Watch
Tower evangelism in Michigan is representative. Its story is repeated in every
other American state, in Britain, and in Canadian provinces. So Michigan is a
somewhat arbitrary choice. In the period considered in this book and up to
1902, Michigan newspapers took little to no notice of Watch Tower evangelism. Almost
our sole access to this story is through contemporary issues of Zion’s Watch
Tower and letters found in later issues of The St. Paul, Michigan,
Enterprise.
An
exception is found in the minutes of the Michigan Congregational association
for 1898. In 1898 William Ewing, a Congregationalist clergyman and Michigan
State Sunday School Superintendent, complained of declining Sunday School
attendance, blaming it on Millennial Dawn, Age-to-Come preachers, Church of God
– evidently also age to come – Free Methodists and others:
From
careful observation and statistics, I am convinced that the proportion of those
who do not attend Sunday school as well as church, is largest in the rural
communities. In many country districts, both church and Sunday school
attendance is less than it was years ago.
the cause of decline.
I
called your attention a year ago to the fact that a large amount of Sunday
school work was being done around our churches in a desultory way; which led to
feeble schools being organized, either to be short-lived, or to open the way
for contending sects of "Free Methodist" "Saints," (Present
and Latter Day), "Millennial Dawn," "Church of God,"
"Age to Come," and others of the same variety. After an infliction of
this kind, the most reliable people of many communities stay away, and the
others sink into godless indifference.
Age-to-Come/Chruch of God/One Faith
believers challenged congregationalists on doctrine. Free Methodists presented
financial problems because they denied the right to charge pew rent. They were
also doctrinally conservative. Ewing said that he had “frequent conferences on
this matter” with church workers “and also with representative members of the
Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist denominations.” They agreed that the
situation was grave. He said that inter-denominational cooperation was needed:
“I believe we need to draw closer together as different denominations, and plan
for a strong Sunday school advance in close connection with all our churches.”
He wanted union Sunday schools – that admitted anyone, regardless of faith – to
fade away. “It has been found wise and necessary,” he said, “to plant the
Sunday school as a branch of a church, expecting it to develop into real church
life.” Despite this, he believed that they needed “the counsel and cooperation
of the wisest in our churches, and those of sister denominations, that the work
may be strong and permanent,” adding that “When we face this problem there is more
work than we can all do. There is no need of any rivalry, and as far as I know
there is none. I wish to bear testimony to the good fellowship between the
field workers of the different denominations in this regard.”[1]
Ewing’s
report testifies to a successful Watch Tower evangelism disproportionate to the
number of adherents in Michigan. [The same is true of the other denominations
he mentions.] In an era when attendance reports for the annual Memorial of
Christ’s Death [Communion] were erratic and incomplete the April 15, 1899, Zion’s
Watch Tower reported only seven sparsely attended meetings with a total
attendance of sixty-seven. This almost certainly understates the number of
adherents, but even if by half, there were few adherents in Michigan.[2]
Paton
cultivated interest in Michigan before he met Russell, and Keith engaged in
mission work there, primarily through lecturing. Other than Robert Bailey, W.
E. Van Amburgh’s parents,[3]
and a few others, almost all of the Watch Tower evangelists and adherents in
Michigan of the 1880s and 90s are anonymous, but we have a considerable history
– one that illustrates how believers turned Watch Tower counsel to evangelize
into practice. This was not the organized sales-culture of the Rutherford and
Knorr years. It was impelled by the generally-held belief that informal
evangelization was a Christian’s duty. This is illustrated by an incident recounted
in the 1977 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 1895 Rasmus Blindheim, a
resident of Norway, received two Watch Tower published book sent to him by his
brother, a resident of Michigan. “He understood that this was the truth. He
obtained the Society’s literature as it was published and maintained regular
contact by mail with his brother in America. Blindheim seems to have been the
first actual Norwegian witness of Jehovah, and worked to spread the truth all
through his life, dying in 1935 at eighty years of age.”[4]
[ZWT
letters and analysis here]
The Van Amburghs
One
of the few Minnesota families whose conversion occurred sometime before 1900
that we can identify is the van Amburgh family. They entertained Watch Tower
‘pilgrims,’ traveling speakers, in their home. For a “Mrs. H. A. Remick” a
visit to Northfield, Minnesota, where the van Amburgs lived in 1900, to hear
McPhail speak was memorable. Mrs. Remick and Fannie (Frances) van Amburg became
regular correspondents, and Remick described her as generous with time and
money.[5]
Fannie
[Frances] Sophia Patterson was born July 15, 1839, in Livingston County, New
York.[6]
She was, according to her obituary, the youngest of ten children. Her mother
died about three years later, and her father died when she was five. Her
obituary says, “As an orphan she was “bound out” to an aunt, then living in
Illinois. Her early life was one of privation and very limited opportunities.”
