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Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Albert Delmont Jones


As Bruce is currently unwell, he suggested I fill a gap with a post on the bad boy of Watch Tower History, Albert Delmont Jones. What follows is slightly abridged from a series of articles last year on my own blog, but many of which started life here a number of years ago. Enjoy?  - Jerome

Contents
An introduction
Family matters
Theology
Albert’s theology and Zion’s Day Star
Richard Heber Newton – as featured in Day Star
Selling shirts
The many wives of Albert
Overview and Carrie
Isabel
Bambina
Margaret?                             
Albert’s end
A fanciful last testament


An Introduction

 
Believed to be Albert Delmot Jones c. 1900
as taken from Separate Identity volume 2

This is a long post about the bad boy of Watch Tower history “Albert Delmont Jones” (hereafter abbreviated to ADJ). He was one of CTR’s early associates, writing for ZWT before starting his own paper Zion’s Day Star in late 1881. Within a year he had deviated drastically from ZWT theology, and the rest of his history became a cross between Icarus and Hogarth’s The Rake’s Progress.

I wrote a number of articles on him over the years and what follows is a slightly abridged rewite (but with slight updates on occasion) in an approximate date order of events. It is admitted that ADJ’s post-ZWT history has little to do with Watch Tower history. But I found it both wryly amusing and sad in turn. If your focus is strictly on ZWT history then by all means pass this material by.

First is the briefest summary of ADJ’s post-ZWT careeer. Zion’s Day Star became The Day Star and ceased to be Bible-centric. By the end of the 1880s, the paper was gone and ADJ was in trouble both in business and matrimony. His first 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. He was involved in a blind pool investment scheme (basically where investors invest “blind” without knowing where their money is going – not the wisest of moves). The scheme, as did most things involving Albert, ultimately went sour and there was a court case. What the newspaper account does is to tie the different names of Albert together.


So here in July 1896 we have the Albert Delmont Jones’ blind pool case. One of the main witnesses (and possible co-conspirator) is Wiliam J H Bown. He is billed as Delmont’s brother-in-law. ADJ’s ex-wife Cassie was originally Cassie Bown. So here we can see that Albert Delmont Jones has morfed into Albert Royal Delmont.

It’s 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.


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.


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.



For a fuller reproduction of this cutting see the subheading “The Many Wives of Albert” later in this post. He was still Albert Royal Delmont at this point.

A third marriage followed which has historical interest in that wife number three, after she was rid of him turned up in the infamous Fatty Arbuckle court case as Bambina Maud Delmont. 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 c. 1909. You really couldn’t make this stuff up.

There may even have been a fourth marriage for ADJ – the evidence is circumstantial but it would have been in character.

By the end of his life the name “Royal” had gone the same way as “Jones” and he was simply listed on his death certificate as Albert Delmont. He died alone and destitute, his death certificate giving his family as unknown. He was, in fact, survived by at least two ex-wives and several children. They obviously did not know where he was, and likely did not care. Buried in a pauper’s grave, his part of the grave site was taken over by a freeway extension. Yes – as is suspected of many a disappeared gangster - ADJ is literally buried under the freeway!


Family Matters
                       

There are several Delmont Jones names in this article, so our main quarry, the editor of Zion’s Day Star, will continue to be referred to as ADJ.

If you type in Delmont Jones and Pennsylvania on the Find a Grave site, as well as other genealogical sites, you will find five different Delmont Jones listed. Due to research errors and misunderstandings, these five names only relate to three people – ADJ’s grandfather, father, and younger brother. ADJ’s first wife’s grave is also on Find a Grave if you know where to look as is one of his children, also an Albert D Jones.

So, first the grandfather. Three of the Find a Grave entries relate to him! There are two entries for a Delmont Jones, b. August 3, 1803. One has him dying on December 30, 1878 and an almost duplicate record states December 29. They have him buried in the Turner Cemetery on Squirrel Hill, Allegheny County. This location was originally correct. Census returns for Peebles Township (Squirrel Hill) and old maps show the original Delmont Jones owning farming land in this area. It was eventually annexed into Pittsburgh in 1868.

The Turner Cemetery still exists, but is only half an acre in size and was abandoned around 1880 when the church beside it that maintained it was closed. As a result, a number of those buried there were later moved. This included the first Delmont Jones, who was one of the last to be buried there. He was reinterred at the Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh on 25 March 1899. This was quite a common practice. As small community graveyards closed and the land often reused for other purposes, many families had relatives transferred to the new-style park-like cemeteries that were needed to cope with the dramatic increases in population. So there is a Find a Grave entry for Homewood Cemetery with a Delmont Jones, b. unknown, and died 1899 – which is a misunderstanding of what happened. On the other hand, this entry does show his gravestone with the correct date of death, 30 December 1878. It is likely that a gravestone was first placed at Turner cemetery and then moved with him, although this version looks of more recent origin.

Thanks are due to Find a Grave correspondent Rich who kindly gave me permission to reproduce the photograph at the head of this article, and also checked out the details of the discrepancy. One mystery - there was another Jones, this time a Watson Jones who was moved from Turner to Homewood on the same day, transported in the same container, and reinterred in the same grave as Delmont. Watson Jones died from epilepsy in 1866 aged 25. However, this does not link up with any known names in the Delmont Jones family tree. Perhaps they were moved together and reburied together, just in case. However, only Delmont’s name appears on the gravestone.

Next, we come to the second Delmont Jones, son of Delmont Jones (Mark 1), and the father of ADJ. This Delmont Jones was born in Squirrel Hill, Allegheny, 1831 and died in 1894. His wife’s obituary describes him as a well-known Civil War veteran who served as an engineer in the United States Mississippi gunboat fleet. He and his wife Martha are buried in the South Side cemetery in Pittsburgh. This time thanks are due to Find a Grave correspondent Rob who gave permission for me to reproduce the photograph. The stone lists five names – Delmont Jones, his wife Martha Jones, and then the remaining surnames are of the Frasher family. One of this Delmont Jones’ daughters married a Frasher, so this will be her and some of her family.


Next, we come to the actual generation of ADJ. ADJ had a younger brother called – what a surprise – Delmont Jones again. This Delmont Jones (1874-1923) is buried in the Union Dale cemetery, Pittsburgh. Alas, there is not a stone, or at least a photograph of one, and it is unknown whether other members of the family were buried with him. The name Delmont Jones turns up in a number of Pittsburgh records, and often relate to this Delmont rather than ADJ – just to confuse researchers.

