Royal Historical Society

 

Are any of our readers members/fellows of the Royal Historical Society?

George Harold Lancaster, Sr.

 I need basic biography for G. H. Lancaster, vicar of St. Stephen's, Bow, London. I especially need birth and death dates, where he was educated, any printed sermons. I have his book on the war and prophecy. I do not need that.

Anyone?

Russia

 

Cedar Point

 Can you identify any of the people in this photo?

A Visit to the White House

Guest post by Gary.

 

A remarkable piece of Bible Student history, much forgotten about in later times, involved the visit of three members to the White House on late Friday afternoon, 11th January 1918, to receive audience with no lesser person than the 28th President of the United States himself, Woodrow Wilson. 

 

The decision to visit followed multiple attempts made over many months by Joseph Rutherford to bend the ear of various authorities so as to gain leniency for a number of Bible Students who had claimed exemption when they registered for the draft, but had then been treated harshly by both their draft boards and the various army war camps they had been sent to throughout the United States. Up until this time the Bible Students were just one of several religious groups who had been viewed with suspicion due to their unwillingness to fight. But though some religious opponents had already attempted to muddy the waters, The Finished Mystery had not become the focus of criticism by the authorities as would shortly be the case. 

 

Having tried every other reasonable attempt at diplomacy, and in the hope that this impasse could yet be broken, at the annual meeting of the IBSA held in Pittsburgh on 5 January 1918, a resolution was adopted defining the position of the Bible Students concerning combatant service in the war, asking that its members be given the privileges of Section 4 of the Selective Services Act. Perhaps in this we can see the start of the resolutions that were sent to various world leaders and became a feature of later conventions.

 

The resolution started with a conciliatory tone stating early that “we believe our position as a religious organization ... is not fully understood by various officers and representatives of the United States Government” and explained that it was the hope that it this might change. The first point of the resolution even called President Wilson “a great man who is using his power and influence conscientiously and according to his best judgement in the interests of the peoples of the world and particularly of the United States.” 

 

Had the resolution simply pleaded for those Bible Students incarcerated in army camps throughout the United States to have been shown reasonable consideration, as had largely been the case with the traditional peace churches, such as the Mennonites, Brethren and Quakers, the resolution might have been favourably received or, alternatively, easily dismissed. But in keeping with the tradition of the Old Testament prophets, opportunity was also taken to pass comment on the questionable alliance between the governments and prominent religious authorities of the day. Notably the fifth point stated:

 

With charity to all and malice toward none, we feel it our duty humbly to call attention to the fact that the nations are now passing through the great crisis foretold by the prophets of the Lord, and that God is now expressing his displeasure toward the relationship existing between ecclesiastical and civil kingdoms of the earth, particularly as set forth in the following cited Scriptures, to wit: Revelation, chapters 17 and 18; Ezekiel, chapter 34.

 

Rutherford delegated the responsibility to share the resolution to three capable and adept Bible Students: Dr Atwood Smith of Louisville, Kentucky, who acted as Chairman, Ernest Sexton, of Los Angeles, California, and Edward Brenneisen, of New York City.  The resolution was to be taken in person to President Wilson, and then to Secretary of War, Newton Baker, with access gained by appointment made via Joseph P. Tumulty, the President’s Secretary

 

  

President Wilson’s religious background and his diplomatic posture

 

Woodrow Wilson was a highly educated man and by religion a Presbyterian with a strong sense of purpose and vision.  He knew his Bible inside out, being one of only a few men who could have held his own in a discussion on scripture with the three Bible Students, had the conversation gone that way. But in interpretation he was poles apart from his earnest but persistent audience. Wilson had studied Social Gospel under Richard T. Ely at Johns Hopkins in the 1880s, and he represented the sensibility of the mainstream Protestant churches in his approach to reform.  Having a powerful sense of right and wrong, like so many Americans of the time, Wilson considered the development and survival of his country as little less than miraculous. If America did have a manifest destiny to follow, who better to chart its course and lead the world than the President himself?  Post millennial thought was central to Wilson’s crusade to make the world "safe for democracy" through the entry of the United States into the Great War. As premillennialists, Bible Students would not share Wilson’s vision of the Social Gospel, American nationalism and superiority, and, as Zoe Knox has noted, “appeared as opponents not only of the conflict but, ... of the optimism and belief that characterized America in times of both war and peace.” Yet even they recognised its rise in status as Biblically predicted and rejoiced since, as Pastor Russell had stated, they considered that “quite the majority of the New Creation live under the highest forms of civil government to be found in the world to-day, and appreciate this as a divine favor and blessing.”

 

Before we understand what took place that day we should first be aware of an event that had occurred some years earlier involving President Wilson, a large petition rather than a resolution, and a visit of a different minority group who sought Wilson’s assistance. 

