Strange Goings-On at United Cemeteries

     The Watch Tower Society owned a cemetery for a number of years in the latter days of CTR. Originally purchased in 1905 it covered around 90 acres and was a combination of three original cemeteries, named Rosemont, Mount Hope and Evergreen. Much of the land was never used for burials but included farmland on which, at one point, the cemetery supervisor John Adam Bohnet grew Miracle wheat.

     Most of the land was sold off at the end of 1917 to a neighboring cemetery concern, leaving only certain small areas for Watch Tower adherents. The most famous of these areas had a 7 feet high pyramid in the center designed to list on its sides all the names of those interred. Although the pyramid has now gone, the grave marker of CTR is still a feature of the site.

     Because it was a commercial operation originally and anybody could purchase a plot, the site sometimes featured in news items quite unconnected with the Watch Tower Society. Here are a couple of examples.

      The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper for 3 March 1908 carried the headline “Mourners Roll Down Steep Hill.”

     It should be noted that the driver’s injuries were not serious, although one of the horses had to be destroyed. The site is quite hilly and a funeral party took a road turn awkwardly and literally did roll down the hill – fortunately not adding to the fatalities.

     Then the next month, on 3 April, 1908 attempts to rob the stables of an adjoining farm for valuable harnesses resulted in shots being fired. A news item on 15 April 1915 noted that burials had now reached 1,700.

     However, what was probably the biggest news story of all to feature the cemeteries was on 12 April 1914 when the front page of a newspaper carried a photograph of an exhumation taking place. There can only be one thing worse than a burial in the pouring rain and that is an exhumation in the pouring rain.

Pictures reproduced with permission from newspapers.com

     

The headline across the page read “Body Disinterred in United Cemetery Identified as That of Mrs. Myrtle Allison.” The sub-heading read: “Damning Evidence Given up by a Grave – Scandal Still Grows.”

     

Some papers carried Mrs Allison’s picture with the story.

     

This was not the sort of publicity United Cemeteries wanted, although no blame could be attached to them.

     In early 1913 a divorcee named Myrtle Allison, who ran a boarding house in Wilkinsburg, was referred to a Dr Charles Meredith and his “private maternity hospital” in Bellevue, Pittsburgh. There, in March 1913, she had what was forever after referred to by the press as “an illegal operation.” This had to be an abortion. Discharged, she presented herself to another doctor who diagnosed septicemia. He contacted Meredith, who arranged for her collection back to his hospital. She then disappeared.

     Shortly afterwards there was a burial at United Cemeteries in the name of Daisy Davies. Over a year later a general investigation of Dr Meredith caused this very public exhumation reported on by the newspaper. At one point, a familiar name, J. A. Bohnett (sic) cemetery superintendent, was mentioned as guarding the opened grave.

    

Although Daisy had been buried in a cheap wooden coffin with a liberal application of quicklime, it was possible to identify from dental evidence that this was, in fact, Mytle Allison. A post mortem identified the results of “an illegal operation.” There were several arrests, but fortunately for Dr Meredith, the medical evidence cleared him of the charge of murder. He was sent down for five years convicted of performing a “criminal operation.” He claimed parole on the basis that he’d been promised a lighter sentence of only around two years if he pled guilty, but was turned down in December 1914. This time the charge was finally spelled out as “abortion.” Further attempts at parole were opposed by the Medical Board. On his release, he forged a new career in the lumber industry, but when he died in 1959, aged 92, his Find a Grave entry reinstated him as Dr Charles C Meredith.

Uncle Daniel's Bible Class Book

   

  The Edgars, brothers John and Morton, are well-known to collectors of Watch Tower history. They were responsible for the volumes of Great Pyramid Passages, as well as a series of small booklets that were widely circulated. One of them, Where are the Dead (not to be confused with the Watch Tower Society’s official publication of that name) was instrumental in Fred Franz becoming a Bible Student. He later served as a Watch Tower Society president.

     One book bearing the Edgars’ names that is available for internet download is called Uncle Daniels Bible Class Book, and dates from 1890.

     The book was published by Bone and Hulley, a company that later handled the pyramid books. A close up of the title page clearly shows the Edgars as authors.

     

And yet, this is not actually true.

     Research has shown that this book was originally published back in 1850. Then it was simply called The Bible Class Book. The author and compiler was Charles Baker.  Below is the title page of the second edition which dates from 1860.

