The Strange Case of Alfred Eychaner (3 of 3)

by Jerome

(Addenda – part 3 of 3)

For part 1 – Pittsburgh Presbyterians – see post on June 2.

For part 2 - An Evening Prayer and the Case of William Hickey – see post on June 7.

The final addenda in this three part series relates to events in 1895. While this is beyond the timeline covered in Separate Identity volume one, events of those early days do have a bearing on a footnote found in that book in chapter 2, footnote 87. New information has been discovered to resolve a question which the footnote iindirectly raises.

The valid point is made in the footnote that Russell worked with others who did not hold to his exact doctrine. This would certainly include at some point those associated with the Age to Come/One Faith/Church of God movement. The meetings held at Quincy Hall, Leacock Street were attended by an independent mixture of people and although were sometimes billed as Advent Christian in the early 1870s were also billed as One Faith/Church of God. The Church of God newspaper at the time was The Restitution and in its Church Directory in the issue for November 5, 1874, it listed G D Clowes as preacher at Quincy Hall.

Clowes is mentioned in early ZWTs and his death is recorded in 1889 with a very positive obituary. All this is found in this footnote.

As the Advent Christian Church became a more formal denomination, it caused an inevitable parting of the ways. By 1880 One Faith adherents were sniping at the Advent Christians as only being “half-brethren.” (see for example The Restitution for July 28, 1880, page 2).

But then we travel further on in time to 1895 when a Church of God/One Faith tent meeting appears to have Charles Taze Russell sharing the platform for several days with Andrew James Eychaner (1842-1936). Or does he?

Looking at the evidence for or against this happening in 1895 highlights the problem in evaluating primary and secondary sources, and how new discoveries can sometimes change conclusions.

The main source, and in fact the only source, for putting C T Russell on a One Faith/Church of God platform as late as the mid-1890s is a diary kept by Eychaner. This was featured by Jan Turner Stilson in her excellent Biographical Encyclopedia: Chronicling the History of the Church of God Abrahamic Faith (ISBN 0-615-46561-6). The diary pages for the event are reproduced below.

Reproduced by kind permission of Jan Stilson. Original in Atlanta Bible College

This has naturally been viewed as a primary source and a pretty conclusive source too. Eychaner was there, Eychaner knew who was there with him, so Eychaner knew what he was writing. What could be simpler? Added to this, Eychaner was a bit of a maverick whose personal beliefs were not always completely in step with the main One Faith movement. (See his detailed biography in Jan Stilson’s work). So if anyone was going to invite C T Russell to speak, it would be someone like Eychaner, and Russell would generally accept most offered platforms to share his views.

But then as they say, the plot thickens. First, it should be noted that this was not just an ordinary run-of-the mill tent meeting; this was a convention lasting several days, officially the annual Iowa State Conference for the Church of God for 1895. So it was quite high profile and received good publicity in the Church of God’s weekly newspaper The Restitution.

Below is one example taken from The Restitution for August 7, 1895, page 2.

This was an advertisement to get readers to attend, and gave the complete conference program with speakers in detail. When compared with Eychaner’s diary it is obviously the same conference, even though there were some changes between planning and reality. It appears that some billed speakers didn’t show, and those who were there had to fill in for them.

But now let’s examine The Restitution advertisement in more detail. The first day of sermons was to be on Friday, August 16, and one of the speakers was to be Russell. But this time the speaker is billed as C W Russell, not C T Russell.

Compare that with Eychaner’s diary entry for Friday, August 16. This abbreviated program has C T Russell giving the sermon.

So is it C W or C T Russell? Was there a misprint in The Restitution?

C W Russell was a real person, and to confuse matters further he was also called Charles. In the pages of The Restitution he was a regular assistant to Andrew Eychaner. C W had moved from Chicago to Iowa in 1894 and received his teaching certificate from the Church of God in July 1894. Over the next year his name was regularly linked with Eychaner’s in tent work. Years later, in 1912 he was still preaching for the Church of God.

So, leaving aside Eychaner’s diary, it would be logical for C W to appear at the Marshalltown conference. People would be expecting him. Hence he is clearly billed in The Restitution for August 7, 1895, as reproduced above.

If there had been no diary entry, these newspaper announcements would be primary sources. But the diary entry would normally kick them into secondary source territory and take precedence.

