Probably Impossible but ... I need help solving this mystery if possible. Thomas Brewer, a very early adherent living in Michigan, wrote to Russell in 1887, saying:
I have discovered a movement, among
the Swedes similar to ours, a family of
them rented a farm joining mine. They
are good pious people. I paid them a
visit after they had become settled, and
learned that they in common with numbers
of their countrymen here had discorded
sects and sect names, salaried ministry,
etc., etc. They believe that where two
or three meet, there is the true Church,
and every one is encouraged to use his or
her own talents as the Lord has endowed
them. The Bible and the Bible only is
their rule of faith and practice. I found
that from a study of Scripture they have
discovered many truths similar to those
we rejoice in.
I need to identify this group. I have failed thus far. Can you solve the mystery?
Thursday, June 20, 2019
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Friday, June 14, 2019
Better Yet ... Updated
I post extracts for comments. Please do so.
Johann Adam and Christina Doratha [Dorothea Unkel] Bohnet
Census
records indicate that both were born in 1830, but Christina’s grave marker
gives her birth date as 1829. Birth location records are confused. One suggests
that John Adam was born in Austria. Another suggests that they were both from Württemberg.
A family tree says they were both born in Freudenstadt, Württemberg. Another
family record says: “John Adam Bohnet and Christina Doratha Unkel were born in
the same place in Germany, sailed on different ships from Germany to the United
States and disembarked in New York City on the same day. John sometimes went by
his middle name Adam. He was a blacksmith by trade. His blacksmith shop faced
Carpenter Road. Christine raised flowers to sell, tulips and gladiolas.”
Christina’s
obituary says they lived “together in the same home ever since their marriage,
and [they are] said to have been the oldest married couple in the state [of
Michigan].”[1] They immigrated to America in 1854, settling
in Minnesota. They were on the American frontier, and their life reflected
that. The 1880 United States Census verifies the family record, listing Adam as
a Farmer and Black Smith. We have little record of their early years in
America, but Christina’s obituary tells an interesting story: “In her early
maidenhood [she] crossed the Atlantic in 39 days, in a sailing vessel, and
worked as a hired girl, 16 hours every day, for $1.00 Per week, for years in a
family near Ann Arbor. After supper each night during apple season she peeled
and sliced a bushel of apples by hand and dried them for winter pies. On wash
days she was up at 4:00 a.m. and had her wash on the line before breakfast
hour.”
We do not know their marriage date. We know something
about her early married life:
She took the fleece direct from the sheep, carded it,
spun it into yarn on a foot tread spinning wheel and knitted by hand all the
stockings for herself, her husband and her five children as long as they
attended school and she did this by the light of her home-made, tallow candles.
Talk about a woman working’ she was a wonder of wonders; slight of frame and
swift of movement; even up to her last sickness [at age ninety-five] she could
catch a fly with her hand. She suffered without complaint. She was love and
justice personified, and the generous almost to a fault, never turned away from
her door a hungry beggar.[2]
Johann
and Dorothea became Watch Tower adherents through their son. John Adam Bohnet,
their first child, was born May 11, 1858. He and his four brothers and sisters
grew up in a rural community, mostly immigrant except for children and mostly
Lutheran. Other than a later comment from J. A.’s pen we know nothing about
their childhood beyond the expected. They were farmers and the children worked
on the family farm. Wearied of farming, John left home and Minnesota in April
1883, making his way to Portland, Oregon, where he worked “four summers”
brick-making. About 1887 he “engaged with a publishing concern of San
Francisco.” This was King Publishing Company. He did well, and “in six months
was advanced to local manager at Seattle. By 1892 he represented the company on
the West Coast, opening post office boxes and advertising in local papers for
book agents.
Images:
The Sacramento, California,
Record-Union
June 10, 1893.
The Carson City, Nevada,
Morning Appeal
May 07, 1892.
Salt Lake, Utah, Herald
July 21, 1893.
As he
told it later, Bohnet ignored sound business advice that could have led to
wealth (“I could easily have become a millionaire”) but “tenaciously stuck” to
his business and failed. In the biographical sketch from which much of this is
taken, he does not say how he failed, though it seems to be a tendency to
ignore good advice and a certain amount of poor business sense. A contemporary
newspaper article fills in some details. Bohnet hired Warren C. Greenfield, a
sixteen year old theater usher to sell books on subscription. Greenfield sold
the books to non-subscribers at a greatly reduced price and kept the money.
Bohnet had him prosecuted for embezzlement, but, though the trial uncovered a
conspiracy to defraud by two young theater ushers, no money was recovered.
Undeniably, Bohnet had been gullible, and it appears that he was ‘on the hook’
for nearly one hundred dollars, a huge sum in 1894.[3]
Business
failure brought a crisis of faith. “My religious proclivity suffered a shock,”
he wrote, “and was downward.” We do not know what the connection was. Bohnet
doesn’t tell us, though we can suggest that the crisis was building for some
time. Bohnet suggests that much. When he wrote his brief biography in 1915 he
was a very conservative, very religious man who regretted elements of his
youth. The full paragraph from which we derive this says:
My parents being devout Lutherans, I was sprinkled for
baptism in infancy, but was not confirmed in that faith. A saintly mother
taught me reverence for the Lord, and, from my earliest recollection I went to
him in prayer. Throughout boyhood and youthdom, [sic] however, there was little
thought of living a consecrated life. My experience until maturity did not
differ materially from that of other children. Ball playing, fishing and
Swimming on Sundays were special delights and seemed to me not harmful.[4]
Notice
the wording. The ordinary pursuits of childhood only “seemed ... not harmful”
from his adult perspective – This despite Russellite rejection of Sabbath
keeping. From his adult perspective they were harmful, not befitting a
consecrated Christian. Bohnet sought a unified theology, a harmony of “the
different creeds of so-called Christendom,” reading “various religious works.”
This was not casual reading, but reading with a purpose – his continued belief
was dependent on the outcome, and he was drifting into agnosticism.
