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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.

The Search for S D Rogers

There are some people in history for whom we have little background. Like the Bible character Melchizedeck (although of lesser reputation) we don’t know where they came from, and we can’t confirm where they went. They turn up in our narrative, give a few hints, and then disappear. It is frustrating for a researcher when this happens. This article is about one such case.

Back in 2016 there were several articles on this blog, written by Rachael de Vienne and myself, on a possible later sighting of S D Rogers. Recently returning to this subject, an interesting trail has been followed, with unexpected results. This article is that story.

But first, for any readers new to the subject, let’s examine what we know about his Watch Tower history. He always appeared in the pages of ZWT as S D Rogers. What the initials stood for was not known, which complicates identification. He appears in the 1880s. He was apparently born around 1847 and came from Michigan, and may have been born there. He was a vigorous and successful colporteur for Zion’s Watch Tower, but then was sent to Britain in 1893 which did not go well. He was subsequently involved as a key “conspirator” in A Conspiracy Exposed (1894). He was reported to be in league with Nelson Barbour and then disappeared from view. Then there are numerous accounts of a dubious religious character in the early 20^th century using the name S D Rogers. We will come to this later.

We arrive at a birth date of around 1847 for S D Rogers by assuming his entry on a ship’s list from 1893 is accurate. Rogers was travelling from New York to Liverpool in October 1893. The full details from the register show that he arrived in Liverpool on 4 October 1893. He called himself the Rev. S D Rogers, occupation Minister, and he is listed as single, aged 46. This gives us his approximate year of birth.

As to where he was from, we have several references to Michigan as either his place of birth or the place where he and his family were viewed as from.

Here is one of several examples from newspaper reports of sermons given in 1891. From the Buffalo Commercial (New York) for June 5, 1891.

A letter from S D Rogers in ZWT for August 1889 shows that his parents were living in Michigan at that time.

The problem is that nearly all of the 1890 American census returns were destroyed by fire in 1921 so we don’t have these to supply any background to the above. And a search of 1880 and 1900 provides no answers.

Using the approximate birth date of 1847 there are a number of potential candidates. Born in Michigan there is a Samuel Rogers, born c.1848. Living in Michigan in the 1870 census, there is a Sylvanus E Rogers, c. 1845 (born in Ohio), Sherman Rogers, c.1847 (born in New York), another Syvlanus Rogers, c. 1852 (born in Canada), another Samuel Rogers, c.1844 (born in Canada), and a Sol Rogers, c.1847 (born in England). Most promising on the surface would appear to be Samuel D Rogers, born Lodi, Michigan, in 1847. But this S D Rogers turns out to be a farmer with a wife and several children. While he could have “moonlighted” as a ZWT colporteur - which would have made a great story - this S D Rogers’ parents died some years before 1889. Playing round with different initials and locations has always proved to be a frustrating exercise.

Wherever he came from originally, Rogers entered the ZWT story in January/February 1889 in a letter from J B Adamson, who obviously became a close friend. (The letter is found in the original ZWT bur is not found in the abridged reprints). There are later references to Rogers rooming with Adamson and his wife, and Adamson of course was one of the other “conspirators” in the 1894 split.

Rogers’ first letter to ZWT was dated May 2, 1889 from Detroit, Michigan (again omitted from the reprints). He became a highly successful colporteur, regularly sending in details of the vast quantities of Dawns he had sold. As well as Michigan, he worked extensively in Canada and New York, and was obviously doing this work full-time, supporting himself on commission. Apart from his parents in Michigan already referred to, the only other personal detail his letters let slip is that he had a brother who also worked as a colporteur with a Brother Zink at one point, probably in Canada.

He was so successful in this work then when it was thought beneficial to send someone to Britain to galvanise this kind of work there, Rogers was the choice.

Rogers determined that a better plan than circulating the printed page would be for himself, as ‘Rev. S D Rogers,’ to hold a series of public meetings with himself as the speaker, and to solicit money for them. The book Bible Students in Britain basically accused him of expecting to be treated like a conventional clergyman of Christendom, with local Bible Students funding his meetings and funding him to a degree that went beyond expenses. Letters of concern winged their way from England to the Bible House in Allegheny.

On his return there was a lengthy article by CTR in the April 1, 1894 ZWT on The Work in England, and Rogers – after six years as a colporteur - left that activity. He assured CTR of his continued interest in the message and was planning to return to England, but not as a ZWT representative.

Then came the campaign by “the gang of four,” Bryan, Adamson, von Zech and Rogers. They sent out a circular (not extant) and CTR responded with in A Conspiracy Exposed (special issue of ZWT April 25, 1894). In subsequent developments (ZWT June 11, 1894), Rogers was accused of visiting congregations with bad intent and in Rochester, NY, introducing the faithful to Nelson Barbour, described as a “bold and relentless enemy.” This came from a report by Maria, CTR’s wife, who went on a speaking tour in Rogers’ wake to counteract his activities. According to the June 11 special ZWT, Rogers split with the other three when they refused to hire a hall for him in Pittsburgh to “expose the errors of Millenial Dawn and Zion’s Watch Tower.”

                                                        

It appears that Rogers subsequently returned to Britain because one of the letters published in the June 11 ZWT was from a J Brookes in England whom Rogers visited. CTR assured the correspondent that Maria had no intention in following Rogers there.

And it is at this point Rogers disappeared. The subsequent lives of Bryan, Adamson and von Zech can be traced, but what happened to Rogers and his self-belief?

