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Wednesday, February 17, 2021

I can't stop it, of course ...

 

I can't stop spammy comments, and I can't stop you from stealing blog content. But I will delete nonsense comments. The last was from Pakistan, but they usually come from Russia or Korea or Poland. There are times when the situation is so bad that I cringe when I see visits from those countries. So ...

If you visit from there, a comment explaining why you visit would be helpful. I'd like to hear from these visitors:

Daejeon, Taejon-jikhalsi, Korea, Republic of -  Korea Telecom (221.145.183.112) 

Gdansk, Pomorskie, Poland - Upc Polska (89.64.117.144) 

Toledo, Washington, United States - Toledo Telephone Co (208.70.50.219)

Monterey Park, California, United States - Spectrum (97.90.19.103) 

Humor me. Keeping this blog clean, controversy and spam free is occasionally a challenge. That's been more intense the last few weeks. Explain why you visit this blog, please. 



Mary R. Campbell


I need biographical information about Mary R. Campbell. She was born between 1824 and 1826 in Ohio. In 1880 she and her husband lived in Douglass, Butler County, Kansas. They were farmers. I have one extract of a letter from her to Barbour, written in late 1883. Anything beyond this would be helpful.

I can add that her husband's name was Micah. From the 1880 Census record, we know that they lived a various times in Iowa, Ohio, and Illinois.

Any help will be appreciated. Post here instead of emailing me. Please. 


Herald of the Morning 1885 - 1890:

 

 I know they're out there. But I do not have them and need them urgently. After 1885 they appear to have been issued sporadically, but I really do not know. 

The quality of research for vol 3 of Separate Identity depends on finding these. Can you help?

I do not need, and can't afford, originals. A usable scan, photographed pages, or photocopies will do. 

 

Monday, February 15, 2021

From "Unorganized" to "Too Organized"? You can please "some of the people, some of the time, but...


(Guest post by Gary)


Scholars who study Jehovah’s Witnesses have often noted their keenness, some might say obsession, to measure activity by numbers. This is most obvious in terms of the monthly field service reports that publishers file with their congregation’s secretary, but also in terms of congregation meeting attendances, assembly and convention attendances and the annual Memorial figures. 

 

In addition, in recording the monthly numbers of publishers Witnesses are markedly different than any other religion in counting active members as opposed to passive attenders. Comparing these figures provides the Society a numerical measurement of progress, of course, and - to some degree - an indication of how well the message is received in various lands. In turn, Witnesses draw encouragement as we read annual reports and see evidence of our ministry bearing fruit.  

 

In contrast, looking back into the earliest Watch Tower history it is noticeable how little interest was shown in collating figures, with only annual Memorial attendances and the number of colporteurs giving indication of growth. Interestingly, Henry King Carroll’s comprehensive book The Religious Forces of the United States Enumerated, Classified, and Described, returns for 1900 and 1910 compared with the Government Census of 1890 records meeting figures for nearly every denomination and sect conceivable with the notable exception of the Bible Students.(1)  So, what caused the situation to change? Strange as it may seem, as will be explained, it was likely the American governmental authorities in World War One who we may thank for indirectly kickstarting this trend. 

 

The Draft Act and ‘not an organized sect’

 

Although the teachings of Pastor Russell were broadly recognised as being ‘pacifist’, one of the criticisms made to justify why Bible Students were not to be granted recognition as conscientious objectors in America during World War One, rightly or wrongly, involved their considered lack of organization.A list of pacifist sects was created in the United States by a Mr Hunt of the Census Bureau in 1917 following the country’s entrance to war and in anticipation of the Selective Services Act (otherwise referred to as ‘The Draft Act’).  The list includes the three traditional peace churches, the Mennonites, Quakers and Brethren, and several others, many known for their premillennialist expectations.  At the bottom of the list, as if reluctantly tagged on, appears the name International Bible Student Association, beside a bracketed explanatory note stating, significantly, that this is “not an organized sect.” (2) Hunt’s list is significant and apparently was relied on by a number of draft boards throughout America. The Selective Service Act allowed provision for conscientious objectors to perform non-combatant service, but only if they belonged to a recognised pacifist sect which fitted certain criteria. (3) 

 

To have satisfied the authorities the IBSA had two problems to overcome: Firstly, they were ‘new kids on the block’, a recent religious ‘sect’ as far as the authorities were concerned.  As such, unlike the Mennonites, Brethren or Quakers, they had with no earlier peace testimony that could be called upon in support. Secondly, while the teachings of Pastor Russell were well known in America and obviously ‘pacifist’, the extent to which they were “organizedprior to May, 1917” was less clear. In the Spring of 1918 Military Intelligence Division agents visited Joseph Franklin Rutherford and requested sight of an IBSA membership list, to which Rutherford replied, “Our only roll of members is written in Heaven.”(4) At the famous United States v. Rutherford et al trial,one Bible Student conscientious objector acknowledged that the IBSA didn’t “keep any record on the rolls as other churches do” (5)while it was acknowledged that an individual could “become a member without communicating with headquarters.”(6)

 

When asked in 1917 how many International Bible Students Association members there were in America, Rutherford answered that “from the names on our Watch Tower list we would answer, there are approximately 75,000 adherents.(7)  But this list, of course, indicated just the number of subscribers rather than active supporters.Indeed, much questioning during the trial involved the use of affidavits sent from the IBSA to those requesting them in support of their claims for conscientious objection and whether these were requests from ‘consecrated members’ or, as the prosecution implied, a large number of slackers who were using the IBSA to shelter under.