He met
and invited to his residence a member of The Social Order of United Liberals,
and considered joining that group. First organized in Portland, Oregon, in
October 1888,[5] It promoted what its
members called “the religion of humanity.” Their constitution as printed in
1902 said:
We ... desire to unite into an intellectual,
scientific, beneficial, moral and social compact Agnostics, Spiritualists,
Theosophists, Materialists, Deists, Atheists, Free Religionists, Freethinkers,
Infidels, Secularists, Positivists, Non-Conformists, Radicals, Optimists,
Pessimists, Rationalists,
Transcendentalists, Reformers, Teachers, Professors, Philosophers, Scientists,
Thinkers, Students, Investigators and other persons, who are opposed to
superstitution [sic], persecution, intolerance and unalterable creeds.[6]
[insert historical context here]
Who
ever it was that intended to recruit Bohnet failed to appear. Later he would
feel saved from agnosticism, from a band of associates who “have no thought of
God nor of things divine.” He faced a night of emotional struggle, recalling it
with characteristically florid language, this way:
That never-to-be-forgotten night a battle royal waged
fierce and long within my breast. Throughout those silent night-watches I
wrestled within myself – or with Satan – Shall I, or not, join this Liberal
band? Meditation on that struggle causes a shudder and a sigh. Fast flew the
poison arrows of the wicked one urging me to join. But swifter sped the sharp,
piercing darts of the Deity pointing me with sacred solemnity, “this is the
way, walk ye in it.” In reverie deep, gazing at the chaste angel faces of the
stars that night there arose before me visions of my childhood’s happy home and
mother. Soon the wild tempest became a calm. The desire of my mother that her
boy become a Christian prevailed, and I knelt silently, and at length in
prayer.
This
is his retrospective. A night’s mental anguish did not cure his doubts, no
matter how long he prayed. This was a temporary turning point based on memories
of his mother’s religious instruction. Conviction came later through more
mental struggle. He attended a “talk” at the YMCA by John H. Hector, “a noted
colored preacher.” Hector had a reputation for colorful, attention-holding,
occasionally humorous, motivating sermons, often two hours long. Bohnet wrote
that he gave “a stirring sermon in defense of the Bible.” At its close, Hector
called for the rousing hymn “Stand Up! Stand Up for Jesus!” inviting those
present to do exactly that. Bohnet kept his seat, unwilling to commit to that
about which he still had doubts. He recalled:
Hector Photo
Earnestly he pleaded for those still seated to “stand
up for Jesus” during the singing of that familiar hymn. As though with an iron
hand I seemed fastened to my seat, quivering the while under intense emotion.
Vainly he pleaded. Persistently I resisted. And then as though governed by
spontaneous impulse, he urge all who desired remembrance in prayer to hold up
their hand. Several hands went up, but not mine. And why not? “Just raise your
hand only for a moment,” he said appealingly. Then suddenly stretching both his
arms far upward and outwardly he looked fixedly at me with a kindly light in
his eye and said, “O won’t you lift up one hand just one moment for Jesus, when
for three long hours Jesus held up two hands for you?” That was too much for
me. Immediately I arose, stepped forward and took him by the hand, and
said, “God bless you, my brother.”
As
with many raised as conservative Christians, he saw this as divine intervention
in his life. Hector’s words and actions were only “as though governed by
spontaneous impulse.” The spontaneity was seeming; divine intervention was
behind it. In reality, it was a long-practiced method, part of the emotionalism
that accompanied Hector’s revivalist sermons. Be that as it may, the event had
a lasting and profound effect on Bohnet. He joined the Methodist church.
He
attended first in Seattle, Washington, drawn to the Methodist Protestant Church
by the spirited preaching of Clark Davis, its pastor. He though Davis was “a
most wonderful preacher” and attended regularly, though he did not become a
member of the congregation.[7]
His
employer made him manager for all states west of the Mississippi River. “I
could go where I pleased and remain there as long as in my judgment seemed
wise,” he wrote. He left Seattle for Butte, Montana. There he joined St. Paul’s
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was appointed Bible Class leader.[8] We
do not know how long he lived in Butte, but from there he moved to Ogden Utah. “My
activity in church work was most pronounced” there, he wrote. “Rain or shine I
never missed a service. My pew on Sunday was never vacant, and my loose change
jingled merrily on the collection plate.”
Sometime
late in 1891 or early 1892 Bohnet traveled to Salt Lake City on business. When
he returned after an absence of three weeks, he found the Methodist church
doors closed and a note affixed to them. The minister was away on vacation, and
the church would be closed for two weeks. Disappointed, he made his way home.
He recalled:
I heard hymn singing in the court house. A religious
service, evidently, I will enter, thought I. Immediately I was in the midst of
a Presbyterian Bible class asking and answering most of the questions. Closing
the meeting the leader invited me to his clothing store. While there he
manifested unusual interest in me and kept talking about a religious book he
had read recently and which he said wonderfully opened up the Bible to him. He
wanted me to read it.
The
person who showed “unusual interest” in Bohnet was a John T. Hurst (April 15,
1862 – September 10, 1936), a dry goods merchant, the junior partner in the
firm of Paine & Hurst of Ogden, Utah. He was prominent enough that Salt
Lake City newspaper reported his marriage in some detail, saying that he was “most
exemplary and capable.” He stood “high in the community.”[9] We
have a letter from him to Zion’s Watch Tower, published in September 1,
1892, issue. Hurst explained to Russell:
We have a union Bible class once a week; and, some
three months ago, every time we met it so happened that before the lesson was
finished we would drift into the subject of the Millennium. One evening one of
the friends said, I have a book called the “Plan of the Ages,” which a lady
gave me, that may give some light on the subject. Have not read it, but will
loan to you. Since then there has been a well of rejoicing springing up in my
soul which I pray will be unto life everlasting. 1 Cor. 2:9, 10 comes to me
very forcibly in the light of the Plan of the Ages.[10]
Hurst enclosed a check for ten
dollars, asking for a copy of Young’s Concordance, twenty copies of Millennial
Dawn volume 1, ten copies of volume 2 and eight of volume 3. He intended to
circulate them, either selling them or giving them away. He enclosed a post
card from a friend with whom he shared the volumes. The card read: “Not for ten
years of life would I have missed reading Vol. I., millennial dawn. I shall read the others as soon as I can
spare moments. How truly wonderful is God’s plan! Human mind cannot grasp its fullness.”
As reprinted in The Watch Tower, it was signed “J. A. B____.” – John A.
Bohnet.
Bohnet
was reluctant, but considered Hurst a friend. Hurst, despite his insistence
that he read the book did not have one at hand. He had loaned out his copy.
Bohnet reported: “I rejoiced until he explained that another copy of it had
been ordered from the East and should arrive very soon. During the following
two weeks I met him almost daily, and he talked of little else but that book.”
The promised book arrived about two weeks later, turning into the first three
volumes of Millennial Dawn. Bohnet continued the story in his
autobiographical article:
image
Seattle Methodist Protestant
Church
Bohnet attended this church.
