Not Satisfactory ...

Here's an excerpt from a new chapter. This is not making me happy. Not at all. We need to identify these people. If you want to help, this is a good way. Put first names to the last names in this section .... This is rough draft.

New Workers

            It is impossible to name everyone who showed interest or who became an adherent. There are, however, interesting comments that lead us to some sound conclusions. Many of the names we run across are those of Age-to-Come/One Faith believers. Russell said some of his readers had been Second Adventists. Edward Payson Woodward, whom we met in Nelson Barbour: The Millennium’s Forgotten Prophet as chairman of the Worchester Conference and found in sympathy with Barbour, wrote that several of his “personal friends … accepted Mr. Russell as their Leader and spiritual Guide.” He too read Millennial Dawn (later Studies in the Scriptures), but rejected it.[1] Many more came from mainline Churches. New workers entered the field almost with the first issue of Zion’s Watch Tower, but we are left with scant documentation. Despite our best and persistent efforts we cannot identify most of them.

“Brother and Sister McCormack”

Apparently well-known to Watch Tower readers, the McCormacks are mentioned once. In July 1882, Russell noted that they were moving to Chicago:

The Chicago friends will be glad to know that Bro. McCormack is about to remove there. Chicago is a good field, and our Brother and his wife remove there in the hope of being used by the Master for the blessing of the household of faith, by disseminating the truth. When he calls on you, receive him well –he is a brother in Christ. Let meetings be commenced at once, and the Lord bless you.[2]

            Though we lose sight of the McCormacks afterward, we don’t lose sight of the work in Chicago. Street witnessing with Food for Thinking Christians produced fruitage. Someone wrote to Russell in 1884 expressing his gratitude for the booklet. He believed it reformed him:

Having picked up one of your little books on the street, called “Food for Thinking Christians,” and “Why Evil was Permitted,” I became deeply interested in it. It seems very good for thinking sinners as well as Christians. I am a reformed man now, having been down in the gutter many a time through intoxicating drink, though I have not tasted any now for over a year, may God help me to keep from it. Having just read the little book, I see that you will send others, and by so doing you will oblige me. I would like to lead a better life, and become a Christian. I cannot see fully into the reality of religion, but may the Lord open my heart and eyes to the great love he has for them that fear him. I will try to make good use of anything you send.[3]

            A few months previously, Russell printed a letter from a newly interested person who reported that he and his wife were dissatisfied with denominational teachings. They wanted to circulate tracts:

You will permit me, though a stranger, to say that I have received knowledge for both head and heart that years of searching had failed to accomplish, and so with the hope of seeing others freed from sectarian darkness, I, too, will be glad to be counted among those who are helping to distribute the meat in due season. I know whom I trust now, thanks be to God. The “Food”, came just when I had lost hold, because there was nothing to hold me in the churches – for I searched Baptist, Methodist, Free Methodist, Congregational and Presbyterian denominations till I became satisfied that the Lord had something better for me to find: Then “Food” came – it seemed accidentally – but now I see it was providentially. Let me heartily thank you – or rather thank God for giving you the ability to open the way to the light. Great is the surrounding darkness and we are desirous to have others see their way clearly. If you can send us some reading matter, we can drop it into good soil. A dear old child of God left our house in great sorrow and perplexity of mind last Sunday evening. He has been a deacon in the Baptist church for thirty years. Said he, “O, I have studied these matters until I just find, that the more I give my mind to these things the less I know; and now I just know nothing and have made up my mind to let it go, for God will bring it out all right; and what can I do but wait Gods own good time. When we get over there, we will see face to face.” I endeavored to persuade him to expect the mystery to be explained. Said he: “O bring me anything. I want the best the Lord gives. I know God is love and I hate this “Hell doctrine!” The minister in a little church here is in a quandary: he is a thinking man, only he is in the “iron bedstead.” Please send reading matter, if possible, – these two at least feel their need.[4]

            An unnamed but persistent worker sent a brief note in April 1886, enclosing a subscription payment. The note makes it clear that he had been working in the poorer neighborhoods: “It is encouraging to know that among the lowly houses there are ears to hear.” When printing the note, Russell omitted the signature.[5]

The Lady Canvasser

            A notice appeared in the Monongahela, Pennsylvania, Daily Republican of May 7, 1887, saying that, “The lady canvasser of the book ‘Millennial Dawn,’ wishes to announce to the subscribers that the book will not be delivered until the 20th of the month of May, or a little later, as the first edition of the book has been entirely exhausted. About the 20th, she will be in the city to deliver the books.” We do not know who this was. In the November 1883, Watch Tower, Russell named “sisters” Raynor and Vogel as exemplary colporteurs. Vogel’s first name appears to be Catherine. She continued in the work into the 1890s, working with a Helena Boehmer in eastern Pennsylvania.[6] Laura J. Raynor (1839-1917) was Maria Russell’s older sister and a widow. (Henry Raynor, her husband, died in 1873.) Her active ‘ministry’ seems to have been short-lived.