 

So, when did the situation change? When did the ‘organization’ first start to become organized? 

 

Dr. George Chryssides gives the general era noting:

 

“It was under Rutherford that house-to-house visiting became organised, and was expected of the Society’s members - a practice that has continued into the twenty first century.  Previously, under Russell, the Bible Students’ message was spread by colporteurs ...” (8) 

 

And historian Zoe Knox linked the greater emphasis on public ministry that gave ‘rank and file’ members a greater degree of visibility to “particularly ... since 1922, when Rutherford intensified door-to-door ministry and initiated a co-ordinated, worldwide campaign that led door-knocking to become Witnesses’ trademark.”(9)

 

Knox, no doubt, has in mind the ‘Advertise, Advertise, Advertise the King and his Kingdom’ rally call at the Cedar Point, Ohio, international convention on September 8th, 1922.But did the start of this organized “worldwide campaign” commence even earlier in America itself?  Can we be more precise? The Watch Tower for August 1 and 15, 1919 published the two-part article “Blessed Are the Fearless”, which was re-emphasised at the eight-day general assembly at Cedar Point, Ohio, that followed on September 1-8, 1919, in which Rutherford delivered the ‘The Hope for this Distressed Humanity’ talk. Hence it was in 1919 that the public witness was resumed.  As the Society itself later described the period:

 

“Figuratively speaking, it was a climb to organize all the restored spiritual Israelites for preaching the Kingdom message from house to house.” (Italics are mine) (10)

 

Interestingly, the Proclaimers book states that “Through the service director, the field service of those associated with the congregation, or class, was to be reported to the Society each week, starting in 1919.”(11)Indeed, as a consequence, the very first field service report compiled for the United States in 1920 showed there were 8,052 “class workers” out in service, along with 350 colporteurs.(12)

 

Is it a coincidence that the IBSA moved in this direction following Rutherford’s release from the Atlanta Penitentiary?  Rutherford apparently saw need to record the activity of members as a reaction to his court experience, with the intention of protecting Bible Students in case authorities repeated such arguments in any future confrontation. If so, what better way of measuring active membership than to allow adherents themselves to file regular field service reports? These enabled Bible Students, and later Jehovah’s Witnesses, opportunity to show their willing support for both the Kingdom message itself and the organization being used to promote this message. 

 

Too organized?

 

Unaware of this background, modern critics of the Society ironically believe it is somehow evidence of a dictatorial leadership imposing their will over uncommitted followers! In fact, having been muted and suppressed during the war, by 1919 most International Bible Students responded enthusiastically to the opportunity to publicly witness and report their activity, seeing their situation in Biblical terms:

 

“At that time the lame one will climb up just as a stag does, and the tongue of the speechless one will cry out in gladness.” (13)

 

This remains the attitude of zealous Witnesses today. Whatever criticisms opposers may throw at them, their scrupulous reporting and recording of figures ensures that they may never again be accused of being unorganized!

 

As Zoe Knox notes:

 

“The Society is remarkable, however, in two important ways: it defines every baptised adherent as an ordained minister and makes public ministry a requirement for every adult in the community.” (14)

 

 

——————————————————

 

References:

 

(1) H.K. Carroll, The Religious Forces of the United States Enumerated, Classified, and Described, returns for 1900 and 1910 compared with the Government Census of 1890. Published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1912. A search here for the terms ‘Russellites’ and ‘Millennial Dawnists’ also revealed no results


(2) A copy of the list appears in Mark A. May’s 1919 article entitled “The Psychological Examination of Conscientious Objectors”, The American Journal of Psychology 31, April 1920, 155

 

(3) The Official Bulletin: Monday, July 9, 1917, Information for Persons Registered under the Selective Service Law, 6, column 3, point 13

 

(4) Lon Strauss, A Paranoid State: The American Public, Military Surveillance and the Espionage Act of 1917, 2012, 84. Per Strauss, “Rutherford interpreted the act to mean the organization had to have been recognized in existence prior to that date, not necessarily that an individualmust have been a member at that time. In other words, individuals might still join afterMay 18and thus become exempt to the draft law.” This seems the most obvious reading of the legislation.However, Rutherford’s letter To the Secretary or Clerk of the Local Ecclesia, dated 8 August 1917, argues against this interpretation. In this Rutherford explicitly stated that “such affidavit will be made, of course, for only those who are members of the INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION and in good standing and who were such on and before the 18th day of May, 1917.”

 

(5) Quote from Hans Insberg, an IBSA conscientious objector, questioned in the The United Statesv Rutherford trial, 253

 

(6) Quote from William E. Van Amburgh during the United States v.Rutherford trial, 1212

 

(7)Watch Tower, 1 December 1917, reprints 6181, in article entitled ‘In Re Military Service’

 

(8)George D. Chrysiddes, Jehovah’s Witnesses – Continuity and Change, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group,2016, 91

 

(9) Zoe Knox, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Secular World, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, 109

 

(10) Man’s Salvation out of World Distress at Hand! 1975, Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, 150

 

(11)Jehovah’s Witnesses – Proclaimers of God’s Kingdom, Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, 1993, footnote, 212

 

(12) The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, December 15, 1920, 372

 

(13) Isaiah 35:6 – see application, for example, in Man’s Salvation out of World Distress at Hand! 1975, 151

 

(14) Zoe Knox, Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Secular World, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, 108

 

Sunday, February 14, 2021

Recent Visits

 Asia is omitted. I cannot format the map to reasonable size. Do you see yourself on the map?





