Watch Tower History

Thursday, June 26, 2014

A bit more

We really would like some comments on this. Real feedback, knowlegeable feeback if possible, is helpful.

Out of Babylon

The nature of Russell era congregations is misstated by Biblically illiterate historians and sociologists. Edward Abrahams asserted that “Russell used the words ‘alienated,’ ‘isolated,’ and ‘troubled’ to describe his congregations.” We ask, where?

Between 1879 and the end of 1916, the word alienated appears in fifty-nine issues of the Watch Tower. Watch Tower writers and Russell especially use it as commentary on Colossians 1:21-23: “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard , and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven.” This is not a statement of social alienation, but of the need for reconciliation with God through Jesus.

The word appears in quotations from other sources, usually as commentary on the alienation of the young from contemporary churches and the Bible. These are not a reference to Watch Tower congregations. Russell never uses the word alienated in the sense meant by a sociologist. The one place where one might presume he meant it in that sense is found in the January 15, 1912, Watch Tower. Russell wrote:

The Church has cried in "the wilderness" in the sense that she has been alienated and separated from the world. She has called upon all who would hear to prepare for Messiah's Kingdom. She has told more fully than did John the Baptist of the effect of Messiah's Kingdom – the leveling up of the valleys (the lifting up of the poor), the straightening out of the crooked things and the smoothing of the rough things, that thus all flesh might see, appreciate, understand, experience the salvation of God. Both John and the Church declare that this salvation is to be brought through Jesus and His glorified Bride in Kingdom power. The point we are making is that while John the Baptist was an antitype of Elijah, and was forerunner or herald of Jesus, so, only more particularly, the Church in the flesh is a higher antitype of Elijah, and still more particularly a herald of the Messianic Kingdom.

Did Russell suggest that the congregations were socially alienated? Not in the way Abrahams and others suggest, and certainly this one occurrence is not an example of continual usage. Russell says the Church has no part in the world’s social upheavals and essential sinfulness. But the Church has an obligation to the world to uplift, to declare salvation, and to rebuke wrongdoing. Christians are not to approve of the world’s ways. This is not similar to the social alienation that led to the Haymarket affair or the Railroad Insurrection. This is a push for holiness.

But what of Russell’s use of the word “isolated”? When using it of Watch Tower adherents, especially in the very early days, Russell meant those who were the lone believer in their area, not that they were otherwise isolated from their communities. An example is found in the October 1881 Watch Tower. Russell wrote an extensive report on the progress of Watch Tower evangelism “To strengthen and encourage the lonely and isolated ones.” Reporting Communion observance in 1884, he touched on the small number of believers, using the word ‘isolated’: “In some places only two or three assembled, in others more, and some isolated individuals alone, but the general testimony is that the Master was present at least in spirit; and for aught we know was personally present.” Does this seem to be a reference to social isolation? Not to us. But, as we shall explore, their unique beliefs left them separated partly or wholly from the religious community. Again in 1884, Russell wrote:

It is comforting to those who stand isolated in their own neighborhood to realize this. There are many such isolated ones, and all have much the same experience –

in the world, tribulation; in Christ, peace. It is also a source of encouragement to learn that while we realize that the harvest is great the laborers are being multiplied, and that so far as we can learn, the saints are realizing their call to make known the glad tidings, and that though their talents be many or few they are not to be folded away in a napkin. We have learned that there are as many ways to preach the Gospel as there are talents among the saints.

We rejoice with all these that we have been so enabled to comprehend the Gospel as to find that out of the abundance of the heart our mouth must speak; that the love of Christ and the knowledge of his glorious truth constraineth us.

But while we thus rejoice together, we can but rejoice with trembling as we realize the secret, subtle, and persevering efforts of the Prince of this world to overcome the saints. No artifice or effort is left untried: Opposition, ridicule, rejection, flattery, false reasoning to disprove the truth, cares of this world, bribery with the good things of this world, and allurements of various kinds, are all used as the necessities of the individual cases may require.

This is within Christian experience. Early Methodists and Baptists, and First Century Christians all experienced isolation because of belief. Plymouth Brethren chose it for the sake of pure belief. The trials Russell described are common to those who live by New Testament standards. Some sociologists believe this is harmful. Adherents in this era felt the isolation, but the counter to it was suggested in this article. Because they were ‘true believers’, they were also evangelists, expressing their beliefs to others. There is no alienation in this. They were determined to speak as God would have them speak, to bring the gospel to any who would hear.

