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Monday, October 1, 2018

Tentative chapter end: Food for Thinking Christians

This is up for comment ... COMMENT. Not that we'll get many. Mostly because many of our readers have never researched this material. But we always hope ...



A Twentieth-Century writer suggests that Food for Thinking Christians is Russell’s most important book. In that it was the first widely-spread dissemination of Watch Tower teachings, this is true. Criticisms such are Rall’s and those of more modern anti-sect writers ignore or diminish the significance of the long history of Historicist interpretation of prophecy. A more thorough going Biblical discussion would have benefited all parties. It did not occur in any meaningful way.
What did occur was an increase of resignations from former church affiliation on the part of newly converted Watch Tower adherents. Russell printed one such letter in the December 1881, Watch Tower. Written by a woman to her congregation of sixteen years, it was a plain statement of the essentials of Watch Tower teaching:

Believing that we are in the harvest of the Gospel Age as spoken of in Matt. 13:30, when the reapers are separating the wheat from the tares, which the Lord has permitted to grow together during the age, and also that the nominal church of all denominations is represented by the wheat and tares in the field– in which both have been growing, and that its mixed condition of worldly-mindedness and lukewarm Christianity is displeasing in the sight of our Lord, I have … concluded to sell all that I once found dear–my reputation and my friends if need be–my time, my talents, my means, my all.

This mixed condition of truth and error, worldliness and lukewarmness, etc., I believe to be the Babylon described in Rev. 18, in which are still some of the Lord’s dear children. To all such he says, (vs. 4) “Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

In obedience to this command, I ask to have my name taken off the list of membership of the nominal church. It is written in the Lamb’s book of life and that is enough.

In withdrawing my name I do not withdraw my affections from you, but would if I could have you all “as ripened wheat,” gathered into the barn – condition of safety, rather than bound with the bundles of tares for the burning – with the “fire of God’s jealousy.”

Let me urge you each to a deeper consecration and a more thorough searching of the Scriptures.

Others separated from their previous church affiliation forming de facto congregations in cities where more than one shared similar beliefs. The congregation in Albany, New York, dated its formation to 1881 and by implication the publication of Food for Thinking Christians. They called themselves “Believers in the Restitution,”[1] one of many names used by congregations of Watch Tower adherents. Some were initially skeptical of the message, only to take it up later. Others believed the message on first reading and became life-long adherents. In 1916, A. P. Logan, of Houston, Texas, wrote that he “loved this present Truth since ... ‘Food for Thinking Christians’ first was issued. He considered Russell as “second only to St. Paul.”[2] H. M. Glass recalled his introduction to the message: “In 1881 ... a package of ‘Towers’ came to our Sunday school superintendent, who distributed them to the school. We got one and with it, the Allegheny address of the editor. We next got ‘Food for Thinking Christians.’ Ever since that good day we have been bountifully supplied with ‘meat in due season.’”[3]
Henry Rudolf Riemer, an immigrant from Germany[4], received his copy through a personal visit in 1883. His son, Hugo Henry Riemer recalled it this way:

In 1883, my father, then a presiding elder over a district of the Methodist church in the middle western part of the United States, answered a knock at his door. There stood one of the early witnesses of Jehovah holding up a paperbound book entitled “Food for Thinking Christians,” written and published by C. T. Russell. After a greeting, he told my father, “Mister, here is a book that will make you happy with the only true happiness.” He then handed the book to my father, who thumbed through it, noting the many Scripture quotations and citations in it. Being impressed by the earnestness of the man, who had kept on talking to him, he gave a contribution for the book.

Mother was just packing father’s traveling bag for a weekend trip on the train. He handed her the book, requesting that she put it in his grip on the very top of his things. After he had taken a seat on the train, he opened his grip and took the book out and began reading. He finished reading it when the train arrived at his destination, and he said to himself, “Thank God! That is the truth.”