 

Though seen as an enlightening place to welcome immigrants with the offer of liberty at the time, America was, of course, still very much a racially divided society. During his earlier years Wilson had seemingly offered to bridge differences between white and black Americans to gain popularity. But, in fact, like many Presidents before and after, his preferences remained strongly white. In one November afternoon during 1914 Wilson was visited by William Monroe Trotter, a black civil rights leader and Boston newspaper editor, who had previously received and been satisfied by vague assurances from Wilson of his wishes to help, but by now Trotter was no longer impressed by words only.  To force a showdown, Trotter defiantly pushed his cause to the point of no return by publicly challenging the President’s policy of segregation.  A heated exchange ensued when, shocked by Trotter’s persistent manner, the President reacted angrily by ordering him and his supporters out of the Oval Office. The resultant bad press earned Wilson no favours. 

 

Afterwards, in defending his actions Wilson acknowledged his error was, unfortunately, not that of racism, but that of public relations:

 

What I ought to have done would have been to (have) listened, restrained my resentment, and, when they had finished, to have said to them that, of course, their petition (would) receive consideration. They would then have withdrawn quietly and no more would have been heard about the matter.        

 

Cynical though it may seem, this diplomatic posture appears to have largely adopted by President Wilson when he received the IBSA delegation in early 1918.

 

 

A positive encounter?

 

An upbeat letter sent to Sister Abbott, hopeful of a positive outcome, appeared in the St. Paul Enterprize, an unofficial Bible Student newspaper, and also The Farmington Times, Missouri, explaining in some detail the nature of the conversation and written by Sexton, one of the three Bible Students delegates to visit.  

 

According to Sexton the three men were welcomed into the White House and cordially treated. The President listened attentively and expressed comments of concern regarding the conscientious objectors involved, implying that it hadn’t been the intention of the Selective Service Act to persecute genuine men holding religious scruples.  The President implied his intention to deal with the matter to alleviate their suffering. Encouraged by the time allowed and the President’s apparent concern the men did more than simply leave the long petition for him to read thereafter, they read it to him word by word.

 

Sexton waxed lyrical in his description of the President:

 

My personal impression of Mr. Wilson is, first of all, that he is a perfect gentleman and receives one with true courtesy.  His manner is quiet - in no way flurried or excited, and he would hardly impress one as having practically the weight of the world on his shoulders; in fact, he would rather give the impression that he had nothing else to do but receive us and thus kill a little time. Another thing very noticeable about this man of prominence is that he is far better looking than any picture would indicate. He has a very pleasant personality, and he is by no means the cold-blooded machine that many believe him to be.

 

The letter recorded that Wilson listened patiently while the resolution was read to him, seemingly noted every point made and, at the conclusion, asked if the IBSA conscientious objectors involved would be prepared to engage in work if a reconstructive nature, such as Red Cross work, or anything that was not decidedly of a war or war preparatory nature. In reply the committee explained that in every case this was an individual matter for each man to decide. Also, that though some might be prepared to do such they feared that in order to do so they would be expected to don the army uniform and take the oath of a soldier, which they would not do.  The committee explained that these young men were not cowards, but were prepared to suffer any indignity, even death itself, rather than to discard their religious scruples. At this point the President seemed too show much feeling, responding quickly that “we have no desire to heap indignities upon these men.”

 

Sexton commented that the President “intimated that the courts which had passed sentences upon the brethren had exceeded their authority, rather through ignorance than malice. He promised to give the matter his personal attention, taking a copy of the resolution and putting it with some other papers that were evidently marked due quick action.”

 

Gratified by the response the committee went over to the War Department since the President had arranged an interview with Secretary of War, Newton Baker. Baker also listened to the reading of the resolution and asked pertinent questions while reassuring the men that he and the President were of one mind concerning genuine conscientious objectors, but had difficulty in showing too much leniency in case many others might seek to evade military service who were not.

 

The report from Sexton concluded positively:

 

We have every reason to believe our visit is bearing fruit, and later developments will doubtless demonstrate this to be true. 

 

 

A more cautious approach, reading Revelation chapters 17 and 18 to the Secretary of War, a casual jest by President Wilson and the point of the chapters tragically missed

 

A more cautious approach was adopted by The Watch Tower of the time which reflected that “what effect this resolution may have we cannot of course know.” Rutherford had perhaps read a little too much into a previous casual governmental response which had seemed to imply recognition of the IBSA, and so no longer wanted to raise undue hopes based on vague governmental inferences.

 

A side light to the meeting has been provided in recent times by Mennonite historian Duane Stoltzfus.  In considering the Wilson papers, he records that Baker heard representations from a variety of religious objectors including “Mennonites, Brethren, Amish, and Hutterites, he heard from Seventh Day Adventists; Russellites, later known as Jehovah’s Witnesses; Molokans, members of a small Russian Christian pacifist sect living in the Southwest; and others. At one point Baker joked with the President, the son of a Presbyterian minister, about a religious group that felt compelled to read to him the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters of Revelation while making its case. Wilson, a Bible reader with his own sense of humor, replied that when he met with the group, there was no reading from Revelation - they figured that the president knew the passage by heart, he intimated, unlike his wayward secretary of war.”

 

Stoltzfus did not locate which religious group was the one in question. But we may hazard a reasonable guess by noting that point 5 of the IBSA resolution included reference to precisely the two chapters of Revelation that Baker mentioned.  Ironically, the amusing jest made by President Wilson may have caused the two men in authority to take too lightly the seriousness of the chapters concerned.