But then we have to ask – if it was logical for C W Russell, Eychaner’s regular sidekick, to be there, would it have been logical for C T Russell to replace him for several days?

Here is where the history of C T Russell and Church of God needs to be considered. We have already established with the example of George Clowes that there were links between them on a local level. And Charles Taze Russell is mentioned many times in the pages of The Restitution.

The readers of The Restitution were a logical audience to be targeted with the writings of Charles Taze in the early days. How they were received by that group as the years rolled by tells a very clear story of a deteriorating relationship.

Three Worlds, written by Barbour but published by Russell, was featured in an advertisement in The Restitution for May 30, 1879, page 3. The by-line read “Should be in the hands of every Bible student.” No actual review has been found in surviving issues of the paper.

Object and Manner of Our Lords Return was given away with The Restitution as a freebie with the issue of February 20, 1878. This issue is no longer extant but the following week’s issue of February 27 commented on it: “The Restitution supplement, as was noticed last week, was furnished by the writer C T Russell, to the readers of our paper, at his own expense both for the printing and mailing. “ The review has a friendly but condescending tone. Rather magnanimously it states “we do not wish to prejudice our readers as it is a present to them which has been quite an expense to the writer”. However, readers must “prove all things” and the reviewer certainly had different views on resurrection and the Second Advent. Still “the ‘fair chance’ part of the supplement will probably please some of our readers.”

When others had time to assimilate its contents, they were not prepared to be so charitable. In The Restitution for June 26, 1878 one Restitution stalwart, J. B. Cook, had read it through thoroughly and did not like it one bit.

Cook’s review took center stage on the front page – The Object and Manner of Our Lord’s Return by C.T. Russel (sic), noticed by J.B.Cook.

Cook starts by saying the pamphlet had been circulated both directly and indirectly and he received his copy with Herald of the Morning. The suggestion that Christ’s return had already taken place invisibly did not sit at all well with him. And as for the “second chance” gospel from H. Dunn, this was “another gospel”. Cook’s review is peppered with expressions like – delusive - utterly fallacious - the phantom of an excited brain... He concludes his attack with the words:  “It is in deep sorrow for them that I write. Brother R is spending his money for that which is not bread, and the brethren are scattered by ‘uncertain sounds,’ yet I rejoice. ‘The Lord knoweth them that are his.’ Amen. ‘The half has not been told’ to these brethren, but adieu.”

There is a hint of theatrical flourish in the final “adieu” with perhaps a suggestion of 1 John 2 v.19 about it – “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us” (NIV).

CTR’s next publication for mass distribution was the 160 page pamphlet Food for Thinking Christians. Ultimately, over one million were circulated. This could hardly be ignored by The Restitution, although they really tried.

 It was general policy to include cuttings from exchanged journals as fillers, and the November 2, 1881 issue of The Restitution, page 2, quoted from a letter J. C. Sunderlin sent to Zion’s Watch Tower from London. Sunderlin gives a little homily on running the Christian race, prompted by an engraving seen in a Fleet Street window. (The original is found in Zion’s Watch Tower for October-November 1881, reprints page 292.)

Sunderlin’s whole point in being in London was to organize the distribution of Food for Thinking Christians, but you would never know that from The Restitution. One wonders why they even quoted what they did.

The silence about Food continued for a year or two, by which time many Age to Come groups were familiar with the publication and it could no longer be ignored. The June 13, 1883 Restitution finally devoted four long columns on its back page to the problem, in the article A Brief Review by regular writer Wiley Jones. In a critical and not particularly brief review, Jones studiously managed to avoid mentioning either the name of the book, the publisher, or the author. He even makes the point that “the name of the writer does not appear on the title-page” – which was true but the implication appears deliberately misleading. All Jones would admit to was that “a pamphlet of 160 pages, published in 1881...has been handed to me with a request that I would say something against its errors.”

Wiley Jones obligingly referred to specific page numbers as he presented his criticism. His pen was not quite as poisonous in tone as J.B. Cook’s, but his view was much the same. The idea of the “second chance” for many dead did not appeal, and the chronological speculations on the timing of an invisible presence and the start of the resurrection were definitely not something for Restitution readers. By his amnesic approach to title and author Jones no doubt hoped to prevent further readers checking it out for themselves – even if just out of curiosity. But those who had seen the Food booklet would have no doubt what was being criticized.