     

The book covers the whole of the OT with articles, maps, and notes, using the Ussher chronology.

     Charles Baker (1803-1874) was a prolific author. His Wikipedia entry lists around seventy-five works on a variety of subjects, including the Bible. Although he wrote on the NT as well, there does not appear to be a companion volume to The Bible Class Book, which concentrates on the OT. One of his nephews became the Archbishop of Canterbury. His main focus in life was producing school textbooks for the teaching of children who were deaf and dumb.

     When he died The Sheffield and Rotherham Independent for May 30, 1874, gave a brief obituary:

    

Yet 20 years after the last publication of Baker’s work, the Edgar brothers claimed it as their own.

     How could this happen? Modern sensibilities might question the ethics of giving no acknowledgement to Baker, but it was all perfectly legal. The British Copyright Act of 1842 granted copyright to an author for his lifetime and then for seven years after his death. As noted above, Baker conveniently died in 1874, so by 1890 his work was in the public domain and the Edgars – or anyone else for that matter - could do what they liked with it.

     The British 1842 Copyright Act was eventually replaced by one of 1911, which extended copyright to a more realistic fifty years after an author’s death.

     Since the Edgars weren’t going to give Baker any credit, they took out his introduction, which he had revised for the second edition. In its place they inserted a Watch Tower advertisement.

    

This Watch Tower material only took up one page whereas Baker’s introduction in both editions took up two, so the Edgar volume simply has an extra blank page following the Watch Tower advertisement. One assumes this is so that the remainder of the plates would not need their pagination adjusted.

     We are on firmer ground with the Edgars’ pyramid volumes and the series of small booklets which were original and reflected the Bible Student theology of that time. But as far as “Uncle Daniel’s” work, all was not as it appeared. It may still be viewed as collectable, but perhaps not as much as might be hoped.

La préhistoire des témoins de Jéhovah

 La préhistoire des témoins de Jéhovah

Edition of the AEIMR (Association for Study and Information on Religious Movements); BP 70733, F. 57207 Sarreguemines cedex). 250 pages. Index €18 + €6 postage. (The AEIMR offers postage to subscribers to the Mouvements Religieux magazine )

I seldom allow book reviews. If my memory is accurate we’ve reviewed four books since I started this blog in 2007. I’ve read Professor Blandre’s newest book, despite my inadequate French. It is a worthwhile read. I take exception to his chart of origins found at the end, and there are a few points to which I will give some thought and some which are incorrect. But those are few. Bernard’s book dramatically contrasts with another recently published book; La préhistoire des témoins de Jéhovah is neutral, ethical research without an agenda.

Professor Blandre’s description of his book follows:

This book reviews the historical origins of Jehovah's Witnesses, but also many religious organizations which refer to the teaching of Charles Taze Russell without having ever belonged to the Jehovah's Witnesses: Bible students, Aurorists, Lay Interior Missionary Movement, friends of man ... Russell, founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses? 

It is said that Russell was the founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses. It is true that they refer to him, that part of their teaching comes from him and that he was the creator of the Society of the Watchtower ( Watch Tower Bible an Tract Society ) which distributes the magazine  The Watchtower  and for which several million Jehovah's Witnesses circulate. 

But for Jehovah's Witnesses, Russell's teaching is outdated and after his death "the truth" has progressed.

It is only after Russell that the Jehovah's Witnesses refuse to celebrate the religious holidays of other Christians: Christmas, Easter, etc. It is only after Russell that Jehovah's Witnesses consider the cross to be a pagan symbol. It is only after Russell that the Jehovah's Witnesses refuse blood transfusions…

Russell taught that the soul is not immortal and that hell does not exist; but he only took over these beliefs from the Adventists who received them from George Storrs. 

Russell rejected belief in the Trinity; but he only took up what Henry Grew taught who had made Adventists admit this denial.

Russell is the one who taught that 144,000 anointed ones would be specially selected for leadership in the millennium. He had fixed the year 1914 as the end of the present "system of things." He taught that the great pyramid of Egypt announced this year 1914 by its dimensions. But he only repeated what Adventist Nelson Barbour had written before him. Jehovah's Witnesses no longer refer to the pyramid and have revised the 1914 meaning.

