Because ...

An ugly bit of propaganda is out there trying to distort the facts:

At Russell’s urging evangelization was renewed, and The Herald of the Morning was restarted, first as a quarterly and then as a semi-monthly. In later years Barbour would suggest that Russell tried to steal The Herald from him. In fact, in the earliest issues of the resuscitated Herald Barbour acknowledged Russell’s part ownership by including a box, usually on page four, that said, “Published at Rochester, N. Y., by C. T. Russell and H. H. Barbour.”

Ownership and publication details were reported to Rowell’s American Newspaper Directory, doubtless by Barbour himself since Rowell sought information directly from the publications he listed. The Herald of the Morning's entry in Rowell’s 1879 edition reads: “Established 1873; N. H. Barbour editor; C. T. Russell and N. H. Barbour, publishers.” In this light one must conclude that Russell had at least a half ownership of The Herald.

Help us with this if you can ....

A John Lyle of Newark, New Jersey wrote a poem to memorialize George Storrs. It was published in ZWT February 1880. Another poem by him appears in The Bible Examiner of December 1877 on page 92.

We need help identifying which John Lyle this was .... Anyone?

updates and comments

We continue to research and write. Our attention has been divirted some by a book on another, non-watchtower, subject. (One does need an income.) And the Watchtower research has reached a difficult spot. This explains the lack of recent posts.

I would like to hear from anyone who has researched Russell's evolving view of himself, especially as it developed from the controversy with von Zech.

While you wait for more posts on this site, you might enjoy this from Isaac Watts. His place in Watchtower history is neglected. We sang Watts hymns and Watts was non-trinitarian, though he seems to have held to the standard view on hell.

Not at all relevant, but ...

From http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/

Well deserved praise for my writing-partner's fiction. Well done, Rachael!

One of the greatest joys of this blog is getting to know some very amazing people.I first "met" Rachael de Vienne when she began commenting on my blog. I think her name was "War Dancing Pixie" which was instantly memorable of course, but it was her writing voice that kept my attention.

I loved to read her comments. She was hilarious and insightful, and really really interesting.Then it turned out she had this amazing goat. Bill E. Goat began appearing in the comments section too. And stories about Bill E.If one can be smitten with a goat, well I am smitten with Bill.

Then Rachael wrote Pixie Warrior, and it was published by an electronic book publisher. One of the reasons to finally buy a Kindle was so I could buy it and read it. I did, and I'm now a member of Rachael-the-novelist's fan club, not just Rachael-the-goat-keeper, and Rachael-the-hilarious-albeit-typo-ridden-commenter fan club.Today, I'm tickled pink to post the news that Pixie Warrior is a pick of the month over at The-Plot-Thickens.com Congratulations Rachael!

More ...

While the mass distribution of Food for Thinking Christians via messenger service boys and through cooperating periodicals drew the most attention, the work that mattered was done by committed individual Christians. It was this work that set the pattern for much of the evangelical activity that followed.

Few names of the earliest workers survive, and of those names we do have many are now obscure. There was already a very small base of active workers. Sunderlin, Mann, Keith, Jones, and a few others were the foundation of this work. None of them were colporteurs in the sense that they devoted their time to the sale of tracts. They were preachers, lecturers, visiting speakers.

Three others received some mention in the June 1881 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower. Russell mentions two of them in such a way that he seems to have expected many of his readers to know them.

Robert Bailey

Robert Bailey of Howardsville, Michigan, entered the work that month as a “proclaimer of the same ‘Glad tidings’ entirely consecrated to the Lord and his work.”[i] Almost nothing is known of his life. The 1880 Census shows him living Saint Joseph County, Michigan, and gives his occupation as “minister of the gospel.” Bailey was born about 1853 in Canada to an American mother and Canadian father.[ii]

A letter from him appears in the July/August 1881 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower. It suggests that he entered the ministry four years previously: “About four years ago I forsook the paths of sin, and gave up all for Jesus; since then I have been striving to follow Him. I studied His word faithfully in order to know my duty, and can say, to the praise of our Heavenly Father, that He permitted me to see many precious promises, and faith claimed them mine.”[iii]

He explained that during the year previous to his letter he had prayed earnestly for “greater light” from God’s Word. He felt his prayer was answered by a visit from J. H. Paton in February 1881: “My daily prayer was for wisdom, and an understanding of His Word. … Accordingly, in February, 1881, He sent one of His messengers (Brother Paton,) who, by the grace of God, ‘opened our eyes to behold wondrous things out of His law.’”

That May he was in Pittsburgh for the Lord’s Supper. He was introduced to Russell, Sunderlin, Mann, Jones and to [insert first name] Adamson who like himself was new to the message: “I was privileged to meet and hold sweet converse on these precious and exhaustless themes with our beloved brothers … . It is needless for me to tell you that it was a delightful and profitable season. These precious truths thrill my whole being. I am willing to spend and be spent, in telling the ‘story of Jesus and His Love.’[1] Pray for me, that I may have wisdom to ‘rightly divide the word of truth,’ and grace to enable me to suffer with Christ, and with you share the glories of the world to come.”[iv]

The letter was dated at Howardsville, Michigan, a place so small it had no post office of its own. The 1880 Census placed him in Flowerfield, a few miles distant. Frustratingly, a contemporary Gazetteer notes that there were two church organizations in Flowerfield, but neglects to name them. So there is no way to identify Bailey’s previous religious affiliation. He quickly drops out of the record. He isn’t mentioned again in Zion’s Watch Tower, and he isn’t found in later census records.