Russell’s next major work, and ultimately the one that received the widest distribution of all was the first volume of Millennial Dawn, entitled The Divine Plan of the Ages.

The Divine Plan of the Ages was widely reviewed. J B Rotherham for example, in The Rainbow for December 1886 was to give it over nine pages. The Restitution regularly quoted from The Rainbow, and no doubt some of its readers subscribed. And these journals had other journals in common. The writing was on the Age to Come wall - you cannot avoid mentioning a book that everyone else will mention. So The Restitution’s own review appeared on October 13, 1886.

Unfortunately we hit a problem here. The extant Restitution file was put together from several church collections in the 1980s and unfortunately the poor quality paper used, along with a century of imperfect storage conditions means they are incomplete. Frustratingly a key chunk of the Restitution’s review – what THEY actually thought about CTR’s book is missing. Part that survives is a quoted review from the New York Independent: “So far as we can disentangle the confusion of the book, it is a ludicrous mixture of restorationism, pre-millennialism of the more or less orthodox type, and a large portion of adventism of a kind which we must leave to those who believe in it to say whether it is orthodox or heretical. To us it falls into the large but simple class of well-meant fooleries.”

The Restitution’s own reviewer commented:  “To speak for ourselves, we like some chapters of this work. Of other chapters we must say that the themes discussed are open questions. To those...”

At this tantalizing point virtually all the rest of the review is missing. It would be nice if – somewhere - a copy with the complete review could be found.

However, as the years went by, what comes across is an increasing distance growing between the Age-to-Come people and the fledgling Bible Student movement – although any attacks on conditional immortality would provoke a mutually defensive position.

It got worse for Russell’s next book The Time is at Hand. A brief review (actually by Eychaner) is found in The Restitution for February 4, 1891. Eychaner disputes aspects of chronology: “I wish in this paper simply to call attention to an error in the count of Bro. Russell, which I think is fatal to his whole time argument.” However, Eychaner ends with “Submitted in all charity”.

But by The Restitution for December 12, 1894, comments on Volume 2 were far more vitriolic. Part of a series called Justification by Faith by an unnamed author (but possibly M Joplin who was the paper’s corresponding editor at the time) had some choice epithets for Russell. He has been “blinded by his own invention...we squarely charge the author of Millennial Dawn with setting aside the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and representing his as deceiving the apostles by creating a body and clothing for that purpose. A man who would represent him in whose mouth was no guile, as capable of such abominable trickery in order to sustain his own, or some borrowed subterfuge, ought to be closed watched...All this folly grows out of want of faith in that great and glorious truth – justification by faith.”

What had probably not helped the writer’s blood pressure was the previous issue for December 5, 1894, detailing how a Bible Student had been giving out copies of the Old Theology Tract no. 21 Do You Know outside their place of worship. Restitution readers were being targeted! In the words of the above writer “evidently the Christ Mr Russell expects to reign with, never died for him....we admit there is a fraud, and as between the Lord Jesus and Mr. Russell, we decide it is the latter.”

            

Coming into 1895, The Restitution for April 17, 1895 reprinted an article The Millennial Dawn from Herald of the Coming One. This was a paper of the dwindling Evangelical Adventists, but they were apparently united in their distaste for Russell’s work: “The work is so craftily written that the unexpecting are liable to be led astray by it...unless you are on your guard you will swallow the poison with it...money is used freely to scatter works which deceive and lead away from God...the “Millennial Dawn” is not worth the paper it is printed on...the book referred to is good in its place, but a blazing hot fire is the place for it...We hope that none of our readers will be deceived by its false teachings.”

             

Ultimately the Church of God would promote its own special booklet attacking Russell’s theology. Benjamin Wilson’s nephew, W H Wilson wrote Cunningly Devised Fables of Russellism, reportedly first published in 1890. It’s all a very strong indication of where C T Russell came from originally, and from where (in their minds) he had deviated. 

            

By 1902, it must have seemed like the last straw for the Restitution office, who had stocked Wilson’s Emphatic Diaglott for decades, when CTR obtained the plates and took over the role of publisher. If their new people wanted a Diaglott, or if older members wished to replace one, now they had to go to The Watch Tower. This would mean that their Diaglott came with a complementary Watch Tower subscription. Horror of horrors! They might even choose to become Bible Students instead.

