Some of you will find this helpful

https://lollardsociety.org/pdfs/Vaughan_LifeOpinions_vol1.pdf

Letter to a member of the Barbour/Barber family

Not relevant to the history we pursue, but interesting nevertheless.

Read this ...

This post requires NO comments, but it does require your attention.

A Polish web site describes me as a “liberal JW.” I’m uncertain what is meant. If the writer suggests that I have a liberal view of the Bible, they are incorrect. If they mean that I have a lax view of moral obligations, that too is incorrect. If they mean that I have a loosely held view of congregation structure; that is wrong-headed. I am, in fact, socially conservative, a Bible believer. I believe that all the rights and obligations God grants apply to everyone. In the United States the appellation “liberal elder” or “liberal Witness” attaches to a type of apostate. Are you calling me an apostate? On what basis?

A private email suggested that I was angry at the Watchtower Society. The basis is a footnote in my current work. Perhaps the person who wrote that email is a mind reader, but I doubt the possibility.

Related to the above, but from another, is the suggestion that I should not repeat something previously said in volume two’s footnotes. This ignores the nature of volume two which is a series of essays presented in rough chronological order. My experience with that type of writing is that it may not be read in chapter order. So I have repeated key footnotes. I will not change that. If one of them reflects on your beliefs, it says no more that what is true.

The Separate Identity series occasionally challenges Russell mythology. Some who read them, some who visit this blog, are committed to the various mythologies, both pro and anti Russell. I am not. I am committed to telling you an accurate, clearly stated account. If you want to challenge the narrative as I present it, give me your sources. I will accept only original sources. Secondary sources, especially one written by a polemicist, are of no value.

Cedar Point Convention - 1922

Can you help?

I received this email today. I have passed on the very little I know. Can you help?

Dear brother,

I am ****, Jehovah’s Witness from France.

I visited the French Branch this week, and had the opportunity to visit the archives department.

Back home, making some online researches, I found your blog.

Thanks for these precious documents and facts!

Are you located in France?

Do you have items related to the Watchtower history in France?

Asking for the impossible

Many of the resources needed for my research have been scanned by someone or republished. Some have not. I need to purchase three years of a magazine not scanned by anyone. Unfortunately, the person who has them wants 300 US dollars. I do not have that, or anything close to it. If you want to donate to this purchase, please use paypal. The owner has given me two days to complete the purchase.

Good news and Bad news

The good news is that Separate Identity, vol 2 is still on track for a March 2020 release.

The Bad News is that it will cost about $40.00 USD. Despite my best efforts, I cannot find a way to reduce the cost. However, if I can enlist the help of a techie, this volume will have an ebook release too. It will cost less. I regret this, but I cannot change it.

Update:

As it stands now - still being edited and with a few additions - :

Two Introductory Essays and an Afterword that is chapter length.
Sixteen Chapters
602 pages
297,000 words
150 Photos and illustrations, many of which haven't seen the light of day in well over a century.
Fully footnoted so readers can follow our research path.

Contents

Introductory Essay – B. W. Schulz

Introductory Essay – R. M. de Vienne

Chapter One
     Foundation

Chapter Two
     Seeking Cohesion

Chapter Three
     Out of Babylon

Chapter Four
     Congregation Culture: 1880-1886

Chapter Five
     Organizing and Financing the Work

Chapter Six
     The Publishing Ministry

Chapter Seven
     Evangelical Voice

Chapter Eight
     The Church in Maria’s House

Chapter Nine
     New Workers in the Field

Chapter Ten
     Clergymen and Lay Preachers

Chapter Eleven
     Foreign Language Fields Within the United States

Chapter Twelve
     Food for Thinking Christians


Chapter Thirteen
     In All the Earth: The United Kingdom

Chapter Fourteen
     Joseph Moffitt: An Important Early Voice

Chapter Fifteen
     In All the Earth: Canada

Chapter Sixteen
     In all the Earth: China and Other Lands

Afterword

     Doctrinal Evolution and Prophetic Failure

Volunteer needed ...