His preaching seems to have been local to St. Joseph’s County, Michigan. The small congregation there seems to have followed Paton and his Universalist sect after the fragmentation of 1881-2. Other individuals from Howardsville are mentioned only in Paton’s The World’s Hope. [v]

‘Brother McGranor’

In the same article through which Russell announced Bailey’s entry into the ministry he wrote: “Brother McGrannor, [sic] of Pennsylvania, has also gone forth recently to give his entire time and labor in the "harvest" field; may his labors also be crowned with such success as may seem good to the Lord of the harvest and gain finally the ‘Well done good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things.’” [vi] Other notices of “Brother” McGranor have his name spelled with one “N”, and that appears to be the correct spelling.

When Food for Thinking Christians was published, he played a part in its circulation, and he is listed as one of the principal evangelists engaged in that work. Russell explained that McGranor was working principally in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio, “distributing tracts … as he goes preaching.”[vii]

When Tony Willis, writing as Timothy White, prepared A People for His Name (1968) he seems to have made no effort to discover the identity of McGranor and others.[viii] By a process of elimination principally using census records we can identify “brother McGranor” as Patrick McGranor or one of his sons. The most likely of these is his son William J. McGranor. William was born in about 1851 according to the 1880 Census.[ix] His middle initial isn’t given in the census record but in a brief newspaper mention in the August 7, 1895, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Progress. The article has him living in Deckers Point, Pennsylvania at that time.[x] Only a tenuous bit of evidence point to him as the “brother McGranor” of the Zion’s Watch Tower article. The article newspaper article continues with a mention of a Mrs. Jerry Keim. At least one from the Keim family was also an active evangelist in the early days of The Watch Tower.
One should not consider the fact that his initials fit those of a contributor to Zion’s Watch Tower as evidence. The W.J.M of the Watch Tower article is a misprint for W.I.M. This is seen by comparing the initials at the end of the initial article signed “W.J.M.” and its continuation which is signed “W.I.M.” for William I. Mann. .[xi]

The question of who “brother McGranor” really was, is not resolvable in any sort of satisfactory way without further evidence. When Food for Thinking Christians was published he participated in its distribution. In the October/November issue of The Tower, Russell reported that the tracts “Have … been distributed in the medium and larger cities, and at the principal camp meetings, Brothers Adamson, Keith, Keim, McGranor and others, being still engaged in the work of distribution. Only about 65,000 yet remain.” Tony Willis took this to mean that McGranor and the others took charge of hiring and supervising the boys who distributed the tracts. Russell added: “Brother McGranor is distributing tracts, and as he goes preaching in Ohio and western Pennsylvania. The Lord has been blessing him greatly.” While it appears that McGranor’s preaching was incidental to his tract distribution, nothing in this comment suggests anything more than a personal circulation of the booklet Food for Thinking Christians in the small towns and villages of Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

This is the final notice of “brother McGranor.” Identifying him further requires a more ingenious researcher than I am.

J. B. Adamson

Adamson was an Ohio businessman who seems to have been a shopkeeper. There is some confusion as to his real occupation, but Russell described him as having “a profitable and increasing business paying about $1,500 a year as well as other things.” One presumes Russell meant he had other sources of income. In terms of 2009 dollars, his income from his business amounted to about forty-three thousand dollars. How much beyond that he had in “other things” is impossible to calculate.

He was introduced to Watch Tower readers in the same issue as the two men mentioned above, but only by the initials “J.B.A.” A brief letter of greeting from him and some introductory words by Russell form the basis of most of what we know of him. His first name is unknown, and a search of Census records, while it provides some possibilities, does not provide a definitive result. Russell introduced him as a “very dear saint” and “brother in Christ” and explained that Adamson had decided to “give up all that he has of time, reputation and ability … for the Crown of Life.”[xii]

Adamson explained later that he had “always” been religiously inclined because he had “godly parents, but “I failed to get as clear an idea of consecration as I wished. I never believed in lukewarm or disobedient Christians, but I had no wise, loving saints to confer with in my early religious experience. Few or none thought of the Bible as the only rule; therefore, I was sometimes cast down and discouraged. I never could join a church, or enter the ministry, though I had tempting offers of the necessary funds. .. Yet, I always worked heartily in all churches, Y.M.C.A., or other revival work.”[xiii]

Sometime early in 1880 while on a trip to Columbus, Ohio, he found a copy of Zion’s Watch Tower. “I was attracted at once,” he recalled, “finding in it so much gospel … and better than I had.” By mid-year he traveled to Pittsburgh to find Russell. He seems to have mislaid the watch Tower address and visited the office several of the religious press in Pittsburgh. He found that Zion’s Watch Tower was in less than high favor among them, but he cast the insults in a positive light seeing them as imparting “Scriptural marks of saintship – being ignored, ‘cast out,’ and ‘suffering reproach’ for Christ’s sake.”[xiv]

Adamson impresses one as vague. His letters leave an indistinct trail He uses a vocabulary common to them all, but one is occasionally left wondering if he meant exactly the same thing as did everyone else. His description of his first meeting with Russell falls into this category. At first it appears plain and straight forward, but on analysis it becomes imprecise. He summarized their meeting this way: “I could hardly follow Bro. Russell in his explanations and see at once that there is a plan of God in the Ages, and that all the Scriptures fall into line and harmonize with it. I was too good. Men are sometimes dazed by a bright natural light, and so also by bright unfoldings of the world. This was my case.”[xv]

We are left wondering if he was confused by Russell’s explanation or if he found it “too good to be true.” Which ever was so, he left Allegheny unconvinced and sought out Charles Cullis in Boston and enrolled in his Faith Training College.