Russell was aware of this dichotomy. Isolated from “worldly” belief and practice by the desire for holiness and divine approval, adherents also felt compelled to take the Gospel to others. Drawn on his experiences with Watch Tower believers, he wrote:

But where is this faithful Church to be found? – this people so set apart from the world, so faithful, so loyal and so true? – so ready always to recognize and accept the Lord's help? Does it gather here or there or yonder? and is God manifestly in the midst of its congregation as evidenced by its joyous songs and fervent prayers? Ah, no! it is a scattered flock; so much so that the world does not discover that there is such a people. The world knows them only as isolated and peculiar individuals who cannot assimilate even with the masses of those who bear the name of Christ. There is one in the quiet of country life whose chief interest is not in the harvest of his earthly crops, and who only plants and reaps thus that he may be able to devote himself so far as possible to the reaping of God's harvest. He has glorious tidings for his neighbors far and near, of the kingdom which is soon to be established in the earth. And there is a farmer's wife: in the midst of her busy cares the blessed sound of gospel grace has fallen on her ears. She feels at once like dropping the domestic duties and going abroad to tell the good news. But no; she remembers the Lord's teaching, that he that provideth not for his own house is worse than an unbeliever; and so she says, I will let my light shine here. These little ones around my feet shall learn to rejoice in the truth; my companion, my neighbors, my farm hands and all that I can reach through the mail or the press shall know of it; and all these domestic duties which I realize the Lord would not have me ignore shall henceforth be done with an eye single to his glory.

Here is an invalid and there is an aged saint. Their faith in the Word of God, regardless of the vain philosophies and traditions so commonly accepted, brings upon them many reproaches which are meekly born for Christ's sake, while they humbly endeavor to let their light shine upon those about them. And yonder in a crowded city are a few who dare to be peculiar – to separate themselves from the customs and habits of social life, to forego the pleasures and present advantages of former social ties, to speak the new and heavenly language, to sing their songs of hope and praise and by every agency within their grasp to send forth the glorious message of the coming kingdom. And then scattered far and near are some unencumbered with earthly cares and joyfully denying themselves, esteeming it a privilege to devote all their time and energy to the great harvest work. Yes, "the Lord knoweth them that are his," and he is in the midst of them. He knows their loyalty to him and they know his voice and are ever ready to follow his leading. Thus no harm can overtake them. They will stand and not fall, and will in the end be crowned as victors. A thousand will fall at their side and ten thousand at their right hand in this day of trial, but they will be kept in the very midst of the wildest confusion. They may, as the trial proceeds and as the faint-hearted and unfaithful fall, be left to stand almost or entirely alone in their several localities; but then they will realize all the more the preciousness of being alone with God.

Strict adherence to Bible standards, no matter what the doctrine, has always produced something like this. It is hard for us to see Watch Tower adherents in the Russell era as social misfits in the same sense that those at the extremes of the labor movement and other disenfranchised groups were. Former slaves and their children, poor farmers, under paid and abused laborers, shop girls who prostituted themselves because they were not paid a fair wage suffered from forces outside their control. Separation form ‘the world’ on a doctrinal and holiness basis was a choice. Put in Apostolic terms, either one served God or was part of the world.

In 1892, Russell wrote a commentary on the International Sunday School Lesson on the First Pslam. Russell said that the righteous man of Psalm One pictured “the man whose heart is perfected in holiness, the pure in heart.” This was “pre-eminently” a picture of Jesus, but “secondarily … of those … justified by faith … new creatures, walking in their Master's footsteps.” They were “sometimes imperfect” through fleshly weakness. The Psalm delineates “three steps” the righteous avoid: “(1) the ungodly – literally, the wicked, (2) sinners or transgressors, and (3) scorners or the conceited and unteachable.” “The proper course is to have no fellowship (sympathy and common interest) with people of any of these classes,” Russell wrote. He explained that this “not mean that we are to treat them unkindly or discourteously, nor that we are never to be seen walking, standing or sitting with such; but it does imply that our company should, as far as possible, be select, and of those who reverence our God, and that other fellowships should not be encouraged.”

Of the three types of wrong-doers Russell identified, he felt most would avoid the unquestionably wicked and common sinners. Most were “in danger of getting into fellowship with the scorners or unteachable.” Association with them would lead “to the same spirit, and that leads gradually to violation of the covenant with God; and that leads to open wickedness and willful sin.” The safe way is to have was to have “no fellowship with darkness: it is never profitable.” The principals in the first Psalm affected church affliation:

In all the nominal churches there are many who have a form of godliness, but who are really ungodly – far from being in harmony with God and his plan. In the nominal churches are also many sinners, living in known violation of their covenant with God. And there, too, may be found, alas! sometimes even in the pulpits, those who are of an unteachable, haughty spirit, who even scoff at God's Word and make it void through their traditions. Come out from among them; and neither sit, nor stand, nor walk in fellowship with such. (Rev. 18:4; Isa. 52:11.) Stand with God, even if that should seem to imply standing alone. The Lord knoweth them that are his, and he has yet more than seven thousand who bow not to the idol of sectarianism.

