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Temporary post ... Lawver, Foore

This is an update of part of a chapter entitled Seeking Cohesion, parts of which were posted before. This is a temporary post; most of it will go away in a few days. Comments welcome, wanted, needed or what ever prompts you to leave one

J. S. Lawver and John C. Foore.       

J. S. Lawver’s preaching tour was announced in Zion’s Watch Tower, and we can suppose sympathy to the Watch Tower message. Calling him “Brother Lawver,” Russell noted his evangelical tour planned for mid-1882: “Bro. Lawver of Missouri starts about July first, for a trip through Kansas and Texas. Letters, requests for preaching, may be addressed to this office.”[1] Russell included him with other Watch Tower evangelists such as Keith and Sunderlin. Interestingly, his trip is reported in The Restitution as well.[2] Some overlap, sometimes a considerable overlap, in teaching and evangelism between Watch Tower and Restitution evangelists continued into the 1890s.

The remainder of this post has been deleted.

We need a volunteer

            We need a volunteer willing to spend a little of his own money. Are you still reading?

            The Archives of Ontario has two documents related to Rex v. J. J. Ross, the criminal libel trial of a Baptist preacher brought by Russell. We’re committed to finishing volume 2 of Separate Identity. All our time and money is committed to that. We need someone willing to acquire and scan for us the two documents. They are:

    J.G. Farmer, Barrister, Hamilton: Rex vs. Ross- Query re his right to cross- examine chief Crown witness in libel case. (Includes a pamphlet on "Pastor" Charles T. Russell).

Dates of Creation: 1912

Physical Description: 1 file of textual records

Notes: See also RG 22-392-0-6742 (the indictment).

Creator Code:  1711

This file or item forms a part of the following group of records: RG 4-32 Attorney General Central Registry Criminal and Civil Files

Defendant: Ross, John Jacob; Charged with Defamatory Libel (against Pastor C.T. Russell): Wentworth County

Dates of Creation: 1913

Physical Description: 1 file of textual records

File/Item Ref. Code: RG 22-392-0-6742

This file or item forms a part of the following group of records: RG 22-392 Criminal Assize Clerk criminal indictment files

Restrictions on the Group of Records of which this File/Item forms a Part Originals are closed for conservation reasons. Researchers must use microfilm copies.

Location and Ordering Information

File is located on self- service microfilm reel MS 8529 Note this information for retrieval of this item. To help you find what you need, also note the File/Item Ref. Code and/or the Creator Ref. shown above.

Contact information for Ontario Archives is:

Mailing Address:

The Archives of Ontario

134 Ian Macdonald Boulevard

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

M7A 2C5

Email Address: reference@ontario.ca

Fax Number: 416-327-1999

In this morning's email

I don't have permission to publish this, so I'm omitting the names. Some of you would know them. The writer is a COG-GC historian. The 'sender' mentioned in the email is a Christadelphian editor and historian. Nice things in this:

Raechel, P----- H------ sent me a pdf of your 2014 book, A Separate Identity.  I have read everything with great interest (of course).  You and Bruce are excellent writers, and you have a way of digging out the whole truth and explaining it in simple terms.  I so appreciate your writings.  I have not found anyone who could differentiate between Adventism and ATC* (except me), but Bruce did!  I think that story needs to be repeated until Church historians finally realize not every churchman in the 19^th c who believed in the second coming was an Adventist!!

 

So, Thank you for your monumental research and careful writing.  P---- only sent me 70 pages of the pdf, to the end of the first chapter!!  I would like to have a whole book, or whole file!!

*ATC = "Age to Come."

Benjamin Wilson and the Christadelphians

I think some of you forgot this paragraph from Separate Identity:

Christadelphian Connections

            A number of writers postulate a Christadelphian connection. Among more modern writers one finds repeated references to Benjamin Wilson as a Christadelphian. Russell, they say, got his ideas from Wilson’s Emphatic Diaglott, and Wilson was a Christadelphian. This is a fable. Wilson, son of an Oxford professor of Greek and an immigrant to North America, was associated first with the Campbellites. He was attracted to John Thomas’ teachings but he and Thomas quickly parted company. Thomas was bitter and vituperative. Newell Bond addressed the issue in a letter to Thomas dated October 29, 1866, pointing to Thomas’ “sarcasm and [the] sport made of others who have believed and obeyed the same Gospel.” Such “go not very far with candid, thinking men as arguments in defense of the truth,” Bond wrote. Thomas’ reply was that Wilson was “of that class I am commanded to avoid.” He called Wilson a “rabid politician” and one of “the world’s own.” “I repudiate in toto the idea of such having like precious faith with the Apostles.” Thomas did not see Wilson as a Christadelphian. Wilson repudiated the association. Not at all ashamed of his repeated ad hominem attacks, Thomas published the letters for all to read.[1]

