I need basic biography of O. A. Florey. Can we find his full name. Does he appear in the Watch Tower? Any information will be helpful.
Monday, August 8, 2022
San Luis Obispo, California, Tribune -1896
I need basic biography of O. A. Florey. Can we find his full name. Does he appear in the Watch Tower? Any information will be helpful.
Saturday, August 6, 2022
From The Phrenological Era
The following short article appeared in a 1914 issue of The Phrenological Era. It's editor often opposed Russell. Note that he focuses on Russell's 'exposure' of contemporary clergy. I am, as you know, without a research assistant. If you wish to help, please find examples of Russell's comments on clergy.
The article:
THE LAST SQUEAL! - By a copy of "the Bible Students Monthly," dateless, sent us, we note that “Pastor Russell” charged the clergy of the various denominations of Christendom with conspiracy against him. We do not so understand it. They simply denounce his rotten doctrines. He has many critics and opponents out of the churches--men of brains who see he is leading a lot of simple-minded people into ruinous notions by his wily play on words. It is the old resort of mountebanks, when caught in their tricks, to cry "liars and lies." If his teachings had a semblance of reason in them, and his known conduct aside from his pretensions to piety comported with common decency, the ministers of our land would welcome him as a brother. Russell has slung med at the ministry, vaunted himself like a peacock above them, taken water, etc., etc., and now in the last ditch yells "conspiracy." No wonder good people, regardless of church affiliation, are down on such a hypocritical Bible twister. “How to Go into the Silence.”
J. B. Palmer on Reading Millennial Dawn
QUESTION. Have you read Pastor Russell's “Millenium Dawn Books''?
ANSWER. Yes. I have them in my library. The author is not afraid of new ideas. He wants to look into them. Pastor Russell spoke to class ensembles here at our institution during his life time, which is further evidence, if needs be, that every man has a right to be heard and the listener has a right to properly place a valuation upon what he hears.
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
I need help downloading this
To download the booklet I've linked to below requires access to a participating library or university. I no longer have access to any of that. If you have institutional access, please download this for me. Attach it to file transfer and send it to me, please.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015010777111&view=1up&seq=14
I no longer need this. Thanks to all who helped.
Monday, August 1, 2022
New Review Separate Identity vol. 1
Straight unbiased verifiable facts and context are the keys to a great history book. And this book delivers. As others have said, the scholarship and amount of research that went into this project is astounding. One thing it taught me was to not look at history from a modern day lens, but to put yourself in someone’s shoes who lived at that time. Things make much more sense when that is done.
Anyway, 5 stars and can’t wait to read volume 2.End Chapter
I'm writing this out of order, as I often do. I write based on the documents I have. They do not all come to me in a nice order. The last chapter is more analytical than usual. It's a summary of the main points of the S. I. series. So, here's a portion. I'm writing about those spiritualist influenced by Russell and the degree of secondary influence that accrued from their writing. Do you have anything to add?
The Intellectuals
None of those we consider here were intellectuals, of course. They or someone else saw them that way, and I’ve obligingly listed them as such.
The Spiritualists
When Food for Thinking Christians was published, one of the first to publish a critique was William White, the editor of The Psychological Review.[1] [continue]
William Augustus Redding
Redding [November 12, 1850 – October 31, 1931], was a Pennsylvania-born lawyer practicing in Philadelphia, New York City and elsewhere. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1876 and served in the state House of Representatives from 1884-1886, not running for reelection at the expiration of the term. He was a respected patent attorney, though he wasn’t averse to making unsustainable claims. In 1916 he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. Though married as a Quaker he became a spiritualist and a close associate of Ernest Loomis, a Spiritualist writer and publisher. Redding was a prolific author, writing on prophetic themes. Though scarcely admitting it, Redding was heavily influence by Russell’s writing.