One evening I called at his store to bid him good bye,
as early on the morrow I would leave for Reno, Nevada. “The book has come,” he
said enthusiastically. My heart sank. And when he produced it there were three
volumes instead of only the one. And I was buncoed for the three – 75 cents. I
had counted on but one, and that under protest. Behold here I was being taxed
for three, and he insisting “they are inseparable.”
Bohnet
tried to read Plan of the Ages on the train, but found the noisy
surroundings distracting. He managed the preface and part of chapter one,
before giving it up. The preface piqued his interest, and later he described
his reaction to it as one of “astonishment.” After supper at his hotel, he went
to his room and “began a careful perusal” of the book. “Fascination held me ...
until 2:30 o’clock a. m.” he later wrote. Reading Russell’s exposition raised
troubling questions. He worried that it was “too late to get into the heavenly
kingdom.”
His
brief autobiographical sketch is confusing. He suggests he read only volume one
of the three volume set. Yet, worries about the door to the heavenly calling,
as Russell had it, would have derived from volume two, The Time is at Hand.
On page 235 of that volume we find this:
The three and a half years following the Spring of A.
D. 1878, which ended October, A. D. 1881, correspond to the three and a half
years of continued favor to individual Jews in the last half of their
seventieth week of favor. As in the type that date – three and a half years
after the death of Christ – marked the end of all special favor to the Jew and
the beginning of favor to the Gentiles, so we recognize A. D. 1881 as marking
the close of the special favor to Gentiles – the close of the “high calling,”
or invitation to the blessings peculiar to this age – to become joint-heirs
with Christ and partakers of the divine nature.[11]
This
is derived from Barbour’s “Israel’s Double” doctrine which Russell adopted
making slight additions to it: The timing of the events of Israel’s history
correspond to the timing of last-days events. It appears to us that Bohnet read
all three volumes.
Laying
aside the books, he tried to sleep. It was fruitless. He was up again at four o’clock,
and resumed reading, continuing “until the breakfast bell sounded.” He didn’t
pause to consult the cited scriptures. “There was no necessity to look up
scripture references for verification,” he wrote, “as I had been a Bible class
leader for years and had so recently read the Bible through and was quite
familiar with the cited texts.” Instead of pursuing his business in Reno, he
returned to his room and resumed reading, finishing at eleven a. m.
Bohnet
cogitated “for an hour or longer,” asking himself if he had found an accurate
exposition of “God’s plan” or if God had “a better one.” He compared it to his
Methodist faith: “Reason informed me, surely he could have none worse. And if
this is not the heavenly Father’s plan he would better adopt it, for it beats
Methodism.” That, as he described it,
this was a rational process is open to question, but his conclusion was,
“Embrace it therefore I must until something better can be found.” He went
seeking a Methodist clergyman with whom to share his newly found faith. “Where
is the Methodist preacher? I will revolutionize this town,” was his thought as
he later recorded it. It was the Watch Tower’s Conditionalism that swayed him:
“The dead are dead, and not alive
in glory or torment.”
He
names the Reno clergyman as a pastor Brady. This is a misspelling for Bready.
While there were two “Rev. Breadys” in Nevada, the one he meant was Robert H.
Bready [November 30, 1845 – March 24, 1924.],[12] a
“supply” preacher who served for long periods in Reno.
Photo
Robert H. Bready
Supply Pastor to the Reno, Nevada, Methodist Church
[1] Obituary, The St. Paul, Minnesota, New Era
Enterprise, December 9, 1924.
[2] ibid.
[3] Is it Embezzlement? The Los Angeles, California,
Herald, March 1, 1894. The article names Greenfield as W. C. Greenfield.
California death index gives his first name and birth date.
[4] J. A. Bohnet: How Pilgrim Bohnet Got “Present Truth,” The
St. Paul, Minnesota, Enterprise, August 15, 1915. Most of this biography is
based on Bohnet’s memoir as printed in The Enterprise.
[5] Untitled notice, The Coquille City, Oregon, Herald,
November 2, 1886.
[6] Cornelius Beal: S. O. U. L.: Address, Contract
Social and Constitution of the Social Order of United Liberals, the author,
Portland, Oregon, 1902, front cover.
[7] Davis became pastor of the Seattle Methodist Protestant
Church in 1885. He was very involved in the Prohibition Party until the 1896
election when he supported the Democrat candidate, William Jennings Bryan.
Davis’ wife was Bryan’s first cousin. The Seattle, Washington, Republican
[January 18, 1901] called him “the preaching politician.” He was, until his
resignation, chairman of the Prohibition Party state central committee and a
member of the national committee. He was described as an eloquent speaker.
[8] The Methodist Church, South separated from the main
body of Methodists in 1844 over slavery. It maintained a separate existence
until 1939.
[9] Two Days Lost, The Salt Lake City, Utah, Herald,
April 2, 1896. We do not think that Hurst maintained his interest. In 1894 he
was an officer in the Ogden, Utah, Christian Endeavor Society. In 1896 he was
elected an officer in the Ogden unit of Ancient Order of United Workmen, a
fraternal organization providing insurance and other benefits to Civil War
veterans. In 1910 he incorporated Hurst Realty, in Ogden. His wife was an
educator, running as a Republican for the school board in 1897. Both were
socially active and friends of prominent politicians.
[10] “Out of Darkness Into His Marvelous Light,” Zion’s
Watch Tower, September 1, 1892, page 272.
[11] Russell repeated the claim that the “high calling” ended
in 1881 in Thy Kingdom Come (Millennial Dawn, Vol 3), page 217.
[12] Robert H. served the Reno Methodists from 1889-1890, and
thereafter as a supply minister – That is, he filled in when the regular
clergyman was away. His brother John A. Bready served the Carson City church.
There is no record of J. A. Bready serving in Reno. During his term in Reno,
Robert conducted successful revival meetings. [See: S. P. Davis (editor): The
History of Nevada, 1913, page 575; Conference of the Methodist Episcopal
Church: Jackson Michigan, 1924, pages 94-96; Religious Revival at Reno, The
Carson City, Nevada, Morning Appeal, February 22, 1890. Robert was born in
Ontario, Canada, and immigrated to the United States in 1879. [1920 Federal
Census.]
J. A. Bohnet
There are many photos of varying quality. I need a photo of him as a young man, taken sometime between 1880 and 1895. Anyone?
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Watchtower Society and Witnesses.