 

In fairness to President Wilson, to a limited degree it may be said he did respond favourably to the visit of the three IBSA men, and indeed to other religious groups who attempted to bend his ear at this time. In March the President belatedly gave a much-needed definition explaining what the term ‘non-combatant’ involved. Since the Selective Service Act had been enacted some 10 months earlier this had remained undefined and caused considerable and unnecessary confusion amongst conscientious objectors and the military authorities alike. It was to the President’s credit that this was now resolved, yet to his debit that he had dallied so long and, in so doing, caused untold suffering to so many. It was not just the COs rotting in army camps who had unnecessarily suffered.  Army officers throughout the US attempting to train men for their military offensive found the existence of COs at best an unneeded inconvenience, and at worst a dissenting and disquieting influence in Camp that they would have preferred to be without. It strapped their resources and pushed their patience to an extreme.

 

 

In the cold light of day

                                          

At the time, the visit of the IBSA committee appeared to be well received and offered hope for a positive outcome. In the cold light of day, however, the attempt achieved little success and was later seen as an abject failure. Indeed, The Golden Age later commented:

 

A committee bearing this resolution called upon President Wilson and personally read and presented it to him. Our troubles began shortly thereafter.

 

Sexton also likely viewed his earlier upbeat letter with embarrassment. By early July 1918 he was arrested in Portland, Oregon, as just one of twenty-six Bible Students charged with circulating copies of The Kingdom News as a protest against the Government’s suppression of The Finished Mystery. Consequently, he was alleged to be in violation of the Espionage Act by authorities who now took exception to the Bible Student message. 

 

 

Sources:

 

The New Creation,Studies in the Scriptures, volume 6, 1904, 594

 

The Watch Tower, 1 July 1917, [Reprints 6110]

 

The Watch Tower, 15 January 1918, [Reprints 6203]

 

The St. Paul Enterprize, 12 February 1918, 4

 

The Farmington Times, Missouri, 22 February 1918, 3

 

The Los Angeles Herald, 3 July 1918, 8

 

The Oregon Daily Journal, 3 July 1918, 3

 

The Express Tribune, Los Angeles, 6 October 1918

 

The Golden Age, 9 June 1920, 590

 

Secondary Sources:

 

Pacifists in Chains - the Persecution of Hutterites during the Great War, Duane Stoltzfus, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2013, 69-70

 

Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter, Kerri Greenidge, Liveright 2019

 

“A Greater Danger than a Division of the German Army”, Zoe Knox, Peace & Change, vol. 44, No.2, April 2019, 234

 

 

Postscript from Jerome:

 

For those who like to know these things, Edward Brenneisen stayed with the Watchtower Society and died as a Jehovah’s Witness in 1956.

Ernest Sexton left fellowship with the IBSA and died in 1932.

Dr Samuel Atwood Smith died in 1930. His religious history after the death of CTR is not known.

                                                                                                                              

You takes your choice...

If you have not already seen it, please look at the post "50th Wedding Anniversary" just below this one. 

     In the 1870s there were numerous small Bible classes loosely affiliated with various papers, some Age to Come, some different strands of Adventism. People obtained papers from all manner of sources, and when ZWT started publication it was initially just one more to add to the list. Eventually, people started to choose which direction they viewed as “the truth,” and the Bible Student movement, with its separate identity, came into being.

     However, many attending gatherings that became “Bible Student” meetings continued to still read widely, even if, as time went by, it may have been politic to keep quiet about it.

     In the first few decades of ZWT’s publication, alternative magazines were still being read by various Bible Students as well. This might help us understand certain subject matter in early ZWTs. On occasion CTR would be responding to the work of others which he knew his readers were receiving. The Tabernacle and its Teachings (later rewritten into Tabernacle Shadows) was originally written, at least in part, to combat the writings of Nelson Barbour.

The Herald of the Morning

     In the 1890s Nelson Barbour’s paper The Herald of the Morning was obviously still seen by a few. In the follow up to 1894’s Harvest Siftings (special issue of ZWT for April 25, 1894) defector S D Rogers was accused of visiting ZWT congregations with bad intent and in Rochester, NY, introducing the faithful to Nelson Barbour, described as a “bold and relentless enemy.” (See ZWT for June 11, 1894). There is no other record of this and Barbour’s paper for this era is not available, but taking the account at face value, three things can be noted.

     First, Rogers knew who Barbour was and where Barbour was, to go to him for support against CTR. Second, it was reported back to CTR that this had actually happened. Third, Barbour was still sufficently well-known to ZWT readers for CTR to mention the event as a warning. CTR’s comment would only have real meaning if Barbour was still on selected Bible Students’ radar.

     This is supported by what happened when a few Bible Students, including a Watch Tower Society director, Augustus Weimar, left fellowship and joined the Koreshan Unity in 1895. This was a strange group that among other things believed the earth was hollow and mankind lived inside it.