Russell taught that the restored Jewish people in Palestine would have leadership in the millennium. It was at a time when Israel did not exist. But he took this belief from Adventists in the age to come, and Jehovah's Witnesses now reject this doctrine.

Jehovah's Witnesses celebrate only one religious holiday each year: the memorial. It was George Storrs who introduced him to Russell. 

In fact Russell was not the creator of a new religion. He took up what his predecessors taught. His historic work has been to spell out details of a belief system that existed before him, and to have effectively made it known to a large number of people, groups and organizations, many of whom have remained more faithful to him than the Jehovah's witnesses.

The content of my book   La préhistoire des témoins de Jéhovah:

    This book presents the progressive creation of the belief system that Russell took up and disseminated. 

     The story begins in the late 18th century and ends in 1879, when Russell founded  Zion's Watch Tower magazine and became the true leader of the Bible Students, after his to be freed from the influence of one's main thought leaders. 

    This book is the result of research work which, without neglecting what has already been published, is based on the original sources published at the time of the events. 

    It is a book that respects the method and ethics of historical research: establishing the facts as they really happened. It is neither a book of propaganda, nor denigration, nor controversy. Jehovah's witnesses and Bible students who want to know the origin of their religion can read it without putting themselves in contradiction with their co-religionists, except intolerance. Those who have separated from the Jehovist organization, those who militate against the Jehovah's Witnesses can read it; they will be able to find objective arguments that they can interpret and avoid erroneous argumentation (No, the number of people saved is not limited to 144,000). And, perhaps most importantly, the author will take note with interest of the criticisms which could be addressed to him. 

Bernard Blandre

 

Pyramids

     The examination of Egyptian pyramids caused massive speculation in the 19^th century. Reflecting the religious beliefs of the Egyptians, with their concept of the afterlife, mixed in with astrology and the shape of the sun’s rays, the structures soon inspired theories as to their construction and purpose. In particular this applied to the Great Pyramid of Giza.

     The founding father of what came to be commonly known as pyramidology was John Taylor who published The Great Pyramid: Why was it Built? And Who Built it? in 1859. He greatly influenced Charles Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal of Scotland, who followed with Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid in 1864. Smyth visited Egypt – something Taylor never did – and as a respected astronomer gained considerable attention. Moved by his beliefs, when he died in 1900, his monument in the graveyard of St. John’s Church, Sharow, near Ripon, was a pyramid.

Smyth’s pyramid – photo credit Julia & Keld

     After Smyth’s book, the baton was taken up by an American Lutheran minister, Joseph Augustus Seiss, in 1877, with the publication of The Great Pyramid of Egypt, Miracle in Stone. As a result, in the last few decades of the 19^th century many religious groups believed that the Giza pyramid was not a tomb, but had been constructed to reveal God’s plan for mankind to future generations. The measurements of certain features would equate to time periods, and would tie in with scripture.

     The concept was widely accepted, although the interpretations of the “evidence” varied from writer to writer. It also changed as different surveyors re-measured the edifice and came up with revised figures from those accepted by Seiss and early writers. Today it is often associated with Anglo-Israelites, those who believe that the ten lost tribes of Israel can be traced down to the British nation.

     Charles Taze Russell would be one of many who mentioned the pyramid. In his 1916 forward to Volume 3 of Studies, he wrote: “We have never attempted to place the Great Pyramid, sometimes called the Bible in Stone, on a parallel or equality with the Word of God as represented by the Old and New Testament Scriptures – the latter stand pre-eminent always as the authority.”

     However, he did view the Great Pyramid to be a corroborative witness.

     Certain other Bible Students focused on the pyramid far more extensively. William Wright corresponded with Piazzi Smyth (the correspondence is in Studies volume 3) and two brothers, John and Morton Edgar of Glasgow, wrote several books on the subject, including Great Pyramid Passages volumes 1 and 2.

     When the Watch Tower Society arranged for its own burial plot at United Cemeteries, Ross Township, a central memorial for the plot was designed by John Adam Bohnet in the shape of a pyramid. However, this was not a special sign or even a grave marker for any individual, but rather a communal monument designed to record the names of those buried on site in four quadrants around it, linked to the four pyramid sides. As it happened, only nine names were ever recorded before the idea was abandoned. The structure was eventually removed for safety reasons.

