Dissension
was not uncommon. It arose on several grounds. Those with similar, but ultimately
opposition views attended Watch Tower meetings. Some swayed by Barbour continued
to attend Watch Tower meetings because there was nowhere else to go. Paton’s
adherents were increasingly small in number, often having no meetings of their
own. They attended Watch Tower meetings, using them to spread Paton’s universalist
ideas. We discuss it more fully elsewhere, but we note here that beginning at
least in 1882, Paton prepared booklets and tracts that went out primarily to
Watch Tower readers. The earliest of these known to us was a thirty-two page
booklet reprinting chapter four and part of chapter five of the ‘revised’
edition of Day Dawn. As
long as the meetings included those with opposition beliefs, opposition
literature made its way into the fellowship and colored group discussions.
Most examples come from a somewhat
later period but seem to accurately represent the problem. In Brockport, New
York, someone donated a subscription to Paton’s World’s Hope and Russell’s Watch
Tower to the Free Library. A
letter written to J. H. Paton in 1902, illustrates the situation: “Sister V. …
asked me to subscribe for the Hope;
and I … have never been sorry. … It has been a blessing to me and much company
when alone. Z. W. T.; the Hope,
and my Bible are about all I read.”
Benjamin Ford Weatherwax, a retired
Methodist clergyman living in Courtland, New York took up the Watch Tower message in 1901, possibly from earlier preaching by
S. O. Blunden, who preached there in 1893.
Weatherwax wrote to Russell expressing his faith. A follow up letter was
printed in the January 1, 1902, Watch Tower. It told
the story of his withdrawal from the Methodist Church:
I
have had a big fight and gained a glorious victory. I send you my article
prepared for the Conference. I had a hard time to get a hearing, as my name was
called before I reached the seat of Conference. Had I been there then I could
have had the floor; but after that it was difficult. After pressing the matter
they allowed me five minutes to speak and I read rapidly until I reached the
sentence, “Thy Kingdom come,” two thirds through, and there the Bishop called
me to order. He said I had used up six minutes and I asked for an extension of
time but could not get it. (They had enough.) So I asked our own City Editor if
he would like to publish it and he consented.
There
was a great surprise I assure you, at Syracuse Conference, when I withdrew from
it and gave my reasons even partially. I commenced giving out tracts-- until
all were gone. When I gave one I said, “Read that carefully, when you are all
alone.” I have a good many old friends in the Conference and Church (Nominal),
but thanks be to God, I am the Lord's free man. Some have asked me what church
I am going to unite with, and my answer is the “Church of the first born, whose
names are written in heaven.”
Benjamin
Ford Weatherwax (June 15, 1836 – November 8, 1903) attended Fairfield Seminary,
and later Hartwick Academy. Though he farmed for a while, he “he felt a strong
call to preach the gospel.” He was admitted to the ministry of the Methodist
Episcopal Church becoming an itinerant preacher in New York. He retired in 1885, and returned to farming. He gave
up farming in 1892, moving to Courtland, New York. He
was convinced by Watch Tower doctrine about 1900 and preached it. He convinced six
others, and they formed the Church of the Little Flock in Courtland. By 1903, The
Syracuse, New York, Post-Standard gave it a
membership of “about ten.”
Shortly after he resigned from the Methodist ministry, the editor of The
Courtland, New
York,
Evening Standard published his
statement of faith:
Courtland,
N. Y., October 29, [1901]
To the Editor of The Standard:
Sir – I have been asked to give a reason for the hope
that is within the church of the “Little Flock.” First, our organization is of
a heavenly origin rather than earthly. We belong to the “Church of the first
born whose names are written in heaven.” Our people are scattered all over the
earth. They are known by their Lord. …They are held together by love divine … .
They are one body and one spirit … .
We hold that the church which God is electing or
selecting during this gospel age is promised a spiritual or heavenly reward to
be “made partakers of the divine nature,” and to share with Christ the work of
blessing the world during the millennium. We understand that the millennial age
is for the very purpose of causing “the knowledge of the Lord to fill the whole
earth as the waters cover the sea,” and see “the true light which lighteth
[sic] every man that cometh into the world,” giving all a full opportunity to
come in to [sic] harmony with God.