When father arrived home, he said to mother, after greeting her and us four boys, “Mamma, I have found the truth.” Mother said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Do you remember that book you packed in my traveling bag? I want you to read it and let me know what you think of it.” But he had some misgivings as to her reaction, because she was the daughter of a lay preacher. She read the book and then said to father, “If that is the truth, we have no place in the Methodist church.” With rejoicing father said, “Mamma, those are the most precious words I ever heard you speak.” I was five years old at the time, but from then until now, at the age of 86, Jehovah has not failed to show his love toward me as he poured it out on my father and mother.[5]
  
photo:
Heinrich Reimer

H. H. Riemer’s account leaves out significant detail, and it implies that his father remained a Watch Tower adherent. However, his father Henry [Heinrich] Reimer’s obituary appears in The Dawn, an opposition journal:

Brother Riemer became a Christian at an early age and because of this stand was forced to leave his father’s home. He studied for the Christian ministry and was faithful as a minister in the Methodist Church until he was privileged to see the light of present truth as a result of reading Pastor Russell's booklet, “Food for Thinking Christians, or Why Evil Was Permitted,” published in 1881. With a family of young children to support he withdrew from the Methodist ministry, studied Medicine and was successful as a medical doctor until his retirement late in life. His third and final stand for Christian principle came when he, in company with others of like precious faith, discerned the errors of the Society, and withdrew there from in 1928. Up to the last moments of his life he gave evidence, though with failing memory along most lines, of clearness in his understanding of the fundamental doctrines of present truth. He finished his earthly course on Thursday, October 29th, 1936, at 90 years of age.[6]

W. E. Haller encountered the booklet shortly after it was published. Writing about his experience in 1917, he recalled that “‘Food for Thinking Christians’ was my first book to digest, and [I] still have it.” He moved for work to a town near Allegheny, attending meetings held in the Grand Army of the Republic Hall on Federal Street, Allegheny, starting in July 1887. He committed to the faith in 1888, entering the colporteur work shortly afterward. Recalling his work, he wrote: “Nothing but Millennial Dawns, in paper leaves, was out at the time I first heard him. [i.e. Russell.] Those I introduced by colporteuring up the Monongahela valley during the summer of 1889, the second volume being first published that season.[7]
Ellen S. Dodge [born April 1852] was also introduced to the Watch Tower faith through Food for Thinking Christians. We do not know how the booklet reached remote Schoolcraft County on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and it probably doesn’t matter in this context. She “received comfort from its pages,” she wrote, and “surrendered [her] will to the Lord.”[8]
John L. Mears [May 1837-1920] was a Civil War veteran, serving in two Ohio Volunteer Infantry regiments. His parents emigrated from Lancashire, England, in 1828. About two years before his death John wrote:

After being raised a Baptist by strict religious parents, my father being a minister. I naturally believed a great deal just as it came to my ears at boyhood; but later, doubts arose as to the dealings of God to humanity. So I went on with doubt and fears ... when one day I got a little book called “Food for Thinking Christians,” and I just devoured it and that gave me an appetite for more of the same. I got the Watch Tower and of course that was pretty strong “meat,” but finding that the Tower was in accord with Scripture, I have simply read about everything that our dear Pastor has written.[9]

            George Washington Haney [born 1844], a Kansas farmer, received a copy in 1881. He read it and still had it in his possession in 1914. He arranged to meet Russell in the “early eighties.” “I have read and kept in close tough with everything that he has put out,” Haney wrote.[10] Haney saw participation in the world’s affairs as compromise: “I saw that the enemy is the ruler of this world, and, as I could not serve two masters, I gave up politics, and have not voted since.” He thought serving on a jury and swearing to tell the truth in court were both wrong. He dated adopting these beliefs to near the time he read Russell’s booklet.[11] There are many others whose names we know who persisted in the Watch Tower faith after reading Food for Thinking Christians, but a long list seems irrelevant. The booklet developed interest, and new workers entered the field, some sharing their faith locally and some becoming itinerate evangelists.
            Jane Ann Marwood [Aug. 1834 – Jan. 11, 1927], with her husband Robert, immigrated to America, settling in Nebraska in 1866, and acquiring a small-hold farm. By 1907 her husband is described as an early-days pioneer and a prominent cattleman living near Clearwater, Nebraska.[12]
            Without otherwise defining it, she wrote of ‘a time of trouble’ that turned her thoughts to Christ, and if she hadn’t been a Bible reader before she became one. (Most likely this was the great grasshopper plague.) “I well remember the time when as I was reading Rom. 12:1, it struck me that I had never presented my body a living sacrifice, and being alone, I fell on my knees and, then and there, consecrated. That was somewhere in the late seventies.”[13] A “dear old brother” in the Congregational Church gave her a copy of Food for Thinking Christians. She studied it carefully, consulting the cited Scriptures. She was convinced:

When I received the first copy of Food for Thinking Christians ... and had read and proved it true from the scriptures, I knew I had been taught wrong all my life, and being a teacher in the Sunday School, was teaching others wrong. On my knees I asked forgiveness for the wrong I had done, in the blessed name of Jesus, and God surely heard my cry for light. I sent for the Watch Tower, and the dear Lord led me out of darkness into His Marvelous Light. From that time on I tried to lead others into the light but for years no one would listen.[14]

