Solving a puzzle

The claim is sometimes made in print that Russell exhibited at the Centenial Exhibition in 1876. We looked through every list of exhibitors we could find and came up with a blank. Ton pointed us to May 8, 1892 Pittsburgh Dispatch which says the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Allegheny was on the list of exhibitors at the World's Columbian Exhibition in Chicago that year.

I think the two events have been confused in oral tradition.

Also the name "Old Quaker Store" is slightly in error. A legal notice in the Dispatch of Sept 18, 1892, names it as the Quaker Shirt Store and says its motto was "Truth, Fair Dealing and Low Prices."

Thanks Ton!

Barbour and Russell

Starting in February 1877, Russell and Barbour went on a preaching tour that took them from Rochester, New York, to Louisville, Kentucky. Russell lectured for the first time in Louisville in 1877. We can document this from the November 1891 Herald of the Morning.

We would be happier if we had something from the Louisville newspapers. Anyone?

Pot Calling the Kettle Black ...

"no man ever lived, with any pretensions whatsoever to Biblical knowledge, who could crowd so much absurdity into so small a space"

A comment on Nelson Barbour by the editor of The Flaming Sword, January 20, 1899. The Flaming Sword was the journal of the Koreshanity movement. Among other things they believed in a hollow earth and cellular cosmongony.

Russell and Christian Endeavor Societies

In 1892 Russell tried to engage members of the Christian Endeavor Societies to circulate tracts. He detailed the plan in a short newspaper article published in The, Washington, D. C., National Tribune, December 1, 1892.

Does anyone know if he made a similar offer earlier? Can you document it?

Also ...

Russell was criticized for his choice of the name "Bible House" and later for using "Brooklyn Tabernacle." I didn't make a note of the criticism when I read it, thinking that it was not important to our current research. It is. .... Anyone know who made the criticism. My faulty brain can't remember.

Henry Warleigh - Thanks to Ton who scanned the photo!

More on A. D. Jones

Thanks to Ton for the research ...

As reported in the January 20, 1889, Pittsburgh Dispatch, Carried M. Jones filed for divorce on the grounds of indifelity. The divorce was granted, and that is reported in the June 25, 1890, issue.

Thanks Ton!

Albert Delmont Jones

Things you haven't seen or don't know ...

Albert Delmont Jones was a principal stock holder in the Knickerbocker Bank of New York, founded in 1889. The bank was short lived. He lost a significant amount of money, apparently, and this seems to have been the motive behind his theft of funds. This two dollar bill was issued by the bank, and you can see Jones' signature as treasurer on the bottom left.

It'd be nice to have one of these, wouldn't it? Make a nice addition to a Watchtower history collection ... but the bill pictured above sold at auction for twenty-four thousand one hundred fifty dollars at Smythe's Spring Currency & Stock and Bond Auction in 2006.

Above is an advertisement for The Day Star from 1885. Notice that he had dropped "Zion's" from the title.

Urgent!

We need immediate help from someone in the Atlanta, Georgia, area. We need a volunteer to go to a university there and photo copy a booklet. Interested? email me at BWSchulz2 @ yahoo.com

New material re Barbour and Adams

Rochester Daily Union and Advertiser. August 29, 1881

A Religious National Convention.

The national convention of the “Church of the Kocklesia,” [sic] members of which believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ, began in the Church of the Strangers yesterday, about seventy-five persons from out of town attending. Three meetings were held yesterday, Dr. N. H. Barbour conducting the services. The sacrament of the Lord ’s Supper was administered in the afternoon, and an address was delivered by William P. Adams of Beverly, Massachusetts, in which he explained the faith of the church. Members of the church calculate that the beginning of the end of the world will commence in October next.

Note: Obviously the reporter was innatentive. For Kocklesia read Ecclesia. He got A. P. Adams' name wrong too. But still interesting.

A. P. Adams - New York Times, Feb 17, 1878

Huntington, NY, Long Islander, Nov 5, 1892

Brother Bergner/Burgner

A brother and sister Burgner/bergner were active in Newark NJ in the 1880's and 1890's. Anyone know anything?

A series of newspaper articles appeard in pittsbugh newspapers in 1881-2 after Food for Thinking Christians was published ... anyone have them?

Food for Thinking Christians

Some time ago I posted about a controversy caused by the circulation of Food for Thinking Christians in Newark, NJ. I asked for help tracing this down.

We ran across this in an article we found in a Chicago newspaper. It lacked details, but we were interested. One person offered to help, then backed out because it required more work than he was able to put into the project.

My writing partner made it her personal project. It was a frustrating one - until today. We now have the full details. They're found in an article in the New York Sun.

We also have artcles from a Buffalo NY newspaper and a Reading PA newspaper. The article in the Reading, PA, Eagle is very brief and much after the fact, but it clearly identifies an individual mentioned only by last name in Zion's Watch Tower. His name is spelled two ways, and we've been unable to trace him down.

Joseph B Keim was an early Watch Tower evangelist, one of the first. Knowing his name is an excellent jumping off point for additional research. If any of our readers knows anything at all about him, please share the information with us.

Help ...

We need someone with more talent than we seem to possess to scan the picture of Henry Smith Warleigh found in Froom's Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers and edit it into usable clarity.

Have any of you researched Russell's "gospel church" doctrine. We're interested in insights into its origins.

We still need to see Bible Students Tracts number two and three.

We have several regular blog readers who live in Florida. Any of you want to check some county records for us? It would be a labour of love. We couldn't reimburse you at all.

Any documented insights into Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society finances in the 1880's would help.

We still need to actually SEE the Warleigh tract that Storrs published. We also need a clear digital scan of its front page.

We need a good digital scan on The Minister's Daughter.

anyone?

Up Date Still very rough draft

Comments, please ...

Day Dawn, while it addressed the need for a clear statement of their theology, did not fill the need for simple direct and brief missionary tracts. Russell received “numerous and urgent calls for Watch Tower Tracts on various topics.” He suspended traveling for part of October 1880 to prepare them. “They will be cheap tracts for gratuitous distribution and will be furnished at a very low price to those agreeing to distribute them, or free to those so desiring them,” he explained.
Day Dawn stated their theology as seen by Paton. The tracts, with the exception of one written by Albert Delmont Jones, presented Russell’s view. There were differences, and they would grow. Ultimately they became the basis for the Watch Tower’s first major doctrinal publication, Food for Thinking Christians.
There was some sort of delay producing the proposed tracts, and Russell expressed his disappointment in a brief announcement in the December 1880 issue. He advised readers to expect them within a month: “They will be free to all who agree to use them wisely. We advise that you make a list of all Christian people whom you may have any hope of interesting, and send them the tracts in rotation, as numbered, so that
they will get hold of the subjects in a connected manner. Make out your lists at once.” When issued they were small thirty-two page tracts.
The first of the tract supplements, entitled Why Will There Be a Second Advent, was duly released with the January 1881 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower.[1] It was a reprint with slight revisions of an earlier Watch Tower article of the same title. Russell outlined his plans for circulation in the announcement:

With this number we send Tract No. 1. We have arranged for quite a number of them, and you may expect one or two a month for several months. They will all be free, on condition that you order no more than you will wisely use.

We will not send more than 25 at one time. You can re-order when they are gone. This is a way in which all can "both labor and suffer reproach," as well as give the "glad tidings" to some who have ears to hear and hearts to appreciate; "The love of God, which passeth all understanding," revealed to us in His word.

We suggest that each tract be carefully read by you before you give it to others.

[insert analysis and sources]
Russell attacked the prevalent idea that Christ wouldn’t return until the world had converted. This was a standard Second Adventist theme[2] but was not unique to them. John C. Ryle, the well-respected Church of Christ commentator, made the same claim and on the same scriptural basis, writing in 1879: “The world will not be converted when Jesus comes again. The earth will not be full of the knowledge of the Lord. The reign of peace will not have been established. The millennium will not have begun. These glorious things will come to pass after the second advent but not before. If words have any meaning the verses before us show that the earth will be found full of wickedness and worldliness in the day of Christ's appealing.”[3]
Supplement number 2 was issued with the February magazine. Russell reminded his readers that they should read it carefully before circulating it. He explained that the tract supplements were “specially designed for thinking Christians, and would be, to the natural man, foolishness.” None of the tracts were designed to convert unbelievers. They believed they were in the Gospel Harvest when the Wheat and Weeds of Jesus’ parable would be separated. They were calling to the wheat-like Christians.
The titles of tracts two and three are unknown to me. An educated guess based on the later content of the small book Food for Thinking Christians leads me to suppose the titles were How Will Christ Come? and The Day of Judgment. These are only articles of correct length, and their subject matter follows logically after tract one.
[insert Wanted 1000 preachers]