Obedience to principals of good fellowship brought happiness rather than isolation:

Some might suppose that one thus isolated would have an unhappy lot; but no, he is truly said to have a delightful experience. He delights day and night in meditating upon God's will and plan. In this he finds a joy and a peace which the world and a worldly church can neither give nor take away. One thus consecrated and full of the spirit of the Lord finds that God's laws of righteousness are not restraints which he would fain be freed from; but, like the Master, he can say, "I delight to do thy will, O my God: thy law is engraven in my heart."

… Such children of God as have reached this degree of development do not wither away and become dead and barren, but, since the root of their new life is fed by the river of God's grace and truth, they are always fresh and joyous and fruitful--adding to faith virtue, brotherly kindness, love, and so are not unfruitful in either the knowledge or the wisdom which surely comes to all who have communion and fellowship with God. Whatsoever such do shall prosper. They have no plans of their own: they desire that God's will shall be done. And since God's plan shall prosper (Isa. 55:11), their plan shall prosper; for his is theirs.

Again we observe that this is not the disenfranchisement that Abrahams and others who take the same tack envision. It is engagement but on terms set by holiness. If the world is common and ungodly, it is not association of choice for Christians, but it is populated by those who need to hear the gospel and to whom Christians owe courteous behavior. Some historians and more sociologists take this and similar comments to mean Watch Tower adherents were disenfranchised and disgruntled. They misunderstand the religious spirit of the age.

Samuel L. Beiler, a professor at Boston College, a Methodist institution, also wrote a commentary on this psalm suggesting much the same things as Russell did:

The scorners are those who make an open scoff at religion, and blaspheme and ridicule it. These … are as many now as in Psalmist’s day. They still have their ‘seat’ or assembly and form a deliberate confederacy in wickedness. To ‘sit’ in their ‘seat’ does not necessitate being an open-mouthed blasphemer, but may only imply a silent member of such a company, who in his own heard … harbors such feeling. Beware of mocking, ridiculing, scoffing, scorning sacred things. Such a spirit indicates a heart empty of good and of god, near to destruction. … The ungodly … will be as the chaff blown away by the wind. … In the great day of judgment the hearts that are like empty shells will be found wanting …

Those more modern writers who suggest that Watch Tower believers were especially alienated from the world are significantly out of touch with the religious spirit of the age. Watch Tower theology – on the issue of holiness and obligations to fellow men – fits directly into common religious belief. To return to Abrahams’ suggestions, we should note that the third term he suggested, “troubled,” does not seem to us to have been used in the sense he suggests. Since he cites no references, we cannot follow his research trail.

Zion’s Watch Tower and traveling evangelists served as point of contact from the “twos and threes” and individuals. Hamilton Lincoln Gillis wrote to Russell from Preston County, West Virginia, after the Lord’s Memorial Supper in 1887, noting concern for the small groups. Russell printed it in the May Watch Tower:

I have the great pleasure to report a very interesting and profitable meeting, on the evening of the 7th inst., of a little company, sixteen in number, who “kept the feast” in remembrance of “our Passover, slain for us.” We remembered the more isolated ones, who were not so privileged; also the little bands of twos and threes, and companies like our own, here and there all over the earth. We prayed also for the dear brothers and sisters in Allegheny; and we doubted not that we were also remembered, and the assurance gave us courage and strengthened us in our glorious privilege. We all join in sending our love and sympathy to you and Sister Russell, and to all the dear household that are privileged to see you face to face.

[1] E. H. Abrahams: Charles Taze Russell and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, American Studies, Spring 1977, page 61.

[2] C. T. Russell: Prepare Ye for the Kingdom, The Watch Tower, January 15, 1912, pages 32-33.

[3] C. T. Russell: In the Vineyard, Zion’s Watch Tower, October/November 1881, page 5.

[4] C. T. Russell: View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, August 1884, page 1.

[5] C. T. Russell: God is in the Midst of Her, Zion’s Watch Tower, August 1891, pages 108-109.

[6] C. T. Russell: The King of Zion, Zion’s Watch Tower, March 15, 1892, pages 90-91.

[7] Beiler’s commentary if found in: Boston Homilies: Short Sermons on the International Sunday School Lessons for 1892, page 113ff.

[8] Letter from H. L. Gillis to Russell, Zion’s Watch Tower, May 1887, page 8. [Not in reprints.] Gillis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, June 1836 to Ander and Isabelle Gillis. About 1857 he married Isabel Crawford. They had four children. During the Civil War he served as a private in the 6th Regiment, West Virginia Cavelry (Union). Though some online genealogies say he died in 1916, he died in 1906. Gillis traveled to Austraila in the late 1890s to mine for opals. On his return, they were stolen from him by an Aleck Cramer. [Swindled by his Friend, San Francisco Call, March 10, 1898] He returned to West Virginia.

