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The Editor’s Eastern Trip

 

            In the June 1880 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower, Russell announced plans for a month-long speaking tour taking him to nine towns. “The stay at each place will average about two days. I shall expect almost continuous meetings while with you.”

            First on his list was Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. There Henry E. Hoke was in charge of the arrangements. There are several bearing the name H. E. Hoke, (father, son, grandson) and we’re uncertain which Russell hosted Russell. The interest in Chambersburg appears to have been drawn from an Evangelical Adventist conference of nearby congregations calling themselves Messiah’s Church “to distinguish this body from those holding the general name of ‘Adventists.’” Hoke was a member and an agent for The Advent Herald.

Advent Herald – June 11, 1873 [photo]

 

            It is probable, though not certain, that most interest in Chambersburg area came from Evangelical Adventists. The only point of unity would have been prophetic themes. Evangelical Adventists maintained Millerite hell-fire doctrine.

            The Reading, Pennsylvania, meetings were hosted by Joseph Brown Keim. (His name is misspelled as Kine in the announcement.)We tell more about him in a later chapter. He was already an active Watch Tower evangelist, preaching near his home. We could not identify his religious antecedents. We presume some pre-existing interest in Reading, but cannot prove its existence. Russell was at Keim’s June 6^th and 7^th, 1880.

            A meeting in Newark, New Jersey, was hosted by Mrs. E. M. Deems. This may have been the wife of Rev. Edward M. Deems, a Presbyterian. If so, she didn’t maintain an interest in Watch Tower teachings. It is, we think, more likely that this is a misspelling for F. M. Deans who occasionally wrote to Storrs. A poem by Deans appeared in the September 1879 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower.

            A Second Adventist congregation in Newark was described as small by the May 2, 1860 issue of The Troy, New York, Daily Whig: “The Second Adventists of Newark still keep up their weekly meetings, and are firmly grounded in the belief that the end of all things is close at hand. The number of believers habitually in attendance at the meetings is but small, but there is no lack of zeal or fervor. “

            By Russell’s visit, there were two Adventist congregations in Newark, The First Society of Second Adventists, apparently a sort of unity congregation hosting both Life and Advent Union and Advent Christian Association believers, met at 12 Academy Street. The were “numerically weak and of slow growth.[1] Church of the Messiah, an Evangelical Adventist congregation, met at 24 Washington Street.[2] More importantly because their theology was much closer to Russell’s, a small One Faith congregation met in a private home. We first find them mentioned in a report about a One Faith conference held in Brooklyn, New York.[3] They seem to have been a committed body of believers, and at least one of their number wrote a tract. Published in 1876 and entitled The True Church, it was based on Matthew 16:16, 17, and meant to “show that the True Church is neither Greek, Protestant, nor Catholic.”[4] Interest would have come primarily from these groups.

            We know little about these three small congregations. In 1874, the One Faith congregation was led by Elder Joseph Chapman. The Newark meeting was by far the most successful, and we will return to it.

            In Clinton, Massachusetts, Mary T. Miner, hosted Russell. She is listed in the 1880 Census as head of household, but we don’t know of she was a widow or separated from her husband.[5] The census tells us she was thirty-eight in 1880. She was born in November 1842 and still living in 1900. We do not have a death date. We can’t identify a religious affiliation. A history of Clinton covering the years from its mid-Seventeenth Century founding to 1865 says: “The Second Adventists also held meetings in Clinton, in the Deacon John Burdett’s Hall. Their meetings were characterized by great fervor, but the Adventists did not attain sufficient numbers or financial strength to build any house of worship.”[6] So there may have been some interest from that quarter. Russell was in Clinton on June 16^, 1880.

            He was in Springfield, Massachusetts, two days later. The meeting there was hosted by “R. W. Stearns.” Rachel W. Stearns (1813-1898[7]) was the daughter of Charles Stearns an abolitionist. She was the namesake of Rachael Stearns, a hero of the abolitionist movement. A connection through George Storrs is probable. There were Bible Examiner subscribers in Springfield, and there had been some interest in the Barbourite movement there.[8] He veered northward to Ft. Edward, New York, where J. C. Sunderlin hosted his visit. The next stop found him in Montrose, Pennsylvania.

            Montrose was on his tour’s return leg. His visit was to be hosted by Daniel D. Lathrop. We know scattered details but little else about Lathrop. He was a civil engineer; we have a record of word done for the Montrose water company in 1909. He was commissioned a notary public in September 1879.[9] He was invited to a Shorthand Reporters’ convention in 1880, and it is probably through this connection that he was introduced to Watch Tower theology. Sunderlin was an expert stenographer too. In fiscal year 1876, Susquehanna County paid him $273.76 for his services, a considerable sum for the period.[10] He wrote The American Stenographer: A Work Devoted Mainly to Extended Principles of the Art, Rather Than to the Details of the Whole System which was published in 1880. As were several of Russell’s earliest associates, Lathrop was a member of the Prohibition Party, and served as Secretary-Treasurer of a regional party committee.[11]

            He was secretary of the Susquehanna Farmers’ Club in 1876. Lathrop was appointed guardian of two minor children, relatives of some sort, in 1877.[12] He died in 1912, a short obituary summarizing his life:

 

The death of Daniel D. Lathrop ends an interesting and useful career. Born Dec. 25th, 1833, in Rush, the 8th son of a family of eleven children, his father being Rev. William Lathrop, Jr. a Baptist preacher. He secured his education at the county schools and later taught several terms. Before the close of the Civil War he enlisted as a ship carpenter, but saw no action. Three of his brothers met death on the battlefield. His first wife was Emma Handrick and he married, second, Mrs. Sallie M. Sherwood. He was one of the first official court stenographers in the county, taking up the study of “phronography,” as it was then called, in 1851. He took up the study of Civil Engineering and as he was a competent mathematician his reputation for care and accuracy in surveying and mapping was soon well established. In recent years he took a special course in mechanical drawing to more fully equip himself for this class of work. In 1902 he started the work, during leisure moments, of writing the New Testament in shorthand, concluding the task in 1907. Thus closes the earthly record of a man who so performed his day of work that when the Master called him from his labor, he responded unabashed and confident.[13] 

            In 1877, Lathrop wrote and published an eight page poem entitled Light and Darkness.

            We know of only one other interested person in Montrose, and then only by their initials. A J.L.F. of Montrose submitted a poem to Zion’s Watch Tower which saw publication in October 1879 issue:

 

WATCH TOWER. 

Watchman, on the lonely tower,

‘Mid the desert’s arid sands,

Tell us of the dawning hour,

Tell us of the moving bands. 

Seek they now the shelt’ring palm,

Where the cooling springs await?