I need a volunteer to transcribe some older letters, mostly by J. F. Rutherford. Many of the scans and images I have are not suitable to reproduce. But they are readable. If you volunteer, you must be able to work quickly. There are, at last count, 29 pages. The topics vary. Anyone?

As a side comment: These have no restrictions on circulation or sharing. Occasionally someone sends us material and asks us not to share it. This is not the case with these.

I was there. Were you?

https://archive.org/details/TheyOpposeFreedomOfWorship

Published with notes by Rufus Wendell

Rufus was Jonas' nephew. Some of you may be interested:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Life-of-Christ-Farrar-1875-First-American-Edition-Fine-Binding/184084941549?hash=item2adc514aed:g:c8IAAOSw3fZZ74g3

Not related to this project

I need scans of Watchtower letters from 1950-1980.

Some of you will find this useful

https://books.google.com/books?id=x90cAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22prophetic+times%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQy-SAvrvmAhXfJzQIHRUABBcQ6AEwAHoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=%22prophetic%20times%22&f=false


https://books.google.com/books?id=GoU3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA161&dq=%22prophetic+times%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQy-SAvrvmAhXfJzQIHRUABBcQ6AEwDHoECA4QAg#v=onepage&q=%22prophetic%20times%22&f=false

More Photodrama films

New to Research Collection

Oh ... the memories ....

Expectations.

If our readers do not find this blog interesting enough to prompt a comment, I cannot see adding additional content until there is something important. Contrary opinion does not matter now, does it? It's not your blog. Jerome and Roberto are free to add what they wish. I'm too busy to add material that is unread, unwanted or unappreciated. Please do not add your inane, repetitious comments on this issue. The remedy is for you to assume some responsibility and comment.

You are a guest in my house. Behave like one. 

Some of you will find this useful

https://ia800209.us.archive.org/16/items/TheGoldenLink/1891-The-Golden-Link.pdf

Original with an extra verse appeared in 1928 Song Book

I was there. Were you?

Needed

I've put out a call for things like this before with little success, but I'm repeating it anyway. I need opposition material, magazine articles, booklets, etc. published in the Russell era or just after. I located two on my own and purchased them as originals, but I'm just as happy with scans. There are a number of these in British libraries. I have no access. If you live in the UK, you could be of great help tracking them down.

I have an eye surgery coming up. Second in a series, and I hope the last. But I continue to work on vol 2. Those who are proof reading should be aware of the March target date.

Be aware that my wife's health is deteriorating. So If I am out of contact, that is why.

I am building a university's collection of Bible Student and Witness publications. If you live in the USA and wish to donate something, leave a comment below.

Away?

Bruce is alive and well and sharing atrocious jokes on twitter...

A letter to one's father

In July 1918 Malcolm Rutherford wrote a long letter to his father, Joseph F Rutherford, who was then incarcerated in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. The letter was published in full in the St Paul Enterprise paper for December 10, 1918.

Photodrama films

(reprinted)

Those who love the Photodrama of Creation will recognize these frames from the end of the sequence on the flood, with the tinted sequence of the ark that ends with the rainbow appearing.

After the footage was meticulously copied frame by frame, the key nitrate stock in private hands was donated to the George Eastman museum as they have the professional facilities for its preservation.

Also the following document has come to light from the time which details the order and contents of all the slides and moving pictures from the production.

Interestingly it is dated November 17, 1914, and stresses that this revised schedule should be followed “implicitly.” Although the Photodrama started life as a three parter for a very short time, it had been shown in four parts for most of 1914. The extra part was not so much adding extra material as making each performance of a more manageable length for audiences of the day. But one wonders what changes were deemed necessary by November of that year.

Away

I'll be away from my blog until Tuesday, December 3, 2019. If you email me, expect a delay before I can answer.

Some you win... Some you - don't...

This is a brief tale of a search that in some ways led to disappointment. Being based in the UK I was asked if I could find the last resting place of the Edgar family. As well as their speciality of pyramidology three of the Edgars, John, Morton and Minna (two brothers and a sister) also wrote a series of little booklets. One of them by John “Where Are The Dead?” was instrumental in attracting the interest of a young man named Fred Franz before the First World War.

