My copy of the United States v. Rutherford et. al. transcript is defective. Can you fill in the missing words?
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Can you add to this?
The story of Russell era adherents is as important as Russell's own story but much harder to follow. Can you add to these short biographies:
H. V. “Minnie” Peterson and Viola Townsend
Minnie
Peterson and Viola Townsend were the first two adherents in St. Paul and
Minneapolis. However, as significant as that is, we know little about either of
them. Minnie was born January 20, 1858, in Germany, immigrating to America in
1883 when she was sixteen. She married William P. Peterson in Wisconsin, and
they immigrated to Minnesota sometime between 1890 and 1894. Her obituary
describes her as, “Having been reared from the earliest childhood by Christian
parents.” She was, said her obituary, a devout Christian, “ever loving to know
more of God’s Word.” We do not know the exact date of her conversion to Watch
Tower faith, but she was an enduring and faithful member of the St. Paul
congregation. Again, from her obituary we have this:
She was a faithful class attendant and a diligent
student of the Word. Although of a quiet retiring disposition, it delighted her
soul to bear witness at every opportunity to the old, old story of Jesus and
His love. She was wholly devoted to spiritual things, and in holding up the
banner of truth and righteousness.[1]
That’s
the entire story as we know it. It is frustratingly brief and just as
frustratingly incomplete. And we know less about Viola Townsend. She is
mentioned in a letter printed in the November 1, 1896, Watch Tower, but
the reference is incidental, adding nothing to our understanding.[2]
Alfred Henry Furley
A. H.
Furley [1865 – 1947] was an English born immigrant, listed as a “laborer” in
the 1895 Minnesota state census. Furley was, as were many, probably most, Watch
Tower adherents, seeking to conform to the Divine Will as expressed in the
Bible. He believed that God led him into “His marvelous light.” He had, he
wrote, the elements of ‘truth’ early in life: The need for a savior; the need
for a Ransom from sin; and the obligation to obey “my dear Heavenly Father.” He
associated with the Salvation Army, but found many religiously divergent voices
among them. “I came across many people with so many different views,” He wrote.
“Here indeed was confusion – Babylon – making it extremely difficult, if not
impossible, for those not in the Truth, to know which were the right views.” He
characterized 1885 to 1893 as years of religious instability: “I was drifting
about in confusion, but gathering the Truth from Scriptures little by little.”[3]
A
Watch Tower colporteur found him sometime in 1893. Leaving the colporteur
unnamed, he described their interaction this way:
There came to me in Duluth, Minn., a colporteur who
asked me, if I did not wish to buy a book. On my inquiring what it contained,
he explained to me some of its contents. I readily saw that it was different
from any other book. Our talk drifted along and one question led to another
until we came to the subject of the soul, he wishing to know how I harmonize my
view with the Scriptures, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life.”
I did not buy the book at that time, but later a tract
was left with me, and I saw that I could get the book on loan, so I sent for it
– it proved to be “The Divine Plan of the Ages.” And it surely was a wonderful
book, making everything so plain, which before had been so full of mystery.
The
tract is unidentifiable, at least by us. And Furley’s narrative leaves the
exact dates of this transaction vague. He was isolated from others “of like
precious faith,” and in 1903 inserted an ad into the personals section of The
Duluth, Minnesota, Evening Herald, seeking others “interested in Zion’s
Watch Tower and Millennium Dawn Series.” We do not know the result, and the
remainder of Furley’s story is illusive.
Arthur Cumberland
Cumberland
was an immigrant, born in England December 9 1826. The 1900 United States
census dated his immigration to 1833. Various census records list his
occupation as teacher and farmer, not an unusual combination in that era,
especially on the frontier. His obituary reported that “he came into the truth
in 1882” while he was living in Mantorville, a very small village. It does not
give particulars but the date suggests he read Food for Thinking Christians
and was convinced by it. He started reading and saving Watch Tower
publications, finally accumulating “a full set of Towers bound and complete
from the first issue up to date.” [1916] He became a serious Bible reader. His
obituary said: “He was one of the best read brothers in the Scripture we ever
met. If we gave him a part of a quotation, he would give it to us in full and
tell you where to find it.” The obituary reported him as an earnest worker, the
mainstay of the Rochester, Minnesota class. His last few years were spent in
Canada, also working to further the Watch Tower message. Of his children, two
of his daughters were also Watch Tower adherents. He died August 27, 1916,
still an adherent.
[1] Details from the 1900 US Census and Mrs. Minnie Peterson
[Obituary], The St. Paul, Minnesota, New Era Enterprise, April 27, 1926.
[2] Encouraging Words from Faithful Workers, Zion’s
Watch Tower, November 1, 1896, page 264. [Not in Reprints.]
[3] Furley to editor of The St. Paul, Minnesota,
Enterprise, January 29, 1918.
Sunday, June 2, 2019
Pittsburgh Presbyterians (1 of 3)
by Jerome
(Addenda part 1)
Well over a year ago
Rachael asked me to write up all the bits and pieces that had been discovered
since volume one of Separate Identity was published in 2014. Using mainly my
own old articles I put something together and sent it off. Having recently been trying to sort out the muddle on my 2 terabyte hard
drive I came across this material and, after checking with Bruce, am turning it
into three stand alone articles to be posted at intervals. This first one below
needed further revising, because still more information had been discovered
since it was written. (With apologies for slight formatting glitches which I just don't seem to be able to sort.)
The nature of writing on history
is that there is always potentially something else to discover, some new
document to be unearthed, or some re-evaluation of existing evidence. This has
certainly proved true with the Separate Identity series, where volume one
provided much new material that turned previous assumptions on their head.
As much as possible we will try
and cover the new information in chronological order.
We know that several members of
the Russell family ended up in the Pittsburgh area. Charles Tays Russell, James
Grier Russell and Joseph Lytle Russell were brothers, who all lived and ultimately
died in Pittsburgh. They were all buried together in the Allegheny cemetery in
a family plot originally purchased by James. An umarried sister, Mary Jane
Russell, is also buried there.
