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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

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

My copy is defective ...

My copy of the United States v. Rutherford et. al. transcript is defective. Can you fill in the missing words?


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.

W. E. van Amburgh - First Marriage


Sunday, June 2, 2019

George Curtis van Amburgh


You may have to click on this to view the entire image.

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?