---

[1]               N. Bond and J. Thomas: Important Correspondence Between a Member of the Self-Styled “Church of God,” Cleveland, Ohio, and John Thomas, M. D., Christadelphian Association, Detroit, Michigan, 1867. Wilson repudiated Christadelphian connections in an interview with J. Bohnet published in the April 4, 1916, issue of The Saint Paul, Minnesota, Enterprise.

A recent comment on a review of Separate Identity has queried the statement in that book that Benjamin Wilson of the Diaglott was NOT a Christadelphian. In the April 4, 1916 issue of the St Paul Enterprise newspaper, on the front page, Bible Student J Adam Bohnet described one of several visits he made on Wilson, where the question was asked outright - are you a Christadelphian? Wilson replied that he was not a member of any organized religion. His whole background as one of the strands in the Church of God/One Faith movement was against organization and long before this interview he had accused the Christadelphians and Thomas of being sectarian. (For details see Biographical Encyclopedia Chronicling the History of the Church of God Abrahamic Faith, page 293).

The article from the St Paul Enterprise is posted below. I have omitted the middle section which is mainly a theological debate on Wilson's and CTR's differing views on the ransom.

A little more ... also temporary

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]

The rest of this post has been deleted.

Another Old Theology Quarterly

Now on ebay

Temporary Post

Usual rules. You can save it for your own use. Do not rely on this; it is work in progress and some of this will change. B says to post this. I'm doing this against my better judgment. A comment would be nice.

Approach to Eighteen Eighty-One

The subject we consider in this chapter is much distorted without context. America with much of the Christian world was religious. Faith was serious business. If churches differed in doctrine, sometimes hated each other condemning others to a fiery Hell – Protestants listened to the Scripture’s prophetic voice. Historians who write about this period tend to focus on extremist and Adventist movements. But interest in prophecy was not limited to fringe movements. It was a main-stream phenomenon. Baptists of various stripe, Anglicans, Presbyterians and nearly everyone else had well defined interest in prophetic fulfillment. Some Catholic writers believed Christ’s return impended. In 1881, a French priest, Charles Arminjon, published a series of lectures predicting the near return of Jesus, translated into English and published at The End of the Present World, and the Mysteries of the Future Life.

Despite an emerging shift of focus from awaiting Christ’s return to curing social issues, most American and British Christians remained expectant.

Worldwide people expected key events, prophetic fulfillments for 1881. 

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A Cautionary Tale

I recently came across something I wrote about 5-6 years ago for another blog under a different name - on the perils of trying to collect early Watch Tower materials. As a brief respite from all this serious research, I have cut and pasted a little bit that may strike a chord with older readers who have been collectors and researchers from before the internet era.

A number of decades ago, I used to advertise regularly in trade journals for publications of a certain religious group – a key one was called The Watchtower that started in 1879. A dealer contacted me to offer an original volume for 1901-1903. It was very expensive, and I was doing religious work away from home with a companion of similar age at the time. And we were broke. Really, really broke. But I had to have it. Money from necessities was diverted to obtain the prize. Then each day I waited impatiently for the parcel to come.

Finally it did. I ripped open the paper, and there it was – the Watchtower on the spine. Not quite the size I expected, but hey – how much did I know at that time about the shape and size of its past years? I opened the book wide, and there on a full page spread were the immortal words:

BILE BEANS FOR BILIOUSNESS

Those who may know the journal in question will understand how incongruous that was. I flipped through the pages and – aaagh - this wasn’t MY Watchtower, this was ANOTHER Watchtower – a literary journal published by the Broughton Baptist Church - full of life enhancing anecdotes, and advertisements for patent remedies for the ailing Baptist community of Greater Manchester.

My working partner behaved with true Christian charity.

How much did you pay for it?

HOW MUCH??

HAWHAWHAWHAWHAW!!!

Fifty years have gone by since then, but I can still remember as he curled up and pounded the floor in hysterics, as I looked aghast at my prize and thought what I could have spent the money on.

That volume is still on my shelves today. (As is another volume called Awake - a bound volume from the Church Missionary Society from 1902 – and that date really should have been a give-away).