They were part of a large family
belonging to Thomas Russell and Fannie Grier (Russell) of Londonderry in what
is now Northern Ireland. According to the Aunt Sarah Russell Morris document
(see article Mary Jane Russell posted here on April 1 this year) the Russells
had thirteen children, ten of whom survived to adulthood.
Relying on his obituary for
details, one of the first to reach America was Charles Tays Russell. In 1822 he
was in New York. By 1831 he was in Pittsburgh with a store. We now know that he
joined the Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh in 1834.
The
Third Presbyterian Church Pittsburgh was established in 1834, and as
members joined they were given a number. In the very first year of its
operation, Charles T Russell, became a member, and was given the number 47.
Here is his entry in the church admissions register.
The entry states he was
admitted on January 22, 1834, by certificate, which means he came from another
Presbyterian Church with a letter of introduction. We do not know which one that was, or
whether it was in Pittsburgh or elsewhere.
The right hand column details
what eventually happened to these members. The entry for Chas T Russell shows
that he was “suspended.” Had he simply left for another church the entry would
have read “dismissed” – which can be a bit confusing for readers unfamiliar
with the terms as they were used in the register. Had he misbehaved and been
expelled the register would have stated that, and quite likely would have given
salacious detail of his offense. However, the entry “suspended” in this context
suggests that Charles Tays simply lapsed. He stopped attending, he ceased
making contributions, and eventually the church wrote him off. There is no
evidence of any subsequent involvement in religious affairs for the rest of his
(admittedly) sketchy history. And his obituary does not tell us who conducted
his funeral service.
It does confirm the Presbyterian
background of the family in Londonderry, in what is now called Northern
Ireland. Other arrivals from this family would have automatically gravitated
towards the Pittsburgh Presbyterians.
We have no church record for his
brother James. In the early 1830s James was with another brother Alexander in
the greater New York area at Elmwood Hill. James and Alexander married sisters.
Alexander married Margaret Risk on June 21, 1832 at Bloomingdale, NY, and James
had previously married Sarah Ann Risk. The Risk family were originally Episcopaleans
from Faun (probably Fahan, Co. Donegal, Ireland). A search of Presbyterian
Church records for the greater New York area would be a daunting task, and it
is known that Alexander ended up attending the Dutch Reformed Church in New
York. One of his daughters, Cornelia S Davenport, worshiped at the Plymouth
Bethel in Brooklyn, NY, long before it became the Brooklyn Tabernacle.
Returning to Pittsburgh, we know that
James and Sarah had moved there by 1840 because of the census. James planned to
stay there forever. Literally. He purchased a family plot for ten graves in the
newly opened Allegheny cemetery in the mid-1840s in Section 7, plot 17. Wife
Sarah was the first to be buried there in December1846, and he joined her a
year later in December 1847. He was the oldest of the Russell family in
America, but because he died quite young was soon “forgotten.”
Our particular interest is in another
of the Russell brothers, Joseph Lytle (or Lytel), because he became father to
Charles Taze Russell, named after his uncle but with variant spelling for the
middle name. The Watchtower Society’s history video Faith in Action part 1 (Out
of Darkness) suggests that he came to America already married in 1845. The
commentary states “it was in 1845 that Joseph and Ann Eliza Russell emigrated
from Ireland to Pennsylvania, USA.” Subsequent research shows this to be
incorrect on several counts. It is probably based on J L Russell’s obituary
that states he came to America “about 1845”, but the problem with obituaries is
that the one person who can verify the information is not there to do so.
We know that Joseph Lytle’s
application for American citizenship in 1848 stated that he had been in the
United States for five years. This can now be confirmed because his name occurs
in a Pittsburgh newspaper for 1843.
The Pittsburgh Daily Post began a
regular column in 1843 listing the names of all those who needed to collect
mail from the Pittsburgh post office. It is a great shame for researchers that
the feature did not start in earlier years. In the issue for Monday, October
16, 1843 (repeated in the following two daily issues) we find Joseph L Russell.
One notes that the name Joseph has an
unusual spelling. This is either a misprint in the paper or some creative
spelling on the part of whoever sent the letter, perhaps from the old country,
Ireland. Whatever the reason, this is probably why this newspaper reference has
not been discovered until recently.
Above the name of Joceph (sic) L
Russell is James Russell, who was likely his older brother. A month later in
the issue for Saturday, November 18, 1843, we find the other brother, Charles T
Russell, also being asked to collect his mail.
So Joseph L Russell was in Pittsburgh
in October 1843. His older brother Charles Tays Russell had been there for more
than a decade and had joined the Third Presbyterian Church in January 1834. The
next discovery is that Joseph Lytle chose to join the same church in 1845.
Here is the same church register that
featured Charles T Russell as member number 47.
We are now up to member number 551, Joseph Russell.
Joseph was admitted to this church on March 7, 1845, by certificate. This means that like
Charles Tays before him, he had come from another Presbyterian Church with a
letter of introduction, but again we don’t know from which church, whether in
Pittsburgh or elsewhere. We also note in the right hand column that he was
ultimately “dismissed” so changed churches again.
Joseph Lytle was to transfer from the
Third to the Second Presbyterian on December 1, 1849. Here is the Second
Presbyterian register that provides that information.
To
explain the abbreviations ex = examination and cert = certificate. So Joseph L.
Russell was admitted to the church on examination and certificate on December 1, 1849. This confirmed that he
had been a member of another church in good standing before transferring to the
Second Presbyterians.
The
event is also mentioned in the Second Presbyterian Session Minutes from
December 1, 1849, as reproduced below.
These
minutes add the extra information that pulls the story together: Joseph L.