So with all this background, we have to return to our original question, would it have been logical to invite Charles T Russell to replace Charles W Russell for several days at the Iowa State conference as late as mid-1895?  Readers of The Restitution were more than ready to criticize and complain in their letters columns; there would surely have been some squawks of protest had Charles T been given a platform at their conference.

            

And one final small point, but it flags up the incongruity of the situation – looking at Eychaner’s diary entries carefully, would Pastor Russell really have accepted one dollar (from the Lord’s box) for expenses?

We started this section of the chapter by referring to new information that has been discovered to help resolve the question.

            

The information comes from Jan Stilson, the Church of God historian who provided access to Eychaner’s diary. In 2015 she was reviewing a box of historic papers that had been donated by the great niece of A J Eychaner. They included Eychaner’s handwritten report to the Iowa Church Conference for the period 1895-1896. In the report he had clearly written several times the name of Bro. C W Russell (of Chicago) who had been hired as evangelist for six months.

            

The Restitution named C W Russell to open the conference. Eychaner’s report confirmed this.

Report of A J Eychaner, used courtesy of Jan Stilson from material

donated by Lois Cline, great niece of A J Eychaner

A transcript reads:

As your evangelist for the past year I submit to you the following report of work done, money received and amounts paid out in necessary expenses.

From Aug 15 to 25 I was with you in the conference at Marshalltown. I came on the 14^th and brother Prinner arrived on the 15^th. We found much to do in order that the conference might have a pleasant meeting. There was a lot to secure, water to arrange for with the city and ground to clean, tents to set up, and other necessary things to do. On Friday Aug 16 Brethren began to arrive and the meeting began at 8 o’cl. by brother C W Russell preaching the introductory sermon. During the meeting I helped along as I could in preaching 5 sermons and taking part in social meetings, Bible readings and business meetings. I think it was the best time we...    (last line indistinct)

So no matter what he wrote in his diary, when it came to an official report, we are back with C W Russell.

            

A J Eychaner’s account paints an entertaining and rather touching picture of those days. He didn’t just preach, he organised water, he put up tents, he dealt with the wind and the rain, he coped with local thieves who stole from his tent, and straight after the conference in question he mentions C W Russell again:

On Thurs Sep 5 I went to Lanark to assist in the conference of the State of Illinois, and again left C.W. Russell in charge of the tent. That eve there came up a severe storm and altho Bro Russell did all he could yet the wind damaged the tent considerable. I spoke six times at Lanark and preached one funeral discourse at Union church, returning to Laurens (?) and the tent Mond Sep 7, after an absence of only 4 days. Spoke on the life eternal through Jesus. That night thieves entered my tent and stole two chairs.

Later the conference made provision to fund this same Brother Russell for evangelistic services for the next six months.

So what do we have here? Three different sources and a conflict of information. To review:

            

First, from The Restitution for August 7, 1895, page 2, reproduced already in this article. This was the advertisement to get readers to attend. C W Russell was billed to give a sermon on the first day, Friday, August 16.

However, in Eychaner’s diary, it is now C T Russell giving the sermon on Friday, August 16.

But later when he wrote up his full official report, it reverted to C W Russell giving the opening sermon on Friday, August 16.

A more recent examination of the original diary suggests from the ink that the pages were written up in one block together, not line by line as events happened, possibly from other earlier notes; so a primary source now becomes a secondary source when compared with the new discovery.

            

But we are still left with CWR to CTR and then back to CWR again. What explanation can there be for this discrepancy?

            

I can only think of two possibilities. The first is deliberate misdirection. CWR was advertised, but CTR switched places with him. Then A J Eychaner put in his official report that it was CWR. And hoped that no-one would blow the whistle on the substitution.

            

Personally, I would find that impossible to believe, if for no other reason than Eychaner was an honorable man. He might have been a bit of maverick at times, but that very point means that if he’d wanted to do something controversial, he would have stuck to his guns. He wouldn’t have falsified records to cover it up. And frankly, he wouldn’t have gotten away with it.

            

The other possibility is what we might call, for want of a better expression, a Freudian slip. The name of CTR wasn’t foreign to Eychaner – as noted earlier he had previously written a review of one of the Millennial Dawn volumes in The Restitution.