I keep them there as a lesson.

I’m just not sure of what.

Also on Ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222295724545?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Jonas Wendell's nephew

For sale on ebay for cheap:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/302103825104?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

We have a copy. I see it as moderately interesting.

We need ...

We need a better example of this ... Do you have one?

The Golden Link - Published by Paton

https://archive.org/details/TheGoldenLink

Recent Visitors Map

So you know ...

            We’ve added a new chapter to our outline. While this may frustrate some of you who wish for a speedy release of the next volume, we think it is a key and necessary addition. We will present an overview of American and ‘other’ religious and social history. Almost without exception, histories of the Watch Tower movement are disconnected from their social setting. It is impossible to evaluate it without understanding its connection to contemporary events and attitudes.

         This requires fresh research into frequently covered topics. American religious history as commonly presented is revisionist and disconnected from reality. This is particularly true of the interplay between Catholics and Protestants in the United States. The usual presentation of American anti-Catholicism excuses Catholic excesses and blames narrow-minded Protestants. It ignores Catholic machinations, which were quite real and not Protestant myth making. An example of this sort of revisionist history is a lecture by Ryan Reeves, professor at Gordon-Conwell, inserted here.

            
           Reeves is articulate, presenting an engaging lecture, but his lecture is a white-wash. In key areas what he says is not true, not even close to truth. We have to remedy this fault which is common to recent writers and lecturers, and do it in a clearly documented way.

            Social issues that influenced Russell and Watch Tower readers are ignored by recent writers. This is especially true of Watchtower Society produced ‘histories’, but true of almost every consideration of the Watch Tower movement. We must present these issues in a clear and concise way so that our readers come away from this chapter understanding these issues without being overwhelmed or bored by detail. This is not easy.

            So ... you know where we are.

            You should know that this is a busy time of year for Mr. Schulz and me. I’m in the middle of course work leading to certification. Mr. Schulz is involved with a school district committee that affects his area of expertise. So, while we may wish to be fully engaged in research and writing, we cannot be at this time.

The Magnificent Seven

     Well, perhaps not all quite so magnificent, but I couldn’t resist the title.

     When Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society was incorporated in late 1884, there were seven directors. This article is just a brief overview of the original seven. As such, most of the material has appeared in some form before, and for details of the lives of these people you will need to consult the Separate Identity series. Grateful thanks are due to Bernhard who has supplied much of the information here. And in line with a series of past articles based on the indispensible Find a Grave site, as well as giving their dates, this article shows where all these people ended up. Literally.

     But first, here is the list of names from Zion’s Watch Tower for January 1885.

     There are, of course, only six names listed here. However, the original handwritten record of the charter lists a seventh, Simon O Blunden. When the original articles of incorporation were reproduced in the Watch Tower for November 1, 1917, all original seven names were listed.

     We will take them in the order in which they appeared in the 1885 ZWT (adding Blunden at the end) and simply document their births and deaths and when they ceased to be Society directors. In many cases, ceasing to be directors coincided with ceasing active association with Charles T Russell and Zion’s Watch Tower. To illustrate, we will show their final resting places.

Charles Taze Russell (February 6, 1852 – October 31, 1916)

     CTR remained president until his death. He is buried in the plot owned by the Watchtower Society in United Cemeteries, Pittsburgh. Visitors often photograph the pyramid on the site, but this is not CTR’s grave marker. The pyramid was originally designed to list all the names of those buried on site. Only nine names were recorded before the idea was abandoned. For a full history including the history of the “pyramid nine” check back on this blog to a series of articles written in 2014.

William Imrie Mann (January 4, 1844 - December 12, 1930)

     Mann, the original vice-president, ceased to be a Society director on April 11, 1892. He is buried in Grove Cemetery, Trumansburg, Tomkins County, New York.

Maria Frances Russell (April 10, 1850 – March 12, 1938) 

     Maria (née Ackley), the original secretary-treasurer ceased to be a director on February 12, 1900, although she actually parted from CTR back in 1897. After leaving CTR she made her home with her sister, Emma, until Emma’s death, and lived the last years of her life in Florida. She is buried in the Royal Palm South Cemetery, St Petersburg, Pinellas County, Florida.

John Bartlet Adamson (1837 - January 22, 1904)

     Adamson ceased to be a director on January 5, 1895. He is buried in Mount Olive Cemetery, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. There is no marker, he is buried in a garden lot which is just an area of grassland.