Tract Supplement Number 4, Why Evil Was Permitted was mailed with the May 1881 issue of The Watch Tower with the explanation that “It is a subject much thought of by all, and more than one child has asked, "Why did God make the Devil?" It is a subject which should command some attention from all thinking Christians.” It was a reprint, with some revisions, of an article of the same name found in the [date] issue.
Why Evil Was Permitted: A Dialogue, reprinted from the August 1879, Zion’s Watch Tower, was meant as a restatement and elaboration of Russell’s Substitutional Atonement beliefs. He believed the doctrine to be misunderstood and incorrectly taught: “A false idea of substitution has obtained among Christian people from the supposition that it represented God as a vindictive, vengeful tyrant, angry because man had sinned; refusing to show mercy until blood had been had been shed and carrying not whether it was the blood of the innocent or the guilty as long as it was blood.”
The bulk of the tract considers atonement and restitution, issued dividing Watch Tower adherents from their former associates. The article and the tract it became also reveal the roots of Russell’s doctrine of the inevitability of sin and redemption. Russell acquired the doctrine via his association with George Storrs, who had published an identically titled tract in the 1860’s.
The tract published by Storrs was extracted from a larger work by Henry Smith Warleigh, Anglican rector of Ashchurch, Gloucestershire. It is unclear to us when and how the Warleigh material was first published, but the 1873 edition of his book, Twelve Discussion Proving the Extinction of Evil Persons and Things, reprints it all. The tract published by Storrs is found therein as chapter ten, “Why Evil Was Permitted.”
Russell’s tract and the Warleigh tract are both in dialogue format, but the parentage of the one by the other is not shown by this, but by similarity of doctrine. Russell asserted that “if an intelligent creature is to be made at all, he must be made liable to change; and as he was created pure, any change must be from purity to sin.” This thought was derived from Warleigh’s, “man can be but a creature … Unchangeableness is an infinite attribute; and can belong only to the Unchangeable, Uncreated God. … If man be made at all he must be liable to fall, though there may be no innate necessity for it. There must be the capacity, though there need not be the inevitability.”
Both Russell and Warleigh have the dialogue foil ask if God could not have made man incapable of sin. Russell answers: “No. To have done so would have been to make another God. Unchangeableness is an attribute only of an infallible, infinite being – God.” The dialogue respondents in both works ask, “Are not all things possible with god?” Russell’s answer is a paraphrase of Warleigh’s.
Russell believed sin was inevitable and desirable because it furthered God’s plans. Adam, he asserted, “could not … know the meaning of Good unless he had evil to contrast with it. … A knowledge of evil could be obtained in no way except by its introduction, and remember he could not have disobeyed if God had given no commandment. … Therefore, I claim that God not only foresaw man’s fall into sin, but designed it. It was part of his plan. God permitted, nay wanted man to fall. … He saw the result would be to lead man to … see the bitterness and blackness of sin.”
This was an elaboration of Warleigh’s claim that God’s “works of creation had exhibited his wisdom, power and goodness … but there were attributes not yet exhibited; such as pity and mercy; or that pitying love which he tells us he delights to exercise. … But his pity and love cannot be exhibited except by the exercise of them; and they cannot be exercised … except upon an appropriate object. Now the only thing that can call forth the exercise of pity, is a miserable object; and there can be no miserable object, unless there is sin. In other words, unless there is evil in existence.”
Neither Russell nor Warleigh relied on Biblical proof for any of this. Instead they relied on a chain of inferences, some of them quite flawed. Warleigh’s definition of pity was especially flawed, and both Russell and he limited the scope of Adam’s perfect intellect so that they presupposed a need for expirential learning. Apparently neither of them thought Adam or Eve capable of abstract reason.
Russell liked what he read of Warleigh’s work and adapted it uncritically. Warleigh wrote: “Man was the masterpiece of all creation” This viewpoint may be more understandable in him because he was Trinitarian and saw Jesus as uncreated, a part of the ‘godhead.” Still, it is hared to forgive him this bit of nonsense in the light of the Psalm that has man a little less than angels.
Russell borrowed this though wholesale, writing that man was “the masterpiece of God’s workmanship.” At least Russell had the good sense to limit that status to man’s state among earthly creatures. Even then the though implies that the rest of God’s earthly creation was only practice and not as well formed.
This is a history and not a theology text, and I will not discuss the theological merit of these ideas at length. The two most obvious problems were that Warleigh and Russell after him relied on “reason” and not scripture. They denied that their scheme made God the author of sin, but if He saw it as “necessary” so man could be taught “good,” planned for it, made it inevitable – who else was?
This belief undercut his more thought-out view of Atonement and Reconciliation, though it was scant few of his opponents that saw the flaw. Many of them shared his admiration for Warleigh. Most of this doctrine was abandoned by Jehovah’s Witnesses under J. F. Rutherford. Many Bible Students continue to believe it, though without any understanding of its roots.
Supplement number five was a reprint of the earlier article entitled “Narrow Way to Life.”

This tract we hope will be acceptable to you all. We hope that its general distribution will be productive of good results and that it may be used of the Lord as an eye salve to many to enable them to see "the exceeding riches of His grace in His loving kindness toward us." And for you, brethren, we pray that the viewing of the narrow way to life, may bless you, and that "The Father of Glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him (that) the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; ye may know, what is the hope of his calling; and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints; and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us." Eph. 1:17.

We have quantities of this tract, and will try to supply all your demands. Order all you can use, and use all that you order.

Tract number five was entitled The Narrow Way to Life, and was with slight revision the same as the article of the same title appearing in the [date] Watch Tower. Russell saw this matter as of primary importance and as a major advance forward in understanding Bible truth. [Develop]
Tract number six was by Albert Delmont Jones. It was entitled A Call to "The Marriage Supper of the Lamb." The Hour of God's Judgment, and Consequent Fall of Babylon, and presented his ideas on the nearness of translation to heavenly life. It exists as a single copy in a university library.
Jones had already expressed positive views that 1881 would see a prophetic crisis, and he was drifting off into areas that Russell and others would see as un-Christian and unstable. Jones tract produced a strongly negative reaction, and Russell felt compelled to offer explanations through Zion’s Watch Tower:

We have a number of inquiries relative to tract No. 6, (written by Bro. A. D. Jones) asking whether the editor's views are in harmony with those expressed in that tract. To which we answer that it is quite possible for different persons to have somewhat different ideas regarding the manner of the unfolding future, though they be entirely agreed with reference to the work of the past, present and future. We are for instance, not much in sympathy with the idea that the "Perihelion of the planets" is to bring "a carnival of death," and for this reason have refrained from mentioning the harrowing details furnished by astrologists as the probable result. It may be that such a dreadful scourging is to come upon the world so soon, but from our understanding of prophecy we expect that the carnival of moral pestilence, spiritual famine, and death will come first, upon the nominal church--the sort of "pestilence" and "arrows" referred to in Psa. 91 from which nothing will shield but the "truth." (vs. 4.)

But while we do not expect such literal plagues, we do not venture to gainsay
the astrologers and their predictions; it is possible that both astrology and scripture may be correct concerning the coming events, but our confidence and sole reliance is on the latter. To compare notes we suggest that Scripture indicates that the nominal church is to be given over to tribulation and be shown no favor from October of this year; and every thing seems ripe for just such a thing: On the other hand the astrologers began as far back as 1871 to predict what would occur in 1880 and 1881. But though the largest planet Jupiter has already reached the point of perihelion (more than nine months ago) and though Jupiter and Saturn were in conjunction six months ago, yet there is nothing except unusual rain storms thus far to justify the awful pictures drawn.

Any sympathy Russell had for astrological predictions would disappear. Given his later anti-Spiritualist writings, finding this much sympathy expressed is surprising. Jones was swayed by contemporary astrologers because they reflected his own views of what 1881 would bring. He borrowed heavily from them. It would be a surprise if he did not read C. A. Grimmer’s The Voice of the Stars: or the Coming Perihelia with Attendant Plagues, Storms, and Fires from 1880 to 1887, Supported by Historical Facts, published first in 1879 and reprinted several times in America. Grimmer predicted that the period “from 1880 to 1887 will be one universal carnival of death.” (Page 7 in the edition I consulted.) He may have also read L. D. Broughton’s The Elements of Astrology. Broughton and others suggested that the perihelion of the major planets due near 1880 and extending to 1886 would see major disasters. He predicted “great plagues … in all their intensity.” He foresaw “droughts, epidemics, pestilence and famine” but thought the effects would be less in more civilized countries. The predictions of astrologers fit exactly into Jones’ view of impending events.
Jones wasn’t the only one to grasp at any hint that a major prophetic fulfillment would occur in 1881. Even more main steam clergy such as S. Peacock, the Baptist pastor of Barrowden, Rutland.[4] He used the impending parihelia Jupiter, Neptune, Mars, and Uranus between 1880 and 1882 as proof of impending prophetic fulfillments. “The effect of this perihelia upon our earth has been made known by various professors of astronomy and others,” he wrote. He cited a “professor Grimmer of America” as his principal authority. “Professor” C. A. Grimmer’s title was self-awarded. There is at least some evidence that Professor Grimmer was in fact David Gilbert Dexter, a Congretationalist Deacon and newspaper editor,[5] and that the sensational article by Grimmer that first appeared in the September 24, 1880, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Tribune was written by him. The Grimmer material became quite popular, and Dexter published it as a booklet entitled The Coming Catastrophe. It is copyrighted by Dexter, strong but not quite decisive indication that he was the actual author.
For more on this controversy see the chapter entitled “Approach to 1881.”
The last of the Supplements was a Chart of the Ages issued with the
July/August 1881 magazine. It was reproduced the next month in Food for Thinking
Christians.

