OCR Newspaper article - 1914

In Ocean Grove Police Get After New Doctrine preacher BUT GOOD FOLK SHOWER $20 BILLS UPON HIM

"Millennial Dawnism" Gets in Hands of Blue Coats While Originator of the Doctrine Gets Hand Much Coin Pastor Talks on.

New York, July 1. What if the police were called out yesterday to escort out of Ocean Grove, N, J., the disciples of Pastor Russell when they tried to distribute pamphlets on "Millennial Dawnism" in front of the Tabernacle after a meeting in that stronghold of Methodism.

What if the police herded and hustled the Russelites all the way to the Ik'ck Street bridge and seeing them over it into Asbury Park? Pastor Russell he should worry! ' "The objection," Pastor Russell said when seen at Asbury Park after, the rout of his evangelists, "to my association by the, Ocean Grove pastors and others in opposition to me over the country is that I tell the truth that they do not dare tell and I get money without taking; a contribution. It keeps coming in to me. "

"For instance" be drew forth an envelope, ripped it open and extracted five $20 bills, which he slipped into his waistcoat pocket forthwith "There you are now. That's the way we get them every day. I don't take collections. The spirit of need and help prevails in my association;- There is a true spirit of giving. This is what irks the ministers; they don’t get much voluntary gifts. That is the chief reason for their dislike of me."

In the course of the interview the question came up whether Pastor Russell had been separated from his wife. "Oh, yes," said he, "she left me twenty years ago. She tried to get too much space for her writings in our publication and we had to cut her off. That's what made her leave me. We are better off without her.

Escort Pastor Russell Out

July 1, 1914

Greenwood Daily Journal from Greenwood, South Carolina · Page 1

Anyone in France?

Hello again: I want ask you something with William I. Mann.

We all search a long time to get a photo from him.

In the french book/magazine there gives an biography about him. I tried to get this book, but no chance. I have the hope that - maybe- is a photo included, but maybe not. The book titled:

"Le petit inventeur - ed. albin michel, paris 1930 complet"

Do you know readers from the blogg in France which can look in a library in Paris or so???

According to Worldcat, this is a periodical. A library in Paris and a library in Switzerland have it, but we do not know if the library in Geneva has the complete run. Do we have the exact page where Mann's photo appears? - R 

The Shoe Maker. Remember him?

This is where we are in raw, rough draft:

The Shoemaker

            An aged shoemaker wrote to Russell from Delhi, New York, in the fall of 1883. He described himself as over seventy years of age, “a poor man, a shoemaker, or rather a shoemender.” He was raised in the Presbyterian faith, but after immigrating to America in 1839, converted to the Baptist faith “from conviction.” He encountered George Storrs sermons in 1845 or 1846, and would have read Storrs material after his exit from Millerite Adventism. He was convinced by Storrs Six Sermons to abandon belief in inherent immortality and expelled from the Baptist church for it: “The hand of fellowship was withdrawn from me, because I believed I had no immortality now, but rejoiced I had it as a prize before me, and also because I believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. The Bible then seemed to me like a new book, and I bless God it has been brighter and brighter all along.” He also adopted Age-to-Come belief as reflected in Bible Examiner.

            He was an active evangelist locally at least by 1882, subscribing to ten copies of Zion’s Watch Tower that he used as missionary papers. He was less successful than he wish, and reduced the number in August 1883: “I find some actually refuse them; others refused to be interested; and as I do not believe in forcing men, nor think it proper to cast pearls in an unseemly place, this year you may send me five copies. It would give me pleasure to increase rather than decrease the number, but when Jesus says, ‘Let them alone,’ I obey.”[1]

            Despite the many clues to identity found in his letter, we were not able to firmly attach this letter to a name. However, of our limited choices, we believe the most likely identity of our shoemaker is A. W. Webb. His biographical details fit those of our letter writer. He was an immigrant, born in the United Kingdom in 1826. He came to Delhi in 1840 and was “actively engaged in the boot and shoe business.” He was a temperance worker.[2]

---

[1]               C. T. Russell: View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, August 1883, page 3.

[2]               History of Delaware County, New York: 1797-1880, W. W. Munsell & Co. New York, 1880, page 169.

Near Future

            We are entering on some of the most complex and difficult research we’ve undertaken. (I wish Ton were still alive!) Here’s what we have before us.

            1. After Russell established Zion’s Watch Tower the controversies over the Ransom/Atonement doctrine continued and grew more complex. There is little you can do to help us with this. It requires a massive amount of reading, and even more “thinkin’ ‘bout it.”

            What you can do:

            We need to see the issues of Jones’ Day Star in the Library of Congress. This requires a personal visit and a good digital camera. The LC is over 3000 miles from my front door, and I can’t afford the trip, but if you live near or will visit soon, please help.

            We have four years of A. P. Adams’ Spirit of the Word. This is a very small collection compared to the total we know were published. If you have any, even a single issue, please scan them for us.

            We need a clear copy or scan of Myers’ The-At-One-Ment.

            Newspaper articles touching on this issue are illusive. Anyone?

           We need any issues of Paton’s World’s Hope. Ask before you copy or scan. We have a fair but very incomplete file.

            2. We think it important to connect Watch Tower adherents and their beliefs to contemporary events. This is very time consuming, and it will require some perceptive re-reading of Zion’s Watch Tower. This will spill past the 1887 date that is the putative end of Separate Identity. We are equipped to do this. We aren’t as well prepared to analyze how events in Europe influenced Watch Tower belief and opinion. Russell’s comments on European events were drawn from American newspapers and from clippings and letters sent from adherents in the UK. We need perceptive comments on the Watch Tower’s view of European events.

            We don’t expect you to write an essay. Just read through the early issues, and, if you find something that ‘clicks’, email me.

            3. We are adding a part 2 to the Food for Thinking Christians chapter. As written, it presents the first circulation of Food in satisfying detail. There is an unexplored after story that we can’t leave out. At first we saw it as a minor issue worthy of a paragraph. It’s far more important.

            I don’t see anything here with which our readers can help. Perhaps newspaper articles from 1883 and 1884 that mention Food.

            There is more, of course, but these are the difficult issues for the days ahead.

And then there is this one ...

A shoe mender/ maker in Delhi, New York. An immigrant probably, born about 1813. He arrived in America in 1839. We need a name. His letter to Russell, written in 1883 is below:

Delhi, N.Y.

DEAR BROTHER: -The time is come when a remittance is due. I enclose $15. Last year I took ten papers in the hope of interesting and doing good to some. I find some actually refuse them; others refused to be interested; and as I do not believe in forcing men, nor think it proper to cast pearls in an unseemly place, this year you may send me five copies. It would give me pleasure to increase rather than decrease the number, but when Jesus says, "Let them alone," I obey. Please send me a Variorum Bible, and, if you can, send me two more of "Food for Thinking Christians," and two more "Tabernacle Teachings," as a reserve for opportunity to do good. I know that the others I got have done good. What remains of the remittance place where you think best. I think the claim of the Swedes is good.

Perhaps you would like to know who I am or what I am. I am over seventy years of age; what the world would call a poor man, a shoemaker, or rather a shoemender. But I bless God for his goodness to me. I was brought up a Presbyterian; came to this country forty-four years ago. From conviction I became a Baptist; afterwards in 1845 or 46 George Storrs sermons were the means of a great theological revolution with me. The hand of fellowship was withdrawn from me, because I believed I had no immortality now, but rejoiced I had it as a PRIZE BEFORE ME, and also because I believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. The Bible then seemed to me like a new book, and I bless God it has been brighter and brighter all along.

As proof texts for the restitution of the human race, although I have no remembrance of seeing them alluded to, I would quote "Ps. 90:3\ "Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men," I used to look upon the word return, as to return to dust, but I was forcibly impressed by noticing that word marked by a capital R as being an emphatic word-and the reason assigned in the "following verse\ "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." God is not limited by years nor ages for the accomplishment for his gracious purposes.

Again, "Jeremiah 12:15-17": "And it shall come to pass, after that I have plucked them out I will return, and have compassion on them, and will bring them again every man to his heritage, and every man to his land. And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of, my people to swear by my name the Lord liveth; (as they taught my people to swear by Baal;) then shall they be built up in the midst of my people. But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the Lord." By carefully reading the "preceding part of the chapter", I came to the conclusion these promises are yet in the future. "Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men." Yours in love,

Seeking the lost ...

Here's our current research challenge, or one of them at least. We need the name of the physician:

The Doctor

            We have no name for this person, though we know he was active in Georgia, handing out one of the extensively printed ‘sample copies’ of Zion’s Watch Tower. A letter to The St. Paul, Minnesota, Enterprise written by a “Mrs. W” tells the story. In 1885 the local physician was noted for his personal evangelism in behalf of the Watch Tower faith:

Like others of our town, in Georgia, I thought the physician who tried to give me the Truth was “As crazy as a March hare;” for his talk was so different from anything I had ever before heard as Scripture. Providentially, however, the old Doctor left on my table a copy of the Watch Tower – at that time a little sheet about the size of a Bible Student’s Monthly, or a little larger; and after reading one article, I began to “search the Scriptures daily whether these things were true.” From that time on I have never for one instant doubted that what I had found was indeed the Truth.[1]

---

[1]               Voice of the People: What our Readers Say, St. Paul, Minnesota, Enterprise, May 8, 1914.

Hummm

The Cleveland, Ohio, Directory for 1909 lists the "Millennial Dawn Mission." The only other use of that name that we can find is in India in the early 1920s. (The book that appears in is vague and it may have been in use in an earlier period.)

Can you find additional uses of that name?

Cobb

We eliminated N. J. Cobb from the list of possibles for "brother cobb" mentioned in 1887

Looking forward ...

It's never too early to plan ahead. After bunches of emails, phone calls, and face to face, Bruce and I think we should divide book three in our history series into books three and four. As we see it now, book three will cover the years from the publication of Plan of the Ages to 1912, ending with the Missionary Tour and report.

We aren't near done with volume 2 of S. I., but it's time to put material together. You can help. We need someone to scour the newspaper archives (such as fultonhistory.com; the Library of Congress Newspaper archive, etc.) for Russell's Newspaper sermons and, more importantly, for comments on his newspaper ministry. Also search Google Books.