Others

           Also active in late 1883 were “Brothers” Van der Ahe, Cain, Grable, and Hughes. We know almost nothing about them, not even their first names. In 1887, Russell mentions “Brothers” Marting, van Hook, Gillis, Myers, Bryan, Cobb, Blundin, Hickey, and Bowman.

Blundin and Hickey we profile in more appropriate places. M. C. Van Hook was active in the American Midwest. He filled in for Josephus Perry Martin while Martin preached near Miamisburg, Ohio. He was still active in 1892, working with Samuel Leigh and William H. Deming in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky. Russell described them as “earnest and faithful and are blessed and a blessing wherever they go.”[7] He was working in Indiana in 1894. We lose sight of him afterward. And we do not know his full name.[8]

Myers is an unknown. Several Myers appear in latter issues of the Watch Tower. None of them seem to have been active in this period. Marting and Cobb are also unknowns. There are two possibilities for “Brother Cobb.” A poem by N. B. Cobb appeared in the June 1881, Watch Tower, and a brief note praising The Plan of the Ages was signed by a J. Cobb. It appears in the October 1886 issue.[9] We have but on sample of Cobb’s work, preserved in a letter to Russell printed in the June 1888 Tower. Sent from D. M. Lee, a Baptist minister in Reynolds County, Missouri, it records Cobb’s work with sample issues of Zion’s Watch Tower:

Please indulge me, a little. I had a copy of “zion's watch tower” (Oct. 1886) handed me the other day by Mr. Cobb. I am wonderfully well pleased with it. It has brought certain strange things to my eyes, that I have been for years desiring to look into. I have toiled many long years as a minister under the Baptist banner. The more I study the Scriptures, and the better I understand Baptist Theology and discipline, the less I esteem them.

For years I have fought the palpable, absurd and inconsistent doctrine of eternal punishment. I am now 71 years old and unable to work; but thank God, I can talk yet, if I can't work; and when I speak, I wish to speak the truth; but feel confident I cannot do it under my confused conditions. I need a kind hand to lead me out. If you please send me the tower, I will use it to the best of my ability, and will undertake to pay you for it during the year.[10]

We have three possible identities for Bowman. Adam C. Bowman, once a captain in the 19^th Virginia Cavalry and a lawyer, circulated The Plan of the Ages, but his activity seems to have been mostly limited to Barbour County, West Virginia. He handed a copy to J. R. Phillips, a Confederate veteran.[11] Phillips took up the message, writing to Russell in 1887:

I have talked much about the millennial dawn with persons of intelligence, since I began its reading. Some priest-ridden persons reject it, but I find its ideas a joy to many. I traveled for fifteen miles across my county, a few days since, with a gentleman, and shortly after joining him I remarked, I have been lately reading the millennial dawn, the most wonderful book of our day. I gave him its outline and he eagerly continued the conversation through our three hours ride. The next day I luckily had another friend to make a part of the return ride with. I mentioned the book as before, and the gentleman soon became interested, and we discussed it up to our parting. He then invited me to go to his community and lecture upon the subject, which I promised to do, when I thoroughly investigated the whole subject. I thank you a thousand times for having placed this book in my hands and will be glad to have the second volume on any terms.[12]

                Phillips remained interested at least to 1891. After reading Millennial Dawn – Volume 2, he wrote to Russell expressing his gratitude. He was wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness and crippled for life, he said. “I returned to my home that had been ruined, at the close of the war, and found myself a cripple for life with a life-struggle before me. I felt that my lot was a hard one, but I determined to honor God and keep up a resolute will. Sometimes dark and threatening clouds gathered about me, almost despair settled over my mind and fears almost paralyzed my hopes for the future.” Reading The Plan of the Ages changed that. “I read it, and poverty vanished into the marvelous light of a bright and glorious hope,” he wrote. After reading both volumes he believed he could read his Bible with understanding. He wanted to visit Russell during on of the Passover conventions to shake his hand and thank him.[13]

                Another possibility is a J. T. Bowman who held meetings in Joplin, Missouri. He comes into the record too late to be the “Brother Bowman” active in 1886. The most probable of the Bowmans is Payton Green Bowman [continues]

---

[1]               E. P. Woodward: Later-Day Delusions, No. 7: Another Gospel; An Exposure of the System Known as Russellism, Safeguard and Armory, July 1914, page 2.