The Union Dale cemetery was also the final resting place for ADJ’s first wife. She is buried with her father and mother in the Bown family plot. The Jones name is mentioned because the inscription has her down as Caroline M Bown (1858-1933), wife of Albert D Jones. ADJ’s infant son, listed as Albert D Jones, born and died in 1883, is buried there with her. That is probably the only reason that ADJ is mentioned on the stone, since Caroline divorced him for infidelity after four children and around twelve years of marriage. One suspects that the D in the middle of the infant’s name is likely to be another Delmont.


The photograph has not reproduced well, but Caroline’s inscription is on the stone on the left in the picture. Unfortunately I never heard back from the person who took the photograph, so can only credit it to the Find a Grave site.

Having dealt with his forebears and namesakes we can now turn our attention to the main attraction, ADJ himself.



Theology


Albert’s Theology and Zion’s Day Star

Albert Delmont Jones started Zion’s Day Star in late 1881. It was not long before he veered quite drastically fom the basic theology of Zion’s Watch Tower. He explained his new viewers in Zion’s Day Star for January 1884:

In fact, we were never so thoroughly convinced as now, that the Four Gospels of the New Testament have comparatively no inspiration about them! Very many of the New Testament teachings do not correspond with those of the Old, but do, on the other hand, flatly contradict them! Peter draws a clear-cut line between Jesus as the man and his after exalted state as Lord and Christ. Note this well, for it is a death blow to the Miraculous Conception theory!

We question the inspiration of the Four Gospels, and we challenge those who teach such a theory to harmonize it with Daniel’s prophecy! To claim that Peter, James and John were inspired, is simply child’s talk! Let us look well to what we pin our faith; or upon what we build an argument; and especially when using statements found in either of the four Gospels or Acts of the Apostles!

You ask, then, what is our opinion of him? (Jesus). We answer, it is that he was a man.

By January 1884 there was a doctrinal gulf between CTR and Nelson Barbour and CTR and John Paton. But in comparison the theological chasm between CTR and Albert Delmont Jones had now reached Grand Canyon proportions.

Sadly for researchers the actual January 1884 Zion’s Day Star quoted above is not extant. At this time of writing, only a few copies of this paper in circulation. They are December 25, 1884 (by which time it was simply the Day Star) and a few issues from 1886, as pictured below.



There is a bound volume covering most of 1886 in the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. But it is fragile and oversize, and extracting material from this source is a bit like pulling teeth.

So where does the January 1884 quote come from? It comes from an article in the Church of God/Age to Come weekly paper called The Restititution for July 27, 1887, page 3.

A lengthy sermon by Dr L C Thomas is reprinted as given at Wyoming, Delaware, and Thomas quotes from the January 1884 Day Star. The quote is probably a series of extracts that Thomas put together as one to give the flavour of Jones’ theology. Thomas was NOT impressed, and specifically attacked the editor of the Day Star for being a Josephite. A Josephite is someone who denies the concept of miraculous conception for Jesus, and who therefore believes Joseph to be his natural father. Many Age to Come readers of The Restitution were Socinian in outlook (i.e. they disbelieved in a literal pre-existance for Jesus). Josephites would argue that they were simply taking the concept one step further.

CTR of course had a great deal to say about how he viewed Jones’ changing theology in both early ZWTs, as well as a summary in Harvest Siftings.


Richard Heber Newton – as featured in Day Star.


Photograph from the Fitchburg Sentinel, Mass, for April 22, 1891

What links the Scopes monkey trial of 1925, this blog’s resident bad boy, Albert Royal Delmont Jones, of the ill-fated Day Star, and Charles Taze Russell of Zion’s Watch Tower? The answer is Richard Heber Newton.

Your first reaction may be – who?                                    

To give a flavor of the man, check out first this newspaper item from the Aurora Daily Express for November 22, 1892. (The same story was also published in The Times, Trenton, N.J. November 19, 1892, and the Lincoln Evening News, Nebraska, November 25, 1892, and no doubt other papers of the day).


The clipping shows that Newton was widely known in his day. His “misfortunes” included being charged with heresy. In truth, he was to be charged with heresy on three separate occasions during his career, in 1883, 1884 and 1891, but as a sign of liberalizing theology the matter was always fudged so that he kept his position. The newspaper above, which relates to the 1891 episode, noted that Newton was “exonerated”, although dryly commented that “not proven” might be more accurate.

More than a decade after Newton’s death America was to be fascinated by what was popularly called the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925. A substitute high school teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating the Butler Act which made it unlawful to teach human evolution in any state-funded school in Tennessee. Although the fundamentalists won the skirmish of the day and Scopes was found guilty, his conviction was overturned on a technicality. Long-term the fundamentalists lost ground as far as future legislation was concerned, although the Butler Act actually stayed on the books until 1967.

But in covering the case, most journalists highlighted past cases where an attack on a literal interpretation of the Bible had put people in the dock, including clergymen like Dr Richard Heber Newton. Several newspapers mentioned Newton being charged back in the 1890s with “debased churchmanship” - in other words heresy. The cutting below comes from the Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) for July 10, 1925:


The same story appeared in other papers such as the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, July 9, 1925, and the Lima News, Ohio, July 10, 1925. According to the small print, Newton had demanded a formal trial, but when this demand was met, the plaintiffs failed to appear. And Newton was viewed as a champion of liberal theology as opposed to literalists and fundamentalists.

So who was this man, and what was his connection with “truth history”?

Richard Heber Newton (1840-1914) was a prominent American Episcopalian clergyman and writer. From 1869 to 1902 he was rector of All Souls' Protestant Episcopal Church in New York City. He was a leader in the Social Gospel movement and as evidenced above, a firm supporter of Higher Criticism of the Bible. He came to prominence and notoriety in the early 1880s with a series of sermons later published in book form (copyright 1883) entitled “The Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible”. This work clearly nails his colors to the wall.

While commending the Bible as literature that could work on the emotions, Newton’s stance on inerrancy and inspiration was clear. His premise, bluntly and vigorously expressed, was that (in his own words):

It is wrong to accept its utterances indiscriminately as the words of God.
It is wrong to accept everything recorded therein as necessarily true.
It is wrong to consult it...for the determining of our judgements and the decision of our actions.
It is wrong to go to it for divination of the future.
And it is wrong to manufacture out of it any one uniform system of theology.

Preaching this material from the pulpit and publishing it for the masses outside of his own church drew strong criticism in certain quarters – hence the repeated charges of heresy and attendant newspaper notoriety.

These five key points of Newton’ theology would all be at obvious odds with the message found in CTR’s Zion’s Watch Tower of the day. But in the 1880s they would be manna from heaven for Albert Royal Delmont Jones.

