History of the New York Temple

 

Guest post by Leroy

History of the New York Temple

     Most modern Jehovah’s Witnesses will have heard of the Bible House, the Brooklyn Tabernacle and the Brooklyn Bethel. However, hearing the name of the New York Temple probably does not bring anything to mind. Even Watchtower history enthusiasts know more about the Chicago Temple, thanks to a booklet produced by the Chicago Bible Students in 1914 with many photos of its interior and exterior. However, the New York Temple, seemingly buried in theocratic history, has a distinction that no other building has – that of being the first theater to present the Photo-Drama of Creation.

     January 11, 1914 was the day chosen for the premiere of this revolutionary production, which, despite the fact that even today it still has not received due recognition from the film industry, stands out for being the first motion picture production in history to combine color film sequences with synchronized sound, all at the same time. But, what do we know about the venue where this historic production debuted?

Photo 1 – New York Sun ad, Jan 11, 1914, Page 13.

Photo 2 – Full Page ad in the New York Evening Telegram, Jan 11, 1914

A Rough Start

     The theater was located at 22-26 West 63rd St., about halfway between Broadway and Central Park. It was originally designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb for the Davenport Stock Company, taking inspiration from a theater in Berlin. Butler Davenport, a real estate man, bought the land from William Brennan with the idea of building a theater. It was originally to be called the “Davenport Theatre”. Construction began in April 1909 and it was announced that it would open to the public in December of the same year. The theater would have capacity for 800 spectators. However, on November 15, the New York Times reported that the construction had stopped, and Butler Davenport had disappeared, even his name had been removed from the Real Estate Company in which he was a partner. Due to Mr. Davenport’s financial difficulties, construction was halted when the stage and balcony had barely been built.

Photo 3 – Cliping from The New York Times, Nov 15, 1909 Page 9.

     In 1910 the unfinished building was put up for auction and sold for $250,000. From then on it was bought and sold several times, without any of its owners being able to finish the construction.

The Society Takes Over

     In 1913, when the Bible Students were planning the production of the Photo-Drama, they were looking for a central location in New York City where they could present the show to as many people as possible. To that end, they purchased the unfinished building through the Peoples Pulpit Association and hired architect Erwin Rossbach to complete the work. Rossbach modified Lamb’s original design to make it more sober and functional, and the auditorium was modified to be more suitable for lectures and movie projection, rather than plays, as had originally been intended. The capacity was increased to 1,400 seats.

Photo 4 – New York Tribune, June 3, 1910, Page 7

     Since the property was purchased, it was advertised in the Watch Tower magazine, as well as at assemblies.Some of these comments emphasized how expensive it was and yet that it had been purchased for very little money.They also highlighted the relevance it would have, being used exclusively for the new production that was in the process of seeing the light, the new Photo-Drama.

     Below are some of the comments that appear in the 1913 convention report regarding the new Temple and its future use:

     Page 66:

Before appearing in the main auditorium of the hotel, Pastor Russell granted an interview to local newspaper correspondents, at which time he confirmed the report that be would relinquish the use of the Temple, in New York, the latest structure the Bible Students are building, turning it over to the picture people, believing that “The Photo Drama of Creation” is destined to be a very important factor in the advancement of Bible study.

PERSONAL REQUESTS.

It is also a known fact that the work of Pastor Russell is doing is carried on by voluntary contribution. As these contributions increase the work grows larger, and any years the contributions fall off the work is proportionately restricted. Personally, he has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to furthering an interest in Scripture, and his determination to relinquish his new edifice in New York, which, it is estimated, including the ground, will cost no less than $350,000, is just what was to have been expected of him when he saw an opportunity to increase interest in the Bible.

TRIBUTE TO PICTURES.

“Moving pictures have proved a very valuable medium in education,” he told the newspaper men this morning. “It will be equally valuable in teaching the Bible. Day and night in the Temple, therefore, without interfering with the Sunday service, there will be given these pictures from the Bible, the ‘Photo Play of Creation’ having exclusive use of the Temple, which is centrally located. One must not forget the fact that one can reach the Temple in New York from any part of the city for five cents. That is an important thing to consider. The people of New York will have a full opportunity of seeing Bible moving pictures, receiving Bible instruction, free of charge.”

     Page 71-72:

“The Temple of Creation”

The Temple, Sixty-third street just off Broadway, New York City, is to become the home of the “Photo-Drama of Creation.”

The New York contingent of the present Brooklyn Tabernacle congregation, over which Pastor Russell presides, built and expected to make the New York “Temple” the “Hub” for pastor Russell’s future worldwide evangelistic efforts.

The plan to give over the “Temple” for the exclusive use of the “Photo-Drama of Creation” was unreservedly endorsed as a better plan by Pastor Russell, a thorough believer in the efficiency and wonderful power of printer’s ink, moving pictures and talking machines.

(Press Clippings)

PASTOR RUSSELL GIVES TEMPLE TO “MOVIES”

The Motion Picture Department to Have Exclusive Use of This Magnificent Structure

Pastor Charles T. Russell informed the delegates to the International Bible Students’ Association convention today that he had decided not to occupy the magnificent Temple, now in course of construction, Sixty-third street, near Broadway, New York, which was undertaken for the express purpose of being his headquarters, but would turn over for the exclusive use of the “Photo Drama of Creation” department, the moving picture enterprise in connection with the promotion of Bible teaching, this structure.

PROPERTY WORTH FORTUNE.

Including the ground, the New York Temple is valued at $350,000. For several years there has been a demand made on Pastor Russell that he move his headquarters from Brooklyn to New York, it being argued the people of that city would attend his sermons in larger numbers if there was a place centrally located where they could go to hear him, and with that idea in view the site for the Temple was purchased and the erection of a modern edifice undertaken.

One can reach the Temple from any part of New York, either by the subway, surface lines or elevated railroad, for five cents.

The motion picture department will be one of the most important factors in the advancement of Bible teaching, so far as this organization is concerned, and, realizing their value as an educational medium, Pastor Russell today told the delegates that he would not occupy the Temple, but would give it to the “Photo Drama of Creation,” enabling them to run there, day and night, a continuous Bible moving picture show.

     Pages 83-84:

I should tell you another thing, just very briefly, and that is about the New York Temple. You will hear about it somewhere else, and I will tell you now. The New York Temple is a building that came into our possession in a very remarkable way. It looks as though it was the Lord’s providence, I do not know anything else. We had been trying to secure the use of some building in New York for public meetings, and they were all so thoroughly taken up with business of one kind or another that it seemed not to be successful. And then when we had about given up all hope here we came into possession of a building partly finished and practically bought for no money, bought on credit and practically self-supporting—it seems too much of a miracle to tell you all that; it just reads like a miracle. The Lord is not working any miracles, I guess, but it is pretty near like a miracle, and so now that building already has mortgages on it and the mortgagees are going to finish the building and give us possession of it. We will have the whole Temple. It will be very nice and hold a good number of people—not as many as we could wish it might hold, but probably a little over 1,300 is the capacity of it. We would have liked it to be at least twice that large, but we cannot have everything we want and we are thankful for what we have.