Much of Redding’s writing mirrors that of other 19th Century Premillennialists, and occasionally one can find – at least in my opinion – an insightful comment on a Bible verse or narrative. If the Spiritualist elements were omitted Redding’s work would join the large list of 19th Century students of prophecy who believed they had solved the problem of end-times numbers. As did Russell, Redding believed he had an important message and that he was if not the prime divinely appointed messenger, at least one of the most important. Redding pointed to 1896 as the end of Gentile times but extended affairs to 1914 on the same basis as did Russell.[2] Without other evidence we could not say that he was influenced by Watch Tower theology in this. Others pointed to 1913-1918, and more specifically 1914 as the end of Gentile Times using the familiar count of 2520 years from an ancient even to modern times.[3]
But Redding takes us to Russell’s
influence in his Mysteries Unveiled: The Hoary Past Comes Forward with
Astonishing Messages for the Prophetic Future.
[1] William White was a member of The New Church (Swedenborgian). We have no biography beyond that. The Psychological Review was published by Edward W. Allen. As with W. White, there is little reliable biography for Allen. He was a member of New Church (Swedenborgian) and published one of its journals. He also edited or published at various times The Spiritualist Newspaper, Spiritual Notes and The Spiritual Record, and The Psychological Review.
[2] Our Near Future: A Message to All the
Governments and People of Earth, page 25.
[3] Among those who pointed to 1914 or years near it were Elliott [Horae, vol. 4, pages 104, 237-238]; Henry Grattan Guinness [Approaching End of the Age]; Blanton Duncan [Near Approach] pointed to 606-607 B.C. as the start of the 2520 years which were to end in 1913-1914. See page 15. W. H. Coffin [The Millennium of the Church, 1843] Dated Gentile times from 606 B.C. to 1914, see page 42. Richard Gascoyne suggested 1914 as a possible date. [Calendar of Prophecy] The list is long and we need not continue it.
Various
writers used a supposed Great Pyramid measurement to derive the 1914 date. While
Russell used Pyramid measures as an adjunct, he did not base his belief on
them. Pyramid enthusiasts still point to 1914.
Marr Murray
I need a basic biography of Marr Murray, an novelist and prophetic student c. 1910-1920. Can you help?
Thursday, July 28, 2022
Saturday, July 23, 2022
Amazon Abuses
Amazon continues to be abusive. The Separate Identity series is coming off of Amazon and will shortly be available only from lulu.com
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Update on United Cemeteries
Most readers interested in Watch Tower history will already know about the changes made in the United Cemeteries in the last twelve months. Earlier posts on this blog detailed the damage done to the pyramid monument in the center of the site, and how after just over one hundred years the decision was taken to dismantle it.
I now have photographs
from a source I can freely copy with permission. So thanks to Jim H, and here
is what has recently happened on site.
The first picture shows
the pyramid as it was in 2014, when I personally visited the site and took the
photograph. On the right you can see the site after the monument had been taken
down, with just the concrete base left. CTR’s grave marker is at the top of the
picture.
Where the pyramid once
stood nine flat grave markers have been installed. Here you can see the scarred
land after the original concrete base for the pyramid was removed. Again, you
can see CTR’s grave marker at the top of the picture. No doubt the grass will
soon grow over the barren areas.
Below is a close up of
the nine markers. These modest stones are similar to those found at the
Society’s current burial site at the Watchtower Farms Cemetery in Walkill,
Ulster Co. They give the names exactly as they appeared on the original pyramid
sides, along with the ages of the Bible Students concerned.
The figures, A-1, etc. refer to the actual grave numbers in the original plots.
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
George Darby Clowes
A few years ago I did a filler article on
this blog about George Darby Clowes, adding to information published in Volume
1 of Separate Identity. I was able to
use Ancestry to trace modern descendants of George and find a photograph of him
which I was given permission to publsh. As happens all the time on the
internet, that picture is now everywhere. Recently I returned to the subject of
George and did research on the 1862 Allegheny Arsenal disaster which greatly affected
him. I decided that George needed a whole article to pull various threads
together. This is it.
GEORGE
DARBY CLOWES
George Darby Clowes (1818-1889).
Photograph reproduced by kind permission of his great-great-grandson, William J. 3rd.