 In the 1880s, after already having fended off two charges of heresy, Newton would write extensively (and sometimes exclusively) for Jones’ Day Star Paper.

The August 19, 1886 issue lists around 60 of Newton’s sermons being available in the Day Star pages. And some were exclusive to editor Jones at this point. For example:


A similar advertisement for the same pamphlet showed that it was given away as a free gift to all new Day Star subscribers:
  

This clearly shows that in 1886 the most prominent theological voice in Albert Royal Delmont Jones’ Day Star was that of Richard Heber Newton.

Whether Charles Taze Russell ever knew of Newton’s connection with Jones is not known, but Newton was sufficiently famous (or infamous) to make him a specific target in Zion’s Watch Tower. ZWT for July 1, 1892, carried a lengthy article (including a cartoon) that took up 10 of the magazine’s 16 pages. (See reprints pages 1417-1420).

CTR started by laying into Protestant clergy in general who preached higher criticism, describing them as “men honoured with titles such as neither our Lord not any of his apostles ever owned...who receive salaries such as no apostle ever received...(and) who are recognized as among the best educated in all things pertaining to worldly wisdom...but which prefers to arraign that revelation before an inferior court of fallible human philosophers and incompetent judges who vainly overrate their own knowledge and wisdom.”

He continued, “What wonder that the pews are also sceptical... They are handing stones and serpents to those who look to them for food... As for the average nominal Christian...he is just ready to swallow these suggestions of unbelief.” The Towers had warned about these developments from the very early issues.

Having lambasted the clergy in general, CTR next turned his attention to the Rev. R. Heber Newton in the particular, mentioning him by name three times. After one lengthy quote from Newton, CTR derided his theology: (capitalization mine):

“Here is a REPUDIATION of all that Christ taught on the subject of the “things written” which “must be fulfilled,” a REPUDIATION of all his quotations from the Law and the Prophets; a REPUDIATION of his repeated statements of God’s choice of...the seed of Abraham as heirs of the promises that of these should come the predicted Messiah; (and) a REPUDIATION of his statement of the necessity of his death.”

The last point hit at the heart of CTR’s theology. His attack on Newton’s preaching continued: “But whilst showing Christ to have been a wonderful Jew, and the great exemplar for both Jews and Gentiles, he (Newton) utterly REPUDIATES him as a Savior in the sense that the Master taught – that he “gave his life a ransom for many” – “to save (recover) that which was lost.”

CTR applied Matthew 7:22 to Newton – “those who say Lord, Lord, yet follow not his teachings...It is the duty of every true disciple to rebuke them; for the outward opponents do far less harm than those who wear the Master’s name whilst denying his doctrine.”

CTR concluded his lengthy attack on Newton with the words:

“As a further element of this discussion the reader is referred to Chapters ii, iii, and x. of MILLENNIAL DAWN, Vol. 1. And thus we rest our argument for the present; urging all who have “laid hold upon the hope set before us in the gospel” to hold fast the confidence of their rejoicings firm unto the end – to hold fast to the Book, And how much more easy it is and will be for those who have learned the real plan of God and seen its beauty to stand firm upon the Bible than for others. Too many, alas! It is a jumbled mass of doctrinal contradictions, but to us it is the foundation of a clear, definite, grand plan of the ages. So grandly clear and symmetrical is the wonderful plan that all who see it are convinced that only God could have been its author, and that the book whose teachings it harmonizes must indeed be God’s revelation.”

Albert D Jones’ reliance on Newton to fill his Day Star pages in the 1880s, and CTR’s lengthy and specific attack on Newton’s theology in the early 1890s, shows the gulf that now existed between CTR and his former co-worker. There were a number of people over the years who parted company with CTR and founded their own journals – Paton, Adams, von Zech, Henninges – but at least they retained a more or less fundamentalist approach to scripture, and could have a framework within which to debate their own proof texts. The same was true with other religious journals, One Faith, Adventist, and the like.

But the infidel Jones had gone one step further. In ZWT for May 1890 CTR reviewed the history of the developing “truth movement” in a lengthy article entitled Harvest Gatherings and Siftings. Concerning Jones’ paper (Zion’s) Day Star, he wrote that “within one year it had repudiated Christ’s atoning sacrifice, and within another year it had gone boldly into infidelity and totally repudiated all the rest of the Bible as well as those portions which teach the fall in Adam and the ransom therefrom in Christ.” He also noted that of that date (1890) the Day Star was “now for some years discontinued”. The whole article was reprinted with some amendments in the special 1894 issue of ZWT entitled A Conspiracy Exposed and Harvest Siftings.

The dates (“one year” then “another year”) line up perfectly with the first publication of Newton’s credo “The Right and Wrong Uses of the Bible”. To then allow Newton his weekly pulpit in the Day Star pages would make perfect sense to Albert D, but illustrates how just far (by CTR’s terms of reference) he had gone beyond the pale.


Selling Shirts

It is known that A D Jones once worked in one of CTR’s stores. He also branched out into the shirt store business on his own account.

Below is an advertisement from the Pittsburgh Commercial Gazette for November 6, 1883. The firm of Jones and Littell is operating from Pitstsburgh, but they have several branches. One of these branches is at 335, Fourth Avenue, New York.


As shown below, this was the address of Jones’ (Zions) Day Star.


In the December 25th 1884 issue of Day Star there are several advertisements under Furnishing Goods. Below are three. The one in the middle is J M Littell (billed in the ad as the successor to Jones and Littell of Pittsburgh) with its surviving Pittsburgh address. Albert D Jones and James Littell appear to have parted business company by this time, although Jones’ paper still carried advertising for Littell’s solo venture. But topping and tailing the Littell advertisement are advertisements for another company. Do you want a Wamsutta Muslin Night Shirt? Or how about White Dress Shirts? The American Shirt Store can assist you. And the address of the American Shirt Store? Yes - 335, Fourth Avenue, New York.


There were several businesses at this address around this time including a photographic studio and The Tiffany Glass Company. But it is surely no coincidence that a shirt store in Pittsburgh bearing the name Jones, and its successor, are both linked to the same address as the ill-fated Day Star.

Perhaps in retrospect, Jones would have done better just sticking to selling shirts.


The Many Wives of Albert

Overview and Carrie

We have all heard of the many wives of Solomon, or the many wives of English King Henry VIII. We don’t know for sure how many times our boy Albert Royal Delmont Jones attempted matrimony, but the title still has a certain ring.

Wife number one was Caroline (Carrie) Bown. She had four children with Albert. One died in infancy, the other three all married and had families of their own. Carrie was buried in the Bown family plot in Pittsburgh when she died in January 1933. After her marriage ended she made her home with her daughter, Ella and family.