Cheered, refreshed, now press they on,

Toward the destined City’s gates? 

When the fierce simoon is near;

Watchman! give the warning cry;

Raise soul-stirring notes of cheer,

As the journey’s end draws nigh! 

J. L. F. — Montrose, Pa

 

            Russell was unable to speak at Montrose, and we do not know of Lathrop’s interest endured.

            Alexander B. McCrea hosted Russell’s visit to Berwick, Pennsylvania. He was a physician and member of the Columbia County Medical Society. His hobby was ornithology, and we find some letters from him to bird magazines.[14] In March 1872, he was one of the organizers of Knapp Lodge – Free and Accepted Masons.[15] McCrea was born in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, about 1838. The key fragment of miscellaneous biographical notices we’ve uncovered is that he graduated from Long Island Medical College June 1, 1865. This tells us he was a contemporary and classmate of C. W. Buvinger, and we connect him to Russell and Storrs by this otherwise ephemeral fact.[16] His death notice in JAMA noted Civil War service. He died April 12, 1919, of influenza.[17]

            We do not know if McCrae’s interest endured. As noted in volume one of this work, J. H. Thomas, who rode the backs of Age-to-Come and Christadelphian believers preached in Berwick in 1882, writing to The Restitution that “the believers here are tinctured a little with Russellism, which is subversive of the truth as it is in Jesus.”[18] We have no additional information.

            Russell’s last stop was at Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania. There Samuel M. Bond (1852-1936) hosted his visit. Bond was at one time a telegraph operator. We have no additional details.[19] We find him in 1897 advertising his services as a bill poster (broadside poster) and advertising circular distributor. He was for many years a department manager for L. L. Stearn & Son, a department store in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Before moving to Jersey Shore, he was a member of the Odd Fellows’ Lodge in Renovo.[20]

 

Advertisement – Billboard Advertising, January 1, 1897 [photo]

 

            Bond seems to have been converted to Watch Tower theology by Russell while he was still associated with Barbour. In 1894, Bond wrote to Russell, saying: “I have been with you in this precious faith while you were with the Herald of the Morning, and ever since the first issue of the Tower.” The earliest notice of him we found is in the money received column of the January 1879 Herald of the Morning. We presume he had been a reader for some time, but we really don’t know.

            Lack of documentation outside the pages of Zion’s Watch Tower leaves us with unanswered questions. We don’t know what the effect of Russell’s visit was, except the one instance of his visit to Berwick. We don’t know if any, except Bond, continued their interest. We wish we did, but we don’t.

---

[1]           W. H. Shaw: History of Essex and Hudson Counties, New Jersey, Everts & Peck, Philadelphia, 1884, volume 1, page 522. They drop out of the record in 1894.

[2]           Quarter Century of Progress of New Jersey’s Leading Manufacturing Centres, New York, 1887, page 54.

[3]           J. Donaldson: Report of Conference: Brooklyn, New York, The Restitution, November 5, 1874.

[4]           Publications for Sale at the Restitution Office, The Restitution, November 16, 1876. The tract was by William Shepherd.  We couldn’t locate a copy.

[5]           The 1870 Census suggests that she was married to an Edmund Miner.

[6]           A. E. Ford: History of the Origin of the Town of Clinton: 1653-1865, W. J. Coulter, Clinton, Massachusetts, 1896, page 504.

[7]           “Massachusetts, Deaths and Burials, 1795-1910,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FHNQ-9DZ : accessed 06 Apr 2014), Rachel W. Stearns, 24 Dec 1898; citing , reference 71; FHL microfilm 2030961.

[8]           A letter from Randolph Ladd of Springfield appears in the January 1874 Bible Examiner, page 127.

[9]           Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the Session Begun January 4, 1881, page  84.

[10]          Proceedings of the New York State Stenographers’ Association, … Fifth Annual Meeting, Troy, New York, 1881, page 15. Expenditures of Susquehanna County, The Montrose, Pennsylvania, Democrat¸ March 7, 1877.

[11]          The Scranton, Pennsylvania, Republican, May 26, 1894, page 7.

[12]          Farmers’ Club: Business Locals, The Montrose, Pennsylvania, Democrat¸ May 3, 1876. Guardian: Untitled Article, The Montrose, Pennsylvania, Democrat¸ June 13, 1877.

[13]          Reprinted in the Susquehanna County Transcript¸ April 4, 2012.

[14]          Communication: Pennsylvania Medical Journal, June 1906, page 674.

[15]          J. H. Battle [editor]: History of Columbia and  Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, A. Warner & Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1887, page 201.

[16]          Battle, op. cit. page 150.

[17]          Deaths: Journal of the American Medical Association, May 10, 1919, page 1385.

[18]          J. H. Thomas to Editor of The Restitution in the February 22, 1882, issue.

[19]          The Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, Express, August 26, 1963.

[20]          Death notice in The Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, Express, August 5, 1936.

The Watchtower and Universalism – the Almont connection

Paton in his parlor

 

(This article first appeared on Blog 2 in January 2013)

 

A key platform of early Watch Tower theology was future probation, the belief that countless numbers would get their opportunity to accept Christ and be saved in a future life. George Storrs had championed his take on this doctrine in Bible Examiner, and CTR had promoted the slogan “A Ransom for All.” Both Storrs and others, when accused of being Universalist would argue that their teaching stressed universal opportunity, but not universal reconciliation.

And yet it is not too difficult to see how taking their reasoning a step further could lead some to a Universalist view. Several who broke away from the Bible Student movement promoted the doctrine of universal salvation, and this article is about two large examples, which both had links with the small township of Almont in Michigan. It is a story of coincidence, since some of the key players’ lives overlapped and they knew each other at one time.

As always it must be stressed that this article represents a stab at history, not theology. We are just looking at the historical implications for the Watch Tower Society at certain points in its early history.

The first example was John H Paton. Paton was born in Scotland in 1843, but came to America and ultimately settled in the Almont area. He became a Baptist minister in Almont in 1870, but the appointment was short-lived. He was expelled for heresy (specifically his belief in conditional immortality) in 1872 and promptly built an Adventist Church in Almont, allied to the Michigan Advent Christian conference. His views continued to evolve, and after about two years he parted company from them. He became a supporter of Nelson Barbour’s ministry, finally becoming a co-editor with CTR of Barbour’s magazine Herald of the Morning. When Barbour and CTR split, he supported the fledgling ZWT in 1879 and in 1880 wrote Day Dawn. This was the first major hardback book promoted in the pages of ZWT.