We knew from printed accounts that they were buried in a family plot in the Eastwood Cemetery, Glasgow. There are two cemeteries of this name, an Old and a New, but the date of the first interment identified the site as being in the Old.

Were there memorial headstones? Would there even be a pyramid? That is not as fanciful as it sounds. Here is the grave for Piazzi Smyth.

And here from a Bible Student publication is a grave marker in Yeovil, Somerset, for a Bible Student, William Hallett, who died in 1921.

The cemetery records in Glasgow had not been transcribed, let alone posted on the internet. But I was able to make contact with a Family History Society in Glasgow and a member very kindly did a search for me. Almost immediately the burial registers for the family were found.

John bought three adjoining plots and later a fourth was added, totalling plots numbered A-950-953. Sixteen members of the extended family were eventually buried here. The last interment was in 1968. Any modern generations of the family, if they still exist, obviously moved elsewhere.

The next step was a visit to the area and again a willing volunteer from the area visited the site and took the following photograph. The graves numbered A-950-953 are both sides of the tree in the foreground. One wonders what size the tree was when these plots were sold originally.

There are a few memorials standing, which at least enable one to fix the correct site, but alas, none for the Edgar family. In UK cemeteries vandalism and sheep with itchy bottoms have eliminated a lot of memorials, but it would appear from the photographs that the Edgars never did have a lasting memorial installed.

Realistically, had there been anything like a pyramid there, it would have been found and publicised long before now.

So this is a non-story really. But you never know until you follow everything up what may or may not be discovered.

If I remember right ...

This first appeared in the 1948 song book.

Catholic Opposition

I need examples of Catholic opposition to Russell 1916 and before. Anyone?

This statement from Keith appeared in November 1882

I will appreciate thoughtful comments on this.

A Townman’s Teaching.

            Editor Advertiser: In complying with a request for a synopsis of what I am teaching, I shall necessarily have to be so brief as to only give some of the principal features; and take the risk of being misunderstood and misrepresented, though not more so than at present, perhaps. But I will say first that I do not believe that this earth will be purified by a literal fire, and all but an insignificant portion of the people destroyed.

            I do believe that the God is dealing with the race according to a prearranged system, called the purpose or plan of the ages – Eph. 3:11; Heb. 1:2, 11:3. Rev. Ver. N. Y. margin, and that there are yet ages to come, during which God will show to the world the riches of his favor, in kindness toward us, in raising us up to sit with or reign with Christ – Eph. 2:6, 7.

            I believe, in common with thousands of others, that there are many indubitable evidences that we are now in the ending of the gospel age, and that the period of transition or lap of something over thirty years, will be marked by great revolutions, political, social and religious.

            In other words, it is the “day of the Lord” so often referred to in both old and new testaments, and in such a way that many have thought and still think there would be a great conflagration – 2 Pet. 3:10.

            The length of the past ages, and this transition period, is shown by the chronology and time measurements found in the bible. The frequent misapplication of those measurements, which have caused many to look for a burning time, does not prove that there may not be a right application, in harmony with God’s great application, in harmony with God’s great system of the ages. The fact that they are in the bible is a sufficient argument for their importance, and that the wise would understand them in due time. One of the intensely interesting features of the time, is the Jewish question, which is already attracting the attention of the civilized world, and, because of being the fulfillment of so large an amount of prophecy, and at the exact time given, it will be a powerful argument against the increasing infidelity of our day.

            Many who now scoff, will see the importance of the subject in a few years.

            I believe that the position taken by three general classes of religionists are based on scriptures, and, though contradictory, as advocated, will be seen to be beautifully harmonious in time; and it is being shown even now. Many are learning every year. I refer to Calvinism or election; arminianism or “free grace” and universalism. While based on scripture, the advocates of each line of thought must be more or less wrong in their conclusions, because of not seeing the force of the other two, and not rightly applying. The three classes of scripture can not be true in one age.

            God’s promise and oath in regard to the development of a Seed, and the work to be done by the Seed, after development, must be the basis of right application, and consequent harmony.