Pyramid (L) and CTR’s grave marker (R) c. 1921

     As time passed, general interest in pyramid theories waned in the mainstream. Finally, in 1928, after little comment for several years, the Watch Tower magazine produced two articles on the subject in the November 15 and December 1, 1928, issues. The gist of their arguments, which were against the Giza pyramid being of God, were reproduced in more recent times, in The Watchtower for May 15, 1956.

     The correspondence columns of the Watch Tower had various responses after the 1928 articles, best summed up by a future president of the Watch Tower Society (issue of July 1, 1929):

     The Golden Age magazine (January 23, 1929) had some fun naming certain individuals who no longer associated with the I.B.S.A. and who had made new predictions based on the pyramid. One was Morton Edgar.

     Of course, those who did not agree with the Watch Tower’s new position continued to believe in pyramidology, and in at least one case, tried to emulate Smyth. From a Yeovil (Somerset, UK) cemetery is this example.

     The last inscription on its sides was for Clara Hallett, who died in 1938.

     Her husband, Bible Student William Henry Hallett, had died in 1921.

     Perhaps surprisingly, the family who had done so much to promote the concept, the Edgars, did not go for a pyramid monument themselves. Most of the Edgars, including writers John and Morton, are buried in a family plot in the Eastwood (Old) Cemetery, Glasgow, and chose to have no monuments or headstones at all.

     With thanks to the Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society volunteer who checked the printed records and then took the photograph. There are sixteen Edgar graves (four plots, four deep) on either side of the tree in the middle of the picture. One wonders what size the tree was when the plots were sold originally,

     Perhaps to end on a really bizarre note:  London could today have had the largest pyramid in the world if the plans of architect Thomas Willson (1781-1866) had been realised. Detailed plans were drawn up and investors invited for what would be called The Metropolitan Sepulchre.

     It was designed to work a bit like a modern multi-storey car park and was to be built on top of Primrose Hill. Had it been approved it would have been four times the height of St Paul’s Cathedral, and would hold an estimated five million dead Londoners.

     What a landmark that would have become, towering far higher than the Great Pyramid of Giza if put side by side. The plans were first put before parliament in 1830, and later at the Crystal Palace Great Exhibition of 1851 for another proposed location. But ultimately garden cemeteries (out of town with help from new-fangled railways) and later crematoria were more practical solutions.

     Can you imagine the problems Willson’s pyramid would have caused for future generations when it was full? And what a useful landmark it could have been for German bombers in World War 2. One clear strike and there could have been five million extra cadavers spread across London. Now there’s an alternative history for you.

Who built the pyramid?

 

Edmund Kohler from 1927 newspaper

So who built the pyramid?

No it wasn’t Djoser or Khufu or other ancient Egyptians. We are talking about the pyramid monument that stood for a little over one hundred years on the Watch Tower Society’s plot in United Cemeteries, Ross Township, near Pittsburgh, PA.

From 1905 to 1917 the Watch Tower owned a cemetery company called United Cemeteries. Charles Taze Russell was buried there in November 1916. Most of the 90 acre site was sold at the end of 1917 to the Northside Catholic Cemetery, which adjoined their land. The Society just kept back certain small areas for their own use, the most notable one having a central monument in the middle of the plot. A seven foot high pyramid was erected in early 1920, designed to list the names of all those buried nearby.

When the Bible Students held a convention in Pittsburgh in 1919 some visited the grave and also visited the stoneworks “nearby” to see the pyramid under construction. It was natural that as well as new cemeteries springing up off what was now called Cemetery Lane, some companies would also provide monuments to order. One such company built the pyramid.

It was the Kohler Company, founded by Eugene Adrian Kohler (1865-1922). Eugene was born in Germany, came to America in 1892, was married in 1893, and was finally naturalised as an American citizen in 1917. He and his wife Lena had six children including Edmund Kohler (1894-1971), who joined the family business and eventually took it over. In the 1910 census Eugene is listed as Proprieter, Monumental Works.

Eugene died comparatively young from pulmonary tuberculosis, directly linked to his work as a stone cutter. He was buried in 1922 in the former Northside Catholic Cemetery, now known as the Christ Our Redeemer Catholic Cemetery. But it was Eugene who cut the stones for the pyramid. The monument was hollow, made up of four triangular sides leaning towards each other on a concrete base, with a capstone holding it all together. Originally it contained a casket full of books and documents and photgraphs as a kind of time capsule of Watch Tower progress and history. Ultimately, this “treasure” would cause the pyramid’s downfall.