In the March 1889 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower, in response to a letter from his father, Joseph
Lytle, Charles Taze Russell wrote a brief obituary for George Darby Clowes
(1818-1889). It shows that George had a part to play in the very early history
and pre-history of the Watch Tower movement. CTR’s comment is below:
George had previously appeared in the pages of Zion’s Watch Tower in May 1886 (page 1)
when the annual Memorial celebration held in Pittsburgh was “adjourned with
praper by Brother Clowes.”
This then is his story.
George Clowes was born in the British Isles on April
26, 1818. He was baptised into the established church (Birmingham, St Martin)
on December 29, 1818. At the age of 19 he was married at the same church to
Sarah Fearney on December 6, 1837. His occupation is given as “brass founder.”
He would cast items in brass, which could be anything from shell cases to
intricate parts for clocks and watches.
George and Sarah were to have nine known children
over the next 24 years. The first two were born in Britain, Emma (b.1841) and
James (1843-1916). After James’ birth the family moved to the United States,
specifically Pennsylvania, because the remaining seven children were born
there. These were Hepzebah (1845-1864), Israel William (1848-1915), Fredrick
(b.1851), George Darby Jr. (1854-1932), Stephen (1858-1920), Sarah (b.1861) and
Sumpter (b.c.1865).
The name George Clowes was to be carried on through at
least three generations. As well as George Darby Jr. (1854-1932) who was the
original George’s sixth child, the original George’s fourth child Israel also
named a son George Darby Clowes (1877-1946). While it makes for complications
in research it does allow one to track down through the ages, and in this case to
make contact with a modern descendant a few years ago, who provided the
photograph of our subject at the head of this article.
George did not apply for American naturalization
until 1861, but the document with his signature has survived
George’s wife Sarah died in 1881. From the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 14 March 1881 page 4:
George became a minister in the M(ethodist)
E(piscopal) church. According to a letter he wrote to George Storrs, which we
will come to later, this was “about 25 years before” the year 1871. That would
take us to before the American Civil War. But he was to change direction and become part
of the small congregation that first attracted CTR when he dropped into a dusty
dingy hall (Quincy Hall on Leacock Street) to hear Adventist Jonas Wendell
preach.
The Adventists (specifically the Advent Christian
Church) were keen to claim George as a prize. In their paper, The World’s Crisis for December 27,
1871, Wendell had a letter published about his recent travels. The letter dated
December 6, 1871, showed that there had been problems of some sort in the
Pittsburgh group. He had worked there, along with George Stetson, for a few
weeks, but now there was a need for a local person to take over pastoral care.
Clowes’ expulsion from the Methodists, and his new
role in the Pittsburgh Advent Christian Church, is remembered elsewhere. In The Advent Christian Story by Clarence
Kearney (1968) he is mentioned in dispatches:
Although the Pittsburgh group was branded as
Adventist in the Advent Christian press, in reality it had an eclectic mix. Advent
Christians and Church of God (Age to Come) believers would often meet together at this time. They were united on a keen interest in the return of Christ and
conditional immortality, while generally divided over such subjects as the
destiny of natural Israel, how many would benefit from future probation through
the resurrection, which key events yet to happen were timed for the start or
the end of the millennium, and the advisability (or otherwise) of date setting.
As long as everyone
remained tolerant and unofficial and generally disorganised the situation could
continue. But while Age to Come believers were generally
averse to organization, Second Adventists into
the 1870s were increasingly anxious for
recognition as an established religion. This required an official statement of
belief covering not just vague generalities but specifics.
So people began to make choices, and Clowes embraced
the Age to Come belief system. Up to 1873 we find references to Advent
Christian meetings at Quincy Hall, Pittsburgh, but by 1874 Elder G. D. Clowes
was billed at the same venue but now in the main paper of the Age to Come
movement, The Restitution. From the
November 5, 1874, issue:
This shift meant that independent mavericks like
George Storrs, who edited Bible Examiner
(and who increasingly detested the Advent Christian Church) would be more than happy
to visit them. He did so in May 1874 and Clowes was subsequently mentioned
several times in his paper.