Instead of sending articles piecemeal, or sending entire newspaper pages, open the .pdf versions of the articles, cut and paste them into a Word document (or Word Perfect), include name and date of newspaper; include title of article. When you accumulate significant material, send it via google documents or dropbox.

This will help me stay organized. (Bruce seems to thrive on chaos; I throw up my hands in dismay.)

Other than the two famous debates (1903, 1908) there were other proposed debates and some actual debates between Watch Tower adherents and others. We need to document this as above. Again, poast it all into one document and send it that way.

Jerome has his hands full. So I need other volunteers for this. This is not a rush assignment. Book three is only in the planning stages.

We will need "country histories" too. Most of the Yearbook histories omit significant detail. You are interested in the history of your country? Research it in depth for the period 1885-1915. We want newspaper clippings, magazine articles, extracts from books. If in a foreign language, please translate them for us. I can translate German, but not well. (It gives me a headache. Save me the headache.)

Anyone?

This is what ...

This is what happens when we get help solving mysteries:


            Macon Carter van Hook was born in North Carolina sometime in December 1843 to Southern-born parents who after living in Ohio for a period, immigrated to North Carolina. Though attached to the South by birth and parentage, he served as a sergeant in Company K of the 6th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, applying for a pension in July 1865, as an invalid soldier. Russell mentions his work in 1887 and we hear nothing more of him until 1894 when a letter from him appears in Zion’s Watch Tower. Sometime before 1887, he and his family moved to Columbus, Ohio. The 1910 Census shows him as retired, but he continued to present Bible lectures in Ohio. Our last notice of him seems to be an advertisement for a lecture entitled What Happens After Death, given in Portsmouth, Ohio, in January 1914. He died in Columbus, Ohio, April 27, 1917

and this: 

Van Hook, Macon C.  (Veteran.)  Age 18.  Residence Oskaloosa, nativity North Carolina.  Enlisted July 12, 1861.  Mustered July 18, 1861.   Re-enlisted and re-mustered Jan. 26, 1864.  Wounded severely in side May 13, 1864, Resaca, Ga.  Promoted Fifth Corporal Jan. 1, 1865; Fifth Sergeant March 1, 1865.  Mustered out July 2, 1865. 

Thanks to Miquel we now have this:

We don’t know who “Brother” van der Ahe was. The most likely candidates are two Pittsburgh residents living and working near the Russell’s Fifth Avenue store. The Pittsburgh directories spell the name as Vandera. Thurston’s 1869 Directory lists William, a salesman, and Louis, a shoemaker. There is no firm identification of Van der Ahe.

            Macon Carter van Hook was born in North Carolina December 8, 1843 to Southern-born parents who after living in Ohio for a period, immigrated to North Carolina. Though attached to the South by birth and parentage, he served as a sergeant in Company K of the 6th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, enlisting at Oskaloosa July 12, 1861, when he was eighteen and reenlisting in January 1864. He was severely in the right side at Resaca, Georgia on May 13, 1864. He applied for a pension in July 1865, as an invalid soldier and was granted four dollars a month.

            Russell mentions his work in 1887 and we hear nothing more of him until 1894, when a letter from him appears in Zion’s Watch Tower. In 1883 he and his family lived in Miamisburg, Ohio. Sometime before 1887, he and his family moved to Columbus, Ohio. The 1896-1897 R. L. Polk directory for Columbus says he was employed as an “agent.” The 1910 Census shows him as retired, but he continued to present Bible lectures in Ohio. Our last notice of him seems to be an advertisement for a lecture entitled What Happens After Death, given in Portsmouth, Ohio, in January 1914. He died in Columbus, Ohio, April 27, 1917.[1]

---

[1]              Residence in Miamisburg, wound, and pension details: List of Pensioners on the Roll: January 1, 1883, Government Printing Office, Washinton, D. C., page 233.

 

HELP!

So at some point the blog post index and the 'search this blog' box went missing from this blog. I don't know how to fix that. Anyone?

Stuff

So we have many secondary research issues, things it would be nice to know but we can live without if we must. I'm enlisting your help with some of these.

We want to know the name of the Methodist clergyman in Americus, Kansas, in 1883.

We want to know J. B. Adamson's exact occupation.

We need to identify "brothers" M. C. van Hook, Myers and Cobb - early Watch Tower evangelists. Thanks to Miquel, we now know that M. C. van Hook is Macon C. van Hook, born in North Carolina in 1844 and later a resident of Columbus Ohio! Super stuff!

We need a reasonable biography of William Dow of Albany, New York. He supported Russell in an article appearing in The Albany Morning Express in 1895.

Because some blog readers are from Britain

Miquel!

Thanks for what you sent. Hugely important things in that group.
Rachael

Out of Babylon: Current Work - Temporary post

If you copy this for personal use, please don't share it off the blog.