While Eugene cut the stones for the pyramid, his son, Edmund, then sandblasted the sides to carve out the names of those buried nearby. When the pyramid was put together in early 1920 there were nine names inscribed over three of the four sides. As it happened, the idea was soon abandoned. More were buried there, in fact today one can safely say that the site is fully used, but no further names were ever added to the monument.

Edmund’s history is summed up in census returns from 1920 through to 1950. In 1920 he is stone cutter (monumental works), 1930 he is letter carver (monument), 1940 he is letter cutter (stone cutting company), and 1950 he is proprieter (monumental business).

On an undated business card the business is described as: Edmund Kohler, Modern Cemetery Memorials.

When he died, his obituary in the Tampa Tribune (Florida), 25 January 1971, stated the company’s title was Memorial Art Works.

In the mid-1960s, Edmund retired and the site was sold to Fred Donatelli Cemetery Memorials. They still operate there. The new company inherited some records from the Kohler business including those relating to the pyramid’s purchase and construction. However, in the early 1990s the Donatelli Company was visited by a representative of the Watch Tower Society, who was given the documents. We can be reasonably certain that the pyramid was broken into in early 1993 and the casket of memorabilia stolen. The edifice was left in a dangerous state, and it may be that the documents were needed to see how best to quickly repair it before a side fell on someone and killed them.

Move forward to recent times. The pyramid was broken into again on several occasions – probably because idiots didn’t realise the contents were long gone. It was patched up from time to time. But in 2020 the capstone disappeared (again) which held it all together. Also this time the cross and crown motifs were badly damaged on all four sides.

What was interesting this time is that someone took a photograph of the revealed space. Someone had written in the cement what appear to be the initials F K and the year 1919. Allowing for cement dust to encroach on this in part, we can reasonably assume that the Initials were E K.

Was that Eugene, or more likely Edmund? Yet again the whole structure was in a dangerous state, and the decision was ultimately taken that enough was enough and it was to be taken down and taken away.

It was taken down on September 1, 2021, and now lives on in photographs, as a time capsule of how things once were. What was nice to see is that the nine names on the pyramid sides - that disappeared with it - have been restored on simple stones now placed in the same area.

(With grateful thanks to Corky Donatelli who provided valuable information and sent me on my journey, and James S Holmes, Watch Tower of Allegheny Historical Tour, for the modern photographs)

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.

Update on United Cemeteries

Most readers interested in Watch Tower history will already know about the changes made in the United Cemeteries in the last twelve months. Earlier posts on this blog detailed the damage done to the pyramid monument in the center of the site, and how after just over one hundred years the decision was taken to dismantle it.

I now have photographs from a source I can freely copy with permission. So thanks to Jim H, and here is what has recently happened on site.

The first picture shows the pyramid as it was in 2014, when I personally visited the site and took the photograph. On the right you can see the site after the monument had been taken down, with just the concrete base left. CTR’s grave marker is at the top of the picture.

Where the pyramid once stood nine flat grave markers have been installed. Here you can see the scarred land after the original concrete base for the pyramid was removed. Again, you can see CTR’s grave marker at the top of the picture. No doubt the grass will soon grow over the barren areas.

Below is a close up of the nine markers. These modest stones are similar to those found at the Society’s current burial site at the Watchtower Farms Cemetery in Walkill, Ulster Co. They give the names exactly as they appeared on the original pyramid sides, along with the ages of the Bible Students concerned.

The figures, A-1, etc. refer to the actual grave numbers in the original plots.

Lost Films

     There are several “lost” films in the history of the Watch Tower Society. The 1914 Photodrama of Creation was a big success and since at least twenty complete sets were produced, the majority of it survived – both in private hands as well as official archives. But subequent Bible Student films have not fared so well.

     There was a Photodrama “sequel" produced by Bible Students in 1917 called Restitution. It really needs its own article, but sad to say, only a few minutes have as yet been discovered. It was renamed several times in a troubled history and was finally rebranded as Redemption and sold in pieces on 16 mm film in the late 1920s.