We present to each of our readers with this issue, a "Chart of the Ages," (unfortunately printed June, instead of July supplement) with the suggestion that you hang it in some convenient place where it will be often in your sight; that its diagram of the narrow way to life, may be a constant and helpful reminder to you of the way our Leader trod; that thereby you may be enabled to make your calling and election sure.

We hope too, that you will so place it, that it will be an object of interest to all who may visit you, and that you will so familiarize yourself with it as to be able to explain its teachings to them; thus each reader will be a preacher of the "narrow way to life" -- to Glory, Honor and Immortality, so soon to close; and also of the plan of God for the world's salvation, which is only just beginning. May God make you able ministers of his word.

The Chart should have your careful attention and study for at least one month: for this reason, and to allow needed time for other parts of the service, this paper and chart supplement will constitute the July and August issue. Therefore you may expect nothing more until September.

Food for Thinking Christians
[develop]
Financing the Work


Russell and others poured their personal fortunes into keeping Zion’s Watch Tower afloat. In late 1881 he attempted to make the paper free to all, something the Postal regulations would disallow. Explaining his reasons, he said, “The subscription price was made so low in endeavoring to make it burdenless upon the majority of our readers who cannot well afford to spend more, that it did not pay expenses. (The paper from the first has only paid about two-thirds of its expenses--not to mention the additional cost of
Supplements during the last six months.)”
A major source of the money was a donation of Florida land that seems to
have come from Russell and his father. A special supplement offering the land
for sale was issued with the November 1884 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower. By
December, eight of the plots had been sold. There were forty plots on the list “of ten acres each, on Pinellas Peninsula, Hillsboro Co., Florida, donated to this Society's funds and offered for sale at ten dollars per acre cash; or two years' time to settlers.” The supplement seems not to exist in any library or collection, but some detail is preserved in short announcements. The land seems to have been in the Disston and Pinellas areas.
Additional plots were offered for sale late in 1885:

Some who engaged plots of the land donated to "Z.W.T. Tract Society" at Pinellas
(See Supplement), finding that circumstances do not favor their going, have donated the installments paid to the Fund and returned the land for sale. Besides this, another Brother interested in the truth, has donated to the Society near the other donated lands four ten-acre plots.

Thus it comes that we have about twelve plots now for sale. Of these four have small ponds, and would require some ditching, and can therefore be had at half price.
[1] Controversialists have focused on the article and later tract to speculate on the origins of Russell’s teaching on “the Christ” and its effects on the modern Watchtower belief about Christ as Mediator. The quotation cited by Robert Stewart: The Watchtower and the Doctrine of “The Christ” does not contribute to that discussion, and Steward does not acknowledge the difference in meaning between the Greek word translated “propitiate” and that translated “mediator.” Another controversialist pointed to the free distribution of this and the following tracts as proof a hidden financial backing from a source seeking societal dominance. The research is laughable, but there is always someone who loves a conspiracy theory.
[2] eg: “So you see the world will not be converted for some will be ignorant of God and some disobedient.” - I.C.G.: Behold He Cometh the Clouds, Western Midnight Cry, January 13, 1844, page 36.
[3] John Charles Ryle: Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, St. Luke, Robert Carter, New York, 1879, page 244.
[4] S. Peacock: Is the Close of the Present Age to be about 1890? The Prophetic News and Israel’s Watchman, August 1880, page 240/
[5] Dexter’s obituary is found in the April 9, 1908, issue of The Pacific, a limited circulation religious magazine published in Berkeley and San Francisco, California. It describes him as a deacon of the First Congregational Church of San Francisco. He died at age seventy-five. Dexter was the founder and firstr editor of The Cambridge, Massachusetts, Tribune.

Exact Title ...

Now this is new!

Bible Student's Tract number six by Albert Delmont Jones:

A call to "The marriage supper of the lamb." the hour of God's judgment, and consequent fall of Babylon

We've located this. NO word on costs yet.

Rough Draft - Extract from our current reseach

This is a fragment of the chapter we're currently writing. I'm posting it in very rough and incomplete draft. It's open for comment and suggestions.

Bible Students’ Tracts and an Expanding Ministry


Day Dawn, while it addressed the need for a clear statement of their theology, did not fill the need for simple direct and brief missionary tracts. Russell received “numerous and urgent calls for Watch Tower Tracts on various topics.” He suspended traveling for part of October 1880 to prepare them. “They will be cheap tracts for gratuitous distribution and will be furnished at a very low price to those agreeing to distribute them, or free to those so desiring them,” he explained.
Day Dawn stated their theology as seen by Paton. The tracts, with the exception of one written by Albert Delmont Jones, presented Russell’s view. There were differences, and they would grow. Ultimately they became the basis for the Watch Tower’s first major doctrinal publication, Food for Thinking Christians.
There was some sort of delay producing the proposed tracts, and Russell expressed his disappointment in a brief announcement in the December 1880 issue. He advised readers to expect them within a month: “They will be free to all who agree to use them wisely. We advise that you make a list of all Christian people whom you may have any hope of interesting, and send them the tracts in rotation, as numbered, so that
they will get hold of the subjects in a connected manner. Make out your lists at once.” When issued they were small thirty-two page tracts.

The first of the tract supplements, entitled Why Will There Be a Second Advent, was duly released with the January 1881 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower. It was a reprint with slight revisions of an earlier Watch Tower article of the same title. Russell outlined his plans for circulation in the announcement:

With this number we send Tract No. 1. We have arranged for quite a number of them, and you may expect one or two a month for several months. They will all be free, on condition that you order no more than you will wisely use.

We will not send more than 25 at one time. You can re-order when they are gone. This is a way in which all can "both labor and suffer reproach," as well as give the "glad tidings" to some who have ears to hear and hearts to appreciate; "The love of God, which passeth all understanding," revealed to us in His word.

We suggest that each tract be carefully read by you before you give it to others.


Supplement number 2 was issued with the February magazine. Russell reminded his readers that they should read it carefully before circulating it. He explained that the tract supplements were “specially designed for thinking Christians, and would be, to the natural man, foolishness.” None of the tracts were designed to convert unbelievers. They believed they were in the Gospel Harvest when the Wheat and Weeds of Jesus’ parable would be separated. They were calling to the wheat-like Christians.
The titles of tracts two and three are unknown to me. An educated guess based on the later content of the small book Food for Thinking Christians leads me to suppose the titles were How Will Christ Come? and The Day of Judgment. These are only articles of correct length, and their subject matter follows logically after tract one.
[insert Wanted 1000 preachers]