Bible House family - 1906

The date the photograph was taken is written on the back of one collectors' copy.

I had a little difficulty working out rows 1 and 2 until I carefully checked the feet in the photograph.

Most will recognise a few of the people. The photograph also includes Margaret (or Margaretta) Land, who was CTR's sister.

CTR himself is not in the picture. Perhaps he was behind the camera...

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Snip

Mr. Schulz sent me this material today. It is rough draft, still in research, for a chapter entitled Out of Babylon. Comments welcome.

Out of Babylon

Did Russell suggest that the congregations were socially alienated? Not in the way Abrahams and others suggest, and certainly this one occurrence is not an example of continual usage. Russell says the Church has no part in the world’s social upheavals and essential sinfulness. But the Church as an obligation to the world to uplift, to declare salvation, and to rebuke wrongdoing. Christians are not to approve of the world’s ways. This is not similar to the social alienation that led to the Haymarket affair or the Railroad Insurrection. This is a push for holiness.

But what of Russell’s use of the word “isolated”? When using it of Watch Tower adherents, especially in the very early days, Russell meant those who were the lone believer in their area, not that they were otherwise isolated from their communities. An example is found in the October 1881 Watch Tower. Russell wrote an extensive report on the progress of Watch Tower evangelism “To strengthen and encourage the lonely and isolated ones.”[3] Reporting Communion observance in 1884, he touched on the small number of believers, using the word ‘isolated’: “In some places only two or three assembled, in others more, and some isolated individuals alone, but the general testimony is that the Master was present at least in spirit; and for aught we know was personally present.” Does this seem to be a reference to social isolation? Not to us. But, as we shall explore, their unique beliefs left them separated party or wholly from the religious community. Again in1884, Russell wrote:

It is comforting to those who stand isolated in their own neighborhood to realize this. There are many such isolated ones, and all have much the same experience –

This is within Christian experience. Early Methodists and Baptists, and First Century Christians all experienced isolation because of belief. The trials he described are common to those who live by New Testament standards. Some sociologists believe this is harmful. Adherents in this era felt the isolation, but the counter to it was suggested in this article. Because they were ‘true believers’, they were also evangelists, expressing their beliefs to others. There is no alienation in this. They were determined to speak as God would have them speak, to bring the gospel to any who would hear.

Strict adherence to Bible standards, no matter what the doctrine, has always produced something like this. It is hard for us to see Watch Tower adherents in the Russell era as social misfits in the same sense that those at the extremes of the labor movement and other disenfranchised groups were. Former slaves and their children, poor farmers, under paid and abused laborers in every field, shop girls who prostituted themselves because they were not paid a fair wage suffered from forces outside their control. Separation form ‘the world’ on a doctrinal and holiness basis was a choice. Put in Apostolic terms, either one served God or was part of the world.

[1] E. H. Abrahams: Charles Taze Russell and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, American Studies, Spring 1977, page 61.

[2] C. T. Russell: Prepare Ye for the Kingdom, The Watch Tower, January 15, 1912, pages 32-33.

[3] C. T. Russell: In the Vineyard, Zion’s Watch Tower, October/November 1881, page 5.

[4] C. T. Russell: View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, August 1884, page 1.

[5] C. T. Russell: God is in the Midst of Her, Zion’s Watch Tower, August 1891, pages 108-109.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

A snippet from a chapter in progress

Signs in the Heavens

Pretend and real heavenly events panicked those who looked for signs in the sun, moon and stars. On September 6, 1881, the skies over New England, Vermont and New Hampshire – over two hundred thousand square miles – turned yellow. The cause was uncertain, though probably a forest fire in the wilds of Northern Canada. This was startling event. Yellow haze hung in the upper atmosphere undisturbed by a steady breeze. In some areas the haze reached the ground. Schools were dismissed and workers sent home or work proceeded under candle light. Chickens roosted, night insects chirped, birds slept. While some saw it as an interesting phenomenon needing a good, scientific explanation, many panicked. The Friends Intelligencer said: “Among those who apprehended that the weird prophecies of the seers of Israel concerning the earth’s destruction are to find literal fulfillment in our day there was general apprehension that the last day of the human race had come.”[1]

Abraham Brown of East Kingston, New Hampshire, wrote to the Springfield, Massachusetts, Republican, suggesting that it was a last-days sign:

‘The sky was draped in a kind of fog, a little too light for smoke, and a little too dark for steam.’ As all our wise men have failed to give a scientific reply to the question of your correspondent, allow me to suggest that a ‘fog which is a little too light for smoke, and a little too dark for steam’ may properly be called a ‘vapour of smoke’ – and whether it be from a supernatural cause or from unexplained or unknown natural causes – it looks, and I have no doubt is one of the wonders of the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel, as declared by the apostle Peter in Acts 11, 19 and 20: ‘I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.’[2]

Brown was serious. So were a multitude of others struck by the similarity between the event and Bible prophecy. Watch Tower adherents were not persuaded. They expected other events that year.