Cullis, a graduate of the University of Vermont and a Holiness oriented Episcopalian, was a homeopathic physician in Boston. He advocated Faith Cures and founded among other agencies the Faith Training College (1876) to advocate his views.[xvi] Adamson enrolled in 1880, but terminated his studies there, finding the college “unsuitable for me.” He doesn’t explain if he had a doctrinal difference or if he found he was not an apt scholar.

He left Boston for Providence, Rhode Island, where he “acted with the Y.M.C.A. in a revival.” Again, his statement lacks specifics. He doesn’t say if he merely handed out tracts or if he picked up litter, or explain in anyway what “acting with” the YMCA meant. From there he made his way to Bridgeport, Connecticut, to attend “the Mission revival services.” He “proposed to return to Boston again, but there was no opening except toward Pittsburgh.” Again, the lack of specifics is maddening. What, exactly, does he mean by the phrase “no opening except toward Pittsburgh”? That he had no more money than a fare to Pittsburgh? That makes no sense because Boston is far closer to Bridgeport than is Pittsburgh. Business took him toward Pittsburgh? Who knows? The man is frustratingly vague.Nevertheless, six months after he’d visited Russell (December 1880 or January 1881) he returned for another conference

[1] The phrase Story of Jesus and His love is quoted from the hymn “I Love to Tell the Story” by A. Katherine Hankey, first published in 1866. It is found in Joyful Songs, Nos. 1 to 3 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Methodist Episcopal Book Room, 1869).
[i] To the Readers of the Watch Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, June 1881, page 8.
[ii] 1880 United States Census: Flowerfield, St. Joseph, Michigan, National Archives Film T9-0603, page 331B .
[iii] A Letter From Yours and Ours to His and Ours, Zion’s Watch Tower, July/August 1881, page 5.
[iv] A Letter From Yours and Ours to His and Ours, Zion’s Watch Tower, July/August 1881, page 6.
[v] Letter from A.P.S to Paton in Extracts from Letters, The World’s Hope, December 15, 1886, page 302. Letter from Mr. and Mrs. M. B. to Paton in Extracts from Letters, The World’s Hope, May 1, 1897, page 143.
[vi] To the Readers of the Watch Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, June 1881, page 8.
[vii] In the Vineyard, Zion’s Watch Tower, October/November 1881, page 5.
[viii] White, Timothy (Tony Willis): A People for His Name: A History of Jehovah's Witnesses and an Evaluation‎ , 1968, page 26.
[ix] 1880 United States Census: Greene, Indiana, Pennsylvania, National Archives Film number T9-1135, page 238D.
[x] I identify the W. J. McGranor of this newspaper article with Peter McGranor’s son instead of the younger Dr. William J. McGranor, a physician on the basis of where he was visiting. The McGranor family was centered in Indiana County, Pennsylvania.
[xi] W.J.M.: The Day of Judgment, Zion’s Watch Tower September 1879, page 8; W.I.M.: Day of Judgment, November 1879, pages 4-5.
[xii] To Readers of The Watch Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, June 1881, page 8.
[xiii] Letter From Bro. Adamson, Zion’s Watch Tower, February 1882, pages 1-2.
[xiv] Letter From Bro. Adamson, Zion’s Watch Tower, February 1882, pages 1-2.
[xv] ibid.
[xvi] Taves, Ann: Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James, Princeton University Press, 1999, page 227; Randall Herbert Balmer: Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism, page 166; See also the article Faith Cure: McClintock and Strong, eds, Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, Supplement, Volume 2, 1889, page 372.

J. B. Adamson

I need the full name or at least first name and initial of J. B. Adamson. Anyone know it?

We Need Research Help ....

The text below is from the rough draft of a chapter than considers the cirulation of the booklet Food for Thinking Christians. If you have any additional information about Bailey or McGranor, we would like you to share it with us.

From Commitment and Organization (Tentatively numbered at chapter six):

While the mass distribution of Food for Thinking Christians via messenger service boys and through cooperating periodicals drew the most attention, the work that mattered was done by committed individual Christians. It was this work that set the pattern for much of the evangelical activity that followed.

Few names of the earliest workers survive, and of those names we do have many are now obscure. There was already a very small base of active workers. Sunderlin, Mann, Keith, Jones, and a few others were the foundation of this work. None of them were colporteurs in the sense that they devoted their time to the sale of tracts. They were preachers, lecturers, visiting speakers.

Three others received some mention in the June 1881 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower. Russell mentions two of them in such a way that he seems to have expected many of his readers to know them.

Robert Bailey

Robert Bailey of Howardsville, Michigan, entered the work that month as a “proclaimer of the same ‘Glad tidings’ entirely consecrated to the Lord and his work.”[1] Almost nothing is known of his life. The 1880 Census shows him living Saint Joseph County, Michigan, and gives his occupation as “minister of the gospel.” Bailey was born about 1853 in Canada to an American mother and Canadian father.[2]

A letter from him appears in the July/August 1881 issue of Zion’s Watch Tower. It suggests that he entered the ministry four years previously: “About four years ago I forsook the paths of sin, and gave up all for Jesus; since then I have been striving to follow Him. I studied His word faithfully in order to know my duty, and can say, to the praise of our Heavenly Father, that He permitted me to see many precious promises, and faith claimed them mine.”[3]

He explained that during the year previous to his letter he had prayed earnestly for “greater light” from God’s Word. He felt his prayer was answered by a visit from J. H. Paton in February 1881: “My daily prayer was for wisdom, and an understanding of His Word. … Accordingly, in February, 1881, He sent one of His messengers (Brother Paton,) who, by the grace of God, ‘opened our eyes to behold wondrous things out of His law.’”