Tract Supplement Number 4, Why Evil Was Permitted was mailed with the May 1881 issue of The Watch Tower with the explanation that “It is a subject much thought of by all, and more than one child has asked, "Why did God make the Devil?" It is a subject which should command some attention from all thinking Christians.” It was a reprint, with some revisions, of an article of the same name found in the [date] issue.
Why Evil Was Permitted: A Dialogue, reprinted from the August 1879, Zion’s Watch Tower, was meant as a restatement and elaboration of Russell’s Substitutional Atonement beliefs. He believed the doctrine to be misunderstood and incorrectly taught: “A false idea of substitution has obtained among Christian people from the supposition that it represented God as a vindictive, vengeful tyrant, angry because man had sinned; refusing to show mercy until blood had been had been shed and carrying not whether it was the blood of the innocent or the guilty as long as it was blood.”
The bulk of the tract considers atonement and restitution, issued dividing Watch Tower adherents from their former associates. The article and the tract it became also reveal the roots of Russell’s doctrine of the inevitability of sin and redemption. Russell acquired the doctrine via his association with George Storrs, who had published an identically titled tract in the 1860’s.
The tract published by Storrs was extracted from a larger work by Henry Smith Warleigh, Anglican rector of Ashchurch, Gloucestershire. It is unclear to us when and how the Warleigh material was first published, but the 1873 edition of his book, Twelve Discussion Proving the Extinction of Evil Persons and Things, reprints it all. The tract published by Storrs is found therein as chapter ten, “Why Evil Was Permitted.”
Russell’s tract and the Warleigh tract are both in dialogue format, but the parentage of the one by the other is not shown by this, but by similarity of doctrine. Russell asserted that “if an intelligent creature is to be made at all, he must be made liable to change; and as he was created pure, any change must be from purity to sin.” This thought was derived from Warleigh’s, “man can be but a creature … Unchangeableness is an infinite attribute; and can belong only to the Unchangeable, Uncreated God. … If man be made at all he must be liable to fall, though there may be no innate necessity for it. There must be the capacity, though there need not be the inevitability.”
Both Russell and Warleigh have the dialogue foil ask if God could not have made man incapable of sin. Russell answers: “No. To have done so would have been to make another God. Unchangeableness is an attribute only of an infallible, infinite being – God.” The dialogue respondents in both works ask, “Are not all things possible with god?” Russell’s answer is a paraphrase of Warleigh’s.
Russell believed sin was inevitable and desirable because it furthered God’s plans. Adam, he asserted, “could not … know the meaning of Good unless he had evil to contrast with it. … A knowledge of evil could be obtained in no way except by its introduction, and remember he could not have disobeyed if God had given no commandment. … Therefore, I claim that God not only foresaw man’s fall into sin, but designed it. It was part of his plan. God permitted, nay wanted man to fall. … He saw the result would be to lead man to … see the bitterness and blackness of sin.”
This was an elaboration of Warleigh’s claim that God’s “works of creation had exhibited his wisdom, power and goodness … but there were attributes not yet exhibited; such as pity and mercy; or that pitying love which he tells us he delights to exercise. … But his pity and love cannot be exhibited except by the exercise of them; and they cannot be exercised … except upon an appropriate object. Now the only thing that can call forth the exercise of pity, is a miserable object; and there can be no miserable object, unless there is sin. In other words, unless there is evil in existence.”
Neither Russell nor Warleigh relied on Biblical proof for any of this. Instead they relied on a chain of inferences, some of them quite flawed. Warleigh’s definition of pity was especially flawed, and both Russell and he limited the scope of Adam’s perfect intellect so that they presupposed a need for expirential learning. Apparently neither of them thought Adam or Eve capable of abstract reason.
Russell liked what he read of Warleigh’s work and adapted it uncritically. Warleigh wrote: “Man was the masterpiece of all creation” This viewpoint may be more understandable in him because he was Trinitarian and saw Jesus as uncreated, a part of the ‘godhead.” Still, it is hared to forgive him this bit of nonsense in the light of the Psalm that has man a little less than angels.
Russell borrowed this though wholesale, writing that man was “the masterpiece of God’s workmanship.” At least Russell had the good sense to limit that status to man’s state among earthly creatures. Even then the though implies that the rest of God’s earthly creation was only practice and not as well formed.
This is a history and not a theology text, and I will not discuss the theological merit of these ideas at length. The two most obvious problems were that Warleigh and Russell after him relied on “reason” and not scripture. They denied that their scheme made God the author of sin, but if He saw it as “necessary” so man could be taught “good,” planned for it, made it inevitable – who else was?
This belief undercut his more thought-out view of Atonement and Reconciliation, though it was scant few of his opponents that saw the flaw. Many of them shared his admiration for Warleigh. Most of this doctrine was abandoned by Jehovah’s Witnesses under J. F. Rutherford. Many Bible Students continue to believe it, though without any understanding of its roots.
Supplement number five was a reprint of the earlier article entitled “Narrow Way to Life.”

This tract we hope will be acceptable to you all. We hope that its general distribution will be productive of good results and that it may be used of the Lord as an eye salve to many to enable them to see "the exceeding riches of His grace in His loving kindness toward us." And for you, brethren, we pray that the viewing of the narrow way to life, may bless you, and that "The Father of Glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him (that) the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; ye may know, what is the hope of his calling; and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints; and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us." Eph. 1:17.

We have quantities of this tract, and will try to supply all your demands. Order all you can use, and use all that you order.

This tract was a reprint of the article of the same title appearing in the August 1879 Watch Tower.

Tract number five was entitled The Narrow Way to Life, and was with slight revision the same as the article of the same title appearing in the [date] Watch Tower. Russell saw this matter as of primary importance and as a major advance forward in understanding Bible truth. [Develop]

Tract number six was by Albert Delmont Jones. Its title has been lost, but a record of controversy that followed its publication persists. Jones had already expressed positive views that 1881 would see a prophetic crisis, and he was drifting off into areas that Russell and others would see as un-Christian and unstable. Jones tract produced a strongly negative reaction, and Russell felt compelled to offer explanations through Zion’s Watch Tower:

We have a number of inquiries relative to tract No. 6, (written by Bro. A. D. Jones) asking whether the editor's views are in harmony with those expressed in that tract. To which we answer that it is quite possible for different persons to have somewhat different ideas regarding the manner of the unfolding future, though they be entirely agreed with reference to the work of the past, present and future. We are for instance, not much in sympathy with the idea that the "Perihelion of the planets" is to bring "a carnival of death," and for this reason have refrained from mentioning the harrowing details furnished by astrologists as the probable result. It may be that such a dreadful scourging is to come upon the world so soon, but from our understanding of prophecy we expect that the carnival of moral pestilence, spiritual famine, and death will come first, upon the nominal church--the sort of "pestilence" and "arrows" referred to in Psa. 91 from which nothing will shield but the "truth." (vs. 4.)

But while we do not expect such literal plagues, we do not venture to gainsay
the astrologers and their predictions; it is possible that both astrology and scripture may be correct concerning the coming events, but our confidence and sole reliance is on the latter. To compare notes we suggest that Scripture indicates that the nominal church is to be given over to tribulation and be shown no favor from October of this year; and every thing seems ripe for just such a thing: On the other hand the astrologers began as far back as 1871 to predict what would occur in 1880 and 1881. But though the largest planet Jupiter has already reached the point of perihelion (more than nine months ago) and though Jupiter and Saturn were in conjunction six months ago, yet there is nothing except unusual rain storms thus far to justify the awful pictures drawn.

Any sympathy Russell had for astrological predictions would disappear. Given his later anti-Spiritualist writings, finding this much sympathy expressed is surprising. Jones was swayed by contemporary astrologers because they reflected his own views of what 1881 would bring. He borrowed heavily from them. It would be a surprise if he did not read C. A. Grimmer’s The Voice of the Stars: or the Coming Perihelia with Attendant Plagues, Storms, and Fires from 1880 to 1887, Supported by Historical Facts, published first in 1879 and reprinted several times in America. Grimmer predicted that the period “from 1880 to 1887 will be one universal carnival of death.” (Page 7 in the edition I consulted.) He may have also read L. D. Broughton’s The Elements of Astrology. Broughton and others suggested that the perihelion of the major planets due near 1880 and extending to 1886 would see major disasters. He predicted “great plagues … in all their intensity.” He foresaw “droughts, epidemics, pestilence and famine” but thought the effects would be less in more civilized countries. The predictions of astrologers fit exactly into Jones’ view of impending events.
The last of the Supplements was a Chart of the Ages issued with the
July/August 1881 magazine. It was reproduced the next month in Food for Thinking
Christians.

We present to each of our readers with this issue, a "Chart of the Ages," (unfortunately printed June, instead of July supplement) with the suggestion that you hang it in some convenient place where it will be often in your sight; that its diagram of the narrow way to life, may be a constant and helpful reminder to you of the way our Leader trod; that thereby you may be enabled to make your calling and election sure.

We hope too, that you will so place it, that it will be an object of interest to all who may visit you, and that you will so familiarize yourself with it as to be able to explain its teachings to them; thus each reader will be a preacher of the "narrow way to life" -- to Glory, Honor and Immortality, so soon to close; and also of the plan of God for the world's salvation, which is only just beginning. May God make you able ministers of his word.

The Chart should have your careful attention and study for at least one month: for this reason, and to allow needed time for other parts of the service, this paper and chart supplement will constitute the July and August issue. Therefore you may expect nothing more until September.

Food for Thinking Christians
[develop]
Financing the Work


Russell and others poured their personal fortunes into keeping Zion’s Watch Tower afloat. In late 1881 he attempted to make the paper free to all, something the Postal regulations would disallow. Explaining his reasons, he said, “The subscription price was made so low in endeavoring to make it burdenless upon the majority of our readers who cannot well afford to spend more, that it did not pay expenses. (The paper from the first has only paid about two-thirds of its expenses--not to mention the additional cost of
Supplements during the last six months.)”
A major source of the money was a donation of Florida land that seems to
have come from Russell and his father. A special supplement offering the land
for sale was issued with the November 1884 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower. By
December, eight of the plots had been sold. There were forty plots on the list “of ten acres each, on Pinellas Peninsula, Hillsboro Co., Florida, donated to this Society's funds and offered for sale at ten dollars per acre cash; or two years' time to settlers.” The supplement seems not to exist in any library or collection, but some detail is preserved in short announcements. The land seems to have been in the Disston and Pinellas areas.
Additional plots were offered for sale late in 1885:

Some who engaged plots of the land donated to "Z.W.T. Tract Society" at Pinellas
(See Supplement), finding that circumstances do not favor their going, have donated the installments paid to the Fund and returned the land for sale. Besides this, another Brother interested in the truth, has donated to the Society near the other donated lands four ten-acre plots.