This matter of the moving pictures and the teaching of the Word of God pictorially to the people has appealed to me so strongly it is my present thought that I will use all my influence with the Society, and I believe it will be successful, so that building may be entirely devoted to the Picture Gospel—the proclamation of the Gospel through pictures to all the millions of people who are living in New York and vicinity, and to the other thousands who may be coming there day by day, and that every day in the week, Sunday, Monday, etc., morning, noon and night, there will be the Gospel being preached there, and we expect that the house will be crowded all the time. The question is between using the Temple that way or using it for the voice preaching and we concluded how this would reach more people than we could use with our voice, or that of any other of the brethren could reach. But we have to say that we are not to count our chickens before the eggs are hatched, or at least showing some signs of it; but the building is nearing completion and we expect to have it ready for operation this summer—or at least by September, and expect to have the first exhibit, or one of the first exhibits of this new moving picture arrangement that you have voted for and endorsed. I was glad to know of your endorsement; I believe it is one way in which the Lord is going to bring a knowledge of His Bible to more people than ever before—all classes of people and especially Christian people that should be deeply interested in the Word of God, or what the Bible says.

Page 135:

MOVING PICTURES FOR GOSPEL.

“The International Bible Students’ Association has just donated its Sixty-third street temple in New York to the public as an agent for uplift. It will be a moving picture theater for the public. Moving pictures—the right kind of moving pictures—are certainly agents for uplift, they inspire thought. In our temple we will present films showing the process of creation from nebula to flying machines, three times a day. Other rare films, presenting Bible incidents, views of foreign lands, etc., will be shown every day of the year. We must all get together and push enlightenment along.

     The July 1913 Watchtower also commented on this:

“Later, when endorsing the Convention’s resolutions, the Association’s President declared that he would advocate the use of “The Temple,” West Sixty-third Street, near Broadway, New York City, as the permanent home for the Gospel in pictures—“The Photo-Drama of Creation.” He believed that its use on seven days of the week, and three times daily, would prove a wonderful work of grace to many—much more so than to use it merely one day of the week for preaching.

This led to an explanation of what “The Temple” is. Almost providentially a property worth nearly half a million dollars had come under the Association’s control for Gospel work. True, the property is mortgaged for nearly its worth; but no matter: the low interest will be a very moderate rental. Besides, while The Temple will be the home of “The Photo-Drama of Creation,” the Exhibition will have numerous duplications, for the preaching of the Gospel far and near”.

     The company in charge of the construction promised to have the Temple ready by December 7, and plans were made for the dedication program to be held on that day, as announced in the Watchtower December 1, 1913, page 354:

DEDICATION OF “THE TEMPLE”—NEW YORK CITY

The Contractors promise to have “The Temple” ready for our use on Sunday, December 7. The services for the opening day will be a little out of the ordinary. So far as the building is concerned it will be Dedication Day. As respects the Congregation it will be Thanksgiving Sunday. The program will include the entire day. The opening service will be at 10.30 a.m. The Pastor, Brother Russell, will give the address.

At 2 p.m. there will be a Symposium in which several Brethren of the PEOPLES PULPIT ASSOCIATION will participate, the topic being “THANKFULNESS.” Its various phases will be considered.

At 4 p.m. there will be a general Praise and Testimony Meeting.

At 8 p.m. the Pastor, Brother Russell, will give an address, closing what, we trust, will be a very pleasant and very profitable day of spiritual refreshment.

As it is anticipated that numbers of THE WATCH TOWER readers will want to be present at these services, coming from surrounding cities and villages, it is proposed that no public advertising be done, so that we may have plenty of room for comfort and fellowship. Of course, the Brooklyn Tabernacle will be closed for the entire day.

All WATCH TOWER readers and their interested friends are cordially invited to this house-warming. “Seats free and no collection.”

When sending remittances please remember to make them payable to Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.

     850 people attended the dedication program that day, and from there began preparations for the premiere of the Photo-Drama, which took place on January 11, 1914.

Photo 5 - This kind of coupon appeared in different newspapers, featuring a drawing of the façade of The Temple.

Photo 5.5 - Ticket to see the Photodrama at the New York Temple (thanks to M.G. for providing the photo).

     The temple was mainly used for the Photo-Drama presentations, but it was also the headquarters of the New York congregation, and CTR gave speeches there every first Sunday of the month. He received up to 1500 attendees, having to reject many.

Photo 6 – The New York Temple (Colorized).

     The Temple became the main meeting hall for the IBSA in New York, due to its central location and to it having larger capacity than the Brooklyn Tabernacle’s auditorium. In 1916 it was announced that the Brooklyn Congregation would now be known as the New York City Ecclesia because the main services had moved from the Tabernacle in Brooklyn to the Temple in New York City.

     When CTR died, funeral services were held at the New York City Temple on Sunday, November 5, 1916. The service was conducted by J. F. Rutherford, who, in addition to his own remarks, read the very sermon which Pastor Russell had penned and which he had intended to preach there in New York Temple that very night.

     After Russell’s death, J. F. Rutherford continued the custom of speaking at the Temple on the first Sunday of every month, beginning on Sunday, February 14, 1917. In addition, Photo-Drama performances continued to be held at the site.

Photo 7 – In a 1916 map, the place appear as a Church.

The Beginning of the End

     Financially speaking, from 1914 to 1917 the Organization had a very hard time. The production and running of the Photo-Drama resulted in huge expenses as well as the acquisition, remodeling and maintenance of the Temple. After Russell's death, Rutherford took care of the situation and made decisions to heal the Society's economy, and among those decisions was the sale of several properties, including most of the land they owned in the United Cemeteries, and also the NY Temple.

     It appears to have been a last-minute decision, as various events were held at the theater throughout 1917, some even weeks before the sale of the property, such as a two-day assembly on October 27 and 28, as well as the memorial service for the anniversary of CTR's death, held on October 31 at the same location.

Photo 8– Last known photo of the building while still in use by the Society, April 1917

     The December 15, 1917 Watchtower announced the disposal of the building, which was Rutherford's last move to clean up the Society's finances:

We are pleased to announce that the Brooklyn Tabernacle and the Bethel Home are free from all debt or encumbrance, and since the disposition of the New York City Temple, which was heavily mortgaged, the SOCIETY has no debts upon which it is required to pay interest.

For all the Lord’s leadings and blessings in this behalf we are indeed grateful, and to Him we give all the credit and praise for every feature of the service.

     The buyer was Maurice Runkle, who had it in mind to remodel the place to use as a theater. A year later, his plans had not yet materialized, and he decided to put the property up for auction. The estate of the original owner, William Brennan, recovered the property with a bid of $200,000 on June 14, 1918.

