Margaretta

Margaretta Russell Land, to give her the usual full married name was the natural sister of Charles Taze Russell, two years his junior. As such she played a role in his history, and ultimately was buried next to him in United Cemeteries, Ross Township, Pittsburgh.

Below is an extract from the official cemetery register as supplied by the current owner. A number of names are deliberately obscured because many of these are more recent burials and not our concern. But on this sheet for Section T, Lot 34, you can see that CTR was buried in Plot A, Grave 1. At the bottom of the page, below the name of John Coolidge, who was buried at the end of the row and whose name is inscribed on the famous pyramid memorial, is the name Margaretta R Land. She is buried in Plot A, Grave 2, and the register states she was buried on November 26, 1934. In reality her death certificate states this was the day she died in New York City, and the interment took place in Pittsburgh on November 29.            

 This article, a revision of a chapter for a forthcoming book, will discuss her history. In the record she left she is sometimes Margaret, sometimes Mae, but later (with variations) settled down as Margaretta. For consistency we will stay with the latter for this article, unless reproducing something that uses a variation.

           

According to the 1900 census, she was born in March 1854. She gave her testimony and spiritual life story at the Niagara Falls convention in 1907 which readers can easily check in the convention report. At the Praise and Testimony meeting led by John A Bohnet on Sunday morning, November 1, she outlined her brother, CTR’s story.

She dated her own coming to a knowledge of the truth to “about thirty three years” before, which would take us back to 1874, the year they would focus on for the beginning of Christ’s presence (parousia). She also stated that Charles, his father and herself were baptized that year, after coming to understand the true import of baptism. She outlined how Charles at the age of 17 requested a letter of dismissal from the Congregational church, which would be around 1869, the year CTR was drawn to the “dusty and dingy” Quincy Hall in Lacock Street and heard Jonas Wendell speak. She goes on with her lengthy testimony, well expressed, and it is perhaps surprising that this is the only statement to be preserved from her. As such, it is the only record we have for certain events, so we have to depend on the memory of the single witness for the information.

At some point in the mid-1870s she married Benjamin Franklyn Land, a cabinet maker who worked in the Pittsburgh firm, Getchell and Land. Benjamin appears to have shared the Russells’ religious beliefs at this time. George Storrs, editor of The Bible Examiner visited a “small but noble band of friends” in Pittsburgh in May 1874. In the June issue of his magazine he listed the names of those who had requested literature, probably for distribution.. From The Bible Examiner, June 1874, page 288.

Familiar names from Pittsburgh were Wm H Conley (2 parcels), G D Clowes Sen., and J L Russell and Son (by Express). But slotted in between Clowes and Russell is B F Land. We must assume that this was Margaretta’s husband or soon-to-be husband.

By the 1880 census the Lands have two children, Ada (born November 1875) and Alice (born November 1878). Another, Joseph Russell Land (born June 1880) was on the way. A fourth child, May (sometimes called Thelma), would be born in February 1886, the year The Plan of the Ages came out. The 1900 census clearly shows that Margaretta and the children were living in Pittsburgh when May was born. A Benjamin F Land is still in Pittsburgh trade directories as a carpenter up to 1888, although this may have been his father.

At some point disaster hit the family. Around 1954 an elderly Joseph Russell Land gave a testimony at a Bible Students’ gathering, which was recorded. His personal memories included living at CTR’s home and also the breakup of his parents’ marriage. He didn’t take any real interest in Bible Student matters until he was an adult when, more out of curiosity than anything else, he went to hear his uncle speak after seeing an advertisement. But as to his childhood years, he made these comments:

“I only lived with Pastor Russell for one year, and that was with my sisters and my mother from 1887 to 1888, that was when I was passing from 7 to 8 years old, and all I can remember of that was that we were told not to go around – it was in a large house on a hill then - the Pastor didn’t have the Bible House then – we children were told not go around on that side of the house where Pastor Russell had his study, probably writing the volumes…We didn’t go around on that side to bother him any.

“My dear mother being Pastor Russell’s sister, was one of the first to come into the truth…My mother had just left my father in Colorado Springs in 1887, and come to Allegheny with we four young children, and we stopped with Pastor Russell for about a year and he took care of us.”

Reading between the lines, Joseph painted a picture of Margaretta as a forceful character, somewhat obsessed with the great time of trouble “just around the corner,” that he believed had a deterimental affect on him as a child. But he conceded that her situation may have had a bearing on that:

“It was a great time of trouble for a woman to have four children, and no husband, to raise back in those days.”