In 1882 Paton founded his own magazine, The World’s Hope, and as the pages of ZWT soon showed became estranged from CTR. He eventually founded The Larger Hope Association – the name suggestive of the “larger” hope of salvation he now promoted. His little Advent church in Almont was renamed the Larger Hope Church. The book “Almont, The Tale of Then and Now” by Hildamae Waltz Bowman page 91 (1985 edition) has a picture of the building situated in North Bristol Street, Almont. According to Bowman, Paton was the only pastor, and when it started as an Advent Church in 1872 it had just fifteen members. It folded through declining membership after twenty five years, or c. 1897. It subsequently became a school building, a rug factory, and then a private home. It still exists as a dwelling today at 318 North Bristol Street.

The Larger Hope Church in Buchanan lasted a little longer. It was another former Adventist Church, and Lizzie Allen was pastor there for some time around 1890. There was a direct rail link from Buchanan to Imlay City, about eight miles north of Almont, and this allowed Paton to visit at will. Newspaper records show funerals conducted in Buchanan by John H Paton (sometimes as Elder sometimes as Rev.) for members such as Isaac Marble (1901), Aaron Miller (1904), Clarissa Mead (1905), Mary Miller Mowbray (1907) and Jane Wagner (1907). However, by 1917, that church too appears to have folded. The Lake Union Herald for October 24, 1917 (a SDA paper) carried the announcement for Buchanan: “The (SDA) company at Buchanan have recently rented the Larger Hope Church building and cordially invite our people to attend their Sabbath school, which has been recently reorganized, also their weekly prayer meeting – Fred L. Segar, S.S. Supt.” The book Greetings from Buchanan (Goodsell and Myers 2005) describes how this arrangement became final: (quote) “In 1921 (the SDA church) bought the building formerly occupied by the Larger Hope Church of Christ on the northeast corner of Moccasin and Third Streets.” After being sold by the SDAs to the Church of Christ in the 1950s, the building was eventually torn down to make a parking lot.

Paton’s magazine had already shut down in 1916. His independent ministry was coming to a close, and he died in 1922. It never became a large force or movement. Nonetheless, for a while it was an alternative home for some who had once associated with CTR’s ministry and ZWT magazine.

Today, his magazine provides historical insights. Paton kept in touch with numerous individuals once associated with CTR, and so his magazine provides historical information including obituaries for William H Conley and Nelson Barbour. Had it lasted just a few more months longer in 1916 it would no doubt have carried an obituary for CTR. It also shows how an alternative spiritual home was on offer for many years for those thinking of leaving the Bible Student movement.

At the time Paton’s activities were winding down, another Almont resident was firing up.  This was George Lawley Rogers. There were a number of similarities in their stories. Like Paton, Rogers was born in Scotland (around 1869/1870). After immigrating to Canada, border crossing records show him then moving from Toronto to Almont in August 1910. In the 1920 Almont census his immediate next door neighbour was John Paton’s older brother, David Paton. Rogers became Pastor of the same Baptist Church as Paton had been many years before. Like Paton he eventually left the Baptists due to his changed beliefs, and again like Paton took up the message of universal reconciliation. According to Rogers’ obituary (published in 1947) when Rogers left the Almont Baptist Church nearly the whole congregation went with him. They founded what was called the Grace Tabernacle. These included some who were related by marriage to Paton or “Uncle John”. Such a family link is not all that surprising – in a small place like Almont with the propensity for large families, it would be unlikely for people not to be related in some way.

It would be satisfying to make a direct theological link between the two men, but that cannot be done after all this time. They would certainly know each other, but came from different backgrounds and had different takes on Universalism. Paton’s Universalism stemmed from his Arminian leanings – the concept of free will, but man being given repeated opportunities to ultimately make the right choices for salvation, whereas Rogers’ Calvinistic background (with its overtones of predestination) leant more to salvation being wholly God's achievement. Still, it is quite a coincidence that the tiny place of Almont featured in both histories. One can surmise that any local remnants of Paton’s church might have found a spiritual home in Rogers’ Grace Tabernacle after Paton was gone.

So the connection with the Bible Student movement? 

Rogers was to link himself with the Concordant Publishing Concern that formed in 1909 to publish a magazine entitled Unsearchable Riches (hereafter abbreviated as UR).  His conversion to universal reconciliation owed a lot to the work of A E Knoch of this group. (Rogers eventually moved from Almont to Los Angeles to work closer with him). Knoch would have a special life-long mission to produce a brand new Bible translation. The Concordant Version (hereafter abbreviated as CV) was to be an extremely literal translation stating in its forward that it “keeps to a minimum the confusion resulting from translating different Greek words with the same English word.” Rogers would be given special credit for his professional help in dealing with NT Greek verbs in this project. He was already assisting Knoch with this work while Paton was alive, probably from around 1919 or even earlier.

There were obviously some WT readers who also had a look at the magazine Knoch edited. Since the theology of UR was both non-Trinitarian and non-Hell fire, they would find immediate points of agreement. This may have prompted some dialogue between CTR and Knoch because UR published a letter from CTR in October 1915 explaining his objections to Universalism. Knoch published his own response, but CTR declined to debate further, explaining that the views of the WT Society were already expressed in details in its publications.

So we come to the year 1920. Paton was still alive, his neighbour Rogers was increasingly supporting the Concordant Bible Concern, and then – seemingly out of the blue – the Watch Tower magazine published a page and half extolling the virtues of the Concordant Bible translation.

It covered part of page 190 and all of page 191 in the WT for June 15, 1920. It was explained that the plates of the Diaglott were now worn and would require considerable work to restore. This new project, to be issued as a part-work starting with Revelation (called The Unveiling) would include an interlinear. It would have the advantage of the Codex Sinaiticus MSS that was not available to Benjamin Wilson when he produced the Diaglott, and also the CV Greek-English interlinear was far more consistent than Wilson’s. The article stated that the WT Society was not the publisher (hence the reason why the CV has never appeared on an official list of WT Society published Bibles) but they were acting as “transmitters in the matter”, forwarding orders to the publishers.

There was another advertisement for the work in the November 1, 1920 WT calling it “unique in a field already seemingly well-worked.”

But then in the WT for February 1, 1921, came the following announcement: “In our issue of June 15, 1920, announcement was made of an arrangement to supply the friends with the Concordant Version of the Sacred Scriptures. This arrangement has not been entirely satisfactory. Some of the friends have been sending orders for future translations. This office will not further handle those. We have on hand a limited supply of the translation of Revelation, designated “The Unveiling”, and when this stock is exhausted we will discontinue handling this work.”

Although the CV Revelation had just been a translation and interlinear with no explanatory material added, it was to be dropped. The WT Society went back to restoring the Diaglott, and remained sole publishers of the latter until it eventually went out of copyright.