     In the September 1895 issue of the Koreshan magazine, The Flaming Sword, they used one of Barbour’s articles from November 1891 to attack CTR’s theology. It seems likely that the Koreshans got this from their new intake of ex-ZWT supporters. However, this means that at least one of those supporters was still reading Barbour’s Herald into the 1890s.

https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-watch-tower-and-koreshan-unity.html

 

The World’s Hope

     John Paton left fellowship with CTR around 1882 and started his own paper The World’s Hope, promoting Universalist views. Looking an extant copies of this paper, a number of well-known ZWT names were also readers. It was Paton who reported on the death of the first ZWT president, W H Conley, and obviously knew and was in contact with him. The account about Conley’s death in The World’s Hope for August 1, 1897 was supplied by W I Mann, who up to April 1892 had been a ZWT director.

     For the history of individuals, Paton’s magazine is valuable because in keeping with his views on universal salvation he tried to keep in touch with or at least report on everyone. The interest was not generally reciprocated. From an historical sense one it is a pity that his paper folded in August 1916.  A few more months and he would have no doubt reported on CTR’s life and death as he saw it.

https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2013/07/john-patons-farewell.html

 

The Spirit of the Word

     Another associate, Arthur P Adams, initially supported Barbour when the split came, but then started a small circulation paper in 1885 called The Spirit of the Word.

     Adams was a Methodist minister who met CTR in 1877 and became associated with both him and John Paton and Nelson Barbour. As a result of unrepentantly expounding Age to Come views he was expelled from the Methodist ministry in 1878. CTR chose to mention Adams in the first version of Harvest Siftings published in 1890.

     It was after this, while on a tour of the New England States, that I met Mr. A. P. Adams, then a young Methodist minister, who became deeply interested and accepted the message heartily during the week that I preached to his congregation. Subsequently, I introduced him to little gatherings of interested ones in neighboring towns, and assisted otherwise, as I could, rejoicing in another one who, with study, would soon be a co-laborer in the harvest field.

     It wasn’t to last. Later in the reprinted Harvest Siftings (1894):

     Mr. Adams espoused the views of Mr. Barbour and likewise forsook the doctrine of the ransom. And, true to our interpretation of the parable of the wedding garment as given at the time, Mr. Barbour and Mr. Adams, having cast off the wedding garment of Christ's righteousness, went out of the light into the outer darkness of the world on the subjects once so clearly seen.

     CTR obviosuly felt it necessary to mention Adams because some ZWT readers would also know of his ministry. One example of this was Ophelia Burroughs. Ophelia wrote letters to ZWT, organized a Dawn Circle in the absence of suitable males to step up to the mark, and wrote hymns and poems which the Society published throughout the 1890s and into the 1900s. It can be confusing because she wrote under several names, including Browning (her maiden name) and Burroughs (the name of her first husband).

     But Ophelia knew Adams. Very well. In April 1905 she went as far as marrying him!

https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2015/01/ophelia.html

50th Wedding Anniversary

 

The One That Got Away

Please read post “Update to the Update” below this one.

    Below is a “new” photograph of the Allegheny Bible House family from 1907.

     This article is captioned “The one that got away” because this photograph was not included in the book The Bible House that was published back in the autumn.

     To read or re-read a review of that book, please check this older blog post.

     https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2020/11/a-review.html

     The new photograph has only come to light since the book’s publication and will now be included in future editions.

     There is a famous photograph of the workers at Bible House, in the street outside the entrance, which dates from 1907. This interior shot was taken around the same time because it includes most of the same people. Missing from the photograph are CTR, his sister Margaret Land and also J A Bohnet. The photograph includes Francis Winter who died on 11 January 1908. This helps to narrow down the time the picture was taken.

     It was taken in the Bible House parlor. Below is a colorized photograph of the parlor.

     Below again is the newly discovered group photograph in the parlor, now colorized and with the names of the people, where known, added below. (You may have to click on the photograph to enlarge it to see all the  details).

     With grateful thanks to Bernhard who supplied all the photographs and information for this article.

Update to the Update

 Issues with my health are slowly being resolved. Some time this month I will be in Spokane for a procedure they cannot do here. This is diagnostic. I do not know why my Doctor wants this additional procedure, but insurance covers it, and if it gives him more confidence so much the better.

The surgery is laparoscopic. It takes about 45 minutes if there are no complications. The cancer is localized and has not spread. Recovery time varies, but I should be able to return to my part-time job in a week or so. There is a - what they think is benign tumor on my right kidney. They may remove that at the same time. That's also a laparoscopic procedure. Growing old is not for sissies, someone once said. I agree. 

I'm taking a break from intensive research to focus on doctor visits and pills and easier writing projects. Thanks to everyone who expressed sympathy. 

I have a second surgery over another issue. That's in July. It is same day surgery with a very limited recovery time. 

Submissions to this blog are open. Same standards as always. Anyone have a well researched article about the Russell v. Russell trials? How about the 1912 world missionary tour? Anyone?

One hundred years ago...

 Please read post "Update" below this one.

Images in this post from Tom, with grateful thanks.

Update

 

Hi everyone,

Please help me keep this blog alive through your contributions. I was diagnosed with cancer today. No decision on treatment yet. But I will not be able to devote much time to writing, research or this blog for some little while.

