Mena Films

From: The Day Book, Volume 6, Number 122, 20 February 1917 — Page 12

Philip Siderksy

 I want to use his photo in the last chapter of Separate Identity vol 3. But this is the best I can find. Can you make it better?

The character of one of Russell's opposers

 The New York Journal, January 30, 1899 - Spelling and punctuation as in original. 

L FOR HIS MISSION FRAUD

Sidersky Represented the Group as His Own Band of Proteges.

=PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILDREN.=

Scheming Proselyter Exposed by a Man Who Recognized His Own Little Ones.

ADOLPH BENJAMIN, who was chiefly instrumental in securing evidence against Herman Warszawiak, declares he has unearthed an “outrageous” scheme for swindling persons interested in the advancement of Christianity.

A man calling himself the “Rev.” Philip Sidersky exploited himself as a missionary to the Jews and director of an educational institution at Rosenheim N. J., near which place the Baron Hirsch colonies are situated. Mr. Benjamin spent several days in investigating this “school.”

His attention was first attracted to the institution when he visited the office of the Christian Herald, in this city, early last week. The editor had ready for publication a long article on the benevolent movement in Southern New Jersey, and with it was a photograph showing a large group of children, some two score in number, and described as “Proteges of the Emanuel Home Mission.”

Benjamin had never heard of the school, though he is acquainted with most of the institutions of that character, both in this country and in England; but Sidersky he recognized as a disciple of Warszawiak, whom he had assisted to depose.

the photographs and started on a trip of investigation to Rosenhayn. He reached there on Tuesday afternoon, and went to the house of a friend of his named Philipowltz, proprietor of a clothing manufactory in that place.

The Deception Exposed.

In the course of the evening he disclosed his mission to his friend, and showed him the photographs. The sight of it produced astonishment in his host, who recognized at once a picture of a group of the children of the public school, taken early last October. In the group he pointed out three of his own children.

Benjamin, after that, lost no time in going to the address of Sidersky, and found that he lodged with a villager named Meyer Cohen. On the outer wall of the house was a sign, describing it as the Emanuel Home Hebrew Mission.

Requesting to see some of the scholars he was informed by the landlord that there had never been any, and that the “missionary” simply hired one room in the house at the nominal rent of $2 monthly. The lodger himself spent not more than three days a week in the room he had. Cohen appeared rather vague in his conception of what the sign on the house really meant.

Could Not Find Sidersky.

Mr. Cohen then visited Captain Kilborn, one of the trustees of the public school,

showed him the photograph and explained the purpose for which he had come. Kilborn, he says, declared that Sidersky had long been under suspicion, but no proof had ever been secured against him. Mr. Benjamin, after his conversation with Kilborn, remained two days longer in Rosenhayn to confront the alleged “missionary” with what he considered proof positive of his moral turpitude, but was unable to find him.

He learned incidentally that a certain Gustavus Cohen had been working in sympathy with Sidersky and advocating his pretended movement for the education of Jewish children in the Christian faith.

His Confidence Misplaced.

So he sat down and wrote to the editor of the Christian Herald the following letter:

1523 Fairmount avenue

Philadelphia Jan. 26, 1899.

Editor of the Christian Herald:

Dear Sir –

I am glad that you have sent Mr. Benjamin to inspect and investigate the mission and work at Rosanhayn. He has done it effectively and I have no doubt of great benefit to me. It will save me being mixed up with a scheme which might have injured my reputation and the position I hold in England besides hindering my work in this country

Mr. Benjamin has carefully and judiciously gone into the question of Jewish missions and missionaries, and I am quite satisfied from his statements, proofs and vast experience that they are conducted in a way not creditable.

I am also pleased with the spirit and disposition Mr. Benjamin displayed in our discussion, although opposed to each other in Christian belief or Jewish thought. I can only say had we more men like him we would have less frauds committed with Jewish or any other missions.

Yours faithfully

Gustavus Cohen

Among other ways of exploiting his scheme, “Missionary” Sidersky had used the press to great effect.

The following is clipped from the Philadelphia Record of Saturday, January 21, and is the false account of a lecture supposed to have been delivered by Cohen, then working with him.

The article is dated Rosenhayn, January 20, and says in part:

Provide a reading room where young Hebrews can congregate and be under influences and surroundings calculated to elevate, instruct and eventually lead them to the light of the Master. For that purpose a mission has been commenced at Rosenhayn, among the Hewbrew colonists who came from Russia, Poland and other parts and were helped by the late Baron Hirsch to till the land and become farmers.