            

So perhaps Eychaner approaching his mid-50s had what we might call a “senior moment.” We are all human, we all make mistakes. We don’t expect people to pore over our words and rough notes as if they were Holy Writ well over a century later. And on rare occasions it is possible for new discoveries to turn an existing hypothesis on its head. We should always be open to that possibility. Caveat lector – let the reader beware.

It is hoped that readers who love this subject will continue to delve and if they find out further information from reliable primary sources – that changes even the smallest details - they will be forthcoming. If they do, we will all continue to benefit.

Partial, rough draft of chapter for comment

Posted for comments. Please make one; they're helpful. Usual rules: Do not share off the blog. Do not rely on a rough draft. They change as better information comes my way. If you can improve this in anyway, please do so.

The Letters

            To avoid making an already complex chapter more detailed than need be, we will limit ourselves to letters from or to believers and interested persons living in Minnesota and Michigan. From these we can document how The Watch Tower’s prompting to evangelize found practical expression.

Minnesota

            One of the first attempts to evangelize in Minnesota was by a resident of Yankton, Dakota Territory. [Now Yankton, South Dakota] While we know the names of some adherents active in Yankton in later years, we cannot identify this person. Nevertheless, his (or her) letter reveals someone motivated to share a message that changed their life – that freed them from what they saw as God dishonoring doctrine:

I never shall be able to sufficiently praise God for the light we have received. Three days ago I received five more “Foods,” which are being fed to hungry souls, some being sent to Minnesota, Montana, Iowa, &c., to those who will prize them, read and distribute to others. Some we have heard from are bearing glorious fruit. How quickly holy souls receive and believe when they see the precious truth of God! How ashamed we are and abased before God to think we have dishonored his word all these long years; but glory, honor and praise to Him who, in answer to prayer, has enlightened our minds with the truth. Our hearts are full of praise day and night that it has reached our ears. And now we want everybody to know the truth. Let us keep humble and fully consecrated.[1]

            Food for Thinking Christians reached an Advent Christian missionary who was on a preaching tour of Kansas. He described himself as a “preaching member of the Minnesota Conference of Christian Adventists” but said he was leaning toward Age-to-Come views rejected by that church. In a letter to Russell, he explained:

I have long been leaning toward the age-to-come views, much as one would grope in the dark – seeing much truth in it; but with the light I had, could not make all points harmonize. It remained for your September number of “Watch Tower” to supply the missing link. I am thankful to God for it. I received it (humanly speaking) by the merest accident, but I believe it was sent of God.

Now, dear brother, I would like a few copies of “Food for Thinking Christians.” I will treat and place each one as though it were pure gold. I want to send one to my brother, a minister, and to others. I am anxious to do all I can. Am very poor, but if God blesses will contribute to your Tract fund.[2]

           

            In 1888 a lone adherent living in Fillmore County, Minnesota, wrote to Russell, addressing him as “Dear Sir,” rather than Dear Brother. She contributed to the Tract Fund and ordered two volumes of Plan of the Ages. This was her second purchase. She explained:

dear sir: – Enclosed you will find a money order for five dollars, which I wish to give to the Tract Society with the exception of enough to pay for two Dawns, paper covers, to lend to friends. I am very anxious to have all who will read and think, have access to those wonderful books. Those ordered came all right and were soon delivered. If circumstances will permit I shall take more orders. O, that I could only convince my own family that it is time to look into such matters. They are not opposed, but think it is not necessary. I am all alone, but none the less determined to be faithful to the end.

            While we do not know how this woman obtained her first copy of The Plan of the Ages, we see her convinced by it, and passing it on to others.

            An Oscar C. Melin, a Swedish immigrant farmer with family spread through out the upper Midwest and into Alberta, Canada, accepted the message about 1890. Writing to Russell in 1891, he reported a small group in Fargo, North Dakota: “We are a little flock here of four families, or nine members, which meet together every Sunday and try to build us up in the most holy truth.” He felt blessed by the Lord, reporting that some of them couldn’t read English. They translated for each other. They had a crop failure in 1890 and did not know how they would survive the winter. Hard scrabble farming meant that they could do little to spread the message. Circumstances changes later, and Oscar was able to preach. In 1895 Knud Pederson Hammer, a Baptist clergyman turned Watch Tower evangelist, reported: “I have just returned from Minnesota, where Bro. Melin has been preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. Many Swedes are stepping into the light there.”[3] Members of the Melin family persisted with the Watch Tower fellowship at least to 1915, when a brief note by Fred [Fredrick] W. Melin appeared in The St. Paul, Minnesota, Enterprise.[4]