Out of Babylon

            There is almost no record of the earliest congregations’ internal structure or of the nature of their meetings. Though meeting guidance was given as early as 1884, a standard meeting format wasn’t introduced until the 1890s, and nature of meetings varied by place. To understand them we must rely on comments made in later decades. While some of his observations were appropriate to later years, the anonymous author of the Watchtower series “The Modern History of Jehovah’s Witnesses” accurately describes affiliated congregations in the period before 1900:

Thanks for the comments, everyone! Helpful and encouraging. The rest of this post is deleted.

James E. Fitch - As we have it now.

James Edwin Fitch

            J. E. Fitch (1830-1926) was an early Washington Territory pioneer and Methodist clergyman. In the late 1850s Fitch was in Wisconsin, working in cooperation with a Baptist missionary “for the purpose of showing to the world how well Christians could agree, and to show their love for the churches; and a revival ensued whereby many were saved from the sin of the world, taken into the Churches.” About two hundred converts were added to the Methodist church during the first year (1857-1858) of Fitch’s ministry in Wisconsin.[1] In 1868 Fitch was in Iowa.[2] His ministry within the Methodist church seems to have been successful.

            In 1882 Fitch was living in North Prosser, Washington. Fitch read Food for Thinking Christians and was convinced by it. He recounted his conversion to Watch Tower doctrine in a letter to The St. Paul, Minnesota, Enterprise: “The Holy Sprit led my companion and self out of darkness into light, 36 years ago, by reading and studying that blessed little booklet, ‘Food for Thinking Christians,’ and the later restitution publications, ‘Searching the Scriptures daily whether these things were so.’ We have never doubted these precious harvest truths from that day to this.”[3] He and his wife left the Methodist Church which he later referred to as the “barren desert of Methodism.”

            We did not find a reference to Fitch in The Watch Tower, so his work within the Watch Tower movement is unclear. However, we run across him in one of the first person interviews that sometimes contribute to our research. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the elder of us interviewed surviving members of the Hazen family, long time residents of the lower Yakima River Valley. Kermit Hazen, an elder in the Pasco, Washington, congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses recalled his father’s interaction with an aged and infirm former colporteur. Though the connection is tenuous, we think this is Fitch. He lived in the right place, near Prosser, Washington. The aged colporteur’s family opposed Watch Tower teachings. Fitch’s family presents him as a Methodist. The 1900 United States Census notes Fitch as “a preacher,” hence a colporteur within Watch Tower parlance.

---

[1]               History of Vernon County, Wisconsin: Together with Sketches of Its Towns, Union Publishing Company, Springfield, Illinois, 1884, page 406.

[2]               Minutes of the Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church for 1868, New York, page 188.

[3]               Found in the March 12, 1918, issue.

The "Mailing Tracts"

 

We need clear scans of  tracts 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21. Can you help?

James E. Fitch

Letter from Fitch in March 12, 1918 St. Paul Enterprise

He lived in Washington State at the time of writing.

We need some basic biography for him. Can you help?

Just a reminder ...

Some of our readers feel a sense of ownership when it comes to this blog. But the blog belongs to Mr. Schulz and myself. We set the rules, enforce them and make policy.Often if you see a scold or a restatement of the rules, we will not tell you why we did that. Assume you don't know the whole story.

We do not care what religion you are; you many not break the rules. 

Jerome or Roberto

Help me if you can. I want to block visits from S. Korea and Russia, the entire countries.

I'm asking politely. Since neither the Russian nor the Korean visitors to this blog can abide by the rules, I'm asking you to stop visiting this blog. I don't want you here. You have absolutely no ethical standards. A thief is a thief. You are not free to use our material without our consent. Stop it and go away. Be nice little boys.

In the past week ...

In the past week we've had about 100 visits from South Korea, and in the past month 150 visits, but NO comments. Why is that? Do you feel free to use our material without even a thanks? Civilized behavior demands a thank you when others further your research, does it not?

You are making me uncomfortable and suspicious. It takes effort to block an entire country. I'm asking you to state your reason for coming to this blog or to go away and stay away. If I have to block the entire country of South Korea I will. I'd rather you just respect the rules here and GO AWAY.

The material on this blog is copyrighted. You are not fee to use it without permission. Even if that's the usual practice in Korea.

Roberto!

Thanks for crafting the new header. Much appreciated.
Rachael

So you know

I'm swamped with end of semester stuff and planning a teacher (and para-educator) training day for staff. So you may not see much new material on the blog for two or three weeks.

We have a new reader (or readers) from Korea. If that's you, leave a comment and introduce yourself. We lost a couple of readers to a fit of temper. Shame on you. All we ask is that you keep your comments to historical matters. We respect everyone's religious views, but we do not debate them here. If that bothers you, then you do not belong here. Restating rules that have been in place here since the blog was started is not a scold.

We need Russell era controversialist booklets and articles, especially those published before 1910.

There are several Hessler family obituaries that might lead to living family. The obits suggest the family continued as Jehovah's Witnesses. Anyone volunteer to trace living family and contact them?

If you email me and don't get an immediate reply, know that I'm not ignoring you. I'm very busy. Sometimes you have to wait. If you don't hear from me in a week, resend the email.

Mr. Schulz is some better, but please do not email him. He works on our project, sleeps a lot, and his work is limited to a few hours a week. Please direct your questions and comments to me.

I was asked about blog 2, the private blog. It is inactive. 