When UR later criticised the way the order was revoked, Watch Tower Society President, J F Rutherford, wrote a letter to Knoch explaining why the arrangement had been cancelled. Knoch published it along with his own comments in UR for January 1928. On November 25, 1927, Rutherford had written (in part):

“The notice was inserted in the WATCH TOWER by one who had no authority. The order was given by one who had no authority to order them. When I found that you were advocating universal salvation including the Devil himself, I took steps to see that our Society had nothing whatsoever to do with the distribution of the Concordant Version, and that was the first time it was called to my attention as to how the notice got in the WATCH TOWER.  In the service of the Redeemer, J.F. RUTHERFORD.”

The problem from the WT perspective was that this group with Knoch and Rogers and others was not just the producer of a new Bible translation. Like Paton in the 1880s, they were a religious group promoting universal reconciliation. As noted above, they had already provoked a response from CTR. Since they obviously believed they were right and the WT Society was wrong on this key point, it was natural for individuals to proselytise. In the previous issue of UR (November 1927) that reprinted Rutherford’s letter, Knoch wrote:

“The Lord has graciously enabled us to help many who once believed the International Bible Students Association philosophy, and the indications are that He will use us to bless very many more.”

Two key figures from WT history who embraced the Concordant message were Fredrik Homer Robison and Menta Sturgeon.

Robison had lived in Bethel with CTR since before the move from Allegheny to Brooklyn in 1909 and had subsequently been in prison with Rutherford in 1918. He had visited Knoch in search of a Diaglott replacement, and since he was on the WT’s editorial committee in 1920, it was probably Robison who was responsible for the announcement about the Concordant Version in the June 15 issue.

He last appeared as part of the WT editorial committee with the April 15, 1922 issue. He left Bethel at this time, which no doubt had an effect on others. From 1923 he was a sometime writer and speaker for the Concordant Publishing Concern.

A travelling and speaking companion for Robison during 1923 and 1924 was the man from Almont, George Rogers. The two men became friends. So we have Fredrik Robison, who worked with CTR for a number of years, now sharing platforms with George Rogers, who had been a direct neighbour of John Paton’s brother and whose Almont congregation contained Paton relatives. As noted above, Paton had been one of CTR’s early associates. He had been more than that because it was he who conducted CTR’s wedding. One would imagine that the subject must have come up in personal conversation when Robison and Rogers compared notes.

Robison was to die at quite a young age in 1932.

The second key figure who embraced the Concordant’s message in the 1920s was Menta Sturgeon. Sturgeon had been CTR’s travelling companion on his last journey and at one time was suggested as a possible president of the WT Society. He too converted to Universalism, and used his contacts to introduce Concordant speakers to WT adherents, or more likely by the mid-1920s, to former WT adherents. It must be remembered that following 1917 there was a split between those who stayed with the Society and those who did not. Those who left association with the IBSA did not stay as one united group, but fragmented quite rapidly. (A list of some of these groups is given in the full text of the Jehovah’s Witnesses resolution proposed by J F Rutherford in 1931).  For those who did not accept the material now presented in the WT, these were confusing times. The Concordant magazine for September 1939 for example, describes one such meeting of former WT adherents; they had already received speakers from two of the seceding groups and were now quite happy to have a former IBSA speaker present the Concordant message to them as well.

The influence of Robison and Sturgeon and others, and their contacts among former contemporaries gave the Concordant people a platform, which for some appeared as attractive as Paton’s message had been forty years before.

Ultimately time moved on, and the principal players passed from the scene. The links and controversies of the early years were generally forgotten. In more recent times the Watchtower magazine has been happy to quote from the Concordant Version NT (see for example w91 2/2 p. 29 and w94 12/15 p.32). Yet, going back in years, the step from belief in future probation to universal reconciliation was easy for some to make. And it does seem curious that one tiny little place, Almont, in Lapeer County, Michigan – less than three thousand inhabitants even today – was to have links with those who supported CTR’s ministry, and then for whatever reasons, decided to look for a spiritual home elsewhere.

Note:

Thanks are due to helpers from Almont and Buchanan who checked certain material for me.

So very nice ...

Someone sent this to us. ... For their privacy, I'm not including their name ... but how nice.

Bruce, Rachael . . .

My copy of A Separate Identity: Organizational Identity Among Readers of Zion's Watch Tower arrived yesterday afternoon.

I was able to devour the first twenty pages before Memorial. Rachael, thank you for mentioning me in your opening comments.

It has been a privilege to watch your labor of love grow and take shape, and I wish I could only do more to help. I will continue to push forward and then review the book at Lulu and eBay. But I just want to say at this time, I strongly feel your two-volume work will be the definitive account by which all other biographies of Zion's Watch Tower will be measured. Even if you decide to stop with the second volume, it will still only be the beginning, as future writers will certainly use your research as a stepping stone to launch future examinations of an era so precious to so many.

We all hunger for a deeper understanding of our history. I've lost several close friends who went looking for more information, stumbled into questionable sources, that were not accurate and blatantly promoted speculation to further a personal agenda, and then swallowed the lies without weighing the difference between fact and fiction.

If only one comment were to be allowed, I would like to say . . . thank you for TRUTH.

This is important

Can we connect Levi Allen to Elizabeth [Lizzie A.] Allen? or her father?

Troy, New York, Daily Times

August 25, 1895

ANALYSIS OF A PHOTOGRAPH

There is quite a lot of detail in this photograph, which obviously shows the gravestone for Charles T Russell and nearby, the Pyramid monument erected by early 1920. The photograph likely dates from that year or very shortly thereafter. The pyramid was designed to have engraved on pages on all four sides the names of all those buried on the Watch Tower Society’s plot. There was even a plot reserved for J F Rutherford originally. However, the plan was quite soon abandoned, as noted in an earlier article on this blog, probably because the center of activities returned to Brooklyn in 1919 and then stayed there until very recent times. There was little point, and a lot of unnecessary expense, in shipping bodies all the way back to Pittsburgh unless the families had a direct Pittsburgh connection.

Directly center in the photograph is the farmhouse, which became the office for the United Cemeteries, with J Bohnet in residence for a short time. (Bohnet is pictured in one of the photographs in the post just before this article). This farmhouse was pictured from a different angle when the cemetery company really got going in 1909, and that photo is also in the previous post. In quite recent years this area has been covered with a Masonic building, causing delight for conspiracy theorists. They cannot seem to get their heads around the fact that the Watch Tower Society sold off this land in the early 1920s and has had no input on its use since then.