In the June 1874 issue of Bible Examiner Storrs reviewed his recent visit. In the editorial, under
the heading “Visit to Pittsburgh, PA” Storrs wrote: “The editor of this
magazine spent the first and second Sundays in May in the above named city. He
found there a small but noble band of friends who upheld with the full hearts
the truths advocated by himself. Among them is a preacher who was formally of
the Methodists.”
We must assume that the former Methodist preacher
was George Clowes. In the same issue, Storrs lists the parcels he had just sent
out to fill literature requests. These included several to Pittsburgh, the
recipients including G. D. Clowes Sr., Wm. H. Conley, and J. L. Russell and
son. (The latter was obviously a business address, but the “son” Charles Taze
Russell would have his own letter acknowledged the next month, July, and would subsequently
write articles for Storrs’ paper).
There are further requests for literature from
Clowes and the Russells, and then in the November 1875 Bible Examiner there is a full letter from Elder G. D. Clowes of
Pittsburgh dated September 8, 1875. In it, Clowes expresses appreciation for Bible Examiner, and regrets the spirit
manifest by “some of our brethren who do not see these precious truths.” It is
in this letter, referred to earlier, that he reflects on how he “had been cast
adrift a few years before by those he had labored with for a quarter century.”
That would take his Methodist connections back 25 years before 1871. He also
writes that a “Brother Owen is labouring with us.”
The next page of Storrs’ magazine has a letter of
appreciation from Joseph Lytle Russell, CTR’s father. Joseph also mentions
“Brother Owen” visiting, which shows that he and Clowes were involved with the
same meetings.
Very soon the independent Bible study group linked
to Charles Taze Russell would take center stage, and this would link up with
Nelson Barbour. This is another chapter and in extant records George Clowes
does not appear in it. But then, after Zion’s
Watch Tower began publication we find him attending that 1886 Memorial
celebration and then being remembered by both Joseph Lytle and Charles Taze
when he died in early 1889.
George never
made his living from a paid ministry. He did various jobs but the most
consistent was working at the Allegheny Arsenal in Lawrenceville for a number
of years. In the 1860 census he is a “nail plate heater.” In the 1866-67 Directory of Pittsburgh and Alleghen Cities
he is “assistant laboratory superintendent at the Arsenal.” In the 1870 census
he is “master laboratory A” – the A probably standing for Arsenal. As late as
1875, from the US Register of Civil,
Military and Naval Service, 1875 volume 1, dated September 30, 1875 we have
George working as a Foreman at the Allegheny Arsenal for three dollars a day.
As noted above, his original occupation of “brass
founder” could include making shell cases and that may have had some bearing on
where he worked, and even why he relocated from England to Pittsburgh.
His close association with the Arsenal is shown by
the aftermath of the September 17, 1862 disaster. There was an explosion in the
Laboratory building where they were filling shells with gunpowder for Union
forces in the Civil War. This caused a massive fire and 78 people – mainly
young women – died. Loose powder on a roadway and a spark from an iron horseshoe
was one possible cause. Another theory is that it was caused by static
electricity from the women workers’ hoop skirts. It ended up being Pittsburgh’s worst industrial
accident and the Civil War’s deadliest civilian disaster.
Clowes was present on
the day and initially was thought to be one of the casualties. From the
preliminary list of the dead in the Pittsburgh
Daily Post for September 18, 1862:
It gives his
occupation as Superintendent of Cylinder Department and says that his daughter
Emma died along with him. The Pittsburgh
Gazette for the same date, September
18, only listed Emma and gave her age as 21, and listed her as “missing.” Daughter
Emma was born in 1841, so this has to be the right family.
A day or two later it was clarified that George had survived, and had tried to calm down the girls in the chaos and panic to get out of the buildings. From the inquest report in the Pittsburgh Daily Post for September 23, 1862:
The reason for the confusion over casualties was
that the explosion and fire meant many bodies could not be identified. The
remains of over 40 unidentified people were buried in a mass grave in the
Allegheny cemetery. The final list of these included Emma. Years later the Pittsburgh Dispatch for May 25, 1899,
told the story and listed the names on the Allegheny Cemetery monument. You can
see Emma’s name four lines up from the bottom of the clipping.