Photo 9 – The New York Tribune, Jun 15, 1919, Page 5

     The theater underwent severe renovations, as it was designed to be an auditorium, not a theater, and things like the orchestra pit had been sacrificed in favor of more seats. Also the stage was too shallow. In order to transform the place into a suitable theater, at least three rows of seats had to be removed to install a pit. Renovations continued even after the theater was opened to the public.

     On November 23, 1919, the name “Sixty-Third Street Music Hall” was chosen for the new theater, and it was announced to open on December 14.

Photo 10 – New York Tribune, Nov 23, 1919, Page 45

Photo 11 – New York Tribune, Dec 15, 1919, Page 11

     The theater had little success, and on December 25 it reopened as a children's movie theater. This was not successful either, and the place was only used for most of 1920 as a concert hall because theatrical productions were not very interested in it.

     On April 2, 3 and 4, 1920, the organization rented the place to hold a 3-day assembly in conjunction with the commemoration of Christ's death.

     The March 15, 1920 Watch Tower announced the event:

NEW YORK MEMORIAL CONVENTION

A three-day convention, April 2, 3, and 4, will be held in the Sixty-third Street Music Hall. This building was formerly the New York City Temple, where the Photo-Drama of Creation was first shown to the public. Brother Rutherford and several Pilgrim brethren are expected to address the convention.

The Music Hall is reached by taking the West Side subway (commonly called Seventh Avenue subway) local train to Columbus Circle, then by walking a short distance north to Sixty-third Street, then west on that street a very short distance to the convention place.

The convention Auditorium will be open at 9 a.m., Friday April 2. All visiting friends will kindly come direct to the convention building, where they will receive assignment of rooms.

Memorial service will be held on Friday evening. The Sunday afternoon meeting will be for the public.

All correspondence regarding the convention should be addressed to the Convention Committee, T.M. Bedwin, Sec’y, 124 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, N.Y.

     As far as I know, this is the last time the venue was used by the organization, however, the “Temple” was just about to earn an indelible place in Broadway’s history.

A new Beginning

     In the last part of  1920 producer John Cort purchased the theater, opening it on January 31, 1921 as “Cort's 63rd Street Theater” with the play "Mixed Marriage." After a few performances the show moved to another theater downtown, and the name was changed back to 63rd Street Music Hall.

     In May 1921, a musical with a talented black cast was unable to secure a booking in a mainstream Broadway house, and they were forced to settle for the out-of-the-way 63rd Music Hall, which had been closed since February. The premiere of this show, entitled "Shuffle Along", took place on May 23, 1921. It was a surprise success, and became the smash hit of the season achieving the remarkable number of 504 performances. It was also the first black show to be accepted among white audiences, and incidentally put the 63rd Music Hall on the map. It was a landmark in African-American musical theater, and it is credited with inspiring the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and '30s. The show has had several revivals and adaptations up to 2016.

Photo 12 – A 1921 map showing the place as a Theater

     After “Shuffle Along” closed in 1922, the theater was sold, remodeled and renamed multiple times. Finally, in September 1941, after having had more than 10 different names in less than 30 years, it closed its doors for good. The place remained abandoned until its demolition in 1957.

     Today that section of 63rd Street is called Sesame Street, and where the Temple was once located there is a park, which is part of Lincoln Plaza.

A Few More Photos

Photo 13 - Stage in 1921 during the Shuffle Along era

 

Photo 14 - Interior view (unknown year)

 

Photo 15 - Inside plan in 1921 during the Shuffle Along era

Photo 16 - 63rd Street in 1926 – Temple highlighted

 

Photo 17 - The Temple was known as the Coburn Theatre in 1928. (NYPL)

Photo 18 - Exterior, 1936 (GMU)

 

Photo 19 – As the Experimental Theatre, in 1936 (GMU)

Photo 20 - The place abandoned in 1949.

 

Photo 21 – This is how the spot looks like today.

 

Bibliography

Newspapers:

·         NY Times Tue Apr 20 1909 Page 9

·         NY Times - Mon Nov 15 1909 Page 9

·         New York Tribune - Fri Jun 03 1910 Page 7

·         NY Times - Wed Oct 1 1913 Page 4

·         The Sun New York Tue Nov 18 1913 Page 13

·         The Sun New York Sun Jan 11 1914 Page 13

·         Times Union Brooklyn NY 12 Jan 1914 Page 2

·         The Sun New York Sat Jan 17 1914 Page 10

·         NY Tribune Sat Jun 15 1918 Page 5

·         NY Herald Sat Jun 15 1918

·         New York Tribune Sun Nov 23 1919 Page 45

·         NY Tribune Mon Dec 15 1919 Page 11

·         Daily News NY Mon Dec 22 1919 Page 15

·         New York Herald Fri Dec 26 1919 Page 9

·         NY Herald - Sun Jan 11 1920

·         NY Daily Herald Thu Jan 15 1920

Watchtower Publications:

·         Souvenir Convention Report 1913 p. 66 Noted Bible Teacher Receives Very Enthusiastic Reception on His Arrival in the Valley of Vapors.

·         Souvenir Convention Report 1913 pp. 71-72 “Photo-Drama of Creation”

·         Souvenir Convention Report 1913pp. 83-84 Subject: “The Harvest; Its Privileges Great and Small”

·         Souvenir Convention Report 1913p. 135 Tacoma, Washington

·         The Watch Tower,1913 7/1 p. 203 Pertle Springs and Hot Springs

·         The Watch Tower, 1913 12/1 p. 354 Announcements

·         The Watch Tower, 191312/15 p. 370 Announcements

·         The Watch Tower, 1914 10/15 p. 308 View from the Watch Tower

·         The Watch Tower, 1915 3/15 p. 96 International Bible Students Association Classes

·         The Watch Tower, 1915 4/15 p. 127 Memorial Supper Reports

·         The Watch Tower, 19157/1 p. 194 Announcements

·         The Watch Tower, 191512/1 p. 368 International Bible Students Association Classes

·         The Watch Tower, 1916 1/1 p. 2 Announcements

·         The Watch Tower, 1916 4/1 p. 98 Announcements

·         The Watch Tower, 1916 5/1 p. 136 Memorial Supper Reports

·         The Watch Tower, 1916 6/1 p. 162 Announcements

·         Souvenir Convention Report 1916 p. 321 Pastor Russell Honored at Bier by Followers—Hundreds Attend Service for Prominent Bible Exponent in Northside Carnegie Hall—Many from other cities.