            That no-one would listen is not totally true. At least one of her eleven children did. In late 1899 or very early in 1900, [Probably December 1899 or early January 1900.] she send Russell five dollars for ‘an order,’ asking him to “put the balance into the Tract Fund. “Some of it is from my daughter,” she wrote.[15] When she accepted Watch Tower teaching as Scriptural Truth, she returned to the friend who had given her the tract. His reaction was unexpected:

The man who first gave me Food for Thinking Christians ... used to say, when I told him of the light I had received: ‘Mrs. Marwood, I do not want that light. It is ignis fatuus light. Every time I received more light on different scriptures I tried to tell him about it, but he would have none of it, and to this day no memeber of his family will look at Brother Russell’s writings. It made my heard sat. When I would go to church or Sunday School they were all afraid of me, thinking I would lead some of their members astray, and my name was cast out as evil.[16]

            Not long after reading Food she subscribed to Zion’s Watch Tower. In a letter to Russell written in 1909, she recalled: “I had always prayed for you and all those who labored with you in the watch tower office, from the time I first took the tower, which was in 1882.”[17] We lose track of Jane Marwood after 1915. However, by 1922 there was enough interest in Clearwater, Nebraska to warrant a visit from W. M. Wisdom, a traveling Watch Tower representative, who spent two days there in 1921.[18] And visits in 1922 by O. L. Sullivan, R. L. Robie, and J. A. Bohnet and regularly thereafter by traveling “brethren.”
             Marwood’s experience illustrates several things. Here, it illustrates the enduring conviction of ‘truth’ engendered in some by reading Food for Thinking Christians and The Watch Tower. In other chapters we note the expulsion of Watch Tower adherent people from their previous churches, not because of untoward behavior, but for contrary belief. In one chapter we consider the evangelical persistence of the sole adherents within their comunities. Marwood’s experience fits neatly into all of these narratives.


[1]               His Second Coming: Believers in the Restitution Say Christ Will Come again in 1914, The Albany, New York, Evening Journal, May 28, 1900. There is no record of this group in contemporary issues of Zion’s Watch Tower. This article comprises the entire history of the Albany congregation before the 1890’s. In 1900 they met in the home of Fredrick Clapham at 288 First Street. The article is vague, and it is possible that instead of the congregation being formed that year, it was a reference to the formation of Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society. The actual quotation is: “The ‘Believers in the Restitution is a society organized in 1881. It is comparatively small in this city, but in several sections and in England, it is flourishing.
[2]               Note from Logan to Editor of St. Paul Enterprise¸ January 18, 1916, issue.
[3]               Letter from Glass to Editor of St Paul Enterprise, March 7, 1916, issue.
[4]               Born in August 18, 1848, Marienwerder, East Prussia. Died October 29, 1936, in Buchanan. Missouri. Married Emilie Balcke in 1871.
[5]               H. H. Riemer: Experiencing Jehovah’s Love, The Watchtower, September 15, 1964, page 571.
[6]               The Passing of Brother H. R. Riemer, The Dawn, January 1937, pages 32-33.
[7]               Letter from Haller to Editor of St. Paul Enterprise, February 27, 1917, issue.
[8]               Letter from Dodge to Editor of St. Paul Enterprise, January 16, 1917, issue.
[9]               Letter from Haney to Editor of St. Paul Enterprise, January 2, 1914, issue.
[10]             Letter from Haney to Editor of St. Paul Enterprise, January 2, 1914, issue.
[11]             Letter from Haney to Russell found in the article: Practical Questions, Zion’s Watch Tower, May 15, 1893, page 154.
[12]             Untitled article, The Norfolk, Nebraska, Weekly News-Journal, July 5, 1907.
[13]             J. A. Marwood: Letter to Editor, St. Paul Enterprise, July 30, 1915, issue.
[14]             ibid.
[15]             J. A. Marwood to Russell, found in Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, January 15, 1900, page 16. [Not in Reprints]
[16]             J. A. Marwood: Letter to Editor, St. Paul Enterprise, July 30, 1915, issue.
[17]             J. A. Marwood to Russell, found in An Interesting Letter: Zion’s Watch Tower, May 15, 1909, page 159.
[18]             International Bible Students Association: Lectures and Classes by Traveling Brethren, The Watch Tower, August 15, 1921, page 256.

Friday, September 28, 2018

I know ...