[2]               C. T. Russell: View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower,  July 1882, page 1.

[3]               Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, March 1884, page 1.

[4]               Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, November 1883, page 2.

[5]               Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, April 1886, page 2. [Not in reprints.]

[6]               C. T. Russell: Harvest Laborers: Pray for Them, Zion’s Watch Tower¸ September 15, 1892, page 50.

[7]              For Deming see volume 1, page 52. We profile Blundin in chapter – . Quotation is from ZWT of February 15, 1892, page 50.

[8]               Voice of the Church, Zion’s Watch Tower EXTRA, June 11, 1894, page 190. [Not in reprints.]

[9]               On page 8 of that issue. [Not in reprints.]

[10]             Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, June 1888, page 2.

[11]             There are three J. R. Philips listed among Virginia veterans. Two were privates in Cavalry units. One was a Captain serving in the 31^st Virginia Volunteers. Captain John R. Phillips fits the biographical details found in Zion’s Watch Tower. (See J. D. Cook: A History of the Thirty-First Virginia Regiment of Volunteers, C. S. A., Masters Thesis, West Virginia University, 1955, pages 7-8.

[12]             More Good News, Zion’s Watch Tower, October 1887, page 8. [Not in reprints.]

[13]             Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, February 1891, page 30.

We think ...

After talking it out with Mr. Schulz, we think the lawyer mentioned in a previous post was Adam C. Bowman of West Virginia, a lawyer in coal country and a Watch Tower adherent in the correct period. There is no firm proof. It's only a surmise. We would like to locate his photo.

Laura J. Raynor

From the Pittsburgh Press in 1917.

Maria’s older sister was a keen supporter of ZWT theology for a number of years, although you would not know it from her obituary.

A recent post on this blog has a Sister Raynor sharing in colporteur work in 1887. Laura had been widowed some years before in 1873. Harry Raynor had been under 40 years old at the time, leaving her with three children, Howard M Raynor (c.1867-1946), Selina Raynor, who never married (c.1865-1948), and Maria Raynor (c.1873-after 1941). Maria Raynor married S Frank McKee and she is named as May Raynor McKee on his death certificate in 1941. The whole family and offshoots stayed in the general Pittsburgh area.

At the time of her being mentioned in 1887, Laura’s children would have been of an age to be mainly independent; Selina would have been around 21, Howard around 20, and Maria (May) around 14. They were also all listed as living in the same home as Laura’s mother, Selina Ackley, in the 1880 census.

Laura is mentioned several times in subsequent issues of ZWT. In the May 1, 1892 issue, there was a meeting at her home. In the 1894 troubles, she signed a document with her sister Maria and others supporting CTR. In the 1897 troubles between CTR and Maria, she supported Maria.

Comments ...

Comments make me happy. They also provide me with feed back. Comments on content work best, even a 'well done.' Grammar we fix later.

A brief change...

...from all this serious research...

A sad tale noted in the Bible Students' newspaper, the St Paul Enterprise, involving Miracle Wheat, a monogrammed car, and the locals diversifying from cattle rustling and horse stealing.

Alas, I do not know whether he ever got his car back.

Another ....

"Brothers Van der Ahe, Cain, Grable, Hughes, and Sisters Raynor and Vogel and others are doing remarkably well, and we trust that before next month many others will be doing as much or more."

Who ARE these people?

Update: Laura J. Raynor, Maria Russell's older sister. Sister Vogel is probably Catherine Vogel, a widow from Pittsburgh. We still have no ID for the rest.

Lawyer visiting Chicago

A lawyer's letter appears in the November 1885 Watch Tower. He tells of his ministry while in Chicago to try a case. There is no name. Can we identify him? Anyone?

Update: His last name may have been "Brown."

McCormack

We need to identify the person named in this brief statement found in Zion's Watch Tower:

The Chicago friends will be glad to know that Bro. McCormack is about to remove there. Chicago is a good field, and our Brother and his wife remove there in the hope of being used by the Master for the blessing of the household of faith, by disseminating the truth. When he calls on you, receive him well--he is a brother in Christ. Let meetings be commenced at once, and the Lord bless you. [view from the tower, July 1882, page 1.]

British Newspaper Archive

Do any of you have a subscription to http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk ? If so, will you search it for us?