Wife number two was described as Society beauty Isobel Agnes Mulhall. The newspaper cutting below, already partially reproduced above, describes the history and subsequent demise of their relationship. It is written in what we would call in the UK “tabloid style.” How accurate the details are I do not know, but it makes entertaining reading. Isobel subsequently led a flamboyant life. She made the newspapers in 1935 by eccentrically throwing money out of a train. However, she appears to have really liked money, and really liked Albert when he had some. She died in 1939.


The St. Paul Globe for September 15, 1903.

Wife number three – Bambina – now there’s a name! Her history will be given more detail below. Sometimes she is Maud Bambina Delmont, and sometimes she is Bambina Maud Delmont. Sometimes Maud has an E on the end, and sometimes not.

After her divorce from Albert – assuming there ever was a divorce – Bambina married John Hopper in 1912. Neglecting to divorce Mr Hopper properly she committed bigamy by then marrying a Cassius Wood a little early. In the 1920 census she is down as a corsetiere with her own shop; other reference works give less flattering occupations. She latched onto vivacious, promiscuous starlet Virginia Rappe at the infamous 1921 party Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle attended. When it all went bad and Virginia died in hospital, Bambina was initially the star witness against Arbuckle – until it was established that at the time she claimed to see and hear certain events, she was otherwise occupied in another bedroom. The LA District Attorney Matthew Brady had political ambitions riding on this case, which was basically an excuse to put the whole of Hollywood on trial. He ensured that Bambina never went anywhere near the witness stand during three trials, in spite of repeated requests from the defense.  As soon as the first trial went to the jury (a hung jury of 10-2 for acquittal) Bambina was done for bigamy. There may have been some sort of deal to get her off with probation. See the news item below.

                           
Oakland Tribune for December 11, 1921

Wife number four? There is a question mark over this one, but see subheading “Margaret?” below for a possibility.

Albert’s slippery slope gained a certain momentum as the years rolled by. For those of an artistic bent, as noted in the opening paragraph of this post, take a look at William Hogarth’s 18th century series of paintings called The Rake’s Progress.


Isabel

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!



Bambina


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.

As noted above, 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.

Bambina capitalized on the notoriety and went on the stage. From 1922:


And then she disappeared very suddenly from the historical record. But 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.


Margaret?

We know that Albert Delmont Jones is in the 1900 census for Chicago.  He calls himself Albert Royal Delmont now and is married to Isabel and gives his work as “editor.” He claims to be 44, and she is 23. Isabel Agnes Mulhall was to become quite a character in her own right, as we have already reviewed.

Then he was to have a short lived marriage to the infamous Bambina Maud Scott.

Then in the 1930 census ADJ turns up, elderly and alone, in a state almshouse/hospital in Delaware shortly before his death and burial in a pauper’s grave that year.

I believe we may have found him in the 1910 census with wife number 4, although there are queries as detailed below. He is now calling himself Albert R Delmont and claims to be 48, married for three years to Margaret White, aged 28. He is now living in Campbell, Kentucky.

By this time he has no occupation. And he is living in the home of his in-laws, James and Johanna White. If this is the right person, this would be a fourth marriage – after Caroline Bown, Belle Mulhall, and Bambina Maud Scott.

A marriage register shows they were married on 19 September 1906, but gives no other information.

The age given in the 1910 census return is little less than his real age. But as with previous wife Isabel (and probably Bambina), Margaret is at least twenty years his junior. Men who marry much younger women often shave a few years off their age, along with taking up tennis, and cycling around in Lycra on a top-of-the-range bicycle!

However, there are two queries in the above scenario. First is that this Albert R Delmont claims to come from Virginia. Albert was born in Pennsylvania; however he grew up in Virginia. He and his family are found in that State in the 1860 census (when he was 6) and the 1870 census (when he was 16). So this could be ADJ covering his tracks from yet another past life. And this is the only Albert Delmont thrown up in the 1910 census indexes.

Second is the 1920 census. It is easy to find the same family still living in Campbell, Kentucky. Father-in-law James has died and Johanna White is now the head of the household with the same children, one of whom is Margaret Delmont. There is no Albert R in sight. Margaret claims to be only 34; however, the initial in the appropriate column suggests she has put down as a widow! But I cannot find any reference to any Albert R Delmont (or variations) dying between 1910 and 1920.

There are so many negatives about ADJ that a faked death or insurance scam, or just good riddance and I stand a better chance as a widow than as a deserted woman or divorced woman – all these scenarios are possible.

And I cannot find hide nor hair of ADJ under any combination of names in the 1920 census. However, the 1925 census for Buffalo, New York, has an Albert K Jones as a roomer in the Florida Hotel, aged 70 (the right age) and “retired.” The middle initial K looks very much like it could have been intended as an R. But then our Albert turns up as a kind of elderly vagrant in 1930.


This search is still ongoing and readers are invited to search too. The problem is – what variation of name might he have been using?


Albert’s end


Above is the death certificate for Albert Royal Delmont Jones. It is a sad document. Albert died at the New Castle County Hospital, Delaware, on May 15, 1930. This was originally called the New Castle County Almshouse, and was a last resort home for people who were elderly, single and poor. The certificate shows he was 76 (linking in with a known birth year of 1854) but that is about all the history it contains. Albert wasn’t then around to provide any more information. So next of kin, occupation, place born – all these sections were “no record.”  Fortunately when the census was taken earlier that year, Albert Delmont was listed as an “inmate” and was lucid enough to state that he was from Pennsylvania, as were his parents. Hence the match.

Even though ADJ was a bad boy, I find it sad that no-body knew who his family were, and there was no-one to claim him. At least two ex-wives and two of his children were still alive at that time, but obviously no-body knew or perhaps even cared what had happened to him.

The New Castle County Almshouse/Hospital was located at a small place called Farnhurst, and was next door to the quite separate Delaware State Mental Hospital. Those who died at New Castle Hospital who had no-one to claim them for burial elsewhere were buried in what is now called the “Cemetery in the Woods at Farnhurst.” (Residents from the mental hospital were buried elsewhere). The “Cemetery in the Woods” also received the bodies of premature/stillborn babies and unidentified bodies that turned up in the nearby rivers. Several thousand people were buried there.

This was to be ADJ’s last resting place, what was called at the time the New Castle County Hospital Cemetery. As a Potter’s Field cemetery, there were no named grave markers. However, small 5” square granite markers were provided but they only had numbers on them. It appears that a fire at the original building in the 1950s destroyed the records linking names to numbers. A record of some of these numbers has reportedly recently surfaced at a record office, but I have not been able to access it as yet.