William Cook McMillan (October 10, 1849 - 1898)

     McMillan ceased to be a director on May 13, 1898. He resigned because he was serious ill and died shortly afterwards. He is buried in the Mechesneytown Cemetery, Mechesneytown, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. (The spelling McMillan occurs in the January 1885 ZWT, but MacMillan in the reprint of the association’s articles in the November 1, 1917 WT, whereas the family memorial spells the name MacMillen. All three forms can be found for him in the pages of ZWT.)

Joseph Firth Smith (October 28, 1849 – December 7, 1924) 

     Smith ceased to be a director on April 11, 1892, the same date as William Imrie Mann. He is buried in the Allegheny Cemetery, the same location where CTR’s parents and other family members were buried. For a history of this cemetery and the Russell family’s connection with it, check back on this blog to an article from November 2013.

Simon Osborne Blunden (September 1840 - November 13, 1915) 

     Blunden ceased to be a director on June 6, 1908. He is buried in the family grave in Glendale Cemetery, Bloomfield, Essex County, New Jersey - not to be confused with the more famous Glendale Cemetery of California (Forest Lawn). The headstone reads Samuel Buchanan, who was Blunden’s son-in-law and who died in 1906. Two other family members who died before Buchanan also had their names on the marker. However, when Blunden died later, he was buried in this family plot, but the headstone was never updated.

Italian Work - Article by Roberto with English Language Help by Rachael

1924-5 Conventions.

Italian Watch Tower believers between America and Italy

            An international convention was held at Columbus, Ohio, July, 20 to 27, 1924. It was international in two senses: First, in that it was a convention of Watch Tower believers who spoke various languages; and secondly, people were expected to attend from various countries throughout the earth [1]. The Watch Tower expected that it should be the largest convention of Bible Students ever held on earth [2].

About the foreign-speaking people we read:

In the United States and Canada there is a number of foreign-speaking brethren, Germans, Greeks, Lithuanians, Poles. Ukrainians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Italians, etc. It will be expected that the brethren of these foreign languages will attend, and that all the Pilgrim brethren who serve the foreign-speaking brethren will also attend. Meetings of the brethren speaking each of the languages will be conducted regularly. There will be no distinction in race, color or language, but all will be one in Christ. [3]

            In June, Richard A. Johnson and Rutherford toured Great Britain and parts of continental Europe to advertise the International Convention at Columbus. They hoped that the Bible Students would come from the four corners of the earth. [4]

            Columbus was chosen because of its location, being the most accessible to the largest number of people; because of the transportation facilities and street-car accommodations; because of the number and size of the available auditoriums. They rented the largest stadium for the public witness.

            The Ohio State Journal carried a four-page report daily of the Convention. [5].

            A detailed report of that convention appeared in The Watch Tower of September 1, 1924, pp. 259-264. Three months later the same article appeared in the Italian edition of the magazine, [6] but with a little difference: at page 165 we find a picture of Rutherford together with De Cecca and a group of Italian-American Bible Students. [7]

 

            The first Convention held in Italy was at Pinerolo, Piedmont, April 23 to 26, 1925. About sixty people attended the convention, five men and eight women were baptized; the speakers were Remigio Cuminetti, G. Maurelli, M. Martinelli and A. H. Macmillan.

A later report reads:

The work continued to expand in spite of many difficulties, and the first assembly was held at Pinerolo April 23 to 26, 1925. Since Brother A. H. Macmillan from the Society’s headquarters was making a series of visits abroad, he was able to be present. The assembly was held in a large room at the Corona Grossa hotel.

It would have been ridiculous to expect the Fascist authorities to give their permission for this assembly. So the brothers disguised the gathering as a wedding celebration. During the assembly Brother Remigio Cuminetti married Sister Albina Protti, one of the Swiss colporteurs. At that historic assembly there were 70 in attendance and 10 of these were baptized.

“Our days were full of blessings, rejoicing and happiness,” wrote Sister Brun, who was present at the assembly. She adds: “The hotel owner brought his other guests and clients into the hall saying: ‘Come and see everybody, we have the primitive church under our roof!’ . . . Everything was well organized and we usually managed to clear the floor and set the chairs out in a flash. Afterward we would put them away again and leave everything in order. We were all happy and willing to lend a hand. It was a great witness.”