As we noted in a previous chapter, Albert Jones focused on the perihelion of planets on June 19, 1881, mentioning it in Bible Students Tract number six. He believed Thomas Wilson’s booklet and other similar predictions supported his expectations. He was not alone. Many outside the Watch Tower movement did as well, including Barbour and his followers. Aged Barton Speak, who billed himself as “an old Jacksonian Democrat,” wrote:

It is now midnight, and I am just in from the Stars. You know this is the night of the conjunction of the big stars, that is, the planets, and to-morrow – Sunday – is to be the end of the world; that is certain so called wise men have said so. I ope this will prove a blessed Saturday night for you if it is the last one. How little the beaux that sit in conjunction with their lasses to-night know what is going on overhead. They don’t know that the big stars of the solar system move up into a straight line with the sun, to-night. That is so. … If there isn’t a big disturbance to-morrow, I don’t want to be told … that when the earth gets out on a dress parade with the sun and other big bodies in the sky there must of necessity be a big disturbance …. The fact is, I don’t’ believe that a disturbance will take place.[3]

Speak was right, of course, or we wouldn’t be writing this and you wouldn’t be reading it. Writers from The Restitution speculated on the supposed perihelion of planets, taking the mater seriously. In May 1879, a F. W. Haskell of Lynn, Massachusetts, wrote to Barbour asking:

Have you seen an article in the papers on the conjunction of the four planets with the sun, which is supposed to explain the pestilence and miasmatic pressure brought to bear on the earth, and which is to vibrate with convulsions and thus scatter disease and death to its inhabitants? There was an article in a Boston paper last week, warning the people to take care of their health, as they will soon be called upon to face a season of pestilence such as has not visited our earth since the christian era. [sic] They ignore the ending of the gospel age, and yet are looking for the very things foretold.[4]

Barbour didn’t append an answer to Haskell’s letter, but in the next issue recommended the booklet published by Thomas Wilson which we discussed on chapter [#]. Published under two titles, the one noted by Barbour was Star Prophecies, or a View of Coming Disasters on the Earth from1881 to 1885, as Viewed from an Atronomical and Astrological Standpoint. Its ideas persuaded readers of both magazines. Wilson also published John Collom’s The Prophetic Numbers of Daniel and the Revelation which focused on pyramid measurements and planetary perihelia. Other books and pamphlets, almost without number, did as well.

[1] Yellow Day: Friends Intelligencer, September 17, 1881, page 489.

[2] Quoted in Historic Magazine and Notes and Querries¸ October/November 1882, page 66.

[3] Letter from an Old Jacksonian Democrat, Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, Sentinel and Republican, June 22, 1881.

[4] F. W. Haskell to Barbour in the May 1879 Herald of the Morning, page 56.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Just a taste ...

We started a new chapter. Mostly it's just notes, but some of it exists in rough draft. This chapter focuses on their expectations for 1881. Here is a small bit:

Both the Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of the Morning continued to point to 1881 as a significant date. As with most of this era, Watch Tower belief about 1881 is seldom presented in context or with any sort of accuracy. Most of those who discuss Watch Tower expectations divorce them from contemporary history, present them inaccurately, usually purposefully so. Watch Tower readers expected a variety of events, some of them conflicting. They were a small, hardly noticed detail in a larger picture. A contemporary newspaper noted:

It would be difficult to describe all the sinister predictions that have, as by common consent, been concentrated upon the coming year. The soothsayers, divines, oracle makers, astrologers, and wizards seem to have combined to cast their spell upon it. Superstitious people of every sort, and some who are not willing to admit that they are superstitious, regard the year 1881 with more or less anxious expectation and dread. …

Timid persons first began to look forward with some alarm to the year that is about to open, when, several years ago, the key to the so-called prophetic symbolism of the Great Pyramid of Egypt was made public, backed by the name and reputation of the British astronomer, Piazzi Smyth. Others using Mr. Smyth’s observations and measurements, have gone much further than he did in drawing startling inferences; but no one can read his book without perceiving how powerfully it must affect those who have the slightest leaning toward superstition or credulity. …. So the belief, or at least the suspicion, spread that the secret chambers of the Great Pyramid, under Divine guidance by the most mystical character in all history, Melchisedek, King of Salem, foretell … that the Christian era will end in 1881.[1]