Then, almost in the centre, a little way down and to the right of the pyramid (looking down the hill) are two small grave markers. They are most likely for Bible Students Arabela Mann and Mary Jane Whitehouse, both of whom had died and were buried here before the pyramid was completed. These specific markers (of white marble and a foot wide and six inches high) are no longer visible today, perhaps having been covered over with grass. However, the two names are engraved on the pyramid, along with a few others, and a rough plan of interments shows this to be where they are buried. Most visitors to the pyramid miss this, probably because they are not looking for them. Also, because of the way the stone has weathered, and the way the light catches the monument, these engravings can easily “disappear.”

One final point to note: In front of the former farmhouse are a whole cluster of graves. Visitors to the site will look in vain for these today. Were the monuments destroyed or were those buried reinterred elsewhere? The answer is neither. Apparently the cemetery company sold monumental masonry – as do many such companies today. These were simply sample stone on display for purchase by future occupants and/or their families.

United Cemeteries

Showing cemetery manager, J Adam Bohnet, and the farmhouse that became the cemetery office.

Paton post 1881

We’re looking for examples, usually newspaper notices, of Paton visiting areas where there were also Watch Tower congregations. Our prime interest is in those instances before 1902.

We need to define “New Era light.” The term is used in connection with Paton’s speech in New York on June 22, 1902.  

We are not interested in Paton’s later association with Stephen Merritt. While our readers may find that interesting, it is too late to matter to us. 

To make finishing volume two a viable project, we need to sell many more copies of Volume 1. You can help by recommending it to your friends and posting about it on other web pages you may visit. If you have a blog or website of your own, a recommendation there would be welcome. 

You can post a review on the lulu.com web page. 

We won’t be on Amazon for some few weeks.

Youtube slide show

We need a volunteer (we have no money to pay you) who will make a youtube slide show featuring key points from our book and highlighting the book. anyone?

How you can help

Tell everyone you know about our book. Direct them to lulu.com. Tell them to search the title.

If you post on other web sites, recomend our book there.

Show the book to your friends.

Thanks,
R

First off the press, signed, ARC on ebay.

More impossible tasks ...

We need to locate:

The Christian Gleaner published in Rochester, NY by William H. Spencer in 1874. This was a very short-lived magazine.

Bible Investigator, published from May 1874 by Amos Sanford.

Asking for the Impossible

Russell and other Watch Tower evangelists visited Newark, New Jersey, several times in the 1880s. I've looked everywhere I can think of for an outside-the-Watchtower notice of his visits. Can't find anything ... Can you?

In incomplete rough draft, here is what we have ...

A meeting in Newark, New Jersey, was hosted by E. M. Deems. This may have been the wife of Rev. Edward M. Deems, a Presbyterian. If so, she didn’t maintain an interest in Watch Tower teachings. It is, we think, more likely that this is a misspelling for F. M. Deans who occasionally wrote to Storrs. A poem by Deans appeared in the September 1879 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower.

            A Second Adventist congregation in Newark was described as small by the May 2, 1860 issue of The Troy, New York, Daily Whig: “The Second Adventists of Newark still keep up their weekly meetings, and are firmly grounded in the belief that the end of all things is close at hand. The number of believers habitually in attendance at the meetings is but small, but there is no lack of zeal or fervor."

            By Russell’s visit, there were two Adventist congregations in Newark, The First Society of Second Adventists, apparently a sort of unity congregation hosting both Life and Advent Union and Advent Christian Association believers, met at 12 Academy Street. The were “numerically weak and of slow growth. [1] The were “numerically weak and of slow growth.” Church of the Messiah, an Evangelical Adventist congregation, met at 24 Washington Street.[2] More importantly because their theology was much closer to Russell’s, a small One Faith congregation met in a private home. We first find them mentioned in a report about a One Faith conference held in Brooklyn, New York.[3] They seem to have been a committed body of believers, and at least one of their number wrote a tract. Published in 1876 and entitled The True Church, it was based on Matthew 16:16, 17, and meant to “show that the True Church is neither Greek, Protestant, nor Catholic.”[4] Interest would have come primarily from these groups. The Newark meeting was by far the most successful, and we will return to it.

---

[1]               W. H. Shaw: History of Essex and Hudson Counties, New Jersey, Everts & Peck, Philadelphia, 1884, volume 1, page 522. They drop out of the record in 1894.

[2]               Quarter Century of Progress of New Jersey’s Leading Manufacturing Centres, New York, 1887, page 54.

[3]               J. Donaldson: Report of Conference: Brooklyn, New York, The Restitution, November 5, 1874.

[4]               Publications for Sale at the Restitution Office, The Restitution, November 16, 1876. The tract was by William Shepherd.  We couldn’t locate a copy.

On being helpful

We appreciate your help. Some of you send us things. Occasionally it’s something we have, but often we’ve never seen it. Those who send us things sometimes worry we’ve seen it or that it’s not important. Never hesitate to send us something on that basis.

            One of our blog readers sent us scans of four old letters, one from Russell and the rest from Rutherford. We’re slowly accumulating material on Rutherford. Because of health issues, we may not be able to continue this series past book three (1887-1917). But we’re acting as if we will. We’re planning for a book four that takes the story to 1932, telling both the Bible Student and Witness story to that date. Of course, we aren’t actively researching that era yet. But we are seeking documentation. So let me tell you about one of these letters …

            It’s a two paragraph letter. Rutherford answers a question from a female adherent from Canada. The letter is dated February 29, 1928. It’s on the verge of a doctrinal change. The woman asked if she would be safer during the time of trouble if she moved to Palestine. Rutherford told her that “the proper course for you to take is to say to the Lord that you desire to do His will and to have whatsoever place he gives you and then trust in Him and go on and do with your might what you can to let others know about the gracious privision (sic) of His kingdom.”

            It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one prone to typos, but this letter’s significance rests in the nearness of doctrinal change. The return of the Jews, the nature of Armageddon and other issues were all under review. This letter fits into that picture. So while it may seem insignificant, it’s really an important letter.

           Thanks for sending it. The other letters are important in their own way too, though I’m not going to review them here. My point is that everything you send is helpful. Even if you think we may have seen it, send it.

 

            Another way you can help is by telling your friends about our new book, A Separate Identity. We fund research from the sale of our books. So the more of them that sell, the more funds we have to pay for photocopies and original documents.

            Tell your friends!

 

 

Convention in 1899

We need a volunteer

... to transcribe two newspaper articles.

A Separate Identity by Schulz and de Vienne (Hey, that's me!)