·         Souvenir Convention Report 1916p. 323 Memorial Services, Metropolitan Auditorium, Chicago, Nov. 12, 1916, in Memory of Pastor Russell, by Dr. L. W. Jones

·         The Watch Tower, 191612/1 p. 383 Pastor Russell’s Successor Judge Joseph F. Rutherford

·         The Watch Tower, 1917 3/1 p. 75 At the Temple—Sunday, Feb. 4

·         The Watch Tower, 1917 11/1 p. 322 Announcements

·         The Watch Tower, 1917 12/15 p. 375 1917—Annual Report—1917

·         The Watch Tower, 1920 2/15 p. 50 Announcements

·         The Watch Tower, 19203/1 p. 66 Announcements

·         The Watch Tower, 19203/15 p. 82 Announcements

Websites

·         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daly%27s_63rd_Street_Theatre

·         https://ovrtur.com/venue/1620

·         https://www.playbill.com/venue/dalys-63rd-street-theatre-1922-new-york-ny

·         http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/56988

·         https://www.musicals101.com/bwaypast5.htm#63rd

·         https://www.mcny.org/story/florence-mills-broadway-sensation-1920s

·         https://www.nypl.org/

·         https://www.mcny.org/

Books

·         Van Hoogstraten, Nicholas – Lost Broadway Theatres, 1997, Princeton Architectural Press, Pages 122-125

 

For Another Project

 Help! I can read perhaps one word out of ten. Can you translate this? I've added four images. One is the entire document. The other three are best images I can make of the writing. I'll add another image to a subsequent post. This appears to have been a letter, but I am not certain about that.

Another image. This was hidden by a fold in this very fragile document:

The 'Cleburne County Draft War' - The Remake

Guest post by Gary

     In 1967, scholar James Frederick Willis, a native of Heber Springs, Arkansas, described an event termed the ‘Cleburne County Draft War’ as being the occasion “when over 200 possemen and soldiers with two machine guns attempted to subdue 8 Russellites.”(1) It has remained the classic review of the event ever since. So, what happened and how accurate a description is this?

 

     Using primarily newspaper reports from the time, Willis related that on Saturday, July 6, 1918, Sheriff Jasper Duke, from Heber Springs, Arkansas, and two fellow officers, including Bill Bice, prepared to raid several addresses between Rosebud (White County) and Pearson (Cleburne County) so as to capture five ‘slackers’.  Dr S.A. Turner and Porter Hazelwood were also persuaded to join the posse with the Sheriff suggesting, “I’ll get you a gun. There’s $50 a piece in it for each of us. I’ll divide the spoils with you.”

 

     Unsuccessful visits were made by the five-man posse late that night in searches for various men but on Sunday morning, just before sunrise, they sneaked up on the farm home of the 58-year-old Tom Adkisson’s family, slipping into a barn under cover of darkness. As we now know, Adkisson’s younger son, 24-year-old Charley Bliss, had registered for the draft claiming exemption as an International Bible Student and was called up to Camp Pike some months earlier, but failed to arrive.  He and his brother-in-law, Leo Martin, both gave incomplete addresses on their draft cards, suggesting perhaps, that if they were to be conscripted the authorities would have to come and find them, which - eventually - is precisely what happened! (2)

 

      Usually when enlisted Bible Students from cities and major towns failed to report to army camps, shortly afterward they received a polite visit at their home from a local policeman and amicably accepted their inevitable arrest before being taken to camp where, if they resisted further, they received court martial under the charge of desertion. But in Cleburne County, Arkansas, they did things differently.

 

     Willis acknowledges that conflicting accounts exist as to precisely what happened next.  Whether the Adkisson family knew who the visitors were and why they had chosen to arrive at such an ungodly hour is debateable. Suffice to say that in the twilight someone fired a shot, gunfire was briefly exchanged, Porter Hazelwood was badly injured, and the posse hurriedly fled. Hardy Richmond Adkisson, Bliss’ older brother, found Hazelwood and the family arranged for him to be moved and cared for at a neighbor’s house. A doctor was called for, but sadly Hazelwood died later that afternoon. 

 

     Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s party had returned in haste to Heber Springs with news of the incident. Unsurprisingly, it drove the townsfolk into a state of frenzy and within a short space of time twenty-five men carrying rifles were recruited from here, Searcy, Pearson, and Quitman to return to the Adkisson farm and bring in the ‘slackers’ by force. 

 

     According to various newspaper reports, between the two visits Tom had invited other young men from the area who were known to be sympathetic to his position to show their support.  When the second posse returned, it is said that some of these young men were in the house, while others were perched with guns in defensive positions in tree-tops or hidden in the underbrush.  Further that both sides engaged fire for forty-five minutes before the Adkisson party somehow slipped away into the forest, allegedly setting the underbrush afire behind them to block pursuit.

 

     Gathering more volunteers, including Sheriffs from neighboring counties and bloodhounds, the posse blitzed through the countryside without ever locating the Adkisson ‘gang’.  With popular imagination running riot, local towns panicked as rumors circulated that a large “band” of desperate armed deserters would soon attack. By now, in addition to Tom Adkisson there were only eight men being searched for and their interests were only to defend themselves rather than to attack others. Also, it is questionable too whether they were all together at the time of the visit of the second posse to the Adkisson place. Even so, the local authorities called for more help so that by Monday, July 8, thirty men from the Fourth Arkansas Infantry, National Guard, arrived in Heber Springs, bringing with them two machine guns.

 

     For the next few days, the National Guard and the local forces scoured the countryside searching for the men without success. Meanwhile, several of the men’s families and friends were rounded up in a local hotel with a local Bible Student preacher, who was said to have stirred the sedition, and his family.  Some of these were threatened with lynching, and their food supplies were confiscated to ensure that nothing could be passed to those on the run. Effectively, if these could not be found they were to be starved into submission.

 

     By Saturday, July 13, when the National Guard returned its machine guns back to Little Rock, all the resistors, who were hiding in different locations, had surrendered. Significantly, each turned themselves in to the authorities from neighboring regions so as to avoid retribution from the posse from their own county. As Tom Adkisson put it, “A band of men around Heber Springs … were trying to do us harm, and that is the reason we would not surrender up there.” 

 

     As one might expect, since the event followed the national ban on the distribution of the book The Finished Mystery and the recent imprisonment of Joseph F. Rutherford and his fellow IBSA directors under charges of sedition, it was open season on verbally attacking Bible Students.  It is no wonder then that, in the aftermath, the local newspapers blamed the Russellites’ resistance on their religion, their isolation, and their ignorance. In particular, the Arkansas newspapers homed in on the local Bible Student minister, TH Osborne, who it implied had misled these simple country folk into a course of sedition.  A doomsday scenario was even conjured up suggesting that since these millennialists believed themselves living near the time of Armageddon, surely they were planning on fighting their way through it all to the bitter end, weren’t they? All entertaining to read, of course, but though neither Willis nor the newspapers of 1918 might not have known it, this was not in any way reminiscent of early Bible teachings which instructed adherents to respect the superior authorities (Romans 13:1-7) and that “Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD.” (2 Chronicles 20:17) At no point were Bible Students instructed ever to become involved in armed warfare, since they believed “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal” but spiritual. (2 Corinthians 10:4) Besides only Almighty God Jehovah himself would bring Armageddon and, in so doing, would certainly not need the assistance of puny men, with or without guns.(3) 

 

     At the trial that followed, the Adkisson’s vehemently denied firing the first shot and claimed their actions were motivated not out of millennialist zeal, but purely from a need for self-defense. Naively they had anticipated their explanation of events would be substantiated by the Sheriff’s deputy, Bill Bice. However, to their dismay, for whatever reason Bice failed to appear in Court. As the case for their defense floundered, Tom Adkisson was sentenced to serve two years for voluntary manslaughter, while his son Bliss was sentenced to twenty years imprisonment after having been found guilty of second-degree murder. (4) A later report located recently from the Newport Daily Independent, Arkansas, dated Saturday, January 11, 1919, p1, added that “four of them, Leo Martin, Lon Penrod and two of the Blakeleys were sent to the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth for five years.”(5) Evidently these, alongside Bliss Adkisson, were the five ‘slackers’ the local posse initially searched for.