Comment

Mr. Schulz and I invest a huge amount of money and work to further our research. We don't ask you for money. We do like comments. The same two - sometimes three - people comment. Everyone else that visits this blog avoids commenting. Even an "interesting" or "well done" is good.

Lack of comments is personally discouraging. You want this work to continue? An occasional comment helps.

Remember this?

From the chapter titled Out of Babylon (with slight revisions)

The Woodworths were not alone. Others represented pre-existing interest in Scranton. Among them was D. M. Hessler. We know little about Daniel Milburn Hessler. (1860-1917) He was a prominent citizen, owning a laundry business in Scranton with branches in New Jersey, Indiana and Pennsylvania. He appears once in the Watch Tower through a letter to Russell in February 1891, and he named a son born that year Charles Russell Hessler. Commenting on a new cover design for Zion’s Watch Tower, we find him expressing his strongly held belief:

I received January number last night and quickly noticed the new suit in which the tower is clothed. I feel sure that the improvement will be greatly appreciated by its readers. The emblem of the cross and crown is an appropriate and beautiful design to be worn by the tower. Its presence should ever encourage, sustain and comfort the household of faith. It should also be a warning or reminder; for as the cross and crown are inseparable in the design, so the two are to be inseparably associated in the experience of the overcomers. If we would wear the crown we must bear the cross.[1]

            Hessler drops out of the record with this letter. We do not know if he maintained his interest or how active he was within the Scranton congregation. By  July 1895, meetings were held in George W. Hessler’s home at 728 Green Ridge Street. Erlenmyer would have directed the Woodworths to this meeting. The one notice of it appears in the July 13, 1895, Scranton, Pennsylvania, Tribune:

The Watch Tower Bible class will meet at the residence of G. W. Hessler, 728 Green Ridge street, [sic] Sunday, July 14, at 10 a. m. The subject will be “Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began,” Acts, iii 21. The leader will also explain from the “Chart of the Ages” the special call of this gospel age, “The straight gate and narrow way to life, and the few there be that find it.” Matt. Vii, 14.

            We do not know who the class “leader” was, but we do know something of George Hessler. [died May 1913] He was a cabinet maker, “well known in building circles,” and a member of the Improved Order of Heptasophs, a fraternal organization. Hessler was an inventor, holding patents for a ‘book holder’ and a toilet chair.[2] A German immigrant, he became a citizen in February 1909.[3] Later in life he invested in a Cuban gold mine and he was swindled.[4] As with Daniel Hessler, we do not know if he maintained his interest. When his daughter Hazel was married in 1905, it was by the “Reverend Stahl.”[5] This cannot be taken as evidence of later belief because in this era adherents turned to clergy for weddings. Few Watch Tower evangelists were recognized by state or county officials to perform marriages.

---

[1]               Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, February 1891, page 29.

[2]               U.S. Patents numbers 263,290 and 752,551.

[3]               Scranton Wochenblatt, February 25, 1909.

[4]               The Scranton, Pennsylvania, Truth, January 12, 1911.

[5]               The Scranton, Pennsylvania, Truth¸ June 7, 1905.

D. M. Hessler's son Charles Russell served at Bethel in the 1940s and is mentioned in the 1943 Yearbook. Can anyone help us connect with Hessler relations who are still Jehovah's Witnesses?

Benjamin Ford Weatherwax

1836-1903

As featured in recent chapter on this blog "Out of Babylon"

With grateful thanks to Diana via Ancestry.com who is a vaguely distant relation. She gives permission for the photograph to be reproduced as we see fit.

Not so wild wild suspcion

The evidence is so slim as to be suspect, very suspect, but we're working on the supposition that Brother van der Ahe was Chris von (also van) der Ahe, the owner of the Browns baseball team. All we have is the possibility that he met a Watch Tower evangelist in New York. We think the possibility is strong. He had a connection to Pittsburgh, were he was well known.

We need to prove or disprove this. We're up against a brick wall. Can you do better?

We believe his interest was short lived. We believe that personal difficulties started it and ended it. But, everything is just suspicion. Help!

We probably have to give this up, as fun as it would be to have a drunken baseball club owner in the story. Our focus has switched to William Van der Ahe, aka vonderahe and vondera, etc. He appears to have been a clerk, maybe in Russell's Federal Street Store. HELP!

It's time (We think) ...

To start preparing Separate Identity, volume one, for ebook format. The first step is to make corrections to the text. Send me a list of the "literary owies" you've found in the test.

Roberto, can we ...

Can we add some sort of "Please visit our newest posts. We'd love to see your feedback." thing to the blog title?
R

"Fringe" items

A sample of the kind of advertisements that started appearing in the St Paul Enterprise newspaper in 1917. If any survived they would be highly collectable today.

I rather like the "Four pages, over 2,000 yards..."

Richards again ...

We need to know if he shows up in The Watch Tower in the 1920s and 1930s. Anyone help?