Dear Brothers,
It's okay to be here. This is not an apostate site. The blog's editors are Witnesses in good standing. You do not have to anonymize, [It doesn't work anyway]. You don't have to use an alternative ISP; your point of origin will show up in our Statcounter report. Some of you, the latest from Watchtower Society of Japan, come here with research questions. Ask your question. We won't 'out you,' and we will answer your question best we can.
I do not intend to brag or exaggerate, but recent interaction with our brothers at Tuxedo Park suggests that often those who contribute to this blog know 'things' you do not. Ask. We do not bite.
It's okay to be here. This is not an apostate site. The blog's editors are Witnesses in good standing. You do not have to anonymize, [It doesn't work anyway]. You don't have to use an alternative ISP; your point of origin will show up in our Statcounter report. Some of you, the latest from Watchtower Society of Japan, come here with research questions. Ask your question. We won't 'out you,' and we will answer your question best we can.
I do not intend to brag or exaggerate, but recent interaction with our brothers at Tuxedo Park suggests that often those who contribute to this blog know 'things' you do not. Ask. We do not bite.
Los Angeles
There is a document at William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount, in Los Angeles that I would like to see. The librarians there have proved impossible to deal with via email or online chat. If one of you lives in the area and is willing to photocopy an archival document, please contact me.
Newton Timothy Hartshorn
Hartshorn was a Civil War veteran, and many of his war era letters are online. He was a well known artist. And he was a bible student. He wrote, about 1915 I think, something called "Paganized Christianity."
I need a good scan or photocopy. Anyone?
I need a good scan or photocopy. Anyone?
Friday, June 7, 2019
An Evening Prayer and Thomas Hickey (2 of 3)
by Jerome
(Addenda
– part 2 of 3)
The
research in this article is going to concentrate on CTR’s activities in the
decade of the 1870s.
CTR
joined his father in the haberdashery business, but we know that there were numerous
other commercial ventures attempted. Some of CTR’s later ones were to be
detailed in A Conspiracy Exposed and Harvest Siftings (1894).
One
early business venture was as music publishers and dates from 1872. This was
known in Separate Identity volume 1, which reproduces the one known piece of sheet
music on page 333. It is reproduced again here.
The
piece was published by J. L. Russell & Son, Pittsburgh Music House, 85
Fifth Street, in tandem with other music publishers. The full words and music
can be accessed from the Library of Congress website for any who wish to see
what it is like.
The
piece was written by the Rev. Dr. I. C. Pershing (lyrics) and G. Blessner
(score). Both worked at the Pittsburgh Female College. The Pittsburgh Female
College (founded 1854) had a good reputation at the time, and was linked to the
Methodist Church.
Israel
C. Pershing (1826-1898) became principal of the college around 1860 and
remained so until 1886 when he was accused of fraud. Gustave Blessner
(1808-1888) was head of music in the 1870s, and had a long career in writing music
for everything from the Sacred (To Thee We Pray – 1879) to the less than sacred
(Silly Dilly Dally Dolly – 1872). A lot of his music can still be accessed
today. One of the less than sacred oeuvre, Nanny’s Mammy (1850) starts off…
A
spinster of uncertain age
(But
somewhat past the middle stage)
Who
thought herself extremely sage…
There
are shades of Gilbert and Sullivan here. Blessner’s greatest modern claim to
fame is probably that he wrote the music for the first known song to have the
word “Blues” in the title: “I have got the blues today” (1850). The chorus goes:
I
was the gayest of the gay
But
I have got the blues today.
It
is about a singer who gets drunk. Of course in these instances Blessner wrote
the music but was not the lyricist. Still, one wonders if his music lessons
with the straight-laced-ladies-only M.E. College were sometimes rather fun,
Returning
rather hastily to The Evening Prayer the piece was dedicated to the Rev. Bishop
M. Simpson (1811-1884) who was president at one time of the M.E. Church
Missionary Society.
The
Pittsburgh Female College had a choir and there are various reports in Pittsburgh
newspapers of concerts the college performed, but not alas any news of the
premiere of Evening Prayer. A copy of the music published by the Russells was
sent to the Pittsburgh Daily Post which briefly mentioned it on December 16,
1872.
Commercially,
this seems to have been a short lived venture, in tandem with other music
publishers. No other sheet music published by the Russells has yet been found,
and it may be that this was the only piece they published locally for a local
college and a local choir who performed it. However, having said that, forty
years after the event it was still viewed as worthy of mentioning in a court
case.
The
case was the famous 1913 Russell vs. Brooklyn Eagle trial, generally known as
the “miracle wheat” trial. In a review of Russell’s various business ventures,
W E Van Amburgh included a music business. The reference is in the transcript
on page 320, section 959.
Van
Amberg (sic) did not become a director of the corporation until 1901, and this
exchange took place in 1913, both events decades after the 1872 music
publishing. He would have had no first-hand knowledge of Russell’s stores. Yet
out of all of Russell’s past business ventures it is interesting that the music
store should still be referenced.
As
the 1870s wore on, the religious side of the Russells’ lives came more to the
fore.
We
already know from Volume 1 about the meetings held in a “dusty dingy hall” (Quincy
Hall) in Leacock Street. They were initially a mixed group, allowing their
meetings to be billed as both Advent Christian (Advent Christian Times for
November 11, 1873 for George Stetson) and Age to Come One Faith (The
Restitution for November 5, 1874 for George Clowes). George Storrs visited them
in 1874 and became friends with Joseph Lytle Russell.
Running
parallel with these meetings and no doubt with some overlap of personnel (like
Charles’s father Joseph and sister Margaret) was an independent study group,
which would eventually outstrip the original. In Harvest Siftings (1894) CTR
described this as “myself and a few other truth-seekers in Pittsburgh (who)
formed a class for Bible study.”
A
brief first hand description of how this developed by the mid-1870s has now come
to light.
A
local Minnesota newspaper The St Paul Enterprise (later The New Era Enterprise)
began publishing Bible Student news, and by 1914 had evolved into an unofficial
Bible Student newspaper. It ran through to the late 1920s, and as such is a
marvellous historical resource. Letters, testimonies and obituaries in its
pages provide much information on the past, including a brief description of
those 1870s Bible study classes from someone who was there.
The
occasion was the 1922 Cedar Point Ohio convention. One who attended was Thomas
Hickey who had known Pastor Russell back in the 1870s and who was interviewed.