            The promise first appears as a threat to the serpent, to bruise his head – Gen. 3:15; it was ratified with Abraham oath, saying: In thy Seed shall all the nations be blesses – Gen. 22:15, 18.

            Paul says that Seed is Christ and those who are Christs chosen in the gospel age – Gal. 3:16, 29.

            The elect are represented as the body of Christ, and called Christ – Rom. 12:4, 5;  1 Cor. 12:12; and they are called the children of promise – Gal. 4:28, 6, 7, 9.

            God has been electing a few, not to torment nor annihilate the many; but because he will ultimately justify the nations through faith – Gal. 3:8, Acts 15:14, In his wisdom he permitted evil for man’s development, and he will bring good out of it – 1 Cor. 1:21.

            The Seed, then, means the “head and body” united, glorified together, as the Christ of Scripture; and God has chosen this Seed as the mediator between God and men – the nations – to give them the truth in due time – 1 Tim. 2:4, 6; and to reconcile the world to himself – 2 Cor. 5:19.

            God has sworn by himself that every knee should bow, and every tongue confess – Is. 45:20, 23. Paul says every knee and tongue means: those in heaven – angels; those on earth and under the earth; under ground ones, and they will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father – Phil 2:10, 11. This work of the Seed belongs to the times of restitution or ages to come – Acts 3:19.

            I have tried to state as briefly as possible, some of the principal lines of thought which I am teaching; and have given a few of the many passages of scripture which support them. All who will try to understand them, will see that election, as taught in the Bible, is true and beautiful; God’s favor is free; and in due time will be manifested to all his creatures.

B. W. Keith

Becoming more urgent

There are many anti-Russell tracts and booklets in British libraries to which I have no access. My research will benefit from copies. Can you help?

G. Andrae

I need what biographical information there is on a G. Andrae, a physician living in Steglitz, a Borough of Berlin in the 1920s.

Separate Identity - Review

You can leave a review, hopefully a favorable one, here - https://www.worldcat.org/title/separate-identity-organizational-identity-among-readers-of-zions-watch-tower-1870-1887-vol-1/oclc/935786358&referer=brief_results#reviews

Interesting Article

Not about the era we consider on this blog but interesting. I do not have permission to reproduce it, so I give it to you through a link:

https://www.heraldcourier.com/news/pieces-of-the-past-protests-over-jehovah-s-witnesses-turned/article_6cf74d01-1385-5151-bb72-31790f5b9994.html

Contact Card

(reprinted)

The above contact card was for Mrs M A Boder. Mary Ann Dunbar (1860-1948) was from Scots-Irish background and married William F Boder in Allegheny in 1889. They had one son, William Dunbar Boder (1891-1980).

Mary is mentioned once in ZWT in the issue for August 15, 1908.  She signed a document giving support to “the vow” as part of the Avalon class (Avalon, Allegheny, Penn.)  The document was also signed by W D Boder. This was not her husband but her son who would be about 17 years old at the time.

Mary remained with the IBSA and her funeral announcement in 1948 mentioned Jehovah’s Witnesses. From the Pittsburgh-Sun Telegraph, March 7,1948, page 33.

I do not know her son’s subsequent religious history other than that he claimed exemption on his WW1 Draft card on the grounds of being a member of the International Bible Students. From a document dated June 5, 1917.

The Daily Pittsburgh Gazette, December 31, 1855

Der liberale Beobachter und Berks, Montgomery und Schuylkill Caunties allgemeine anzeiger, August 22, 1843.

The second Mrs A D Jones

Republished from elsewhere with permission. Trivia perhaps, but fun. I understand that Bruce is carrying on further research on Isabel, so may be able to add to this in due course. 

I know that the second Mrs Albert (Royal) Delmont (Jones) is off the topic of Watch Tower history, other than perhaps a footnote. However, her assessment of men which you will find at the end of this article is an interesting comment in itself. Isabel Mulhall (Delmont) was a fascinating character. Albert obviously thought so, as newspaper articles of the day describe how he was first smitten just by her seeing her picture. It was downhill all the way from then on.