 

 

     In a commendable summary, Willis concluded that if the Bible Students “panicked, thus betraying, perhaps unknowingly, their own beliefs, the solid-citizen-patriots blatantly desired a bloody sacrifice to their offended patriotism and blindly violated portions of the national ideal which they proudly purported to defend.”  In the end, therefore, neither side came out with any glory.(6)

 

     But is this the end of the story?  Most of what Willis recorded came from the local newspapers of the time, yet how reliable were these? For one thing the newspapers frequently misspelt the names of several men, as did Willis in turn.  The two Blakeley brothers were actually the Blakey brothers, Jesse and Lum, whose full names were Jesse Fountain Blakey and Christopher Columbus Blakey. Additionally, Lon Penrod was John Penrod!  Further, the IBSA preacher TH Osborne was Thomas Houston Ausburn. Worse still, in their hurry to report the events the papers played fast and loose with the facts by ‘joining the dots’ and making assumptions.  For instance, one report bizarrely speculated that three members of the gang had already received military induction before deserting camp and returning home carrying their army rifles!(7) The New York Times erroneously claimed the incident had ended on July 8, since Tom Adkisson had been killed and all the remaining men had been captured. (8) Another report suggested that an illegal alcohol still was found in searches of his house following the visit of the second posse.(9) Each of these misrepresents the men by conjuring up a ‘gang’ of intoxicated and dangerous desperadoes on the run, presumably intent on causing mayhem to whoever crossed their path. A few reports said that the second posse discovered a ‘food hoard’ at the Adkisson farm which the posse impounded and distributed to the army. This may well be true, since prior to American involvement in the war, Pastor Russell had encouraged prudent Bible Students to collect for a possible ‘day of distress’ so as to share with others in need.(10) Unsurprisingly, as if to prove their sedition, the papers made much of the fact that searchers found a copy of the book The Finished Mystery at the Adkisson home, although possession, as opposed to distribution, was not in itself an offense.  Consequently, The Pulaskian newspaper carried the front-page headline ‘Russellite Books Cause Sedition’ with the shocking subheading stating that the ‘Finished Mystery is read by all those who sought to resist draught and defied officers in Cleburne’.  It quoted Major Brandon, who had arrived to supervise the search, as saying that “we are convinced that the young men acted in compliance with instructions issued by ministers of the Russellite faith. They advised the men to register, but not to report or don the uniform of the United States. If the Russellite faith is not suppressed, it should be immediately.” The newspapers made much of the fact that women from the respective families of those on the run had been used in trying to contact the men and convince them of the need to surrender. One even provided a cartoon making jest of the situation. (11)

 

 

     No official account exists to explain what happened from a Bible Student perspective. Yet is so uncharacteristic of early Bible Student thought and actions that it seems inevitable that more must be involved to this account than has been popularly remembered.

 

Time for a remake?

 

     Given that Willis didn’t have access to Ancestry records as do modern researchers, and that he had limited access to Bible Student records, he relied heavily on the newspapers of 1918 and the court record to compile his account. In fairness he tried his best to produce a balanced account though the evidence he sifted was itself inevitably lop-sided. As a result, he seemed to side with the seemingly inevitable conclusion of the time that Russellism was the cause of the whole misery. I believe, however, that if Willis told the story today and tapped into the right sources he would likely change much.

 

     Scanning newspapers of the time one can find an article, for instance, which hints at a slightly different scenario to that recalled by Willis and popularly received.(12) It again implicated the local Russellite preacher, which this time it correctly named as Houston Ausburn, and who it said had “imbedded” in to Tom Adkisson’s mind the Russellite message to such an extent that “he does not believe in war of any kind.” Adkisson is quoted as having said that Ausburn was one of the finest men he ever knew and “he preaches the whole truth, I believe.” Interestingly for what will follow, it also said that Adkisson and Ausburn had shared a crop for the last two years. However, importantly it commented:

 

     ‘Although Tom Adkisson would not discuss the gun fight at his home Sunday morning, July 7, Bliss said today that the gang had heard after they were in the woods that the officers of White, Faulkner and Cleburne counties had planned to raid the Adkisson home Monday morning, but the Cleburne County Sheriff, Bliss said, decided to capture them on Sunday.’ They refused to talk about the shooting, however, except to say that when the posse of about 25 men returned after the shooting of Hazelwood, the men were in the field and the posse began shooting at the house. The women told them to come in and search the house, Adkisson said, but they refused, cursing the women, he said. The men then came out of the field and the second battle began. After the battle the men kept to the woods all of the time.’

 

     Two things come out from the report. Firstly, the assertion that a joint approach was to have been made to collect the ‘slackers’ but that the local Sheriff hurriedly seized the opportunity to take the men and credit for himself.  Secondly, that “the men were in the field” when the second posse of twenty-five men arrived. We may not be able to ascertain the accuracy of the first claim, but the second claim presents a very different scenario than that popularly received. Whereas earlier newspaper accounts had it that the Adkisson’s had mobilised support and were ready and waiting for the return of a larger posse, the account attributed to Bliss shows the men in the fields, unprepared, and only eventually returning toward the house with the intention of protecting their kin. The Adkisson account, if one is inclined to accept it, offers a more likely explanation of how the men were able to escape from the posse. It suggests they attempted to return to the house, came under considerable fire and thereafter were forced to retreat in haste. This seems a more likely scenario since had some of the Adkisson contingent, perhaps only a few men, been in the house when the second posse arrived it would be difficult to imagine how any of these could possibly have outmanoeuvred a twenty-five men posse to escape unscathed to the fields.

 

     At this point, I introduce a further piece of evidence that is over 100 years old but that Willis likely would not have had at his disposal. The St. Paul Enterprise, an unofficial Bible Student paper, contained a letter from IBSA travelling minister M.L. Herr in May 1919, about a Brother TH Ausburn from Rosebud, Arkansas, who Herr credits being privileged to visit since he learned “by actual fellowship the depth of the Divine Spirit that dwells in this consecrated heart.”(13)

 

     Herr goes on to talk of the way that, in contrast with the St. Paul Enterprise, “worldly newspapers, controlled by Satan and his spirit of lying, accomplish Satan’s purpose.”