Nevertheless, during that first assembly there was a curious inconvenience. “Although we were very different in many ways, we managed to get on well together. However, we did not manage to agree on the singing of the songs. The brothers from the north sang with a lively rhythm, while those from the south sang slowly and with such feeling that it was a pity to make them change. So the presiding brother decided to have those from the south of Italy sing first, followed by those from the north.” [8]

            The presence of Macmillan is confirmed in the original Italian Watch Tower, even though, in the picture taken after the convention we can’t see him; probably he had only just left. [9]

Footnotes:

[1]  WT May 1 1924, p. 138, “International Convention”, paragraph 2

[2] WT May 15 1924, p. 147, “International Convention” at Columbus”

[3] WT June 1 1924, p. 164, “Foreign Languages”

[4] WT June 1 1924, p. 171, “The International Convention at Columbus”

[5] WT August 1 1924, p. 226, “Convention Report”

[6] La Torre di Guardia, November 1924, p. 163, “La Convenzione internazionale”

[7] La Torre di Guardia, November 1924, p.165

[8] Yearbook 1982, pp. 133-4

[9] La Torre di Guardia, August 1 1925, p. 121.

Self Exlanatory

Rachael de Vienne ‏@RMdeVienne
 

#historyteacher The best history teachers are story tellers whose narrative engages the mind as much as good fiction does.

Recent Visits Map

Now if only each visitor would leave a brief comment and make Rachael happy:

Hart or Ling

The last post raised some questions when attention was drawn to a 2000 Yearbook that captioned a picture as Tom Hart. Tom Hart and Jonathan Ling are usually mentioned together as early Bible Students in the London area in the 1880s.

The photograph on the left is Jonathan Ling and was supplied by his great granddaughter from family archives. If you check back in the blog you can see that the original is captioned with some family history details. The photograph on the right was sent to me as a picture of a much older Jonathan Ling from a German publication, but the above mentioned Yearbook says this is Tom Hart.

You can examine both pictures side by side here. Personally, looking at features like mouth and ears, they appear to be the same man but several decades apart. It would be all too easy to have material about Hart and Ling in a file and assume a photograph is one of them without corroborating evidence.

I could of course be wrong. Maybe Hart and Ling just looked alike. What do you think?

Jonathan Ling

In June this year the blog ran a short article on Jonathan Ling, an early Watch Tower adherent in Britain, publishing a photograph of him supplied by one of his great-granddaughters.

Courtesy of Bernhard another photograph of Jonathan has now come to light, as a much older man. I had actually seen this photograph before, but cannot remember where. If any readers also recognises it and can give a source (other than Bernhard), I would be interested to hear.

Contact.

Our emails are attached to our blogger profiles. I'm on twitter. Mr. Schulz does not use any social media.

There are some rules. We do not debate theology. Our work is all about history and only about history. Do not email us to promote your beliefs. Do email us if you have something to contribute to our historical research.

We usually do not have time to assist you with your personal research, but if you have a question that concerns the era we research, we will consider it. Direct  your questions and comments first to me. I'll pass them on to those most likely to answer in an informed way.

Most of what appears on the internet as 'Watch Tower History' is nonsense. We do not have time to correct every wild speculation and fabrication floating on the internet. But if you have a specific question, we will do our best to direct you to the facts as we know them.

We accept blog article submissions. Submissions must be in Word format with indented paragraphs, preferably fully justified. Articles must be footnoted to original sources. While you may reference secondary sources, your facts should be derived from primary sources. Submit photos in .gif format. Blogger loves .gif best.

Expect your article to be edited. Expect it to be rejected without explanation. We may return your article for a rewrite, a revision, or further research. If this will damage your ego (You'd be surprised how many find the editing and submission processes ego wounding.) don't submit to us. We will consider articles covering the  Russell years and sometimes the early Rutherford years. Send submissions to Mr. Schulz. I'm busy with a handful of things and no longer manage blog issues.

A bit more on Basil

by Jerome

Rachael mentioned in a recent post that I had several articles in the planning stage for the blog. This is true and they will eventually cover what I hope others may find profitable lines of research.

However, this is not one of them. This is just an incidental post covering some material uncovered when researching Basil Stephanoff. It will not have a place in the forthcoming book, because it is irrelevant to the religious history. But still - I, at least, found some of it fun.

Many early associates of CTR, like people in general today, had what can only be called “feet of clay.” Lapses from moral grace don’t have to be the exclusive preserve of religious people, but the contrast between theory and practice is often fodder for the tabloid press. And this is history - these people aren’t our relatives to cause us any embarrassment today, so that is Okay.