We need to confirm birth data for this man

William E. Richards

            W. E. Richards was born in Illinois in May 1861 and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church as a youth. By the time he appears on the pages of Zion’s Watch Tower, he lived in Ohio with his wife and children. Writing to Russell in February 1892, he recalled his youthful interest in the Bible and his desire to preach: “From a child I have read the Scriptures, and all other books that I thought or hoped would make plain to my understanding the truth, as I was hungry to know and anxious to teach it.”[1] By the mid-1880s he was “

---

[1]               “Out of Darkness into his Marvelous Light,” Zion’s Watch Tower, March 1, 1893, page 78.

We must

We must be boring everyone.

I wish...

St Paul Enterprise, 1917

Another early worker

The Lady Canvasser

            A notice appeared in the Monongahela, Pennsylvania, Daily Republican of May 7, 1887, saying that, “The lady canvasser of the book ‘Millennial Dawn,’ wishes to announce to the subscribers that the book will not be delivered until the 20th of the month of May, or a little later, as the first edition of the book has been entirely exhausted. About the 20th, she will be in the city to deliver the books.” We do not know who this was. In the November 1883, Watch Tower, Russell named “sisters” Raynor and Vogel as exemplary colporteurs. Vogel’s first name appears to be Catherine. She continued in the work into the 1890s, working with a Helena Boehmer in eastern Pennsylvania.[1] Laura J. Raynor (1839-1917) was Maria Russell’s older sister and a widow. (Henry Raynor, her husband, died in 1873.) Her active ‘ministry’ seems to have been short-lived, and when Maria Russell left her husband Laura left the Watch Tower.

            There were other women evangelists. One such was Millia La Clare, a resident of Kansas. Despite his illness, she and her husband packed their two boys, aged seven and eleven, into a covered wagon “to save expenses” and canvassed the prairie. Her brief biography, written as a letter to The St. Paul, Minnesota, Enterprise tells the story:

I have put in over 33 years of faith, without doubting my God’s power to save even me, and 12 full years as a colporteur, and that in a covered wagon in summer to save expenses, for we were very poor when I got the Truth and my dear husband had been poorly and it was good for him, but very hard on me, as I often had been wet and cold, slept in wet bedding and every way, for I was so happy over my call to sacrifice, and not much experienced I often did more than reasonable service. Have laid out in rain and thunder and wind storms and went too early in spring and too late in fall; but my zeal was to help “harvest” all I could.[2]

---

[1]               C. T. Russell: Harvest Laborers: Pray for Them, Zion’s Watch Tower¸ September 15, 1892, page 50.

[2]               Voices of the People: Or What our Readers Say, St. Paul, Minnesota, Enterprise¸ November 12, 1918.

Bro. Marting

Minor progress on this man:

Fred W. Marting (b. 1853) received a copy of Food for Thinking Christians in the fall of 1881 and began circulating it immediately. “It was food for me,” he wrote. “I scattered it ever since.” Later in life he lived in Pittsboro, Indiana, and then Chicago, Illinois.[1]

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[1]               Voices of the People: What our Readers Say, The St. Paul Enterprise, April 2, 1915.

Some of you...

I owe some of you emails. Be patient. I'm swamped.

Phillips and Bowman from earlier post

Captain John Riley Phillips, born August 24, 1839, near Meadowville, son of James and Osa (Johnson) Phillips, grandson of Jacob Phillips, great grandson of Isaac, and great-great-grandson of Moses Phillips, an Englishman who settled on the South Branch, and subsequently in Randolph County. Isaac Phillips married Miss Kittle, of Randolph, and Jacob married Sarah Bennett. Osa Johnson was a daughter of John Johnson and granddaughter of Robert Johnson, a Scotchman. The subject of this sketch had one sister, Sarah Ann, and no brother. His parents were very poor, possessed but little education, married young and settled first in the eastern part of Barbour, then a wild region. Subsequently they moved to Clover Creek, which was still wilder, and again they moved, this time to Brushy Fork in Barbour, where they made a permanent home. John Riley Phillips was a man of unusually brilliant mind. Had he been educated he would probably have gained a national reputation as a thinker and lecturer. He was an orator of unusual ability, and a careful reader of such books as came within his reach. His education was limited to the schools of the neighborhood. Among his teachers was William Furguson who made a deep impression upon the young man's mind. A literary society in that neighborhood, attended by Captain Phillips, Captain A. C. Bowman and others, was an association for good, and in point of intellectual strength its equal could be found in few rural districts anywhere.

Captain Phillips and Captain Bowman studied law at home, intending to go to Texas to enter professional life; but their plans never matured. The Civil War came on, and they espoused the cause of the South, were the very first in the field, marched to Grafton, retreated to Philippi, fled to Beverly, joined Garnett's army; were in that general's retreat from Laurel Hill, and were separated in the route. Phillips fought through the entire war, in some of the hardest battles, in victory and defeat. He received wounds from which he never recovered, although he lived till October 24, 1894. On March 7, 1867, he was married to Elizabeth E. Parks, and had one child, May.

Not Satisfactory ...

Here's an excerpt from a new chapter. This is not making me happy. Not at all. We need to identify these people. If you want to help, this is a good way. Put first names to the last names in this section .... This is rough draft.