The Watch Tower and the Koreshan Unity

(With grateful thanks to Bernhard who originally provided key information for this article and Lyn Millner of the Florida Gulf Coast University for the leads on Koreshanity and Pittsburgh in her entertaining book: The Allure of Immortality – An American Cult, a Florida Swamp, and a Renegade Prophet. Expanded from an article published elsewhere, with permission.)

 

            During the times of CTR’s ministry and the founding of the Watch Tower Society there were individuals once in association who then left for pastures new. The reasons were many. Some, like John Paton took the “ransom for all” doctrine to an extra level and became a Universalist. Some had personal issues as discussed in A Conspiracy Exposed (1894). There was a split with Ernest Henninges in Australia 1909 (see Yearbook 1983).

            In nearly all cases, while a modern reader may not agree with what they did, they can at least understand what happened. But the oddest defections occurred in a little known scenario from the latter half of the 1890s – the move of three men, James Augustus Weimar, Ulysses Grant Morrow and Henry Nicholas Rahn to join a fairly new religious movement called The Koreshan Unity.

            The Koreshan Unity was founded by Cyrus Reed Teed (1839-1908). Teed studied medicine and practiced what today would be viewed as fringe therapies including alchemy and medical electricity. An encounter with electricity in 1869 rendered him unconscious and when he came around he believed he’d had a vision telling him he was the Messiah. He now had a mission to redeem mankind through his scientific knowledge. As part of his new calling he changed his name to the Hebrew version of Cyrus, namely Koresh. (Around a hundred years later another prophet called Vernon Howell would rebrand himself as one David Koresh and die at Waco). The original Koresh, Cyrus Teed, promoted a unique theology that included reincarnation, celebacy for certain levels of hierarchy and a version of communism. Perhaps his most unusual teaching was that the earth is hollow and humans live inside it with the sun like a giant battery in the middle. (One wonders if Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of the Tarzan books, got his idea for his Pellucidar series from reading Koresh.)

            The new movement with its Messiah formed several small communes that eventually came together as a collective version of New Jerusalem in the Florida town of Estero around 1894. At its peak the community had around 250 inhabitants, and was well organized and self-sufficient. They published a magazine called The Flaming Sword. They also got involved in local politics with their own political party, although not very successfully.

 

Teed aka Koresh died in 1908, as a possible result of injuries sustained in a 1906 fight between his commune and outsiders. Having claimed he would be raised to heaven, his followers kept vigil over his body until the public health people stepped in and insisted on burial. His tomb was then destroyed in a hurricane in 1921 and his coffin, a zinc bath, washed out to sea and lost. A few fragments of Teed were found in a search of the beach, which were stored in the Estero Post Office - which then burned down in 1938. Words like bizarre come to mind.

            After Teed’s death, the Koreshan Unity slowly declined. Their magazine ran until 1949, when a fire at their printing works ended production. The last official member of the commune died in 1981. The historical remains of the venture are now a State Park.

            Quite how any Watch Tower adherents became involved is not known, nor can we be sure who was first and who followed. But they included a Society director and also someone mentioned in fairly recent Watchtower literature.

            The key year was 1895. Teed/Koresh increasingly entered the consciousness of Pittsburgh residents in the newspapers of that year. The Pittsburgh Press for 14 March 1895 carried a satirical cartoon (not attempting a likeness) and poked fun at Koreshan belief.

The next month, Teed/Koresh visited the area in person and a local group of supporters was formed. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for 23 April 1895:

            Teed’s spokesman on this occasion was a Mr. Morrow (to whom we will return later). The New Jerusalem in Estero was described and Morrow explained Koreshan theology for the reporter, including that “none but celebates could become part of the elect sons of God.” Unsurprisingly the reporter sounded out Mrs. Morrow. When interviewed, she confessed she “hoped in time to become perfect enough to live a celebate life.”

            There was no mention of CTR and the Bible Students at this stage, but that was soon to change. Teed was back in town in June. The Pittsburgh Daily Post for 17 June 1895 reviewed his speech at the Pittsburgh Opera House the night before, attended by about 500. It was on the front page of the paper and Morrow was again much in evidence. The newspaper byline dismissed this as “rather a small crowd,” but commended Teed’s skill:

            “Dr Teed is rather an impressive platform orator, He possesses a vigorous form, a strong, expressive face, and a deep, powerful voice, all of which help wonderfully in the control of an audience.”

            Within just a few weeks the issue between the teachings of Koresh and Zion’s Watch Tower became very public. The Chicago Daily News for August 12, 1895, had a special report from a correspondent in Pittsburgh, dated August 11, 1895. (Teed was still based in Chicago at this point). In the best yellow journalism style, it carried the heading: “Ready to Talk Two Hours or Weeks – Long-winded debates by the Rival Messiahs of Pittsburgh.”

            The text read:

            “Pittsburgh, Pa., Aug. 11. (Special) – A war has broken out between rival Messiahs. Dr. Cyrus R. Teed of Chicago, the renowned Koresh, and C.T. Russell, leader of the Russellites of Allegheny City, cannot agree, and the charges and countercharges that are made range all the way from points on religion and science to accusations of indecent conduct.

            Teed’s Florida colonization scheme looks like a winner and the Russellites have been flocking to the banner of Koresh in such numbers as to alarm their former chief. He issued a circular the other day that brought Teed here today. Koresh made reply in the shape of a challenge to Russell to debate the whole question of Messiahism. He is willing to make it a debate of two hours or two weeks.”

           No debate as such ever happened, but the story was picked up in detail by the Pittsburgh Press for August 14, 1895.

            CTR provided a lengthy written statement for newspaper, which, apart from some theological arguments, they appear to have printed in full. Much of it features the first of our three defectors, Augustus Weimar, which the paper calls the Rev. Mr. Weimar.

            Before considering the newspaper account, first, a little background for James August Weimar (1855-1919).

James August Weimar’s photograph from “The Mysteries and Revelation”

            Weimar came from Germany to the States and became interested in the Watch Tower message in 1888. He was a minister of the German Baptist congregation in Meriden, Connecticut at the time. By 1889 he was a Watch Tower evangelist mentioned in the pages of Zion’s Watch Tower. He continued to be mentioned in connection with his support for CTR’s work up until 1895. During 1895 he was a director of the Watch Tower Society, replacing J B Adamson on January 5, 1895, and being replaced by E C Henninges on January 4, 1896.

            At some point in 1895 Weimar found his new spiritual home with the Koreshan Unity. The Flaming Sword published an attack on CTR and Millennial Dawn in its July 1895 issue. It started on the front page and ran to three pages in total. It attacked his position on the ransom as a “corresponding price” and dismissed his theology as “modern Christianity gone to seed.” This attack was followed by a reprint of a Nelson Barbour article from Herald of the Morning for November 1891 in The Flaming Sword for September 1895, which sneered at CTR’s ransom theology as that of a “commercial man” and “commercial gentleman.” As noted above, there was already a branch of the Koreshan faith meeting regularly in Allegheny.

            It came to a head with what Weimar called AN ALL-DAY CONFERENCE with CTR. We don’t know exactly when it happened, but writing as “Augustus” Weimar reported on it in The Flaming Star for April 1896. He called it “A dispute I had with the compiler of Millennial Dawn, concerning Koresh (whom I believe to be the true Messiah of this age) and his literature.” Weimar insisted that Koresh had wonderful widsom and understanding, and could understand ancient languages fully, better than any recognized lexicographer, even though he’d never had any lessons… He went on to insist that Koresh understood all the prophecies of Old and New Testaments, and (quote) “that to him all the mysteries of the physical and the anthropostic microcosm were open secrets.” The interview did not end well. According to Weimar, CTR said “THAT IS OF THE DEVIL” and Weimar said “Goodbye Mr Russell” and left.

            More detail of the split is found in the aforementioned Pittsburgh Press for August 14, 1895. CTR’s letter to the newspaper gave the following details as he saw them:

            “It is true that J.A. Weimer has been working in the office of “Zion’s Watch Tower” as a compositor for some years, working piecework, at 40 cents per M., and averaging about $14 per week, and I learn that it is true that Mr. Teed has offered him $18 per week of 36 hours.

            “It is true, also, that I had a far better opinion of his education, his reasoning facilities and his heart than to suppose that he would have the slightest interest in the vagaries and absurdities of Koreshanity.

            “It is true, also, that for some time Mr. Weimer has been holding some meetings in some nearby towns along lines which I believe to be biblical. But it is not true that he was either appointed or paid for such service. His car-fare only was supplied from a volunteer fund to which he with others contributed.

            “From this it will be seen that “The Post” was misinformed by the Koreshans when told that I had given Mr. Weimer the “option” of ceasing his investigation into Koreshanity or “leaving the service in which he was employed as a speaker for several out-of-town congregations,” for his was neither paid nor employed, and was in no sense in my service, but voluntarily in the Lord’s service. Nor has there been one unkind word between us, nor one word with reference to his job as a compositor. He, however, settled that by failing to report for work on Monday.

Weimar Saw the Letter

            “As for the ‘printed matter attacking Teed most bitterly;’ about which Teed wanted his people ‘not to be angry’ if they were ‘persecuted,’ it was a ‘typewritten letter, a copy of which was handed to Mr. Weimar more than a week before it was sent, that he might know exactly what we counseled the friends to do respecting his preaching; and I requested Mr. Weimar to indicate any items not considered true, or for any reason objectionable to him.

            “In this letter I assume no control over Teed, Weimar or the gatherings of God’s people. The most offered is reasonable advice, and that in kind and courteous language.

            “It is reported that I declined to discuss differences with Mr. Teed, but this is not the case; for I have never been ‘approached’ on the subject. I surmise, however, that no good could be accomplished for Teed, nor for any as blinded as to consider him greater than Christ. But should it ever become evident to me that any of the Lord’s true sheep need help, I shall not hesitate to show up the hollowness of the blasphemous claims of Koreshanity….

            “…These blasphemous claims are all the proofs that I need that the entire theory is of the devil. I care not for the legerdemain of sophistry by which they were entrapped, and by which they claim to prove God’s word a lie. It is sufficient to me that this is the faith and teachings of Koreshans, who receive it from Koresh, whom they call “The Master,” and before whom they bow…”

            “On the one hand we have all the exceeding great and precious promises of God’s word and our Christian experiences and growth in grace and knowledge for many years, and our realization of our Lord’s presence, and feasting with Him upon the things old and new which He has furnished to His household during the past years of His presence. On the other hand, we have the bombastic claims of a poor fellow being of certainly no more than average ability, who has claimed to be able to make gold for £3 per ton, but who has done nothing but twist a few passages of scripture fulfilled twenty-four hundred years ago by King Cyrus the Mede, whose decree let Israel go free from Babylon, so as to make himself ‘somebody,’ and to practically deny or make void all the remainder of God’s word.

            “I learned of Brother Weimar’s interest in Koreshanity and of his affiliation with its advocates at their homes. Brother Weimar was present; but declares that he is not committed to Koreshanity, but says he is trying it, investigating it, proving it. I showed him in most kindly manner and word some of the absurdities of such a view, and that there was nothing to prove or weigh. It seems to me, and I believe it will seem to some of you all, and to Brother Weimar, when you consider it, that he is at present in no condition to teach others respecting matters of which he is himself in doubt – not yet decided. I advise, therefore, that any appointments already out for Brother Weimar be filled by someone else, and that for the present you excuse Brother Weimar. If desired, I will endeavor to send you someone else for any meetings already appointed or for others.”

            The break between CTR and Weimar was final, and the latter’s connection with Koreshanity would not be just as an observer.

            When Teed died in 1908 it was Weimar who led a vigil over the corpse for several days. He was now viewed as Teed’s doctor, although his speciality was in the fairly new-fangled and unconventional field of osteopathy.

            He stayed a Koreshan believer for the rest of his life. As the three pictures below from 1914 show, Weimar became part of The Flaming Sword editorial committee and also translator of their works into German.

            If I have deciphered the theology correctly, one of their beliefs was that hell was sort of something inside a person. This allowed for a swipe at Pastor Russell. From the same 1914 volume:

            There is no author given for the article in question. However, an article carrying Weimar’s name in this same volume shows that he was one of the inner circle who practiced celibacy. It should be noted that Weimar’s wife divorced him way back in 1898, citing his membership as a reason.  

            At some point he published a book entitled The Divine and Biblical Credentials of Dr. Cyrus R. Teed (Koresh). It was republished as recently as 1971 as Koreshanity, the New Age Religion. Weimer died in 1919 and was buried in the Koreshan Unity Cemetery in Estero, Florida.

            The second name with Watch Tower connections is Ulysses Grant Morrow (1864-1950). In the above reproduction from a 1914 Flaming Sword magazine, we can see that Dr. J. A. Weimar translated into German a publication from the English by a Prof. Morrow.

            Ulysses Grant Morrow was born in Kentucky in 1864, and like many others was named after the Civil War General, then a hero on the Union side. He married and had two children. He moved to Iowa where he published and taught his own stenography system. Then at some point he relocated to Allegheny.

Ulsusses Grant Morrow’s photograph as used in Find a Grave

            For the clue that links Morrow to Zion’s Watch Tower, we must travel forward to March 1936 when The Flaming Sword attacked him and accused him of plagiarism. The Koreshan Unity and Morrow had parted company many years before. But the article in passing takes us back to 1895. The writer (one Allen Andrews) states: “I have known Ulysses G. Morrow for more than 40 years and for a considerable period was a co-worker with him…Away back in 1895 Ulysses G. Morrow (then a member of the C.T. Russell sect) was living in Allegheny, Pa.”

            There is one mention of a Brother Morrow in the pages of Zion’s Watch Tower, in the issue for November 1891. CTR had been away on a trip to Britain and on his return to Allegheny he wrote: “Brother Bryan and Morrow, a delegation of welcome, met us at the depot.” On getting to the actual Bible House, there was a service of welcome conducted by Brother Weimar and Sister Ball read a poem. Brother Bryan would be Elmer Bryan, soon to leave in the 1894 disagreements. Sister Ball would be Rose Ball, later Ross Ball Henninges. Brother Weimar we have already met, and it is probable that Brother Morrow was Ulysses G.

            The 1936 attack on Morrow mentioned he was associated with CTR back in 1895, but if so, he obviously had a foot in two camps. In The Flaming Sword for May 1895, Morrow wrote a letter stating he had a file of their magazines going back to 1892, and addressed his letter to: KORESH, THE MESSENGER OF THE COVENANT – DEAR MASTER AND SHEPHERD. The letter stated his conversion to “hollow earth” belief (from a previous “flat earth” belief) and announced that his own magazine would henceforth promote the Koreshan system.

            So there in Allegheny, right under the nose of The Bible House, Morrow went to work. As noted above he appears to have been the spokesman for Teed in his April 1895 visit, and regular meetings at Morrow’s Allegheny home for the “Branch Assembly of the Arch-Triumphant” were announced in The Flaming Sword from July 1895 onward. He also produced a new paper called Salvator – Scientist which started in September that year.