H. L. Gillis

H. L. Gillis of West Virginia started associating in 1885. We need a full biography. Can you help?

More from "Out of Babylon" - Unedited and raw

Dissension was not uncommon. It arose on several grounds. Those with similar, but ultimately opposition views attended Watch Tower meetings. Some swayed by Barbour continued to attend Watch Tower meetings because there was nowhere else to go. Paton’s adherents were increasingly small in number, often having no meetings of their own. They attended Watch Tower meetings, using them to spread Paton’s universalist ideas. We discuss it more fully elsewhere, but we note here that beginning at least in 1882, Paton prepared booklets and tracts that went out primarily to Watch Tower readers. The earliest of these known to us was a thirty-two page booklet reprinting chapter four and part of chapter five of the ‘revised’ edition of Day Dawn.[1] As long as the meetings included those with opposition beliefs, opposition literature made its way into the fellowship and colored group discussions.

            Most examples come from a somewhat later period but seem to accurately represent the problem. In Brockport, New York, someone donated a subscription to Paton’s World’s Hope and Russell’s Watch Tower to the Free Library.[2] A letter written to J. H. Paton in 1902, illustrates the situation: “Sister V. … asked me to subscribe for the Hope; and I … have never been sorry. … It has been a blessing to me and much company when alone. Z. W. T.; the Hope, and my Bible are about all I read.”[3]

            Benjamin Ford Weatherwax, a retired Methodist clergyman living in Courtland, New York took up the Watch Tower message in 1901, possibly from earlier preaching by S. O. Blunden, who preached there in 1893.[4] Weatherwax wrote to Russell expressing his faith. A follow up letter was printed in the January 1, 1902, Watch Tower. It told the story of his withdrawal from the Methodist Church:

I have had a big fight and gained a glorious victory. I send you my article prepared for the Conference. I had a hard time to get a hearing, as my name was called before I reached the seat of Conference. Had I been there then I could have had the floor; but after that it was difficult. After pressing the matter they allowed me five minutes to speak and I read rapidly until I reached the sentence, “Thy Kingdom come,” two thirds through, and there the Bishop called me to order. He said I had used up six minutes and I asked for an extension of time but could not get it. (They had enough.) So I asked our own City Editor if he would like to publish it and he consented.

There was a great surprise I assure you, at Syracuse Conference, when I withdrew from it and gave my reasons even partially. I commenced giving out tracts-- until all were gone. When I gave one I said, “Read that carefully, when you are all alone.” I have a good many old friends in the Conference and Church (Nominal), but thanks be to God, I am the Lord's free man. Some have asked me what church I am going to unite with, and my answer is the “Church of the first born, whose names are written in heaven.”[5]

            Benjamin Ford Weatherwax (June 15, 1836 – November 8, 1903) attended Fairfield Seminary, and later Hartwick Academy. Though he farmed for a while, he “he felt a strong call to preach the gospel.” He was admitted to the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church becoming an itinerant preacher in New York. He retired in 1885, and returned to farming. He gave up farming in 1892, moving to Courtland, New York.[6] He was convinced by Watch Tower doctrine about 1900 and preached it. He convinced six others, and they formed the Church of the Little Flock in Courtland. By 1903, The Syracuse, New York, Post-Standard gave it a membership of “about ten.”[7] Shortly after he resigned from the Methodist ministry, the editor of The Courtland, New York, Evening Standard published his statement of faith:

                        Courtland, N. Y., October 29, [1901]

To the Editor of The Standard:

Sir – I have been asked to give a reason for the hope that is within the church of the “Little Flock.” First, our organization is of a heavenly origin rather than earthly. We belong to the “Church of the first born whose names are written in heaven.” Our people are scattered all over the earth. They are known by their Lord. …They are held together by love divine … . They are one body and one spirit … .

We hold that the church which God is electing or selecting during this gospel age is promised a spiritual or heavenly reward to be “made partakers of the divine nature,” and to share with Christ the work of blessing the world during the millennium. We understand that the millennial age is for the very purpose of causing “the knowledge of the Lord to fill the whole earth as the waters cover the sea,” and see “the true light which lighteth [sic] every man that cometh into the world,” giving all a full opportunity to come in to [sic] harmony with God.