New Workers

            It is impossible to name everyone who showed interest or who became an adherent. There are, however, interesting comments that lead us to some sound conclusions. Many of the names we run across are those of Age-to-Come/One Faith believers. Russell said some of his readers had been Second Adventists. Edward Payson Woodward, whom we met in Nelson Barbour: The Millennium’s Forgotten Prophet as chairman of the Worchester Conference and found in sympathy with Barbour, wrote that several of his “personal friends … accepted Mr. Russell as their Leader and spiritual Guide.” He too read Millennial Dawn (later Studies in the Scriptures), but rejected it.[1] Many more came from mainline Churches. New workers entered the field almost with the first issue of Zion’s Watch Tower, but we are left with scant documentation. Despite our best and persistent efforts we cannot identify most of them.

“Brother and Sister McCormack”

Apparently well-known to Watch Tower readers, the McCormacks are mentioned once. In July 1882, Russell noted that they were moving to Chicago:

The Chicago friends will be glad to know that Bro. McCormack is about to remove there. Chicago is a good field, and our Brother and his wife remove there in the hope of being used by the Master for the blessing of the household of faith, by disseminating the truth. When he calls on you, receive him well –he is a brother in Christ. Let meetings be commenced at once, and the Lord bless you.[2]

            Though we lose sight of the McCormacks afterward, we don’t lose sight of the work in Chicago. Street witnessing with Food for Thinking Christians produced fruitage. Someone wrote to Russell in 1884 expressing his gratitude for the booklet. He believed it reformed him:

Having picked up one of your little books on the street, called “Food for Thinking Christians,” and “Why Evil was Permitted,” I became deeply interested in it. It seems very good for thinking sinners as well as Christians. I am a reformed man now, having been down in the gutter many a time through intoxicating drink, though I have not tasted any now for over a year, may God help me to keep from it. Having just read the little book, I see that you will send others, and by so doing you will oblige me. I would like to lead a better life, and become a Christian. I cannot see fully into the reality of religion, but may the Lord open my heart and eyes to the great love he has for them that fear him. I will try to make good use of anything you send.[3]

            A few months previously, Russell printed a letter from a newly interested person who reported that he and his wife were dissatisfied with denominational teachings. They wanted to circulate tracts:

You will permit me, though a stranger, to say that I have received knowledge for both head and heart that years of searching had failed to accomplish, and so with the hope of seeing others freed from sectarian darkness, I, too, will be glad to be counted among those who are helping to distribute the meat in due season. I know whom I trust now, thanks be to God. The “Food”, came just when I had lost hold, because there was nothing to hold me in the churches – for I searched Baptist, Methodist, Free Methodist, Congregational and Presbyterian denominations till I became satisfied that the Lord had something better for me to find: Then “Food” came – it seemed accidentally – but now I see it was providentially. Let me heartily thank you – or rather thank God for giving you the ability to open the way to the light. Great is the surrounding darkness and we are desirous to have others see their way clearly. If you can send us some reading matter, we can drop it into good soil. A dear old child of God left our house in great sorrow and perplexity of mind last Sunday evening. He has been a deacon in the Baptist church for thirty years. Said he, “O, I have studied these matters until I just find, that the more I give my mind to these things the less I know; and now I just know nothing and have made up my mind to let it go, for God will bring it out all right; and what can I do but wait Gods own good time. When we get over there, we will see face to face.” I endeavored to persuade him to expect the mystery to be explained. Said he: “O bring me anything. I want the best the Lord gives. I know God is love and I hate this “Hell doctrine!” The minister in a little church here is in a quandary: he is a thinking man, only he is in the “iron bedstead.” Please send reading matter, if possible, – these two at least feel their need.[4]

            An unnamed but persistent worker sent a brief note in April 1886, enclosing a subscription payment. The note makes it clear that he had been working in the poorer neighborhoods: “It is encouraging to know that among the lowly houses there are ears to hear.” When printing the note, Russell omitted the signature.[5]

The Lady Canvasser

            A notice appeared in the Monongahela, Pennsylvania, Daily Republican of May 7, 1887, saying that, “The lady canvasser of the book ‘Millennial Dawn,’ wishes to announce to the subscribers that the book will not be delivered until the 20th of the month of May, or a little later, as the first edition of the book has been entirely exhausted. About the 20th, she will be in the city to deliver the books.” We do not know who this was. In the November 1883, Watch Tower, Russell named “sisters” Raynor and Vogel as exemplary colporteurs. Vogel’s first name appears to be Catherine. She continued in the work into the 1890s, working with a Helena Boehmer in eastern Pennsylvania.[6] Laura J. Raynor (1839-1917) was Maria Russell’s older sister and a widow. (Henry Raynor, her husband, died in 1873.) Her active ‘ministry’ seems to have been short-lived.

Others

           Also active in late 1883 were “Brothers” Van der Ahe, Cain, Grable, and Hughes. We know almost nothing about them, not even their first names. In 1887, Russell mentions “Brothers” Marting, van Hook, Gillis, Myers, Bryan, Cobb, Blundin, Hickey, and Bowman.