That May he was in Pittsburgh for the Lord’s Supper. He was introduced to Russell, Sunderlin, Mann, Jones and to [insert first name] Adamson who like himself was new to the message: “I was privileged to meet and hold sweet converse on these precious and exhaustless themes with our beloved brothers … . It is needless for me to tell you that it was a delightful and profitable season. These precious truths thrill my whole being. I am willing to spend and be spent, in telling the ‘story of Jesus and His Love.’[i] Pray for me, that I may have wisdom to ‘rightly divide the word of truth,’ and grace to enable me to suffer with Christ, and with you share the glories of the world to come.”[4]

The letter was dated at Howardsville, Michigan, a place so small it had no post office of its own. The 1880 Census placed him in Flowerfield, a few miles distant. Frustratingly, a contemporary Gazetteer notes that there were two church organizations in Flowerfield, but neglects to name them. So there is no way to identify Bailey’s previous religious affiliation. He quickly drops out of the record. He isn’t mentioned again in Zion’s Watch Tower, and he isn’t found in later census records.

His preaching seems to have been local to St. Joseph’s County, Michigan. At least one other individual from there expressed interest, though he ultimately sided with Paton and his Universalist sect.[5]

‘Brother McGranor’

In the same article through which Russell announced Bailey’s entry into the ministry he wrote: “Brother McGrannor, [sic] of Pennsylvania, has also gone forth recently to give his entire time and labor in the "harvest" field; may his labors also be crowned with such success as may seem good to the Lord of the harvest and gain finally the ‘Well done good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things.’” [6] Other notices of “Brother” McGranor have his name spelled with one “N”, and that appears to be the correct spelling.

When Food for Thinking Christians was published, he played a part in its circulation, and he is listed as one of the principal evangelists engaged in that work. Russell explained that McGranor was working principally in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio, “distributing tracts … as he goes preaching.”[7]

When Tony Willis, writing as Timothy White, prepared A People for His Name (1968) he seems to have made no effort to discover the identity of McGranor and others.[8] By a process of elimination principally using census records we can identify “brother McGranor” as Patrick McGranor or one of his sons. The most likely of these is his son William J. McGranor. William was born in about 1851 according to the 1880 Census.[9] His middle initial isn’t given in the census record but in a brief newspaper mention in the August 7, 1895, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Progress. The article has him living in Deckers Point, Pennsylvania at that time.[10] Only a tenuous bit of evidence point to him as the “brother McGranor” of the Zion’s Watch Tower article. The article newspaper article continues with a mention of a Mrs. Jerry Keim. At least one from the Keim family was also an active evangelist in the early days of The Watch Tower.
One should not consider the fact that his initials fit those of a contributor to Zion’s Watch Tower as evidence. The W.J.M of the Watch Tower article is a misprint for W.I.M. This is seen by comparing the initials at the end of the initial article signed “W.J.M.” and its continuation which is signed “W.I.M.” for William I. Mann. .[11]

The question of who “brother McGranor” really was, is not resolvable in any sort of satisfactory way without further evidence. When Food for Thinking Christians was published he participated in its distribution. In the October/November issue of The Tower, Russell reported that the tracts “Have … been distributed in the medium and larger cities, and at the principal camp meetings, Brothers Adamson, Keith, Keim, McGranor and others, being still engaged in the work of distribution. Only about 65,000 yet remain.” Tony Willis took this to mean that McGranor and the others took charge of hiring and supervising the boys who distributed the tracts. Russell added: “Brother McGranor is distributing tracts, and as he goes preaching in Ohio and western Pennsylvania. The Lord has been blessing him greatly.” While it appears that McGranor’s preaching was incidental to his tract distribution, nothing in this comment suggests anything more than a personal circulation of the booklet Food for Thinking Christians in the small towns and villages of Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

This is the final notice of “brother McGranor.” Identifying him further requires a more ingenious researcher than I am.

[i] The phrase Story of Jesus and His love is quoted from the hymn I Love to Tell the Story by A. Katherine Hankey, first published in 1866. It is found in Joyful Songs, Nos. 1 to 3 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Methodist Episcopal Book Room, 1869).
[1] To the Readers of the Watch Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, June 1881, page 8.
[2] 1880 United States Census: Flowerfield, St. Joseph, Michigan, National Archives Film T9-0603, page 331B .
[3] A Letter From Yours and Ours to His and Ours, Zion’s Watch Tower, July/August 1881, page 5.
[4] A Letter From Yours and Ours to His and Ours, Zion’s Watch Tower, July/August 1881, page 6.
[5] Letter from A.P.S to Paton in Extracts from Letters, The World’s Hope, December 15, 1886, page 302.
[6] To the Readers of the Watch Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, June 1881, page 8.
[7] In the Vineyard, Zion’s Watch Tower, October/November 1881, page 5.
[8] White, Timothy (Tony Willis): A People for His Name: A History of Jehovah's Witnesses and an Evaluation‎ , 1968, page 26.
[9] 1880 United States Census: Greene, Indiana, Pennsylvania, National Archives Film number T9-1135, page 238D.
[10] I identify the W. J. McGranor of this newspaper article with Peter McGranor’s son instead of the younger Dr. William J. McGranor, a physician on the basis of where he was visiting. The McGranor family was centered in Indiana County, Pennsylvania.
[11] W.J.M.: The Day of Judgment, Zion’s Watch Tower September 1879, page 8; W.I.M.: Day of Judgment, November 1879, pages 4-5.