Contact Form

You will notice that the Blogger Contact Form is gone. This is the result of too man questionable contacts. If my health improves, perhaps it will return. But for now, some thoughts:

I do not need a writing partner.

If I do not know you, or know of you, I am not interested in seeing your manuscript. 

This blog and the books I write stay as 'neutral' and factual as possible. I will not lie to you, but I will not take your side either in supporting the Bible Student and Witness movements, or in opposing them. This is, as I've repeatedly said, a HISTORY blog. I do not write polemics. And I will not allow myth and fairytale to color this blog.

If you contact me, use your real name, not that of a famous musician-band leader, nor that of some character from Watch Tower history.

I will not give out the email of another blog contributor, especially if your email leaves me uncomfortable, and never without their permission. Don't ask.

I accept submissions. Articles must be footnoted to original sources. A limited number of appropriate secondary sources is acceptable. I do not pay for posts. 

I do not accept invitations to your podcast, radio show or internet show. Ever. 

I deeply appreciate those who send documentation. And, yes, I am interested in the Rutherford era too, though I'm not writing about it at this time.

I cannot research for you. You must do your own. I am overwhelmed with health issues and projects. 

And most of all, if you present yourself to me as a Witness, but do not behave as a Christian ought, I will view you with some considerable suspicion. 

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Alfred H. Fleisher and "bro. Brown"

 These are two paragraphs of current work. I need more information, more biography for both these men, especially an identity for Bro. Brown who was a Seventh-day Adventist in Michigan. Can you help?

Response to 1883 Failure

 

            Barbour appealed for letters of support. A very few trickled in, and he published them in the Herald of the Morning. If he wanted a measure of continuing support, he must have been disappointed. However, examining them gives us some insight into those who continued to see Barbour as the font of truth.

            Alfred H Fleisher [c 1833 – 1909] of Birch Lake Township, Minnesota, a very small village near Hackensack, wrote that even if others “could do without The Herald,” he could not: “Had I not become perfectly acquainted with its teachings I might, in this hour of trial, say, I have no further use for it. But our senses have been so much exercised through its teachings, that we can now be patient. We have a glimpse of the land, and know that our journey will soon be ended, and that we shall reap, in due time, if we faint not.” Divested of its floridity, in the past he firmly believed Barbour, and he was reluctant to abandon belief. Note, too, that he points to the Herald’s teachings, ignoring the Bible which is supposed to be the foundation of Christian faith.[1]

            Fleisher was at least a casual Barbourite evangelist. A “Brother Brown,” no otherwise identified, believed that “the hand of God was manifested in sending A. H. Fleisher to introduce to me what appears to be ‘the faith once delivered to the saints.’” He believed that God was “leading in this movement.” If either of these men persisted after a subsequent ‘failure’ in 1885 is doubtful.

           



[1]               Fleischer to Barbour, Herald of the Morning, October-November 1883, page 14. Fleisher was a Civil War veteran, serving as a private in Company D of the 4th Iowa Volunteer Infantry. His death date is recorded in his pension records. The 1880 Census gives his occupation as engineer.


George S. Vilott

 I need as much biographical information as can be found for George S. Vilott. He was born May 6, 1842, and died August 23, 1920. Child and young man he lived in Indiana. During the Civil War he served in a sergeant in the Company H of the 36th Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He may have been wounded. His pension records list him as "Army Invalid." Some details would be nice. He moved to Kansas after the war where he an another Vilott, probably his brother, took up farming in Jewel County. 

He was elected to the Kansas State Legislature as a Republican in November 1894. [The Topeka State Journal, Nov. 8, 1894, Night Edition, page 3]

That's it. That's all I know at present. A photo would be wonderful.

CAN YOU HELP?

Thursday, February 4, 2021

JOHN ADAM BOHNET




His face and head with its distinctive bald pate looked out of various convention reports between 1907 and 1927, including the one above from 1911. He testified at two legal trials involving Charles Taze Russell. He was responsible for the pyramid monument near CTR’s grave. He was the man who actually grew “miracle wheat.” He compiled at least one small book and wrote numerous articles and letters for Watch Tower publications, as well as various newspapers. And unlike many of those who were very close to Russell, he stayed loyal to the Watch Tower Society after the change in administration. Although occasional anecdotes about his work in the 1920s have appeared in modern Watchtower literature, he is not as well remembered as many less public figures of the day. This article tries to redress that balance for John Adam Bohnet.

In 1915 Bohnet was asked to write his life story for the Bible Students unofficial newspaper, the St Paul Enterprise. Many of the facts about his conversion and early work with the Society are taken from this account, first found in the August 27, 1915 issue and then republished unchanged on February 8, 1916.

Additional facts about his life over this period are taken from his testimony in two trials, Russell vs. Russell (1906) “the divorce trial” and Russell vs. Washington Post (1913) “the miracle wheat trial.” Bohnet was a key witness in both trials, where he was quizzed about his own history and his connections with CTR and the Watch Tower Society. For a fuller summary of his St Paul Enterprise testimony, see Separate Identity volume 2, pages 261-271.

Adam’s parents, Johann Adam Bohnet (1830-1926) and Christina Dorothea Unkel (1829-1924) were born in Freudenstadt, Germany, but came to America in 1852 and settled in Michigan, ultimately in Ann Arbor. They had four children, all born in Michigan. Our subject John Adam (May 11, 1858 – April 14, 1932) was the first, and as the story will show, both his parents and some of his siblings also became Bible Students.