The monument was later replaced and the one you can
now visit in the cemetery lists all 78 names of victims.
The memorial was the result of a special campaign,
and understandably George Clowes was heavily involved in this project. From the
Pittsburgh Daily Post for September
18, 1863:
George was linked to the Arsenal again in 1869 where
the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazatte for
January 29, 1869, carried a story about a new Library Association and Reading
Room to be assisted financially by the Arsenal Lodge of Good Templars. The Vice
President of the new association was G. D. Clowes.
He was also an officer of the Temple of Honor in
Lawrenceville, PA, which was a fraternal order supporting the temperance movement.
He also appeared on a list of names for the “Reform Republican Vigilance
Committee” for his area.
Returning to his work history, while the above-noted
US Register of Civil, Military and Naval
Service 1875 still has him working at the Arsenal, the 1875-1876 Directory of Pittsburgh and Allegheny
lists him as the Rev. George D. Clowes. He also appears to be in newspapers of
the day as a clergyman. As an example, the report of the dedication services
for a new M.E. Church near the Arsenal in the Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette for June 14, 1869, listed those present.
There are no initials to confirm we have the right man, but the report included
“Rev. Clowes and local preachers.”
When George died there was just a small notice in
the paper. From the Pittsburgh Dispatch
26 January 1889, page 7,
He was George D. Clowes, Sr. His son, George D.
Clowes, Jr. also lived and worked in Pittsburgh for nearly all his life in the
iron and steel industry.
The records are incomplete, but George Sr. was probably buried in the Allegheny cemetery, where his wife and many other family members were laid to rest. This historic cemetery also contains the Arsenal memorial with Emma’s name, and the grave plots for nearly all of CTR’s immediate family.
Monday, June 27, 2022
Von Zech
If you own any copies of Zech's magazine, please contact me. Another researcher is urgently seeking them. I need your permission to pass on your email address.
Wednesday, June 22, 2022
also on ebay
Pastor Russell's Sermons .... reasonable price thus far.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/403732965302?hash=item5e005c27b6:g:gAUAAOSw7pdis3cn
1910 NY Convention
For sale on ebay. Alas, for far more than I can afford. Some browsers will require you to click on the image to view the complete photo.
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
Lost Films
There are several “lost” films in the history of the
Watch Tower Society. The 1914 Photodrama
of Creation was a big success and since at least twenty complete sets were
produced, the majority of it survived – both in private hands as well as
official archives. But subequent Bible Student films have not fared so well.
There was a Photodrama “sequel"
produced by Bible Students in 1917 called Restitution.
It really needs its own article, but sad to say, only a few minutes have as yet
been discovered. It was renamed several times in a troubled history and was
finally rebranded as Redemption and
sold in pieces on 16 mm film in the late 1920s.
Some film was taken by secular sources. In
1913 when CTR arrived at the Hot Springs, Arkansas, convention, his arrival was
filmed (see 1913 convention report page 66). The Hot Springs New Era newspaper for June 7, 1913, also said that the
baptism ceremony was filmed by the same cameraman. But at the end of the year (Hot Springs New Era for 30 December
1913) in response to an IBSA enquiry, there were recriminations between cameraman,
studio and express company when the negatives disappeared in transit. So I
wouldn’t hold your breath for film of Pastor Russell alighting from a 1913
train any time soon.
When the Chicago 1921 Pageant of Progress exhibition
was filmed, the IBSA stand was reportedly featured (see write-up by Fred Franz’
brother Albert in New Era Enterprise
for September 6, 1921). However, most newsreel material was very short-lived.
Once shown, if shown at all, such films were usually melted down to reuse the
silver and nitrocellulose base.
But returning to the Bible Students’ own
endeavors, the bumper year for lost films seems to be 1922.