[1] The Terrible Year at Hand, The Sliver Creek, New York, Local¸ January 14, 1881. The same article appeared in many other newspapers. Author’s name is not given.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Our First Amazon Review

5.0 out of 5 stars THE FIRST IN-DEPTH HISTORY OF THE ORGINS OF JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, June 4, 2014

E. Jones

Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Separate Identity: Organizational Identity Among Readers of Zion's Watch Tower: 1870-1887 (Paperback)

This is the first thoroughly researched and comprehensive history of the Jehovah's Witnesses early years. Other histories of the early days of the Jehovah's Witnesses spend just a few paragraphs or pages on the years 1870 - 1879, which are the years covered (in 380 pages!) in this volume one of a planned two volume work. And those histories are all mostly based on a single Watch Tower article of May 1890 (reprinted in 1894 and 1906) and maybe some thoughts from A. H. Macmillan's book Faith on the March. Neither of which were meant to be in-depth works. But there is much more to that history and this book goes a long way in filling the historical gaps that exist because of reliance on those two earlier works.

The authors of this work, Schulz and de Vienne, have done a remarkable job in producing the first history of this period based on original research made to fit an academic standard. They not only tell what they know but how they know it by means of a 189,000 word text with 1,700 footnotes and 102 photos and illustrations. So their work is verifiable. As the authors point out the problem with other histories of this period is that they present much that is not verifiable or ignore others who played a significant role during this period and concentrate on Charles Taze Russell to the exclusion of the numerous others who had a share in Jehovah's Witnesses history and the evolution of Watch Tower readers into a distinct religion.

The authors acknowledge Russell as a prime mover in the movement that developed. But while Russell did influence others he was also influenced by others. So while C. T. Russell is a focus of this history he is not the only focus. You will find here numerous biographies of those who Russell interacted with, showing exactly how they influenced his beliefs, that you will not find in any other Witness history. There are also biographical bits of information about Russell and others that had been scattered throughout Watch Tower and Bible Student publications that have been brought together here, in one place, for the first time. Also, as part of the authors original research you will find information obtained from letters, articles, and newspaper interviews that Russell and others wrote and gave, some before the Watch Tower magazine even came into existence. Joseph Lytle Russell, Ann Eliza Russell, Age-to-Come/One faith believers, Y.M.C.A., George Darby Clowes, George Washington Stetson, George Storrs, William Henry Conley, Margaret (Russell) Land, Henry Dunn, and Joseph Seiss are just some of names that are given the full treatment instead of just being barely or not at all mentioned in other Witness histories. In particular if you thought you knew who George Stetson and George Storrs were and the full impact they had on Russell from other Witness histories you will find out you were wrong. Four chapters are devoted to the relationship between C. T. Russell, Nelson Horatio Barbour, and John Henry Paton. What they did, who they spoke to, what they believed and preached and what others wrote and said about them from their meeting in 1876 till the breakup in 1879.

This is history written to an academic standard which means that it is verifiable and it sticks to the facts. So the authors don't try to prove that Russell and those associated with him were led by God, as Russell's friends believe, or that he was a religious apostate, as his enemies believe. This is not a book about the truthfulness of Witness theology. It's history without religious commentary. Since this is the first of its kind history the authors, also, when appropriate point out significant inaccuracies or unverifiable statements in other Witness histories. This is a book about the history of a group of certain individuals, who they were, what they did, what they said, and what they believed according to available records and how this all led to the formation of a distinct religious group.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Can you help with this?

We think a man named William Carlton Irish was associated with Barbour and and maybe Russell. Can we you find his name in Herald of the Morning or Zion's Wach Tower?

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Update

An update to our current research is on the private blog. If you subscribe to it, you may want to visit the blog and read what will be chapter two in volume two. A few paragraphs remain to be written.
R

Separate Identity, vol 1 is now on B&N and Amazon. But we'd appreciate it if you buy it from lulu. We fund our research from the sale of the books. We get almost nothing from Amazon and BandN sales. Lulu pays us better.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

We need ...

We need a list of Watch Tower congregations formed before 1900. Anyone?

John Newton Fox

Taken from a family history web page

John Newton Fox was born June 4, 1839, according to his death certificate or January 9, 1839, according to his obituary. He was born in St. Clair Township, Butler County, Ohio. He was the son of Levi Fox and Eliza Yerkes. He was a farmer for most of his life.

He married Sarah Jane Ricketts in 1863 when he was about 24 years old in Wayne County, Iowa. Their children and life together are described in detail in the section on John and Sarah Fox.