Thus it comes that we have about twelve plots now for sale. Of these four have small ponds, and would require some ditching, and can therefore be had at half price.

We need a clear photocopy of this ...

Henry Smith Warleigh: Why Evil Was Permitted: A dialogue, published by George Storrs, 1863.
We can use any edition. Anyone?

Update!

We also need clear photocopies of How Will Christ Come? and The Day of Judgment. Both were printed in the early 1880's. We need a photocopy of the front only. A clear digital scan would be better.

Yes, we realize this is asking for the moon. As far as I know, no copies still exist. But it doesn't hurt to ask, does it?

Meetings at 79 Woodgrange Road

The Religious Life of London, edited by Richard Mudie-Smith and published in 1904 lists the Woodgrange Road congregation under the name "Zion's Watch Tower."

As reported by those attending, the congregation consisted of sixty-eight men, sixty-two women and fourteen children. Given this proportion of children to adults, one might suppose that the congregation tended to be made up of older individuals. I'm not certain that any other conclusion can be drawn from these spare statistics.

The "public hall" located there was King's Hall Cinema. It had a seating capacity of 250.

Comments? Anyone?

Historical Research

My writing partner, Rachael de Vienne, will be a panelist at an online writers' conference. You may find the discussion on accurate historical research interesting. Registration is free. The panel is slanted toward back ground research for fiction, but the principles are the same.

conference details are here:

http://coyotecon.com/

Millennial Dawn Meetings

Meetings were held at 79 Woodgrange Road at the turn of the 20th Century. I don't know if these photos show number 79. Anyone know?

London

We need a good period photo of 79 Woodgrange Road, London. Any photo taken about 1900 or so would do. I understand a pizza place is there now, and I'm not certain that the building there is the same as the one existing about 1900.

Review of The Plan of the Ages

From The Atlantic Monthly, March 1888

Millennial Dawn, vol. i.; the Plan of the Ages. (Zion's Watch Tower. Pittsburgh.) The reader will pause long before the chart which prefaces this wonderful volume, and then, if he likes, can read three hundred and fifty pages of small print, which aim to present the plan of God, as derived from the Bible, with special reference to present labor problems. It is a dreary piece of work.

Research Needs

Research needs:

We need access to the major Pittsburgh newspapers from 1877-79, 1881-3. We especially need to see the Pittsburg Gazette for 1881-2. We need access to microfilms or a volunteer to do careful but guided research.

There was a disturbance in Newark, New Jersey, when Food for Thinking Christians was circulated there. The two newspaper articles we have were published outside of Newark and do not give detail. We need help pinning down the details.

The Watch Tower Tract Society sold donated lands in Florida in the 1880’s on a first come first choice basis. We need a volunteer in Florida willing to trace details of the sales and property transfers. We are especially interested in the name or names of the person who donated the land.

We know the location of two issues of Zion’s Day Star. Photo copy costs approach 45.00 per issue. We simply cannot afford that. If someone wants to pursue this, I will provide them with the locations in exchange for photocopies.

Barbour’s booklet on spiritism, published in the 1880s is on our list. We cannot locate a copy. Anyone?

Arthur Prince Adam’s Bible Theology and other books, issues of The Spirit of the Word other than the first year of issue which we have are on our list.

The heresy trail of A. P. Adams produced a lengthy record. It’s about 800 pages, I’m told. The library that holds this material has declined to photo copy it, and we can’t afford to pay for 800 pages anyway. Anyone?

If you read through the blog you will find other help requests. Almost all of those things are still needed.

We need a photo copy of the title page of von Zech’s translation of Plan of the Ages. Actually, we need a really clear digital image.

Extensive original material related to the early days (1880-1890) work in Liberia is in the Library of Congress and in an Episcopal archive. Anyone?

As you can see, to do the kind of research that would produce a reliable, detailed and well-documented history takes resources we simply do not have. I’m old, sick and poor. Rachael has a family.

A church in West Virginia expelled six of its members in 1886 for Millennial Dawnism. We need help documenting this.

This is just a very small sample of the things we need.

Most of what has been published about Russell and the early days of Zion’s Watch Tower is seriously flawed. Our research to date has led us to believe that the real story has never been told, at least in any sort of accurate and satisfying way. Neither Russell’s friends nor his enemies have it right. It’s time to get the story out. I am aware that at least three others are working on the era. They have anti-watch tower agendas, and from what little of that research I’ve seen, it is obvious that their strong feelings are coloring their approach. I’d like to think that I ‘call a spade a spade.’ If it happened, I will tell you to the best of my ability exactly what happened, who did what, how they did it, and why.

But, I don’t have an agenda. I don’t hate Russell. I don’t worship Russell. Russell had qualities which one might find admirable and he also had qualities that might make you cringe. Do you know any human who differs from this model? The fault with Witness produced material is that it focuses only on Russell. This is a huge mistake. If one presumes that those associated with Zion’s Watch Tower represented “the truth” as it could be known, then one must say that the entire group was the body of Christ. The body of Christ is not epitomized in Russell. He was one member of it, assuming you see him as a true Christian.

If you hate Russell and all he stood for, you still must understand that he did not function in a vacuum. He has supporters and opponents. The voice of neither group should be stilled. A polemicist will present a one-sided story. A historian will let all voices speak, no matter what he feels about the content of their message.

Rachael and I write history. We try to avoid the nonsense, contrived quotations, unfounded assertions and invented events found in most publications about Russell and the Watch Tower. Putting everything under the microscope of close examination of the original sources is time consuming and expensive.

From Jerome

The comment failed to post, and I'm reposting it as a main topic.

Hi Bruce

Posting this on your site rather than backchannel this time.

Sorry to hear that some have been photocopying your Barbour book. I have spread the word and know at least one collector who has bought a copy direct and enjoyed it. There may be a limited appeal, but this publication is unique.

Please don’t be discouraged about any lack of interest in a follow-up on Charles Taze Russell. Fredrick Zydek’s biography, while greatly flawed (shameless plug - see my review further down your blog) has already received seven write-ups on Amazon – so there is a much larger audience for this subject.

You say that if there is interest in your research needs, you’ll post a list. Please do! If readers know what you still need they may just be able to help. If they don’t know, either nothing will happen or you will be sent the same stuff you already have, time and time again.

Sincerely
Jerome

How things stand ...

Our research is moving slowly. Prying material out of the hands of those who own it is very difficult, and there are details we want to present. So we're still working...

Our biography of Nelson Barbour is not selling particularly well. It doesn't help that it is being circulated in photocopy format. This is theft. If you photocopy it and send it to your friends, you deprive us of sales. It's especially irritating to get a phone call from someone who boasts about doing this as if it were a great favor to us.

We're glad you like the book. However, we finance additional research from the sales. You deprive us of income we need to purchase expensive photocopies or to pay interlibrary loan fees. I'm semi-retired. My income is very low. Please ... If your friends want to read it, let them purchase it.

We won’t stop our research, but we may not publish it except on this blog. We're weighing the interest shown in Nelson Barbour: The Millennium's Forgotten Prophet against the probable interest in any follow-up. Frankly, if we don't sell another four hundred copies by years end, it won't be worth the effort to publish a follow up. I hate to sound mercenary, but we do finance research this way. It's expensive. Some libraries have charged us nearly forty dollars for five pages of copy. Think about that.

I work against bad health; Rachael has commitments concerning a new novel. This has been a labor of love. But I cannot justify the time commitment if there is no interest. And at this point interest seems exceptionally low.

Can you help? We need research materials. Some of you have graciously sent it at your own cost. I appreciate that more than I can explain. If there is interest in our research needs, I'll post a list. You can promote the book on Barbour. Tell your friends and encourage them to buy the book. A few of you have done that. Thanks! At the very least, do not make photocopies of it and hand them out to your friends.

I'm discouraged. I haven't quit, but it's hard to keep going.

Restatement of the Rules

Almost everyone who leaves a comment here has been thoughtful and kind. Yet, there are a few who do not seem to understand things I've clearly stated before.

1. I am not interested theological debate. This is a history blog. It exists to promote a clearly stated, accurate history of the early years of Zion's Watch Tower.

2. I do not take phone calls. Yes, my phone number is easy to find. Past association with you does not open an exception. I'm sick, not just a little, but really ill. Phone calls of any sort are stressful DO NOT CALL MY HOUSE.