That year the Bible Students held a
convention at Philadelphia over four days, April 13-16. It started in the Moose
Hall and later transferred to the Metropolitan Opera House for the public
meeting, where Joseph F Rutherford gave the public lecture. The review of the
whole event as found in the New Era Enterprise
newspaper for May 30, 1922, page 4, mentioned a special film show.
So on the Friday evening, at Moose Hall,
to an audience of around 1500 people, 8 reels of moving pictures were shown.
For that size of audience it would have been on regular 35 mm film and would
have been the length of a modest feature film. The convention program showed
what this film contained.
Whether this was raw unedited footage or a
professional presentation we do not know, but what is obvious is that these
films were soon edited down quite severely to make two one-reelers, one on
Palestine, and one on Imperial Valley. This was as part of the Kinemo project,
described in the New Era Enterprise
for July 11, 1922, and also in The Watch
Tower for May 1, 1922.
There were three films in total in the
original Kinemo project, the two aforementioned and a third on the Great
Pyramid. They were produced on safety film (rather than dangerous nitrate
stock) on a substandard film gauge, 17.5 mm. They could only be seen with a
special Kinemo projector, designed for home or parlor use. All three films
featured Joseph F Rutherford in cameo appearances.
As earlier articles on this blog have covered,
the three Kinemo films survived in private hands and have been painstakingly
copied frame by frame, which is why you can see them on YouTube.
But the question we are left with is –
what about the remaining six reels as shown in Philadelphia in April 1922?
The 1922 convention that everyone
remembers today is the much larger event held later that year in September at
Cedar Point, Ohio. This too provides a tantalising glimse of lost films.
First, most will have seen the Watchtower
Society’s recent call for the footage actually taken at this Cedar Point convention.
This is based on an advertisement in the New
Era Enterprise over several issues in October and November, 1922.
This venture (or something similar) was suggested
in the Convention Notes as found in the Enterprise
for October 31, 1922.
It is hoped that someone somewhere still
has this footage. In this 100th anniversary year of this convention,
it would be special indeed if it survived and could be restored. Extant
photographs of the event show a full sized camera filming J F Rutherford as he
spoke out of doors in “The Grove.” Time will tell. It should be noted that as
well as the 17.5 mm Kinemo version, it was also possible to buy a standard 35
mm print from the same source.
However, motion pictures were also shown
at this convention, which provides even more “lost” films to consider. Again from the Enterprise for October 31, 1922:
The views of Egypt, Palestine and Imperial
Valley were obviously the current Kinemo trilogy in some shape or form, but what
about the other films?
The description talked about “Views of the
Bible House (back in Pittsburgh?) and other organization buildings and offices
in Brooklyn, the Bethel Home, etc., the printing and binding of books and
pamphlets, etc.” These films were shown on three evenings, Friday to Sunday.
But what happened to them thereafter?
Since the Society did not retain 1922 footage
that was actually sold to the public at the time, this does not bode well for
these other films ever surfacing.
But stranger things have happened.
We might end by asking why such films
became “lost?” The Society’s experience during the Great War, and its view of
the future, meant that archiving was not always a high priority, certainly not
for material viewed as ephemeral at the time. Even when the Society produced a
reprint of the first 40 years of (Zion’s)
Watch Tower they had to appeal to private collectors to help them complete
their file for the project. And who would know that a hundred years after these
events there would be interest in these old moving pictures? We might easily
make the same mistakes today in choosing what or what not to keep in our
personal video DVD collection.
Material in private hands may survive for
a while, but when people die their relatives may well throw out things because
they don’t realize their significence. Like many collectors I have followed up
leads only for them to repeatedly end this way. It is good that now there is
now far more interest in preserving the past and that technology allows for greater
sharing.
Friday, June 3, 2022
A Photo Album
Some photographs have come to hand from around 100 years ago that feature well-known Bible Students. The photographs are courtesy of the Robert Riley collection. The photo book is entitled Cedar Point on Lake Erie.
The earliest
photographs are from the 1919 convention at Cedar Point, Ohio. Many are of
unknown groups of people and general views of the venue. But the following are
those of named people many readers will know.