Bohnet’s parents were Lutheran, and though he was baptized in infancy he never made that faith his own. His father was a blacksmith, and Adam started his working life in farming, before moving from Michigan to Portland, Oregon, in 1883, to work first at brick making and then to work for a San Francisco publishing firm in Seattle. After set-backs he contemplating renouncing what little faith he had, but then an encounter with a revivalist preacher at the YMCA reawakened his spiritual interest. He became a Bible Class leader for the M.E. Church, linked to travelling widely for his firm. He described his commitment at Ogden, Utah: “My pew on Sunday was never vacant, and my loose change jingled merrily on the collection plate.”

Returning from a business trip he found his own Church temporarily closed so visited a Presbyterian Bible class nearby where an unnamed leader invited him to his home and enthused about a book that had “wonderfully opened the Bible to him.” Bohnet never saw the book because the owner had loaned it out, but another copy had been ordered from the East. When Bohnet called to say goodbye before departing for Nevada on business the book had arrived. In fact, three books had arrived, the first three volumes of Millennial Dawn. A letter Bohnet wrote to the National Labor Tribune for May 18, 1911, confirmed that this first encounter with the Divine Plan of the Ages was in 1892.

Bohnet was always quite outspoken, and his comments on his first encounter with Volume 1 as his train rattled towards Reno are typical: “While on the train next day I read with interest and astonishment the preface of Volume 1 – the wording of which, to my regret, was changed for all subsequent editions…” He struggled on the noisy train and then read through the night at his hotel. He was convinced he had found the truth. The local Methodist preacher was less than impressed – Bohnet described him as “bitterly antagonistic” – but there was no stopping Bohnet. He wrote: “By the Lord’s grace I was instrumental in locating and assisting out of Mystic Babylon, within the next twelve months, twelve dear saints.”

Bohnet attended the 1893 Bible Students convention at Chicago, where he was baptized and met CTR in person for the first time. He noted that his beard and hair seemed as black as coal.

CTR and Maria as part of group picture at the 1893 convention.

Bohnet does not appear in this particular photograph.


As we will see later, Bohnet became an indefatigable letter writer. His first was published in Zion’s Watch Tower for the September 1 and 15, 1893 double number and he kept up a steady stream over the years down to 1931. From very early on he described his witnessing experiences, and was soon on the list of speakers representing the Watch Tower Society. The 1894 annual report in the December 15 ZWT mentions him on page 393 as one of a number of “traveling salesmen, colporteurs and business men” who used their spare time at their own expense to visit groups and give talks. According to a letter in the St Paul Enterprise for February 13, 1917, he gave his first ever chart talk in Portland, Oregon, in October 1894.

At this point we might note that many years later Bohnet described how CTR gave him the address of Benjamin Wilson, the translator of the Diaglott, and how he called on Wilson in Sacramento, California for several revealing conversations. The report is found in the St Paul Enterprise for April 4, 1916, and it should be noted by modern writers that in the conversation Wilson flatly denied ever being a Christadelphian. While there is no reason to doubt the account, Bohnet’s article says this was in 1892. That appears too early for his biography – would CTR really entrust such an important visit to a neophyte he’d not even met at the time? This writer assumes that the visit on Wilson, who lived until 1900, probably happened around 1894.

Zion’s Watch Tower magazine for August 15, 1894, put out a call out for a stenographer to assist CTR at the Bible House. Bohnet quickly saw an opportunity, and as he wrote: “I knew nothing about shorthand writing. But immediately wrote Brother Russell that I was sending to Chicago for stenographic instructions; and when sufficiently proficient would join him.”

Blandishments to stay in his present employment in San Francisco fell on deaf ears, and in April 1895 a very determined and focused John Adam joined the Bible House family as CTR’s stenographer.

As a secretary Bohnet’s work involved taking dictation and typing out a number of confidential documents. These included letters CTR wrote to his wife and her relations and also drafting Joseph Lytle Russell’s last will and testament. He was also called on to give testimony in the Russell vs. Russell hearing of 1906. At the Bible House most workers lodged outside, but from 1894 the Russells lived in. CTR had to go away for a few days in 1897, which could have meant leaving his wife Maria on her own. Bohnet witnessed a telephone conversation where CTR tried to arrange through Ernest Henninges (then office manager) for Bible House worker Clara Taylor to stay with her. Maria declined the offer as she had other plans. In fact, she was shortly on her way to stay with her brother Lemuel in Chicago and never came back under the same roof as Charles.

Going by a date he gave in his father’s obituary, Bohnet’s work at the Bible House was to be interrupted in 1896. In his life story he explained it this way. Traveling back from a speaking assignment he had a fall and badly damaged an ankle. Not wanting to be a burden on a busy Bible House family he arranged to go back home to Ann Arbor to his parents’ home to recuperate. He had another secondary motive which was to share his faith with his family. As noted above this was very successful and we will learn more about some of his family later.

Bohnet was not back in harness at the Bible House for very long. Learning that the Society needed to borrow money, late in 1897 he suggested to CTR that he should go back into business with his old firm and make a financial contribution which would allow for several others to replace him in the office. After assuring CTR of his steadfastness to the truth he received this reply. He said that in substance, CTR’s words were:

“True, we need more money, and since you have this opportunity, which may be of the Lord’s appointment, and it is your desire to help out in the running expenses, go, and God bless you. But bear in mind, my dear brother, you are still counted as a member of the Bible House family.”