3. Some significant research material has come to me through the mail as the kind gift of interested parties. Rachael and I truly appreciate this. Do NOT use this as an occasion to send your tracts, invitations to your net-radio show, or any other bits of propaganda. I already know what you think. I have seen much of this material already. Most of it is boring, poorly produced, inaccurate, illogical and forthrightly stupid. A case in point is a circular letter sent to me recently. It is authored by a man in Oregon who objects to Witness shunning practice. The letter has logic faults and tells more by what is omitted than what is included. I've heard and read all the arguments. I'm not interested in receiving any of this material. So thank-you to those who have fostered our research. But to those who merely wish to propagandize, this is a polite "go away."

4. We do not have any sort of anti-Watchtower ax to grind. This is history, not polemic. So don't expect us to join your crusade.

Listen, everyone, when I say I'm sick and don't want to handle side issues, I'm telling you the blunt truth. Let's be kind here. Also, do not call my house expecting me to put you in touch with Rachael de Vienne. To answer a recent question (via phone, of course), no, she isn't my daughter. I have two lovely daughters. Neither of them writes. The one that shares Rachael's first name is sixteen in a few weeks. Sorry, but no. And no, I won't give you her address. She has a family and life of her own. If she wanted you to have her address, it would be on her blog.

Bits ...

Nelson Barbour’s last trip remains a puzzle. He traveled to Washington State in the company of Nancy W. Fuller. Nancy W. Fuller was born Nancy Woodward. She was born in New York about 1822 and married Joseph D. Fuller, a farmer from Schoharie, November 17, 1841.

Other than a record of land donation for a school, I know nothing further about Joseph D. Fuller. I do not know when Nancy met Nelson Barbour. By 1905 she was living in his apartment complex. I don’t know when she moved in the to Unique Flats complex. I’m working on that. Nancy returned his body to New York.

Nelson spent his last two months at “the residence of Mrs. J. E. Moore” in Tacoma, Washington. This modest house still stands, though it has been enlarged and updated.

update:

Nancy W. Fuller died in Rochester in 1926, leaving an estate worth "several thousand dollars." She first appears as a resident of Barbour's appartment complex in the 1903 Rochester Directory.

I'd like ...

... an explanation for the harassment my co-writer is experiencing, apparently from people who I would in normal circumstances call "brother" or "sister."

If you do not like our book, you may say so in a blog comment. All I ask is that you explain yourself. Give me your reasons for hating our book. In the mean time, leave Rachael alone. She did nothing to hurt you or the religion we share. I had the final say as to what went into our book. If you have an issue with it, direct your comments to me.

Having a ... let's say "well-known" mailing address does not free you to harass, pursue, or otherwise bother anyone. Stop it now! This is the one and only time I'll ask politely.

I've removed the "well-known" address because I do not want to imply that the harassment is in any way "official," planned, intended by people I otherwise respect or approved by them.

Guest Post - Review of Charles Taze Russell – His Life and Times – The Man, the Millennium and the Message

A few weeks ago I sent you details of the new biography of Pastor Russell written by Fredrick Zydek, available on Amazon. Having finished reading it, I have written a critical review which I am sending to you to do with as you wish – which may well be to ignore it completely.

You may have felt, on learning that a full biography was out there, that this would devalue your current project. Since Zydek’s book is so full of inaccuracies, I don’t believe that is the case at all. A history needs to have the detail, backed up by references wherever possible – well illustrated by your Nelson Barbour book.

A correspondent in New York who I put onto your Barbour book has emailed me how much he enjoyed it, filling in many gaps. I look forward to your detailed analysis of how he and CTR came together and ultimately parted in your current project.

Sincerely

Jerome

Charles Taze Russell – His Life and Times – The Man, the Millennium and the Message
by Frederick Zydek
A Critical Review

Fredrick Zydek is a good writer who produces very readable prose. His book fills an important historical gap. Although of a different religious persuasion (Zydek is Catholic) this is a very sympathetic portrayal of Charles Taze Russell (hereinafter abbreviated to CTR), with a real respect for what he achieved. It is not hagiography, as one might expect from some sources, nor virulent criticism as one might expect from others. It puts Russell into the context of the times, showing contemporary events alongside his activities.

Unfortunately, there are a number of reservations over accuracy when it comes to the detail. Perhaps the best parts of the book and certainly most accurate, since contemporary data is more readily available, are the last few chapters. These paint a graphic picture of CTR’s last years, where he literally wore himself out with tours and lectures to proclaim what the author calls “his unique and controversial interpretations of the biblical narratives”.

However, for CTR’s earlier years, a big problem with the book is that the writer has relied heavily on anecdotal evidence to fill out the story. Had the book been proofread by more people who have an interest in the subject, a number of errors could have been avoided. For instance the book starts with a well-written account of the coffin ships that brought poor Irish immigrants to America. It is assumed that Charles Tays Russell (CTR’s uncle and the first to make the journey from Ireland to America) travelled this way and arrived in 1838 (page 3). The only problem with this is that when Charles Tays died, he was sufficiently well-known in Pittsburgh to have an obituary in the Pittsburgh Post on December 27th 1875 which reads (in part): He was a native of Ireland and came to New York in 1822. He took his early lessons in active business from A.T. Stewart in New York.

Zydek’s account of the family life of his younger brother Joseph Lytel (CTR’s father) suggests that they did well, whereas there is evidence from Joseph’s wife’s will that he had a serious business failure in 1855. Anna Eliza left the sale of some land in her will to help pay off Joseph’s debts. While it is true that CTR’s siblings, apart from Margaret, all died young, Zydek says they were buried in the Rosemont cemetery (p.7). That is incorrect. While CTR was buried in the Rosemont cemetery in 1916, the rest of his original family, siblings Thomas, Lucinda and Joseph Jr. were all buried in the Allegheny cemetery. (Perhaps the most famous internment here is the songwriter Stephen Foster). In the same Russell family plot were eventually buried mother Anna Eliza, the original Charles Tays, and finally father Joseph Lytel. Some of the gravestones have been rediscovered and raised in recent years. (Check out the Allegheny cemetery, Section 7, Lot 17, grave 1. On their cemetery website you will find eight Russells in total buried here).

The chronology for much of the 1870s is wrong. The book has Russell in touch with Nelson Barbour in 1873 (p. 41) – it was several years later they met. He suggests 1875 as the date for the booklet ‘Object and Manner of Our Lord’s Return’ (p.46) - most now agree that should be 1877. It is assumed that Russell replaced Jonas Wendell in the small Bible study group in Allegheny (p.41), but Wendell moved on to Edenboro in 1870 and was replaced for a short while by George Stetson. Zydek only mentions Stetson as one of the editors of ‘Bible Examiner’ (p.36 footnote) – which he wasn’t – that was George Storrs alone. As reported in Advent Christian Church newspapers as well as ‘Zion’s Watch Tower’, CTR conducted Stetson’s funeral service in 1879. And there is no mention at all of William H Conley, the first president of the Watch Tower Society, in whose home the Russells celebrated the Memorial in the first two years of ‘Zion’s Watch Tower’, and who like Joseph Lytel Russell corresponded with George Storrs in the mid-1870s (see Storrs’ ‘Bible Examiner’ November and December 1875).

There are similar problems with chronology for the 1880s. Zydek has Russell producing ‘Old Theology Quarterly’ tracts in 1880 (p.73) before ‘The Divine Plan of the Ages’ was published in 1886. In fact, this tract series started in 1889. It is surmised that the Russell’s “adopted daughter” Rose Ball came to live with them when she was 15 in 1888 (p.101) – in fact Rose Ball Henninges’ death certificate shows she died on November 22nd 1950 aged 81. So either the age or the year is wrong – or both. (CTR gave one year, Maria in court gave another). She obviously was not born in 1875 as the book states on page 45.

Travelling into the 90s, there are further problems with chronology. We are told that Rose Ball marries Ernest Henninges in 1890 (p.101 footnote and p.114), and a cosy picture is painted of the married couples all sharing Christmas dinner together in 1892 (p.130). However, Rose Ball Henninges’ death certificate says she married when aged 25, so would still be single in 1892. CTR is described as taking the Chicago ‘Mission Friend’ to court over the “jellyfish” allegations while he and Maria were still together in the early 1890s (p.146). In fact, the jellyfish accusation did not get publicity until the court hearing of 1906, and the ‘Mission Friend’ caught a legal cold by repeating it after then.