We do not know why Margaretta’s marriage failed. Taking her son’s words literally it was Margaretta who left Benjamin. It has not been possible to trace what happened to him, but by the 1900 census Margaretta is listed as a widow.

Living in the expanded Russell household would have been a difficult time for everyone. Two forceful women in the same household, Margaretta and Maria, would not be easy. Years later Maria Russell would make accusations against her sister-in-law in the Russell vs Russell court case of 1907. These were put to CTR and quoting from page 229 of the transcript, his cross-examination by Maria’s counsel went as follows:

Q:  You know that Mrs Land was more or less offensive to Mrs Russell?

A:  I did not, sir, and do not know any reason why she should be.

Q:  Mrs Land had lived with you before, when you and Mrs Russell had lived together?

A:  Yes, sir.

Q:  And there was a constant source of trouble between you and Mrs Russell about your sister?

A:  No, sir.

Q:  And did not Mrs Russell finally insist that Mrs Land should leave the house?

A:  No, sir, not that I remember of.

Q:  Well, she did leave the house.

A:  Of course, she left the house, and Mrs Russell left the house too; Mrs Land moved down to her father’s, down in Florida, she moved at that time.

Margaretta and her children moved to Florida to be with her father, Joseph Lytle Russell. Referring to this time in Florida Joseph Russell Land also testified that when she was “up against it” CTR was “always ready to send her help.” We assume that Charles Ball and then his sister Rose moved into the Russell household after Margaretta and the children had left, although there could have been overlap. But then in due course CTR and Maria moved into the Bible House. According to the history marker at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Hall this was in 1894.

Joseph Lytle ultimately came back from Florida to Pittsburgh and died in a Cedar Avenue property in December 1897.

Prior to his death Joseph Lytle wrote a new will in July 1896 (witnessed by E C Henninges, J A Bohnet and Mrs O A Koetitz) which made a bequest to Margaretta (a house, three lots and 25 acres of land in Florida) as well as providing for his wife and daughter, Emma and Mabel. Emma was to inherit two houses, another lot and various stocks and notes that she later claimed were worthless and Mabel inherited a house and another lot. CTR was named as executor. This became a bone of contention as perhaps evidenced by the three witnesses having to sign another statement in October 1897 that Joseph Lytle was of “sound mind and memory” when they witnessed the will. Joseph Lytle left certain unspecified debts, and Emma argued later that her Cedar Avenue property could not be sold to pay these debts before all the other bequests had been used up.

It did not make for a very happy extended family.

In the 1900 census Margaretta was still in Florida and now listed as a widow. Her eldest daughter Ada had gone, having married a Thomas Wells in 1895. The marriage would end in divorce and she later married a C H White. However, the other three of her children were still at home, Alice was a school teacher, Joseph a cigar maker, and May was still at school.

She soon returned to Pittsburgh and worked at the Bible House. She is featured in various events over the first decade of the twentieth century. We will review these in date order.

In testimony for the above quoted Russell vs. Russell hearing of 1907 (transcript page 90), daughter Alice Land testified that she had both lived in and worked at the Bible House for about six years. We can assume from this that Margaretta and the two daughters went back to Pittsburgh to be part of the Bible House family from about 1901. Unlike some of the other workers they lived on the premises for some of the time, although the Russell vs Russell 1907 transcript states they had one room for the three of them (second floor front) in the house Maria occupied on Cedar Avenue (see transcript page 225).

Maria and the Cedar Avenue property came to the fore in 1903, when Margaretta was mentioned in connection with CTR’s domestic troubles. In that year, CTR reclaimed the house that his estranged wife, Maria was living in at 79 Cedar Avenue, Pittsburgh (now renumbered as 1004). Maria had left Charles in 1897, first going to her brother Lemuel in Chicago, and then on return to Pittsburgh to her sister Emma’s home. Emma had inherited 80 Cedar Avenue (now renumbered as 1006) from her late husband, Joseph Lytle Russell. Today there is a history plaque on the property, acknowledging his original ownership. It should be noted that the two houses were a duplex, two homes that shared a middle wall. It was one of a long series of ornate 19^th century row houses, all connected together along Cedar Avenue with a beautiful park on the opposite side of the street. All of the homes as well as the park appear today almost as they did 150 years ago.

