Edgars and the Pyramid

 These are on ebay. Some of you may be interested.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/265094356174?hash=item3db8dadcce:g:A00AAOSwIEFgS~6s

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313487186373?hash=item48fd4ad9c5:g:uoIAAOSwMU1gcQyo

JOHN ADAM BOHNET

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bohnet does not appear in this particular photograph.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The funeral of Charles Taze Russell

Anyone writing on Watch Tower history must of necessity cover the death of the first president of the Incorporated Society, Charles Taze Russell. He had been on speaking trip out West in the United States. The last speaking assignment he was able to fulfill was at Los Angeles on October 29 and his travelling companion, Menta Sturgeon, had to deputize for him several times on this occasion. Gravely ill he tried to get back to Brooklyn but died on the train on October 31, 1916.

This article is specifically about the actual funeral arrangements. There are newspaper accounts of the day of variable quality, but basically there are two primary sources for the details. One is the special issue of the Watch Tower for December 1, 1916. This was a memorial issue, which covered CTR’s life as well as his death and funeral. The other, probably more interesting today, is the Bible Students’ unofficial newspaper, The St Paul Enterprise. The editor, William Abbott, attended the whole funeral, first in New York at the New York City Temple on November 5; then after an overnight train journey, in Pittsburgh on November 6. In Pittsburgh, Abbott was at both Carnegie Hall in the afternoon and then at the cemetery at dusk. He wrote a series of extremely candid and personal letters back to his wife, May Laura Abbott, about events and personal difficulties he faced. He had disagreements with certain well-known names in New York and felt he was being pressured not to publish funeral details before the Watch Tower did. Whether he originally meant his letters for publication is debateable, but his wife published them anyway, starting in the November 7, 1916, issue, and thus stole a march on the special Memorial issue of the Watch Tower.

 

Most newspapers said CTR died of “heart failure” which is a bit of a catch-all. Everybody dies of “heart failure,” but what caused it? He had been failing in health for a while, and according to an article John Adam Bohnet wrote in the Enterprise for November 14, 1916, for some time had been unable to deliver a lecture without medication first. The same article commented that CTR’s father, Joseph Lytle, looked younger and fitter at the age of 84 than CTR did at 64. Bohnet could make such an observation because he’d known Joseph personally. Although Bohnet didn’t elaborate, chronic cystitis was a major factor in the death; a very painful condition that can sometimes lead to renal failure and sepsis. A letter in the November 21 St Paul Enterprise from a Samuel Pearson, Congregational Pastor in Waynoka, Oklahoma where the death was certified noted:

This was confirmed by the Enterprise editor in the November 14 paper, when he borrowed Bohnet’s desk to write home and “could not fail to see on the burial permit that the cause of death was given as “Cystitis.”” Returning to Bohnet’s article, he concluded his description of CTR: “He literally wore himself out in the interest and service of truth and righteousness.”

CTR’s last will and testament was written back in 1907. In it he wrote: “I desire to be buried in the plot of ground owned by our Society, in the Rosemont United Cemetery.” Whether the exact spot was already mapped out at that early date is not known, but it would not include the grave of William Morris Wright, a former Watch Tower Society director, who had been buried there a year earlier in 1906. The area was further down the hill from Wright’s obelisk, and various plans subsequently took shape. In 1912 a Memorial pyramid was mooted for the center of the special site, and then came the first burial in 1914 at one of the corners. Then of course, CTR died and was buried there in 1916. Finally, the pyramid monument was completed in early 1920.

It was reported that CTR had chosen his own burial spot, in the middle of the top row of the site. There was speculation as to who might eventually be buried next to him. Ultimately, his sister Margaretta Russell Land was interred alongside him.

A number of photographs were taken on the day of the funeral and just before.

The first photograph is looking down the hill over the site of the grave. The superintendant’s office (the old Weibel farmhouse), where Bohnet lived at the time, is clearly seen. Two small grave markers can be seen in the grass. These were for Bible Students Arabella Mann and Mary Jane Whitehouse and their graves mark the bottom edge of the special Society plot in the cemetery. The three large headstones in front of the house are not marking actual graves, but were there for dispay and purchase.