From our perspective today the interview is tantalisingly brief. Hickey was a
Welshman who had come to America from Tredegar in South Wales. The coal, iron
and later steel industries were staples of South Wales, but like many others with
skills in those industries Hickey emigrated from Wales to Pennsylvania, specifically
Pittsburgh. Coming from that part of the Welsh valleys, Hickey’s religious
background would probably have been one of the many strands of Methodism.
According to the Wales-Pennsylvania project, at one point
one-third of the population of Pennsylvania was Welsh, and even today there are
200,000 people of Welsh ancestry in the State.
From the original Welsh Quakers moving to Pennsylvania, there were soon floods
of industrial workers from Wales - slate quarrymen from the North, and from the
South coal miners and iron workers, whose skills would be welcomed in
industrial centers like Pittsburgh. At the time Hickey lived in Pittsburgh
there was a large Welsh St David’s Society there, which still flourishes today.
Hickey was listed in the 1870 and 1880 Pittsburgh census
returns
as a puddler, the name for a specialized furnace worker who converted pig iron
into wrought iron. By 1880 his family was wife, Gwennie (Gwendolyn), and seven
children. Between those two dates he attended
early meetings with Charles Taze Russell.
Reviewing the Cedar Point Ohio convention, the New Era
Enterprise for December 26, 1922, page 2, billed Hickey as “the only one now
living who was a member of Pastor Charles T. Russell’s first little class in
Allegheny.”
Transcribing the above account in full from the Enterprise it
reads as follows:
(quote)
Among the thousand attending the convention is the venerable
Thomas Hickey, of Newcastle, Pa. He is the only one now living who was a member
of Pastor Charles T. Russell’s first little class in Allegheny.
He relates that the first convention held was in a building
on Federal St., Allegheny, when less than a hundred were present. This was
about 1875. The first testimony meeting was held in 1876 in the home of Brother
Russell, when six consecrated hearts were present. This gives an amazing
contrast when compared with this great convention of over 12,000, with many,
many times that number at home all over the world.
In listening to Mr Hickey relating his experiences, it can be
seen that this movement grew, not by any organized effort, but simply and
spontaneously by a gathering together of consecrated Christians to study their
Bibles as their hearts yearned to do.
“Charlie would give them little talks,” he said, “and after
awhile he began to go around and speak here and there. When they started to
call him Elder Russell, the question arose as to what would be the proper title
for their minister. When they asked Brother Russell, he answered simply, ‘We
will just go on without any name, for are all one in Christ Jesus.’”
Mr Hickey said he never expected to attend such a convention
as this one, and considers it the greatest privilege of his life.
(end of quote)
We have to accept that this is anecdotal evidence from an old
man about events nearly fifty years before. We don’t know how good his memory
was, or how accurately he was reported by the Enterprise writer, but it gives
us a flavour of those early times.
A search in Zion’s Watch Tower for the early years provides a
number of references to a “Brother Hickey” but these were all for Samuel I
Hickey, a former Presbyterian minister, who had quite a high profile early on.
All we have for Thomas Hickey is this interview and his subsequent obituary in
his local paper.
The above obituary comes from the New Castle News, January
14, 1927, and firmly identifies Thomas as an active member of the International
Bible Students Association. One wonders how many of his surviving five
children, fifteen grandchildren and seventeen great-grandchildren continued in
the same religious persuasion.
Part
3 to follow – The Strange Case of Alfred Eychaner
Watch this space.
Thursday, June 6, 2019
Better, I think
Fixing a bad typo and additions:
John Adam and Christina Doratha [Dorothea Unkel] Bohnet
Census
records indicate that both were born in 1830, but Christina’s grave marker
gives her birth date as 1829. Birth location records are confused. One suggests
that John Adam was born in Austria. Another suggests that they were both from
Wurttemberg. A family record says: “John Adam Bohnet and Christina Doratha
Unkel were born in the same place in Germany, sailed on different ships from
Germany to the United States and disembarked in New York City on the same day.
John sometimes went by his middle name Adam. He was a blacksmith by trade. His
blacksmith shop faced Carpenter Road. Christine raised flowers to sell, tulips
and gladiolas.”
Christina’s
obituary says they lived “together in the same home ever since their marriage,
and [they are] said to have been the oldest married couple in the state [of
Michigan].”[1] They immigrated to America in 1854, settling
in Minnesota. They were on the American frontier, and their life reflected
that. The 1880 United States Census verifies the family record, listing Adam as
a Farmer and Black Smith. We have little record of their early years in
America, but Christina’s obituary tells an interesting story: “In her early
maidenhood [she] crossed the Atlantic in 39 days, in a sailing vessel, and
worked as a hired girl, 16 hours every day, for $1.00 Per week, for years in a
family near Ann Arbor. After supper each night during apple season she peeled
and sliced a bushel of apples by hand and dried them for winter pies. On wash
days she was up at 4:00 a.m. and had her wash on the line before breakfast
hour.”
We do not know their marriage date. We know something
about her early married life:
She took the fleece direct from the sheep, carded it,
spun it into yarn on a foot tread spinning wheel and knitted by hand all the
stockings for herself, her husband and her five children as long as they
attended school and she did this by the light of her home-made, tallow candles.
Talk about a woman working’ she was a wonder of wonders; slight of frame and
swift of movement; even up to her last sickness [at age ninety-five] she could
catch a fly with her hand. She suffered without complaint. She was love and
justice personified, and the generous almost to a fault, never turned away from
her door a hungry beggar.[2]
Christian seems to have been the
first to adopt Watch Tower belief. Her obituary says that she was “ever a
devout Christian” and that she left the Lutheran church 25 years ago” embracing
“the true gospel as presented by the Watch Tower publications.” Counting
backwards from her death date [1924] brings us to 1889.
One
of their sons, James A. Bonhet, became prominent in the work. Bohnet relatives
lived nearby, and some seem to have accepted Watch Tower teachings. James was
active by 1893. A letter from him to the Watch Tower office tells us this:
Please
change tower to present address. I
miss it, and would not do without it. I shall never drop this welcome visitor;
rather would I do my work on one meal a day. It is food to the truth-hungry soul,
I need it to sustain my spiritual being, just as I need food to sustain me physically.
I hope all subscribers read and digest its precious truths as I do. How it opens
up the Word of God and throws light where darkness reigned before! We cannot all
uncover these hidden truths, but we can see and accept them when the due time comes
for them to be known and pointed out by the Lord's servants.