Russell was previously a member of the Third Presbyterian Church (New School) in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In fact it was this reference that opened the door on
the research into the Russell brothers’ religious affiliations. It led back to
the Third Presbyterian records that found not only Joseph Lytle joining in
1845, but Charles Tays becoming a member in 1834.
December 1, 1849, was an
interesting time for Joseph L to change churches; which brings us to Ann Eliza
Birney, who would become Joseph’s wife and the mother of Charles Taze Russell.
We know that the
Birney family, like the Russell family, came from Ireland. We don’t know when
Ann Eliza made the journey to America, or to Pittsburgh. We do know that the
suggestion she came to America in 1845 already married to Joseph is wrong; she
immigrated to America as a single person. The
Pittsburgh Daily Post’s request for people to collect their mail from the
Pittsburgh post office, so helpful in tracing Charles T and Joseph L, also
gives us valuable information about Ann Eliza.
In 1848, in the Pittsburgh Post
for Saturday, July 1, on page 2, there is a letter waiting for A E Birney.
It is reasonably safe to assume
that this is Ann Eliza, single, in Pittsburgh in 1848. Even more conclusive is
the entry the following year. The graphic below comes from the Pittsburgh Daily
Post for Wednesday, April 4, 1849, page 2.
So this time, we have a Ladies’
List and it is a Miss A E Birney who is asked to collect her mail from the post
office. This tells us that in March 1849 Ann Eliza was still single. Or, to be
more precise, whoever wrote her a letter thought she was still single. And we
don’t know where the letter came from or how long it took to reach Pittsburgh.
No record has been found for the
marriage of Joseph Lytle and Ann Eliza, but that is not uncommon for this type
of record in this era and area. But we can narrow down the date for the
marriage considerably from two pieces of information we now have.
First, as discussed above, we
know that Ann was most likely still single in early 1849. Second, we have
information that enables us to establish when her first child Thomas was conceived.
The information comes
from the 1850 census, which has long been available but has been misread in the
past. This includes Separate Identity volume 1. Page 4 states that Thomas was born in March 1850. This
is a mistake; however, it is a natural one to make, and other researchers on
sites like Ancestry have also made it. The problem shows up when we examine the
1850 census return reproduced below.
The rules for the 1850 census
were that entries should reflect information as it existed on June 1 that year.
So we have Joseph L Russell, aged 32, male, merchant from Ireland. Then Ann E
Russell, aged 26, female, from Ireland. Finally we have T Russell (Thomas)
male, from Pennsylvania, who at first sight might appear to be 3/12. Reading
that as three months old would give the month of March for the birth.
The problem arises with handwriting
of the era, using scratchy pen and ink. Numerous enumerators’ hands are found
in these census returns, with varying degrees of legibility. So let’s zoom in
on that entry for Thomas.
Now we can see that the entry for Thomas is not
3/12 at all, but rather 5/12, which would make Thomas five months old on June
1, which pushes his birth back to January, or even the very end of December. No baptismal record has been
found for Thomas. For that matter, no baptismal record has been found for any
other of Joseph and Ann’s children including Charles Taze Russell, so this is
the best we can do.
But now we have the second piece
of information to pinpoint when Joseph and Ann were married. If their first son
Thomas was born in January 1850, he was conceived around April 1849. With Ann
Eliza addressed as a single person in March 1849, and assuming that Thomas was
conceived within wedlock, this narrows down the time for the marriage to a very
small window. It is pure conjecture here, but maybe that letter waiting for Ann
at the post office in March 1849 related to her impending nuptials.
It should be noted that there is
conflicting information in the burial records for Thomas at the Allegheny cemetery.
Thomas died on 11 August 1855 and the register says he was 5 years and 3 months
when he died. If that were true, he would have been born in May 1849. That
would mean that the census enumerator who recorded Joseph and Ann’s
circumstances for June 1, 1850, mistook a new baby for a child of five months. That
seems most unlikely. Since the burial register pages were copied up after the
events any error would appear to be at that end of Thomas’ history – maybe
confusing the numbers three and eight with the crabby handwriting of the day,
which would take you back again to the January.
It was just before Thomas was
born that Joseph Lytle changed churches from the Third Presbyterian to the Second
Presbyterian. This may have been linked to the impending birth of a first
child, or it may have been a simple geographical relocation within the greater
Pittsburgh area. At present we do not know.
What is also still missing is any
information about Ann Eliza in surviving records of Pittsburgh Presbyterian
churches. However, the church Joseph Lytle joined (and we assume Ann with him)
was also the church Ann’s brother, Thomas, attended at some point. Thomas
Birney’s obituary from 1899 is somewhat garbled but states that he joined the
Second Presbyterian Church in 1845. That date cannot be verified because we
have no record of this in extant church records. Neither do have any record of
his marriage to Mary Ann Covell. However, between 1857 and 1872 six of his
children were baptised in that church, including a daughter named after her
aunt, Ann Eliza.
Second
Presbyterian baptism register. Ann Eliza, daughter of Thomas and Mary
Ann Birney, born October 29, 1856, baptized September 12, 1857.
So in summary, Joseph Lytle Russell
and Ann Eliza Birney came to the United States as singles. Joseph was in
Pittsburgh as early as 1843 and Ann was there from at least 1848. They met and
married in Pittsburgh, likely after meeting through Pittsburgh Presbyterian
Church contact. Their marriage appears to have taken place in the earlier part
of 1849 and the first son, Thomas, was born around January 1850. Charles Taze
Russell would follow in 1852. And at this point in their lives they were
Presbyterian in faith.
Part 2 to follow: An Evening Prayer and
the Case of Thomas Hickey.
Watch this space.
Saturday, June 1, 2019
van Amburgh
We know that W. E. van Amburgh's parents and his wife were Russell-era adherents. Was his brother, George C. van Amburgh also a believer?
I have almost no information on George. He died sometime after 1930. That year he was a patient in a sanatorium in Washington State. About a decade earlier is was living in Gray's Harbor, Washington, the owner-manager of a Waffle House. I know something about his childhood and young adult education. But I do not know if he was an adherent. Do you?
Also, I need copies of letters and documents related to the family, preferably not the few widely circulated. I have seen those. I contacted a living relative, but have received no reply. Anyone?
Do we know what the S. in Daniel van Amburgh's middle name represents?
I have almost no information on George. He died sometime after 1930. That year he was a patient in a sanatorium in Washington State. About a decade earlier is was living in Gray's Harbor, Washington, the owner-manager of a Waffle House. I know something about his childhood and young adult education. But I do not know if he was an adherent. Do you?
Also, I need copies of letters and documents related to the family, preferably not the few widely circulated. I have seen those. I contacted a living relative, but have received no reply. Anyone?
Do we know what the S. in Daniel van Amburgh's middle name represents?
Friday, May 31, 2019
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
"Patience is a Virtue"
I'm overwhelmed with many projects. So unless "Jerome" has something to post, it will be a while before anything other than fluff is posted to the blog. I am open to your submissions. Anything you write for the blog should be supported by original sources.
After years of avoiding social web sites and posting boards, I am now on twitter. You can find me @SchulzBw . Please focus on history writing. I am, however, open to other discussions if you must.
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Friday, May 24, 2019
New Amazon Review
Reviews are helpful. This is the latest.
May 23, 2019
The Professor
5.0 out of 5 stars
a comprehensive study
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This
is a mammoth study of the early Bible Student and related groups. It is
358 pages of 8.5 x 11 paper in small print. Of what I read so far it is
accurate. I know of no other study that is even close in
comprehensiveness, documentation and breath, looking not just at Russell
but related groups and persons including Barbour, John Paton and
others. The author looks at not only historical record but also critics
of the movement including Professor Penton and Carl Johnson. The last
page was intended to be an index which never was finished. It would have
been an invaluable addition to the book. This book was clearly a
lifetime work.
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Worth Supporting
The library at UC Santa Barbara is building their religion collection. They have a very small collection of Watchtower material. If you're seeking a home for your material, this is an excellent place. Contact information on this page:
https://www.library.ucsb.edu/special-collections/support
Monday, May 20, 2019
Query
Someone has written in asking if there is anywhere one can access the WW1 issues of the Watchtower in German. Can anyone help? I personally would be interested in this too, although my German is non-existent.
I have scans [not best quality] of the German Tower for 1914-1917. I do not have 1918. I have used WeTransfer to send to "jerome" and to the person who sent the query. Let me know when you receive the files and if the transfer was successful. - Bruce
Files received - very many thanks. Jerome
I have scans [not best quality] of the German Tower for 1914-1917. I do not have 1918. I have used WeTransfer to send to "jerome" and to the person who sent the query. Let me know when you receive the files and if the transfer was successful. - Bruce
Files received - very many thanks. Jerome
Friday, May 17, 2019
History's Mysteries
One of the unfinished chapters destined for Separate Identity vol 2 has languished because it was becoming repetitious, and the outline for the 'second half' was unsatisfactory. A chance find has led to better path. It has also led me into unsolvable puzzles. Below is a letter that appeared in the December 1885 issue of Zion's Watch Tower. It is from 'a brother.' My best efforts to attach this to a name have yielded no result. Can you do better than I have?
Cairo, [Caro] Mich., Nov. 3, 1885.
DEAR BRO. RUSSELL: I have not been able to do much in
the
Master's service. I just got a number of samples of
Z.W.T. when
diphtheria became epidemic in this place, and two of
my children
were taken sick, but they have both recovered. One
family here lost
three children, another two, and some one by the
scourge. We were
quarantined for a while. Since I am allowed out I have
gathered up
some of the samples. I traveled all one day in the
country, where I
had twenty samples out, and only took one
subscription; and on my
way home at night, weary with my day's walk, and
trying to take a
kind of an inventory of the visible fruit of the day's
labor, the
adversary tried to discourage me. Well I soliloquised
like this: If I
were working for dollars and cents I should have a
poor showing
for the day's work, but thank God I was not looking at
the things
that are seen, neither was I seeking to lay up
treasures in a bag with
holes in it. The Lord blest me with these words--Be
not weary in
well-doing, for in due season we shall reap--upon this
condition--
"that we faint not." Oh, I am so glad that
we have such a good
Paymaster and a Captain who is able to lead us on to
certain
victory. I am glad that God reveals himself to me as
an Almighty
God, and one whose mercies are over all his works, and
that the
groaning and travailing time of creation is soon to be
followed by a
time of rejoicing. I find that the spiritual pulse
beats very feebly
among the people. I find people of the world and professors
in
general the same--interested more in everything else
than they are
in the subject of religion. The great mass will not
read anything on
the subject, but there is now and then one who has a
spiritual
appetite, and is strengthened by the truth. I am
hoping soon to get
out and hold some meetings, and by the grace of God to
stir up the
minds of the people, so that they will be inclined to
search and see
whether these things are so. On the whole I am greatly
encouraged
in regard to the work here. Praying that God may
strengthen us
more and more to carry on the war against the powers
of darkness, I
remain your brother in
Christ,
Thursday, May 16, 2019
This blog ...
According to google stats interest in this blog has precipitously declined. I do not know whether to believe this or not. Comments?
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Sunday, May 12, 2019
Jokes
In the 1880s, the North Wales Express, an English language newspaper for North Wales, UK, had a regular column called Varieties, full of excruciating puns and jokes that haven't generally translated well for the present day. It is interesting to note their joke at the expense of Food for Thinking Christians in the issue for November 25, 1881, page 6. For this to make any real sense to readers they would need to have heard of the publication's extensive distribution in the UK.