Albert and Isabel were married in 1896 and divorced in 1903. The Washington Post stated that this was after Albert met “financial reverses.” Isabel briefly went on the stage, before becoming Mrs Sidmon McHie.  Somewhere around 1906 she was in the news for accusing her chauffeur of blackmail, a man who was then employed by Mr McHie.  Sidmon was a Wall Street operator and publisher – and millionaire – you could smell the money. At a hurried secret ceremony they married in 1909. (see The Washington Post, August 1, 1909).

Isabel thereafter went by the name of either Isabel M McHie or Isabel D McHie, and one assumes the D stood for Delmont. She must have had financial assets of her own or been given some by Sidmon, because in 1919 she and her husband made wills leaving the other partner as main beneficiary. This became complicated when they separated acrimoniously in 1925. In 1926 an agreement was forged where Sidmon would give her certain assets and also pay her an allowance of a thousand dollars a month for as long as she lived. But there was a condition. The sixth covenant of the document said: “It is agreed that the parties shall live apart and separate and shall not annoy or molest each other.”

Salmon stopped paying the allowance in 1932 claiming in subsequent legal proceedings that Isabel had indeed continued to annoy and molest him. He divorced her in 1936 on the grounds of HER “cruel and inhuman treatment.” (See Fifth Avenue Bank of New York v. Hammond Realty Co., Court of Appeals for Seventh Circuit, October 30, 1942).

Isabel made the newspapers quite regularly. One occasion she was locked in the brig of a steamship for causing a disturbance. (According to the Milwaukee Sentinel for December 20, 1942, she tried to sue the Cunard Steamship Line for $100,000 over the incident, but the company successfully proved she had been – quote -“obstreperous”). When choirboys practiced at a church opposite her she played Caruso records at full blast! (The same citation from Milwaukee Sentinel). A ruckus at a Baltimore hotel resulted in her being committed to an asylum but she escaped when a Brooklyn clergyman (or someone dressed as one) came to visit with a heavily veiled woman, who exchanged places with her. (This of course is if the Brooklyn Standard Union paper for May 13, 1931 is to be believed.)

In 1935 she made the news again when she was “taken from a train” after throwing large sums of money out of it. From the New York Evening Post for March 22, 1935.

Isabel died in 1939 at the age of 63, after an exciting if not exactly happy life. She had been living at the home of her mother, Susan Mulhall, and her final resting place was at the Fresh Pond Crematory and Columbarium, Queen County, New York. You can check this out on Find a Grave.

Her paranoia was indicated by her will, which provided substantial funds for an autopsy and investigation in case she had been poisoned.

Then the fun started again. Who would inherit her sizeable fortune? Her father, who had deserted the family nearly 60 years before, suddenly reappeared to make a claim. The Milwaukee Sentinel for December 17, 1942 managed to snap a tender moment on the court steps between her parents.

A younger person called a protégé, also made a claim. And ex-husband Sidmon, who was still alive, made a claim. And the squabble went on until 1943, when finally her wishes were granted. (See Bingham Press, February 15, 1943). So where did the rump of her fortune go? It was left to a dog’s home that trained guide dogs for the blind.

And here is the punch line. Maybe it was the absent father, maybe it was the two husbands (both old enough to be her father, and including of course our own ADJ) – but she planned a sculptured bust of herself in her own memory, headed by the words which also adorned her stationery. It was a quote originally attributed to Mme de Sevigne (1626-1696):

THE MORE I SEE OF MEN, THE MORE I ADMIRE DOGS!

A. D. Jones, yet again

While in St. Louis Jones was employed by Arthur R. Jones & Co. I suspect a family relationship. Jones & Co. were seen as disreputable in St. Louis. Can we prove a family relationship? Here is what I know about A. R. Jones:

Arthur Russell Jones was the son of Bushrod W. and Lydia (Stickney) Jones. He was born in Vinton, Iowa, Jan. S, 1865. He had a high school education, advanced education in those years. In 1889 he married Edith Forrester.