But it gets worse. The cemetery was replaced by another Potter’s Field location in the mid-1930s, and the original New Castle County Hospital Cemetery was abandoned. Then in the late 1950s, early 1960s, around 85% of the cemetery was covered up with the construction of the 1-295 freeway ramp to the Delaware Memorial Bridge. It was planned to clean up the area and put up a lasting memorial, but of course, once the road was built, that was the end of that. Apparently about 100 or so granite markers are still visible at the base of the ramp – but you have to climb a fence and crawl over trash and brambles to get to them – and they date from earlier decades than 1930.

So what does this mean for ADJ? As noted at the start of this post, one thinks of the possible fate of many gangsters who disappeared in times past. In ADJ’s case, he really does appear to be buried under the freeway.

It is a long way from genteel grave markers in park-like cemeteries in Pittsburgh.


A fanciful last testament for Albert

This is based on all the various stories above and is an imagined summary of ADJ’s life, with a lot of supposition filling in the gaps. It is not to be taken that seriously.

So here I am in this ward. It is the smell more than anything. Stale cabbage and bad drains. They say we are fortunate to be here – looked after free of charge. Everything is comparative I suppose.

It is the noise – some of these people aren’t right. How did I get here? It could all have been so different.

It started so well. I came from a good family, we owned land, we were respectable. I worked in stores, and handled the money. I was really good with money. I mean – OK – life got expensive and I started to cut corners, but until then, it worked a dream.  And I was attractive to women. You wouldn’t know it looking at me now, but oh yes, they used to go weak at the knees.

First there was Cassie. Quiet, domesticated. But boring though, so boring. We had those children. What were their names? I wonder where they are now?

And that Charles Russell. We started a magazine to tell the world about the coming end of problems. Oh what it was to have faith. But that’s all gone now. I was an editor. I founded my own magazine. It was a good magazine – but when I tried to be a bit more realistic, then some of those people turned against me. We did some good works though. We raised money for good causes. Some of it may have got lost along the way – I can’t remember now – but we meant well. I think.

I’d dropped the Jones by now – a common name, people much preferred the Delmont – in fact, several of my ex-partners even kept it.

And then there was Isabel. The papers called her a “raving beauty”. Hmm. All I can remember today is the “raving.” But we had some fun. Did we have some fun. The parties, the good times – but then the creditors caught up with me. But she was young, she had ambitions. And I started to find her tiring, very tiring. I bet her second husband found her tiring too. Over the years I’ve see her in the newspapers – no, perhaps I was well rid of her.

And then there was Bambina. What a name. What a woman. We had several good scams going. But then somehow she scammed me. I must have been losing my touch. I see she turned up at the Arbuckle trials – accused of bigamy. Did we ever get that divorce? I can’t remember. But Bambie – yes, memories of Bambie – I am sure she bounced back. Bambie always did.

And then Margaret. Well, that was a mistake. We lived with her parents. I told them a tale. They believed it. But it was domesticity again. And it was boring, so boring. And all these younger women I took up with – they all made demands. I got to the point where all I wanted to do was sleep.  It might have been the diabetes. So I did the decent thing – I really did. Faking my death like that – it meant she could pass herself off as a widow and claim the insurance. Yes, that was a good move. I wonder what happened to her? And her parents? What were their names?

So then it was try and try again. But now I seemed to have lost the touch. The Midas touch. Huh – the Delmont touch. But there was always going to be something else – somewhere over the rainbow. Do you know something? – that would make a good title for a song. If I wasn’t feeling so ill, I could even try and write something like that. It might make another fortune.

If I still had faith and still believed in heaven – but not hell (that’s one thing Charles Russell helped me with) – maybe I would be a bit worried now. But – I don’t know what I believe. All those people, I wonder what happened to them. Do they ever wonder what happened to me?  I’m glad they don’t know. But I’m tired. Maybe there is such a thing as reincarnation, and I can try and do better next time. But do better? What’s that? Be more boring? Make more money and this time keep it? I don’t know. I just feel tired, so tired…

Thursday, July 23, 2020

Unanswered email and other nonsense


I owe Bernard and others at least a thank you for their help. I'll get to my emails eventually. However, now I'm on some very potent medication that keeps me in my chair, unable to read for more than five or ten minutes. I sleep through the day, and my activity is very limited.

I'll be off to a specialized clinic soon for tests. This may mean an additional trip to Seattle to the University of Washington Hospital. All of this means that I will make very slow progress revising Nelson Barbour: The Millennium's Forgotten Prophet. I probably won't be able to answer emails promptly.

If you think I've ignored your email, send it again. While I'm taking my current meds, I live in a fog. Be patient.

If our blog editors have something to post to keep the blog alive during this period, they should do so. I would like to see a thorough summary of what we know about A. D. Jones. An informative [well researched and footnoted] article on the development of The Photo Drama of Creation would be good. An article about colporteurs in the 1890s would be welcome. Name names, note their experiences.


Thursday, July 16, 2020

Not relevant to ...

Not relevant to the era we research, but interesting. These are handbills circulated in Austria in 1956. Though they have been in my personal archive for many years, they will soon see conservation /restoration and a place in a museum collection. So, before they disappear from my archive, here they are for your enjoyment. 

You may have to click on the image to see it in its entirety. 


Reverse Sides



Sunday, July 12, 2020

What was George H. Fisher like?

 
  Elsewhere on this blog is an article about the death of George H. Fisher. We know him as the author of the Ezekiel portion of The Finished Mystery, but do we know anything else? Newspapers help the researcher find some of the cold facts and documented evidence of the individuals under investigation, but what sort of people were they? What kind of person was George H. Fisher? 

The Bible Student Newspaper, The St. Paul Enterprise (later renamed The New Era Enterprise) of the time period helps us round out what sort of person Fisher was through a few short character descriptions in the early 1920s.

The great majority of the documented lectures of Fisher were prophetic in nature, but according to the November 14, 1922 Enterprise he also liked to speak on love as "The Most Important Thing"

The October 9, 1917 St. Paul Enterprise states that George H. Fisher did not claim speaking ability, but he was definitely a teacher who knew what he was talking about, and he was able to hold the audience spellbound.

The New Era Enterprise of July 12, 1921 describes the type of speaker that Fisher was in that he spoke in "terse sentences and didactic style."

The November 20, 1917 Enterprise mentions that when he lectured on Ezekiel's Temple he used a chart that was literally bigger than a barn door. 


The June 28, 1921 New Era Enterprise informs us of Fisher's musical ability by stating that he played a very large organ of 70 pipes.