Work in Canada - update

A recent comment on an earlier post asks for more information on the early work in Canada. The poster asks for a booklet. Sorry, I do not have one. Below is a rough draft of one of our more complete chapters. It considers the work in Canada in the 1880's.

Cite this material as: Schulz and deVienne: Development of Ecclesia Among Readers of Zion's Watch Tower: 1877-1887, as retrieved from TruthHistory.blogspot.com, [insert date]

We are still seeking additional references, but without success. Any contributions to this research would be welcome. Usual formatting problems, please excuse them.

The Work in Canada
There was interest in Canada during the Barbourite era. Some from Canada attended the Worchester Conference in 1872. Russell’s booklet Object and Manner of Our Lord’s Return saw circulation in Canada. A profile of his work done when he died said: “Many students of the Bible throughout the United States and Canada responded to the information derived from that book, and his correspondence became voluminous.”[i]

It is very likely that Canadians were on the original subscription list. Russell felt no need to send special representatives of Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society to Canada to circulate Food for Thinking Christians, so there must have been sufficient pre-existing interest upon which he could rely.

The two most significant examinations of Watch Tower history in Canada both gloss over the 1880’s, and the writers seem to have not seen the period as worthy of extensive research or they simply lack the resources. Almost exclusively, documentation of the work in Canada is found in the pages of Zion’s Watch Tower. Finding other documentation is very difficult, and the lack of thorough treatment of the period is understandable. Almost the only external reference to preaching in Canada is the letter sent to the editor of The Rainbow mentioned in the section on the United Kingdom.

The earliest correspondence from Canada noted in The Watch Tower is a letter from Ontario published in the January/February 1882 issue. The writer is, as was usual, unnamed. He thanked Russell for sending “the papers,” asked to be entered as a regular subscriber and asked, “Will you kindly advise me in regard to severing my connection with the church of which I am a member?” He explained that he could no longer attend his previous church “because it would be consenting to their teaching, which I do not now believe.”[ii]

A letter from Galt, Ontario, found in the May 1883 issue shows some missionary activity on the part of at least one individual. The writer thanked Russell for copies of Food for Thinking Christians and Tabernacle Teachings and said: “I am now endeavoring to feed the ‘Heavenly Food’ to my hungry fellow-Christians. Two others and myself are meeting three or four times per week to make ourselves more thoroughly acquainted with these great truths, and to satisfy ourselves that these teachings are based on the Word of God. As soon as we get through this, we intend to begin a systematic course of teaching out of ‘Food for Thinking Christians’ for all in this place whom we can interest and who are hungering and thirsting after the precious truth of God.”[iii]

In December 1883, Russell published a letter sent from Eglington, the city from which The Rainbow correspondent had written. No hint as to the writer’s identity appears in the letter, but it stands as proof of some evangelical success in the Eglington area. The writer mentions a diagram from an earlier Watch Tower article and says: “I am desirous to use the Diagram to awaken interest in the coming of the Lord among professing Christians.” [iv]

A letter from Ayrshire, New Brunswick appears in the December 1884 issue. It reveals and active missionary effort in Canada, though the details are not included in the letter. The writer isn’t identified either, but using the subtitle Why Evil Was Permitted instead of Food for Thinking Christians, the writer says:

SIR:--In the goodness of God I have got a look at your pamphlet, "Why Evil was
Permitted." I have been deeply interested in the subjects therein presented for
some time. Please to favor me with a copy of ZION'S WATCH TOWER with the
supplement already mentioned, and any others of a like description. Christians
cannot but note to what an extent the power of God is being put forth in the
calling of one here and another there. In striking contrast is the way in which
the devil, knowing that his time is short, is using every effort in his power,
and so the conflict is going on, while the so-called Church of God is sound
asleep. Let us realize our position. By faith having received the blessed Christ
and realizing the guiding and teaching of the Holy Ghost, may we grow in grace
and in the love of God.[v]

While tracing interest among Canadians during the 1880’s is difficult, there are hints of it. In October 1883, Paton included a notice in his magazine that he couldn’t use Canadian postage for subscription payments.[vi] Since most of Paton’s early readership came from those who also read Zion’s Watch Tower, this notice presupposes Canadian interest. By 1889 interest is noted in Manitoba, but with no indication of when it developed.[vii]

A “Pastor Brookman” appears in the pages of Zion’s Watch Tower first in 1886, as one of the principal evangelists associated with the Watch Tower movement. He attended a meeting of evangelists in Allegheny held in connection with the Lord’s Memorial Meal in April that year.
William Brookman, originally an Anglican clergyman, was born in England. After living in “the East Indies” for a period, he immigrated to Canada in the late 1840’s.[viii] He is listed in a Gazetteer published in 1869 as a traveling agent for The Upper Canada Bible Society.[ix] One source claims an association with Methodism from which he separated “on the eternal torture question,” and another with a Baptist congregation.[x] The connection to Methodism is a misstatement. Brookman, balding and with a huge fluffy beard, was briefly pastor of the First Baptist Church at Brantford.[xi]

Brookman organized “a purely undenominational organization, not possessing any distinctive appellation” in June 1881, “when about thirty of the present members with their families nearly all of whom had seceded from the Yorkville Baptist Church formed a new congregation, unattached to any religious sect.” The history just quoted says:

Previous to the separation—which was based upon the rejection of the doctrine of
endless life in misery being the punishment for sin—Mr. Brookman had been in
charge of the above-mentioned church for about a year, and prior to that again
had ministered in the Church of England for nearly a quarter of a century. The
main features of the belief professed by this little congregation, which numbers
only fifty-six members [in 1885] , are, in addition to that already mentioned;
the adoption of the great central truth of life only in Christ; the acceptation
of the Word of God as the sole rule of faith and practice, and, whilst holding
alone to the immersion of believers as true baptism, practicing
loving-fellowship with all who love the saviour.[xii]

The exact date of Brookman’s introduction to Watch Tower theology is unknown, but it was at least near the time he and those with him started their independent chapel. He continued his association with Russell into at least the 1890’s and maybe to his death in 1907, but he also corresponded with Paton and wrote an occasional article for The World’s Hope usually neutral or critical of Paton’s views. The earliest article from him that I have thus far found is one entitled “Eternal not Endless” printed in the January 1884 issue of The World’s Hope.[xiii] Brookman continued to write to Paton into the 1890’s, and there is a record of him sending money to aid Paton during an illness.[xiv]

It is likely that the small congregation led by Brookman was responsible for the circulation of Food for Thinking Christians in Toronto mentioned in the Rainbow article. Certainly Brookman was circulating Watch Tower material by 1886.

When he attended the memorial and conference in Allegheny, April 18 and 19, 1886, he spoke on the Ransom doctrine. Russell found his sermon interesting and edifying. The morning of the memorial gathering, Brookman and others active in the work “in a more or less public way” related “how they each found the work to progress in their hands, and the methods they found most successful in their efforts to ‘preach the Gospel to the meek.’”[xv]

A brief letter addressed to Brookman from “one of the Toronto brethren” appears in the same issue of Zion’s Watch Tower that reported his presence in Allegheny for the memorial and conference. It suggested a certain amount of hesitation on the part of some to accept both the invisible presence views and Russell’s belief in the heavenly resurrection of the saints.[xvi] Whoever was agitating these objections did so for some time. Another letter of nearly identical import appears in The World’s Hope [insert reference]

Little more is heard from Brookman. A member of the Toronto group wrote Russell in 1891 that “Bro. Brookman is very desirous that you should be with him at his hall.” Russell spoke to the group “by urgent request” on February 22, 1891. No hint is given either as to the urgency.[xvii]
Russell addressed a public meeting twice before speaking to Brookman’s congregation. Four hundred heard him speak on Restitution and on the Kingdom of God. That evening he spoke to the Toronto Believers at their meeting place, Jackson Hall at the corner of Young and Blood streets. No topic is mentioned, but from comments made by S. D. Rogers, a colporteur working in Toronto, the church there was suffering under some form of opposition:

While the harvest work is thus progressing, and the wheat is being gathered, we
cannot expect that the tares will all be gathered into bundles for burning
without some resistance, and so we are not surprised to find some gnashing of
teeth and gnawing of tongues. And this will no doubt be seen more and more as
the servants of the Master are the more faithful and enterprising in proclaiming
the message of present truth. The “hirelings” say: It is all right for you to
hold these views but you should not go about telling them to others. The Good
Shepherd says: “Feed my sheep.” And the more we feed the sheep so much the more will the false shepherds complain. In Canada, as well as elsewhere, some of the
would-be shepherds are speaking all manner of evil things against the messengers
of the truth. They do not understand us a bit better than the Jews understood
our Lord and his little band of disciples. Light hath no concord with darkness.
At least two nominal ministers in Ontario have publicly burned the Millennial
Dawn, and heaped all kinds of reproach on the author and those who are
circulating this peculiar book.[xviii]

The last reference to Brookman is in the September 1, 1892, Watch Tower where appears an article by him entitled “Future Probation for the Dead.”[xix] Certainly not all of the Toronto Believers were favorably disposed toward The Watch Tower. The memorial report for 1899 returned a figure of twenty-one who participated. One is tempted to speculate that the urgent request for Russell’s presence in 1891 had been the fragmentation of the Toronto Believers into those who were favorable to the Watch Tower message and those who were not.[xx]

The little congregation in Toronto had the same difficulty finding a suitable name as did the rest of those associated with The Watch Tower. Eventually they adopted the name Church of the Baptized Believers. It was dissolved by his request when Brookman died on April 2, 1907.[xxi] He is known to have written at least one tract or small book entitled The Future of the Non-elect Dead: The Vast Majority of Mankind in All Ages, published in 1906. He edited an eighty-seven page hymnal entitled Hymns of Faith and Love, published in 1897. While still an Anglican, he wrote The Scripture Alphabet in Verse, which was published in Canada in 1847. I haven’t been able to examine any of these publications.

Brookman and others were active in Canada from an early period. Even if the period is poorly documented, the activity of small groups and individuals can be presupposed. Russell mentions no extraordinary efforts in Canada, probably because he had a small but active base of fellow believers.

The 1979 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses briefly profiles a Thomas Baker, saying he accepted “Bible truth at an early date”:

Thomas Baker (was) a sawmill operator of Elba, Ontario, a small community about
50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Toronto. A very religious man, Baker had
been the superintendent of the Anglican Sunday school. But his buzzing sawmill
became a place that also buzzed with the grand news of God’s kingdom. As his
daughter Annie puts it: “Every customer who came in was given a tract or booklet
or book. I don’t think he missed anyone!”