We understand that the Bible teaches both the doctrine of election and the doctrine of free grace – the election of this church during this age and free grace for the world in general in the millennial age and in perfect harmony as shown by the Scriptures. We also under that 6,000 years of earth’s history is past according to Bible chronology and that the seventh thousand is the mellinnium [sic] of Christ’s reign – and that the present time from 1874 to 1914 is the lapping period styled in Scripture the “harvest” of the age, in which the number of the elect church will be completed, and that then the millennial age will be ushered in by a great time of trouble, anarchy, etc., mentioned repeatedly in Scripture which will level society, humble pride and prepare the way for Immanuel’s long promised Kingdome “under the whole heavens.”[8]

           

            All of this is standard Watch Tower doctrine of the era. As with other former clergy, Weatherwax assumed the leading position in the group. Meeting-time advertisements note him as “Elder,” a common Methodist designation. As did a few other former clergy, he continued to see himself as having special status. Based on his short article for the Cortland paper, editors of nearby journals presented him as the “founder of a new sect.” The Newburgh, New York, Register told its readers that “the Rev. B. F. Weatherwax, formerly of this city, has withdrawn from the Methodist Episcopal conference and has founded a new religious denomination.”[9] By the end of April 1902, they were meeting in the W.C.T.U. Hall. Sunday services were at 10 am, and a meeting for prayer and Bible study was on Wednesday at 7:30 pm.[10]

            Before 1890 either Russell or one of the others most prominent in the Watch Tower ministry would visit newly formed groups. George B. Raymond, a Watch Tower evangelist, visited the Cortland group twice. An announcement in the April 12, 1902, Cortland Standard said he’d address a meeting of the church in Good Templars’ Hall. No subject was given. R. E. Streeter visited The Church of the Little Flock in Cortland in July 1902 for two days. No subject was announced. He was back in December 1902, Speaking Wednesday, December 3^rd on the topic “The Coming Kingdom,” and the next evening on “Restitution of All Things.”[11] Raymond returned in early May 1903, addressing the group twice. The Standard printed the congregation’s statement of belief:

There are people who believe the world is just entering the milennial [sic] reign of Christ, and that a wonderful age of progress, both material and spiritual, is about to be ushered in, preceded, however, by ten or fifteen years of intense strife and anarchy. They believe that the earth and the great bulk of humanity, both present and past, will, during the next thousand years, be restored to the perfection which 6,000 years ago was exampled in the Garden of Eden.

They reject the idea of eternal torment, claiming it to be unscriptural; asserting that only those who are guilty of sinning willfully against the fullest light (information) are to be considered incorrigible; these and these only, are to be destroyed in the second death.

They believe that God has for 6,000 years been allowing man to gain a sad experience with sin, and that he will, during the next thousand years, the millennium, restrain sin, that man may see righteousness n all of its beauty, and witness the blessed results of its reign. Having had 6,000 years’ experience with sin and 1,000 years’ experience with righteousness, man will be well prepared to make a wise choice as to which he will serve, and will then be tested by loosing of Satan to deceive those who during this long period shall have failed to become well grounded in godliness, Those being thus deceived will go down into the second death from which there will be no resurrection.[12]

           

Despite this concise statement of Watch Tower belief, Weatherwax deviated from it that year. He encountered Barbourite doctrine and adopted Barbour’s new chronology. Barbour expected the final last-days acts to occur in 1907. Weatherwax preached that. His obituaries report that the church “members believe the world ends in 1907.” We lack details. We don’t know how he encountered Barbourite doctrine. We do not know why he found it persuasive.[13] Contrary to newspaper claims, most members of the Cortland church retained Watch Tower belief. We think that the congregation retained Weatherwax because though he deviated in doctrine, they had tremendous respect for him. Writing some months after he died, Isaac Edgecomb described him as “a man of great faith.” Edgecomb was a Methodist, and wrote this despite Weatherwax’s defection from that church.[14]

The small congregation continued, placing regular ads in the Cortland paper through 1904. They numbered thirteen in 1906, all of whom traveled to Binghampton, New York, on January 26^th to hear Russell speak.[15] Cortland received two visits by traveling Watch Tower Pilgrims in 1908, and persisted at least to 1917. We do not know if the current Witness congregation is an outgrowth of the original group.

      Syracuse, New York, Herald

 

Randolph Elwood Streeter

George B. Raymond

---

[1]               Announcements: The World’s Hope¸ July 1884, page 152. The title appears to be Good News for All.

[2]               Annual Report of the Brockport Free Library, The Brockport, New York, Republic, December 1, 1887.

[3]               R.O.L to Paton, The World’s Hope, February 15, 1902, page 47.

[4]               Blunden to Russell as found in the May 1, 1892, Watch Tower, pages 133-134. [Not in Reprints.]

[5]               Interesting Letters from Friends, Zion’s Watch Tower, January 1, 1902, page 15.