From the hymn books of the time period we can see that Fisher also wrote hymns. Zion's Glad Songs No. 1, and No. 2 published by Br. McPhail have two hymns which Fisher wrote.


"A Little Talk with Jesus" is a hymn with words by Gertrude W. Seibert and music by G. H. Fisher.



Both authors of The Finished Mystery have a hymn they wrote together. What a Triumph of His Grace has words by Clayton J. Woodworth, and music by George H. Fisher.



Although we cannot hear recordings of Fisher's voice or speaking style, history has been brought alive through a modern recording of one of Fisher's hymns. This hymn probably hasn't been heard in over a century since McPhail sided with the New Covenant splinter group and his hymn books fell out of use rather quickly. Many of the hymns that were in the books he published were not carried forward in other Bible Student Song books.


Enjoy!


Wednesday, July 8, 2020

More research - N. H. Barbour

The Clinton County Morning Telegram of January 3, 1884, says the County Supervisors approved a payment to a N. H. Barber of Chazy, New York. I do not believe this is 'our' Barbour, but I cannot verify that either way.

There is a Nelson Barber living in Clinton County, born in 1877. This cannot be the man listed in the Morning Telegram. His birth date eliminates him. There is a Nettie Barber living in the county, but apparently not in Chazy. [Pronounced shaz-ee]

Can you help with this?

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Your work


I am interested in your personal research. Accordingly, I will entertain submissions for a blog post relevant to Russell-era history. While this blog is copyright protected, you retain all rights to your article. Here are some guidelines:

1. Your article should be well-researched and fact based. Speculation may guide research but should not be the substance of your article.

2. I prefer that we publish under your actual name. If you must use a pseudonym, tell me so in the submission email.

3. Your article must be footnoted. My books and this blog are based on verifiable research. Blogger turns footnotes to endnotes. Use the format found in Separate Identity.

Books are Author, Title, Publisher, Place of Publication, Year published, pages cited.
Articles are Author, Title of Article, Name of publication, date published, pages.

4. Your article must be in Times New Roman font, single spaced, a ‘tab’ indentation [hit the tab key instead of the space bar].

5. Illustrations are useful but not required.

6. I do not have time or inclination to fix grammar. However, if English isn’t your native tongue, we will work with you to put your submission in acceptable format.

7. This must be your original work. Quotations are fine; just do not plagiarize.

8. Submission is no guarantee of acceptance. I am the final judge.



Thursday, July 2, 2020

A. H. Willis

This is from the Brunswick, Georgia, Times of July 12, 1899. I need A. H. Willis' full name and some biographical details. Can you help?


Facebook


We have asked repeatedly that you not link to this blog through Facebook. I see it is time to repeat that. DO NOT link to this blog through your Facebook account.  

Revising "Nelson Barbour"



Our constant readers know that I’m revising Nelson Barbour: The Millennium’s Forgotten Prophet. This is not an easy task. I’m researching anew all aspects of Barbour’s life. Currently I’m probing his childhood and young adult years. There are no directly relevant records. But there are some things that illuminate those years.

Who where the clergy in Throopsville and Cohocton? Which church did the Barbour’s attend? Most early New York records spell the name phonetically as Barber. The family used both spellings.

A member of the Barbour family offered fairly convincing evidence that Friend Barbour [Barber] was Nelson’s grandfather, not his father. She pointed to David Barbour as Nelson’s parent, and there is some evidence leaning that way. I need solid proof. Wikipedia suggests that evidence is in Nelson’s will. It is not.

As a young man Barbour attended Temple Hill Academy. Do records still exist? I can’t find them. But they may be in some archive. The modern Temple Hill Academy is disconnected from the school of Barbour’s day.

Barbour left for Australia in 1851 or 1852. The strongest evidence points to 1852. I cannot find a passenger list or transit record that proves this, though we have Barbour’s own words for it. Can you find the passenger list? National Archives might help.

Queensland required a passenger list for all ships, even those only sailing to one of the other Australian colonies. A Mr. Barber of the right age appears twice in the records available to me. You can access these through familysearch.org . A Mr. Barber’s legal problems show up in Australian newspapers in the two years prior to Nelson’s departure. You can access these through https://elephind.com/ . Can we prove that this was Nelson Barbour.  Just as helpful would be proof that it is not Nelson Barbour.

In the 2-3 years before Nelson returned to the United States [1860], New York property records show transfers to a N. H. Barbour. Is this ‘our’ N. H. Barbour? I can’t answer that yet, and I may never be able to answer that. These records are at familysearch.org.

I do not have access to British passenger lists. His name must be on one, assuming records were kept by port authorities. That list would be an ‘arrivals’ list. There is a slight suggestion in something Barbour wrote that his return to America may have been from a German or French port. There is also a hint [and only a hint] that Barbour may have spoken German. I do not see that as important. But it might be ...

Two of my blog readers offered to help with this project. Well, here’s your chance.


Monday, June 29, 2020

St. Paul Enterprise - April 23, 1915

I need more details. Ideally I need a copy of this letter. Anyone?


Friday, June 26, 2020

Friday, June 19, 2020

Dig Away! Share.



I would like to encourage all readers who like research to be prepared to go wherever the moment takes them.  A book like Separate Identity requires discipline and that is fine. But if you just have a keen interest in all things historical, then you can go off on all sorts of tangents. That I freely confess is what I do. Many are dead ends, but occasionally some yield gold.

Two recent examples from my own research for a couple of blogs illustrate this.

I had the announcement of Charles Ball’s 1889 funeral from a newspaper. It was a filler, no more than that. But then I decided to follow it up. I found his gravestone, which led to other questions and ultimately led to finding out exactly when he joined the Russell household. That then led to establishing when his younger sister, Rose, joined the household. This has been a debated question over the years, but was now resolved. It shot down a theory I had been peddling for decades, but hey – that’s OK, if we are wrong we are wrong, and truth should out.

The other journey started with the funeral of Andrew Pierson, former vice president of the Society.  I had a newspaper cutting, again just a filler. The usual sources neglected to state who took his funeral. That led to finding that George Fisher had done this. That led to the disagreements that Fisher, one of the Brooklyn 8, had with J F Rutherford in the mid-1920s. That led to letters JFR wrote about the problem that were published in Golden Age. They were written from an address in Monrovia, California. That led to examining where Mary Rutherford lived at the time. That led to a far better understanding of the Rutherfords’ domestic arrangements in the 1920, and partly dispelled a lot of inaccurate speculation made over the years. One thing led to another, which led to another.

So, if time allows, dig away. Go where it takes you. And if you find out something positive worth sharing, then share away.