As noted above, Maria lived first with Emma at number 80, but when the tenants at number 79 moved out, Maria took it over and lived there with her mother for several years. This is where her mother Selena Ackley died in 1901. The paper trail on the property is unclear, and it may be that it technically belonged to the Watch Tower Society by this time, but as far as Maria was concerned it belonged to her husband and his actions showed he believed that too. The three story home was large so Maria also generated income by renting out rooms. When she used her extra money to publish a tract highly critical of CTR he took the house back in 1903, and put Margaretta in charge of the property. A room was offered Maria on a legal footing, but perhaps not surprisingly she simply chose to move back in with her sister Emma next door on the left side of the duplex.

In 1907 CTR wrote his last will and testament, signed and witnessed on June 29, 1907. It was printed in full in the December 1, 1916, Watch Tower, and also in the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper for November 29, 1916. Margaretta was mentioned in connection with the funeral arrangements.

DIRECTIONS FOR FUNERAL

“I desire to be buried in the plot of ground owned by our Society, in the Rosemont United Cemetery, and all the details of arrangements respecting the funeral service I leave in the care of my sister, Mrs. M. M. Land, and her daughters, Alice and May, or such of them as may survive me, with the assistance and advice and cooperation of the brethren, as they may request the same.”

                                                                                         

Mrs. M. M. probably stands for Margaret Mae or may even be a misprint; other records at this time give her full name as Margaret (or Margaretta) Russell Land. Daughter May (as Mae F Land) was one of the witnesses. Margaretta, Alice and May were all still working at the Bible House at the time.

During this time, she appeared in photographs taken at the Bible House. Below are two that date from around 1907. The one on the left is part of a group photograph taken in the Bible House Chapel, and on the right she is in the Bible House dining room.

     

In November 1907 she gave her detailed testimony at the Niagara Falls convention that we have discussed earlier.

In December 1908 the Watch Tower carried an advertisement for a booklet, The Wonderful Story of God’s Love. Written by Margaret Russell Land this was an illustrated poem, not to be confused with a similarly titled work by Maria Russell published in booklet form back in 1890.

But then she disappears from the regular narrative.

There are two possible explanations for this. One is that in 1909 a rift occurred over a change made by CTR over the understanding of the New Covenant. This caused some to separate from the Watch Tower. It resulted in two new groups of Bible Students, although they were separated by geography more than belief. The better known one was in Australia with Ernest Henninges and his wife, the former Rose Ball. But the American one resulted in several well known names leaving association with Watch Tower. They included M L McPhail, the hymn writer, and also Albert E Williamson. Albert had been a Watch Tower Society director and his twin brother Fredrick was Margaretta’s son in law, having married her daughter Alice.

Some have suggested that Margaretta may have supported this breakaway movement with other family members, although we lack documentary proof of this. Or it may simply be that the 1909 move from Pittsburgh to Brooklyn caused her to relocate back to the warmer climate of Florida to be near family members.

When CTR died she was featured in a news item intending to travel to the funeral. From the Tampa Bay Tribune (Florida) for November 2, 1916:

This is a typical effort of a junior reporter of the day. She may have intended to go to Brooklyn rather than Pittsburgh for the first part of the funeral arrangements – we just don’t know because she’s not mentioned in the actual reports – but it is a revelation that CTR died on a ranch rather than a train!

Margaretta was supposed to be responsible for CTR’s funeral arrangements according to his last will and testament, but that was back in 1907 and much water had gone under the bridge since then. For example, editorial committee nominee John Edgar had been dead for six years. There is anecdotal testimony that she may have wanted funds for her expenses to attend the funeral, but since she had inherited a house, three lots, and 25 acres of land in Florida from her late father, and also had a family of four adult children who could have helped her, that doesn’t seem realistic. Whatever happened, it is assumed that she did attend the funeral, although the newspaper reports (including the St Paul Enterprise) do not mention her. They do, however indicate that Maria and Emma attended.

There is, however, a photograph that long tradition identifies as her at the side of her brother’s grave prior to interment. She is supposed to be the female figure on the right, standing on her own rather than with other women higher up the hill.

Without corroborating evidence this just remains an unverified possibility.

After CTR’s death, Margaretta lived out her life in Florida near daughters Ada (Mrs Ada F White) and May (Mrs C Rea Kendall) until the year of her death, at which point she moved to New York where daughter Alice Williamson looked after her. But then at death she returned to Pittsburgh and was buried beside CTR. There was no notice of her passing or funeral in the Pittsburgh papers, but she did get an obituary in the Tampa Bay Times for November 29, 1934.