I know many of our readers are more interested in side-issues and Watch Tower trivia than solid, significant research. I am not unsympathetic. Solid, significant research is much more difficult to do, and sometimes it's the trivia that leads to something important. And research at depth requires more thought - sometimes painful thought - to understand.

So, having written that, here's a bit of trivia that is part of more significant research.


Arthur Melin: A Barren Land Becomes Fertile, The Watchtower, October 1, 1994, page 21, talks about his father without naming him. Two letters from his father appear in Zion's Watch Tower. They're signed O. C. Melin. We suspect this is Oscar Charles Melin. O. C. Melin went by Charles. 

O. C. Melin plays a part in a volume 2 chapter entitled In All the Earth: Canada. We need a firm identification for O. C. Melin. Can you help.

1914 Baptism




Ultimately there was quite a nice response to the recent Quiz photograph both in comments on the blog and back-channel. Here is the complete photograph that can be found in a rather poor reproduction opposite page 112 in the 1914 convention report, captioned “Receiving instructions. Re: Immersion service.”

The people in the picture (from left to right) are:  Robert Hollister, John A Bohnet, Charles T Russell, and Edward W Brenneisen.

The “mystery” character in the recent quiz was John Adam Bohnet. He was regularly photographed in convention reports between 1906 and 1927 but for the studio portraits was nearly always hatless. This meant that what stood out as his principal identifying mark was a shiny bald head. Pictured here with a hat on was designed to confuse for the recent quiz – and succeeded.

Bohnet is an interesting subject – CTR’s private secretary who typed letters for him to Maria, who typed out Joseph Lytle Russell’s last will and testament, who designed and built the pyramid monument on the United Cemeteries plot, and who literally grew “miracle wheat.” An article on his life story is in preparation. Below is the cover of a 1909 cemetery photo book with his portrait.



Tuesday, September 25, 2018

We need a volunteer


I found a number articles in Hawaiian newspapers that address an important issue. I have them as pdf files. We need someone to type them out in word format. Most of them are very short. Can you help?

Lecture advertisement

The Rock Island Argus, Jan. 3, 1913

Mystery photo


This is a little bit of light audience participation. Can you identify the person photographed with CTR? I will wait three days before giving the answer, so feel free to suggest whoever you think it might be, even if someone else has already given the same answer. We can then compare notes.

The photograph is taken from a larger picture that featured four people. A rather poor reproduction can be found in one of the convention reports but it doesn't reveal who the characters are. This nice clear print comes from a good copy that originally belonged to Rose Hirsh.

Enjoy.


The answer is now in the comment trail.


Monday, September 24, 2018

Rutherford et. all released. ...

Not relevant to the time period we write about, but interesting. This is from The, Aurora, Missouri, Menace of April 12, 1919. The Menace was an anti-Catholic paper.


It's probably worth reminding our readers ...

If you have research projects of your own that involve American events, this site is one of the major newspaper search resources ....

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/titles/

Outside our focus era, but ....


Perrysburg, Ohio, Register - Feb. 28, 1918

Our thanks,

Bruce's emails thanking those who contributed to our purchase of a very expensive but needed book seem to have bounced. So I am thanking everyone through this blog post. We received a bit more than we needed for the book in question. This allows us to pay for photocopies we have put off buying because of what I see as obscene expense. Our profoundest appreciation to you all.

Saturday, September 22, 2018

We need

We need to quickly raise $40.00 to buy an otherwise very expensive book for our research. If you can, paypal works through Mr. Schulz' email.

Submission

We would entertain articles on the prevalence of millennialist views in Scandanavia, the UK, Germany and Switzerland from the late 17th Century to 1900. We cannot pay for submitted and published articles. They must be footnoted to original sources. Some secondary source citation is acceptable. No more than five thousand words. Submissions should be reasonably well-written. If English is a second language for you we will work with you to put it in proper form.

Groups and individuals you mention need not resemble Watch Tower belief, only believe in the return of Christ and an impending millennial reign.

If we cannot use your submission we will send a simple rejection letter. If we like what you send but think it needs additional work, we will give you an opportunity to revise your work.

Send submissions to rmdevienne at yahoo.

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Allegheny City

Old photos give us an idea of what living there was like. Here is one showing part of the 4th of July parade, 1907. Not directly related to Russel and the Watch Tower, but informative.