            An un-dateable event that probably occurred in the decade of the 1890s was recounted in a letter to The Herald of Christ’s Kingdom, published in its July 15, 1927, issue: “It was the tract, “Where Are the Dead?” that brought the Truth to my attention. I found it laying in a seat in the waiting room of the Great Northern Railroad at Willmar, Minn. Finding that tract was the turning point of my life, and wonderful indeed are the blessings that have followed it.” The letter was signed “H. J. H.” from Minnesota, leaving us with no firm identification.[5]

Michigan

            There is documentable interest in the Barbourite era. Henry Liederbach wrote to Barbour in 1878, saying that Herald of the Morning readers were scattered all over the state, and letters from some of them appear in the magazine.[6] While Paton and his followers had left or were leaving the Watch Tower fellowship in 1882, others in Michigan continued to further the Watch Tower message, believing that it represented life-saving truth. A letter from Stanwood, Michigan, a village of about 150 in 1880, expressed both determination to circulate Food for Thinking Christians and optimism at the result:

The “Foods” you sent me have been distributed and are doing good work for the blessed Master. A number have been brought to the light through reading them. The truth is setting us free in this section, and we feel in our hearts that it has been instrumental in God's hands in doing much for us. The question with me has been how to present this truth to others in the most effectual manner. I am trying to speak to the people every week two or three times, but I feel my incapacity to such an extent that the cross is heavy at times. I have often thought I would not speak any more in public until I was better qualified if I could have my own way about it. What shall I do, who is sufficient for these things? ... Praise the Lord for his mercy endureth forever. Yours in hope of being one of the Bride company.[7]

            While we might presume that Russell’s Stanwood correspondent was an adherent of perhaps some year’s standing, a letter from Reed City came from a new reader. Late in 1883 he was sent a sample copy of Zion’s Watch Tower either directly by a friend or through a name referral. He found the paper exactly fitting his needs:

Last week zion’s watch tower was sent to me, and I find it just the paper I want. Brought up in the strictest sect of United Presbyterians, I find this new message is like cold water to my thirsty soul, and I wish to learn more of the glad tidings.

Enclosed find one dollar for one years subscription and for the rest send me as many copies of the October number as you can, I want to send them to my friends to whom it will prove glorious news.

I am studying my Bible with new interest and it is wonderful that I have been so blinded to Gods glorious promises all these years. I shall trust to clergymen no longer for I find them small help in time of need.

I am truly grateful to the unknown one who sent me your paper. It is just what I have gone mourning for, for years, not knowing God was preparing “deliverance to the captives.” May he bless you in the good work.[8]

            As we discussed in Chapter One of this volume, the October 1883 Watch Tower was a special issue, sent as a sample copy on name-referral. It was a missionary number, meant to bring recipients into the Watch Tower faith. In this case it worked. As with most of these letters, we do not know final outcomes, but we can note that this writer found the clergy inadequate. He was not alone; it was a common feeling in the post Civil War era.

            Another letter from Michigan found a place in the December 1883 Watch Tower. The letter came from Corunna, a mid-sized for the era community of about fifteen hundred souls. Its author had requested tracts and liked what he or she read:

Twice you have responded and sent me of your literature, which I have read; at first with some fears of becoming entangled, but now with a confidence of being led in the right direction: and having a craving desire to study with you Gods Word, I subscribe for the zion’s watch tower one year.

Your reading matter has made my Bible many times clearer and dearer, even in a short time, and I thank God for seeing even through a glass darkly.

            Food for Thinking Christians and sample copies of The Watch Tower offered free tracts. The Corunna citizen responded to the offer – twice – though with trepidation, fearing entanglement with one of the many non-traditional sects of that era. Instead of his fear coming to fruition, he found increasing clarity. He believed he was beginning to understand the Bible in ways he had not previously.

            By the publication of Plan of the Ages in 1886, there were several small fellowships in Michigan, and at least one active colporteur. The Grand Rapids Telegram-Herald of October 23, 1887, reported:

A religious book is at hand in the form of a little volume entitled “Millenial [sic] Dawn,” the first of a series on the “Plan of the Ages.” The author, Charles T. Russell, has endeavored to obtain original ideas of the truths of the Bible, going directly to the fountain head. Those who are interested in the Scriptures will be interested in the results of the author’s researches. The book bears the imprint of Zion’s Watch Tower, Pittsburg. [sic] An agent is selling it in this city.