Since Thomas Baker was so well
known, his departure from the established church in the community raised plenty
of questions. In fact, so many people asked about this that he published a
booklet giving the reasons for his action. Baker died in 1906, and the funeral
talk was delivered by a person to whom he himself had taught the truth of God’s
Word.[xxii]

Baker was born March 20, 1848, in Ireland, and immigrated to Canada in 1850. His wife was twelve years his junior and born in Ontario. Her maiden name is unknown. I haven’t been able to examine Baker’s booklet, and a letter from Jehovah’s Witnesses says that while they know of the booklet, they don’t have a copy.[xxiii]

Dating Baker’s introduction to the Watch Tower message is not possible without examining the booklet. The Bakers took to the message sometime before 1891. Local census records show the Bakers as members of the Church of England in 1881. In an 1891 census they are listed as “Bible Christian,” which was originally the name of a Methodist-oriented sect, but may have also been one of the many names used by readers of Zion’s Watch Tower.

The same census lists a Thomas Smith, then seventy-eight, and a William Young, a thirty-three year old blacksmith, as Bible Christians as well. Young’s children are also listed at “Bible Christian,” though his wife is not.[xxiv] It is unclear whether these were associates of the Bakers or not.

A letter from Thomas and Harriet Baker appears in the June 1, 1894, Watch Tower. It doesn’t date their association beyond an indefinite reference to the period “since we came to a knowledge of God’s plan.”[xxv] In the 1901 Census, Baker is listed as a “Restitutionist,” a name some applied to those adhering to Zion’s Watch Tower.

Other Lands

In an age when the foreign missionary activity of Christendom was at its peak, it is not surprising that Watch Tower publications found their way to many lands often sent by friends or relatives. In May 1883 Russell wrote:

Letters are constantly coming to hand, from out of way places, telling how truth
has been recognized and appreciated and is feeding the consecrated ones wherever
they may be. We cannot doubt that every consecrated child will be brought in
contact with the light now shining on the sacred page. During the past month we
have heard from two deeply interested Indians, one of them a preacher; also,
from a missionary in China. It is glad tidings of great joy to the ends of the
earth, wherever God has children unfettered by traditions of men.

There
are many inquiries for preaching --many from out of way places where we could
not send. All should remember that, the fact of a necessity for preaching is a
call to those who have truth, to freely give what they have freely received of
God. It is a call to preach, of the genuine sort, and each child of God is a
witness -- a light bearer. Let your light so shine as to glorify your Heavenly
Father.

There are a number of ways of preaching. Among the most telling
methods is private conversation, backed up with well chosen articles marked for
their reading and study. One sister writes us from Virginia that she began to
tell what she had recently been learning to a few neighbors privately, and so
many came that presently a schoolhouse was needed to accommodate them, and it
even was crowded. So, each one willing and anxious to labor in the vineyard will
find the master ready to use his service, and a door of some sort will open.
Make use of small pportunities, and greater ones will come in due time. Only, be
sure you do all in the love of the truth, and not in a spirit of combativeness.
Then assuredly you will be blessed while blessing others.[xxvi]

Most of the early international mission work was done by individuals with no particular training but much faith who felt the urgent need to pass on what they had learned. Russell made this point in an article entitled “Seed Time and Harvest”:

The Lord shows his truth to a humble soldier in the British navy, and his heart
is filled with … zeal to tell it to others. The Lord then sends him to India at
the expense of the British Government, and gives him abundant leisure to herald
the good news there, to strengthen and establish some in the faith, and from
there to write letters and scatter printed matter in other distant parts. Thus
the trumpet tones of present truth … are sounded in India, and we may be sure
that in due time it will reach, through this or some other means, every saint in
India who is worthy to be gathered with the elect. And so several sailors are
bearing the good news to distant parts, and through them saints are being
gathered, cheered and comforted. One occasionally finds his way to South
America, again to Australia, and again to England, always watching for
opportunities for harvest work. Through the efforts of another of the Lord's
missionaries the truth reached some of the saints in China, who rejoice in its
light. The Lord wanted to gather some saints in Sweden, and he raised up some
earnest Swedes in this country, who by private letters and translations
communicate the good tidings to other Swedish saints. And so with the Germans. …
Thus through the press, by private correspondence, by traveling brethren, and by
the special efforts of those whose sphere is more limited, the Lord is carrying
on his great harvest work. He is sending forth these reapers with a great sound
of a trumpet, to gather his elect together.[xxvii]

By 1884 Russell could report a significant foreign correspondence. He urged the isolated ones to take comfort in knowing there were others in similar circumstance and to stand firm, using every opportunity to spread the message of the Present Christ and impending Millennium:
Many interesting letters from various parts, both across the waters and in our own country, give evidence of the fact that though iniquity abounds and the love of many waxes cold, still the Lord has a people consecrated and endeavoring to carry out that consecration in their daily life.