To get the 'flavor' of Allegheny in the Russell era, you may want to visit this:

https://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/thedigs/2013/03/11/butchers-run-flood-devastates-ohara-street-in-1874/

Charles Taze Russell's Private Secretaries


by Bernhard


(edited by Jerome)





RUSSELL, MARIA FRANCES
December 1884 – November 1897

When Charles T. Russell became president of Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society, on December 15, 1884, his wife Maria Frances became secretary and treasurer. In general, she was his secretary, who proofread his manuscripts and did the usual work of an office assistant. On some chapters in the Millennial Dawn series she co-labored with Charles in arranging them in final form and especially so for volume IV, which consisted largely of quotations from newspaper clippings which they had selected for some years. In evaluating the true function of Maria, it appears that she acted in the capacity of special assistant to Charles as his loyal wife. She was studious, college trained, and capable in her own right. No doubt Charles utilized her talents to the fullest, not only in secretarial functions, but in acting as organizer and arranger of his manuscript notes.

When Maria separated from Charles in November 1897, he needed another secretary, and this was Ernest C. Henninges.




HENNINGES, ERNEST CHARLES
November 1897 – April 1900

Ernest was born on July 12, 1871 in Cuyahoga (Cleveland) Ohio and died on February 3, 1939 in Victoria, Australia. His father Emil Henninges (1828 – 1892) came from Germany. His mother Kate was born 1840 in Ohio. He had one brother George (born 1858). Ernest’s profession was teaching music in Cleveland at 44 Euclid Avenue.

After he joined the Bible Students he moved to Allegheny in 1891 to work and live in the Bible House. On January 4, 1896, he replaced James Augustus Weimar as a director of the Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society and in May 13, 1898, 6 months after Maria left the Bible House, Ernest succeeded her as secretary-treasurer. Russell trusted him a lot.

In the Bible House also lived Rose Ball, the foster child of Charles T. and Maria Russell. On September 11, 1897, Ernest and Rose were married at Buffalo, Erie, New York, where her parents Richard J. Ball and Elizabeth Ball still lived. 

At the beginning of 1900, Russell planned to send Ernest and Rose Henninges to England to open an office for the Society. So it was clear that another brother needed to become secretary-treasurer, and this was Otto Albert Koetitz on February 12, 1900, and also another brother, Albert E. Williamson, became Russell’s private secretary. Ernest remained a director. 

In April 1900 Ernest and Rose travelled to Liverpool and then to London, where they opened on April 23, the first office outside the United States,  at 131 Gipsy Lane, Forest Gate. They stayed there until November 1, 1901, and then came back to Allegheny. Ernest again became treasurer of the Society on February 12, 1902 and remained such until March 24, 1903. On that date William Van Amburgh became treasurer. In March 1903 Ernest and Rose travelled to Elberfeld (Wuppertal), Germany, and again opened an office for the Society in June 1903. They stayed there until October and then went to Melbourne, Australia, arriving on January 10, 1904.

In 1908 some internal troubles surfaced. James Hezekiah Giesey, Watch Tower vice-president and well-known Pittsburgh architect, along with long time director Simon Osborne Blunden, resigned as Society directors in June. Albert Williamson followed in September. Henninges also resigned as a director in January 1909, and he and his wife left Russell and the Bible Students in the spring of 1909. Henninges founded a new group and journal called “New Covenant Advocate” in Australia and those in America like Giesey, Williamson, along with hymn writer M.L. Mc Phail, formed a similar breakaway group.


WILLIAMSON, ALBERT EDMUND
 April 1900 – September 1908

Albert Williamson was born on February 13, 1878 in Oneida Township, Haldimand, Balloville, Ontario, Canada. He was the son of James and Elizabeth Bayly (born 1839) and he had a twin brother Frederik William and also a sister Annie. Albert married Hattie (Harriet) Stark (born Allegheny, December 1879) a member of the Bible House family on December 5, 1905. She lived there with her mother Britee C. Stark.  Albert and Harriet had three daughters Dorothy Eleanor (September 9, 1911), Elizabeth K. (1916) and Edith Anna (1920).

He became a member of the Bible House staff in 1899, along with his mother, and later, in 1905, his brother Fred. On February 12, 1900 he became a Watch Tower Society director. He resigned on September 28, 1908. Interesting is that his twin brother Frederick William replaced him as a Society director for one year.

When Ernest C. Henninges travelled to England in April 1900, Albert Edmund Williamson replaced him as Russell‘s private secretary.