            A very small fellowship existed in Benona, Oceana, Michigan. Oceana County was a sparsely populated farming area on the coast of Lake Michigan with a mix of Scandinavian, British and German immigrants. Thomas West Brewer, Sr. [Born c. 1843] was a Nova Scotia born immigrant and the son of British immigrant parents. Thomas and Mary Ann Brewer immigrated to the United States from Ontario in 1871 and were in Benona Township sometime before the birth of their first child in October 1873. At the time of their immigration they were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.[9] We do not know when or how they came into contact with Watch Tower theology, and it is useless to speculate. However, judging by the fact that Russell attached Brewer’s signature to his letter as printed in Zion’s Watch Tower, we can presume he was well-known to readers.

            Without presenting numbers, he reported Memorial [Annual Communion Observance] attendance for April 7, 1887. There were “a few of us here who are rejoicing in the freedom wherewith Christ hath made us free,” he wrote. He quoted from Galatians 5:1 where Paul says that to be a child of God one must be freed from bondage to sin. For Watch Tower adherents in the Russell era, this included belief that they had been set free from slavery to false churches.

            Plainly, his letter as printed in The Watch Tower is part of a series, though this is the first to appear in print. They met “once a week for studying, praise and prayer.” He reported that they continued “to be denounced by the blinded worshipers of the ‘image.’” This is a reference to Revelation chapter thirteen. Russell-era interpretation of the phrase “image of the beast,” was that it referred to denominational systems, false theologies worshiped in place of God. Despite religious opposition, Brewer felt that God was with them, writing that “the truths we proclaim are becoming more manifest in the sight of men, as from God.” Brewer reported finding among the Swedish immigrants “a movement” similar to their own:

A family of them rented a farm joining mine. They are good pious people. I paid them a visit after they had become settled, and learned that they in common with numbers of their countrymen here had discarded sects and sect names, salaried ministry, etc., etc. They believe that where two or three meet, there is the true Church, and every one is encouraged to use his or her own talents as the Lord has endowed them. The Bible and the Bible only is their rule of faith and practice. I found that from a study of Scripture they have discovered many truths similar to those we rejoice in.

Mr. B ____, the head of the family, was highly interested in the account I gave him of our Church with no name, but Christian. He would like to have a sample copy of the swedish tower; he can speak but not read English. I believe my dear Brother this is the very class (the meek) which it is our privilege to feed, and Mr. B ____ may desire to spread the truth among his countrymen.[10]

            We cannot identify the Swedish dissenters. Adherence to the Lutheran Church was mandated by law in Sweden. Dissenters, some of whom held to some Lutheran doctrines, fled to American and populated portions of the upper Midwest. For instance, Fredrick Olaus Nilsson, expelled from Sweden in 1850 for violating the Conventicle Act for preaching against infant baptism, was active in Minnesota. He seems to have otherwise held to standard Lutheran doctrine. Laestadians had beliefs somewhat similar to Watch Tower adherents and were particularly well-represented in Michigan and Minnesota. They stood separate from the existing Scandinavian Lutheran churches. But ultimately the Swedish believers in Benona Township, Michigan, are a mystery.

[1888 letter here]

            We do not know if the Brewers maintained their faith, but what slight evidence exists suggests they did. It appears, though on conflicting evidence, that the Brewers eventually moved to Virginia. But because evidence, primarily a census of Civil War veterans, conflicts with Federal Census records, this is uncertain.

            As observed several times in this volume of Separate Identity, some Watch Tower readers read opposition journals, principally Paton’s World’s Hope. Mid-year 1887 an “M. T. G.” from New Buffalo, Michigan, ordered four paper covered copies of Plan of the Ages also asking for “a few copies of the Watch Tower.” This was in response to claims made in Paton’s magazine. Russell addressed them in the March 1887 Watch Tower, and M.T.G. found his rebuttal satisfying: “I have been taking the World's Hope nearly a year, and I know that it claims that the Second Death brings life and salvation to all. I am so glad now to be fully armed on this subject by the article.” It appears she intended to loan Plan of the Ages, apparently to friends who followed Paton into Universalism.[11]