We cannot sustain this from census or other records. There is a “Fanny
Patterson,” age twenty, in the 1860 Census. She is listed as a servant in the
household of George G. Patterson, a blacksmith [36 years old] and his wife,
Harriet [35 years old]. She is listed as a servant. All of this is unresolved
at the date of this book’s publication.
When
she became an adult she moved to Goodhue County, Minnesota, to live with “her
only sister.” She taught school until she married Daniel S. van Amburgh in
August 1862. These were Civil War year, and Daniel enlisted in the Sixth Michigan
Volunteer Infantry, leaving Frances to care for their farm. Daniel’s service
was mostly on the frontier though late in the war his unit was moved south.[7]
The van Amburgs endured “sever experiences,” most of which are left
un-described by an obituary writer.
photo
The Van Amburgh Family –
Courtesy of Jerry Leslie
In
1873 they moved to Northfield, Minnesota; the obituary says they wanted “to
provide better school facilities for their boys.” She joined the Methodist
Episcopal Church and was “an active worker.” In addition to “church work,”
Daniel’s obituary says they were active within the Grand Army of the Republic
and its women’s auxiliary, The Women’s Relief Corps.[8] The
1880 United States Census tells us that Daniel continued to farm. They
incorporated into their family some nephews and a niece. We do not know why.
Living with them were Nettie, Harvey, and Arthur Patterson. These were young
children; the oldest – Nettie – was nine, and the youngest – Arthur – was two.
photo
1880 Census Record
Their
oldest son, William Edwin [Born August 28, 1863] recalled that his mother
“dedicated me to the Lord before I was born.” She rededicated him after he was
born. This echoes Russell’s experience and was not uncommon in the era. “My
first recollection is learning prayers at my mother’s knee,” he continued. He
joined his mother’s church when he was ten, the year the moved to Northfield,
becoming “active in church affairs.” He said that he made “a full consecration”
as far as he knew how when he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. When he
was twenty-three (1886) he “signed a written statement to the effect that
everything I owned or expected to own, or posses, was to be given to the Lord.”
Both
boys graduated from Northfield High School and went on to Carlton College in
Northfield. William pursued English, Classical Studies and Music. George
enrolled in English Studies and Music. William was enrolled for two years;
neither boy graduated.[9] Both
learned other trades. George had a varied career. Public documents list him as
a motorman (ie: a street car driver), a salesman; an electrician and a waffle-house
owner.[10] William
took a course in telegraphy. After completing a year’s course he was hired
(1884) by the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway, moving to Traill
County, North Dakota.[11] Civil
War pension records show that his parents followed him there.[12]
Though we do not know if William acquired an Exhorter’s License, he started to
preach while in North Dakota: “I was active in the church work and Y. M. C. A.
work, holding services nearly every Sunday in the city where I was engaged in
railroad work,” he later recalled. He preached in school houses. We can find no
independent verification for this, but we do not doubt it.[13]
William
returned to Minnesota in September 1887 to marry Ada May Wood.[14] She
was somewhat younger than he and attended Carlton College between 1884 and
1887, a year longer than William.[15] They
moved to Huron, Beadle County, South Dakota, sometime before 1886. They had
very limited social interaction; the population of the entire county was a tad
over eight thousand. She made her will shortly before she died of consumption (March
6, 1887), leaving a small house in Ramsey County, Michigan, to her husband.