[6]               C. E. Fitch: Encyclopedia of Biography of New York: A life Record of Men and Women Whose Sterling Character and Energy and Industry Have Made Them Preëminent in Their Own and Many Other States, Volume 3.

[7]               Drops Dean in Hen Yard, The Syracuse, New York, Post-Standard, November 3, 1903. Founds a New Sect, Ogdensburg, New York, News¸ November 12, 1901.

[8]               B. F. Weatherwax: A Question of Belief, The Courtland, New York, Evening Standard, November 2, 1901. We do not know if the grammar errors are his or the editor’s. 

[9]               Founds a New Sect, The Newburgh, New York, Register, November 7, 1901.

[10]             Church of the Little Flock, Cortland, New York, Evening Standard, April 25, 1902.

[11]             Church of the Little Flock, Cortland, New York, Evening Standard, July 28, 1902.

[12]             Two Meetings, Cortland, New York, Evening Standard, May 9, 1903.

[13]             Drops Dead in Hen Yard, The Syracuse, New York, Post-Standard¸ November 3, 1903; The Syracuse, New York, Journal, November 9, 1903. There are possible explanations as to how Weatherwax encountered Barbourite doctrine. W. Horace Kirk, owner of a blacksmithing business and evangelist preacher, was interested in the Church of the Little Flock. He attended a “convention of the Church of the Little Flock in Binghampton, New York, in May 1904. His business partner was a Hoyt, some of whom were Adventist and Age-to-Come believers. There was through Kirk a connection to Rochester and the Fullers. Fullers were Barbourites. None of this raises to the level of sound proof.

[14]             I. Edgecomb: Some Pillars, The Cortland, New  York Evening Standard, October 14, 1904.

[15]             To Attend Lecture, The Syracuse, New York, Herald¸ January 27, 1906.

Church of the Little Flock, Courtland, New York.

Benjamin Ford Weatherwax, a retired Methodist Episcopal clergyman, wrote to Russell sometime before 1901 and was eventually convinced the Watch Tower taught truth. He resigned from the ME church and started a small fellowship with six others. We can trace this group to early 1904 but not beyond.

Can one of you find more? Especially after mid 1903 with Weatherwax.'s death?

We also need the full name of "Brother" G. B. Raymond of Binghampton, New York. He lived there in 1904. In 1907 he was in Muncie, Indiana. By 1911 he was back in New York.

Update: We no longer need Raymond's full name. It is George B. Raymond. His photo is in a convention report. 

???

I have a huge amount of scanned documents, pdf files and other files that need to be organized. These are all historical items related to Watch Tower history. I haven’t a clue how to do this. Any suggestions?

In 1880s

In the early 1880s a "brother McGranor (also spelled McGrannor) was an active Watch Tower evangelist. He was from Pennsylvania. We can't idenitfy him. Can you?

We're Starting ...

We're starting a new chapter. It considers the development of personal evangelism among Watch Tower readers. If you have documentation or observations to share on that topic, now is the time to do it.

We continue to work on the chapter that details clergy involvement in the Watch Tower ministry. If you have information we might lack, pass it on.

Another brought back from obscurity

Josephus Perry Martin

            J. P. Martin was born near New Lebanon, Ohio, September 29, 1853. When he was a child, his parents moved from place to place trying to make a success of farming. After four weeks of illness, his father died of Typhoid Fever in 1866. His mother returned the family to Ohio. Eventually Martin married, and he and his wife Mollie married and joined the German Baptist Brethren church, sometimes called the Dunkards. When they joined in 1878, the church was on the verge of crisis, but Martin and his wife moved to Ashland, Ohio, and he enrolled in the Brethren college there. His attendance was limited to “two terms.” We believe that by “two terms” he meant two semesters because by 1880 he was home and “farming as usual.”           

Joseph Perry Martin

            The German Brethren were in the midst of a fierce theological battle and splitting into factions. Martin and his wife were drawn into the Progressive, or more liberal branch, and he was elected pastor. He says in his hand-written autobiography: “In 1882 I was elected to the ministry … and began to mix preaching with farming. … In the autumn of 1883 we migrated with our little family from the home of my wife's parents to Hocking County, Ohio, near Logan. Here I served five congregations during the next few months, in the Progressive branch of the Dunkard Church, two in Hocking, one in Fairfield and two in Perry counties. It was an inclement winter, excessive cold and snow in its forepart and excessive rainfall and high waters later in the season and the exposure of it was considerable and my work strenuous.”