The exchange as told may seem somewhat unusual. All we can say from this distance is that his account was published while CTR was still alive, and was known to read the Enterprise from time to time.

Back in the secular field, Bohnet still did what he could for the message but for the next seven years worked in Washington DC for a company promoting a proprietary remedy called “Viavi.” (Russell vs. Brooklyn Eagle transcript, page 64). It was marketed for “female complaints.” Checking contemporary literature there’s a suggestion it might have been partly marketed as a female contraceptive. It seems a strange choice of employment for a confirmed bachelor. He left this company’s employ around 1904, which was probably just as well as the California State Journal of Medicine for April 1907 was to go after them with all guns blazing. Next, according to court testimony, he worked selling home supplies from a base back in Pittsburgh. This failed, and he went back into the Bible House. It would appear that this time it was CTR helping HIM.

In 1905 he published a scripture compendium by subject called “Features of the Plan of God.”

Back in the Bible House he worked at correspondence and in the dispatch department and was soon going out as a visiting speaker again.

A huge change took place in Watch Tower history in 1909. The Society moved its headquarters from Allegheny to Brooklyn, New York. Here the Bible House family became a much larger Bethel family.

Bohnet was the man they left behind. He still visited groups to give talks, and became extremely well known as a convention speaker. However, the main item of business he cared for was the Watch Tower Society’s own cemetery.

The 1910 census lists Bohnet as “Superintendent United Cemetery.” This was originally a series of three small cemeteries put together and called United Cemeteries, in Ross Township about five miles north of Pittsburgh.

As to why the Society would deal in business like a cemetery company, the Society’s secretary-treasurer W E Van Amburgh explained in the court case Russell vs Brooklyn Eagle (1913 – trial transcript pages 203-204) that many donations for their religious work were conditional; the donation could in fact turn out to be just a loan, depending on the circumstances of the donor. Consequently, they needed assets that could generate income and in case of emergency could be turned back into cash. A cemetery company seemed a good idea at the time – to quote direct from Van Amburgh: “The Society thought well to have some place where we could have a good asset…they found a farm, and they arranged for a United Cemeteries company as being the most stable, it could not run away, something satisfactory that could always be used as an asset.”

The cemetery charter was granted in 1905, and in 1907 CTR’s last will and testament made provision for his own burial there, in a special area reserved for Watch Tower workers. The whole area they owned totalled 90 acres, but only about 18 acres ever became a cemetery. The rest was either unused or kept as farming land. Getting permission was not difficult because there was already an established Roman Catholic Cemetery on the adjoining property.

As noted above, when the headquarters staff all moved to Brooklyn, Bohnet stayed behind in Pittsburgh to look after the cemetery. Below is a picture taken around 1920-1921, looking down the hill over the Society’s plot. CTR’s grave marker is there, and then there is a pyramid monument, rather like a modern War Memorial with names inscribed on the sides. It is in the center of the Society’s plot and was installed at the beginning of 1920 (see The New Era Enterprise, February 10, 1920). Two small grave markers can be seen for Bible Students Arabella Mann and Mary Jane Whitehouse, which sadly have long since disappeared. On the slightly rising hillside in the background is an old farmhouse, which became the cemetery superintendent’s house. This is where Bohnet lived. He is in the aforementioned 1910 census at this address, along with another family of helpers.


It should be noted that the headstones in front of the house are not actual graves. At the time the picture was taken the cemetery company sold headstones and these were samples for purchase.

During the 1910s, when Bohnet was well known as a convention speaker, he was photographed many times. He was also involved with the pyramid in the above photograph. It was reported that it came from his design, and when CTR died in 1916 he supervised various funeral details, and then also supervised the eventual installation of the monument over 1919-1920.

Having come from a farming background, while in residence he used some of the spare land for farming purposes, which included what came to be called “Miracle Wheat.” This has been discussed elsewhere on this blog, but basically Bohnet was impressed with the wheat, and donated seed for sale through the pages of the Watch Tower magazine in 1911. An unexpected drop in prices from the original source and an attack by a tabloid-style newspaper created difficulties and led to the aforementioned Russell vs Brooklyn Eagle trial in 1913. Bohnet gave evidence and also revealed more of his personal history in examination and cross examination. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but in retrospect he would probably have done better to have just sold the seed direct, and made his own personal donation to the Society’s work.

In October 1916 CTR died and was buried in the United Cemeteries. In January 1917 Joseph F Rutherford was elected as president. In the division that followed, Bohnet put his full support behind Rutherford. When, in July 1917, Rutherford appointed four new members to the board of directors of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, Bohnet (still resident in Pennsylvania) was one of them.

Events then moved quite rapidly for him. The cemetery company had ticked over and generated a certain amount of income, but it was not spectacularly successful. The decision was taken to realize the asset in 1917. It was probably wise. The land cost them $27,000 in 1905, but with a functioning business on it they realized $90,000 in December 1917.  

But it all happened very quickly. Bohnet was still advertising for cemetery help in April 1917 (Enterprise: April 17, 1917) but by December 1917 the property, apart from selected areas for Bible Student burials, was gone. The purchaser was the Catholic Northside Cemeteries association, which owned the adjoining cemetery.  It meant that both Bohnet’s work as superintendent and the house that went with it disappeared.