Again we appear to have the less than accurate efforts of a junior reporter. Her age is wrong, she was 80, she hadn’t been there for a continuous 40 years, and Mrs Williamson was not the sister of CTR, but Margaretta was. All par for the course.

So Margaretta obviously had a long standing claim to the grave space beside her brother. This was the only burial on the Society’s site throughout the 1930s. The grave remains unmarked. It may be that no-one really remembered her in Society history by then, or perhaps her family in Florida and New York did not see the need, especially if they were never going to visit.

Your analysis in the comment trail ...

BIBLE STUDENT'S SERMON ATTACKED

The Duluth Herald. May 11, 1914.

The sermon of Judge Rutherford given recently at the Lyceum theater on "Where Are the Dead" was attacked last night by Rev. W. H. Farrell, pastor of the Asbury Methodist church. Sixtieth avenue west and Raleigh street. The pastor charged that the Bible student did not live up to expectations and that he presented nothing new.

"For reasons best known to themselves, the Millenial Dawn' [sic] folks do not advertise who they represent," said Rev. Mr. Farrell. "Judge Rutherford, presenting their doctrine from the standpoint of a lawyer, failed to come up to the advertisements. The matter in his address was not new. The books published by Russell, who appears to be the society sometimes called the 'International Bible Students,' contain all there was in it.

Other representatives of Russellism have preached the same stuff to Duluth audiences months before the judge got to it.

"The doctrine of soul sleeping with its attendant heresies arose among the Arabian and Armenian sects centuries ago. During the twelfth to sixteenth centuries they were passed upon by various church councils and discarded.

"Mr. Rutherford says that Satan said to Eve: ‘There is no death.’ Russell may say that was what Satan said but the Bible says Satan said: 'Ye shall not surely die,’ a very material difference. Satan sought to mislead and he has continued an adept ever since.

“Was Adam dead after he sinned? The judge says he was legally. What is meant? The Word says ‘The soul that sinneth shall die;’ ‘the wages of sin is death.’ Paul writes ‘Dead in trespass and in sin.’  Though Adam did not dies until 930 years later the judge says ‘I say in the light of the word, he died to righteousness.’ To pass into death by sin is far more terrible than physical death. To lose the innocence of childhood and the consciousness of God’s love out of the soul is the awful tragedy of human life. This was what came to Adam as the wages of sin.

“The judge claims that all who were born were born were without the right to life, and therefore, sinners is not scriptural. The Scripture quoted by the judge to show that the dead are unconscious has reference solely to the physical man and the things of this life. The experience of Stephen, of the penitent thief, of Jesus, Moses, Elijah on the mount of transfiguration reveal the condition of the spirit of men after death.”

Yet more revisions to the Barbour Bio.

This isn't finished writing; it isn't even rough draft. This is an outline in development. I post it for your comments and observations. Please comment.

A Third Failure

            Accepting that Christ was invisibly present led Barbour to other conclusions. He supposed that Translation would occur in 1875, apparently announcing that through a supplement to the October 1874 Herald of the Morning. I could not locate that issue, but he referred to it with the paper’s resumption in June 1875:

We resume the publication of the paper, as was foreshadowed in the October supplement, in which the statement was made, ‘If after the developments of October shall have passed, this paper is continued, it will retain the name of “The Herald of the Morning.” At that time, our views of ‘the end of the world,’ or ‘the time of harvest,’ and the way in which these prophetic periods would terminate, were very different from present. And yet the impression was strong that humanity would receive food and light on these subjects ... and the paper continued.

            Exact dating for the revised ‘views’ adopted by Barbour and those who remained attached to his theology is difficult. We discuss it in some detail in Separate Identity, volume one. They believed their ascension would take place on May 1, 1875. The Woodsfield, Ohio, Spirit of Democracy, with typical misrepresentation of actual belief, reported: “The Adventists who usually hold a camp-meeting at Alton Bay, New Hampshire, have divided within the past year. The new party calls itself “Timists,’ and have fixed the date of the end of the world May 1, 1875.”[1] This brief report is nearly all we have of the 1874 Alton Bay conference. Yet, we see in it the beginning of the irreparable rift between Barbourites and Advent Christians.

            Barbour was an Age-to-Come believer though his beliefs were ill formed. He wasn’t interested in a restored paradise earth, though he saw it as scriptural doctrine. He focused on heavenly resurrection of the saints, among whom he included himself. One does not see that in this article. And Barbour used the phrase “end of the world,” though inexactly.