In 1883 Arthur moved to Chicago finding employment with the Chicago and North Western Railway as a traveling live-stock agent. In 1889 he became assistant general manager of Street’s Western Stable Car Line; then found employment with the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway as general freight agent. He returned to Chicago in 1896, establishing Arthur R. Jones & Co. dealing in “commercial paper,” short-term unsecured promissory notes, until 1897, in stock and bond brokerage from 1897 to 1902, in commercial paper again, 1902-1905. In 1905 he organized the Mercantile Credit Co.,

The third Mrs A D Jones

(rewritten and revised from a few years back - for those who enjoy the trivia as well as the scholarly stuff)

Albert Delmont Jones (now calling himself Albert Royal Delmont) married Bambina Maude Scott on September 29, 1904. He was around 50 years old at the time and (if the 1920 census is to be believed) she was 21. A 1922 newspaper has a claim that her first husband was a Cincinnati millionaire. Cincinnati was certainly one of ADJ’s past locations. (Interview question: “Tell me, Bambie, what was it about this 50 year old millionaire that first attracted you to him?”) Bambina liked the name Delmont and kept it through several subsequent marriages, including John Hopper and Cassius Wood. In 1922 she was last heard of (under the Delmont name) planning to marry a Lawrence Johnson.

In the newspapers she is sometimes Bambina Maud Delmont and sometimes Maud Bambina Delmont and Maud sometimes has an E on the end, and sometimes not. But the “Delmont” is consistent.

Bambina liked getting married, but didn’t always finish the paperwork for her divorces and was subsequently charged with bigamy on one occasion.

In the 1920 census returns she was running her own shop in Los Angeles selling and fitting corsets.

Bambina’s claim to fame (or infamy) is her part in the Roscoe Arbuckle scandal. Fatty Arbuckle was a silent film comedian who was huge (in more than one way) in his day. He is probably remembered in film circles today as the man who gave Buster Keaton his start in the movies.

Arbuckle was savaged by the media when he was suddenly arrested and accused of rape and murder after a 1921 party in San Francisco. The victim was a small part actress named Virginia Rappe. The charge was subsequently reduced to manslaughter. Arbuckle went through two hung juries before being cleared at a third trial where the jury were out for all of six minutes, using five of them to write a statement making a formal apology to him for the injustice he had suffered.

There was little doubt that Virginia Rappe’s death was preventable. Health problems exacerbated by a series of abortions made her fragile, and she didn’t get prompt or proper care when she was taken ill. But the lurid accusations against Arbuckle all originated with Rappe’s companion who crashed the party, namely Bambina Maud Delmont. While Wikipedia cannot be called the most accurate of sources, it does quite a nice line in character assassination: “Delmont had a long criminal record with multiple convictions for racketeering, bigamy, fraud and extortion, and allegedly was making a living by luring men into compromising positions and capturing them in photographs, to be used as evidence in divorce proceedings.”  The Weekly World News in 1961 veered into alliteration by accusing her of being a “Tinseltown tart.” Her unsubstantiated testimony at the original hearing got Arbuckle indicted, but then the prosecution deliberately kept her far away from all the actual trials, because her obvious inability to tell truth from fiction would have immediately sunk their case.

So this was the third Mrs ADJ.

When you consider ADJ’s history after his “fall from grace,” it would appear that some people just seem made for each other.

Albeit briefly.

Addenda

For those who love trivia and conspiracy links, Arbuckle’s own third wife was Addie Oakely Dukes McPhail, the former wife of Lindsay Matthew McPhail, who was the son of Matthew Lindsay McPhail who had helped lead the New Covenant breakaway from the Society in 1909. You really couldn’t make this stuff up.

(With grateful thanks to Miquel for originally providing the McPhail connection)

A. D. Jones' Good Deeds

In 1884 Jones, newly wealthy, founded a charity called Day Star Universal Relief Fund.

I have insufficient documentation. If you can find more, send it on, please.

Comments

Blog readers will get out of this blog what they put into it. Lack of comments means fewer blog posts. If you do not provide us with reason to share our research, we will have declining reason to post. We do have lives beyond this blog.