 

            Morrow did not stay in Allegheny long. He soon relocated to the newly formed Koreshan commune in Estero. He took over editorial duties for The Flaming Sword which swallowed up the Salvator – Scientist. He also invented a special piece of equipment called a Rectilineator that could be used in a straight line on a beach to establish the curve of the earth. In 1897 at Naples Beach, not far from the Estero commune, they conducted an experiment which convinced them even more that the earth’s curve was concave, not convex – so yes, mankind really was inside a hollow earth with the sun as a giant battery in the center. It was blindingly obvious.

            Morrow lived until 1950 and his son lived on until 1988. One wonders how they coped with “hollow earth” belief as the years went by, especially into the era of rockets and space travel.

            The third member of our trinity of Watch Tower defectors was Henry Nicholas Rahn (1858-1933) who has actually been mentioned by name in recent Watchtower literature.

Henry Nicholas Rahn’s photograph from Koreshan archives

            Henry Rahn and Augustus Weimar obviously had connections. Weimar came from Germany, and was previously a Baptist and at one point was reported to have lived in Baltimore, Maryland. Rahn also came from Germany, and had been a Baptist pastor, and also lived in Baltimore. Both certainly knew each other. Baltimore Baptists and then Bible Students at the same time, they both then became Koreshan Unity supporters at around the same time. They both stayed with the new movement for the rest of their lives.

Rahn was a married man with at least six children. His oldest son was Claude who will enter our story shortly. In the 1880 and 1900 census returns Henry’s occupation was as a clerk.

            The modern reference to Rahn in Watchtower literature is found in the book God’s Kingdom Rules (published 2014) on page 174, in paragraph 13. Rahn is credited with the suggestion used for group meetings that CTR endorsed. The relevant passage reads:  “In the mid-1890’s, after a number of volumes of Millennial Dawn had been released, Brother H. N. Rahn, a Bible Student living in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A., suggested holding “Dawn Circles” for Bible study.”

            The original reference comes from the September 15, 1895 ZWT. It is part of an article by CTR recommending how to conduct meetings, and states that Rahn’s suggestion for Dawn Circles dated back to earlier in the decade. The reference reads: “Such meetings for the study of the Word in the light of the now revealed plan of the ages have been termed Dawn Circles. The plan originated with Brother Rahn, of Baltimore, several years ago, and he and the other members of the class report much profit therefrom.”

            Rahn’s name had already occurred several times in the ZWT’s pages by the time of the Sepember 1895 quote. He probably became interested in the Bible Student message in the late 1880s, around the same time as Augustus Weimar. His name occurs in ZWT for May 1892, April 15, 1893, June 11, 1894, and March 15, 1895. Finally, there is the aforementioned September 15, 1895 reference. However, immediately thereafter Rahn disappeared from Watch Tower history. In that year, 1895, he left association with the Bible Students and spent the rest of his life as an advocate of the Koreshan Unity.

            Henry Rahn died in 1933 and his obituary was published in The Flaming Sword for August 1933, page 13: "The sad news has been received from Baltimore of the death, after a long illness, of Mr. Henry N. Rahn, father of Brothers Claude and Frank Rahn, in his seventy-fifth year. Mr. Rahn was a staunch Koreshan and earnestly endeavored to further the Cause in his native city of Baltimore since accepting Koreshanity in 1895. Meetings were frequently held at his house to discuss the doctrine; and whenever KORESH visited Baltimore he was a welcome guest at the hospitable home of Mr. and Mrs. Rahn. Mr. Rahn is survived by his wife, five sons and a daughter."

            Rahn’s defection from Watch Tower therefore occurred in the same year he was credited by CTR for suggesting Dawn Circles. Rahn was to remain close to Koresh. On June 21^st 1899, he received the book The Cellular Cosmogony from him. Cyrus R Teed wrote a dedication inside it, to: “H N Rahn, Pastor of the Church Triumphant in Baltimore,” a name used for local meetings there. Teed identified himself as the “Founder of the Koreshan Unity” and considerately added a new alternative date, A.K. 60 – Anno Koresh. He was sixty years old at the time.

 

            We have mentioned above that Teed was seriously injured in a street fight in 1906 between his supporters and local townspeople. Teed was actually at the depot to meet a train from Baltimore that was bringing some of the Rahn family to visit. Both Henry and son Claude were part of the ensuing fracas. Teed was pistol whipped by a town marshall and Claude got himself arrested.

            Although Henry Rahn lived most of his life in Baltimore, son Claude was to live at the Estero commune for some years and wrote a biography of Teed/Koresh. He was also briefly the Vice President of the dwindling Koreshan association. He lived until 1973. Like Morrow’s son, you wonder how he coped with the advancing knowledge of the space age.

            The above then is a story of three men who ceased working with CTR and the Watch Tower and made what appear to be off the wall choices of religious direction. All in all, when examining this history, you get the impression that CTR may have breathed a big sigh of relief when they parted company with the Watch Tower Society.