[translation disappointment here]

            Reluctant to abandon 1873, 74, and 1875 as prophetic dates Barbour redefined his beliefs.

[B. W. Keith here]

            A hardcore of believers persisted. At least one of them was at the Springfield, Massachusetts, camp meeting. It was the primary annual gathering of the Life and Advent Union. As a religion they were more welcoming than Advent Christians who were shedding members who retained age-to-come belief. Springfield was chosen because it was a center of Life and Advent belief. One of the most numerous congregations was there. They called themselves Bethel Church of the Association of Believers in the Pre-Millennial Advent of Our Lord Jesus Christ. They were a union congregation made from two pre-existing churches. An 1875 Directory gave their number as 275, saying that seats were free and noting congregation singing. They were well-supported financially. The Directory added: “The Life and Advent Union Association, of which this church is a member, have their camp grounds north of Liberty street, near old Chicopee Falls road, and hold camp-meetings there usually the second week in August.”[2] So it was at the August 1875 camp meeting that a Barbourite asserted their two-stage, partially invisible parousia doctrine.

            One of those present remembered this in his old age. John Abner Cargile was new to the Adventist movement. Though in short order he associated with Advent Christians, he was independent in 1875. A southerner whose ministry was centered in Alabama, he came to Adventism from the Primitive Baptists through a study of man’s nature. In 1875 he made his “first visit north, and attended the eastern camp-meetings.” He attended both the Alton Bay and Springfield meetings. His recalled events this way:

The writer is old enough to remember reading after one N. H. Barber in about 1870 A. D. I believe, who lived in Rochester, N.Y., who taught that Christ would come in October, 1874. When the time passes, as one of his followers told the writer, while at a campmeeting at Springfield, Mass., in 1875, that Mr. Barber was right as to the ending of the 2300 years Daniel 8:14, in October 1874 A. D. But that he was mistaken only in the manner of his coming, which was to be as a thief, secretly to steal away his saints. And so far as I am informed, that was the beginning of the secret of the return theory. I said to my informant: “Do you call my Christ a rogue, sir?” He said: “Well, the Bible says he was to come as a thief.” I said: “Yes, he was to come unexpectedly as a thief, but not to steal as a thief.”[3]

            Cargile thought his non-sequitur reply clever even forty some years later, but it did not and does not address the issue of an invisible parousia. That’s aside from the main point here. Barbour’s failure affected many in the broad millennialist and Adventist movements. The camp meetings in 1874 and 75 were full of controversy and division. The main Sunday observant Adventist and millennialist bodies largely abandoned time setting, though its extinction among each body was delayed into the 20^th Century. Barbourites went into a precipitous decline.

            Some clung to date setting, pointing to September 1875. The Portland, Maine, Daily Press reported: “The 10^th of September is fixed for the next Adventist scare, but skeptics think the earth is too wet to burn for six months yet. The Adventists had better do what the earth will not – dry up.” Barbour suggested something else.

            Barbour did not join in the September speculation but modified his exegesis to accommodate his latest failure. [continue from 6/75 hom]

---

[1]               See the January 26, 1875 issue.

[2]               Springfield City Directory and Business Advertiser, 1875-1876, Clark W. Bryan & Co, 1875, page 43.

[3]               J. A. Cargile in Present Truth Messenger as reproduced in the June 26, 1917, issue of The Restitution. See also Cargile: The Autobiography: Or, Personal Experiences and Recollections of John A. Cargile, Advent Christian Publication Society, Boston, 1891.

With the "virus"

The virus has brought the inter-library loan system to a halt. However, to move my research forward I need to read True Theology by John A. Cargile published in January 1888. If you have this, please scan it for me. I cannot find it available online. If you can, please past a link in the comments.

Really Important

Okay, friends. I'm at a research roadblock. I need details of the 1875 Second Adventist camp meeting at Springfield MA. This isn't for mere detail. It was a key even in Barbour's life, even though he did not -as far as I know - attend.

Anyone?

New to my Research Collection

Important for next book, tentatively called On the Cusp of Fame: 1886-1912.