Quoting from an earlier post by Rachael, “Basil Stephanoff gets short mention in Proclaimers. He was active in Macedonia (European Turkey and Bulgaria in the late 1880s. He was imprisoned because (he claimed) false testimony at the hands of false brethren. He escaped to America, settling in Michigan. He was still a Watch Tower adherent in 1894.”

The 1894 reference is to a letter of support he sent CTR as published in the special Conspiracy Exposed and Harvest Siftings Watch Tower extra.

Basil’s personal history has its mysteries. At one point in researching this article, I rather gleefully assumed we had a case of bigamy here, but alas, a discovery of not one but two divorces settled that in Basil’s favor - if that is the right expression to use. But I am getting ahead of myself.

The fuller chronicle of Basil that makes the history book explains he was in the United States in the 1880s, although on census returns he only ever admits to entering the country in 1891 or 1892. We know from passenger lists that he travelled from England to the States in January 1892, giving his occupation as laborer.

Within a short space of time Basil gets married to Annie Brook, on April 12, 1892, in the Children of Zion Church, and his marriage certificate (registered in Kent County, Michigan) gives his occupation as minister of the gospel. The officiating minister at his wedding is H A Olmstead, Pastor Children of Zion Church.  Annie is a dress maker and comes from England. A 1900 census return says she came to America in 1886, six years before Basil, and a 1920 census return says she became a US citizen in 1892.

At the time of the marriage Basil is 31 and Annie is 28. His father’s name is down as Stephan Boginoff, which suggests the registrar had a silly moment, since the correct name in all other documents is Bogin Stephanoff. Basil’s mother’s name is Mona. Annie conceives almost immediately and their only son, John Basil Stephanoff is born on January 26, 1893 (information from John B’s WW1 draft card). John B becomes a judo instructor during WW2 and lives until 1976. John B married and had one daughter, whose married name was Jean Schmit, and who died in 1980, but there the trail ran cold for this researcher.

In trade directories for the late 1890s through to 1901 the family are in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Basil is listed under Boots and Shoes, or shoe dealer in the 1900 census.

But all is not well in the Stephanoff household. On November 5, 1900, Annie files for divorce on the grounds of Basil’s cruelty and the uncontested divorce is granted on June 18, 1901. Annie will stay in Grand Rapids. In quite short order, and while still giving his residence in Grand Rapids, Basil ties the knot again, this time marrying Alvesta S Nagle of Bellevue, Ohio, on October 8, 1902. The marriage is registered in Kent County, Michigan. Basil is still a shoe dealer, Alvesta has no profession, and Basil’s parents are down as Stephanoff and Mona. But just four months later there are divorce proceedings again. This time the uncontested charge is cruelty plus fraud, and the decree absolute is granted on June 30, 1903.

Alvesta disappears from the record, but first wife Annie with son John B continue to appear in Grand Rapids directories, she as a dress maker and John B when he leaves education as a salesman.

Basil then reappears in Marion County, Indiana, in the 1910 census. The age, place of origin, and year of immigration show it is our man. He has now become a lawyer. And the census specifically asks him whether he is single, married, widowed or divorced. His answer is plain - SINGLE.

Whereas Annie in the Grand Rapids trade directories for 1915 and surrounding years puts herself down as the widow of Basil.

Basil dies of nephritis in Marion County, Indianapolis, on May 19, 1925. He must have kept certain documents with him because his death certificate lists his parents as Bogin and Mona. But he is now listed as a widower, with the name of his former partner unknown.

Basically Basil dies alone, and out of touch with his son.

I suppose I was looking for a “bad boy” in Basil, and these snippets from records show someone who could bend the truth at times, along with two failed marriages and the accusation of cruelty.

It makes me think of another “bad boy” who lived at the same time and who also associated for a while with the Bible Student movement. That was Albert Royal Delmont Jones, who was the editor of Zion’s Day Star before his fall from grace. Jones deserted his first wife, the mother of his children, and married a society beauty. She in turn dumped him when he lost his fortune, and his third attempt at matrimony was to someone later convicted of bigamy, who featured in the Fatty Arbuckle scandal. If that wasn’t enough excitement for one life, somewhere along the line there is a possible fourth marriage, which if true, suggests a less than truthful response to the registrar. All of this can be read by newer readers if you track back on this blog to when Albert was dissected a few years back.

There are some similarities in the stories of former Watch Tower adherents, Albert and Basil, although Albert wins the prize for major league “bad boy”. But with their tangled personal histories, there is one thing they do both have in common. Both had family who survived them. Both died alone. Maybe they deserved it, but I still find that rather sad.