The same year he married, John's father, Levi, sold him sixty acres of land for $50. The deed to John Newton Fox, both dated and recorded on March 11, 1863, is found in Lucas County Land Record Book G, p. 569. The description is the NW¼ of the SE¼ and the W½ of the NE¼ of the SE¼ of Section 34. This is the 60 acres along the New York road labeled "Phoebe Gookin" on the 1895 plat.

John was left a widower in November, 1885 when his wife Sarah died. He married Isabelle Solinger on April 9, 1893 and became a stepfather to her children. Below is a transcription of a letter that John wrote to Leonard Shelton. His grandson, Richard Fox, said "grandpa Fox had beautiful handwriting."

December the 14 1910

hellow lenard this evning we are all wel mother and Earl are both at work so will try to answer some of the questions that yo sent but thare is hundreds of qustions in the bibel that I cant answer and yo are too far away from me and it is hard for me to read your hand riting then again it is discuriging to rite answers if yo let the children destroy them befor yo investigate themfirst i think that solaman was david sun

Second i think thar was synagogs and heason worship long before Christ time but non of them perfect but Christ was building up what will be the true church that will be the bride the lams wife will have part in the first reserection they will be maid immortal they are the only ons that will be.

they will be maid spirt being they with thir lord will gug the world and gug angels all so thar will be 144000 thousand of them the bible ses fear not litel flock it is your fathers good pleasure to give yo the cingdon they are on trile to day but the world at larg is not on trile to day but will be on trile during the gugment day witch will be athousand year

then i think that al sin and pain misre and distress and anquish and deth itself all springs from that one penalty prenounced on adam when that is all settled then if we sin we will die for our own sin and not for adams transgressions

well i cant give you the bible referenc on this yo are too far awa but if you study it well yo will finde it to be the case

well if you can send me brother rusels surman i will be glad or even his text read this carful

from John N. Fox

John's grandson, Richard Fox wrote that when John N. Fox was a young man, the story was told me, he suffered extreme frostbite in his feet and lower extremities. As he aged the circulation to the feet and legs dried up and his legs turned black with gangrene. (I hope you are not squeamish as some of the family's history is a little gruesome.) His limbs were actually decaying beneath him. I don't know why they didn't amputate them but operations were extremely dangerous and expensive in those days. My mother told me that the rotting flesh would get maggots in it and that Isabelle would pour boiling water over his legs to kill them. He could not feel the hot water but he imagined he could feel the maggots. The maggots probably would have rid him of the putrefied flesh but he wouldn't have known that. One doesn't have to imagine the agony the poor man went through before he died.

John died at age 74 on January 2, 1914 in Chariton, Lucas County, Iowa of "sapremia gangrene of the feet" and was buried in Salem Cemetery with his wife, Isabelle and son Earl.

Mr. John N. Fox passed away at his home on East Armory Avenue in Chariton on Sunday morning, January 4th, 1914, at the age of seventy-four years, eleven months and twenty-six days, after an illness of several years' duration with gangrene of the foot and a complication of troubles. Funeral services, conducted by M. C. Lorimor, were held at the family home on Monday afternoon at 2 o'clock, after which the remains were laid to rest in the Salem cemetery.

John N. Fox was born in Ohio on January 9th, 1839. On January 6th,1863, he was united in marriage to Sarah Jane Rickey (sic), who died several years later. To this union seven children were born, six of whom are living. They are Mrs. Eliza Smith of Oklahoma; Mrs. Clara Woods, of Fairmont, Neb.; Mrs. Mae McKelvey, of Des Moines; Etta and Orpha, of Chariton, and Boney, of Oklahoma.

Mr. Fox was again married on April 9th, 1893, to Mrs. Isabella Shelton, who survives him. To them one son, Earl, of this city, was born. Mr. Fox was a good, Christian man, and bore his intense sufferings with a patience and fortitude that were remarkable. He had resided in Lucas county for many years, and was esteemed by all who knew him for his many excellent qualities. His demise will be mourned by a host of friends who will extend sincere sympathy to the surviving relatives.

Postcard John wrote to his grandson, John Elmer Smith when his first daughter, Hazel was born in 1910.

John N. Fox passed away at his home, Sunday morning, Jan. 4, 1914, after an extended illness of about twelve years. The greater part of this time he suffered intensely with blood poison. His feet became infected, and he had not been able to take a step for more than ten years, losing one foot entirely a short time since. He was taken to the Methodist hospital in Des Moines, several years ago, hoping to be benefited but it baffled the skill of the physicians there and seemed nothing could be done to alleviate his sufferings.

Obituary:

The deceased was born in the state of Indiana, Jan. 9th, 1839, and had he lived five days longer would have reached the age of 75 years. He came to Iowa, when young and was united in marriage to Sarah Jane Rickets, January 6, 1863.