            A letter from Tuscola County, Michigan, came to Russell in late 1887. As printed in The Watch Tower it is signed W. C. W. While we wish we knew who that was, we do not. After blessings and well-wishes to Russell, the writer said:

I am fully persuaded that the time when “the very elect” should be deceived, if it were possible, is upon us. Within the past year or two I have seen quite a number of new periodicals purporting to give advanced light, pointing out unmistakably many of the errors of “Orthodoxy,” and, although somewhat garbled, many of the truths of God’s Word; and holding up the example of Jesus Christ, as the beacon to guide us up to everlasting perfection. These teachings will be very apt to mislead, and indeed are misleading many thinking Christians who are unlearned in the Word. A noticeable characteristic of these new doctrines is an ignoring of God’s ransom for the lost, but taking, for imitation, the example of our Lord’s suffering for the right, just as any general might inspire his soldiers by telling them how Napoleon’s soldiers faced death at Austerlitz or Lodi, or how Leonidas stood at Thermopylae. They thus ignore the fact that the penalty for sin is death, and that man having sinned is in death; that the laws of God are absolute and eternal, and that there is no escape from the penalty of these laws until the uttermost farthing is paid.[12]

            He was right, of course. A read-through of Peters’ Theocratic Kingdom connects one to a multitude of journals and papers, most small of circulation and now lost, that fit this description. And among adherents, Paton’s World’s Hope¸ Adams’ The Spirit of the Word, and two or three other periodicals found a readership. These fit W. C. W.’s description too. He believed the ‘flock’ could easily be deceived by “these ‘strong delusions,’” a reference to 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 which reads according to the Authorized Version: “For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Admittedly, this is a poor translation of κριθωσιν which means not ‘damned’ but judged. Though the meanings are similar, ‘damned’ suggested hell-fire to most Protestants.

            The thought that some were easily deceived “induced” him “to write ... now, instead of waiting ... until I could get a little money to send. I can sell a few ‘Dawns,’ to some that I have talked with.” He (or she) explained that they had “been an invalid for two years” but were some better, adding, “If you will send me ten April ‘Towers,’ I will place them discreetly; also send me ten paper-bound dawns.” They believed that there was much to do, saying, “I want the means used that will accomplish the most.”

            The April 1887 Watch Tower was a missionary number sent out as sample copies. Russell wanted to reach one hundred thousand readers with it, introducing them to what he believed were the basics of the True Gospel. W. C. W. wanted to help circulate it, believing its message to be vital.

[continue]

           

Biographies

            Though these letters as published in The Watch Tower are anonymous, we have the identities of some who connected with Watch Tower theology. We will limit ourselves to a few Minnesota and Michigan residents, allowing them to represent others with similar experience.

William Egbert Page

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[1]               View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, March 1883, page 2. [Not in Reprints.]

[2]               View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, January 1882, page 1.

[3]               Encouraging Words from Faithful Workers, Zion’s Watch Tower, September 1, 1895, page 280. Members of the Melin family helped evangelize in Canada. [1979 Yearbook, page 86.] We tell K. P. Hammer’s story in another chapter.

[4]               Voices of the People, The St. Paul Enterprise, March 12, 1915. See also the February 16, 1916; January 28, 1918 issue.

[5]               Words of Encouragement, The Herald of Christ’s Kingdom, July 15, 1927.

[6]               Leiderbach to Barbour found in the December 1878 issue, page 82. Leiderbach was born in Hesse-Darmstadt in October 1832 and died in 1917. His wife Wilhelmina was born in Prussia in 1844 and died in 1877. Henry immigrated to the United States in 1852, and they were in Minnesota at least by 1865 when their first child was born. [See Census and cemetery records.] Henry was first a saddle maker, then a farmer. He met and married “Mina” Hoffman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. [Marriage record: February 17, 1853, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison; FHL microfilm 1,013,959.]  They lived in Rockford, Minnesota, where he was a farmer.

[7]               View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower¸ December 1882, page 2.

[8]               Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, December 1883, page 1. [Not in Reprints.]

[9]               Details from the 1871 Canadian census and the 1880 U.S Federal Census.

[10]             Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, August 1887, page 2. [Not in Reprints.]

[11]             Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower¸ July 1887, page 2. [Not in Reprints.]

[12]             Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, August 1887, page 2. [Not in Reprints.]