So far there are three really nice reviews out there. Two are on lulu and one on a controversialist site. Here they are:

Histories of the early Watch Tower movement tend to fall into two extremes, hagiography and polemic. This is because they are usually written from a range of widely differing theological perspectives, not that of a strict historian. Additionally, they tend to concentrate on the figure of Charles Taze Russell to the virtual exclusion of his contemporaries. This volume redresses that balance, written by two historians with an almost fanatical attention to detail as demonstrated by the voluminous footnotes. They appear to strive hard to keep any personal views out of the picture and go where the evidence takes them. The result is a detailed, even-handed history of Russell and his contemporaries - crucially in the context of their times. Many writers on this subject seem to try and graft 21st century attitudes onto 19th century people, not recognising that the beliefs of Russell and others in the second half of the nineteenth century were often far more mainstream than a modern reader might imagine. Even if one has no direct interest in Russell and what came later from his ministry, several groups today count people like Henry Grew, George Storrs, and John Thomas in their antecedents. These men all feature in this book and, certainly in the case of Storrs, you are unlikely to find as much detailed information on his life and work anywhere else. The writers have previously published a volume on Nelson Barbour: The Millennium’s Forgotten Prophet. That too is well worth reading, although the present volume (that takes history up to 1879) is a stand-alone book.

 

Review two:

 

This is the definitive history of the early years of the Watch Tower Movement. Because as stated in the "Introduction" no one had ever before "produced anything approaching a reasonably well-researched and accurate account of the Watch Tower's early years". That is until now. Schulz and de Vienne with the help of others named and unnamed have combed a vast array of resources to produce this historical gem. The 380 pages of volume one cover the period up until the split with N. H. Barbour in May 1879. Most histories cover this period in only a few paragraphs. So what we have here is a tremendous amount of original research including: biographical and historical information found in the original Watch Tower volumes from 1879 - 1916 which had not been collected together in one place until now, information gleaned from other Jehovah's Witnesses and Bible Student publications, newspaper interviews that Russell and others gave, some that were given even before the Watch Tower was started. The authors cast a wide net including newspaper archives, family archives of persons named in letters to the editor in the Watch Tower magazine, letters to the editor that C. T. Russell and others wrote to other religious magazines, church archives, college archives, census records, passport and numerous other records too varied to mention. Another highlight of this in-depth history is the extensive biographies it gives of persons connected to C. T. Russell. For example you may have seen or heard the names of George Storrs and George Stetson in other histories as persons who were of help to Russell. But until now if you know them only from those other Watch Tower histories you have no idea who they really were or how exactly they helped Russell in his studies. The authors not only tell you the history of the early Watch Tower period but also how they know it and by means of numerous footnotes exactly where the information comes from so that it can be verified if you wish to follow in their footsteps. There are also numerous pictures of persons, places, and artifacts connected to early Watch Tower history. Some that have never been in print before. It is neither a polemic or an apology just well-researched history. There is no other early Watch Tower history that compares to this.

 

Review three:

 

The book is an incredibly detailed history of Russell’s early years and his antecedents. Chapter one tells things about Russell’s early years never published elsewhere. I found them revealing. The details present a picture of Russell different from that I had formed. The last section of that chapter gives details about Russell’s businesses that I did not know. I don’t think very many know them either. Music publishing? A furniture store? Stock market investments? Who knew?

The next two chapters define Russell’s relationship to Adventists and Age-to-Come believers. You may think you know what this is all about, but let me tell you, you don’t. There are persons in this story long ignored by those who write about Russell. I’m impressed by the detail and the depth of research. Wendell, who most writers present simply as an Adventist preacher, is given a biography. His sermons in Allegheny and elsewhere are examined. (There is, surprisingly, a record of that.) Stetson’s last years and his non-Adventist beliefs are explored. There’s a real story in that. Again, it is different from what is usually said. Storrs turns into a different person than I expected. Others you may not have heard of are introduced. John T. Ongley, a One Faith evangelist, George Darby Clowes, an ex-Methodist preacher and others are profiled and their place in Watch Tower History restored.

If the Watchtower had ever published something like this, I wouldn’t see them as the dishonest, manipulative, controlling organization it seems to be. The Proclaimers book has what? Two sentences about Stetson? Schulz and de Vienne devote half a chapter to him, his writing and his beliefs. They take readers to private letters, obscure articles, and use them to build a well-researched, connected story. They hide nothing.

I found chapter four especially interesting. Chapter four discusses the bible study group founded by Russell and his associates. To get to his point, the authors have trashed the work of a number of authors. Some of that is funny. They call Zydeck’s book “fantasy fiction” and tell you exactly what’s wrong with his claims. (Contrived, fabricated) Others get the same treatment. I’ve been pursuing Watchtower history since the 1950s. My reaction to this was “about bloody time.”

Chapter four is the title chapter. It traces topic by topic the development of Russell’s theology. They tell you from whom and from where Russell got his belief system. You think his theology was Adventist? Think again. They cite the books, articles and letters of those with whom Russell associated. Most interesting here is a section on pyramid belief: They trace the origins of Pyramidology of course. They correct the claims of a few well-know anti-cult writers. They tell you who believed the theory. That was new to me. I did not know that Clarence Larkin, the Baptist expositor, and T. de Witt Talmage, the then famous preacher both believed similarly.

The remaining chapters consider Russell’s association with Barbour. Biographies are restored. Benjamin Wallace Keith’s biography is fascinating. J. C. Sunderlin was an opium addict, made such by pain killers he was prescribed for Civil War wounds. L. A. Allen, one of the first WT contributors agonized over what appears to have been sexual conduct at an early age. You meet people who thought they heard Jesus’ voice. You find names you’ve probably never heard and their biographies. This is not the candy-coated history the Watchtower Society writes.

They present the group as essentially disunited, the only unity being belief in the near return of Christ for judgment and to raise the saints. They take you to statements by the principals to show this. And this takes us to their premise, which put simply is that continuing fragmentation led (rather perversely) to a doctrinal unity and a distinct identity.

Volume one, the book just released, ends with the split between Barbour and Russell. Barbour embezzles money, seeing it as his right as God’s last days voice. Russell is seen as intellectually struggling.

You should read this book. You will be amazed. So, don’t let the title throw you off. You need to know what this book says. Their discussion of Storrs is especially important. Storrs would be disfellowshiped for his view of congregational authority.

I’ve waited all my life for a book like this. Buy it. Read it.

Stuff like this ...

           We’re trying to document Russell’s missionary travels between 1879 and 1890. If you can help, that would be good. Don’t assume we know something. Send any information you may have. I’m especially interested in newspaper announcements and any outside notice.

            If you have or locate later articles, send those too. Here’s an example from the Wheeling, West Virginia, Daily Intelligencer of December 8, 1898. Small articles such as this one help give us insight into Russell’s activity. Never ignore them. Send them along as you find them.

To send us historical material by email

attach file and send to rmdevienne @ yahoo . com

Large files: Create a Dropbox account or use google documents

Thanks

We need solid biography for ...