 

Here the newcomer has every facility to improve his mind; here he can study how to become a useful American citizen and get an honest living by industry and perseverance. Here he can form a class for the study of different subjects to qualify and improve his daily calling. He can, after a day’s work, spend a pleasant evening, indulge in healthy recreation, innocent games and feel that there is a wider, a brighter and better world in America, his new home, than in the country he left.

 Profit in the “School.”

Before this, on December 12. 1898, Sldesky had used the Philadelphia Inquirer to the extent of three-quarters of a column in praise of his “mission work.”

“I cannot tell how much money this Sidersky has collected by his fraudulent practices,” said Benjamin yesterday, “but I have reason to believe that it is a good round sum.

“I understand that he has been at this 'mission school' scheme and working it to a largo extent ever since last September at least.

“I made it my business to expose the dealings of the missionary Warszawiak, whose disciple this man is. I shall lose no effort in laying the machinations of all hypocrites open to the public whom they seek to defraud with their lies and false pretence of benevolence.

“I shall lose no effort in laying the machinations of all hypocrites open to the public whom they seek to defraud with their lies and false pretense of benevolence.

“The harm they work is especially great because it discourages the charity of persons who are ready to give to benevolent schemes out of the goodness of their hearts. I shyall leave no stone unturned in bringing all such frauds to light and destroying their power for evil in the future.”

Maria Russell

I hope everyone is well and prospering. 

I have an urgent need for a sample of M. F. Russell's handwriting other than the unpublished manuscript that is sometimes circulated. A letter or card signed by her would be ideal. 

Can you help?

For another project

 I need translations of these two items. Can you help?

I need all issues of this magazine.

 This issue is at Harvard Divinity School Library. I do not have access, and attempts to secure a scan have so far been fruitless. Can you help?

A Mystery

 Can you solve it? How did this get to Jerusalem in 1881?

IBSA Talk Invitations

 I have no real details. These are post-card format. The originals are on ebay for a huge amount of money. If you can add information, please do so.

Daniel W. Hull

 Hull was a Spiritualist who claimed MD and MH degrees. He practiced what is now considered quack medicine. He was a resident of Washington State, occasionally wrote political commentary.

He wrote Letters to Elder Russell, later retitled as A Review of Elder Russell on Spiritism. 

I need a basic biography. More than basic, I need as much information as can be found. Can you help?

Further update

This is what I have now; can you add to it?

Daniel Webster Hull

            Daniel Hull was born in Delaware County, Ohio, on April 16, 1833, to James B. Hull, a physcian, and Mary Brundage. He died August 30, 1915, of prostate complications.[1] Little is known of his early life. His brother Moses recalled the family’s move to The Western Reserve in Indiana in 1839. This was true frontier in the 1830s: “Among my early recollections is that of hearing the wolves howl around my father’s cabin door. There were times when we even had to br4ing our dogs into the house to keep them from being torn to pieces by the wolves.” Their life consisted of “grubbing, chopping and hoeing” with a very limited amount of schooling.[2]

            Census records note that Daniel and his wife Mary S. [maiden name unknown – still researching this marriage] lived in New York State for a period and at least briefly in Pennsylvania. The New York State census for 1892 lists him as a salesman and notes three children, two boys and a girl.[3] Hull was a Civil War veteran, serving as a private. At this writing it is impossible to identify his regiment. There are two Daniel W. Hulls, each drawing a pension for Civil War service. An obituary tells us that he “engaged in the newspaper business in Indiana and Kansas.”[4] Hull and his second wife moved to Olympia, Washington, in 1903.

            Finding a record of his conversion to Spiritualism has been a fruitless quest, but we find him attending a Spiritualist convention in 1871, and he published a seventy-five page pamphlet that year.[5] Entitled Christianity: Its Origin, Nature and Tendency, its “object” was “to prove the pagan origin of Christianity; to do away with the Atonement, and show that heaven is a condition, not a place.” The review from which this is taken added, “the author supports the views of modern Spiritualists.”[6] Though rejecting Christianity as a derivative of pagan thought, he was not averse to using scripture to make a point.[7]