Travelling into the 20th century there are further anomalies. On the Miracle Wheat episode we are told that a Mr Stoner contacted CTR about this cereal in 1904 (page 214). In fact, while Stoner, a farmer, discovered what he called “Miracle Wheat” in 1904 – he did not meet CTR or communicate with him until nearly a decade later. The author seems to assume that his readers know all about the episode with the briefest of references on page 338. For any who don’t know the story, Stoner dubbed his wheat “miracle” in 1904. CTR’s journal published a newspaper report on the wheat in 1908 when it was already an old story, with a short editorial comment. In 1911 two Bible students offered it for sale with proceeds going to the Watch Tower Society. The Brooklyn Eagle published a satirical cartoon about CTR and Miracle Wheat on the front page of its Saturday, September 23rd 1911 edition. CTR sued for libel. The case came to court in January 1913 and CTR lost.

Still in the early 20th century we are told that Maria Russell brought suit for legal separation on the grounds of CTR’s adultery (p.224) – in fact, her council S G Porter specifically stated that adultery was not claimed. Maria was asked the question point blank “You don’t mean that your husband was guilty of adultery?” Maria’s answer “No” (court record April 26, 1906, Maria F Russell vs. Charles T Russell p.10). The author has obviously not read the actual transcript.

The J N Patten whose passing was noted in CTR’s journal on September 15, 1906 (p.233) was not J H Paton, who wrote Day Dawn. The latter John H Paton (not George as Zydek sometimes calls him) was still publishing his “World’s Hope” journal at this time, and lived until 1922. And if Nelson Barbour could be said to have published “Washed in His Blood” in 1907 (p. 246) he did so posthumously. Barbour died in August 1905 and left money for his congregation to publish this final work. And while Frederick Franz (a later president of the Watchtower Society) was attracted to Russell’s message by the booklet “Where Are the Dead” (p.352) – this was not a booklet by CTR but one written by Dr John Edgar of Glasgow (see Franz’ life story in Watchtower May 1st 1987).

A lot of the Zydek’s material comes from secondary sources. So a quote from Nelson Barbour comes, not from Barbour’s journal but from A H McMillan’s paraphrase of it in his book ‘Faith on the March’ (pp.58-60). The author has obviously not consulted Barbour’s original journals, even though they are now generally accessible. As noted above, neither has he consulted the transcripts of the court hearings over Maria Russell’s “divorce from bed and board” – his limited quotes come from secondary sources like Barbara Harrison (p.267) or the Brooklyn Eagle (p.306). These selective quotes have an agenda, and consulting the complete transcript would have given a fuller picture. For example, did the author know that Maria did not just mention Rose Ball when accusing her husband? (Rose was in Australia at the time and therefore unavailable for comment – and even though she was later a major player in the New Covenant Schism never did comment unfavourably on CTR’s conduct). Maria’s testimony also suggested misconduct when CTR locked himself in a servant girl’s room (transcript p. 14). This time the girl in question, Emily Sheersly, was still living in Pittsburgh so was called to testify by CTR’s counsel (transcript p.178-79). Emily insisted she had no memory of any doors locked or any improper action on the part of CTR. Never. Maria’s counsel did not bother to cross-examine.

In the bigger picture, it is fair to say that most of Zydek’s questionable details affect only incidentals to the main story. However, once a few details are found inaccurate, it does create unease as to how much other anecdotal evidence used to flesh out the story may be unreliable. Perhaps one example that sticks in this writer’s mind - I was fascinated to learn that Rose Ball’s brother, Charlie, who according to court testimony died shortly after joining the Bible House family, rose to become Vice-President of the Society in 1893 (p.134). That might of course be correct. But proof anybody?

It is a shame because the book is well written and tells a story that deserves to be told. As noted at the start, its latter chapters are particularly good. It is certainly sympathetic towards its subject. But it really needs a second edition. Or perhaps we need another book to be both objective and thorough.

Freind Barbour's Will

Most of the Barbour family used the name Barber. The will is probated under that spelling. The will names "Nelson Barber and the children of David Barber Deceased, whose names or places of residence cannot after diligent inquiry be ascertained." The will was probated February 22, 1851. Our best guess is that he was still living in the Rochester/Dansville area in 1851.

The will and some other matter related to Friend Barber/Barbour was sent to us by a Babour descendant. Thanks Alice!

A Revision

Additional research into Nelson Barbour's childhood shows that he is not the son of Friend Barbour (also spelled Barber), but the grandson. This is established by an article appearing in the Syracuse, New York, Post of January 16, 1909. A photo of his half-uncle accompanies the article, but it is not reporduceable.

Friend Barbour had sixteen children. Which of these was Nelson's parent remains unknown.

Anti-Watchtower Tract. Liberia 1887

Finding things the hard way.

When many willing hands help locate a document:

Dear B. W. Schulz:

Prior to 1985 the Archives of the Episcopal Church was managed by the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church. Since that time the Archives has been incorporated separately and has been called simply the Archives of the Episcopal Church. You can find information on the Archives and its holding at http://www.episcopalarchives.org/. The document for which you search should be located there. See the correspondence below.

Sincerely,

Bob ****

Bob,

I confess that I do not know this document.

I have done some research in the matter. BPL does have a Jocelyn Murray’s abridgement of David A Shank’s Prophet Harris, the ‘Black Elijah’ of West Africa , 1994, the source of the original inquiry. In its list of abbreviations, it states ECHS stands for Episcopal Church Historical Society. Consequently, ECHS Archives would mean Episcopal Church Historical Society Archives. Unlike most of the repositories listed in the abbreviations section, the location for ECHS is not given.

In the Shank’s preface on p. xiv, however, it states, “The research service of Joyce L. White provided many of the sources in the Episcopal Church Historical Society’s archives in Austin , Texas .” That tells me the repository sought for "A Letter to the Churches, Cape Palmas , 28 July 1888, in ECHS archives" is the Archives of the Episcopal Church, Austin, and I have copied them on this email to allow them to commence their reference assistance.

It is possible the difficulty at the commencement of this chain of inquiry was bred by Google Books. Portions of Shank’s Prophet Harris is available through that tool, including some pages that have ECHS Archives in the footnote. The pages available on Google Books, however, do not include either the list of abbreviations or the preface to allow someone to track down the repository. Once again, one needs to have the printed volume in hand! By the way J. Robert Wright would have encountered difficulty addressing this question, as the GTS copy of Prophet Harris is unavailable in offsite storage.

Regards,

Julia



*****, Archivist
Bishop Payne Library
Virginia Theological Seminary

From: Bob ***
Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 2009 9:44 AM
To: ***, Julia
Subject: FW: question

Julia:

Does this document sound familiar to you?

Bob

From: Susan ***
Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 11:55 PM
To: **
Subject: Fwd: question



Dear Robert,

I sent this to Bob Wright and he suggested the request was more suitable for you to answer. So, I am forwarding it to you at his suggestion. I hope you can be of assistance to Mr. Schulz.

Thank you,

Susan

Begin forwarded message:



From: Bruce Schulz
Date: December 8, 2009 4:24:42 PM CST
To: administrator@hsec.us

Subject: question

My writing partner and I are researching Samuel W. Seton, at one time a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Liberia . He founded his own church in 1887, and Bishop Furguson and others sent out a four page tract or letter to denounce the new religion which had Russellite leanings.

Shank and Murray cite this letter in their book on "prophet Harris" as "A Letter to the Churches, Cape Palmas , 28 July 1888, in ECHS archives."

Is this something you have? We can't identify ECHS archives based on the few photo copied pages we posses. Can you guide us? If this is your archive, please tell me how we can obtain a photocopy of this letter/tract. We would be interested in any additional material you have pertaining to Seton and his associates, especially material that shows what the Episcopal Church response was.

We're writing a follow-up to a recently published history of the Barbourite movement of the late 19th Century.


Best regards,


B. W. Schulz

Work in Liberia

Food for Thinking Christians reached Liberia by 1884. By 1885 there was a small group and by 1888 they had formally organized a congregation. Many of the earliest adherents came out of the Protestant Epicopal Church and included some of the most prominent members. The work was strongly opposed by Bishiop Samuel Furgeson who organized an inter-faith conference to deal with what he saw as a flood of Millennial Dawnism.