More Revisions

4. To Terry Island

            A steady stream of articles by Barbour appeared in The Crisis throughout 1872 and 1873, but they only obliquely indicate the strength of his following. In the April 2, 1872, issue of The Crisis, Barbour wrote:  “The virgins are waking up, and trimming their lamps by hundreds and by thousands, and still the cry goes on.[1] Some only accepted part of the message, but still pointed to 1873 as the Day of Judgment. He wrote: “There are many overwhelming evidences for 1873. Some of our brethren see one of these, the 1335 days, and are preaching it; others see more.”[2] Barbour moved to Boston, very much the center of non-Sabatarian Adventism. A contemporary publication, Bacon's Dictionary of Boston, demonstrates this. From it we discover why Boston appealed to Barbour:

            The existence of the Boston “Church of the Adventists”  dates back to 1843, when, in May of that year, Millerites built the “Tabernacle,” a large temporary building on Howard Street. In the 1870s there were two Advent Churches in Boston. The Advent Christian congregation was “the most noteworthy of these.” It was located 09 West Concord Street. Organized in the 1840s, it was the descendent congregation of the Lowell Street Advent Church which had replaced the temporary tabernacle. The Advent Christian Publication Society was incorporated in 1854. Its primary publication was The World's Crisis, a weekly. They also published The Young Pilgrim, a semi-monthly Sunday-school paper, The American Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, and the Blessed Hope Quarterly.

            Adventists a split over the question of Inherent Immortality in 1854. The “old Adventists” took the name “Evangelical Adventists.” Their congregation met on Shawmut Avenue near Williams Street. They published the Messiah’s Herald.” Though the Adventist “thriving period” was in the 1840s when Joshua V. Hines was pastor, Boston was in the 1870s still a center of Adventism. The World’s Crisis published Barbour’s articles and a significant number of Evangelical Adventists were swayed by his arguments. Boston was a logical choice from which to publish his new magazine, The Midnight Cry and Herald of the Morning.[3]

            There is one estimate of the movement’s strength, but its worth is questionable. An article entitled “End of the World” appearing in the November 4, 1873, issue of The Boston Globe quoted S. W. Bishop as saying: “We are satisfied that we are children of the Most High God ... . We have portions of our company in every State and section of the Union, and in the British provinces, in England, Ireland, Scotland and Norway. We think it providential that we are so scattered. We number 34,000 in all.” We think he meant not just those who believed Christ would return that year, but all Adventists. Even then, this is a wildly inflated number. It cannot be taken as a well-founded count of those looking forward to 1873. Still, Bishop’s words suggest a sizable portion of Second Adventists took the prediction seriously.

Even among those not disposed to set dates there was cautious interest. E. E. Reinke, one of the editors of Prophetic Times, wrote:

We are not wanting in a lively consciousness of the repeated chronological failures on the part of some students who have preceded us. ... Yet with all this full in view, we not only retain the conviction ... that we are living in a time pregnant with the most important issues, but also that the parousia of the Lord is not only near, but imminent; so imminent, that it not only might, but probably will, transpire shortly. ...

In the belief that the parousia ... will transpire shortly, we may be mistaken. We have no authority, nor any inclination to fix a definite time for the beginning of the day of the Lord. It may not begin in our lifetime, but our positive duty, and our privilege, to wait for it every day, will not be in the least thereby affected.[4]

---

[1]               N. H. Barbour: The Seventy Weeks, The World’s Crisis and Second Advent Messenger, April 3, 1872.

[2]               ibid.

[3]               Bacon's Dictionary of Boston, 1886 edition, page 4.

[4]               E. E. Reinke: The Prophetic Outlook, The Prophetic Times, March/April 1872, page 34.

More revisions to Barbour bio

I post these extracts hoping for comments. They aren't forthcoming. I see no reason to continue posting these if some sort of comments aren't made.

            Barbour became a physician sometime after the Millerite disappointment and is so listed in a Rochester, New York, city directory. He is often called Dr. Barbour.[1] It appears that Temple Hill Academy offered courses related to medicine. A biographical sketch of another graduate mentions his “two year course” at Temple Hill, and says that medicine was “the only profession open to his limited means.”[2] Any course work was followed by training under the guidance of a practicing physician. Another biographical sketch tells of a graduate of Temple Hill following up his education there with a year’s medical reading under a James A. West, M.D.[3] Barbour may have followed a similar course, perhaps studying under Doctor Lewis McCarthy of Throopsville. It is also possible that he trained at the Metropolitan Medical College in New York City. The college provided training in Botanic and Electric medicine. The building that quartered it had a connection to a Second Adventist congregation, and at one point Barbour lived near it.[4]

            In an advertisement Barbour placed in a number the small-village newspapers near Rochester and Auburn, he claimed that painless, low voltage electricity would cure almost everything:

