by Jerome
William
Morris Wright (1848-1906) was one of many Bible Students well-known in his day,
but now largely forgotten by readers. He is remembered, if at all, for correspondence
found in Volume 3 of Millennial Dawn, Thy Kingdom Come, which has prompted this
article. Many letters from him appear in ZWT from 1887. He worked in insurance
and had the Allegheny Bible House as his base for the last few years of his
life. He was a director of the Watch Tower Society from September 19, 1901 to his
death on April 3, 1906 (thanks Bernhard).
Wright
had a particular interest in pyramidology and when he learned that CTR was
devoting a chapter of Volume 3 of Millennial Dawn to this subject, he asked permission
to copy the manuscript pre-publication, to send to Charles Piazzi Smyth. Smyth,
the former Astronomer Royal of Scotland, was one of the leading proponents of
pyramidology. CTR agreed and Wright typed out the manuscript. Smyth received it
and responded positively. CTR was so pleased with the response that an edited
version of Smyth’s letter appeared in Volume 3 when published in 1891.
By
one of those strange moments of serendipity, Smyth’s original letter has recently
been rediscovered. A correspondent, Brad S., purchased it along with Wright’s
copy of Smyth’s seminal work on the Great Pyramid. The book has Wright’s own
name in the front. It is assumed that the collection originally came from one
of Wright’s descendants, but as yet it has not been possible to trace the trail
back.
Smyth’s
original letter to Wright dated December 21, 1890, was on one piece of paper,
folded in two, making a total four pages. The original envelope (to the
insurance company where Wright worked) is reproduced below, followed by the
complete original letter.
If you enlarge these photographs and examine them
carefully you can see that the original letter has some subsequent notations on
it. Some just extend what is written for the typesetter, for example ‘1st ass.
pass.’ becomes ‘first ascending passage’ and another hand has added England at
the top. ZWT readers might not recognise the address CLOVA, RIPON (also printed
on the back of Smyth’s envelope above) as being in Britain. CLOVA was the name
of Smyth’s house in RIPON in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Some are rough
alterations and deletions made by Smyth himself as he scribbled away in those
pre-word processor days. But the main one was a large cross on page two. This
was an edit made in the ZWT office before the letter was published. (Wright was
often in Pittsburgh where CTR was based – so either man could have made that
decision and written on the original letter).
I am therefore copying the text of the entire letter below. Where a line
is through the text, this appears to be Smyth’s own edits. Where the text is in
red, this is what Smyth wrote originally that was then deleted before the
letter saw publication. The remainder is exactly as was reproduced in Thy
Kingdom Come on page 312 in most editions. It doesn’t add a lot to our
understanding but is interesting now that the handwritten original has come to
light after nearly 130 years. It makes you long for what else may still be out
there – somewhere - to be re-discovered.
Clova, Ripon,
England, Dec. 21, 1890
Wm. M.
Wright, Esq.,
Dear Sir: I have been rather longer than I
could have wished in looking over the invaluable MS. so-called of
your friend, C. T. Russell of Allegheny, Pa., but I have now completed a pretty
careful examination, word by word. And that was the least I could do, when you
so kindly took the pains to send it with such care between boards by registered
parcel, with every page flat, and indited by the typewriter in place of the
hand.
At first I could only find slips of the
said typewriter, a letter here or a letter there, so
glaringly a mistake that it seemed a needless meddling on my part to take any
notice of it. Yet exactly such little things often escape an author’s eye and
enter into a very solemn book greatly to the prejudice of some particular part
of it, as see on p. 4 line 5 ab imo a very terrible case of the
perversion of the most cherished and sacred part
of the meaning of the book and all its objects, by the introduction of the
little word “of” where doubtless the author had with his own hand written “by”.
Other little things I have noted in pencil
but as I progressed through the pages, the powers, the specialties and the originalities of the
Author came out magnificently; and there were
not a few passages I should have been glad to take a copy of for quotation,
with name, in the next possible edition of my
own Pyramid book. But of course I did nothing of that sort, and shall wait with perfect patience and in most thankful
mood of mind for when the author of Scripture
Studies shall choose his own time for publishing. So I merely remark here that
he is both good and new in much that he says on
the chronology of various parts of the Pyramid,
especially
the First Ascending Passage and its granite plug; on the Grand Gallery, as illustrating
the Lord’s life; on the parallelisms between the King’s Chamber and its
granite, against the Tabernacle and its gold; and generally on the
confirmations or close agreements between Scripture and the Great Pyramid, well
commented on in p. (15) 2.
In the meanwhile, it seems that I am
indebted to you for your kind gift of long ago of the first two volumes of
Scripture Studies. I did not at the time get further than the first half of the
first volume, finding the matter, as I thought, not quite so original and
new as I had expected. But after having profited, as I hope, so much by a
thorough reading of this advanced pyramid chapter of the third volume, I must
take up the first two volumes again, de novo.
The parcel will go back between its
boards, registered. I remain, with many thanks,
Yours respectfully,
C.
Piazzi Smyth
As noted in the letter, Smyth returned CTR’s
manuscript. He made a few notes on it and CTR commented in Thy Kingdom Come on page
311 in most editions: “We
thank Bro. Wright and Prof. Smyth for their kindness, and have followed
the corrections indicated;
which, however, only three in all, we were pleased to note were not of special importance. Only one of the
criticisms was upon measurements, and it showed a variance of only one inch, which we gladly
corrected.”
Smyth and Wright continued to write to each other.
Two shorter letters from Smyth to Wright have survived from 1893. They refer to
a serious accident Wright suffered. He was badly injured in a railroad accident
in 1893 and in those pre-X ray days was never diagnosed or treated properly. He
remained in considerable pain for the rest of his life.
Smyth died in 1900 and fittingly a pyramid monument
was erected in the graveyard of St John’s Church, Sharow, near Ripon.
Photo credit Julia & Keld
Wright became one of the original trustees of the
Rosemont Mount Hope and Evergreen United Cemeteries (as was CTR) established in
Pittsburgh in April 1905. Sadly he was one of the first to require its services
when he died on April 3, 1906. His funeral from the Bible House chapel was mentioned
in ZWT for April 15, 1906 (reprints p. 3765).
His obelisk is just up the hill above the main Society
plot where CTR is buried.
This photograph is looking up the hill to where the
lesser known Watch Tower cemetery area is located. A closer look shows the
Wright name and gives his dates.
The next photograph is looking at the monument from
the other side, now looking down the hill.
Wright’s name is on the other side in this picture.
You can see that this monument is alongside one of the narrow roads through the
cemetery. Just out of shot to the right of this picture further down the hill
is the Society’s section of graves with of course its own pyramid.
There is only one name on Wright’s obelisk. It was
obviously intended for the whole family, but they would live elsewhere and were
buried over a hundred and twenty miles away in Erie Cemetery, Pennsylvania. To
confuse researchers there is a memorial stone for William there as well.
However, his death certificate clearly shows United Cemeteries as his final
resting place.
(When researching this article I contacted Bernhard
to confirm Wright’s dates as a Watch Tower director. Bernhard sent so much
biographical material on Wright that it deserves its own article,
which hopefully will appear on this blog before not too long).
