New Castle, Pennsylvania
The New Castle congregation had its
start in a book canvas by John Adamson. Writing to Russell in late June or
early July 1887, he said:
I am having grand
experiences every day. It seems impossible to get through New Castle. Yesterday
took 46 names and left in afternoon train for home. In no other town have I got
in so many books to the square, and I have excellent talks. Some careful thinkers
are investigating, and awakened sleepers by the dozen. Of course there are
bitter opposers, but as far as noted people are willing to investigate for
themselves, and I have fruit already and expect much fruit. You may increase
the order to here to 300 copies.[1]
A
small congregation formed by late 1889, the local newspaper reporting that “a
comparatively new form of religious belief has recently obtained among certain
people of this city.” They had, the newspaper claimed, “very decided and
definite opinions as to the date of the millennium.” They met in the office of Andrew
Lewis, [1834-1916] a dentist with offices at 2 Washington Street, “for the
study of the Bible and for prayer, and the discussion of the millennium.” They
claimed to have “Biblical authority” for believing the millennial reign of
Christ near at hand.[2] Lewis came out of the
Methodist Church, where he had been “a charter member.” His obituary does not
mention his association with Watch Tower belief and implies that he died a
Methodist.[3]
This may not be true. We’ve encountered other obituaries prepared by relatives
ashamed of Watch Tower adherence that omit or misrepresent. His last provable
year of adherence was 1891. His father’s funeral was conducted by a “Rev. [William
A.] Wallace” of the Millennial Dawn congregation.”[4]
Wallace,
a former phrenological lecturer, preached in areas near his Ohio residence. He
was an effective colporteur and speaker. A letter from him to Russell shows him
to be a determined evangelist who did not let obstacles stand in his way. He
was “Church Leader” at East Liverpool, Ohio, in 1894.[5] Wallace
enters the record through the 1889 Lord’s Memorial Annual Convention held at
Allegheny where he was one of the speakers. Russell’s convention summary says:
Brother
Wallace illustrated his method of presenting the outlines of the Plan of the
Ages to the audiences he meets. Bro. W. was a traveling lecturer and professor
of phrenology before the harvest truth reached him. When he received it, he
began to mix with phrenology the good tidings of great joy for all people; and
now as the truth has reached his mind and heart more fully, it has so quickened
his zeal in the Master's service that the old profession is almost crowded out,
except as it serves to pave the way for the glad tidings which now fills his
heart and overflows at every opportunity. His talent is for public speaking,
and after every lecture the DAWN is presented as a further elaboration of the great
subject to which he has called attention. To illustrate his lectures, he has
had the Chart of the Ages (from DAWN Vol. I.) enlarged and painted on canvas,
and ornamented with pictorial illustrations of the various ages; and above all
a beautiful symbolic sky representing the changing conditions of the various
dispensations, from Eden to Paradise restored.[6]
While
Adamson may have sewn the seeds, the congregation owed its existence to A. C.
Wise, once a United Brethren minister. United Brethren were a German speaking
church with doctrines similar to the Methodist Church. Their clergy were
untrained, and Wise was uncomfortable with public speaking. When speaking
briefly at a Bible Student convention in 1907, he remarked: “I have been placed
on this program without any consultation, and I am not engaged much in
addressing the public, but more from house to house on the great Plan.”[7] It
was through his house to house ministry that the New Castle congregation was
formed. The New Castle, Pennsylvania, Daily City News reported: “One Dr.
A. C. Wise, of Neshannock, Mercer county, [sic] is a leader in the new
doctrine, the theories of which he obtains from a book called ‘The Millennial
Dawn,’ for which he is agent.”[8]
Wise [1845-1932]
was no sort of doctor. The Daily City News appears to have ‘played it
safe’ by calling a clergyman “doctor.” Instead he was Aaron C. Wise, a farmer
by trade and an itinerant Brethren preacher with no discernable education. Wise
was one of the organizers of a United Brethren congregation in 1863. He left the
Brethren about 1886 or 1887 to spread the Watch Tower message.[9] An
obituary said: “He was born on a farm within less than two miles of where he
spent his entire life. Mr. Wise was widely known throughout the United Brethren
Churches in Sharon, Sharpsville, West Middlesex and other valley communities.
For the past 45 years he was a member of the International Bible Students
Association, and took an active part in the organizations work.”[10]
He
was new to the work. In a letter to Russell dated to May 1894 he says he had
been in the work about five years.[11]
That takes us to this period. He explained his view of ‘the work’ in that same
letter: “The work, as I understand it, is to find the ‘wheat’ class, and with
the present Truth intellectually seal them and thus separate them from Babylon.
In doing this, many DAWNS are sold to others who may not now appreciate them,
but who thus assist in bearing the expense of the laborers; and they will be
read by and by.” He reported lecturing “some and quite acceptably, but have no
ambition to make that a special work.”
Wise
loved humor, incorporating it into his evangelism. We cannot place as to time
or place the one example he left, but that seems not to matter. This was his
preaching method:
The Scriptures show us that having ... having thus
consecrated our wills, we may be able to be of service to our fellow beings, neighbors
and friends, and might by the Lord's grace, impress these precious things on
their hearts and minds. How many of these incidents have come to our attention
in our service of the truth! I remember working in a town where they said, “If
you will see a man down there he will talk the Scriptures to you.” And towards
evening I called on him, and this is what occurred. I am a little humorous in
my way of approaching people and I said, “I understand you are quite a teacher
of the Bible and understand it.”