The following are among the numerous diseases which are positively and permanently cured by this treatment, Rheumatism, Tic Doloreaux, Paralysis of the Auditory or Optional Nerves, Palsy, St. Vitus Dance, Neuralgia, Torpid Liver, Dyspepsia, Piles, Bronchitis, Consumption in its early stages, Catarrh, Asthma, Scrofula in all its forms, Hear Disease, Female Weakness and Irregularities, General Debility, Curvature of the Spine, Stiff Joints, Tumours, Goitres, Ulcers, Felons [Today called Whitlow, an infection at the end of the finger], and swelling of all kinds, Cramps, Spasms, Retention of Urine, Strictures [An abnormal narrowing of a body passage], Dropsy, Inflammation and Fevers in all their forms, Costiveness [Constipation], Dysentery, Cholic [Colic], Bleeding at the Lungs, &c. &c., suspended animation by concussion.[5]

           

            As was typical of medical advertisement in this era, Barbour exaggerated the benefits of his treatments, but for someone presenting himself as a Christian exegete, this is disreputable. He added to the misrepresentation by adding to this advertisment the claim of extensive education: “Dr. Barbour has recently returned from Europe, where, after an absence of ten years, he has had the opportunity of perfecting himself in the medical application of Electro-magnetism, as applied on the Continent and in England.” The implication is that he spent ten years learning his profession. This is nonsense. He was in Australia from 1851-1852 until 1859. He was in New York City by late 1860. Misrepresentation of himself and others became a characteristic especially after 1878.    

            Barbour bounced back and forth between Auburn and Rochester. In 1862 he paid tax as a physician resident in Rochester, and the next year he paid tax from his residence in Auburn. According to an advertisement found in the June 17, 1863, Rochester Daily Union & Advertiser “Dr. N. H. Barbour, of Rochester, (Lately from Europe)” commuted between Auburn and Rochester. On each Monday and Saturday he was available for consultation in Rochester “at the residence of Rev. J.(ohn) Parker, No. 2 Elm street.” He could be consulted at 78 Genesee Street in Auburn on Wednesday and Thursday. Consultation was free, but treatment was not. He briefly associated with a Dr. Hill, whose identity is otherwise uncertain.[6]

            Barbour is omitted from the 1864-1865 Auburn directory, but he was still living there in 1865, when he was granted a United States Patent for a Carbonic-Acid Engine, a gas-expansion engine to power street cars.[7]

            Barbour seems to have avoided Civil War service.[8] He attended a meeting of the British Polytechnic Association in 1864 or 1865 to discuss the merits of his Carbonic Engine, and saw an application to lighter-than-air flight. The Utica, New York, Weekly Herald extracted an article from The Journal of Commerce:

At a recent meeting of the British Polytechnic Association, a Mr. Barbour stated by using compressed carbonic acid gas, he had obtained one and a half horse power from an iron engine which weighed with all its auxiliary apparatus only 450 lbs. An engine of aluminum would weigh only one-third as much. The gas reservoir was strong enough to bear 6,000 lbs. to the inch, and the gas that could be forced into it would suffice to drive the engine an hour and twenty minutes. Mr. Barbour proposes to use such an engine in propelling an airship by revolving spiral fans, upon the plan of the one building at Hoboken; and at once gets rid of all the difficulties resulting from a heavy steam engine, furnaces, &c. His scheme was looked upon not unfavorably by some of the English scientific journals.[9]

---

[1]               The Rochester Directory Containing a General Directory of the Citizens, a Business Directory, and the City and County Register, No. XXIX, For the Year Commencing July I, 1878, Drew, Allis & Co, Rochester, 1878, page 44. The Metropolitan Medical College, The New York Times, March 12, 1856.

[2]               Biographical sketch of Michael E. Crofoot in American Biographical History of Eminent and Self-Made Men, Michigan Volume, Western Biographical Publishing Co., 1877, page 41.

[3]               Biographical sketch of Edward Graham Folsom in Eldredge, Robert F: Past and Present ofMacomb County, Michigan, Chicago, J. S. Clark Publishing Co., 1905, page 511.

[4]               This is not the modern hospital of the same name. Metropolitan Medical College was founded in 1852, incorporated in 1857, and had its charter revoked in 1863. – Polk’s Medical and Surgical Directory of the United States, 1890, page 115.

[5]               Dr. N. H. Barbour, Electropathic Physician [Advertisement], The Bath, New York, Steuben Courier, September 4, 1861.

[6]               Advertisement found in the June 10, 1863, Canandaigua, New York, Repository and Messenger.