 

The next picture is very poor quality because it is taken from the front page of the St Paul Enterprise newspaper for November 21, 1916. It is captioned: Grave of Pastor Russell, Showing House of Bro. Bohnet.

Then the picture below was dated November 6, the day of the funeral, but obviously was taken quite early in the day.

 

There is a grave to the right of the picture, actually from the row in front. This would be the grave for John Perry, who died in December 1915. His grave marks the side edge of the Watch Tower’s special section in the cemetery. 

Another photograph shows, amongst others, John Adam Bohnet, the main cemetery supervisior in its history and Andrew Pierson who looked after the floral arrangements.

 

Bohnet is on the right, his familiar bald head covered by a hat, and Pierson is second from the left with the goatie beard. John Perry’s grave can again be seen in the right of the picture.

Several photographs were then taken of the final stages of the funeral, which happened as dusk approached. First, there is the actual grave in readiness. The figure facing the camera is most likely John Adam Bohnet again.

 

Second is a photograph of some of the crowd of people as they waited for the coffin to approach.

Finally we have the coffin arriving. The light was now fading. There is only a short time between the previous photograph and this one.

 

A key point to note about the above photograph is that it appears to include CTR’s estranged wife, Maria.

It was stated in the 1975 Yearbook (page 68) and repeated in the Proclaimers book, that Maria Russell came to the funeral service at Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh. Quoting from the 1975 Yearbook:

‘Anna K. Gardner, whose recollections are similar to those of others present, tells us this: “An incident occurred just before the services at Carnegie Hall that refuted lies told in the paper about Brother Russell. The hall was filled long before the time for the services to begin and it was very quiet, and then a veiled figure was seen to walk up the aisle to the casket and to lay something on it. Up front one could see what it was—a bunch of lilies of the valley, Brother Russell’s favorite flower. There was a ribbon attached, saying, ‘To My Beloved Husband.’ It was Mrs. Russell. They had never been divorced and this was a public acknowledgment.”’

A similar account can be found in the Watchtower magazine for October 1, 1994. In a life story account from someone else who attended the funeral, the author wrote:

“Sara Kaelin, a well-known colporteur in Pittsburgh, knew the Russells personally. At the funeral she saw Maria Russell place some flowers in the casket with the note, “To My Beloved Husband.” Though she had separated from him some years earlier, Maria still recognized him as her husband.”

The Russells’ marital difficulties are not the subject here, but it should be noted that they were never divorced in the sense of a complete dissolution of a marriage. Legally this is called a vinculo matrimonii (abbreviated to a.v.m.). This might help us understand Anna Gardner’s perception. The action taken by Maria was something different, officially called a mensa et thora (divorce from bed and board, or a.m.t.) which is defined as “a legal separation.” (See Grounds and Defenses to Divorce in Pennsylvania and by Robert A. Ebenstein, in the Villanova Law Revew Volume 15, issue 1 (1969) article 8.)

Newspapers loved the word “divorce” when linked to a religious figure, far more then than today, but using the word “divorce” for the Russells without qualifying what is meant could be misleading. The a.m.t. arrangement was far easier for a wife to achieve because it was very one-sided, her own conduct was not questioned, but it allowed neither party to ever remarry. CTR and Maria remained legally tied together. Extra support seems to have been Maria’s motivation. CTR continued to have financial responsibilities towards her, because an a.m.t. allowed her to seek permanent alimony. A “divorce” in the usual sense of the word would not have allowed Maria to pursue him for more money, which she continued to do even after his death if the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper is to be believed in its byeline for November 29, 1916.

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The Eagle characterizes “Mrs Russell” as the “wife” not the “ex-wife.” However, all we are really concerned with here is proof that Maria, perhaps with happier memories of times past, attended part of the funeral.

This testimony of the above witnesses at Carnegie Hall is also reinforced by William Abbott’s letters home to his wife. In the St Paul Enterprise for November 14 (page 3) he wrote:

“At the grave, two heavily veiled ladies followed the coffin, one on the arm of Brother Pyles of Washington, the other on the arm of another brother – I think it was Brother Driscoll. One of the ladies was Mrs Russell – a widow indeed and I shed a tear for her.”