 

     The letter explains Ausburn’s background.  We are told for instance, that “for 14 years Brother Ausburn was an earnest young minister in the Baptist church in the rural district. In 1914 he met a Photo-Drama operator, Claude Stambough, who interested him “in present truth”.  The letter says that Ausburn “acted promptly leaving all to follow Jesus. It cost him something.” Herr explained that Ausburn had a wife and six children to look after but left the comfort of the Baptist ministry to humbly accept “an opening to raise cotton and do lumbering 12 miles from the railway on the mountain-side.”

 

 

     In the next paragraph, Herr touches on the Cleburne draft incident as he explains:

 

     ‘During the war, ignorant mountaineers refused registration and others drafted refused to respond. The enemies of the Truth and Brother Ausburn saw their opportunity and perceiving the winds of bitterness and hatred favorable they filled the newspapers with lying reports of the influence of a Russellite preacher who was back of the ‘slackers.’ In the accounts these ‘slackers’ numbered hundreds, but when facts were obtained the number shrank to five for whose foolish action, subsequently abandoned, it was amply proven Brother Ausburn was in no sense responsible. A mob with disguise of law wantonly destroyed provisions and property.  I am told: the losses aggregating $500.  The sum becomes much larger when one reflects upon how meagrely the Arkansas mountaineer lives and what it costs in hard labor to produce this much in that country.  The brother was cast into jail and a full month elapsed before he was released.’

 

     By this point the reader may already have been struck by a very different picture being presented than that of the news media of the time, and indeed Willis’ account from 1967.

 

     Herr’s account tells of that a “mob with disguise of law wantonly destroyed provisions and property.” Evidently, he believed the posse returned intent on doing more than simply capturing Bliss Adkisson. They also wanted retribution for the death of Hazelwood, however it occurred. And yet there is still more that can be added to Herr’s account. 

 

     While researching the ‘Cleburne County Draft War’ online I came across yet another article relating the incident much as had the papers in 1918. However, a telling 2016 blog comment from a man named Robin J. White stated: 

 

     My Grandmother was a witness to all of this. She lived to 102 years old and the youngest of his children. This battle only happened after the Adkisson family was burned out of 2 homes, family business burned to the ground, livestock stolen and killed. He was the sole provider for a large family.(14)

 

     Of course, blog comments from alleged relatives given 98 years after an event should be treated with caution and not granted the veracity of evidence such as Herr’s report from 1919, but it does support the idea that lives, homes and livelihood were being threatened by the arrival of the first two posses. Indeed, Tom Adkisson always maintained throughout his trial that his motivation in acting was only that of protecting his large family and personal self defense. And while I do not include the comment to justify the shooting of Hazelwood in anyway, it suggests what happened occurred under extreme provocation.

 

     So, is this blog entry a valid historical family story that has been preserved? Ancestry.com enables modern researchers to check the credibility of the statement to some extent. Tom Adkisson did indeed have a daughter named Nora Jewell Adkisson who lived a long life, dying in 2006 at 102 years of age.(15) Perhaps a reader of this blog, maybe even Robin J White himself, might be able to add further information? 

 

     What may we conclude then from this unhappy episode?  It is always easy to be wise in retrospect, but Bible Student conscientious objectors in 1918 who lived in rural areas with gung-ho sheriffs and excitable locals might have found it better to have simply arrived in army camps when instructed and then downed tools, so as to speak, by refusing the military uniform and drills. Any alternative that involved resistance by use of weapons inevitably would end in disaster. (Matthew 26:52)

 

     It is indeed sad to report what happened to both Porter Hazelwood and, ultimately, to Bliss Adkisson too. Bliss behaved well during his imprisonment and eventually gained a position of trust and oversight as a prison guard at the Tucker Prison Farm. However, on September 18, 1921, when the notorious bank robber Tom Slaughter attempted to escape, Bliss Atkinson was killed in trying to prevent him.(16) 

 

     As for the Blakey brothers, these served time in the Fort Leavenworth Detention Barracks, and in the case of Jesse, the Pacific Detention Barracks, otherwise known as Alcatraz. Eventually they were given an early dishonorable discharge from an army they never considered they belonged to in the first place. However, it should be noted that while they registered for the draft, neither claimed exemption as International Bible Students. Further, while the Adkisson and Blakey families were related and likely worked together, evidence from the Swarthmore database of American WWI conscientious objectors suggests that the Blakey brothers, along with John Penrod, actually belonged to the restorationist Churches of Christ faith.(17) It is also unclear what involvement, if any, they had in either of the two shooting incidents at the Adkisson farm. 

 

     What though of the local IBSA preacher Thomas Houston Ausburn, who was blamed by the newspapers for having bemused the relevant families into believing millennialist teachings as if they had no mind for themselves?  In fact, we now know that he had only become a Bible Student in 1914 whereas, in contrast, Tom Adkisson acknowledged:

 

     ‘I have been a student of Pastor Russell’s for 30 years. And if there is anyone to blame for the literature in that country it is I.’(18) 

 

     Even so, reporters were astounded to hear Tom Adkisson’s speak and see his manner which was not that of a country yokel as they had expected.  “To talk to him is a revelation for his grammar is that of a highly educated man”, stated the Arkansas Gazette.(19) 

 

     Regardless, Adkisson made it clear that he was neither repentant or apologetic for what had happened:

 

     ‘If it came up again like it did the last time, I would do just like I have done, I believe.’(20) 

 

     I do not know what happened to Tom Adkisson following the end of his prison sentence other than that he died in 1932. As regards Thomas Houston Ashburn, he retained his beliefs as a Bible Student and Jehovah’s Witness. His Ancestry.com entry shows he died in March 1961 and was given a Jehovah’s Witness funeral on March 14 before his interment at the Mount Zion Cemetery, Steele, Missouri.(21) 

 

     God alone knows the full story of this unpleasant episode in Bible Student history. But at last history allows for a more balanced approach to be taken which considers evidence from the Adkisson perspective rather than relying solely on the patriotic newspaper accounts of the time. Putting together newspaper reports with the those given by Herr and more recently White, I would suggest a possible explanation involves the second posse pursuing the Adkisson males back into the fields and then spitefully setting alight to the crop owned jointly by Adkisson and Ausburn, while blaming the Adkisson family for causing the fire to block pursuit. 

