister Adamson at Mercer & brother Williams, a drayman, [?] at Titusville.

I have written to Sister Long to send you the lists of those two places and for her to write to prominent ones in each place Mercer announcing that you will visit them & be at Mercer & also at Titusville.

She will send the list of Mercer names to you at Mercer Mercer Co. Pa. so that on arrival you can go to P.O and get list, & then find the friends (mostly sisters.)

Regarding time of going, I leave that entirely with yourself. Saturday Monday I would think preferable.

You had perhaps better not visit Titusville unless an invitation comes to you from there at Mercer.

Buy your ticket in Detroit for Pittsburgh via "Lawrence junction". I think that the proper place to change cars for Mercer will be at "New Castle Pa." or "Lawrence junction.” I think the latter but Ticket agt. can tell you positively.

Do not get a limited ticket — as you may stop several days at Mercer and Titusville.

Should you conclude not to go to Mercer you may buy a limited ticket which will be cheaper.

Give my love to all the dear friends — especially Sister Fink.

Be of good courage & make full proof of the ministry and of a spirit of Christ.

God bless you richly & refresh you & cause you to refresh others.

Yours truly — Your husband

C. T. Russell

[written diagonally across the lower right]

Excuse hasty scribble

 

      In addition to “Sister Fink” the letter mentions Bro and Sis Adamson, Bro Williams and Sis Long. Adamson’s ministry in Mercer is noted in ZWT May 1882 (reprints page 346):

“Bro. Adamson is holding some very successful, and we trust profitable meetings in Mercer county, Pa.”

     

     As already noted, we do not know how Mary came into the Bible Student fold or how long she stayed there.

    

     It is quite remarkable that the letter, along with its original envelope, has somehow survived for well over 140 years.

The Campgrounds

 Second Advent Campgrounds. Barbour, Russell, and Adams all preached here. As they were about 1910

Research help

 On of our blog readers whom I often rely on for difficult research help feels that I've asked too much with a current research need. And it does require patience and persistence.

I do not have access to Ancestry.com and, as things are now, I cannot afford it. Ancestry has a digital copy of Paxton's history of the Link family. 

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/19776

It is otherwise available through interlibray loan, also for a prohibitive amount. 

It is searchable on ancestry and individual pages can be copied, though the book cannot be downloaded. 

If you're willing to volunteer I need page by page results for the search terms "Stover" and "Brethren."

I know this is asking much. Hopefully one of you is willing to volunteer.