As a Society director one might have thought that a life in Brooklyn Bethel beckoned. Instead, Bohnet became a Pilgrim, an official visiting speaker sent out to groups by headquarters. He missed a memorial service at CTR’s grave on May 30, 1918 (a federal public holiday called Memorial Day when businesses were closed and people could gather together), because he was away on a Pilgrim visit (Enterprise: June 25, 1918). Apart from trips back home and coming back to Pittsburgh to supervise the installation of the pyramid, he spent the next ten years “on the road.”

To give an idea of the distance he covered, we can examine the speakers’ appointments on the back page of The Watch Tower. In 1918 he visited congregations in Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin. In 1919 he added Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina and Texas. In 1920 he added Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, New York and Oklahoma. We could go on, but the picture is clear – Bohnet did not stick to one small area of the United States, he was sent everywhere.

Over the years he became an untiring writer for first the Enterprise, and later The Golden Age magazine. He staunchly supported the direction taken by the new administration of the Watch Tower Society with its emphasis on personal evangelism with campaigns like the Golden Age work from 1919. In the splits that occurred at this time he urged all to return to the IBSA, but wasn’t averse to laying into those who had left. The original split with its “committee of seven” (Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose [1959] page 73) Bohnet dismissed in the Enterprise for August 23, 1921: “It seems to be inoffensive – doing little or nothing” and contrasting it with the activity of the Watch Tower Society.

His greatest ire was reserved for the Standfast movement, which suggests in context that it may have had a greater impact on readers at the time. Bohnet ridiculed it and debated its teachings (see for example: St Paul Enterprise for March 11 and 18, 1919). The Standfasters were to fragment, one group started a commune, another insisted on membership cards and it wasn’t long before they generally disintegrated; although they were still in sufficient memory to be mentioned by J F Rutherford in The Watch Tower for September 15, 1931, page 279.

Bohnet’s choice of subjects in the Enterprise was eclectic. Excluding actual reprinted sermons, here are some more examples, with the issue date of the St Paul Enterprise in parenthesis: a letter explaining that rumors of his death were greatly exaggerated (July 9, 1915); his aforementioned life story (August 27, 1915); how and why they moved the headquarters from Allegheny to Brooklyn (October 1, 1915); a campaign mounted to obtain a Ford motor car for CTR (October 1, 1915) subsequently vetoed by CTR (October 22, 1915); visiting Benjamin Wilson (April 4, 1916); reviewing the funeral of CTR (November 14, 1916); Noah’s Ark found on Mount Ararat (January 16, 1917); a recent visit made by a sister on Maria Russell (February 20, 1917); a tribute to William Abbott, late editor of the Enterprise (March 27, 1917); a letter urging all to vote for Rutherford et al at the forthcoming election of Society officers (December 18, 1917); attacking the Standfasters as noted above (March 11 and 18, 1919); visiting the “Brooklyn eight” in Atlanta Federal prison (March 18, 1919); and visiting a seriously ill Rutherford after his release (June 24, 1919).

At the end of 1919 the St Paul Enterprise became The New Era Enterprise. Bohnet continued his contributions. He marketed a cancer cure (January 6, 1920) which hits problems (January 27, 1920); he installed the pyramid monument on the United Cemeteries site from his own design (February 10, 1920); Miracle Wheat was now Weber Wheat and winning prizes (October 19, 1920); a suggested substitute for coffee (June 15, 1920); problems with the other Bible Student supporting paper, the National Labor Tribune (November 16, 1920); vigorous backing for the Golden Age work (December 14, 1920); a character assassination of Judge Howe who presided over the trial of the “Brooklyn eight” (December 14, 1920) and resulting complaints from Enterprise readers (January 11, 1921); God was now blessing the Watch Tower Society with a swipe at those who had left as noted above (August 23, 1921); vigorous encouragement for readers to embrace the Golden Age work (December 27, 1921); a recipe for cleaning wallpaper (January 19, 1922); praising The Harp of God as a masterpiece (January 24, 1922); the only true Bible Students were those still with the Society (March 7, 1922); and perhaps most entertaining, a fanciful alternative version of the Garden of Eden. Maybe it still existed in Armenia. Maybe Enoch transferred there and still lived there. Maybe if a plane flew over the area, Enoch might throw an apple at it… (April 18 and May 2, 1922 double issue, followed by some lively correspondence thereafter).

From 1923 Bohnet’s personal contributions to the Enterprise more or less dried up, although he was still featured in news items such as giving the Million talk over a local radio station (March 6, 1923). There is a letter in the June 1926 issue where he corrected inaccuracies about the Russell family – he (Bohnet) typed up Joseph Lytle Russell’s last will and testament and CTR declined to accept an inheritance. His last known contribution for the paper was writing his father’s obituary in 1927, which we will come to later.

As his output for the Enterprise dropped off, Bohnet began to write regularly for the new magazine, The Golden Age, edited by Clayton J Woodworth. Perhaps the most important of his articles was in The Golden Age for April 9, 1924, where he outlined the “true story” of the Miracle Wheat episode. Having been the one to grow the wheat on cemetery property he was well placed to write this article.

As already noted, his Pilgrim work took him all over the United States and numerous advertisements for talks in different regions can be found on newspaper databases throughout the 1920s. In addition, he spoke on several radio stations. His activity has been briefly remembered in more recent Watchtower literature.

For example, the Watchtower for September 1, 1983, features the life story of Grant Suiter who became Secretary-Treasurer of the Watch Tower Society in 1946.  Referring back to the 1920s he wrote: “J A Bohnet made a particular impression and was of special help to me. He was a man who had characteristics that endeared him to some people but had the reverse effect on others. He loved Jehovah and evidently was modest, but he kept this quality somewhat concealed under a gruff exterior.” A talk he gave moved the Suiter family to all get baptized. The article contains a small picture of Bohnet. The 1975 Yearbook (page 49) gives a very human pen portrait of Bohnet as a pilgrim visitor, making a kite for a young boy and helping him to fly it.