            The strain resulted in a collapse. He describes it as a nervous break down, but the symptoms as described in his autobiography suggest physical rather than mental issues. He reduced his religious activity but continued to preach as he could. It was during his illness in 1883 that his beliefs began to shift. His hand-written memoir records his introduction to The Watch Tower:

In this state, broken in body and mind and doubtful of my religious standing, while living at Bremen, a copy of The Watch Tower, an independent, fearless and uncompromising bible exponent, providentially fell into my hands. It was in the home of Augustine Palmer, in Hocking county near Logan, a deacon in the Progressive church, where this unexpected blessing overtook me. This copy was sent to him as a sample, and, as he did not appreciate it, he consented for me to take it home with me. That was the beginning and the end is not yet; for forty-six years I have been a close and constant reader of The Watch Tower.

A Vista of Hope Opens To My Troubled Heart and Mind:

I did not know fully what I was carrying home with me, but what I had already read therein led me to hope that it would be helpful. In fact I later found therein where I could procure a panacea for all my physical, mental and moral distempers, and especially a remedy for my spiritual disquietude and uncertainty.

Gradually I learned through its columns that the long cherished theories of orthodoxy and churchianity -- “Trinity”, “Immortality of The Soul” and “Eternal Torment” tenets -- were not supported by the teaching of the Bible, and were in fact denounced thereby.

A Galaxy of Bible Tenets:

Gradually the following fundamental tenets of the Bible envisioned themselves: “Creation”, “Justice Manifested”, “The Abrahamic Promise”, “The Birth of Jesus”, “The Ransom”, “The Resurrection”, “The Hidden Mystery”, “Our Lord's Return”, “Glorification” and “Restoration”. These enterweave themselves into a loving, wise, just and powerful scheme of human deliverance and reconciliation at the hands of Jehovah God through his Son, our Lord, Christ Jesus, and our Saviour.

An Earnest Contention For More Light - And A Field of Action:

It was while this joyfully and gradually learning these glorious Bible truths, and while as gladly though timidly imparting them to others, both by preaching and by giving out literature, that I was invited by my Dunkard brethren to resign my ministry in the Dunkard Church, because of, what they dubbed it, my heresy.

This I unhesitatingly did, yet with considerable fearfulness and apprehension. I also withdrew from membership with that and all denominations, denouncing them and their creeds as man made and without the authority of God's Word, The Bible. And with all its heart-pains and severances I have never in all these years regretted the step which I then took. Our parting was fraught with many heart-aches and much sorrow on both sides, and but little or no manifestation of bitterness and anger. For this I am thankful, and remember kindly those from whom I parted at that time. This was in June 1887.[1]

Front Page – Martin’s Autobiography

            By his resignation from the progressive Brethren in 1887, Martin had been writing to Russell for some time. Several of his letters were printed in the Watch Tower and bring us deeper into his history.

            The first of his published letters appears in the April 1887 issue of the Watch Tower. He expressed his appreciation for The Plan of the Ages. He was especially impressed with chapter fifteen, The Day of Jehovah:

I am much I am much impressed by what I have just read. Although I have read this chapter previously, yet it came to me under many new and impressive features; hence I conclude that I am but a child in the primary department of the school of Christ; that I have but tasted of the spring-branch, and that the fountain is farther up the mountain side, of which if I desire to drink I must continue to climb.

            He continued to preach, moving briefly to the Reformed church. We do not know with certainty which Reformed church he meant, though we suspect he meant the Reformed Episcopalians. They didn’t tolerate his preaching any more than had the Dunkards:

Well, I am become unpopular to the Reformed sect; they became fearful; so I don't preach for them any more. My own sect begin to mistrust me, but I am not sure what they will do, as I am about the only minister they know of who will preach for them caring nothing as to whether they pay him or not. All that is wrong with me is that I care as little whether my preaching pleases them, as I do whether they give me anything for it. I am not popular and what is worse (to them) I am not trying to be. I do what I can to spread the truth while earning my living by farming.[2]

            We must date his resignation to shortly after this letter was written. And his letter shows us a man determined to preach truth as he saw it despite social consequences. His next letter dated April 25, 1887, was written the day he resigned from the progressive Brethren Church:

To-day I am as free from the trammels of sectarianism as the winds that play about me. I have bid a long, long adieu to the nominal church; I have stepped out of “Babylon;” I am feeding in the valleys of God and on the hill-lands of truth. Oh! how sweet those rich pastures! The flesh-pots of Egypt are not to be compared to the rich viands of promise. Their savor has become a nauseating stench in my nostrils. Let those who cling to the sluggish streams of tradition drink of their foul waters and feed on the garbage they accumulate; but for me, the cool, refreshing waters of truth only can make glad the waste places of my existence. I have separated myself from the church with which I stood identified, and now consider that I am a member of the "body." Perhaps I am not as strong as some, but by the grace of God I am what I am.

I am still preaching in New Lebanon every Sunday night. My preaching is troubling a good many people. They fear it will undermine sectarianism, and their fear is well founded. The truth is slowly spreading, and not infrequently in directions unlooked for. I set no stakes as to what I will do, but go on unpretentiously in the discharge of my duty, little concerning myself as to where it may place me.[3]

            The next printed letter is dated June 18, 1887. He reported what he saw as spiritual advancement, and we find him circulating sample issues of Zion’s Watch Tower:

My z.w. towers samples are about exhausted. I sent many of them by mail, and I am constantly receiving letters from those of the faith and oh! how wonderful! they all speak the same things, having the same mind and judgment. How easy to be of one mind when once we reach the fat place in God's unlimited pasture lands. It matters little how lean the sheep may be on leaving their sectarian enclosures, soon after reaching the rich succulent pastures of Christ's fold they begin to improve. Some of us are having a weekly Bible meeting in which we search the Scriptures to see if these things be true. The Lord is with us and we are getting stronger and stronger.

            He ended the letter with expressions of thanks for freedom from error and the path into enlightenment:  “I cannot refrain from saying that I am so glad I am free; free from those awful shackles of a benighted and misguided mind and conscience. I shall always thank God for your instrumentality in lifting this burden from my tired shoulders, and pointing me to the glorious light.”[4] The last published letter shows him as newly entering the colporteur work, circulating the first volume of Millennial Dawn: “I am pleased to do what I can, be it much or little, feeling that every book I sell is a footprint in the sands of time to guide some discouraged, disheartened fellow-mortal to the fount of truth at no far distant day. I wish I could flood the world with it. I am surprised at myself in this work; it seems that I am particularly adapted to it.” He was off to preach in Miamisburg and a “brother Van Hook” was going to take his “pulpit” while he was gone. Van Hook has eluded identification.

            Martin remained a Watch Tower adherent until his death on June 6, 1932. His autobiography, written in 1930, ends with these words:

This I unhesitatingly did, yet with considerable fearfulness and apprehension. I also withdrew from membership with that and all denominations, denouncing them and their creeds as man made and without the authority of God's Word, The Bible. And with all its heart-pains and severances I have never in all these years regretted the step which I then took. Our parting was fraught with many heart-aches and much sorrow on both sides, and but little or no manifestation of bitterness and anger. For this I am thankful, and remember kindly those from whom I parted at that time. This was in June 1887.

From 1887 to 1898 was an exceedingly trying period to me. To be suddenly severed from all church activities and associations, and to as suddenly step out into unfriendly and strange environments alone, without sympathy, without aid from human sources, as an abandoned heretic, requires more than human aid to sustain one's moral courage to proceed. I repeat, those were indeed trying years, and only the grace of God, the visits of The Watch Tower and the many letters from Charles T. Russell, editor of The Watch Tower, enabled me to humbly traverse them.

And to live to see the time when you can meet and fellowship with thousands of like precious faith in fields where you once stood alone, and to know that your own feeble efforts were a little helpful in causing this change, is worth all the trials of a life time. As my mind reverts and flits hither and thither over the bottom lands and hillwards of the group of states bordering on the Ohio River, I think of many in many places whose hearts have been watered with truth by my feeble efforts. Between us is a mutual friendship of which the world knows naught, and is reward enough for our services if no other awaits us.

This is a patch work quilt -- I like to look at, I like to think of each and every patch in it, and how they were patiently shaped and joined together in a design of brotherhood under the Fatherhood of God. But, much as I like this vision, I must turn from it, and to present and future services, for, apparently, my life work is not yet done, God who guides me, only, knows. Amen.

---

[1]              J. P. Martin: An Autobiography. Hand-written manuscript dated 1930.

[2]              Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, April 1887, page 2. [Not in Reprints.]

[3]              Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, May 1887, page 2. [Not in Reprints.]

[4]              Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, August 1887, pages 1-2. [Not in Reprints.]

Herbert Mitchell

We need biographical details, even minor ones, for Herbert Mitchell, resident of Newburgh, New York, in 1887. He may have been born about 1860, but we don't know. His wife seems to have been a seamstress. Any detail will help.

Mitchell was part of the small group (about 20) that met in Newburgh in the late 1880s. Help if you can!