William
reported that in late 1894 and early 1895 he was interested in and reading
about the second coming of Christ. In February 1895, a friend loaned him The
Divine Plan of the Ages. This was a life changing moment for the van
Amburgh family. “I studied it,” he recalled, “and said that [it] is the Bible
in A. B. C. I was so interested and it was so different from what I had read
that I took it to the Lord in prayer, to find out whether it could be the
truth.” When he was two-thirds through, he got down on his knees in the
telegraph office and prayed. He studied more thorougly:
I became very deeply interested and took up the study
with other translations of the Bible, the King James Version, Concordances,
Helps and Dictionaries, to see whether this was really a proper interpretation
of the Bible. Being convinced of the fact – I studied a year – I withdrew from
the Methodist Church in 1896. From that time on ... I was associated with the
[Watch Tower] society in the sense of endeavoring to promulgate their
doctrines.[16]
William
became part of Watch Tower headquarters staff in 1900. His family had returned
to Minnesota where they took up the Watch Tower message. William is by far the
most known of the van Amburghs, but his parents represent the path the message
took within Minnesota. Informal testimony from friends, from relatives, from
strangers grew the Watch Tower fellowship
John Adam and Christina Doratha [Dorothea Unkel] Bohnet
Census
records indicate that both were born in 1830, but Christina’s grave marker
gives her birth date as 1829. Birth location records are confused. One suggests
that John Adam was born in Austria. Another suggests that they were both from
Wurttemberg. A family record says: “John Adam Bohnet and Christina Doratha
Unkel were born in the same place in Germany, sailed on different ships from
Germany to the United States and disembarked in New York City on the same day.
John sometimes went by his middle name Adam. He was a blacksmith by trade. His
blacksmith shop faced Carpenter Road. Christine raised flowers to sell, tulips
and gladiolas.”
Christina’s
obituary says they lived “together in the same home ever since their marriage,
and [they are] said to have been the oldest married couple in the state [of
Michigan].”[17] They immigrated to America in 1854, settling
in Minnesota. They were on the American frontier, and their life reflected
that. The 1880 United States Census verifies the family record, listing Adam as
a Farmer and Black Smith. We have little record of their early years in
America, but Christina’s obituary tells an interesting story: “In her early
maidenhood [she] crossed the Atlantic in 39 days, in a sailing vessel, and
worked as a hired girl, 16 hours every day, for $1.00 Per week, for years in a
family near Ann Arbor. After supper each night during apple season she peeled
and sliced a bushel of apples by hand and dried them for winter pies. On wash
days she was up at 4:00 a.m. and had her wash on the line before breakfast
hour.”
We do not know their marriage date. We know something
about her early married life:
She took the fleece direct from the sheep, carded it,
spun it into yarn on a foot tread spinning wheel and knitted by hand all the
stockings for herself, her husband and her five children as long as they
attended school and she did this by the light of her home-made, tallow candles.
Talk about a woman working’ she was a wonder of wonders; slight of frame and
swift of movement; even up to her last sickness [at age ninety-five] she could
catch a fly with her hand. She suffered without complaint. She was love and
justice personified, and the generous almost to a fault, never turned away from
her door a hungry beggar.[18]
The
Bonhet’s met Watch Tower theology in about 1898. One of their sons, James A.
Bonhet, became prominent in the work. Bohnet relatives lived nearby, and some
seem to have accepted Watch Tower teachings.
Hans Fredrick Peterson
H. F.
Peterson became an adherent sometime before 1889. He was born in Sweden in December
2, 1848, immigrating to Minnesota in 1886, and spending most of the remainder
of his life in Lund Township, Douglas County. What we know of his conversion
and continuing connection to the Watch Tower comes from an obituary written by
his son Walter who wrote that “circumstances hindered him from doing much in
the Lord’s service,” adding that: “If it had not been for him I would be in
darkness, for which I am very thankful to our Heavenly Father that He has seen
fit that I should see this great light which shines more and more unto the
perfect day, for we sorrow not as others, for we have a better hope, so I can
well say he had done what he could.”[19]
Walter
left the “circumstances” hindering his father’s activity un-described, but we
know enough about his life to surmise. He was a farmer in an era that saw most
American farmers living in poverty or near it. He and his wife had five
children. One dropped out of the record between 1900 and 1905, and we presume
they died. The 1905 state census tells us that in that year they ranged in age
between six and eighteen. Scratching a living from the ground and raising four
children left little time for anything else. Hans died May 5, 1920 in
Evansville, Douglass County, Minnesota.
H. V. “Minnie” Peterson and Viola Townsend
Minnie
Peterson and Viola Townsend were the first two adherents in St. Paul and
Minneapolis. However, as significant as that is, we know little about either of
them. Minnie was born January 20, 1858, in Germany, immigrating to America in
1883 when she was sixteen. She married William P. Peterson in Wisconsin, and
they immigrated to Minnesota sometime between 1890 and 1894. Her obituary
describes her as, “Having been reared from the earliest childhood by Christian
parents.” She was, said her obituary, a devout Christian, “ever loving to know
more of God’s Word.” We do not know the exact date of her conversion to Watch
Tower faith, but she was an enduring and faithful member of the St. Paul
congregation. Again, from her obituary we have this:
She was a faithful class attendant and a diligent
student of the Word. Although of a quiet retiring disposition, it delighted her
soul to bear witness at every opportunity to the old, old story of Jesus and
His love. She was wholly devoted to spiritual things, and in holding up the
banner of truth and righteousness.[20]
That’s
the entire story as we know it. It is frustratingly brief and just as
frustratingly incomplete. And we know less about Viola Townsend. She is
mentioned in a letter printed in the November 1, 1896, Watch Tower, but
the reference is incidental, adding nothing to our understanding.[21]