 

     We may conclude therefore by saying that the ‘Cleburne County Draft War’ involved just one known Bible Student conscientious objector, Charley Bliss Adkisson, who had been drafted and not reported when requested to do so. Tom Adkisson and Hardly Richmond Adkisson also became involved when attempting to protect their family after an over enthusiastic posse threatened their family and livelihood. At least five and possibly six other men who were not Bible Students also were searched for.  The newspapers of the time, Willis’ 1967 account and indeed social history ever since has largely blamed the ‘Russellites’ for the incident. However, we must understand the public’s willingness to apportion blame in the context of the times.  Bible Students were viewed with suspicion and hatred because of their refusal to support civic and military affairs. The book The Finished Mystery had been banned from distribution earlier that year and the Watch Tower Society President Joseph Rutherford and six fellow directors had recently been found guilty in relation to a charge of sedition. So how else would the ordinary American citizen likely understand reports of the Cleburne incident?

 

     Thankfully, Herr’s St. Paul Enterprise letter went on to relate how things changed dramatically for Ausburn within less than a year of his ordeal. It explained that “the publicity given the case and the manifest injustice has reacted in favour of our brother. People know him and they know also the character of the persons active in his persecution.”(22) Indeed, during the petition made by Bible Students earlier in the year to pardon Rutherford and his co IBSA directors, Herr records that as a consequence of Ausburn’s conduct and reputation “the governor of the state, mayor of Little Rock, ex-mayor, lawyers, doctors and even ministers gladly signed the petition for the pardon of our brethren.”(23) 

 

     The tragedy of Porter Hazelwood’s death inevitably is the significant moment that marks the ‘Cleburne County Draft War.”  Yet the ‘war’, if it ever was such, in fact involved only two brief skirmishes and, eventually, a search of over 200 possemen and soldiers with two machine guns for eight or nine men, only five or six who had been called up and only one of whom is known, based on completion of their draft registration forms, to have been an International Bible Student.(24) Therefore, although ‘Russellism’ took the blame for what had happened it was in fact only one factor among several motivating those involved. 

 

References:

 

(1) James F. Willis article, The Cleburne County Draft War, appeared in The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 1, (Spring, 1967, pp. 24-39)

 

(2) Draft registration forms are searchable on Ancestry.com. Bliss was registered in class one as a single person but failed to answer his call. His older brother Hardy was married with a dependent child, and so consequently was registered as class 4 and never called up. 

 

(3) As an example, see The Time is at Hand (1889) - Studies in the Scriptures vol. 2, p.82

 

(4) Adkisson vs. Arkansas, Criminal Transcript No. 2398 (Little Rock: Justice Building, Supreme Court Archives, p.1-226)

 

(5) Newport Daily Independent, Arkansas, dated Saturday, January 11, 1919, p1.  This repeated a report given earlier in the Judsonia Weekly Advance, August 21, 1918, p1

 

(6) James F. Willis, The Cleburne County Draft War, p39

 

(7) The Sentinel Record, Hot Springs, July 10, 1918, p1

 

(8) New York Times, July 8, 1918

 

(9) Daily Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, July 17, 1918

 

(10) See the article entitled ‘The Prudent Hideth Himself’ in Watch Tower, November 1, 1914, p 334-334, (R5571-5572)

 

(11) The Puluskian, Pulaski Heights, Little Rock, July 19, 1918, p1

 

(12) Daily Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, July 17, 1918

 

(13) Letter from M.L.Herr to Brother Stewart, appearing in The Saint Paul Enterprize, May, 13, 1919, p2, column 1, letter in the Voices of the People section 

 

(14) https://ozarks-history.blogspot.com/2013/10/cleburne-county-draft-war.html?m=1

 

(15) Ancestry.com search

 

(16) Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, September 20, 1921

 

(17) The Adkisson and Blakey families were related, since Ancestry.com reveals that Tom Adkisson was a younger brother of Susan Minerva Blakey, mother of Jesse, Jim and Lum. 

 

Records for Jesse, Lum and John Penrod can be found in the Swarthmore database of WWI US conscientious objectors, searchable at https://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/conscientiousobjection/WWI.COs.coverpage.htm

 

Many Churches of Christ members held millennialist views at this time with those following the teachings of David Lipscombe tending towards pacifism. Similar to the Bible Students, Lipscombe taught that all “wars and strife between tribes, races, nations, from the beginning until now, have been the result of man's effort to govern himself and the world, rather than to submit to the government of God.” As a result, many followers believed that the use of coercion and/or force may be acceptable for purposes of personal self-defense but that resorting to warfare was not an option open to them.

 

(18) Arkansas Gazette, July 20, 1918

 

(19) Arkansas Gazette, July 17, 1918

 

(20) The Log Cabin Democrat, July 16, 1918

 

(21) Herr letter, The Saint Paul Enterprize, May 13, 1919, p2

 

(22) Ibid

 

(23) Ibid

 

(24) Another man who is also said to have been searched for was Amos Sweeten. However, he did not claim to be a Bible Student on his draft registration form but requested exemption on grounds of poor health (asthma).

 

Consequently, the nine men ‘on the run’ can be named as:

 

(i)   Tom Adkisson (father) 

(ii)  Charles Bliss Adkisson*

(iii) Hardy Richmond Adkisson 

(iv) Jesse Fountain Blakey*

(v)  James Madison Blakey 

(vi)  Christopher Columbus Blakey*

(vii) Leo D. Martin*

(viii)John William Penrod*

(ix)  Amos Sweeten*

 

I have added an asterisk beside the six men subject to the Draft call as of July 1918. 

Found by Ray S.

 From the April 29, 1902, Indianapolis, Indiana, Journal:

J. W. W.

A letter found in the September 15, 1918, Watch Tower is signed J. W. W., England. Internally, the letter indicates he was an elder in the Manchester congregation. Can we identify this man?

B. W. Keith recounts his history.

This letter appeared in the September1, 1911, issue of Paton's magazine, The World's Hope. Paton's followers met in Almont, Michigan, for three days starting August 1, 1911. Paton did not say how many attended, but the article reporting it suggests the number was very small. Fifty would probably be a generous estimate. 

Keith was unable to attend but sent this letter to wish them well. His letter:

From Bro. Keith. 

            To the dear friends in Convention Assembled at Battle Creek, Mich. How gladly I would be with you if the Father in Heaven had made it possible for me to do so; but I am neither financially nor physically able.

            Some of you know that for a good many years I have been intensely interested in the subjects which are at the foundation of your gathering together. About forty years since I began a course of Bible study taking in new views of different subjects and leaving behind old traditions until I am entirely remodeled. Starting from the M. E. church, I found myself almost completely out of mystic Babylon, before I had discovered the invitation to “Come out of her, my people.” I think that innate immortality was about the first mark of the Beast to be obliterated from my forehead, the trinitarian doctrine about the same time.

            The Father did not allow me to stop there, but in a few years brought to my attention the time measurements of the Bible. And being naturally a lover of mathematics, I became at once interested in the mathematics of the Bible, and soon mastered the Chronology and related measurements, until when the beautiful system of parallels was discovered I was ready for it; and since I have watched the development of facts which seem to corroborate the conclusions drawn from the system.