Stage Struck

Albert Royal Delmont Jones' soon to be second ex-wife went on the stage in 1903.

So did his third ex-wife in 1922.

It was a long way from Zion's Day Star.

Title Page

Other things

Some of our regular readers know that Rachael wrote a YA novel some years ago. Two or three of you read it. It's not at all related to our history project, so this may not interest you. But we plan on republishing her book with a new cover and with added illustrations.

This will happen later next year, after Separate Identity is published.

A. D. Jones again

I can trace him to NYC in 1877 and believe he was there maybe as early as 1876 or even 1875, but cannot prove that. I do not have time to follow up. Can you find any trace of him in New York City from say 1874 to mid 1878?

Also, can we find a help wanted ad in the NYC papers placed by Russell?

A visitor

A visitor to the grave of Joseph Lytle Russell in the Allegheny Cemetery. From Watch Tower of Allegheny Historical Tour book by James S Holmes (available through Amazon). Picture reproduced with kind permission of the author.

I personally did this tour with the author in 2014.

Can you untangle this?

I sent this email to "Jerome," but anyone can help. I wish Ton was still alive. He'd untangle this ... But, alas, he is not ...

Delmont Jones, his daughter and which Jones this Delmont is

https://books.google.com/books?id=y0MWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA337&dq=%22delmont+jones%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj6weje27DlAhWQJTQIHYT6CY8Q6AEwAXoECC0QAg#v=onepage&q=%22delmont%20jones%22&f=false

see page 337.

There are several hints, but no proof, that the Jones were related to the owners of Jones and McLaughlin Steel in W. Va. W. I. Mann worked for them for a while. My best efforts have not untangled this mess. Can you?

Bruce

Jerome reminded me that we have a genealogy prepared by Ton. Herewith the solution:

Delmont Jones, born Pennsylvania  on 3  Aug  1803, died Pittsburgh,  PA     on 30  Dec  1878, married  on 2  Apr  1826,  (they had two twins) with Mary Ann Carr Jones, daughter of Edward Carr and Elizabeth Eliza Sanders, born London,  England  on 16  Jun  1802, died on 2  Mar  1875.

                 From this marriage:

6.              Jemima Jones, born on 12  Dec  1835.

We still need to know if there was a relationship between 'our' Jones and Jones and McLaughlin Steel.

What's in a name?

by Jerome

Interest in the bad boy of Watch Tower history “Albert Delmont Jones” caused me to have a look again at newspaper accounts of his exploits, and also his changes of name throughout his history, a cross between Icarus and Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress.

For Watch Tower history we know him as Albert Delmont Jones. The names “Albert” “Delmont” and “Jones” are used for a number of people in various partial permutations, including his grandfather, his father, his brother, and also one of his sons who died young. So it is easy to follow the wrong trail. He started the paper Zion’s Day Star in late 1881, which soon became just The Day Star. By the end of the 1880s, ADJ was in trouble both in business and matrimony and his wife Cassie divorced him on the grounds of infidelity.

In the 1890s he reinvented himself in St Louis as a businessman extraordinaire. He dropped the common name “Jones,” added the name “Royal” and with a flourish became Albert Royal Delmont. A blind pool investment scheme (basically where investors invest “blind” without knowing where their money is going – not the wisest of moves) had gone sour and there was a court case. What it does is tie the different names of Albert together. From the St Louis Post-Dispatch, 20 July 1896.

So here in July 1896 we have the Albert Royal Delmont “blind pool” case, and there is lots of complicated material in several newspapers of the day for those who want to get a headache. Of interest to us is that one of the witnesses (and possible co-conspirator) is Wiliam J H Bown, who is billed as Delmont’s brother-in-law. ADJ’s ex-wife Cassie was originally Cassie Bown. So here we can link Albert Delmont Jones with Albert Royal Delmont.

It was interesting that William Bown is called ADJ’s brother-in-law because ADJ had married again by this time, to a young Society beauty half his age, Isabel Agnes Mulhall. The couple moved to Chicago and ADJ tried again, this time linked to a company called Albert R Jones and Co., commission merchants. (The name Delmont was dropped this time.)  A R Jones and Co. were expelled from the Chicago Board of Trade according to the newspaper cutting below. From the St Louis Dispatch, 22 January 1902.