Henry E. Hoke was the son of Henry Hoke & his wife Eyster. He was born in Gettysburgh, Pa & lived the greater part of his life, until his marriage, in McConnellsburg (& Mr Hoke says there is no RR in the Co yet). He was a merchant & kept store here in Chambersburg, when he died Oct 5, 1896. His wife Harriet Stenger was born in Peters Tp, the daughter of Peter Stenger of Conrad & his wife Christine Shearer, his step sister. She died Nov 21, 1892 here in Chambersburg, Pa & both buried in Cedar Grove Cem. here. They had eight children.

and for his son Henry Eyster Hoke.

This is all we have:

The Editor’s Eastern Trip

 

            In the June 1880 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower, Russell announced plans for a month-long speaking tour taking him to nine towns. “The stay at each place will average about two days. I shall expect almost continuous meetings while with you.”

            First on his list was Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. There Henry E. Hoke was in charge of the arrangements. There are several H. E. Hokes, (father, son, grandson) and we’re uncertain which Russell meant. The interest in Chambersburg appears to have been drawn from an Evangelical Adventist conference of nearby congregations calling themselves Messiah’s Church “to distinguish this body from those holding the general name of ‘Adventists.’” Hoke was a member and an agent for The Advent Herald.


We also need to identify "Mrs. M. T. Miner" of Clinton, Massachusetts. She was living there in 1880.

So ... Mr. Schulz sent me this ...

He's working on the last chapter of volume 2. (Don't get too excited. We have a huge amount of writing left.) This is very rough draft and will change, but I like it. He didn't say I couldn't post it, and I didn't ask if I could. ... Comments welcome

An extract:

Understanding the Movement

 

            Sociologists tend to interpret millennial movements as expressions of alienation and disenfranchisement. Following H. R. Niebur, they suggest that Millenarian sects attracted the “socially disinherited.” Primarily focusing on Adventist sects, Clark describes Millenarians as a “pessimistic” sect:

 

Adventism is the typical cult of the disinherited and suffering poor. Its peculiar world view reflects the psychology of a distressed class in despair of obtaining the benefits it seeks through the present social order and seeking escape through divine intervention and a cosmic cataclysm, which will destroy the world and the “worldly” class and elevate “the saints” to the position they could not attain through social process.[1]

 

            While acknowledging that the Watch Tower movement did not arise from Millerite Adventism, Clark includes it among the pessimistic sects. So did S. Jackson Case. He considered the “Millennial Hope” as a phase of “war-time” or crisis era thinking. He saw Millennialism as an “especially pernicious” “pessimistic view of the world.” Including Russell and his fellows in the analysis, Case wrote:

 

In the presence of dire calamities many persons lose faith in the permanence of the present world. Horrible outbreaks of distress are taken to be symptomatic of an incurable malady which has fastened its deadly grip upon the whole cosmic order. Since the disease seems too deep-seated to e eradicated by remedial measure, its progress can be stayed only by destroying the object upon which it preys. The only hope for a final triumph over evil is thought to lie in the complete dissolution of the present world and the re-establishment of a new world free from all those calamitous possibilities inherent in the present order of things.[2]

 

            Those who follow Niebur and others with similar theories suggest poverty as a factor in the development of Watch Tower and other Millennialist theology. While social alienation is an undeniable factor, poverty and social status were not important factors in the development of the One Faith and Watch Tower movements. Sociologists present us with evidence divorced from its historic and religious context or simply faked or misstated. Many of them, while well educated otherwise, are Scripturally and religiously illiterate. They know about the Bible and about religion, but they don’t know either in the same way and in the same context that Watch Tower adherents did. Rather than social context driving Russellite belief, an attempt to sustain a Bible-centric view molded adherent’s social views.

            Edward H. Abrahamson typifies the “social science” approach to Watch Tower organizational structure. Abrahams identified Russell era congregations with modern Jehovah’s Witnesses, so he framed his premise this way: “Early Jehovah’s Witnesses founded a millennial movement in order to satisfy their political, social and emotional needs.”[3] He claimed that early Watch Tower adherents came primarily from the “rural poor,” citing seven letters published in Zion’s Watch Tower between May 1882 and August 1889 as proof.[4] The letters do not sustain his claims. One is from a prisoner and has no bearing on wealth. One is from a former Methodist Episcopal minister who lost his income when he abandoned his Methodism for Watch Tower belief. His poverty was the result of adherence, not its cause. The remaining five letters mention poverty, but they do not suggest that poverty drove the writers into the Watch Tower belief system.

            Abrahams and others like him seem to be selectively blind to evidence. The decades after the Civil War saw reoccurring depressions. These were most pronounced in the early 1870s, the mid to late 1880s and the early 1890s. People were starving. Poverty and starvation while they led to acts of desperation did not lead to a mass adoption of Millennialist belief. With American industrialization came an increasing social disparity. American industrialists were often oppressive and greedy. This wasn’t newly found greed but an extension of shop-keeper greed which underpaid its helpers so that simply to pay the rent many shop girls were whores too. Racial inequality was startling. (Two of the letters Abrahams cited came from non-Whites, one a Native American and the other a black clergyman.)

Sociologists have it backwards. The impelling force behind Millennialist belief was a desire for divine blessing and an attempt to adhere closely to the Divine Word. This led to the rejection of much of the social order. Rejection of and criticism of the social order was the founding sentiment of American religion. It is not a phenomenon unique to Millenarianism. It was the mindset of the Puritans and Separatists who founded America. They brought to America Calvinist anxiety concerning personal salvation and righteousness. They interpreted life through a scriptural lens. Russell’s agony over salvation and punishment had been repeated thousands of times by his Calvinist antecedents.

[insert quotation here]

The Puritan and Separatist ideal – the purified, faithful church – was shared by many, not just Millenarians. This was especially so in the post Civil War era. Arthur Tappan Pierson, a Presbyterian, was in this heritage. Addressing an evangelical conference on “The Actual State of the Church,” he observed:

 

The whole Bible puts the most weighty emphasis on an unworldly life. Yet in the church we find but few decided lovers of God, while there are thousands of decided lovers of the world. … The bulk of professing Christians are not thoroughly consecrated; they belong to the worldly holy, or the ‘wholly worldly.’ Out of the sixty millions of so called protestants, what vast numbers are mere ritualists or formalists coming into the Church as they would go into the army at a given age! Out of all nominal Christians on earth to-day, there may be ten millions who give clear evidence of actual regeneration.[5]

 

This is not appreciably different from the statements of other clergymen, or from that of Russell. If this is disaffection, it is a rejection of a social order, or social defects, based on a desire to please god. It’s not the sociologist’s picture.