We find a number of references to a Rev. S D Rogers in newspapers between the years of 1903-1928, all linked to Michigan. To try and avoid confusion we will hereafter refer to our ZWT certainty as “SDR” and the 20^th century references to “S Donald.” Some 20^th century newspapers give Donald as the middle name to the Rev S D Rogers. See for example The Wood County Reporter (Grand Rapids, Wisconsin) for June 22, 1922.         

We will briefly outline S Donald’s known activities and then draw comparisons.

The known S Donald can only be described as a con-artist, and judging by the number of times he was encouraged to move on or got arrested, a particularly inept one.

 It can only be the vastness of America and the lack of communications that allowed him to try the same stunts year after year, while getting caught year after year. He may have had a penchant for pretty girls, or perhaps was just accident prone. Here is a typical headline from the Chanute Daily Blade for January 5, 1904.

He would start off by riding into town claiming to be writing a new book on the Bible; subscriptions gratefully accepted. Later he added raising contributions for a Quaker settlement, claiming to be a great grandson of Timothy Rogers, the Quaker who founded settlements in Vermont, and Canada. Timothy Rogers (1756-1834) was married twice, and had twenty-one children so this was a little difficult to verify both then and now.

S Donald’s real estate dealings had a sort of “kiss of death” about them. From the Witchita Daily Eagle for December 1919, his business dealings were (quote) “about everythng but successful” and were “always according to Hoyle” (a reference to gambling). Local real estate men were warned to have nothing to do with him.

The headline in the Wood County Reporter (Grand Rapids, Wisconsin) for June 22, 1922, with variations, became depressingly familiar.

.

Gradually a picture is built up of his back story.

He had “a new method” of preaching the gospel. His proposed tome entitled The Opening of the Books focused amongst other things on the year 1874. From an interview in the Chanute Daily Blade for January 5, 1904.

He had his epiphany while in England in the 1890s.  From The Journal Times (Racine, Wisconsin) for May 3, 1905: S D Rogers, “Christian minister and evangelist,” was planning a religious school in their city.  Soon to publish The Opening of the Books he is of Quaker lineage and believes in direct revelation to man. Rogers “claims that about ten years ago when working in England that the great mysteries of the scriptures were opened up to him in a personal and direct way by the spirit of God.”

In 1928 he was still at it. From the Sedalia Democrat (Sedalia, Missouri) for March 15, 1928, he had again been arrested for obtaining money under false pretenses. A proposed Quaker colony and his named magnum opus The Opening of the Books is the all-too-familiar story.

S Donald was described as a “shrewd book salesman” The businessmen who paid out now worked out that it was going to cost them even more if the case went ahead, so voted for dismissal. The full news report mentioned THAT book again – The Opening of the Books – and hinted that it still hadn’t actually materialised. The report also covered some of the areas Rogers had visited.

Later in 1928 we have our final sighting of him at work. The Daily Iowan for September 29, 1928, gave him the heading: Davenport Police Arrest Imposter – Alleged Minister Gets Donations from Local Men. 

S Donald’s less than illustrious career came to an abrupt end in November 1928. I am grateful to researcher Philip for bringing this cutting to my attention. From the Washington Evening Journal for November 5, 1928:

The account relates how S Donald had recently been released from the slammer. He then left his local hotel - without paying the bill. The suggestion is that he was attempting to board the train without buying a ticket. Papers in his bag indicated he was from Detroit, although the chief of detectives there said no-one there had heard of him. He had with him printed cards as a minister of the gospel according to the Quaker faith with more than one address. Local Quakers said he was not a minister of their faith and were (quote) “indignant” (Davenport Daily Times November 10, 1928). His age was judged to be about 65. No family or friends or details of his real identity were traced in time for his funeral on November 8. His death certificate, totally devoid of family details, gives his occupation as “minister.”

A search of genealogical records finds only one reference we can clearly tie into an S Donald Rogers of the right age in 1920. He is single, born around 1866, and is a “roomer” so staying in lodgings of some sort in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This gives his occupation as “author” and says was born in Canada.

So in summary, what can we say when comparing SDR and S Donald Rogers? Here are a few comparisons:

SDR called himself Reverend.

S Donald called himself Reverend.

SDR came from Michigan.

S Donald claimed to be from Michigan, either Vassar or Detroit.

SDR had a new way of preaching.

S Donald claimed to have a “new method” of preaching the gospel.

SDR was the top colporteur for CTR resulting in him being sent to Britain.

S Donald was a “shrewd book salesman.”

SDR wanted to make money.

S Donald certainly did.

SDR spent time in England in the 1890s.

S Donald claimed to have had his epiphany while in England in the mid-1890s.

SDR promoted ZWT theology.

S Donald’s proposed book focussed on 1874 as the start of the 7^th x 1000 year period of human history.

Put all that together and it just “feels” right that S Donald is our man. Until we have this 1928 record of his death of course, which throws it all out. Because a man born around 1847 would have been 80 in 1928.

Of course, it is always possible that the age for SDR when coming to England in the ship’s log is out by 15 years. Or that the coroner’s analysis of S Donald’s mangled corpse diagnosed a man of 80 as being around 65…  Yeah – sure. But certain phrases come to mind.  House of cards…  Don’t count your chickens…It’s not over until the fat lady sings… And yes – back to the drawing board.

Anyone out there like to take up the baton?

First published on https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/