The dedication to this work involved personal sacrifices. For example, his Bible Student parents died in their nineties and both had obituaries in The New Era Enterprise, His mother Christina was featured in the issue for November 25, 1924 and his father, John (Johann) in the issue for March 1927. As noted above this last obituary was written by Bohnet himself, and recorded that his pilgrim work had taken him so far away he never heard about either death until after the funerals had taken place.

Bohnet was featured in a photograph in the 1927 IBSA Convention Report (Toronto: July 25, 1927) sitting in a row next to W F Salter and J F Rutherford, looking less than comfortable with a child on his knee. The sub-caption (probably a joke from Clayton J Woodworth) reads: “Take a look at Bohnet fathering some little boy.”


He remained on the regular list of speakers on the back page of the Watch Tower until mid-1928, and was also featured extensively in newspapers for speaking engagements and radio talks, up to that year. He last appeared on the official list of Society representatives in the 1929 Yearbook.

This was a time of change. From 1926 the role of Pilgrims started to change from visiting speakers to supervisors and promoters of active witnessing. This culminated in a name change to Regional Service Director in 1928 (see Proclaimers book page 223). As already observed Bohnet was fully behind the emphasis on personal evangelism, but he would have been 70 years old in 1928. At some point he went back to the family home. Writing from Michigan in the June 1, 1930 Watch Tower magazine he explained his situation:

 “While I am not situated now to engage in the regional director service, much to my regret, I can spare the time and the use of my car to drive sisters to distant towns and villages on regularly appointed days to place books in the service work at my individual expense of gas and oil, and thus herald the glad tidings of Messiah’s kingdom to those who have a hearing ear and an open mind.” He signed off “With much love to all at Bethel, Faithfully yours in Christ.”

The bulk of this letter was praising the book Creation, contrasting the activities of those currently loyal to the Society with those who weren’t. He followed this up with another letter in the February 1, 1931 Watch Tower magazine that enthused about the two volume set called Light and in his usual recurring theme, he urged all those who had left to reunite with the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. The published letter was given the heading “Inspiration to Greater Zeal and Service.” This was the last letter from him published in The Watch Tower. It was followed by his last article for The Golden Age called “The Myrtle” (about the myrtle tree with an allegorical application) published in the issue for August 19, 1931.

He died on April 14, 1932. His death certificate confirmed that he had never married; that he had gone into the University Hospital, Ann Arbor, Michigan, in March for a gastrectomy, and that he died in hospital four weeks post-operation just short of his 74th birthday. His occupation was given as “lecturer for the IBSA for the last 30 years.” The information was supplied by his brother Jacob Bohnet. He was buried in the family plot in the Ann Arbor cemetery.


There is one coda to this story. As noted above, when Bohnet went home to recuperate after an injury in the latter half of the 1890s he witnessed vigorously to his family. It resulted in his parents and three other relatives becoming Bible Students. One of these was his sister, Elizabeth Octavia who was born in 1859. Elizabeth married Lyman Pettibone in 1882 and lived to be 102. She died on January 10, 1961. As befitted a very old resident, her funeral made the local newspapers. After giving her family history the paper commented on who was to take the funeral.

Source of newspaper unknown. Cutting from the Find a Grave site.


The funeral announcement notes that someone from the (quote) “Jehovah Witness Church in Ann Arbor” would be officiating.

This means that the family trail of association with the Bible Students/Jehovah’s Witnesses that started in 1892 ran for at least 70 years. Sadly, the modern descendants the writer contacted when preparing this article knew nothing of the connection.


Wednesday, January 27, 2021

I need some information.

 This is the front page of a four page tract published in 1912. I do not believe it is a Watch Tower product, but think it was published independently. Do you have any information?



Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Millennial Dawn in Chinese

 Over the last few years I've had several enquiries concerning a Chinese version of Plan of the Ages. I've had to plead ignorance. Until now. Front Cover, Chinese version:



Who is this?

 

Whenever I obtain an old publication of the Watch Tower Society I always check through its pages, in case a previous owner has tucked in a Motto card or newspaper cutting or photograph as a bookmark. I have had some excellent finds this way.

 A set of pocket edition Studies that ended up in Australasia had two photographs tucked inside them. Alas, the original owner did not think of posterity by writing a name for the person on the back of the photographs, but only some personal comments that would only mean something to immediate family and friends.

We know that the person in the two pictures above was the grandmother of a previous owner of the books (name unknown) and here is the relevance to this blog - she worked with Charles Taze Russell in Bible House.

The black and white photograph has printed on the back,”Taken at Myrtle’s last summer” and the faded color one has “Week of November 30, 1957.”

Does anyone recognize who this might be?


Addenda


Bernhard from his store of rare photographs has supplied a picture of "Brother and Sister Wilson." It is believed this is George and Margaret and was taken in 1929. See the comment trail for a little more detail.


Friday, January 15, 2021

Can you do this?

 I'm reading someone else's nearly complete work with a critical eye. I would like comments on the following:

Define Witness salvation doctrine. What is the 'process' of salvation, and what if anything does God require in return for salvation?