I
close with every kind wish to all in the tower
office and all the readers of this priceless seed sower. I hand you a letter from
my friend May, to whom I had the pleasure of introducing these precious truths.[3]
The letter from J. J. May [We can’t
identify him further] was appended to James’ letter. May wrote that the first
three volumes of Studies in the Scriptures presented “the most wonderful
explanation of the old Book that I have found in all of forty years reading and
study of its teaching.” He claimed acquaintance with Joseph Addison, Thomas Sherlock,
John Locke and Thomas Scott “and others of less note.” He said he owned every
Bible commentary of which he had ‘ever heard of as having been published in
English” during the previous twenty-five years, but nothing that I have ever
read seems even to point in the direction of the straight and narrow path
opened up and made plain by those three volumes.” He wrote that within the
books was “a perfect and complete system” of theology that encompassed the
entire Bible. And the books, he said, were ‘full of comfort.’
James Bohnet attended the 1893
Convention held in Chicago, and by 1894 he was a part-time evangelist, holding
Sunday meetings in the Midwest as he traveled for business.[4] While
James is the better known of the Bohnet family, his mother and father quietly promoted
the Watch Tower faith.
Wednesday, June 5, 2019
Temporary for Comments
This is in rough draft the tail end of a chapter destined for vol. 2. Comments? Do it now; it won't be up long.
Watch
Tower evangelism in Michigan is representative. Its story is repeated in every
other American state, in Britain, and in Canadian provinces. So Michigan is a
somewhat arbitrary choice. In the period considered in this book and up to
1902, Michigan newspapers took little to no notice of Watch Tower evangelism. Almost
our sole access to this story is through contemporary issues of Zion’s Watch
Tower and letters found in later issues of The St. Paul, Michigan,
Enterprise.
An
exception is found in the minutes of the Michigan Congregational association
for 1898. In 1898 William Ewing, a Congregationalist clergyman and Michigan
State Sunday School Superintendent, complained of declining Sunday School
attendance, blaming it on Millennial Dawn, Age-to-Come preachers, Church of God
– evidently also age to come – Free Methodists and others:
From
careful observation and statistics, I am convinced that the proportion of those
who do not attend Sunday school as well as church, is largest in the rural
communities. In many country districts, both church and Sunday school
attendance is less than it was years ago.
the cause of decline.
I
called your attention a year ago to the fact that a large amount of Sunday
school work was being done around our churches in a desultory way; which led to
feeble schools being organized, either to be short-lived, or to open the way
for contending sects of "Free Methodist" "Saints," (Present
and Latter Day), "Millennial Dawn," "Church of God,"
"Age to Come," and others of the same variety. After an infliction of
this kind, the most reliable people of many communities stay away, and the
others sink into godless indifference.
Age-to-Come/Chruch of God/One Faith
believers challenged congregationalists on doctrine. Free Methodists presented
financial problems because they denied the right to charge pew rent. They were
also doctrinally conservative. Ewing said that he had “frequent conferences on
this matter” with church workers “and also with representative members of the
Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist denominations.” They agreed that the
situation was grave. He said that inter-denominational cooperation was needed:
“I believe we need to draw closer together as different denominations, and plan
for a strong Sunday school advance in close connection with all our churches.”
He wanted union Sunday schools – that admitted anyone, regardless of faith – to
fade away. “It has been found wise and necessary,” he said, “to plant the
Sunday school as a branch of a church, expecting it to develop into real church
life.” Despite this, he believed that they needed “the counsel and cooperation
of the wisest in our churches, and those of sister denominations, that the work
may be strong and permanent,” adding that “When we face this problem there is more
work than we can all do. There is no need of any rivalry, and as far as I know
there is none. I wish to bear testimony to the good fellowship between the
field workers of the different denominations in this regard.”[1]
Ewing’s
report testifies to a successful Watch Tower evangelism disproportionate to the
number of adherents in Michigan. [The same is true of the other denominations
he mentions.] In an era when attendance reports for the annual Memorial of
Christ’s Death [Communion] were erratic and incomplete the April 15, 1899, Zion’s
Watch Tower reported only seven sparsely attended meetings with a total
attendance of sixty-seven. This almost certainly understates the number of
adherents, but even if by half, there were few adherents in Michigan.[2]
Paton
cultivated interest in Michigan before he met Russell, and Keith engaged in
mission work there, primarily through lecturing. Other than Robert Bailey, W.
E. Van Amburgh’s parents,[3]
and a few others, almost all of the Watch Tower evangelists and adherents in
Michigan of the 1880s and 90s are anonymous, but we have a considerable history
– one that illustrates how believers turned Watch Tower counsel to evangelize
into practice. This was not the organized sales-culture of the Rutherford and
Knorr years. It was impelled by the generally-held belief that informal
evangelization was a Christian’s duty. This is illustrated by an incident recounted
in the 1977 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 1895 Rasmus Blindheim, a
resident of Norway, received two Watch Tower published book sent to him by his
brother, a resident of Michigan. “He understood that this was the truth. He
obtained the Society’s literature as it was published and maintained regular
contact by mail with his brother in America. Blindheim seems to have been the
first actual Norwegian witness of Jehovah, and worked to spread the truth all
through his life, dying in 1935 at eighty years of age.”[4]
[ZWT
letters and analysis here]
The Van Amburghs
One
of the few Minnesota families whose conversion occurred sometime before 1900
that we can identify is the van Amburgh family. They entertained Watch Tower
‘pilgrims,’ traveling speakers, in their home. For a “Mrs. H. A. Remick” a
visit to Northfield, Minnesota, where the van Amburgs lived in 1900, to hear
McPhail speak was memorable. Mrs. Remick and Fannie (Frances) van Amburg became
regular correspondents, and Remick described her as generous with time and
money.[5]
Fannie
[Frances] Sophia Patterson was born July 15, 1839, in Livingston County, New
York.[6]
She was, according to her obituary, the youngest of ten children. Her mother
died about three years later, and her father died when she was five. Her
obituary says, “As an orphan she was “bound out” to an aunt, then living in
Illinois. Her early life was one of privation and very limited opportunities.”
We cannot sustain this from census or other records. There is a “Fanny
Patterson,” age twenty, in the 1860 Census. She is listed as a servant in the
household of George G. Patterson, a blacksmith [36 years old] and his wife,
Harriet [35 years old]. She is listed as a servant. All of this is unresolved
at the date of this book’s publication.