The letters found in Zion’s Watch Tower, instead of revealing a class of disenfranchised poor turning to religion, show already religious people most of them from the Puritan and Separatist heritage. Our Puritan ancestors sought unadulterated Christianity, purified from the forms of Papal worship. They saw the Roman church as “the Whore of Babylon.” American Protestantism reflected these views. “Worldly entertainments,” and practices were rejected. The Church was corrupt, desperately needing reform. Before the Civil War the worldly habits of nominal believers, the approval of slavery, the neglect of key doctrines including that of Christ’s return and sexuality were condemned. Revivals, meant to stimulate spirituality, stimulated sexual misconduct. Some blamed that on the presence of women or a growing predominance of women in congregations, an extension of the teaching that blamed “original sin” on Eve though Paul said the sin was Adam’s.  There was, some said, a preponderance of emotion and little intellectual devotion in the revivalist movement.[6]

Sociologists who’ve written about Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Bible Students of Russell’s day speak of social alienation as if the discredited idea of social progress were valid. This is true of Abrahamson, and it is true of others. Change is not progress. The social changes of the late 19^th Century, especially those attendant on the industrialization of America, were partially undone by the populist and socialist leaning politicians who framed fair labor practice laws, the Pure Food and Drug Act, anti-trust legislation and similar legislation. But some sociologists would have Watch Tower adherents disaffected and doctrinally unique because of it, but the disaffected progressives be part of a forward movement. You can’t have it both ways.

Ignored by these “social scientists” is that impelling religious belief led some to change their occupations to those of lower status for the sake of acts of faith. This is true of the clergyman whose letter Abrahamson quoted. It was true of Russell, of J. B. Adamson, and of others. Russell noted [quotation here]

The claims of sociologists (and some historians) are not supported by the evidence. In the Russell era adherents were usually middle class, often well educated for the day. Many were businessmen. Some were inventors. Some were published writers. There were a number of clergy. If there was poverty, it is accounted for in the cyclical depressions of the late 19^th Century. Poverty wasn’t a driving force; a desire for holiness was.

Beckford’s analysis of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United Kingdom focused on the tendency to low-status occupations.[7] Again, the idea that one would choose a low-status occupation to further acts of faith eludes these writers. Yet, Watchtower literature is full of examples where professionals surrendered occupations for low-status employment to further their evangelism, a practice that continues from the Russell era. Real understand of the character of Watch Tower congregations in the Russell era depends on seeing members as seeking holiness and obedience.

---

[1]               E. T. Clark: The Small Sects in America¸ Abingdon Press, New York, Revised Edition, 1949, page  21.

[2]               S. J. Case: The Millennial Hope, University of Chicago Press, 1918, pages v, 1-2.

[3]               E. H. Abrahams: The Pain of the Millennium: Charles Taze Russell and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1879-1916, American Studies, Spring 1977, page 59.

[4]               Abrahams, pages 66-67.

[5]               As quoted in A. P. Adams, Bible Theology, Salem, Massachusetts, 1882, page 4.

[6]               F. M. Davenport: Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals, Macmillan Co. New York, 1905, page 282ff.

[7]               J. A. Beckford, The Trumpet of Prophecy: A Sociological Study of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1975.

ebook version

The ebook for A Separate Identity won't be available for some weeks. Sorry. One of us will tell you when it's published. We'll announce it here.
R

Stellar find ... From Ton

New York Sun - Nov. 26, 1892

We need this ...

We need a good scan of G. M. Myers: The Covenants and their Relationship, Gazette Publishing House, Lanark, Illinois, 1882.

We've located a copy at BIOLA Unversity. We don't have funds for a photocopy at this time. I hope one of our readers has this and will share it.

Feedback

It would be nice to get some feeback from blog readers. We don't often. When we do it comes from the same four or five people. This suggests to me that we're waisting our time with this blog. Posting new research and such takes time. If it is of no value to most who come here, then why am I doing it?

Do you want this blog to live on? Shall I let it stay as it now is without adding to it? Let me know.

Still Working ... Help with this?

Our focus is on finishing volume two,  but we're also gathering material for the next book, assuming we write it. We are collecting the notices of Watch Tower speakers from newspapers of the era. I'm especially interested in the advertisements and notices of Russell's speeches. They're usually a paragraph or two in length, giving the subject matter and address. Here is one from 1901:

This is found in the Monroe County Mail, a paper published in a suburb of Rochester, New York. This may seem insignificant, but announcements such as this one sometimes lead us to other things. Here are my working notes:

"Conventions remained small, hardly more than local meetings. In late September 1901 a meeting held in the room 16 of the Durand Building in Rochester, New York, was advertised as “a convention of believers in the great redemption sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The Rochester, New York, Democrat and Chronicle said that Russell “was heard with interest and close attention by an intelligent audience which occupied the entire seating capacity of the hall.” Still, the gathering seems to have been small.

An announcement appearing in the Monroe County Mail the Thursday prior described Russell as “one of the greatest Bible students of the age.” While this probably tweaked Barbour’s nose, it wasm't directed at him. This descriptor or something like it was used in most of Russell’s announcements and advertisements. There are a number of similar examples. One is found in the November 9, 1907, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Inquirer: “Rev. Mr. Russell is said to be one of the foremost Bible scholars in this country.”

Barbour was a factor, though to what extent is uncertain. By 1901 Barbour’s influence was significantly reduced. But in Rochester there was still interplay between Watch Tower adherents and the Barbourite congregation. And some continued to read Herald of the Morning, though at this point the Herald’s circulation reached fewer than a thousand. Barbour continued to preach insult and half-truth about Russell. In the …"

 

So you see that small things can lead to a larger story. If you have in your files anything like this, please share it.

It's arrived

My copy arrived today, as did one for another correspondent I am in touch with. I have sent you some comments back-channel, but the general problems you were concerned about are small and do not detract from the reading of the book.

the book

The printer in set up created some format problems. The first few copies or so will have these. The book is still readable, but the subheading lost their bold lettering. There's some odd line spacing not in the original. These issues should be fixed by tomorrow.

All the text and photos are there. It is readable. A few pages are affeccted.

There are more formatting problems than we knew. If your copy is unreadable, let me know and we'll make it right best we can.

Update: I've stayed up way past midnight to fix this. I have no clue what happened with the first upload, and since I haven't seen the print copy yet, I can't say how severe the problems were. I think they're fairly minor. But if your copy is unreadable, (I don't think that's a problem, but it might be) let me know and we'll make it right.

I'm very frustrated at the moment.

We believe all formatting problems have been addressed.

Uncertain Date

So .... have you bought the book yet?

 

 

Click on the image to view entire.