To this union were born seven children, Mrs. Eliza Smith of Wright, Minn., Mrs. Clara Woods of Fairmont, Nebr., Mae McKelvy (sic) of Des Moines, Etta O'Day of Davenport, Bomie Fox of Bush Head, Oklahoma; Orpha of Chariton, and Merritt, who died in 1908. His wife died Nov. 18, 1885. He was again married April 9, 1893, to Mrs. Isabella Shleton. To this union one son was born, Earl, who remained at home. Mr. Fox came to this state in an early day and was one of the pioneers of this county.

He was a good Christian man, and had his fellowship in the church of the Millennial Dawn. Funeral services were held from the home Monday afternoon, conducted by M. C. Lorimor, and the remains interred in the Salem cemetery. Mrs. Mae McKelvey (sic) of Des Moines and Mrs. Clara Woods of Fairmont, Nebr., were the only children from a distance able to be present. (obituary found by Frank Myers in an old family scrapbook)

Will of John N. Fox

I, John N. Fox, of the town of Chariton and state of Iowa of the age of sixty-five years and being of sound mind and disposing memory to make declare and publish this my last will and testament and hereby revoke all former wills by me made in the manner following.

To - Wit: I desire that all my just debts and funeral expenses be first paid. I devise and bequeath to my wife Issabelle Fox all my property both personal and real, of whatever kind that I may own at the time of my death, in addition to what she may be entitled to by law, to have and to hold for her own use during the term of her natural life. On the death of my said wife Issabelle Fox, I desire that the property both personal and real go to my son, Earl Fox, to have in fee simple as his own property.

In witness whereof I have hereto attached my signature this sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and four.

signed John N. Fox

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Russell's Newspaper Sermons

Sometimes all we have to do is wait

One of the already completed chapters for volume 2 is entitled Advertising the Message. We discuss a special edition of Plan of the Ages published in 1891. We put some considerable effort into finding a copy of the title page, abandoning that over a library fee of twenty-five dollars and six dollars postage. Herewith is the book ....

Thursday, June 5, 2014

William Morris Wright

Visitors to the United Cemeteries (chartered originally as Rosemont, Mount Hope and Evergreen United Cemeteries in 1905) will usually investigate the special area featuring a pyramid and the nearby grave of Charles Taze Russell. However, higher up the hill, across a small road, can be found an area that is also of interest. The photograph is taken from there and shows the obelisk for William Morris Wright, born in Ohio October 15, 1848, and died on April 3, 1906.

Wright wrote to CTR in 1887 on the subject of “coming out of Babylon” (see reprints 983). CTR’s detailed response prompted a further letter (reprints page 996) where Wright had now had his name taken off his original Congregational Church roll.

At the time of his death, Wright, originally from Ohio, had been part of the Bible House family in Pittsburgh for eight years. His death certificate gives his occupation as insurance adjuster. He was one of the trustees of the original cemetery company on its incorporation in 1905, and thereby one of the first to sadly require its services.

The nature of the obelisk was to allow other family names to be added in due course, but only Wright’s name is on the base. The other three sides are blank, which strongly suggests the family were ultimately buried elsewhere. Wright was married and according to a brief obituary in the Pittsburgh Press for April 4, 1906 had four adult sons at the time of his death.

His Watch Tower obituary (found in reprints page 3765) mentions that he was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.

Note: He is not to be confused with James Dennis Wright, one of the Society directors at the time of CTR’s death.

Identity

We need to identify the author of this poem which appeard in Zion's Watch Tower in the 1880s.

I searched through the 1881-81 (there was no Newark city directory for 1880) looking for any women with the initials A.M.B. I only found one, Anna M. Bennett, widow of Uzal O. [Bennette], residing at 422 Plane Street in Newark. There are about fifty other women whose initials could be A.B. (i.e. their first names began with A, their last names began with B, and the directory did not give a middle initial).

Very truly yours,
Larissa Brookes, Librarian

Oh the things one finds:

Anna M. Pennington married Uzal Bennett (Bennette) on July 5, 1840, in Essex County New Jersey. Uzal was born in New Jersey in 1813 and died October 1849. He is burried in Newark. Anna appears to have been a long-suffering woman. In July 1841, Uzal was sued for seducing a young girl and ordered to pay$2500 to the girl's mother. It was a huge sum in 1841. We do not have a death date for Anna.

Isn't history fun!

Jones divorce records.

We are unable to pay for these. Total cost is $49.00.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Can you help?

We need solid biographical information for John Judkins Jones, a physician in Indiana in the 1880s. Anyone?

Drawing public attention to A Separate Identity is a struggle. If you like our book, leave a review on the Lulu book page. Show it to your friends; tell everyone you know about it. Please help.