 

This is supported by the last photograph. Although it was getting dark because of the time of day and time of year, one can make out the two veiled figures. They are identified with two arrows in this selective enlargement.

 

The second veiled figure was probably Maria’s sister Emma, the widow of Joseph Lytle Russell. The two women had lived together on and off since the turn of the century and would continue to do so until Emma’s death in 1929.

John Adam Bohnet supervised the lowering of the coffin into the grave. It was buried in its outer packing case, and the whole incased in cement. This was managed by Andrew Pierson who also supervised the extensive floral tributes.

The funeral took place in November 1916. It was to be nearly four years before a permanent marker for CTR was erected for his grave. A temporary marker was in place for a photograph in a 1919 convention report. In February 1920, The New Era Enterprise newspaper (the former St Paul Enterprise) reported that a permanent memorial stone was in production. It was certainly in place by 1921 because it was featured on the cover of the program of the Watch Tower Society’s annual meeting in Pittsburgh in late October of that year.

The picture that would eventually appear on the front of the grave marker was given away as a supplement to the Watch Tower magazine with its issue of November 1, 1918.

 

Visitors today will see a different picture on the gravestone. Vandals have chipped out the picture on more than one occasion over the years, and the current replacement photograph today is not the same as the original one.

Night photograph courtesy of WAHT Publishing Company 

Due to vandalism, the photograph on the rear of the stone has also been replaced on more than one occasion, but always with the same picture.

 This photograph had been taken by William Roy Mitchell on September 10, just seven weeks before the death. It was taken in the Mitchell Photographic Studio in Los Angeles when CTR was there at a convention chaired by J F Rutherford, part of a series with long distance trains organized by Dr. Leslie Jones. But no sooner had CTR returned to Brooklyn than he started out on his final tour which took him back to Los Angeles.

Addenda

I have been asked about the photographer, William Roy Mitchell. Mitchell (1867-1934) was a Bible Student whose business address was 619 S Broadway, Los Angeles. Below is a sticker from a Manna book for him.

The May 1902 date refers to his becoming a Bible Student. Mitchell produced a number of studio photographs of CTR at different times, and also at least one photograph of J F Rutherford.

Margaretta

Margaretta Russell Land, to give her the usual full married name was the natural sister of Charles Taze Russell, two years his junior. As such she played a role in his history, and ultimately was buried next to him in United Cemeteries, Ross Township, Pittsburgh.

Below is an extract from the official cemetery register as supplied by the current owner. A number of names are deliberately obscured because many of these are more recent burials and not our concern. But on this sheet for Section T, Lot 34, you can see that CTR was buried in Plot A, Grave 1. At the bottom of the page, below the name of John Coolidge, who was buried at the end of the row and whose name is inscribed on the famous pyramid memorial, is the name Margaretta R Land. She is buried in Plot A, Grave 2, and the register states she was buried on November 26, 1934. In reality her death certificate states this was the day she died in New York City, and the interment took place in Pittsburgh on November 29.            

 This article, a revision of a chapter for a forthcoming book, will discuss her history. In the record she left she is sometimes Margaret, sometimes Mae, but later (with variations) settled down as Margaretta. For consistency we will stay with the latter for this article, unless reproducing something that uses a variation.

           

According to the 1900 census, she was born in March 1854. She gave her testimony and spiritual life story at the Niagara Falls convention in 1907 which readers can easily check in the convention report. At the Praise and Testimony meeting led by John A Bohnet on Sunday morning, November 1, she outlined her brother, CTR’s story.

She dated her own coming to a knowledge of the truth to “about thirty three years” before, which would take us back to 1874, the year they would focus on for the beginning of Christ’s presence (parousia). She also stated that Charles, his father and herself were baptized that year, after coming to understand the true import of baptism. She outlined how Charles at the age of 17 requested a letter of dismissal from the Congregational church, which would be around 1869, the year CTR was drawn to the “dusty and dingy” Quincy Hall in Lacock Street and heard Jonas Wendell speak. She goes on with her lengthy testimony, well expressed, and it is perhaps surprising that this is the only statement to be preserved from her. As such, it is the only record we have for certain events, so we have to depend on the memory of the single witness for the information.