            It is likely that he was converted through contact with his brother, Moses Hall, who abandoned the Seventh-day Adventist ministry for Spiritualism in 1863. Unlike James Padgett who was a charlatan, both Daniel and Moses Hull were honest, serious believers. Hull wrote in response to Russell’s What Say the Scriptures About Spiritualism? Proofs that it is Demonism. Also, Who are the Spirits in Prison, and Why are They There?[8] 

Explaining his purpose in writing, Russell wrote that he though it necessary because of an increasing appeal of Spiritualism. It was, he wrote: “meeting with considerable success ... entrapping Christians who are ... dissatisfied ... and craving spiritual food and a better foundation for faith.” His aim was “to show the unscripturalness of Spiritism, and to point those who hunger and thirst for truth in the direction of God's Word – the counsel of the Most High.”

---

[1]               Washington State Board of Health Death Certificate number 155, file number 8268, registered number 88, dated September 1, 1915. His parents’ names as found in the 1910 United States Census records for Thurston County, Washington State are Marvin and Helen Hull. A family history, which I believe is more accurate, gives the names noted above. – See C. H. Weygant: The Hull family in America, page 100.

[2]               M. Hull and W. F. Jamieson: The Greatest Debate Within a Half Century on Modern Spiritualism, Progressive Thinker Publishing House, Chicago, 1904, page 4.

[3]               1892 New York Census returns for Groton, Tompkins County, New York. The children were Adelbert, 17 years; Harry, 15 years, Mary, 12 years.

[4]               Dr. D. W. Hull, The Olympia, Washington, Washington Standard, September 3, 1915.

[5]               Henry T. Child, M. D.: “American Association. Official Report of the Eighth National Convention of the American Association of Spiritualists; Held at Troy, N. Y., September 12th, 13th, and 14th, 1871,” Religio-Philosophical Journal (Chicago), September 30, 1871.

[6]               Literary Notices, The Phrenological Journal, July 1871, page 73.

[7]            B. J. Folger: “A Great Mass of Incompetent Men”: Contested Medical Frontiers in Oklahoma: 1880-1940, Master’s Thesis, University of Oklahoma, 2022, page 33.

[8]               First published as Old Theology Quarterly No. 39 (October 1897), it also bore the alternative title What Say the Scriptures about Spiritism?

The Strong Man and the Watch Tower

 

Guest post by Bernhard

Edited by Jerome

     Henry Clay Hatch was one of the most prominent Bible Students of Russell's day. He was an elder, pastor, colporteur, pilgrim, convention speaker, member of the Bethel family, Vice-President and Director of the Society, and also a member of the editorial committee. However, few if any know him by this name.

     Henry was born to Irwin James Hatch (born December 20, 1845) and Henrietta G. Pegan. Irwin and Henrietta married on August 11, 1871 and on May 22, 1874 Henry Clay was born in Dowagiac, Michigan. He had one brother Glen. Later his parents were divorced. His mother married again. On July 10, 1888 she married Ira Cradit Rockwell and Henry Clay took on his step-fathers' surname. Sadly Henrietta died in December 31, 1888. Henry Clay stayed with his stepfather as Henry Clay Rockwell

     In his youth, Henry Clay began to engage in physical training. Over time he became a famous athlete, strongman or body builder. He continued to train even after he became a Bible Student, and at the age of 44 (in 1917) he said he could still outclass ninety out of every hundred youngsters of twenty in strength and activity.

     It is unclear when exactly Rockwell became a Bible Student, but it was around 1900, because in 1903/04 he lived in the Bible House, 612 Arch Street, Pittsburgh, and was a member of the Bible House family. After his time in the Bible House Rockwell went into the Pilgrim work in April 1904. The first classes he visited were Buena Vista and Washington in Pennsylvania. At the time Henry Clay was single, but during that year he met Henrietta Francis Duke (Breakey).

     Henrietta was 20 years older than Clay and was a widow. She had been married to John Calhoun Duke on March 21, 1870. She had two sons, Henry and John. She was born in May 1854 in New York and was the daughter of Charles and Eliza Breakey.

     In October 10, 1904 Henry Clay and Henrietta married in Manhattan, New York. Since they now lived in New York Henry Clay became a pastor and elder of the New York class.

     On Tuesday, June 16, 1908 Charles T. Russell appointed him and Isaac Francis Hoskins as a directors of the Watch Tower Society of Pennsylvania. They replaced Vice-President James Hezekiah Giesey and Simon Osborne Blunden. For what reason did Russell choose Rockwell?

     It may be because many members of the Board of Directors were well-known people in local societies, and Rockwell was also well-known.

     The Watch Tower (August 1, 1908) shows that Rockwell‘s wife took “the vow.“ Shortly after that a convention was held in September 1908 in Put-in-Bay and in the photograph below Russell and Rockwell are sitting side by side.

     After Russell moved headquarters from Pittsburgh to Brooklyn, New York, in January 31, 1909, the Rockwells became members of the Bethel family. The lived in 124 Columbia Heights in the former Henry Ward Beecher residence.

     On February 23, 1909, Russell founded the “Peoples Pulpit Association of New York.“ Russell was President, but Henry Clay Rockwell became Vice-President. In the same year Henry toured the northeastern states.

     We find him in a newspaper clipping from June 8, 1913 (The Enquirer, Cincinnati) that shows he was still active in the athletics business: “Passenger Traffic Club - H. Clay Rockwell, General Passenger Agent of the Cincinnati, Lebanon and Northern, who is an honorary member of the club, will personally conduct the members and their families.“

     Rockwell was also very busy spreading the Bible Student message. He gave many public talks on different topics in many cities. He was also active in colporteuring. We see him sitting on his bicycle beside the Macmillans on the right side the photo below.

     In 1914 he helped to show the Photo-Drama of Creation. On one occasion Rockwell performed the marriage for Norman William Woodworth with Anna Frances Simler in New Jersey.

     In 1907 Russell wrote his last will and testament and directed that the entire editorial charge of ZION'S WATCH TOWER should be in the hands of “a committee of five brethren, whom I exhort to great carefulness and fidelity to the Truth.“ One of them was Rockwell and we see from this that he was highly regarded by Russell. The document noted:

     The names of the Editorial Committee are as follows:

     WILLIAM E. PAGE,

     WILLIAM E. VAN AMBURGH,

     HENRY CLAY ROCKWELL,

     E. W. BRENNEISEN,

     F. H. ROBISON.

     After Russell‘s death in 1916 William Egbert Page resigned and Joseph Franklin Rutherford became a member of the Committee. But after Rutherford became president of the Watch Tower Society (January 6, 1917) Rockwell resigned from all positions. First he resigned as Vice-President of the Peoples Pulpit Association and on February 8, 1917, he also resigned as director of the Watch Tower Society of Pennsylvania and Robert Henry Hirsh replaced him.

     Henry Clay Rockwell was very close to Russell but at his funeral Rockwell gave no talk. A 1917 report from Paul Johnson shows that Rockwell was at the funeral, where he proposed Johnson as the next president rather than J F Rutherford.

     Shortly afterward, in early 1917, Rockwell left the Brooklyn Bethel family and lived with his wife in 13 Middagh Street, Brooklyn, New York. He not only left the Bethel family but also the Watch Tower Society. Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Divine Purpose (1959), page 73, notes that a rival group was formed in 1918 headed by a “committee of seven.“ Rockwell was part of that committee for a few years before disappearing from any known religious activity.

     On April 21, 1929 his wife Henrietta died in New York. Nine months later Henry Clay married again. On January 24, 1930 he married Pauline Hermine Stutz, who was born 1885 in Switzerland. But the marriage lasted only a few months. In July 1930 Pauline also died. Within 15 months he lost two wives. At this time he was working as a Truck driver for the Wholesale Linoleum Company.

     Henry Clay Rockwell died on February 24, 1950 in Islip, Suffolk, New York and was buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in New York, Lot 2205, Section 86, alongside Pauline Hermine.

Oscar strikes again...

 

From the Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) for February 17, 1935

San Francisco Call, October 7, 1908

 Can we elaborate on this event?

San Luis Obispo, California, Tribune -1896

 I need basic biography of O. A. Florey. Can we find his full name. Does he appear in the Watch Tower? Any information will be helpful.

Update

Oscar Allen Florey was born in Illinois July 31, 1869, and died in Butte, California on July 25, 1946. He married January 20, 1900, Alma O Porter. She was a Canadian. The 1910 Census lists him as a minister and her as a missionary. By the 1920 Census Alma is gone and Oscar is living with his aged father, still listed as a religious worker. The 1930 Census lists him as Gospel Worker - Colporteur. In 1930 his is boarding in an apartment house.

In 1908 he was a delegate to the Prohibition Party state convention.

I could use more information. Does he show up on Watchtower magazines post 1916?

From The Phrenological Era

The following short article appeared in a 1914 issue of The Phrenological Era. It's editor often opposed Russell. Note that he focuses on Russell's 'exposure' of contemporary clergy. I am, as you know, without a research assistant. If you wish to help, please find examples of Russell's comments on clergy.

The article:

THE LAST SQUEAL! - By a copy of "the Bible Students Monthly," dateless, sent us, we note that “Pastor Russell” charged the clergy of the various denominations of Christendom with conspiracy against him. We do not so understand it. They simply denounce his rotten doctrines. He has many critics and opponents out of the churches--men of brains who see he is leading a lot of simple-minded people into ruinous notions by his wily play on words. It is the old resort of mountebanks, when caught in their tricks, to cry "liars and lies." If his teachings had a semblance of reason in them, and his known conduct aside from his pretensions to piety comported with common decency, the ministers of our land would welcome him as a brother. Russell has slung med at the ministry, vaunted himself like a peacock above them, taken water, etc., etc., and now in the last ditch yells "conspiracy." No wonder good people, regardless of church affiliation, are down on such a hypocritical Bible twister. “How to Go into the Silence.”

J. B. Palmer on Reading Millennial Dawn

 

QUESTION. Have you read Pastor Russell's “Millenium Dawn Books''?

ANSWER. Yes. I have them in my library. The author is not afraid of new ideas. He wants to look into them. Pastor Russell spoke to class ensembles here at our institution during his life time, which is further evidence, if needs be, that every man has a right to be heard and the listener has a right to properly place a valuation upon what he hears. 

1953 Convention

 I was there. Were you?

I need help downloading this

 To download the booklet I've linked to below requires access to a participating library or university. I no longer have access to any of that. If you have institutional access, please download this for me. Attach it to file transfer and send it to me, please.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015010777111&view=1up&seq=14

I no longer need this. Thanks to all who helped.

New Review Separate Identity vol. 1

Straight unbiased verifiable facts and context are the keys to a great history book. And this book delivers. As others have said, the scholarship and amount of research that went into this project is astounding. One thing it taught me was to not look at history from a modern day lens, but to put yourself in someone’s shoes who lived at that time. Things make much more sense when that is done.

Anyway, 5 stars and can’t wait to read volume 2.

Otto Roesch

End Chapter

 I'm writing this out of order, as I often do. I write based on the documents I have. They do not all come to me in a nice order. The last chapter is more analytical than usual. It's a summary of the main points of the S. I. series. So, here's a portion. I'm writing about those spiritualist influenced by Russell and the degree of secondary influence that accrued from their writing. Do you have anything to add?

The Intellectuals

 

            None of those we consider here were intellectuals, of course. They or someone else saw them that way, and I’ve obligingly listed them as such.

 I.

The Spiritualists 

            When Food for Thinking Christians was published, one of the first to publish a critique was William White, the editor of The Psychological Review.[1] [continue] 

William Augustus Redding 

            Redding [November 12, 1850 – October 31, 1931], was a Pennsylvania-born lawyer practicing in Philadelphia, New York City and elsewhere. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1876 and served in the state House of Representatives from 1884-1886, not running for reelection at the expiration of the term. He was a respected patent attorney, though he wasn’t averse to making unsustainable claims. In 1916 he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. Though married as a Quaker he became a spiritualist and a close associate of Ernest Loomis, a Spiritualist writer and publisher. Redding was a prolific author, writing on prophetic themes. Though scarcely admitting it, Redding was heavily influence by Russell’s writing.

            Much of Redding’s writing mirrors that of other 19^th Century Premillennialists, and occasionally one can find – at least in my opinion – an insightful comment on a Bible verse or narrative. If the Spiritualist elements were omitted Redding’s work would join the large list of 19th Century students of prophecy who believed they had solved the problem of end-times numbers. As did Russell, Redding believed he had an important message and that he was if not the prime divinely appointed messenger, at least one of the most important. Redding pointed to 1896 as the end of Gentile times but extended affairs to 1914 on the same basis as did Russell.[2] Without other evidence we could not say that he was influenced by Watch Tower theology in this. Others pointed to 1913-1918, and more specifically 1914 as the end of Gentile Times using the familiar count of 2520 years from an ancient even to modern times.[3]

            But Redding takes us to Russell’s influence in his Mysteries Unveiled: The Hoary Past Comes Forward with Astonishing Messages for the Prophetic Future.

---

[1]               William White was a member of The New Church (Swedenborgian). We have no biography beyond that. The Psychological Review was published by Edward W. Allen. As with W. White, there is little reliable biography for Allen. He was a member of New Church (Swedenborgian) and published one of its journals. He also edited or published at various times The Spiritualist Newspaper, Spiritual Notes and The Spiritual Record, and The Psychological Review.

[2]               Our Near Future: A Message to All the Governments and People of Earth, page 25.

[3]               Among those who pointed to 1914 or years near it were Elliott [Horae, vol. 4, pages 104, 237-238]; Henry Grattan Guinness [Approaching End of the Age]; Blanton Duncan [Near Approach] pointed to 606-607 B.C. as the start of the 2520 years which were to end in 1913-1914. See page 15. W. H. Coffin [The Millennium of the Church, 1843] Dated Gentile times from 606 B.C. to 1914, see page 42.  Richard Gascoyne suggested 1914 as a possible date. [Calendar of Prophecy] The list is long and we need not continue it.

                Various writers used a supposed Great Pyramid measurement to derive the 1914 date. While Russell used Pyramid measures as an adjunct, he did not base his belief on them. Pyramid enthusiasts still point to 1914.

Marr Murray

 

I need a basic biography of Marr Murray, an novelist and prophetic student c. 1910-1920. Can you help?

William A. Redding

I need a basic biography for William A. Redding, a 19th Century spiritualist author. Anyone?

Update

Amazon Abuses

 Amazon continues to be abusive. The Separate Identity series is coming off of Amazon and will shortly be available only from lulu.com

Update on United Cemeteries

Most readers interested in Watch Tower history will already know about the changes made in the United Cemeteries in the last twelve months. Earlier posts on this blog detailed the damage done to the pyramid monument in the center of the site, and how after just over one hundred years the decision was taken to dismantle it.

I now have photographs from a source I can freely copy with permission. So thanks to Jim H, and here is what has recently happened on site.

The first picture shows the pyramid as it was in 2014, when I personally visited the site and took the photograph. On the right you can see the site after the monument had been taken down, with just the concrete base left. CTR’s grave marker is at the top of the picture.

Where the pyramid once stood nine flat grave markers have been installed. Here you can see the scarred land after the original concrete base for the pyramid was removed. Again, you can see CTR’s grave marker at the top of the picture. No doubt the grass will soon grow over the barren areas.

Below is a close up of the nine markers. These modest stones are similar to those found at the Society’s current burial site at the Watchtower Farms Cemetery in Walkill, Ulster Co. They give the names exactly as they appeared on the original pyramid sides, along with the ages of the Bible Students concerned.

The figures, A-1, etc. refer to the actual grave numbers in the original plots.

George Darby Clowes

     A few years ago I did a filler article on this blog about George Darby Clowes, adding to information published in Volume 1 of Separate Identity. I was able to use Ancestry to trace modern descendants of George and find a photograph of him which I was given permission to publsh. As happens all the time on the internet, that picture is now everywhere. Recently I returned to the subject of George and did research on the 1862 Allegheny Arsenal disaster which greatly affected him. I decided that George needed a whole article to pull various threads together. This is it.

 

GEORGE DARBY CLOWES

George Darby Clowes (1818-1889).

Photograph reproduced by kind permission of his great-great-grandson, William J. 3^rd.

     In the March 1889 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower, in response to a letter from his father, Joseph Lytle, Charles Taze Russell wrote a brief obituary for George Darby Clowes (1818-1889). It shows that George had a part to play in the very early history and pre-history of the Watch Tower movement. CTR’s comment is below:

     George had previously appeared in the pages of Zion’s Watch Tower in May 1886 (page 1) when the annual Memorial celebration held in Pittsburgh was “adjourned with praper by Brother Clowes.”

     This then is his story.

     George Clowes was born in the British Isles on April 26, 1818. He was baptised into the established church (Birmingham, St Martin) on December 29, 1818. At the age of 19 he was married at the same church to Sarah Fearney on December 6, 1837. His occupation is given as “brass founder.” He would cast items in brass, which could be anything from shell cases to intricate parts for clocks and watches.

     George and Sarah were to have nine known children over the next 24 years. The first two were born in Britain, Emma (b.1841) and James (1843-1916). After James’ birth the family moved to the United States, specifically Pennsylvania, because the remaining seven children were born there. These were Hepzebah (1845-1864), Israel William (1848-1915), Fredrick (b.1851), George Darby Jr. (1854-1932), Stephen (1858-1920), Sarah (b.1861) and Sumpter (b.c.1865).

     The name George Clowes was to be carried on through at least three generations. As well as George Darby Jr. (1854-1932) who was the original George’s sixth child, the original George’s fourth child Israel also named a son George Darby Clowes (1877-1946). While it makes for complications in research it does allow one to track down through the ages, and in this case to make contact with a modern descendant a few years ago, who provided the photograph of our subject at the head of this article.

     George did not apply for American naturalization until 1861, but the document with his signature has survived

     George’s wife Sarah died in 1881. From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 14 March 1881 page 4:

     George became a minister in the M(ethodist) E(piscopal) church. According to a letter he wrote to George Storrs, which we will come to later, this was “about 25 years before” the year 1871. That would take us to before the American Civil War.  But he was to change direction and become part of the small congregation that first attracted CTR when he dropped into a dusty dingy hall (Quincy Hall on Leacock Street) to hear Adventist Jonas Wendell preach.

     The Adventists (specifically the Advent Christian Church) were keen to claim George as a prize. In their paper, The World’s Crisis for December 27, 1871, Wendell had a letter published about his recent travels. The letter dated December 6, 1871, showed that there had been problems of some sort in the Pittsburgh group. He had worked there, along with George Stetson, for a few weeks, but now there was a need for a local person to take over pastoral care.

     Clowes’ expulsion from the Methodists, and his new role in the Pittsburgh Advent Christian Church, is remembered elsewhere. In The Advent Christian Story by Clarence Kearney (1968) he is mentioned in dispatches:

     Although the Pittsburgh group was branded as Adventist in the Advent Christian press, in reality it had an eclectic mix. Advent Christians and Church of God (Age to Come) believers would often meet together at this time. They were united on a keen interest in the return of Christ and conditional immortality, while generally divided over such subjects as the destiny of natural Israel, how many would benefit from future probation through the resurrection, which key events yet to happen were timed for the start or the end of the millennium, and the advisability (or otherwise) of date setting.

     As long as everyone remained tolerant and unofficial and generally disorganised the situation could continue. But while Age to Come believers were generally averse to organization, Second Adventists into the 1870s were increasingly anxious for recognition as an established religion. This required an official statement of belief covering not just vague generalities but specifics.

     So people began to make choices, and Clowes embraced the Age to Come belief system. Up to 1873 we find references to Advent Christian meetings at Quincy Hall, Pittsburgh, but by 1874 Elder G. D. Clowes was billed at the same venue but now in the main paper of the Age to Come movement, The Restitution. From the November 5, 1874, issue:

     This shift meant that independent mavericks like George Storrs, who edited Bible Examiner (and who increasingly detested the Advent Christian Church) would be more than happy to visit them. He did so in May 1874 and Clowes was subsequently mentioned several times in his paper.

     In the June 1874 issue of Bible Examiner Storrs reviewed his recent visit. In the editorial, under the heading “Visit to Pittsburgh, PA” Storrs wrote: “The editor of this magazine spent the first and second Sundays in May in the above named city. He found there a small but noble band of friends who upheld with the full hearts the truths advocated by himself. Among them is a preacher who was formally of the Methodists.”

     We must assume that the former Methodist preacher was George Clowes. In the same issue, Storrs lists the parcels he had just sent out to fill literature requests. These included several to Pittsburgh, the recipients including G. D. Clowes Sr., Wm. H. Conley, and J. L. Russell and son. (The latter was obviously a business address, but the “son” Charles Taze Russell would have his own letter acknowledged the next month, July, and would subsequently write articles for Storrs’ paper).

     There are further requests for literature from Clowes and the Russells, and then in the November 1875 Bible Examiner there is a full letter from Elder G. D. Clowes of Pittsburgh dated September 8, 1875. In it, Clowes expresses appreciation for Bible Examiner, and regrets the spirit manifest by “some of our brethren who do not see these precious truths.” It is in this letter, referred to earlier, that he reflects on how he “had been cast adrift a few years before by those he had labored with for a quarter century.” That would take his Methodist connections back 25 years before 1871. He also writes that a “Brother Owen is labouring with us.”

     The next page of Storrs’ magazine has a letter of appreciation from Joseph Lytle Russell, CTR’s father. Joseph also mentions “Brother Owen” visiting, which shows that he and Clowes were involved with the same meetings.

     Very soon the independent Bible study group linked to Charles Taze Russell would take center stage, and this would link up with Nelson Barbour. This is another chapter and in extant records George Clowes does not appear in it. But then, after Zion’s Watch Tower began publication we find him attending that 1886 Memorial celebration and then being remembered by both Joseph Lytle and Charles Taze when he died in early 1889.

      George never made his living from a paid ministry. He did various jobs but the most consistent was working at the Allegheny Arsenal in Lawrenceville for a number of years. In the 1860 census he is a “nail plate heater.” In the 1866-67 Directory of Pittsburgh and Alleghen Cities he is “assistant laboratory superintendent at the Arsenal.” In the 1870 census he is “master laboratory A” – the A probably standing for Arsenal. As late as 1875, from the US Register of Civil, Military and Naval Service, 1875 volume 1, dated September 30, 1875 we have George working as a Foreman at the Allegheny Arsenal for three dollars a day.

     As noted above, his original occupation of “brass founder” could include making shell cases and that may have had some bearing on where he worked, and even why he relocated from England to Pittsburgh.

     His close association with the Arsenal is shown by the aftermath of the September 17, 1862 disaster. There was an explosion in the Laboratory building where they were filling shells with gunpowder for Union forces in the Civil War. This caused a massive fire and 78 people – mainly young women – died. Loose powder on a roadway and a spark from an iron horseshoe was one possible cause. Another theory is that it was caused by static electricity from the women workers’ hoop skirts. It ended up being Pittsburgh’s worst industrial accident and the Civil War’s deadliest civilian disaster. 

     Clowes was present on the day and initially was thought to be one of the casualties. From the preliminary list of the dead in the Pittsburgh Daily Post for September 18, 1862:

     It gives his occupation as Superintendent of Cylinder Department and says that his daughter Emma died along with him. The Pittsburgh Gazette for the same date, September 18, only listed Emma and gave her age as 21, and listed her as “missing.” Daughter Emma was born in 1841, so this has to be the right family.

     A day or two later it was clarified that George had survived, and had tried to calm down the girls in the chaos and panic to get out of the buildings. From the inquest report in the Pittsburgh Daily Post for September 23, 1862:

     The reason for the confusion over casualties was that the explosion and fire meant many bodies could not be identified. The remains of over 40 unidentified people were buried in a mass grave in the Allegheny cemetery. The final list of these included Emma. Years later the Pittsburgh Dispatch for May 25, 1899, told the story and listed the names on the Allegheny Cemetery monument. You can see Emma’s name four lines up from the bottom of the clipping.

     The monument was later replaced and the one you can now visit in the cemetery lists all 78 names of victims.

     The memorial was the result of a special campaign, and understandably George Clowes was heavily involved in this project. From the Pittsburgh Daily Post for September 18, 1863:

     George was linked to the Arsenal again in 1869 where the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazatte for January 29, 1869, carried a story about a new Library Association and Reading Room to be assisted financially by the Arsenal Lodge of Good Templars. The Vice President of the new association was G. D. Clowes.

     He was also an officer of the Temple of Honor in Lawrenceville, PA, which was a fraternal order supporting the temperance movement. He also appeared on a list of names for the “Reform Republican Vigilance Committee” for his area.

     Returning to his work history, while the above-noted US Register of Civil, Military and Naval Service 1875 still has him working at the Arsenal, the 1875-1876 Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny lists him as the Rev. George D. Clowes. He also appears to be in newspapers of the day as a clergyman. As an example, the report of the dedication services for a new M.E. Church near the Arsenal in the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette for June 14, 1869, listed those present. There are no initials to confirm we have the right man, but the report included “Rev. Clowes and local preachers.”

     When George died there was just a small notice in the paper. From the Pittsburgh Dispatch 26 January 1889, page 7,

     He was George D. Clowes, Sr. His son, George D. Clowes, Jr. also lived and worked in Pittsburgh for nearly all his life in the iron and steel industry.

     The records are incomplete, but George Sr. was probably buried in the Allegheny cemetery, where his wife and many other family members were laid to rest. This historic cemetery also contains the Arsenal memorial with Emma’s name, and the grave plots for nearly all of CTR’s immediate family.