The "Crittenden Record, Kentucky“, for February 8, 1907, contained a report about a talk Williamson gave.  Under the heading: THE END OF THE WORLD IS NEAR AT HAND it explained: “October 1914 is the date set for the end to come. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Alleghany, Penn., through Mr. A. Edmund Williamson, announce the above date to be the beginning of the millennium. Mr. Williamson, who is secretary to Charles T. Russell, head of the society, did not, however, announce that there would be a general conflagration of the earth and an incineration of all the wicked on that date, but rather a "great change.""

Williamson was a very eloquent speaker, but more important was his skill as a stenographer. Russell wrote about him (Souvenir Convention Report from 1908):  "In my publishing office we have ten stenoographers, but only one of them could serve in such an emergency—Mr. Williamson—and he consented to assist also. So far as I know none of these gentlemen expect or have received pay for the service, and only Mr. Williamson even has his expenses provided.“  Also in 1908 Russell wrote that he received about 500 letters every Monday and the rest of the week from 250 to 300 a day. So there was a lot of work for him and his secretary.

Sadly in late 1908 Williamson decided to leave the Bible House, but not only the house, he also split from Russell in early 1909. He died in March 1956, when he lived in Essex, West Orange, New Jersey.



ROBISON, FREDERI(C)K HOMER Prof.
 September 1908 – 1914 (?)

Much of Robison‘s history comes from Robison’s obituary in the Concordant Version magazine “Unsearchable Riches“ in 1932, because he was to leave association with the IBSA in 1922. He was born on February 3, 1885 in Greenwood, Indiana and died April 17, 1932 in Manhattan, New York. He was the only son of James A. Robison (1859-1949) and Eva J. Whitenack (1862-1955), of Oakland, California. He had two sisters named Bartha B. and May E. It was there that he spent his youth, graduating from high school at the age of fourteen. It was about this time that he affiliated with the Disciples of Christ. He entered Franklin College to continue his education and there further displayed an aptitude for languages in the study of New Testament Greek.

Later he went to Canada and took out a claim in the Rainy River district of Ontario. He resided there about one year, teaching part time and part time employed in the immigration service. He returned to Indiana in 1904 and entered Butler College in Indianapolis, remaining there until the opening of Winona Technical Institute, also in Indianapolis, and enrolled there as a student of lithography that he might be equipped not only for his present need, but to have the knowledge of a trade, for use in the missionary field. It was his purpose to carry the gospel to Japan independently.

With a year's instruction at the John Herrin Art Institute in Indianapolis and some knowledge of chemistry to his credit, he made splendid progress and in less than two years accepted a position as poster artist in one of the largest lithographing houses in the United States, located at Cleveland, Ohio. He became one of their foremen in charge of artists. It was while in this position that he pursued the reading of Pastor Russell's works, having become slightly interested during his sojourn in Canada. During all this time his linguistic talents were being exercised more or less in the attainment of a knowledge of Spanish, French and German, as well as New Testament Greek. After reading Pastor Russell's works, he employed a Japanese friend to translate some of the literature into Japanese, still thinking of the foreign mission field, but later abandoned this to become a home missionary, as a colporteur for Pastor Russell's works.
After about one year in this new field of endeavor, he prepared for secretarial service and was called to the Bible House in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. It was there that he met Miss Almeta Nation, whom he married on March 25, 1909. He became private secretary to Pastor Russell and held that position until after the Society's offices were transferred to Brooklyn, New York, in 1909. As private secretary to Pastor Russell he accompanied him on a trip around the world (December 1911 – March 1912) with a committee sent to investigate foreign missions. Japan was one of the places visited.
On his return, Robison became secretary of the foreign work and he had a good opportunity for pursuing the study of languages. His obituary stated that he could translate twenty-three in all, giving discourses in German, Greek, and English. He made week-end pilgrimages in and about New York City, addressing both public and private gatherings.
Robison was one of four men designated in Russell‘s will to be co-editors of the Watch Tower. Apart from when imprisoned with J F Rutherford and others in 1918-1919, he was one of the Watch Tower’s editorial committee until the spring of 1922 when he resigned and went to Washington, D. C., to accept secular work as a commercial artist in the art department of the Washington Post. He afterwards served the government and later became art director for the American Automobile Association, with headquarters in Washington, D. C. He returned to work in New York in 1931, and died on April 17, 1932.
When the first installment of the literal Bible translation “The Concordant Version” was issued it came to the attention of the Society’s headquarters. As the plates of the Emphatic Diaglott were worn out, they were looking for something to replace it, and Robison was delegated to call on the Concordant Publishing Concern in Los Angeles with a view to placing it on the Society's list of literature. A small booklet of the Concordant translation of Revelation was advertised in the Watch Tower for June 15, 1920, but then was dropped in early 1921.
The contact with the Concordant version group, who were Universalists, led to Robison leaving association with the IBSA, resigning from the Watch Tower editorial committee and as an elder of the New York congregation. He spent the rest of the 1920s supporting the Concordant cause and trying to attract his former IBSA associates to it. (For a fuller description of what happened and how the Watch Tower Society dealt with it, use the search facility to see an old article on this blog: The Watchtower and Universalism – the Almont Connection.)