[7]               Tax records: 1862 District 28 Annual IRS Lists, NARA series 603, roll 188; 1863 District 24 Annual Lists; NARA series 603, roll 165. Patent: United States Patent Office: Nelson H. Barbour of Auburn, New York, Improvement in Carbonic Acid Engines. Specifications Forming Part of Letters Patent No. 46,769, Dated March 14, 1865. His patent application is also noted in Scientific American, March 25, 1865, page 200.

[8]               There is an N. H. Barbour listed as a private in Company E of the 40^th Alabama Infantry. This is not Nelson Horatio Barbour, but Nathaniel H. Barbour from Choctaw County, Alabama.

[9]               The Utica, New York, Weekly Herald, July 4, 1865, page 7.

Barbour updates for comment ...

comments would be welcome ...

Raw rough draft. It will probably change.

Adventures in Australia

       As with his childhood, there is little record of Barbour’s adventures in Australia. He left through an east coast port. New York City is most probable. And we can date this to 1851 or 1852 based on a newspaper advertisement for his services as a physician. Other than his trip home, there are no explicit records of this adventure. The only definitive statement of it is found in an 1879 supplement to Zion’s Watch Tower, and all it says is that Barbour was a gold miner and that he was then “entirely uninterested” in Bible prophecy.” There is no explicitly clear record of his outbound journey, but the passenger record for the United States Mail Steamship Georgia, dated February 8, 1851, matches his details in ways no other known passenger record does. It lists a Mr. Barbour, born the correct year and single. The other records that come close are of married couples or list an impossible birth year. This Mr. Barbour is listed as a Mechanic, a listing that indicated anything from a fabricator to an inventor. This fits Barbour’s trade, presenting the strongest record possible for his emigration to Australia. It also fits the history of Millerite failures in the 1840s and early 1850s.

            He told the Rochester Union and Advertiser that he preached in all of the Australian colonies. This implies that he traveled regularly. There are three ship’s records for a Mr. Barber of the correct age traveling as a merchant between the various colonies. Lacking a first name or initials, we cannot firmly attach these to Nelson Barbour. A Mr. Barber appears in Australian newspaper files in the two years before he left for England. This Mr. Barber was being sued by several for defalcation. New York property records show property transfers to a N. H. Barbour in the eighteen months before he left for England. There are, however, at least two other N. H. Barbours living in New York State in that period. So while we could imagine a very dim and dirty story with Nelson Horatio Barbour at its center, without a firm identification with him we would craft fiction and not history.

            If Barbour sought his fortune in the Australian gold fields, the results were indifferent. He seems never to have had any appreciable wealth and was, perhaps, not a good steward of the money he had.[4] His interest seems to be limited to the scope of predictive prophetic studies. His claim to have preached in many of the Australian colonies fits no other time in his life.

            Barbour returned from Australia, setting sail in 1859 and taking the route around Africa to the United Kingdom. For Barbour the return voyage was life changing. He fell into a Bible discussion with a clergyman. “To wile away the monotony of a long sea voyage, the English chaplain proposed a systematic reading of the prophecies,” Barbour remembered. In Barbour’s assent to the chaplain’s suggestion, we see something of the “peculiar combination of the lion and the lamb” in his personality attributed to him by an associate. He “readily assented,” no doubt because he remained interested, but primarily because “having been a Millerite in former years, he knew right well there were arguments it would puzzle the chaplain to answer, even though the time has past.”[8] There is a certain perverse deviousness in his motive, but there may also have been an acute desire to discover wherein Miller had erred.

            He took the Millerite failure personally because he had invested his faith and life in the movement and because he could find no underlying error. He found a sense of personal validity as a Millerite and mourned the loss of significance and belonging it gave him. He suggested that accepting his interpretations re-validated Miller and his movement.

            When Barbour and the clergyman discussed Daniel 12:7, Barbour felt a sense of revelation. He “saw what he had never seen before, though he had read it a hundred times.” Daniel chapter twelve, verse eleven, says: “From the time the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.” Millerite expositors almost without exception extended the 1290 days from 508 C.E. to 1798 C.E. (A.D.). Most Millerite expositors were convinced that they must end in 1798, so they must begin in 508. They found in “the eminence which Clovis had attained in the year 508, and the significance of his victories to the future of Europe and the church” the beginning of the 1290 days. The virtual imprisonment of Pope Pius VI in 1798 by French general Louis Alexandre Berthier was supposed to have ended the power of the popes, at least as political rulers and, in the Millerite view, fulfilled the prophecy.