            I am, as almost every reader of this blog knows, a very long-serving Witness. My activity is greatly diminished by health. But my faith is not. I may do better with this issue by telling you how I see divine salvation. And I believe this is what we teach as an organization, though I may use different terms.

 

            Salvation comes to all men through Jesus’ sacrifice. It is not the sole possession of a small band of Christians, but is meant to bring all men into peace with God. This is the import of I John 2:1-3:

 

My little children, I am writing you these things that you may not commit a sin. And yet, if anyone does commit a sin, we have a helper with the Father, Jesus Christ, a righteous one.  And he is a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, yet not for ours only but also for the whole world’s.  And by this we have the knowledge that we have come to know him, namely, if we continue observing his commandments.  He that says: “I have come to know him,” and yet is not observing his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in this person. But whoever does observe his word, truthfully in this person the love of God has been made perfect. By this we have the knowledge that we are in union with him. He that says he remains in union with him is under obligation himself also to go on walking just as that one walked.

 

            John does not teach universal salvation. Instead he suggests that for Jesus’ sacrifice to be effective in our individual cases, we must come to know the Father. [The grammar here, I believe, points to knowing the Father, though in John 17:3 we have Jesus saying: “This means everlasting life, their coming to know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.” This verse points to intimate knowledge of both.]

            1 John suggests that for Christ’s sacrifice to be of enduring efficacy we must observe God’s commandments. He points to no other – no man, no organization of men, no self-imposed beliefs. If one knows God, then one obeys God because he has an intimate relationship with him.

            Knowing God is not an instant revelation. The way Jesus explains it in John 17 is that it is similar to making a new friend. This is a path that leads to repentance, confession and changed life. Without defining each, let me focus on confession. In the account at Matthew 3:1-6 we find that repentance leads to confession: “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,  saying: ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.’  ... Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea and all the country around the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, openly confessing their sins.”

            The word translated “confessing/confess” is ἐξομολογούμενοι. Moderate, even elementary familiarity with Koine Greek should give you its definition. It means to speak out in the same way as another, to fully agree. So confession of sins is made to God, has a public element (I used to live that way but no longer), and means that God’s thoughts, commandments, and concepts are adopted as our own, and our former beliefs are abandoned. This is not organizational conformity, and I will not debate that here. A discussion of the verse that says to obey those forging the way in the faith is not appropriate here and will only foment controversy.

            So salvation is not dependent on any work of ours. We can do nothing to obligate God. We are instead obligated to God. So confession and repentance simply mean that we accept Christ’s propitiatory [peacemaking] sacrifice as made for ourselves, and we assume the obligation to obey His commandments. Obedience is the natural result of faith.

            There are many ransom/atonement theories. When Agustus Strong wrote his massive Systematic Theology he presented his readers with a long, tiresome list. Most who define the act of atonement ignore its basis in the Mosaic pattern. Yet, Paul says that the one foreshadowed the other. If we believe what Paul wrote, then we see in the communion sacrifice under the law a pattern for us. The communion sacrifices were a meal shared with God and the sacrificing priest. To sit at God’s table, one must be his friend. To be his friend means to adopt the behaviors he commands and suggests. So acts of faith follow naturally from repentance and confession.

            Witnesses do not ask, “are you saved?” God saved everyone through his son’s sacrifice. It’s an irrelevant question, one designed to divide co-religionists from those who do not accept the questioner’s definition of salvation. Instead, a Witness may inquire about baptism because we see it as a symbol of one’s commitment to accept Christ’s sacrifice and live by God’s standards.

 

Have I mis-defined Witness doctrine?

 

 


Thursday, January 14, 2021

New to My Research Collection

 A huge amount of things have come my way in the last few months, some as scans from other researchers and some I had to grit my teeth and pay for out of household funds. My research funds are at Zero Dollars and will be for a few months, but worth it I think. Among the items that have come my way is the full year 1887 of A. P. Adams' Spirit of the Word and the pamphlet pictured below. [Sorry about the photo quality; best I have at the moment.]



Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Help with this?

 

I'm swamped for time. I have too many projects that I must finish, not to mention [though I am] Separate Identity v 3 which is still mostly research.

I need help finding details about the Women's Religious Publication Society. It's headquarters were in Albany, New York. It was active mid 19th Century.

Anyone?

Depending on your browser, you may have to click image to see it entire.



Thursday, January 7, 2021

A New Book?

 


Well, it isn’t really, but a print version of something produced some years ago has now been published.

To explain:  I am hoping to use Lulu self-publishing for a work in progress.

But to test out how to use this platform and whether it will be suitable for my needs I decided to publish a print version of something produced back in 2012. This is the Houston-Davidson debate of 1896. It has been available as a free download from Lulu for some time. Having tried it out a “proof copy” it seems to fill my needs, but as it has now been “published” in this form, it is also available to others if they want it.

I am not asking anyone to buy a book. If you want just the background story, see this old post on this blog:

https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-houston-davidson-debate-part-1.html

There are parts 2 and 3 that follow it.

If you want to download the complete text this can be done freely from Lulu books. Go to their website, go to Bookshop and type in the search terms Houston-Davidson debate.

 Punch it in, and you will see a Yellow cover and the name “Jerome” attached. The same search facility will also now show a print edition.

The printed version has only one real change, the addition of two graphics from newspapers of the day. These are not necessary for the story at all, but gave me the opportunity to see how graphics would come out in a Lulu printed edition.


Tuesday, January 5, 2021

I remember this one, though with slightly altered words. ...

 

 This song has a surprising history. Anyone care to pursue it?

Monday, January 4, 2021