Alfred Henry Furley
A. H.
Furley [1865 – 1947] was an English born immigrant, listed as a “laborer” in
the 1895 Minnesota state census. Furley was, as were many, probably most, Watch
Tower adherents, seeking to conform to the Divine Will as expressed in the
Bible. He believed that God led him into “His marvelous light.” He had, he
wrote, the elements of ‘truth’ early in life: The need for a savior; the need
for a Ransom from sin; and the obligation to obey “my dear Heavenly Father.” He
associated with the Salvation Army, but found many religiously divergent voices
among them. “I came across many people with so many different views,” He wrote.
“Here indeed was confusion – Babylon – making it extremely difficult, if not
impossible, for those not in the Truth, to know which were the right views.” He
characterized 1885 to 1893 as years of religious instability: “I was drifting
about in confusion, but gathering the Truth from Scriptures little by little.”[22]
A
Watch Tower colporteur found him sometime in 1893. Leaving the colporteur
unnamed, he described their interaction this way:
There came to me in Duluth, Minn., a colporteur who
asked me, if I did not wish to buy a book. On my inquiring what it contained,
he explained to me some of its contents. I readily saw that it was different
from any other book. Our talk drifted along and one question led to another
until we came to the subject of the soul, he wishing to know how I harmonize my
view with the Scriptures, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life.”
I did not buy the book at that time, but later a tract
was left with me, and I saw that I could get the book on loan, so I sent for it
– it proved to be “The Divine Plan of the Ages.” And it surely was a wonderful
book, making everything so plain, which before had been so full of mystery.
The
tract is unidentifiable, at least by us. And Furley’s narrative leaves the
exact dates of this transaction vague. He was isolated from others “of like
precious faith,” and in 1903 inserted an ad into the personals section of The
Duluth, Minnesota, Evening Herald, seeking others “interested in Zion’s
Watch Tower and Millennium Dawn Series.” We do not know the result, and the
remainder of Furley’s story is illusive.
Duluth paper here
Arthur Cumberland
Cumberland
was an immigrant, born in England December 9 1826. The 1900 United States census
dated his immigration to 1833, and a ship’s record says he arrived in New York
City on August 13, 1833, aboard the sailing vessel Portia.[23] He
moved first to Pennsylvania, and we find him there in the 1850 Federal Census;
then to Minnesota. Various census records list his occupation as teacher and
farmer, not an unusual combination in that era, especially on the frontier. His
obituary reported that “he came into the truth in 1882” while he was living in
Mantorville, a very small village. It does not give particulars but the date
suggests he read Food for Thinking Christians and was convinced by it.
He started reading and saving Watch Tower publications, finally accumulating “a
full set of Towers bound and complete from the first issue up to date.” [1916]
He became a serious Bible reader. His obituary said: “He was one of the best
read brothers in the Scripture we ever met. If we gave him a part of a
quotation, he would give it to us in full and tell you where to find it.” The
obituary reported him as an earnest worker, the mainstay of the Rochester,
Minnesota, class. His last few years were spent in Canada, also working to
further the Watch Tower message. Of his children, two of his daughters were
also Watch Tower adherents. He died August 27, 1916, still an adherent.
It is
impossible to attach names to the letters we analyzed earlier in this chapter.
But we can make some observations, or rather repeat observations we made
earlier. The spread of Watch Tower belief in Minnesota is typical of the
movement’s growth elsewhere. It depended on an evangelical spirit that pervaded
the age. Those who were serious Christians, no matter their doctrine, felt
obligated to testify. Watch Tower evangelism was not a new thing. It was a long
standing practice, but colored by a new understanding of the Bible’s message. A
new belief system, one suggested there was a narrow path to divine choosing,
engendered zeal.