At some point in the mid-1870s she married Benjamin Franklyn Land, a cabinet maker who worked in the Pittsburgh firm, Getchell and Land. Benjamin appears to have shared the Russells’ religious beliefs at this time. George Storrs, editor of The Bible Examiner visited a “small but noble band of friends” in Pittsburgh in May 1874. In the June issue of his magazine he listed the names of those who had requested literature, probably for distribution.. From The Bible Examiner, June 1874, page 288.

Familiar names from Pittsburgh were Wm H Conley (2 parcels), G D Clowes Sen., and J L Russell and Son (by Express). But slotted in between Clowes and Russell is B F Land. We must assume that this was Margaretta’s husband or soon-to-be husband.

By the 1880 census the Lands have two children, Ada (born November 1875) and Alice (born November 1878). Another, Joseph Russell Land (born June 1880) was on the way. A fourth child, May (sometimes called Thelma), would be born in February 1886, the year The Plan of the Ages came out. The 1900 census clearly shows that Margaretta and the children were living in Pittsburgh when May was born. A Benjamin F Land is still in Pittsburgh trade directories as a carpenter up to 1888, although this may have been his father.

At some point disaster hit the family. Around 1954 an elderly Joseph Russell Land gave a testimony at a Bible Students’ gathering, which was recorded. His personal memories included living at CTR’s home and also the breakup of his parents’ marriage. He didn’t take any real interest in Bible Student matters until he was an adult when, more out of curiosity than anything else, he went to hear his uncle speak after seeing an advertisement. But as to his childhood years, he made these comments:

“I only lived with Pastor Russell for one year, and that was with my sisters and my mother from 1887 to 1888, that was when I was passing from 7 to 8 years old, and all I can remember of that was that we were told not to go around – it was in a large house on a hill then - the Pastor didn’t have the Bible House then – we children were told not go around on that side of the house where Pastor Russell had his study, probably writing the volumes…We didn’t go around on that side to bother him any.

“My dear mother being Pastor Russell’s sister, was one of the first to come into the truth…My mother had just left my father in Colorado Springs in 1887, and come to Allegheny with we four young children, and we stopped with Pastor Russell for about a year and he took care of us.”

Reading between the lines, Joseph painted a picture of Margaretta as a forceful character, somewhat obsessed with the great time of trouble “just around the corner,” that he believed had a deterimental affect on him as a child. But he conceded that her situation may have had a bearing on that:

“It was a great time of trouble for a woman to have four children, and no husband, to raise back in those days.”

We do not know why Margaretta’s marriage failed. Taking her son’s words literally it was Margaretta who left Benjamin. It has not been possible to trace what happened to him, but by the 1900 census Margaretta is listed as a widow.

Living in the expanded Russell household would have been a difficult time for everyone. Two forceful women in the same household, Margaretta and Maria, would not be easy. Years later Maria Russell would make accusations against her sister-in-law in the Russell vs Russell court case of 1907. These were put to CTR and quoting from page 229 of the transcript, his cross-examination by Maria’s counsel went as follows:

Q:  You know that Mrs Land was more or less offensive to Mrs Russell?

A:  I did not, sir, and do not know any reason why she should be.

Q:  Mrs Land had lived with you before, when you and Mrs Russell had lived together?

A:  Yes, sir.

Q:  And there was a constant source of trouble between you and Mrs Russell about your sister?

A:  No, sir.

Q:  And did not Mrs Russell finally insist that Mrs Land should leave the house?

A:  No, sir, not that I remember of.

Q:  Well, she did leave the house.

A:  Of course, she left the house, and Mrs Russell left the house too; Mrs Land moved down to her father’s, down in Florida, she moved at that time.