More from Hymns of Millennial Dawn

Song 27: Originally titled "Children of the Heavenly King," but retitled Always Rejoicing. Written by John Cennick in 1742. Listen to it here:

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/c/o/cofthehk.htm

Song 28: Said to be by Frances Ridley Havergal a prolific female hymnalist. Biography is here: http://www.hymnary.org/person/Havergal_FR

Song 29: Originally titled The Morning Cometh, but retitled Dawning Day. By Isaac B. Woodbury. Brief bio here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_B._Woodbury

Song 30: Originally titled Christ is Coming, but retitled Christ is Come! Original by John Ross MacDuff. Hymns of Millennial Dawn alters the first verse from "Christ is coming" to "Christ is Come." In a bit of plagerism, the song is attributed to Jessie G. Herr, a Bible Student. Listen to it here:

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/c/h/christic.htm

Song 31: Originally titled Christ the Lord is Risen Today, but retitled Christ's Resurrection. Original by Charles Wesley in the late 1700s. Some reworking in Hymns of Millennial Dawn. Listen to it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWMe4afA2c8&feature=related

More from Hymns of Millennial Dawn

Song 23, Original title was Blessed be the Tie that Binds but retitled Christian Fellowship. Listen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0aUfGRDhCg&feature=related

Song 24, Original Title Blow Ye the Trumpet, Blow but retitled The Year of Jubilee. By Charles Wesley, 1750. Listen here:

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/b/l/blowblow.htm

Song 25, Original Title: Bride of the Lamb Awake! but retitled Hope's Consumation. By Edward Denny, 1837. Listen here:

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/b/o/botlawaw.htm

Song 26, Original Title: By Thy Birth and By Thy Tears but retitled Saviour, Help Us. By Robert Grant,1815. Listen here:

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/b/t/btbabttr.htm

Back ... Sorta

I'm up and arround in a limited way. We're still resolving some personal issues, but my computer should be back and healthy sometime this week.

Things you may enjoy:

Hymns of Millennial Dawn, Song 2: Remember Me. Written by James Montgomery and first published in 1825. Listen to it here:

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/c/accordtt.htm

Hymns of Millennial Dawn Song 5: Alas! and Did My Saviour Bleed? Isaac Watts. Listen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LrSwbHM5WI&feature=related

Song 6, A Little Flock is by Horatius Bonar and appeared in Hymns of Faith and Hope, 1866.

Song 8, Originally titled All for Jesus, All for Jesus. Listen to it here:

http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/444

Song 10, Originally titled "All Hail the Poer of Jesus' Name," Words by E. Perronet. First published in 1779. Listen here:

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/h/ahtpojn.htm

Song 11. Listen here:

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/l/allpeopl.htm

Update

Bruce is doing some better. Unfortunately, uncle Bruce and aunt Shirley have continuing problems. Their car died. Bruce's computer crashed, and we lost all the chapters for the new book.

Fortunately almost all of that is saved as hard copy or is posted on this blog. It will take time to recover what was lost. A chapter on the events of 1881 is lost and will have to be recreated. Two other chapters are permanetly gone. This is a major blow to our research. We're both discouraged. Of these one will be easy to rewrite; the other will be very difficult to recreate because it was based on material we could not copy, only read on site. There are files of notes that have disappeared as well. There is no hope of recovery; so we'll repeat the very difficult research.

Our focus is on getting aunty and uncle back on their feet and functioning. We're trying to turn some of their small assets to cash. [This is NOT a request for money.] They need a servicable car, and there are about 140.00 in repairs to their computer.

Our thanks to those who expressed sympathy.

Pittsburgh and Allegheny City - 1874

Answering a recent email ...

I'm answering a private email in a public forum. I've deleted personal references but retained most of the body of the email. The questions have been asked privately by several. Consider this my answer to all:

I've ordered your book and am looking forward to receiving it ... I guess your next book is about Russell's early days?

Thanks. I hope you enjoy it; more, I hope you find it informative. And yes, the next book is about Zion’s Watch Tower’s early days, Russell’s youth included, and will take us up to about 1887.

I've read your comments at your blog, complaining among other things of the difficulties you have to access some source material. It is frustrating to read about "a mass of material sitting in file cabinets in an archive “in the east” that few people will ever see." I'm very intrigued; could you tell me what exactly you wanted to know? What do they fear to disclose?

There is no explanation for paranoid behavior. With the exception of the Vatican, every major and many minor religious movements maintain archives to which they give public access. Only the totally paranoid or someone uncertain of their faith would fear disclosure. I cannot answer for any organization that approaches their religion this way.

What do I want to know? The facts. All of them. I expect a scholarly approach to history. I want to see sources and standard footnotes.

I'm with you, I just want to know the true historical facts whatever they are. Although on the other hand I think I understand the position of those people "in the east". There are lots and lots of enemies throwing bites like piranhas even with very very little evidence to support them, or none at all. If the brothers have any information that could be easily interpreted or manipulated in a negative way or that could be difficult to explain, that will be used against us.

You’ve made a presumption as to whom I meant that may not be correct.

And the problem is not that a couple of opposers repeat that information in their websites or visit forums to have debates, the problem is that any negative bit that can be said against us will be used to try and ban us in certain countries of the world, or to give us bad publicity which makes unbeliever husbands or fathers feel justified to put pressure on our sisters or brothers, or to win children custody cases, for example.

No sensible person should fear debate. Debate is healthy and often leads to new discoveries. If one believes their religion God directed and God protected, there should be nothing to hide. Humans do stupid things. Even faithful people do stupid things. Moses did. Jonah did. The Apostles did. Some of their stupidity made it into the divine record. It provides object lessons and guidance to us. It does not undermine the authority of God or the fact of his intervention in human affairs.

My faith would remain exactly the same if I discover that Russell mocked a blind old man when he was 20, if you know what I mean, but it could entail a lot of problems for other brothers. So I'm not sure which is the most prudent position here.

If we’re dealing specifically with Watchtower Society practice, I suggest we’re mature enough to give scholars the same kind of access that Advent Christians do or that Seventh Day Adventists do. Either we have an honorable past or we do not. Hiding aspects of it only makes us look paranoid and afraid.

However, I'd love to know all that historical information, so I dare to ask you to let me know more about it. Thanks

Help with this would be appreciated ...

We're researching Caleb Crandell. The only place he is mentioned in connection with Watch Tower history is in a Yearbook article. We lack details, and we're unhappy with the state of our research. Here is the rough draft. If you can add details, please do so.

Rough Draft

The 1979 Yearbook says that Caleb Crandell of Crandell Corners, Ontario, was contacted by colporteurs in the late 1880’s. The Yearbook’s account says: “He accepted Bible literature and entertained the visitors in his home .... No study group was formed there at the time, but we know that Caleb made at least one trip to hear C. T. Russell speak at Massey Hall in Toronto.”[i] None of this is verifiable from issues of Zion’s Watch Tower, and one presumes that it is the product of an interview with family members. Family memories can be inaccurate, and the date assigned to his introduction to Zion’s Watch Tower may be too early. The known colporteur activity in Ontario dates from the early 1890’s.[ii]

Caleb was born July14, 1830, in Reach Township, Ontario, and died January 8, Jan 1907. He was the fourth son of Reuben and Catherine Crandell, the first white settlers in the Reach Township. The 1881 Census lists him as farmer, but “in reality he was a prosperous land owner having inherited much of the original land purchased by his father Reuben. He lived in an impressive house which still stands.”[iii]

A brief biography of him says: “One of Port Perry's oldest residents at the time of his death, he was the most extensive property holder in the town. He had been retired for about 40 years when he passed away, and had lived in one of the most commodious homes in the town. Caleb Crandell was for many years a member of the village council, and was always an enterprising and respected citizen. He was one of the Charter Members of Warriner Lodge, No. 74, Independent Order of Oddfellows.”[iv]

He was active in local politics, and when Port Perry, Ontario, was incorporated as a village in 1871 he was chosen as one of the counselors.[v] He had one adopted daughter, Nettie or Nellie Crandell .

The Crandell family was not a happy one. They disputed over money, property and other issues. Law suits followed, and one of the brothers accused Caleb of causing his arrest to prevent him from testifying in lawsuit over debt and property. The issues are vague and plagued the courts for several years. It is impossible to comment on the merit of much of it, including the accusation that Caleb bribed a magistrate to have his brother Benjamin arrested. All of this precedes his introduction to Watch Tower theology by at least a decade and may be irrelevant. It is simply impossible to say because they sole source for his history within the movement is a Yearbook article which cites no sources.[vi]

[i] 1979 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, page 79.
[ii] Extracts of Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, September 1890, page 8. Letter from S. Webb to Maria Francis Russell: “We expect Bro. Z. to-morrow on his way to Ontario to being the colporteur work.” (not in reprints.)
[iii] Crandell Street: How it Got it’s Name, retrieved from http://www.scugogheritage.com/focuson/pdf_files/2009-09-23to34.pdf October 2009.
[iv] Port Perry/Scugog Township Heritage Gallery: http://www.scugogheritage.com/misc/pioneers.htm
[v] Farewll, J. F.: Ontario County: A Short Sketch of Its Settlement, Physical Features and Resources, Ontario, 1907, page 84.
[vi] George F. Harmon and Christopher Robinson: Reports of Cases Decided in the Court of Common Pleas of Upper Canada, Toronto, 1880, Volume 30, pages 497-515.

Shameless Plug ...

Nelson Barbour: The Millennium's Forgotten Prophet can be purchased here:

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/nelson-barbour-the-millenniums-forgotten-prophet/7645313

The S. S. Centennial in Dry Dock

Charles Strand was Captain of the S.S. Centennial.

See the chapter below