     Some film was taken by secular sources. In 1913 when CTR arrived at the Hot Springs, Arkansas, convention, his arrival was filmed (see 1913 convention report page 66). The Hot Springs New Era newspaper for June 7, 1913, also said that the baptism ceremony was filmed by the same cameraman. But at the end of the year (Hot Springs New Era for 30 December 1913) in response to an IBSA enquiry, there were recriminations between cameraman, studio and express company when the negatives disappeared in transit. So I wouldn’t hold your breath for film of Pastor Russell alighting from a 1913 train any time soon.

     When the Chicago 1921 Pageant of Progress exhibition was filmed, the IBSA stand was reportedly featured (see write-up by Fred Franz’ brother Albert in New Era Enterprise for September 6, 1921). However, most newsreel material was very short-lived. Once shown, if shown at all, such films were usually melted down to reuse the silver and nitrocellulose base.

     But returning to the Bible Students’ own endeavors, the bumper year for lost films seems to be 1922.

     That year the Bible Students held a convention at Philadelphia over four days, April 13-16. It started in the Moose Hall and later transferred to the Metropolitan Opera House for the public meeting, where Joseph F Rutherford gave the public lecture. The review of the whole event as found in the New Era Enterprise newspaper for May 30, 1922, page 4, mentioned a special film show.

     So on the Friday evening, at Moose Hall, to an audience of around 1500 people, 8 reels of moving pictures were shown. For that size of audience it would have been on regular 35 mm film and would have been the length of a modest feature film. The convention program showed what this film contained.

     Whether this was raw unedited footage or a professional presentation we do not know, but what is obvious is that these films were soon edited down quite severely to make two one-reelers, one on Palestine, and one on Imperial Valley. This was as part of the Kinemo project, described in the New Era Enterprise for July 11, 1922, and also in The Watch Tower for May 1, 1922.

     There were three films in total in the original Kinemo project, the two aforementioned and a third on the Great Pyramid. They were produced on safety film (rather than dangerous nitrate stock) on a substandard film gauge, 17.5 mm. They could only be seen with a special Kinemo projector, designed for home or parlor use. All three films featured Joseph F Rutherford in cameo appearances.

     As earlier articles on this blog have covered, the three Kinemo films survived in private hands and have been painstakingly copied frame by frame, which is why you can see them on YouTube.

     But the question we are left with is – what about the remaining six reels as shown in Philadelphia in April 1922?

     The 1922 convention that everyone remembers today is the much larger event held later that year in September at Cedar Point, Ohio. This too provides a tantalising glimse of lost films.

     First, most will have seen the Watchtower Society’s recent call for the footage actually taken at this Cedar Point convention. This is based on an advertisement in the New Era Enterprise over several issues in October and November, 1922.

     This venture (or something similar) was suggested in the Convention Notes as found in the Enterprise for October 31, 1922.

     It is hoped that someone somewhere still has this footage. In this 100^th anniversary year of this convention, it would be special indeed if it survived and could be restored. Extant photographs of the event show a full sized camera filming J F Rutherford as he spoke out of doors in “The Grove.” Time will tell. It should be noted that as well as the 17.5 mm Kinemo version, it was also possible to buy a standard 35 mm print from the same source.

     However, motion pictures were also shown at this convention, which provides even more “lost” films to consider.  Again from the Enterprise for October 31, 1922:

     The views of Egypt, Palestine and Imperial Valley were obviously the current Kinemo trilogy in some shape or form, but what about the other films?

     The description talked about “Views of the Bible House (back in Pittsburgh?) and other organization buildings and offices in Brooklyn, the Bethel Home, etc., the printing and binding of books and pamphlets, etc.” These films were shown on three evenings, Friday to Sunday.

     But what happened to them thereafter?

     Since the Society did not retain 1922 footage that was actually sold to the public at the time, this does not bode well for these other films ever surfacing.

     But stranger things have happened.

     We might end by asking why such films became “lost?” The Society’s experience during the Great War, and its view of the future, meant that archiving was not always a high priority, certainly not for material viewed as ephemeral at the time. Even when the Society produced a reprint of the first 40 years of (Zion’s) Watch Tower they had to appeal to private collectors to help them complete their file for the project. And who would know that a hundred years after these events there would be interest in these old moving pictures? We might easily make the same mistakes today in choosing what or what not to keep in our personal video DVD collection.

     Material in private hands may survive for a while, but when people die their relatives may well throw out things because they don’t realize their significence. Like many collectors I have followed up leads only for them to repeatedly end this way. It is good that now there is now far more interest in preserving the past and that technology allows for greater sharing.