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

A Lecture

Not directly on topic, but worth your attention.

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

It Does Help if You Get the Basic Facts Right


In the Golden Age magazine for September 13, 1922, three films were advertised for purchase by the Kinemo Film Corporation. Back in 2016 there was a series of articles on this blog about them, the most detailed one being found at:

https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2016/08/kinemo.html                                                                               
The three films were made over 1920-1921. There was one on Palestine, one on the Great Pyramid and one on Imperial Valley, California. The latter was seen as an example of what could be done to cultivate land and make an area into a paradise.

There is quite an amazing review of the Imperial Valley one by Paul Johnson in his paper for September 1925.

"BRO. RUTHERFORD TAKING A TRIP THROUGH IMPERIAL VALLEY, CALIFORNIA"

"The picture shows Bro. R. and party in an automobile, ready for the tour. Then it shows them driving to some of his friends, to ask them if they would allow their son to go with him through Imperial Valley to take pictures. The boy's parents readily consented to let him go with the judge, though they were all prepared to start on a trip of their own through the mountains. The boy kisses his family good-bye, jumps into Bro. R.'s car, and away they go. Then the pictures go on to show Bro. R. passing through the valley on foot, examining fruit, vegetables and many other things grown there. According to the pictures, everything certainly was in good condition. Of course, the picture shows Bro. R. walking through these gardens, which takes up quite a time. On one occasion he is pictured as looking around and laughing as he turns over a very large pumpkin, saying: `It reminds me of the pumpkin pies mother used to make.'

Then the picture changes. It shows Bro. Rutherford's party with a newspaper giving the picture of a terrible automobile accident. Then the auto is shown falling down the side of a steep mountain, the occupants falling out and all being killed—they were the boy's family. Thereupon Bro. R. is seen trying to comfort the boy. It also shows Bro. R. writing a letter and handing it to the boy, telling him not to open it until when in 1925 he would hear of Abraham being resurrected. Later, the pictures show the boy in 1925 reading a morning paper with large head lines: 'ABRAHAM RESURRECTED IN PALESTINE.' Suddenly it dawns on the boy to read the letter the judge had given him. He looks at the calendar, which shows 1925; then he opens the letter, which tells him to telegraph Abraham and ask him that his famliy might be resurrected and restored to him. Finally, the boy is shown very happy as he telegraphs Abraham in Palestine in 1925."

This would be a fascinating film to see with JFR in such a prominent acting role. It’s a shame the Oscars didn’t start until 1929. There is only one slight problem with all of this – the description and review is FALSE FROM START TO FINISH.
                                                                                                             
We can see the actual film today because a copy has survived, although missing a little footage at the end of the reel.


The Imperial Valley film is just a travelog, taking you around the area, showing roads being built, ditches beng dug and produce being harvested, as an illustration of what could be possible for the earth in the future. That is about it. JFR appears briefly in long shot looking over a field, a bit like an Alfred Hitchcock cameo.


When you read the small print Johnson tries to excuse himself:

“The Editor never saw these moving pictures, but sometime ago one of the brethren sent him a brief description of them.”

So that’s all right then. It’s someone else’s responsibility. 

Taking his words at face value, one of the brethren must have been just  “messing around.”                                                        

And none of his readers apparently noticed.

With grateful thanks to Zion’s Herald for bringing this amusing item to our attention.

For a revised series of articles on the ill-fated Kinemo project you can also use the search term: Kinemo, at:    https://jeromehistory.blogspot.com/

Friday, June 12, 2020

C. B. Downing Letter - China Mission

Below is an undated letter written by Calista Downing to a Mrs. Foster. This is probably not the place for me to complain about deteriorating health, but as my eyes fail along with the rest of my body, I cannot read this. Can you transcribe it? [click on images to see them in their entirety.]




The Rutherfords in Monrovia


In 1954 there was a little human interest story on the front page of the Daily News and Monrovia Daily News for June 8, 1954. An old lady named Mrs J F Rutherford was pictured with the mailman, “Buck” Bailey, who had been delivering for about thirty years. It was claimed he’d done the equivalent of walking around the world four times in that time.

Reproduced with permission from newspapers.com

This photograph and news story has an interesting link to Watch Tower history because the old lady was Mary, widow of Joseph F Rutherford, who was then living at 159 Stedman Place. The suggestion in the newspaper was that the postie had been delivering to her for thirty years. In fact, according to the Monrovia-News-Post for July 15, 1935, the Stedman Place property only had a planning permit that year.

However, a check of Google maps shows that immediately backing onto the 159 Stedman Place plot was 160 North Primrose Avenue. And this is where Mary had been for most of the 1920s, one assumes on Bailey’s postal round. And it could well be that the original plot for the North Primrose Avenue address had been extensive enough to allow the construction of a brand new property on it in 1935, fronting onto the parallel road.

Mary’s address was given as 160 North Primrose in a number of trade and street directories throughout the 1920s. One example below listed all the existing numbers in the street in 1928. Here you can see Mary at number 160.


It is noted that some numbers are missing. This is likely because the properties were either not constructed or occupied at this time, as the whole area was under development. Mary’s home, number 160, was constructed in 1922 so it is likely she moved into a new property that year or shortly thereafter.

Interestingly the same year as the above directory entry, 1928, the address was featured in advertisements as a contact address for IBSA publications.


Files of all the street directories are not all accessible, but this one below from 1925 is of particular interest. We note that there are two people living at 160 North Primrose.


So the occupant is Jos F Rutherford and his wife Mary. If any doubt that this could be our JFR, check out this cutting from March 9, 1925.


Rutherford is classed as a resident and his given address is 160 North Primrose. This information was repeated over several years. A brief look takes us up to at least 1928, where the August 6, 1928 newspaper gives his address as 180 North Primrose, which I would suggest is just a typo. Sometimes the paper calls him a Monrovian. From a 1927 newspaper:


So it was accepted locally that JFR was a resident, living 160 North Primrose Avenue. We might assume this was just winter months, but there were other times of year noted as well. Note here a visit made in August 1925.


This wasn’t a big secret. It was supported by the Golden Age magazine for March 25, 1925, pages 407-409. This reproduces two letters written by JFR in February 1925 over the George Fisher situation. One letter is a copy of what was sent directly to Fisher, and the other was written to Clayton J Woodworth, editor of Golden Age. The contents are not our subject here, although anyone with access to Golden Age can check it out, but here is the start and finish of Woodworth’s letter.
So JFR writes from Monrovia. The actual address is omitted, which was probably wise in view of the Golden Age’s wide circulation.