We understand that the Bible teaches both the doctrine
of election and the doctrine of free grace – the election of this church during
this age and free grace for the world in general in the millennial age and in
perfect harmony as shown by the Scriptures. We also under that 6,000 years of
earth’s history is past according to Bible chronology and that the seventh
thousand is the mellinnium [sic] of Christ’s reign – and that the present time
from 1874 to 1914 is the lapping period styled in Scripture the “harvest” of
the age, in which the number of the elect church will be completed, and that
then the millennial age will be ushered in by a great time of trouble, anarchy,
etc., mentioned repeatedly in Scripture which will level society, humble pride
and prepare the way for Immanuel’s long promised Kingdome “under the whole
heavens.”
All of this is standard Watch Tower doctrine of the era. As with other former clergy,
Weatherwax assumed the leading position in the group. Meeting-time advertisements
note him as “Elder,” a common Methodist designation. As did a few other former
clergy, he continued to see himself as having special status. Based on his
short article for the Cortland paper, editors of nearby journals presented him as
the “founder of a new sect.” The Newburgh, New York, Register told its readers
that “the Rev. B. F. Weatherwax, formerly of this city, has withdrawn from the
Methodist Episcopal conference and has founded a new religious denomination.” By
the end of April 1902, they were meeting in the W.C.T.U. Hall. Sunday services
were at 10
am, and a meeting for prayer
and Bible study was on Wednesday at 7:30 pm.
Before 1890 either Russell or one of
the others most prominent in the Watch Tower ministry would visit newly formed groups. George B. Raymond,
a Watch Tower evangelist, visited the Cortland group twice. An announcement in the April 12, 1902, Cortland Standard said he’d address a meeting
of the church in Good Templars’ Hall. No subject was given. R. E. Streeter
visited The Church of the Little Flock in Cortland in July 1902 for two days. No subject was announced.
He was back in December 1902, Speaking Wednesday, December 3rd on
the topic “The Coming Kingdom,” and the next evening on “Restitution of All
Things.” Raymond returned in early
May 1903, addressing the group twice. The Standard printed the
congregation’s statement of belief:
There are people who believe
the world is just entering the milennial [sic] reign of Christ, and that a wonderful
age of progress, both material and spiritual, is about to be ushered in,
preceded, however, by ten or fifteen years of intense strife and anarchy. They
believe that the earth and the great bulk of humanity, both present and past,
will, during the next thousand years, be restored to the perfection which 6,000
years ago was exampled in the Garden of Eden.
They reject the idea of eternal
torment, claiming it to be unscriptural; asserting that only those who are
guilty of sinning willfully against the fullest light (information) are to be
considered incorrigible; these and these only, are to be destroyed in the second
death.
They believe that God has for
6,000 years been allowing man to gain a sad experience with sin, and that he
will, during the next thousand years, the millennium, restrain sin, that man
may see righteousness n all of its beauty, and witness the blessed results of
its reign. Having had 6,000 years’ experience with sin and 1,000 years’
experience with righteousness, man will be well prepared to make a wise choice
as to which he will serve, and will then be tested by loosing of Satan to
deceive those who during this long period shall have failed to become well
grounded in godliness, Those being thus deceived will go down into the second
death from which there will be no resurrection.
Despite this concise statement of Watch Tower belief, Weatherwax deviated from it that year. He encountered
Barbourite doctrine and adopted Barbour’s new chronology. Barbour expected the
final last-days acts to occur in 1907. Weatherwax preached that. His obituaries
report that the church “members believe the world ends in 1907.” We lack
details. We don’t know how he encountered Barbourite doctrine. We do not know
why he found it persuasive.
Contrary to newspaper claims, most members of the Cortland church retained Watch Tower belief. We think that the congregation retained Weatherwax
because though he deviated in doctrine, they had tremendous respect for him. Writing
some months after he died, Isaac Edgecomb described him as “a man of great
faith.” Edgecomb was a Methodist, and wrote this despite Weatherwax’s defection
from that church.
The small congregation continued, placing regular ads
in the Cortland paper through 1904. They numbered thirteen in 1906,
all of whom traveled to Binghampton, New York, on January 26th to hear Russell speak. Cortland received two visits by traveling Watch Tower Pilgrims
in 1908, and persisted at least to 1917. We do not know if the current Witness
congregation is an outgrowth of the original group.
Syracuse, New York, Herald
Randolph Elwood Streeter
George B. Raymond