STURGEON, MENTA
 1914 (?) – October 1916

Menta Sturgeon was born 1866/67 in Missouri and died on April 17, 1935. He married Florence A. (born 1871 in Massachusetts) in 1888 and they had one son Gordon (born 1899).

Sturgeon graduated from the Theological Seminary of the Southern Baptist Church and studied Greek and Hebrew. In the late 1880s, he worked for the Kansas & Texas Coal Company, and lived at 4001 N. B 'Way, St. Louis, Missouri. In March 1897 the members of his church unanimously appointed him a pastor, a position he assumed until his resignation in 1904. He was reverend of a Baptist Church in the city, the Tower Grove Baptist Church, located at 4320 avenue. However, he left the church after internal dissension.

He came into contact with Russell's teachings in 1894 through a small book handed to him by his physician, but it was only 14 years later that he attended his teaching when he attended readings Biblical records given by the pastor at Arch Street: first as a simple listener, then as the pastor's interlocutor. In the meantime, he preached independently, and then added his own disciples to Russell's group. Finally, he received a letter from the pastor asking him if he could become a lecturer for him, which Sturgeon accepted, and so in 1909 he left the society in which he worked; apparently it was the Blackmer & Post Pipe Company.

He was a member of the Saint Louis Ecclesia. As a pilgrim, from 1909-1914 he visited  central and eastern states of the United States, as well as various provinces of Canada. He was a capable speaker. He came to work at the Watch Tower headquarters around 1910, where he first worked on general supervision and then conducted Bible classes and religious services.

In addition to being Russell's secretary, Sturgeon was also responsible for helping the latter in his medical treatments. He was the last of the Bible Students to see Russell alive. On Russell’s last tour, he had to replace him at times in Los Angeles, and was with him when he died on the train on the return journey to Brooklyn. Sturgeon reported in detail the last days of his life in the Watch Tower publications.

In the split that followed Rutherford’s election as president, Sturgeon supported the four dismissed directors, and was put forward as an alternative choice as president. In the subseqent referendum comparatively few voted for him.

Sturgeon was to leave both the Watch Tower Society and the alternative Bible Student groups, to join Fredrik Robison in supporting the Concordant Publishing Concern. He died on August 17, 1935 and the group’s magazine published an obituary from which some of the above has been taken.


Tuesday, September 18, 2018

J. B. Keim

Keim ran as Socialist Labor candidate for New Jersey governor in 1892. Name confusion resulted in his appearing on the ballot as George B. Keim. The confusion was not cleared up until after the election. Once this is discovered, more information about Keim is revealed. Including this ...

A Newspaper 'Cut' of J. B. Keim - 1892.

Friday, September 14, 2018

A Temporary Post

Rough draft of a chapter from volume 2. This has been on the blog before in an earlier form. There are mysteries remaining. They may never be solved. If you can add to this please do so. This post will have a limited life due to copyright and publication issues. The usual rules. You may keep a copy for your own use. Do not share it off the blog without our permission. Realize it may change as better information comes our way. You will note a name change from the last version. This is the result of just such an event. We do not need proof reading yet, though if you spot errors, please do note them. This is up for your comments. Please make them.

If you're going to comment Now it the Time. This comes down on Tuesday.



New Workers Enter the Field

            It is impossible to name everyone who showed interest or who became an adherent. Some of the names we encounter are those of Age-to-Come/One Faith believers. Edward Payson Woodward, whom we met in Nelson Barbour: The Millennium’s Forgotten Prophet as chairman of the Worcester Conference and found in sympathy with Barbour, wrote that several of his “personal friends … accepted Mr. Russell as their Leader and spiritual Guide.” He read Millennial Dawn (later Studies in the Scriptures), but rejected it.[1] Many more adherents 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. We have elected to present biographies of early evangelists even though they spill over this book’s nominal 1887 terminus. Our readers will find a mixture of personalities. Some were committed believers for life. Some had passing interest, and some left the work full of bitterness.
            There is no better explanation for varied institutional adherence than Jesus’ parable of the sower. (Matthew 13:18-23.) We do not suggest a prophetic fulfillment among Watch Tower readers. But we feel Jesus’ explanation of varied results among his followers is based on shrewd observation of organizational loyalty. He divided results into several categories: [1] Those who fail to truly understand the message. These will eventually leave. [2] Enthusiastic supporters without a firm commitment. W. H. Cassirer translated Matthew 13:20 as “He is a person without roots, one with whom nothing ever lasts.” These drop out when they meet opposition. [3] Those whose interest is choked out by daily cares or “the seduction which comes from wealth.” [4] Those who understand the organizational message and are firmly convinced by it.