Prior to this ADJ had tried his hand at publishing again. The 1900 Chicago census has him down as Albert Delmont and occupation as editor. For a long time we didn’t know what he edited after the long defunct Day Star. We now know his new venture was called American Progress. It is not known how long it lasted as no copies appear extant. From the Norton County News (Kansas), 23 March 1900.

It was only a matter of time before the marriage of ADJ and Isabel hit the buffers. Albert’s money went, and so did she. The newspaper cutting below written in popularist style has the inference that Albert’s manly charm was not the mainstay of their relationship. From the Saint Paul Globe, 15 September 1903.

He is still Albert Royal Delmont at this point.

By the end of his life the name “Royal” was to go the same way as “Jones” and he was simply listed on his death certificate as Albert Delmont.

Another ...

I cannot read all of this. Can you?

HELP!

This is from the Cincinnati, Ohio, Catholic Telegraph of Nov 24, 1881. The image is poor. I can't read it. Can you. A clear transcription would be helpful.

Separate Identity 2

As it stands now, almost finished, it has 597 pages. There are 149 illustrations, including many photographs that haven't seen the light of day in over a century. Among the photos are those whose names will be familiar and those who have never been profiled in a history of the Watch Tower. I haven't counted the footnotes. They are plentiful, and those interested should be able to follow our research trail.

As with the first volume, this book is very detailed, though it does not exhaust the subjects covered. I hope others will follow the trails outlined in this book.

While much needs to be done, we are at the end of the trail. I'm still looking at a March release date, though that is subject to change.

A. D. Jones

From The Guardian [London, England] June 10, 1882:

Zion's Day Star, a journal published at New York in the interests of the Millennium, makes the following editorial requests: “We suggest that you read carefully, -at least twice, most of the articles, and especially those on chronology and the Prophetic Time. Without this our readers can scarcely get the connections, and unless these are seen the force of the argument cannot be appreciated.” This advice, though perhaps salutary, and even needful, is not very complimentary to the lucidity of the writers or to the intelligence of the readers.

A. D. Jones and related ...

This appeared in the Christadelphia Advocate of January 1889 in response to an argument over the proper name for believers. [Depending on your browser, you may have to click on the image to see it entire.] While it is interesting to see the writer class the Watch Tower with other Age to Come groups, my problem in identifying the periodical "Good News." Can you help?

I'd love to have this as an original but

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1800-BENJAMIN-FARNHAM-Dissertation-on-the-PROPHECIES-Revelations-MILLENNIALISM-/282729421444

Way too expensive for me.

However, there is this:

https://books.google.com/books?id=VLJCAQAAMAAJ&pg=PR1&lpg=PR1&dq=benjamin+farnham+prophecies&source=bl&ots=YzOmpXvam_&sig=ACfU3U1_Ha4uFT44Ha6e0c_r65IrAlxJ-g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj96-Pb3JLlAhVHsZ4KHTmyBroQ6AEwCHoECDAQAg#v=onepage&q=benjamin%20farnham%20prophecies&f=false

First Chapter

For COMMENT. Usual rules. You may take a copy for yourself. Rough drafts will change. Never rely on a rough draft. Not ready for proof reading. Delay that for later. But comments are helpful, even on a draft this raw.

Now is the time to comment. This comes down tomorrow. 

Note: If you have skipped the Introductory Essays, please return to them and read them. Doing so will put the remainder of this volume in context.

1. Foundation

            Russell wrote a flurry of letters to counter Barbour’s speculations. And having decided to start a new paper to give a voice to their established doctrine, he sought regular contributors.[1] We have profiled all of these but Albert Jones in volume one of this work. Jones came from a fairly well-off family and was a ‘clerk’ in one of Russell’s stores. Instead of being a mere clothing salesman, he seems to have had accounting and management responsibilities. We find him not much later opening a thriving clothing store of his own and pursuing other business interests.

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