When
she became an adult she moved to Goodhue County, Minnesota, to live with “her
only sister.” She taught school until she married Daniel S. van Amburgh in
August 1862. These were Civil War year, and Daniel enlisted in the Sixth Michigan
Volunteer Infantry, leaving Frances to care for their farm. Daniel’s service
was mostly on the frontier though late in the war his unit was moved south.[7]
The van Amburgs endured “sever experiences,” most of which are left
un-described by an obituary writer.
photo
The Van Amburgh Family –
Courtesy of Jerry Leslie
In
1873 they moved to Northfield, Minnesota; the obituary says they wanted “to
provide better school facilities for their boys.” She joined the Methodist
Episcopal Church and was “an active worker.” In addition to “church work,”
Daniel’s obituary says they were active within the Grand Army of the Republic
and its women’s auxiliary, The Women’s Relief Corps.[8] The
1880 United States Census tells us that Daniel continued to farm. They
incorporated into their family some nephews and a niece. We do not know why.
Living with them were Nettie, Harvey, and Arthur Patterson. These were young
children; the oldest – Nettie – was nine, and the youngest – Arthur – was two.
photo
1880 Census Record
Their
oldest son, William Edwin [Born August 28, 1863] recalled that his mother
“dedicated me to the Lord before I was born.” She rededicated him after he was
born. This echoes Russell’s experience and was not uncommon in the era. “My
first recollection is learning prayers at my mother’s knee,” he continued. He
joined his mother’s church when he was ten, the year the moved to Northfield,
becoming “active in church affairs.” He said that he made “a full consecration”
as far as he knew how when he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. When he
was twenty-three (1886) he “signed a written statement to the effect that
everything I owned or expected to own, or posses, was to be given to the Lord.”
Both
boys graduated from Northfield High School and went on to Carlton College in
Northfield. William pursued English, Classical Studies and Music. George
enrolled in English Studies and Music. William was enrolled for two years;
neither boy graduated.[9] Both
learned other trades. George had a varied career. Public documents list him as
a motorman (ie: a street car driver), a salesman; an electrician and a waffle-house
owner.[10] William
took a course in telegraphy. After completing a year’s course he was hired
(1884) by the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway, moving to Traill
County, North Dakota.[11] Civil
War pension records show that his parents followed him there.[12]
Though we do not know if William acquired an Exhorter’s License, he started to
preach while in North Dakota: “I was active in the church work and Y. M. C. A.
work, holding services nearly every Sunday in the city where I was engaged in
railroad work,” he later recalled. He preached in school houses. We can find no
independent verification for this, but we do not doubt it.[13]
William
returned to Minnesota in September 1887 to marry Ada May Wood.[14] She
was somewhat younger than he and attended Carlton College between 1884 and
1887, a year longer than William.[15] They
moved to Huron, Beadle County, South Dakota, sometime before 1886. They had
very limited social interaction; the population of the entire county was a tad
over eight thousand. She made her will shortly before she died of consumption (March
6, 1887), leaving a small house in Ramsey County, Michigan, to her husband.
William
reported that in late 1894 and early 1895 he was interested in and reading
about the second coming of Christ. In February 1895, a friend loaned him The
Divine Plan of the Ages. This was a life changing moment for the van
Amburgh family. “I studied it,” he recalled, “and said that [it] is the Bible
in A. B. C. I was so interested and it was so different from what I had read
that I took it to the Lord in prayer, to find out whether it could be the
truth.” When he was two-thirds through, he got down on his knees in the
telegraph office and prayed. He studied more thorougly:
I became very deeply interested and took up the study
with other translations of the Bible, the King James Version, Concordances,
Helps and Dictionaries, to see whether this was really a proper interpretation
of the Bible. Being convinced of the fact – I studied a year – I withdrew from
the Methodist Church in 1896. From that time on ... I was associated with the
[Watch Tower] society in the sense of endeavoring to promulgate their
doctrines.[16]
William
became part of Watch Tower headquarters staff in 1900. His family had returned
to Minnesota where they took up the Watch Tower message. William is by far the
most known of the van Amburghs, but his parents represent the path the message
took within Minnesota. Informal testimony from friends, from relatives, from
strangers grew the Watch Tower fellowship
John Adam and Christina Doratha [Dorothea Unkel] Bohnet
Census
records indicate that both were born in 1830, but Christina’s grave marker
gives her birth date as 1829. Birth location records are confused. One suggests
that John Adam was born in Austria. Another suggests that they were both from
Wurttemberg. A family record says: “John Adam Bohnet and Christina Doratha
Unkel were born in the same place in Germany, sailed on different ships from
Germany to the United States and disembarked in New York City on the same day.
John sometimes went by his middle name Adam. He was a blacksmith by trade. His
blacksmith shop faced Carpenter Road. Christine raised flowers to sell, tulips
and gladiolas.”
Christina’s
obituary says they lived “together in the same home ever since their marriage,
and [they are] said to have been the oldest married couple in the state [of
Michigan].”[17] They immigrated to America in 1854, settling
in Minnesota. They were on the American frontier, and their life reflected
that. The 1880 United States Census verifies the family record, listing Adam as
a Farmer and Black Smith. We have little record of their early years in
America, but Christina’s obituary tells an interesting story: “In her early
maidenhood [she] crossed the Atlantic in 39 days, in a sailing vessel, and
worked as a hired girl, 16 hours every day, for $1.00 Per week, for years in a
family near Ann Arbor. After supper each night during apple season she peeled
and sliced a bushel of apples by hand and dried them for winter pies. On wash
days she was up at 4:00 a.m. and had her wash on the line before breakfast
hour.”
We do not know their marriage date. We know something
about her early married life:
She took the fleece direct from the sheep, carded it,
spun it into yarn on a foot tread spinning wheel and knitted by hand all the
stockings for herself, her husband and her five children as long as they
attended school and she did this by the light of her home-made, tallow candles.
Talk about a woman working’ she was a wonder of wonders; slight of frame and
swift of movement; even up to her last sickness [at age ninety-five] she could
catch a fly with her hand. She suffered without complaint. She was love and
justice personified, and the generous almost to a fault, never turned away from
her door a hungry beggar.[18]
The
Bonhet’s met Watch Tower theology in about 1898. One of their sons, James A.
Bonhet, became prominent in the work. Bohnet relatives lived nearby, and some
seem to have accepted Watch Tower teachings.