Illustration
The Buffalo, New York, Evening News
February 22, 1898.
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]

            The closest we have to a firm identity is an inscription on the inside cover of Food for Thinking Christians hard bound together with Tabernacle Teachings and gifted from Sunderlin to a G. L. McCormack.
          The remainder of this post has been deleted.

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

We need a copy of this ....



Dissertation
The Apocalyptic Interpretation of History of American Premillennial Groups
Ludwigson, Carl 1944

If you have this, please send us a scan.

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

We need more and better biographical detail for this man

PAWNEE COUNTY NEWS
Garfield, Kansas
Thursday, October 23, 1924

Don E. Aldrich, Sr. was born near Reading, Mich., September 15, 1852, died October 15, 1924, aged 72 years and one month of heart trouble.

The deceased was left an orphan at 8 years of age and continued his residence in his native state till 15 years old when he came to Iowa, where he made his home with an elder brother. From Iowa, he went to North Dakota where he stayed two years. From this state, he went to Salina, Kans., where, after remaining till 21, he filed upon a homestead in Smith county, at Smith Center. He then went to Provinceville, Nebraska, to marry Alice Williamson. They were married September 12, 1875, and returned with her to his homestead at Smith county, which was seventy-five miles from a railroad. And this was the beginning of a home in frontier life, as it was the day of the Indian and buffalo. At this home, his four children were born. He moved to Montgomery county, Mo. in 1882, remaining there about twenty-one years. His family home near Garfield, Kans., covers a lapse of twenty years. He joined the Free Will Baptist church at fifteen and later went into the Presbyterian church, which his wife and four children joined. In 1874, his attention was called to Pastor Russell's work on the Bible and he has since that date been an ardent advocate of these doctrines. His life has been that of a humble, loyal disciple of Christ. He was of a retiring disposition having little to do with society of any kind. His love and labor being given to his home and study, although his warmest hospitality was nevertheless extended to all who entered his home.

His funeral services were conducted in the Garfield Congregational church by E.R. Williams of Buffalo, Okla., an International Bible student, and the remains were laid to rest in Garfield cemetery.

Those who mourn his loss are his wife and sister and four children. The children are: Clara E. McAdams, Lewis, Kans.; Nell V. Aldrich, Neosho, Mo.; Chas. J. Aldrich, Garfield, Kan.; Don E. Aldrich, Garfield, Kan.; his sister, Mrs. Morris, Howell, Mich.

Saturday, September 8, 2018

Among those reading the blog today

Tuxedo Park, New York, United States
Watchtower Bible And Tract Society Of New York (208.74.140.118) Label Visitor
Search Referral:https://www.google.com/ (Keywords Unavailable) 
Visit Page: Watch Tower History: Adolphe Weber

Friday, September 7, 2018

Research issue

Do we know who compiled Poems of Dawn?

yes we do. silly me for forgetting.

http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2015/09/poems-of-dawn.html

Alice Oliver

We need a basic biography of Alice Oliver, the author of the poem Women's Mission in Poems of Dawn. The name may be a pseudonym.The original title was The Rights of Woman.

In addition to the author name noted by Jerome, several sources give the combined name
“The Rights of Woman”
– poem by Miss M E Mitchek B M Kimberly
as the author.

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

From Bernard



Dear Rachael!

I will clearify something from an older blog post. It’s from December 29, 2014, “A letter to Maria” which mentioned a sister J. Vero, and in your comment you say this could be the wife of Joseph Vero (Wt 1906).

I researched the Koetitz family and can tell you this: Sister J. Vero is Jennie (Jenny) Vero (see in later Wt, where her full name is found). Jennie Vero married Albert Otto Koetitz. The Joseph Vero mentioned in 1906 was Jennie's brother. So this was not a couple, but brother and sister.

So many thanks for all and nice to see your new article about Storrs.

Bernhard