As was common with all Watch Tower officials (apart from perhaps CTR and Maria) their personal family affairs were kept private. But it can be reasonably established that, while Mary Rutherford lived in Monrovia and her son Malcom lived nearly, JFR also spent part of his year there throughout the 1920s. It may be that the increasing workload and the need for extra staff like stenographers contributed to the move to the larger Beth-Sarim in the 1930s. A May 27, 1942, Consolation magazine article referred to JFR and what it called his “office force” using the property at Beth-Sarim.

The family’s continued contact also shows up in May 1938 when Malcom and his wife Pauline shared part of an ocean voyage with JFR and some of his staff.

JFR died at Beth-Sarim, San Diego, in 1942. There were issues about his burial as discussed in the above mentioned Consolation magazine. One of the headlines reporting the situation still claimed JFR as an old Monrovian.


The story mentioned that Mary Rutherford “still resides here at 159 Stedman Place.”

After JFR’s death, his son Malcom with wife Pauline lived with Mary for a short time in the 1940s. They are listed as with her at the Stedman Place property in the Monrovia Street directory for 1944. When Mary died in 1962, Malcom inherited the property and he and his second wife Eleanor lived there until at least 1970.

Friday, June 5, 2020

Not at all relevant ...

I was there. I still have my program ... [click on embedded link for full view]

Thursday, June 4, 2020

Update

In an earlier post I asked for original copies of the 1925 Golden Age. I now have about half that year. If you have extras you want to donate to my research collection, query first.

Rose and Charles Ball



A few years ago I wrote an article on How Old Was Rose Ball? Due to Maria Russell’s contradictory testimony in Russell vs Russell (1906) there were several possibilities on Rose’s age when she joined the Russell household in Pittsburgh. In fairness to Maria, she was trying to remember events from nearly twenty years before, and we can’t discount the stenographer having an off day. Equally, the information written by J F Rutherford in the Ecclesiastical Heavens booklet was written nearly thirty years after events, and was not based on first hand knowledge.

However, as a result of further research I am now happy to accept that my main premise in the above mentioned article has been proved wrong. I still think there are points of value in the article; hence it has not been deleted. But we can now establish that Rose Ball joined the Russell household in late 1888 or early 1889. She would have been 19 years old, but could have looked younger at the time.

The evidence comes from examining the life of her brother, Charles U Ball. Charles joined the Russell household and workforce before Rose did. Rose then wrote and asked if she could come and join him? We know when Charles died and now also know when he came to Pittsburgh. This is that story.

The basic story of Charles and Rose came out in Russell vs Russell (1906). Quoting from the Paper Book of Appellant, page 90, the exchange went like this.

CTR: “We had a young man in the office by the name of Charles Ball, who came to us from Buffalo, and was deeply interested.”

Counsel: “What has that got to do with the girl?”                               

CTR: “That was the brother. She wanted to come because her brother was here. After her brother died, she was lonely and Mrs Russell and I both thought a great deal of her. She was a very young looking girl…we treated her in every way as a daughter, and told her we considered her such, and she told us she considered us as parents.”

Some accounts describe Rose as an orphan, but this is not true. A check of genealogical records shows the family to be alive in Buffalo. In fact, if more people had only read the Russell vs. Russell (1906) transcript they would know this. Shortly after stating that CTR and Maria treated her as a daughter, CTR testified:

CTR: “(She) had no relatives there, and we told her she could call herself by our name. She said the only reason she didn’t do that she was afraid if her father heard of it, he would think she had lost her respect for him.”

It may be that there was some estrangement in the Ball family, and that could be suggested by the story of her brother Charles.

Charles came to work for CTR as a stenographer. This is before they moved into Bible House. He died on March 14, 1889. Notice of his death and the funeral from CTR’s home was given in the Pittsburgh Dispatch for Saturday, March 16, 1889.


The key records are not indexed online at this time of writing, but using the date and area, it was possible to find the burial register for Charles with some key information.

It runs across two pages in the register.


The first page gives his name: Charles Ball. His color: ditto, i.e. white. His sex: male. His age at death: 22 (This is actually an error; he was still 21 at the time). Married or single: single. Occupation: stenographer. Date of death: March 14. Cause of death: consumption.  Date of certificate: March 15.


The second page gives his birthplace: Buffalo, N(ew) Y(ork). His last residence and time of residence therein: on March 10 at Clifton Avenue (the Russells’ home) and nine months. His previous residence: Buffalo, N.Y.  Place and date of interment: Uniondale and March 17. And finally the name and residence of the physician signing the death certificate and the name and residence of the undertaker.

So we note that Charles had been living with the Russells at Clifton Avenue for the last nine months, and prior to that had been in Buffalo. So doing the math, Charles came to Pittsburgh around June-July of 1888. At some point after that, his sister wrote asking if she could come as well? So Rose came, Charles died, Rose stayed on.

The thought that there might have been some family estrangement is suggested by what happened with Charles. When he became ill he did not go back home to Buffalo. When he died, his body was not sent back to Buffalo. He did not leave a will, so his personal effects and affairs were sorted out by CTR who, rather than a family member, was granted letters of administration.


Charles Ball was buried in Pittsburgh, in the Union Dale cemetery. For an unknown young man his gravestone is really quite impressive. (Photograph reproduced with permission).


The motif at the top could well be a cross and crown before it was vandalised. And if so, why was it vandalised? And at the bottom of the marker is a familiar scriptural inscription, a partial quotation from Revelation 2 v.10: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”

Charles’ stay in Pittsburgh and his substantial grave stone pose questions we cannot answer. What is known is that sixty years later, he was still remembered. Here is the notice of Rose’s death from an Australian newspaper, the Melbourne Argus, for November 24, 1950.


Transcript: HENNINGES – On November 22, Rose Ball, widow of the late Ernest Charles Henninges, beloved sister of Lilian, Daisy, Charles (deceased) and Richard (deceased), aged 81 years. – Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.

(Reprinted from Jerome History blog)

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089KPG9FX/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=organizational+identity&qid=1591119077&s=digital-text&sr=1-1#430901

Jeff, whom you know here as ZionsHerald, made this possible. I cannot fully convey the depth of my appreciation for his help.

Monday, June 1, 2020

Donation to the Cause

... no, not money.

I need original issues - not photo copies or scans - of the 1925 Golden Age. I know of some for sale. But What money I have in the research fund must go for documents and photo copies. But ... If you have some early Golden Ages just sitting on a shelf collecting dust, and you're wondering what their fate should be ... I would gladly accept donation of any from 1925 or earlier. Vain hope, I know. But I thought I'd ask.