“Yes.”
“I have come in to run you in a corner.”
“Every time you do you will get a five-dollar note.”
And I gave him a little talk on the divine plan of the
ages from the chart, and when I got through he says, “Do you believe that?”
“I certainly do.” And he had not a word to say. Thus
was I instrumental in impressing on his mind the great and glorious truth. I
did not see him afterwards, but I learned he came into the truth.[12]
photos
A. C. Wise – 1911 and
later in life
The
New Castle paper described Wise as “chuck full of the ideas of the book he is
selling.” It reported that he “succeeded in inculcating the doctrines pretty
deeply where he has been at work.” The paper said that a “J. C. McCombs” was “one
of the most zealous ‘Millennial Dawn’ disciples. McCombs, a shoemaker, was, the
paper said, “a deep thinking man and a member of the Methodist church” from
which he had withdrawn over doctrinal difference. City directories suggest that
this was Joseph A. McCombs who in addition to running a shoemaking business
owned other business as well. Nothing is firm here. John C. McCombs was Joseph’s
son, and the local paper consistently confused them. It appears that both were
adherents.
illustration
New Castle News – June 19,
1915.
The
Daily City News said the “object of the millennium expectants is not to
organize or to form any settle or distinct denomination, but the principles are
to be maintained and supported by individual rather than collective belief.” The
paper called the believers in New Castle “earnest and zealous in their
convictions.” As did most Watch Tower adherent congregations, the first years’ growth
was slight. The New Castle paper, with its customary inattention to detail and
poor grammar, reported:
A
little congregation of about 14 people in the Seventh ward firmly believe that
the end of the world is near at hand and that according to their interpretation
of the Holy Book the world is now passing through the period known to seers and
wise men as “God’s Harvest.” ... The believers in the near approach of the
Millennial morning claim that the harvest of the Lord commenced in the year
1874 and that the end of the world will come during the year 1914, 40 years
being allowed for the preparation. Those following this faith believe that
there is only one church – the church of the people of God – and that all who
do not repent and become ... sanctified in the grace of the Master will be lost
in the fire. There is no ordained ministers among the sect, the exhorters being
known as pilgrims and travel among the faithful seeking no reward other than
the blessing of the faithful.[13]
Interestingly,
the article reported as a visiting speaker from Youngstown, Ohio, a “Mrs. T. B.
Hewitt.” T. B. Hewitt is Thomas Bolton Hewitt.[14]
We have one short letter by him to Russell appearing in the May 1, 1901, Watch
Tower. It says he was from Ohio, but it contains no biographical
information. Since Hewitt did not marry until September 1906, the newspaper’s “Mrs.”
appears to be a misprint for “Mr.” By 1915 there were about 28,000 people in
New Castle and about 40 adherents, and by 1906 the congregation was called The
Watch Tower Class.[15]
[1] Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch
Tower, July 1887, page 2.
[2] Wiggins New Castle City Directory: 1879-1880,
page 37. Census records give Lewis a birth date of November 1834. Other records
vary but fall near that date.
[3] Dr. Andrew Lewis Called by Death, New Castle, Pennsylvania,
Herald, December 5, 1916.
[4] A Long Fast End, The New Castle, Pennsylvania, News,
August 5, 1891. Wallace was a chronological lecturer turned Millennial Dawn canvasser
prominent in the work in the 1890s. He was “church leader” in an Ohio congregation.
Later in life he was a news agent, a seller of newspapers and magazines.
[5] Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch
Tower, June 1889, pages 2, 8; Voice of the Church, Zion’s Watch Tower –
Special Issue, June 11, 1894, page 178.
[6] C. T. Russell: View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch
Tower, June 1889, page 1. Wallace maintained his interest in phrenology
into later years. See The Phrenological Era, April 1913, front matter
unnumbered page.
[7] Souvenir Notes from the Watch Tower Bible and Tract
Society’s Conventions of Believers in the Atoning Blood of Jesus Christ: 1907,
part two, page 81.
[8] Not so Very Far, The New Castle, Pennsylvania, Daily
City News, December 5, 1889.
[9] History of Mercer County,
Pennsylvania: Its Past and Present, Brown, Runk & Co., Chicago, 1888,
page 593. Date of Watch Tower adherence: Undated obituary in descendents’
possession. Wise was born July 29, 1843, and died March 30, 1932. [Death
Certificate] He remained Watch Tower adherent until his death.
[10] The Sharon, Pennsylvania, Herald, March 31, 1932.
[11] Letter from Wise to Russell found in Voice of the Church,
Zion’s Watch Tower, Special issue, June 11, 1894.
[12] A. C. Wise: Temperance, 1911 Convention Report.
[13] The Millennial Dawn, The New Castle, Pennsylvania,
News, May 19, 1905.
[14] Thomas Hewitt was born September 20, 1873, in Ohio. He
married Ellen Grace Cooksey September 4, 1906. There was a Bible Student
adherent named E. Cooksey whose death in 1950 is noted in the May 1950 issue of
Herald of Christ’s Kingdom. His Ohio death record shows him to be a
resident of Youngstown and thus ‘our man.’
[15] Life of 76 Years in County Ended, New Castle,
Pennsylvania, Herald, September 7, 1906.