It is comforting to those who stand isolated in their own neighborhood to
realize this. There are many such isolated ones, and all have much the same
experience--in the world, tribulation; in Christ, peace. It is also a source of
encouragement to learn that while we realize that the harvest is great the
laborers are being multiplied, and that so far as we can learn, the saints are
realizing their call to make known the glad tidings, and that though their
talents be many or few they are not to be folded away in a napkin. We have
learned that there are as many ways to preach the Gospel as there are talents
among the saints.[xxviii]

[i] Biography, The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, December 1, 1916, page 357.
[ii] View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, January/February 1882, reprints page 312.
[iii] View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, May 1883, page 1.
[iv] Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, December 1883, page 2.
[v] Extracts From Interesting Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, December 1884, page 2.
[vi] See the notice in The World’s Hope, October 1883, page 8.
[vii] View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, June 1889, page 1.
[viii] Finley, Mike: Mount Pleasant Cemetery: An Illustrated Guide, Canada, no date, page 51.
[ix] McEvoy, H.: The Province of Ontario Gazetteer and Directory, Robertson & Cook, Toronto, 1869, page 478.
[x] Methodists: C. Pelham Mulvany: Toronto Past and Present: A Handbook of the City, W. E. Caiger, Toronto, 1884, page 184. Baptists: History of Toronto and County of York, C. Blackett Robinson, Toronto, 1885, volume 1, page 318.
[xi] Shenston, Thomas S.: A Jubilee Review of the First Baptist Church: Brantford 1833-1884, Bingham & Webster, Toronto, 1890, pages114-115. He served them from April 3 to May 6, 1880.
[xii] History of Toronto, pages 317-318.
[xiii] Brookman, W.: Eternal Not Endless, The World’s Hope, January 1884, pages 57-60.
[xiv] Brookman, W.: Extracts From Letter, The World’s Hope, March 15, 1892, page 94.
[xv] View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, May 1886, page 1.
[xvi] See: View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, May 1886, page 1; Blessed Dying—From Henceforth, same issue, page 3.
[xvii] See: Extracts From Letters, Zion’s Watch Tower, February 1891, page 30, and see the announcement Meetings in Toronto that follows.
[xviii] Harvest Work and Meetings in Canada: A Word from Brother S. D. Rogers, Zion’s Watch Tower, March 1891, page 47.
[xix] The article is on pages 282-285 of that issue.
[xx] Memorial Widely Celebrated, Zion’s Watch Tower, April 1, 1899, page 95.
[xxi] Finley, Mike: Mount Pleasant Cemetery: An Illustrated Guide, Canada, no date, page 51.
[xxii] 1979 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses, pages p 78-9
[xxiii] Letter from Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, June 11, 2008. “Brother Baker’s daughter Annie told the brothers, when they were preparing the 1979 report on Canada, that her father had published this booklet. However, they do not have a copy of it in their files, nor do we have a copy in our files.”
[xxiv] Email from Steve Brown, archivist at Dufferin Museum, Ontario, to Bruce Schulz, dated June 18, 2008.
[xxv] The letter from Thomas and Harriet Baker appears in the June 1, 1894, issue of Zion’s Watch Tower on pages 178-179.
[xxvi] View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, May 1883, page 1.
[xxvii] Russell, C. T.: Seed Time and Harvest, Zion’s Watch Tower, September 1886, page 6.
[xxviii] View from the Tower, Zion’s Watch Tower, August 1884, reprints page 645.

Name

Holmes Wilber Deming was born August 11, 1852. He married Alice Lucinda Cooley on Janaury 8, 1898. His death was announced in the October 1947 issue of The Herald of Christ's Kingdom.

We need to hear from anyone who knew him or has more details of his life. Please contact us through this blog.

H. W. Deming

H. W. Deming, 1939

Not Demming as one issue of Zion's Watch Tower says, but Deming. He was the first known Watch Tower recognized colporteur. He has been ignored in various Watchtower histories because he associated with one of the breakaway groups after 1918.

From a 1939 Bible Student Convention report:

Brother H. W. Deming, of Ada, Ohio, in which he told of many of his early experiences in the harvest work.

And Brother Deming was well qualified for the assignment given him on the program because he was the very first colporteur to serve in the field at a time that pre-dates the establishment of the Bible House in Allegheny, Brother Deming, in his unique and entertaining manner, told of his
association with Brother Russell in those early days, when the shipping department of the truth movement was carried on in a corner of Brother Russell's shirt store. Brother Deming, for a time, served as "Shipping Clerk." He also told of the blessings he received in helping to arrange for the
first general convention of Bible Students. This convention was held in the city of Chicago in the year 1893; and the total attendance was less than one hundred.

Brother Deming's part on the program, in itself, was inspiring to the brethren at the convention, in that it gave them a close-up view of the struggles and joys of the service in the days when Bible Students were very few in number. ...

SEPTEMBER 1939 EPWORTH FOREST GENERAL CONVENTION

M. C. van Hook

The M. C. van Hook of Zion's Watch Tower appears to be the same as the man listed in the 1880 Census as living in Twin, Ohio. That places him near New Lebanon, where he is known to have preached. I still do not have a first name for him.

The census has him born in North Carolina, thirty-five years old, married with five children aged from four months to twelve years.

Anyone have more details?

More Mysteries

"Brothers Leigh, Demming and van Hook" are mentioned together as working in Ohio and N. Kentucky. Van Hook is also associated with J. P. Martin, a clergyman from New Lebanon, Ohio.

I need first names and details. Anyone?

This is proving really difficult, and identifying these individuals is very important to our research.

We also need a death date for Sister Erlenmyer. We have her alive in 1900 and still active in the work, partnered with a sister Leonora Thompson, a West Virginia native. Leonora was 29 in 1900.

Mysteries

A "brother Boyer" is mentioned in Zion's Watch Tower. In 1882 he was in Pittsburgh. He was a former temerance worker. Anyone know his first name?

A "brother Leigh" is mentioned in 1882. We need a first name. He visited Russell in Pittsburgh that year. With a "brother Spears" he organized a preaching tour by boat down the Ohio River. I need first names.

A sister Erlanmyer is first mentioned in 1882. She was from New York. I need a full name.

Help if you can.