Hans Fredrick Peterson
H. F.
Peterson became an adherent sometime before 1889. He was born in Sweden in December
2, 1848, immigrating to Minnesota in 1886, and spending most of the remainder
of his life in Lund Township, Douglas County. What we know of his conversion
and continuing connection to the Watch Tower comes from an obituary written by
his son Walter who wrote that “circumstances hindered him from doing much in
the Lord’s service,” adding that: “If it had not been for him I would be in
darkness, for which I am very thankful to our Heavenly Father that He has seen
fit that I should see this great light which shines more and more unto the
perfect day, for we sorrow not as others, for we have a better hope, so I can
well say he had done what he could.”[19]
Walter
left the “circumstances” hindering his father’s activity un-described, but we
know enough about his life to surmise. He was a farmer in an era that saw most
American farmers living in poverty or near it. He and his wife had five
children. One dropped out of the record between 1900 and 1905, and we presume
they died. The 1905 state census tells us that in that year they ranged in age
between six and eighteen. Scratching a living from the ground and raising four
children left little time for anything else. Hans died May 5, 1920 in
Evansville, Douglass County, Minnesota.
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.[20]
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.[21]
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.”[22]
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.
Duluth paper here
Arthur Cumberland
Cumberland
was an immigrant, born in England December 9 1826. The 1900 United States census
dated his immigration to 1833, and a ship’s record says he arrived in New York
City on August 13, 1833, aboard the sailing vessel Portia.[23] He
moved first to Pennsylvania, and we find him there in the 1850 Federal Census;
then to Minnesota. 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.
It is
impossible to attach names to the letters we analyzed earlier in this chapter.
But we can make some observations, or rather repeat observations we made
earlier. The spread of Watch Tower belief in Minnesota is typical of the
movement’s growth elsewhere. It depended on an evangelical spirit that pervaded
the age. Those who were serious Christians, no matter their doctrine, felt
obligated to testify. Watch Tower evangelism was not a new thing. It was a long
standing practice, but colored by a new understanding of the Bible’s message. A
new belief system, one suggested there was a narrow path to divine choosing,
engendered zeal.
The
Watch Tower continued to advocate evangelism. Jehovah’s Witnesses, the
principal descendent religion, tend to focus on the 1922 Cedar Point, Ohio,
Convention. They quote Rutherford’s speech:
Do you believe that the King of glory has begun his
reign? Then back to the field, O ye sons of the most high God! Gird on your
armor! Be sober, be vigilant, be active, be brave. Be faithful and true
witnesses for the Lord. Go forward in the fight until every vestige of Babylon
lies desolate. Herald the message far and wide. The world must know that Jehovah
is God and that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. This is the
day of all days. Behold, the King reigns! You are his publicity agents.
Therefore advertise, advertise, advertise, the King and his kingdom.
It is
important to remember that this was at best a revitalization – more accurately,
a strengthening – of an evangelizing spirit after the difficult war years. It
was a spirit fostered by The Watch Tower from its first issue. Though it
is fodder for a book about the war years, evangelizing did not die out among
Watch Tower adherents during World War One. It only became more difficult.
[1] Minutes
of the Michigan Congregational Association at Their Fifty-Seventh Annual
Meeting in Grand Rapids May 17-19, 1898, Also of the Michigan Home and Foreign
Missionary Societies with Reports and Statistics, Lawrence & VanBuren
Printing Co. Lansing, Michigan, 1898.
[2] The figures for Michigan are: Saginaw, 12; Detroit, 8;
Wheeler, 7; Kalamazoo, 10; Muskegon, 13; Adrian, 6; Ypsilanti, 11.
[3] An untitled short article in The St. Paul,
Minnesota, New Era Enterprise says she “has been long in the glorious
truth.” See August 8, 1922 issue. It does not date her introduction to Watch
Tower theology. An article published in the September 5, 1922, issue says both
parents were adherents. [See the article: Sixtieth Wedding Aniversary.]
[4] Page 195. There are too many possibilities to clearly
identify his brother by name.
[5] Voices of the People, or What our Readers Say, The
St. Paul, Minnesota, Enterprise, October 31, 1916.
[6] Her
obituary gives her name as Franny P. The “P” stands for her maiden name. Her
son George’s marriage certificate says her second given name was Sophia. – British
Columbia, Division of Vital Statistics: Marriage Registrations 002146 to 002561:
1893-1894. [GR 2962, Volume 006] Certificate No. 2437. The certificate
describes him as a Methodist, expected in 1894, and his wife Hatty Henry [the
widow of Eugene Higby] as Presbyterian.
[7] The 1890 Special Census of Civil War Veterans says he
served from May 1863 to June1865. See the enumeration for Traill County, North
Dakota.
[8] Obituary, The St. Paul, Minnesota, New Era
Enterprise, December 9, 1924.
[9] Annual
Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Carlton College, Northfield,
Minnesota: For the Academic Year 1881-1882, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1882;
W. E. van Amburgh’s testimony in United States v. Rutherford, et. al.,
transcript of record, page 660.
[10] Motorman is listed on his first marriage certificate;
salesman is noted on his death certificate [WA Certificate No. 1823];
electrician is listed on his second marriage certificate, 1911. Waffle House is
from 1920 Federal Census records.
[11] Later absorbed by the Great Northern Railway.
[12] See: The General Index to Civil War Pension File. Certificate
770.077. Daniel’s obituary, cited above, says they lived in Northfield from
1873 to 1909. This is false, though their residence in North Dakota seems to
have brief.
[13] Testimony found in United States v. Rutherford, et. al,
transcript of record, page 661.
[14] Rice county marriage certificate dated September 28,
1887. Census records tell us that her father, John Wood, was a “market
gardener” in the Northfield area.
[15] Carlton College Bulletin, June 1921, page 125.
[16] United States v. Rutherford, et. al, Transcript of
Record, pages 661-662.
[17] Obituary, The St. Paul, Minnesota, New Era Enterprise,
December 9, 1924.
[18] ibid.
[19] “Voices” or What our Readers Say, The St. Paul,
Minnesota, New Era Enterprise, April 20, 1920.
[20] Details from the 1900 US Census and Mrs. Minnie Peterson
[Obituary], The St. Paul, Minnesota, New Era Enterprise, April 27, 1926.
[21] Encouraging Words from Faithful Workers, Zion’s Watch
Tower, November 1, 1896, page 264. [Not in Reprints.]
[22] Furley to editor of The St. Paul, Minnesota,
Enterprise, January 29, 1918.
[23] New York, New York, Index to Passenger Lists, 1820-1846; retrieved
from https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GGX7-9Q7M?cc=1919703&wc=M6YK-PTL%3A212777401