            The “Larger Hope” [He means Universalism] view did not seem to come so easy for some time, but it is all so plain to me now, that I sometimes wonder that I had any difficulty in seeing it at once. Now I love the “song of Moses the servant of god, and the song of the Lamb,” with all the intensity of my nature, enlightened by the “Spirit of Truth.”

            I trust that the Lord gathered you together, and that he is in the midst of you, and that you will find it a very profitable meeting.

            Yours in a sincere love of the truth,

 

            B. W. Keith, Chicago, Ill.

Research assistance

 For a future - hopefully not all that distant - project, I need a collection of all the articles no matter how insignificant published about Russell, Millennial Dawn and related subjects in Indiana from 1881 to 1910. 

Save them to a single document in pdf format.

Probably sources:

https://elephind.com/

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=q&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------

Any takers for part or all of this project?

https://www.genealogybank.com/explore/newspapers/all/usa/indiana/indianapolis

Ancestry newspaper archives.

The Pittsburgh Christian Advocate - August 21, 1913

 

A new comment on an old post

This was posted to something from 2015. No one will see it there, so I'm moving it here:

Hamilton L. Gillis of Terra Alta wrote several letters about Russell to newspapers near Terra Alta after 1906. Although he expected to be bodily resurrected, I believe these letters prove that he did not die in 1906. (For example, see Preston County Journal 19 Nov 1908, pg. 2).

You may also find it interesting that he often wrote letters signed only with the initials HLG, or his nom de plume "Ham." Although many of his letters appear in the Preston County Journal, an even richer batch can be found in the pages of the Oakland Republican, which was published less than 20 miles from his home. In these later letters, he grew critical of Russell, who had spoken at Mt. Lake Park several times (quite near Terra Alta).

If any of you can turn up the newspaper articles mentioned in the above post, you will save me the chore. I'm not doing well, but I do need to see these articles.

Bruce

Update

 I continue to work on Separate Identity, vol. 3. The research is much more difficult than it was for the first two volumes. Fortunately, an interested party sent me documentation otherwise impossible to find. It has materially furthered my research, though it has meant rewriting some of what I had thought 'finished.'

I have surgery today, actually four surgeries combined. They will send me home today or tomorrow, but I'll be mostly confined to my chair for a week or so.

I need the impossible. Letters by any of the principals, no matter how insignificant they may seem. They must be out there somewhere though there will be few of them. Barbour trashed letters when he was done with them, so letters to him are probably nonexistent. Letters from him? Slight chance, but if you have one, please scan it.

Someone asked in the comments if I wanted scans of material they had. While I answered that, let me repeat my answer: Yes. 

I need talk outlines from the 1940s, Watchtower Society letters from any period before 1980. 

Who built the pyramid?

 

Edmund Kohler from 1927 newspaper

So who built the pyramid?

No it wasn’t Djoser or Khufu or other ancient Egyptians. We are talking about the pyramid monument that stood for a little over one hundred years on the Watch Tower Society’s plot in United Cemeteries, Ross Township, near Pittsburgh, PA.

From 1905 to 1917 the Watch Tower owned a cemetery company called United Cemeteries. Charles Taze Russell was buried there in November 1916. Most of the 90 acre site was sold at the end of 1917 to the Northside Catholic Cemetery, which adjoined their land. The Society just kept back certain small areas for their own use, the most notable one having a central monument in the middle of the plot. A seven foot high pyramid was erected in early 1920, designed to list the names of all those buried nearby.

When the Bible Students held a convention in Pittsburgh in 1919 some visited the grave and also visited the stoneworks “nearby” to see the pyramid under construction. It was natural that as well as new cemeteries springing up off what was now called Cemetery Lane, some companies would also provide monuments to order. One such company built the pyramid.

It was the Kohler Company, founded by Eugene Adrian Kohler (1865-1922). Eugene was born in Germany, came to America in 1892, was married in 1893, and was finally naturalised as an American citizen in 1917. He and his wife Lena had six children including Edmund Kohler (1894-1971), who joined the family business and eventually took it over. In the 1910 census Eugene is listed as Proprieter, Monumental Works.

Eugene died comparatively young from pulmonary tuberculosis, directly linked to his work as a stone cutter. He was buried in 1922 in the former Northside Catholic Cemetery, now known as the Christ Our Redeemer Catholic Cemetery. But it was Eugene who cut the stones for the pyramid. The monument was hollow, made up of four triangular sides leaning towards each other on a concrete base, with a capstone holding it all together. Originally it contained a casket full of books and documents and photgraphs as a kind of time capsule of Watch Tower progress and history. Ultimately, this “treasure” would cause the pyramid’s downfall.

While Eugene cut the stones for the pyramid, his son, Edmund, then sandblasted the sides to carve out the names of those buried nearby. When the pyramid was put together in early 1920 there were nine names inscribed over three of the four sides. As it happened, the idea was soon abandoned. More were buried there, in fact today one can safely say that the site is fully used, but no further names were ever added to the monument.

Edmund’s history is summed up in census returns from 1920 through to 1950. In 1920 he is stone cutter (monumental works), 1930 he is letter carver (monument), 1940 he is letter cutter (stone cutting company), and 1950 he is proprieter (monumental business).

On an undated business card the business is described as: Edmund Kohler, Modern Cemetery Memorials.

When he died, his obituary in the Tampa Tribune (Florida), 25 January 1971, stated the company’s title was Memorial Art Works.

In the mid-1960s, Edmund retired and the site was sold to Fred Donatelli Cemetery Memorials. They still operate there. The new company inherited some records from the Kohler business including those relating to the pyramid’s purchase and construction. However, in the early 1990s the Donatelli Company was visited by a representative of the Watch Tower Society, who was given the documents. We can be reasonably certain that the pyramid was broken into in early 1993 and the casket of memorabilia stolen. The edifice was left in a dangerous state, and it may be that the documents were needed to see how best to quickly repair it before a side fell on someone and killed them.

Move forward to recent times. The pyramid was broken into again on several occasions – probably because idiots didn’t realise the contents were long gone. It was patched up from time to time. But in 2020 the capstone disappeared (again) which held it all together. Also this time the cross and crown motifs were badly damaged on all four sides.

What was interesting this time is that someone took a photograph of the revealed space. Someone had written in the cement what appear to be the initials F K and the year 1919. Allowing for cement dust to encroach on this in part, we can reasonably assume that the Initials were E K.

Was that Eugene, or more likely Edmund? Yet again the whole structure was in a dangerous state, and the decision was ultimately taken that enough was enough and it was to be taken down and taken away.

It was taken down on September 1, 2021, and now lives on in photographs, as a time capsule of how things once were. What was nice to see is that the nine names on the pyramid sides - that disappeared with it - have been restored on simple stones now placed in the same area.

(With grateful thanks to Corky Donatelli who provided valuable information and sent me on my journey, and James S Holmes, Watch Tower of Allegheny Historical Tour, for the modern photographs)

I can't read most of this. Can you translate it? Please?

 For another project: