The
discovery of the undertaker’s bill for Pastor Russell was behind a recent article
on Josiah Bushy Kepner. This covered what happened when CTR died. If readers of
this post have not read that previous article, it would be of benefit to first
do so, and it can be found here:
https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2024/05/j-b-kepner-of-waynoka.html
The position
taken in that article was to give a bit of Kepner’s background and to defend
him from harsh criticism of his work. While this writer still believes the
basic premise behind that article, in the interest of completeness and accuracy
we need to look at the criticism is more detail. I am very grateful to
correspondent Freddy who provided additional material that needs to be
considered.
W H Wisdom
made the criticism in his 1923 book Memoirs
of Pastor Russell that “through some more
bungling the body was removed from the train at the first small town, where it
was very improperly cared for in the way of embalming.”
From where
did Wisdom get his information?
There are
two accounts from the early 1920s that likely provided Wisdom with his
material.
The first,
and least compelling, is a letter found in the New Era Enterprise newspaper. This was the newspaper used by Bible
Students at the time for news and views and much found in it cannot be found
elsewhere.
In the 27
December 1921 Enterprise, Joseph
Greig while visiting Texas, including Pampa (where CTR actually died on the
train), wrote a short column “Pastor Russell’s Death Route.” Recounting the
story he said: "Orders were given to remove the body at Wynoka, Okla.,
where an old gentleman cared for the embalming. One who knew this person said
while he was not expert in his profession by reason of poor eyesight,
nevertheless, he was possibly the only embalmer who never extracted the blood,
but used his fluid in connection with the blood as a preservative."
There are
several problems with Greig’s account. “Old gentleman” has to be subjective – Kepner
was slightly younger than CTR. Then the concept of embalming by just introducing
embalming fluid without replacing cadaver blood does not make sense. The whole
point of embalming was to replace the blood to preserve the body temporarily and give a lifelike appearance
for viewers. The procedure was quite straightforward for anyone with the basic
training and equipment – with or without good eyesight. Embalming fluid was
pumped into the body, generally through the carotid artery, and was able to
displace the blood through an incision in a vein (often the jugular). It used
the human circulatory system to work. Sometimes massage was applied to help the
embalming fluid to circulate fully. The procedure was refined during the
American Civil war and after the body of Abraham Lincoln was so treated became
quite standard practice where a body needed preservation for transportation or
a delayed funeral.
This account
came from someone touring Texas, who never visited Waynoka in the next State and
never met Kepner, although he was still very much in business in Waynoka at the
time. It was written several years after the event. It falls into the category
of “an unnamed person told me…”
Of greater
weight is a talk given by A H MacMillan on The
History of the Society from 1910-1920.
The talk was transcribed, as was a short question and answer session
after it, and some of the material – almost word for word – was to appear in MacMillan’s book Faith
on the March (1957). Taken from
this transcript:
MacMillan
was scathing about Menta Sturgeon. Quote: “Poor Sturgeon didn’t know enough to
take care of a sick chicken, much less a dying man. What he said himself about
Brother Russell was enough to kill the man if he was half alive.”
Reading
Sturgeon’s detailed description of CTR’s last hours and his attempts to care
for him; and in the heightened emotion of the moment “spiritualizing” some of
those events, one can understand MacMillan’s comments.
MacMillan
also blamed Sturgeon for the body having to be removed from the train at Waynoka,
where Kepner Undertaking was the only game in town. Sturgeon had chosen to
publicize the death and Railway and State regulations kicked in. As MacMillan
states “if he had any sense and kept his mouth shut” the situation could be
been avoided.
In his
talk MacMillan was to further criticise Sturgeon for not giving the Bethel
family the news. Sturgeon wrote to his wife, Florence, in Bethel, and told her.
Only by intercepting the letter did MacMillan and others learn the news, before
the newspaper reporters started banging on the doors.
MacMillan
could be caustic about Sturgeon because by the time this talk was given Sturgeon
had ceased fellowship with the IBSA. He ultimately left all strands of the
Bible Student movement and ended up canvassing for a Universalist group, The
Concordant Bible Society.
MacMillan’s
distain for Kepner came across in his continued description: “They pulled the
body off the train in Pampa, Texas, and took him to a furniture store.” As
noted in the original article it was quite normal in small towns for the
undertaker to have another business. A man selling furniture and perhaps making
furniture could easily diversify into coffins, and if qualified, to provide the
whole funeral experience.
That was
the next point MacMillan made. In his estimation, Kepner was not qualified. His
account continues: “There a man who didn’t know how to embalm tried to embalm
the body and made a mess of the whole thing.”
Did
Kepner know how to embalm? As the original article explained, he was licensed
and the only licensed embalmer in the city. When he moved to Waynoka in 1913
and took over new premises The Woods
County Enterprise (Waynoka) for April 18, 1913, stated he had been in
business for 30 years and praised him as
a graduate of the best schools of embalming in the U.S.
Even
allowing for self publicity, embalming was something Kepner did. He remained in
active practice for over a decade after attending to CTR, only retiring in
1929. His company, managed by his
second wife likely hired someone else to do the embalming, and was still
advertising in the 1940s. While embalmers may bury their mistakes (literally!)
this man ran a successful business for decades. There was no hint of any issues
in the many references to him in the newspapers of the day.
We must
remember that his brief was not to present a body for lying in state, rather to
preserve it to meet existing laws for transportation. Kepner appears to have
done what was needed. Contemporary accounts of the events surrounding CTR’s
death spoke highly of him and there was no criticism from those who first saw
the body before it continued on its journey.
However,
for lying in state, after a long journey being bumped about on cars and
railroads, more work would be needed, including final cosmetic touches.
MacMillan
is then critical of finding suitcases packed around CTR’s feet in a twenty
dollar casket. But this was not a casket for viewing; it was a simple coffin (actually
costing thirty five dollars) to meet the requirements of transporting a body
across America. Possessions that had been taken off the train with the body
also had to be forwarded, personal effects, clothes etc. and the logical thing
was to store them in the coffin if there was room. This may have been Kepner
(and Sturgeon) just being practical, but MacMillan seems to have taken it as insensitive
and disrespectful.
So what was the problem? Everyone was very upset. Their beloved Pastor
Russell had died. He looked old before his time, had been failing in health for
quite a while, and sadly died in great pain. Opening the coffin in New York and
seeing him was very distressing. There was turmoil in Bethel at the time. After
giving the Bethel family the news, MacMillan described how “they met in little
groups to talk and whisper, "What is going to happen now?"” Once the
glue that held them together – Pastor Russell in person – was gone, then there
were going to be problems, as events later proved.
So there
was an inclination to lash out. Sturgeon came under fire and Kepner came under
fire. But after further work by New York undertakers several thousand were able
to view CTR in a proper casket, first in the Bethel Home, then in the New York
City Temple and finally, six days after he died, in Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Hall
before the interment at United Cemeteries.