The
Watch Tower continued to advocate evangelism. Jehovah’s Witnesses, the
principal descendent religion, tend to focus on the 1922 Cedar Point, Ohio,
Convention. They quote Rutherford’s speech:
Do you believe that the King of glory has begun his
reign? Then back to the field, O ye sons of the most high God! Gird on your
armor! Be sober, be vigilant, be active, be brave. Be faithful and true
witnesses for the Lord. Go forward in the fight until every vestige of Babylon
lies desolate. Herald the message far and wide. The world must know that Jehovah
is God and that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. This is the
day of all days. Behold, the King reigns! You are his publicity agents.
Therefore advertise, advertise, advertise, the King and his kingdom.
It is
important to remember that this was at best a revitalization – more accurately,
a strengthening – of an evangelizing spirit after the difficult war years. It
was a spirit fostered by The Watch Tower from its first issue. Though it
is fodder for a book about the war years, evangelizing did not die out among
Watch Tower adherents during World War One. It only became more difficult.
[1] Minutes
of the Michigan Congregational Association at Their Fifty-Seventh Annual
Meeting in Grand Rapids May 17-19, 1898, Also of the Michigan Home and Foreign
Missionary Societies with Reports and Statistics, Lawrence & VanBuren
Printing Co. Lansing, Michigan, 1898.
[2] The figures for Michigan are: Saginaw, 12; Detroit, 8;
Wheeler, 7; Kalamazoo, 10; Muskegon, 13; Adrian, 6; Ypsilanti, 11.
[3] An untitled short article in The St. Paul,
Minnesota, New Era Enterprise says she “has been long in the glorious
truth.” See August 8, 1922 issue. It does not date her introduction to Watch
Tower theology. An article published in the September 5, 1922, issue says both
parents were adherents. [See the article: Sixtieth Wedding Aniversary.]
[4] Page 195. There are too many possibilities to clearly
identify his brother by name.
[5] Voices of the People, or What our Readers Say, The
St. Paul, Minnesota, Enterprise, October 31, 1916.
[6] Her
obituary gives her name as Franny P. The “P” stands for her maiden name. Her
son George’s marriage certificate says her second given name was Sophia. – British
Columbia, Division of Vital Statistics: Marriage Registrations 002146 to 002561:
1893-1894. [GR 2962, Volume 006] Certificate No. 2437. The certificate
describes him as a Methodist, expected in 1894, and his wife Hatty Henry [the
widow of Eugene Higby] as Presbyterian.
[7] The 1890 Special Census of Civil War Veterans says he
served from May 1863 to June1865. See the enumeration for Traill County, North
Dakota.
[8] Obituary, The St. Paul, Minnesota, New Era
Enterprise, December 9, 1924.
[9] Annual
Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Carlton College, Northfield,
Minnesota: For the Academic Year 1881-1882, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1882;
W. E. van Amburgh’s testimony in United States v. Rutherford, et. al.,
transcript of record, page 660.
[10] Motorman is listed on his first marriage certificate;
salesman is noted on his death certificate [WA Certificate No. 1823];
electrician is listed on his second marriage certificate, 1911. Waffle House is
from 1920 Federal Census records.
[11] Later absorbed by the Great Northern Railway.
[12] See: The General Index to Civil War Pension File. Certificate
770.077. Daniel’s obituary, cited above, says they lived in Northfield from
1873 to 1909. This is false, though their residence in North Dakota seems to
have brief.
[13] Testimony found in United States v. Rutherford, et. al,
transcript of record, page 661.
[14] Rice county marriage certificate dated September 28,
1887. Census records tell us that her father, John Wood, was a “market
gardener” in the Northfield area.
[15] Carlton College Bulletin, June 1921, page 125.
[16] United States v. Rutherford, et. al, Transcript of
Record, pages 661-662.
[17] Obituary, The St. Paul, Minnesota, New Era Enterprise,
December 9, 1924.
[18] ibid.
[19] “Voices” or What our Readers Say, The St. Paul,
Minnesota, New Era Enterprise, April 20, 1920.
[20] Details from the 1900 US Census and Mrs. Minnie Peterson
[Obituary], The St. Paul, Minnesota, New Era Enterprise, April 27, 1926.
[21] Encouraging Words from Faithful Workers, Zion’s Watch
Tower, November 1, 1896, page 264. [Not in Reprints.]
[22] Furley to editor of The St. Paul, Minnesota,
Enterprise, January 29, 1918.
[23] New York, New York, Index to Passenger Lists, 1820-1846; retrieved
from https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GGX7-9Q7M?cc=1919703&wc=M6YK-PTL%3A212777401