Let me add to Jerome's post. This is from a vol 2 chapter entitled Food for Thinking Christians:
The controversy in Newark was picked
up by other papers and reports of it, sometimes garbled, made their way into
print far outside Newark. The Cleveland,
Ohio, Leader carried a report as did The
Chicago Tribune in its August 18, 1881, issue. Puck, an American humor magazine, quipped: “Some tramps who got
hold of one of the four hundred thousand copies of Food for Thinking
Christians, were disgusted on opening the book to find no cold meat in it.”[1] Puck’s squib was spread through the
press as well.[2] Another
attempt at humor appeared in The Cheyenne Transporter, a semi-monthly
published in Darlington, Oklahoma, “in the interest of Indian Civilization and
Progress.” The September 10, 1881, issue reported: “A little girl accompanied
her father to church in Bangor last Sunday. She is a bright child, but was
unable to understand the tract presented to her when leaving the Church,
entitled, ‘Food for Thinking Christians, Why Evil was Transmitted [sic] and
Kindred Topics.’ The child was tired when she returned to her home and told her
mother to take that ‘food’ (the tract) and give her some ‘milk.’”[3]
[1] See the August 31, 1881, issue, page 432
[2] An example of this appears in The Chester, Pennsylvania, Daily Times, September 10, 1881. It was also reprinted in Puck’s Library No. X: Tramp, Tramp, Tramp!
Being Puck’s Best Things about the Great American Traveler, Keppler
& Schwarzmann, New
York, 1888, page 19.
[3] She Preferred Milk, The Cheyenne
Transporter, September 10, 1881.
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
H B Rice - An Impecunious Man
by Jerome
(revised and reprinted)
Photograph from Ancestry
A name that occurs
in many histories of the Watchtower Society (although omitted from the
Proclaimers book) is H.B. Rice – full name Hugh Brown Rice. His name is found
in the first issue of Zion’s Watch Tower as a contemporary of CTR. Rice had
attempted to start his own journal The Last Trump – but financial woes resulted
in failure. CTR offered to send the new ZWT to Rice’s subscribers, and listed
him as a regular contributor to ZWT. However, Rice never actually wrote a word
for CTR’s new paper.
From our vantage
point now, perhaps the most useful detail about Rice is that he was not an
Adventist but a firm convert to the Age to Come movement. This is why he and
CTR would be in touch. This is why Rice’s readers would logically be attracted
to the message of the new ZWT. It is why he offered to write for ZWT and might
have done so if financial woes had not diverted him.
Financial
difficulty was a recurring theme throughout Rice’s association with the Age to
Come movement.
Hugh Brown Rice
was born in Eden Ridge, Tennessee, in 1845. He married Sarah Gideon Edwards in
1872 and they had seven children in 12 years. He initially trained for a
conventional mainstream ministry. In a letter written in 1887 to The
Restitution, the main Age to Come paper of the day (and reproduced in full at
the end of this article) Rice gives some brief biographical details of himself.
“I was educated at Amherst College, Mass., (class of 1870) and was for a time
in Auburn Theological Seminary at Auburn, N.Y….I preached for a short time
among the Presbyterians and then for some seven years among the “Disciples,”
but…seeing the way of the Lord more clearly in reference to the life eternal
and the gospel of the kingdom, I was baptized on the confession of this faith
by Brother Richard Corbaley in Yale County, Cal., in 1878 or ’79.”
Class of
1870, from 1879 directory
Richard Corbaley
(1820-1903) was an old-timer in the Age to Come movement, who had travelled
west in the early 1870s along with Benjamin Wilson. Corbaley was credited with
founding the first Church of God congregation on the Pacific Coast in the
Restitution for May 24, 1876. His life story is given in his obituary in the
Restitution for September 9, 1903.
A letter from a
Thos. Hughes in the Restitution for March 13, 1878 reviewed the personnel in
his area, which included Richard Corbaley, along with “Bro. Wilson, Rice and
wife at Sacremento.” Whether this is H B in early 1878 is unknown, but
certainly by 1879, H B Rice is very much in evidence as a featured speaker with
Corbaley at the annual Church of God conference in California. This was held
over August 14-17, 1879 and a full report then published in the Restitution for
September 10, 1879. This report indicates where Rice’s main loyalties and
interests lay so soon after ZWT began publication and now that his own paper
The Last Trump had folded.
The report reads
(in part) “Brother R. Corbaley submitted his report as Evangelist…in the
(Friday) evening we were profitably entertained by listening to a discourse
delivered by Brother H.B. Rice from John xvii.3…by motion Brother Richard
Corbaley was elected as Evangelist for the ensuing year…in the (Saturday)
evening Brother H.B. Rice delivered a discourse on “the key of interpreting the
Scriptures,” during which he dwelt at some length upon the fact that the
natural always precedes the Spiritual…(on Sunday) after listening to short but
interesting discourses by Bros. H.B. Rice and R. Corbaly (sic) the friends and
brethren proceeded to bid each other farewell.”
The same report
included the appointment of a future business and conference committee to
include a certain C.W. Russell – not to be confused with C.T. Russell - and
also a commendation of The Restitution as a “valuable paper” to whom the report
was of course sent.
Rice then seems to
disappear from view, apart from brief correspondence found in ZWT and Barbour’s
Herald. Barbour’s June 1879 Herald mentions Rice’s “business failures” and
“lack of means.” CTR’s Zion’s Watch Tower last hears from Rice in its July 1880
issue which again talks of “loss of business.” It mentions that Rice has
obtained a situation in San Francisco and has moved there.
Several years go
by and then Rice resurfaces in the pages of The Restitution in 1885. His
comments indicate that as far as financial woes are concerned, not a lot has
changed. In The Restitution for January
21, 1885, he writes from San Jose, California, that he is now in the Real
Estate business, but wants to go preaching and “to devote more time and
attention to this matter than I have done for some years.” But there is a
problem, “In worldly goods I am very poor, and have a wife and four children to
support.” He asks for “a helping hand” – which could be interpreted as someone
moving there to preach, or financial help so he could do it further.
A couple of years
later, he pops up again, this time from Oleander, California, and indicates
that financial woes have continued dogging him. In the Restitution for
September 21, 1887, he describes himself as “poor in this world’s goods,
and…hampered by business connections entered into for the purpose of providing
for my family.” Not much has changed except that there are now five children to
feed, quaintly described by Rice as “all young and non-productive of material
needs.” Rice is now running “a little country store here but am partly in debt
for my building and my stock.” But it is a good location – maybe someone could
go into partnership with him or perhaps buy him out? It was a good prospect –
honest! Brother Benjamin Wilson was nearby, but organizing anything had proved
difficult.
Whether anyone
responded to his business suggestion is not recorded, but in the November 7,
1888 issue of Restitution, Rice is now at Delano, California on “a government
claim, a homestead of 160 acres,” enthusing about the Philadelphia National
Conference to come, and bemoaning (as always) his financial circumstances. He
would love to go preaching but “am too much burdened by the cares of a large
and helpless family”. Farming is not working out, so “unless the brothers know
of my condition and feelings they certainly can never help me to devise ways
and means to do gospel work.” Basically, please can someone help me
financially?
Something must
have worked out temporarily for him, because in the Wilmington Evening Journal for
December 1, 1888, he is preaching at a Church of God meeting.
But shortly
afterwards, in the January 9, 1889 Restitution, Rice writes two letters about
his current preaching tour. Unfortunately – and you could say almost par for
the course – Rice has run out of money and is now stranded far from home. Home
is California but as the above clipping shows Rice has been preaching on the
opposite side of the States in Wilmington, Delaware. The friends there suggest
that he moves on to visit his mother and sister in Knoxville, Tennessee, the
city of his youth. Perhaps it is reading too much into it, but one almost hears
a sigh of relief when Rice moves on, because once in Knoxville, he writes to
The Restitution, “I am as yet, of course, unable to return to my family in
California, and I suppose God has a work for me to do here yet, else he would
send me the money to get home.” How his “large and helpless family” back home
are managing during this time is undisclosed.
Somehow, Rice does
get back home and almost immediately - indefatigable as ever – he is writing to
the Restitution again. From the February 13, 1889 issue: “I reached home Jan.
30th after a long and eventful absence…It occurred to me…to say that
if any of the brethren in California so desire and can arrange to meet the
necessary expenses (!) I could preach some this summer.”
This is followed
up with another letter that results in editorial comment on February 27, 1889,
to the effect that they have received communication from Brother H B Rice at
Delano, Ca. “There seems to be a door opening for him there, but he needs some
help financially...” In other words – the usual! Rice’s letter was due to be
published in the next issue, but unfortunately that issue is not extant.
The final reference
to H.B. Rice that this writer has been able to find in The Restitution was a
month or two later in the issue for April 10, 1889. Referring back to an
announcement in the previous week’s issue (which again sadly is missing) there
is an editorial note that they were in error last week saying that the
Executive Board had passed a resolution that Bro. Rice should receive some
money from the Evangelical Fund – it should have been Bro. Niles... Oops! One wonders what the story was behind
that.
At this point the
impoverished H B Rice disappears from the pages of the Restitution – this time
apparently for good.
There had been a
repeating theme to his writing over a ten year period; however, at this
distance it would be harsh to judge the man’s sincerity. He obviously lacked
the financial acumen of a CTR, and for whatever reasons his early forays into
commerce generally ended in disaster. However, his frequent appeals for
financial help were always linked to his desire to preach as he saw fit.
But once he
disappeared from view, Rice finally obtained what might be termed “a proper
job,” a position enabling him to feed his family. Being an Age to Come preacher
had not really worked out and perhaps that decided that his religious interests
(however they now evolved) should remain as a spiritual hobby rather than
livelihood.
A year later the
name H B Rice turns up in the Los Angeles Herald for 25 May, 1890. Rice is
involved in organizing tours.
This finally seems
to work. By the time of his death in 1905 he was running his own travel agent
company.
He ended his days
– no longer impecunious – but also no longer apparently in association with the
Restitution. When he died, there was no mention in its pages. And his
connection with CTR had ended almost as soon as it began.
His obituary was
published in the Los Angeles Herald for November 3, 1905. It mentioned that he
was a religious man, but the main subheading concentrated on his business
activities – “Pallbearers Are Selected From Intimate Business Friends of the
Deceased Steamship Agent.” The account stated that he “was president of the
Hugh B. Rice company, steamship and touring agents.” The funeral service had
been conducted by “Rev. J.W. McKnight, pastor of the Magnolia avenue Christian
church…assisted by N.W.J. Straud, leader of the Bible class of which the
deceased was a member.”
We do not know the
nature of this Bible class, whether Rice stayed within the Age to Come family
or reverted to something more traditional. Neither he or Straud are mentioned
in the Restitution or the Christadelphian papers of the day.
The complete
obituary along with a photograph of the family gravestone can be found on the
Find a Grave site under Hugh B Rice, born October 6, 1856, died October 31,
1905, Mountain View Cemetery, Altadena, Los Angeles County, California.
Historically there
were two disparate stories for Hugh Brown Rice. There was the impoverished Age
to Come preacher who nearly wrote for Zion’s Watch Tower and then wrote
repeatedly to The Restitution begging for financial help. And there was also
the prosperous businessman in the travel industry. You could be forgiven for
wondering if these were two different men, both coincidentally named Hugh B
Rice. Stranger things have no doubt happened in history. But here we are helped
by another obituary notice, this time found in the Obituary Record of Graduates of Amherst
College, for the Academical Year Ending June 27, 1906, Amherst, Massachusetts,
1906, page 158.
Although this adds a little more detail and joins the dots so to speak,
it has to be said that the memory of surviving relatives lets the side down. It
states: “During the last twenty-five years of his life
he regularly taught a large and enthusiastic Bible class in Los Angeles. He was
a frequent contributor to religious publications, and for several years
published a small monthly paper called The Last Trump.”
Let's do the math here. (Quote) he regularly taught a large and enthusiastic Bible class in Los Angeles for twenty-five years? That would take us back to around 1880, the time he had a brief association with CTR and Nelson Barbour. Was his Bible class large and enthusiastic and continuous? As noted above, in the second half of the 1880s many letters from Rice were published in the Restitution newspaper. They showed Rice struggling to make ends meet as an unsuccessful farmer and storekeeper, and bemoaning his isolation from those of like faith. They repeatedly ask for financial help so he can go preaching. On one documented occasion he leaves his family in near penury, goes preaching far away and runs out of money and has great difficulty getting home. Two typical letters from the period are reproduced at the end of this article, which stress both his isolation and lack of funds.
Let's do the math here. (Quote) he regularly taught a large and enthusiastic Bible class in Los Angeles for twenty-five years? That would take us back to around 1880, the time he had a brief association with CTR and Nelson Barbour. Was his Bible class large and enthusiastic and continuous? As noted above, in the second half of the 1880s many letters from Rice were published in the Restitution newspaper. They showed Rice struggling to make ends meet as an unsuccessful farmer and storekeeper, and bemoaning his isolation from those of like faith. They repeatedly ask for financial help so he can go preaching. On one documented occasion he leaves his family in near penury, goes preaching far away and runs out of money and has great difficulty getting home. Two typical letters from the period are reproduced at the end of this article, which stress both his isolation and lack of funds.
The Amherst
obituary also mentions his paper The Last
Trump running as a monthly “for several years.” This would appear to be a
“folk memory” on the part of his family. Available evidence suggests it ran for
only about three issues and then folded prior to the start of Zion’s Watch
Tower. When a dramatic reversal occurred in Rice’s fortunes at the very end of
the 80s, he disappears completely from the pages of extant One Faith/Age to
Come publications. For Rice to have
published for several years would have meant his re-starting it when he finally
got on his feet financially in the 1890s. While the old adage holds true that
absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence, it would seem
doubtful.
Once Rice finally got
his finances in order, his dreams of an active ministry disappeared into the
relief of actually making a reasonable living for a growing family. He still
retained an interest in religious matters and The Los Angeles Herald obituary
mentions Bible class he attended, but as noted earlier neither he or Bible
class leader Straud are to be found in extant Age to Come materials of the time.
The main thing the
Amherst obituary does for us is draw two diverse pictures together. On one hand
we have the financial failure and on the other we have the prosperous businessman.
The Amherst obituary shows this was clearly the same man – even if the details
have been blurred and distorted in the telling.
Basically, Rice’s
obituaries highlights the major flaw in all obituaries – the one person who
could verify the information is unfortunately not there to do so.
Below are
reprinted two of H B Rice’s letters to The Restitution, covering a little bit
of his history, and showing his keen desire to preach the word as he saw it, in
spite of continued personal adversity.
Letter from H.B.
Rice as published in The Restitution for September 1, 1887, page 3.
OLEANDER, Cal.
Dear Restitution:
I notice with
interest and joy all attempts to organize effort in the spread of the glad
tidings of life through the Son of God. I, too, long to preach the good news of
the kingdom, but, knowing that the very many of the called, chosen and faithful
are, like myself, poor in this world’s goods, and being hampered by business
connections entered into for the purpose of providing for my family things
honest in the sight of God and men, I have supposed it were impossible to
obtain the needed means to enable me to devote my time to preaching. So I have
kept silent. But when I read of the call for laborers, when I see the fields
white for the harvest, when I go to hear professed gospel preachers who are
blinded by the errors of the apostasy and see how the people are feed (sic) on
husks while our Father’s storehouse is full of rich food for the hungry, ready
for their use if only the shepherds would give it to them.
Oh, my heart burns
within me, and I long to give all my time, all my energies to this work. My
heart is full of love and pity for the erring, the blinded, the famishing, the
dying men and women around me on all sides. Starving, but not for the food
which perishes – this is a land of plenty – but for the bread which comes down
from heaven. But how can one who has a wife and five children, all young and
non-productive of material needs, who has no money except as earned slowly by
daily toil, to feed, clothe and educate these dependent ones, how can such as
one go out and the preach the word in a land containing but a handful of
brethren?
I have a little
country store here but am partly in debt for my building and my stock. It is a
good location, in the very midst of the fruit and raisin industry which makes
this part of our State famous already. My store is situated between and about
one hundred yards distant from two packing houses and fruit driers. Last season
the Curtis Fruit Company, which owns one of them, put up 23,000 boxes of raisins,
and this year the two institutions together will probably put up 60,000 boxes.
This gives employment to many men, women and children at fair wages. It is a
new but prosperous neighborhood, all the while improving. We have either a
family or young bachelor living on nearly every twenty acres. We are nine miles
south of Fresco and five west of Fowler, and have most of the conditions
necessary for a good country business. We have a good school house and a
postoffice, and with the exception of about three months of hot weather (in
June, July and August) a very fine climate indeed. Eastern people are usually
delighted with it.
My house is new,
worth about $1500, stock and fixtures $500 more. Hence $2000 is about what I
consider my place worth as I have it now. With an additional $2000 the place
and business can be put in fine shape for a comfortable home and moderately
remunerative income for one or two small families. The postoffice, which can be
had in the store if desired, pays now $10 a month and would draw trade besides.
Now if some brother who has the capital and a taste for the mercantile life in
a humble way in the country will join me or buy me out possibly I can devote
more if not all my time to the ministry or gospel preaching. I have been
lecturing in the school house on Life and Death and trying to interest and
instruct people. Considerable interest has been manifested.
Perhaps I should
say that I was educated at Amherst College, Mass., (class of 1870) and was for
a time in Auburn Theological Seminary at Auburn, N.Y., that I preached for a
short time among the Presbyterians and then for some seven years among the “Disciples,”
but that, seeing the way of the Lord more clearly in reference to the life
eternal and the gospel of the kingdom, I was baptised on the confession of this
faith by Brother Richard Corbaley in Yale County, Cal., in 1878 or ’79. Since
then I have been isolated from brethren a good deal but have been giving myself
to reading and the study of God’s word as I have had opportunity, never
neglecting to speak a word in private or in public as occasion occurred if I
could aid a fellow mortal or honor my Father in heaven and our elder brother
Jesus of Nazareth the Christ of God and our only true life-giver.
I have thus told
you of myself and how I wish to give myself wholly to the gospel word. Do you
know of any way to accomplish this end? Or do you know of any brother who would
trade for my store or go in with me in such an enterprise. My idea would be, so
far as I am concerned, to make the store only a means of support while I gave
myself mainly to preaching and teaching the word. We have a few brethren and
sisters here but no regular organization. Brother Benj. Wilson is here, two
Brothers Balch (?) and Brother Calder and their wives, about a dozen of us in
all. Circumstances have made it out of my power to do more than speak to them
and others who were interested to come and hear. There are causes not necessary
to name here which have operated to prevent any attempt at organization, but
which I hope soon will be removed. If you see fit to state my case in an
abbreviated way (what I have written is too long and rambling to print) in THE
RESTITUTION, I would like to see if the Lord may by such means open a door for
me. I am with much love,
Your brother in
Christ,
H.B. RICE
Below is another
typical letter from H B Rice, as published in The Restitution for November 7,
1888, page 4.
DELANO, Cal.
Dear Restitution:
Although far away
from any church organization and having none of that “fellowship of kindred
minds” which Christians so much need and which I so much covet, I must write to
express my deep interest in the movement now being towards organization of our
forces. Co-operation is certainly Scriptural and wise and needful in our work.
How I would rejoice could I be present in Philadelphia at the General
Conference. May God direct you all in your planning and may the much needed
union of effort be well begun and enthusiastically carried out.
Since it has
pleased God by the “foolishness of preaching” (not foolish preaching), to save
those who believe, we canst preach if we save any. Now I am too much burdened
by the cares of a large and helpless family, and poverty, brought on by sundry
mistakes in business enterprise and consequent indebtedness, to hope to be able
to give my whole time to this glorious work soon. Some who have heard me preach
in years past urge that I ought to give my attention to that work. Surely I am
not a Jonah! I would rather preach the gospel than any other work. Hardships
and privations for myself I mind not at all. But when my honest debts state me
in the face, and a wife and five children appeal to me for bread and clothing,
how can I go forth among strangers, most of whom are not in the least
interested in such things, with no brethren able to aid me, no organized or
systematic methods among them to sustain me while my time and labor is given to
gospel work?
I do preach, not
often in public, for I have no opportunity for that, but by the wayside, on the
path, on the road, in private houses, to individuals, to all who will listen
anywhere and everywhere. I lend books and tracts, and can see some fruit of my
labor. But after various wanderings in search of a home for my family, I am at
least located here on a government claim, a homestead of 160 acres, two miles
from Delano. One year has rapidly passed away. I have a plain but comfortable
house of four rooms, and a fence enclosing less than an acre about the house, a
few grape vines and a dozen fruit trees growing misely, a two-horse wagon, a
two-horse buggy, a gang plow and seeder, eight or nine tons of hay, and four
work animals.
It is too dry to
slow saw. We have had no rain except a light shower not sufficient to lay the
dust well, since the forepart of last March! Last season was too dry to raise a
crop except on irrigated land. But water is only twelve to fourteen feet from
the surface on my land, and windmills would enable me to put in and raise an
orchard and vineyard and a few acres of alfalfa; if I could only get them. Two
or three cheap mills would be needed for ten or fifteen acres. The soil and
climate are exceedingly favorable if we only had water. Rabbit-proof fencing is
also a necessity. But here I am, unable to get work, without means to make
these needed improvements; among strangers, no brethren anywhere near me, and,
at present, no work of any kind by which I can earn a dollar. As soon as it
rains I can get all the plowing I can do at good prices, but that does not
supply present needs. Well, perhaps I ought not to say so much of my present
condition, but it just occurred to me it might serve as an example of how some who
long to preach cannot.
No one is more
ready and anxious to help himself than I am, and in fact, when one reflects
that a year ago I had nearly nothing and had to borrow from an old San
Francisco acquaintance the money to file on my land, I feel great gratitude to
our Heavenly Father for the success attained. Educated and trained for the
ministry in the Presbyterian Church, having seven or eight years of practical
experience as a preacher, in that church first, and then in the Christian
Church or among the Disciples, having been pastor of a church for two years at
Rock Island, Illinois, and then in San Francisco, California, and preached in
many other places acceptably while knowing only a meagre part of the truth as
it is in Jesus, I feel certain that I could do good heralding forth the “glad
tidings of great joy which shall be to all people” were it in my power. It is
my purpose, if the Lord tarries so long, to give my whole time to preaching as
soon as I can get my farm into a condition that will enable my family to
support themselves thereon. I am trying to teach my children (for I cannot send
them to school at present) and am not neglecting the word of the Lord. This
work may be more important now than any other, but of course when I get work to
do I must be busy at that and may be compelled to be away from home, when such
teaching will be interrupted.
In the meantime
were the Lord to open any door for me to engage in my chosen work, I would try
to do that rather. I have threatened several times to write to THE RESTITUTION
and announce myself ready to fill calls in California to preach if any were
interested and would pay my expenses to reach the place and return home. But I
have been so isolated and so busy I have hesitated. This letter is written on
the impulse of the moment, in view of the notices I have read concerning the
General Conference and its aims. The thought came, unless the brethren know of
my condition and feelings they certainly can never help me to devise ways and
means to do gospel work, and perhaps, if they knew, some might be able and
willing to join hands with me and so the good news be sounded out in California.
Your brother in
Christ
H.B.RICE