Margaretta and her children moved to Florida to be with her father, Joseph Lytle Russell. Referring to this time in Florida Joseph Russell Land also testified that when she was “up against it” CTR was “always ready to send her help.” We assume that Charles Ball and then his sister Rose moved into the Russell household after Margaretta and the children had left, although there could have been overlap. But then in due course CTR and Maria moved into the Bible House. According to the history marker at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Hall this was in 1894.

Joseph Lytle ultimately came back from Florida to Pittsburgh and died in a Cedar Avenue property in December 1897.

Prior to his death Joseph Lytle wrote a new will in July 1896 (witnessed by E C Henninges, J A Bohnet and Mrs O A Koetitz) which made a bequest to Margaretta (a house, three lots and 25 acres of land in Florida) as well as providing for his wife and daughter, Emma and Mabel. Emma was to inherit two houses, another lot and various stocks and notes that she later claimed were worthless and Mabel inherited a house and another lot. CTR was named as executor. This became a bone of contention as perhaps evidenced by the three witnesses having to sign another statement in October 1897 that Joseph Lytle was of “sound mind and memory” when they witnessed the will. Joseph Lytle left certain unspecified debts, and Emma argued later that her Cedar Avenue property could not be sold to pay these debts before all the other bequests had been used up.

It did not make for a very happy extended family.

In the 1900 census Margaretta was still in Florida and now listed as a widow. Her eldest daughter Ada had gone, having married a Thomas Wells in 1895. The marriage would end in divorce and she later married a C H White. However, the other three of her children were still at home, Alice was a school teacher, Joseph a cigar maker, and May was still at school.

She soon returned to Pittsburgh and worked at the Bible House. She is featured in various events over the first decade of the twentieth century. We will review these in date order.

In testimony for the above quoted Russell vs. Russell hearing of 1907 (transcript page 90), daughter Alice Land testified that she had both lived in and worked at the Bible House for about six years. We can assume from this that Margaretta and the two daughters went back to Pittsburgh to be part of the Bible House family from about 1901. Unlike some of the other workers they lived on the premises for some of the time, although the Russell vs Russell 1907 transcript states they had one room for the three of them (second floor front) in the house Maria occupied on Cedar Avenue (see transcript page 225).

Maria and the Cedar Avenue property came to the fore in 1903, when Margaretta was mentioned in connection with CTR’s domestic troubles. In that year, CTR reclaimed the house that his estranged wife, Maria was living in at 79 Cedar Avenue, Pittsburgh (now renumbered as 1004). Maria had left Charles in 1897, first going to her brother Lemuel in Chicago, and then on return to Pittsburgh to her sister Emma’s home. Emma had inherited 80 Cedar Avenue (now renumbered as 1006) from her late husband, Joseph Lytle Russell. Today there is a history plaque on the property, acknowledging his original ownership. It should be noted that the two houses were a duplex, two homes that shared a middle wall. It was one of a long series of ornate 19^th century row houses, all connected together along Cedar Avenue with a beautiful park on the opposite side of the street. All of the homes as well as the park appear today almost as they did 150 years ago.

As noted above, Maria lived first with Emma at number 80, but when the tenants at number 79 moved out, Maria took it over and lived there with her mother for several years. This is where her mother Selena Ackley died in 1901. The paper trail on the property is unclear, and it may be that it technically belonged to the Watch Tower Society by this time, but as far as Maria was concerned it belonged to her husband and his actions showed he believed that too. The three story home was large so Maria also generated income by renting out rooms. When she used her extra money to publish a tract highly critical of CTR he took the house back in 1903, and put Margaretta in charge of the property. A room was offered Maria on a legal footing, but perhaps not surprisingly she simply chose to move back in with her sister Emma next door on the left side of the duplex.

In 1907 CTR wrote his last will and testament, signed and witnessed on June 29, 1907. It was printed in full in the December 1, 1916, Watch Tower, and also in the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper for November 29, 1916. Margaretta was mentioned in connection with the funeral arrangements.