Blundin and Hickey we profile in more appropriate places. M. C. Van Hook was active in the American Midwest. He filled in for Josephus Perry Martin while Martin preached near Miamisburg, Ohio. He was still active in 1892, working with Samuel Leigh and William H. Deming in southern Ohio and northern Kentucky. Russell described them as “earnest and faithful and are blessed and a blessing wherever they go.”[7] He was working in Indiana in 1894. We lose sight of him afterward. And we do not know his full name.[8]

Myers is an unknown. Several Myers appear in latter issues of the Watch Tower. None of them seem to have been active in this period. Marting and Cobb are also unknowns. There are two possibilities for “Brother Cobb.” A poem by N. B. Cobb appeared in the June 1881, Watch Tower, and a brief note praising The Plan of the Ages was signed by a J. Cobb. It appears in the October 1886 issue.[9] We have but on sample of Cobb’s work, preserved in a letter to Russell printed in the June 1888 Tower. Sent from D. M. Lee, a Baptist minister in Reynolds County, Missouri, it records Cobb’s work with sample issues of Zion’s Watch Tower:

Please indulge me, a little. I had a copy of “zion's watch tower” (Oct. 1886) handed me the other day by Mr. Cobb. I am wonderfully well pleased with it. It has brought certain strange things to my eyes, that I have been for years desiring to look into. I have toiled many long years as a minister under the Baptist banner. The more I study the Scriptures, and the better I understand Baptist Theology and discipline, the less I esteem them.

For years I have fought the palpable, absurd and inconsistent doctrine of eternal punishment. I am now 71 years old and unable to work; but thank God, I can talk yet, if I can't work; and when I speak, I wish to speak the truth; but feel confident I cannot do it under my confused conditions. I need a kind hand to lead me out. If you please send me the tower, I will use it to the best of my ability, and will undertake to pay you for it during the year.[10]

We have three possible identities for Bowman. Adam C. Bowman, once a captain in the 19^th Virginia Cavalry and a lawyer, circulated The Plan of the Ages, but his activity seems to have been mostly limited to Barbour County, West Virginia. He handed a copy to J. R. Phillips, a Confederate veteran.[11] Phillips took up the message, writing to Russell in 1887:

I have talked much about the millennial dawn with persons of intelligence, since I began its reading. Some priest-ridden persons reject it, but I find its ideas a joy to many. I traveled for fifteen miles across my county, a few days since, with a gentleman, and shortly after joining him I remarked, I have been lately reading the millennial dawn, the most wonderful book of our day. I gave him its outline and he eagerly continued the conversation through our three hours ride. The next day I luckily had another friend to make a part of the return ride with. I mentioned the book as before, and the gentleman soon became interested, and we discussed it up to our parting. He then invited me to go to his community and lecture upon the subject, which I promised to do, when I thoroughly investigated the whole subject. I thank you a thousand times for having placed this book in my hands and will be glad to have the second volume on any terms.[12]

                Phillips remained interested at least to 1891. After reading Millennial Dawn – Volume 2, he wrote to Russell expressing his gratitude. He was wounded in the Battle of the Wilderness and crippled for life, he said. “I returned to my home that had been ruined, at the close of the war, and found myself a cripple for life with a life-struggle before me. I felt that my lot was a hard one, but I determined to honor God and keep up a resolute will. Sometimes dark and threatening clouds gathered about me, almost despair settled over my mind and fears almost paralyzed my hopes for the future.” Reading The Plan of the Ages changed that. “I read it, and poverty vanished into the marvelous light of a bright and glorious hope,” he wrote. After reading both volumes he believed he could read his Bible with understanding. He wanted to visit Russell during on of the Passover conventions to shake his hand and thank him.[13]

                Another possibility is a J. T. Bowman who held meetings in Joplin, Missouri. He comes into the record too late to be the “Brother Bowman” active in 1886. The most probable of the Bowmans is Payton Green Bowman [continues]

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[1]               E. P. Woodward: Later-Day Delusions, No. 7: Another Gospel; An Exposure of the System Known as Russellism, Safeguard and Armory, July 1914, page 2.

[2]               C. T. Russell: View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower,  July 1882, page 1.

[3]               Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, March 1884, page 1.

[4]               Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, November 1883, page 2.

[5]               Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, April 1886, page 2. [Not in reprints.]

[6]               C. T. Russell: Harvest Laborers: Pray for Them, Zion’s Watch Tower¸ September 15, 1892, page 50.

[7]              For Deming see volume 1, page 52. We profile Blundin in chapter – . Quotation is from ZWT of February 15, 1892, page 50.

[8]               Voice of the Church, Zion’s Watch Tower EXTRA, June 11, 1894, page 190. [Not in reprints.]

[9]               On page 8 of that issue. [Not in reprints.]

[10]             Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, June 1888, page 2.

[11]             There are three J. R. Philips listed among Virginia veterans. Two were privates in Cavalry units. One was a Captain serving in the 31^st Virginia Volunteers. Captain John R. Phillips fits the biographical details found in Zion’s Watch Tower. (See J. D. Cook: A History of the Thirty-First Virginia Regiment of Volunteers, C. S. A., Masters Thesis, West Virginia University, 1955, pages 7-8.

[12]             More Good News, Zion’s Watch Tower, October 1887, page 8. [Not in reprints.]

[13]             Extracts from Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, February 1891, page 30.