DIRECTIONS FOR FUNERAL

“I desire to be buried in the plot of ground owned by our Society, in the Rosemont United Cemetery, and all the details of arrangements respecting the funeral service I leave in the care of my sister, Mrs. M. M. Land, and her daughters, Alice and May, or such of them as may survive me, with the assistance and advice and cooperation of the brethren, as they may request the same.”

                                                                                         

Mrs. M. M. probably stands for Margaret Mae or may even be a misprint; other records at this time give her full name as Margaret (or Margaretta) Russell Land. Daughter May (as Mae F Land) was one of the witnesses. Margaretta, Alice and May were all still working at the Bible House at the time.

During this time, she appeared in photographs taken at the Bible House. Below are two that date from around 1907. The one on the left is part of a group photograph taken in the Bible House Chapel, and on the right she is in the Bible House dining room.

     

In November 1907 she gave her detailed testimony at the Niagara Falls convention that we have discussed earlier.

In December 1908 the Watch Tower carried an advertisement for a booklet, The Wonderful Story of God’s Love. Written by Margaret Russell Land this was an illustrated poem, not to be confused with a similarly titled work by Maria Russell published in booklet form back in 1890.

But then she disappears from the regular narrative.

There are two possible explanations for this. One is that in 1909 a rift occurred over a change made by CTR over the understanding of the New Covenant. This caused some to separate from the Watch Tower. It resulted in two new groups of Bible Students, although they were separated by geography more than belief. The better known one was in Australia with Ernest Henninges and his wife, the former Rose Ball. But the American one resulted in several well known names leaving association with Watch Tower. They included M L McPhail, the hymn writer, and also Albert E Williamson. Albert had been a Watch Tower Society director and his twin brother Fredrick was Margaretta’s son in law, having married her daughter Alice.

Some have suggested that Margaretta may have supported this breakaway movement with other family members, although we lack documentary proof of this. Or it may simply be that the 1909 move from Pittsburgh to Brooklyn caused her to relocate back to the warmer climate of Florida to be near family members.

When CTR died she was featured in a news item intending to travel to the funeral. From the Tampa Bay Tribune (Florida) for November 2, 1916:

This is a typical effort of a junior reporter of the day. She may have intended to go to Brooklyn rather than Pittsburgh for the first part of the funeral arrangements – we just don’t know because she’s not mentioned in the actual reports – but it is a revelation that CTR died on a ranch rather than a train!

Margaretta was supposed to be responsible for CTR’s funeral arrangements according to his last will and testament, but that was back in 1907 and much water had gone under the bridge since then. For example, editorial committee nominee John Edgar had been dead for six years. There is anecdotal testimony that she may have wanted funds for her expenses to attend the funeral, but since she had inherited a house, three lots, and 25 acres of land in Florida from her late father, and also had a family of four adult children who could have helped her, that doesn’t seem realistic. Whatever happened, it is assumed that she did attend the funeral, although the newspaper reports (including the St Paul Enterprise) do not mention her. They do, however indicate that Maria and Emma attended.

There is, however, a photograph that long tradition identifies as her at the side of her brother’s grave prior to interment. She is supposed to be the female figure on the right, standing on her own rather than with other women higher up the hill.

Without corroborating evidence this just remains an unverified possibility.

After CTR’s death, Margaretta lived out her life in Florida near daughters Ada (Mrs Ada F White) and May (Mrs C Rea Kendall) until the year of her death, at which point she moved to New York where daughter Alice Williamson looked after her. But then at death she returned to Pittsburgh and was buried beside CTR. There was no notice of her passing or funeral in the Pittsburgh papers, but she did get an obituary in the Tampa Bay Times for November 29, 1934.

Again we appear to have the less than accurate efforts of a junior reporter. Her age is wrong, she was 80, she hadn’t been there for a continuous 40 years, and Mrs Williamson was not the sister of CTR, but Margaretta was. All par for the course.

So Margaretta obviously had a long standing claim to the grave space beside her brother. This was the only burial on the Society’s site throughout the 1930s. The grave remains unmarked. It may be that no-one really remembered her in Society history by then, or perhaps her family in Florida and New York did not see the need, especially if they were never going to visit.