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Thursday, February 27, 2014

Extracted from my Personal Blog

I spent a lot of time, several hours, turning pages in my "sources" binders looking for points we omitted that we may wish to include in volume one. I haven't found much. So far, all I've found is a place where we need to add a sentence or footnote for clarity. We quote one of the major characters self-description of a fall on a slippery, iron sidewalk door. He connected the fall to Scripture. We failed to explain that this fell into the pattern of American Calvinist thought. Scholars call this the Type-Antitype approach. Some of my readers know in a limited fashion what that is. Puritans and Calvinistic Separatists took that concept beyond the covers of the Bible, and saw Bible verses as finding fulfilment in daily life.

The Bible's concept of type and antitype, as used by Paul, is that Old Testament scripture sometimes foreshadowed later events. Paul used this process to suggest that Sarah and Hagar represented two covenants. The anonymous writer of Hebrews (Some think that's Paul.) uses the type-antitype method of exegesis to state that the Law of Moses forshadowed the Christian polity and the method of salvation.

American Calvnists went beyond that.Deborah Madsen tags this as "spiritual interrogation of events." [See her American Exceptionalism.] She quotes the well known passage from Governor Winthrop's Journal:

"At Watertownthere was (in the view of divers witnesses), a great combat between a mouse and a snake; and, after a long fight, the mouse prevailed and killed the snake. The pastor of Boston, Mr. Wilson, a very sincere, holy man, hearing of it, gave this interpretation: That the snake was the devil; the mouse was a poor contemptible people, which God had brought hither, which should overcome Satan here, and disposes him of his kingdom. Upon the same occasion, he told the governor, that, before he was resolved to come to this country, he dreamed he was here, and that he saw a church arise out of the earth, which grew up and became a marvelous goodly church."

Russell's interpretation of dreams and daily events in the light of scripture comes from this herritage.

We should have included that point. We will in some fashion.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Final Draft: Title Page, Copyright Page, Introductory Essays


A Separate Identity
 
 
 
ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY
AMONG READERS OF ZION’S WATCH TOWER
1870-1887
 
 
 
Volume One
 
 
B. W. SCHULZ
 
AND
 
 RACHAEL DE VIENNE
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fluttering Wings Press
2014
 
 
About the Authors
 
Bruce W. Schulz teaches writing, history, and literature. He is the lead author and general editor of this series.
 
Rachael de Vienne raises children and goats. She teaches literature and history to gifted and talented students.
 
 
 
 
[photo here]
Pittsburgh and Allegheny City in 1874.
Woodcut View by Alfred R. Waud.
Pittsburgh & Allegheny City, Pennsylvania: 1874 Woodcut View by Alfred R. Waud


Copyright 2014 by B. W. Schulz
Permissions: BWSchulz2@yahoo.com
 
 
The first book in this series is:
Nelson Barbour: The Millennium’s Forgotten Prophet.


Introductory Essay

 

            It was once the fashion to introduce books similar to this one with an apology for adding another work to an already well-covered topic. We offer no such apology. The Watch Tower movement is one of the most controversial and most written about religious movements of the last two centuries. It is also one of the least understood and most misrepresented movements. There is no accurately presented history of the Watch Tower movement’s foundation years. This book exists because neither the friends nor the enemies of Charles Taze Russell have produced anything approaching a reasonably well-researched and accurate account of the Watch Tower’s early years.

Despite a persistent mythology to the contrary, the emergence of the Watch Tower movement as a cohesive and separate religious identity owes far less to Russell personally than it does to the adoption of mutually agreeable doctrines. This process filled the years from 1871 to 1886. No one doctrinal choice marked Russell and a growing body of associates as unique. The collective did, resulting over time in a separate religious identity.

Friends of the Watch Tower and of Charles Taze Russell, the founder of Zion’s Watch Tower, have seldom passed beyond an uncritical reading of a biographical article published first in 1890, but a wealth of detail is available. A Russell-centric view overlooks the interplay of personalities and the debates that molded the loosely connected group into a distinct religion. Russell’s friends have separated the spiritual from the mundane. Compartmentalizing history leaves no room for an accurate narrative. Worse, one recent writer whose book presents a largely favorable picture of Russell manufactured out of his or another’s imagination an entire narrative, almost none of which is correct.

Russell’s admirers put him in a historically untenable position. Even when presenting reasonably accurate narrative, they tend to create or perpetuate a myth. For many of them, Russell was God’s special instrument to restore vital truths. This apotheosis disconnects Russell from the realm of critical history. It presents a false picture of Russell, his associates and opponents. Even if one believes Russell was favored by God, no person of faith should pursue myth-building at the expense of carefully researched, accurate history. If God’s hand directed the Watch Tower movement in Russell’s day, would that not best be shown by a reasonably well-researched presentation of events that reconnects Russell to his environment? If Russell had a place in God’s work, mythologizing him hides it.

Almost none of the published material meets an academic standard. Of those few books that do, none of them consider the founding period in any detail. All of them derive what little they say from a single Watch Tower article with some additions from Alexander Hugh Macmillan’s Faith on the March. There is a consequent failure to grasp key events in the growth of an independent religious movement. And there is a significant misdirection, because of the very narrow and contracted view of Watch Tower history found in Russell’s 1890 article.

Opposition writers also manufacture, distort and misrepresent events. This is especially true of former adherents. Several examples come to mind. Some suggest Russell plagiarized Paton’s Day Dawn. One frequent though seldom accurate writer suggests that Russell stole the Herald of the Morning subscription list. One former adherent has turned himself into an Internet “troll,” posting in the comments section of any news article about Jehovah’s Witnesses that Russell was an Adventist. The claim of Russellite Adventism is common. Aside from the fact that this is wrong, we are at a loss to explain how having been an Adventist would tarnish Russell’s character. Russell was baptized a Presbyterian; he was a Congregationalist; he became a One Faith Millenarian with Age-to-Come views. He was never an Adventist. Only the intellectually lazy would define him as an Adventist.

            Without looking further, writers have uniformly suggested an Adventist origin for Watch Tower theology. There were undeniable contacts with Adventism, and many of the early adherents came from the fractured Adventist movement. Researchers tend to focus on what became the Advent Christian Church, ignoring interchanges with other Adventist bodies, including the Life and Advent Union, independent Adventist congregations and Sabbatarian Adventists. The focus has been on the development of Watch Tower doctrine from Millerite Adventism. This is a mistake.

            As commonly told, Russell was introduced to Millerite Adventism by Jonas Wendell and other Adventists. Some suggest a Seventh-day Adventist connection, which is laughably ignorant. Russell is supposed to have adopted much of Millerite theology. Though he denied ever having been an Adventist, he was one. 

This is wrong. None of Russell’s doctrines owe their origin to Millerism or any of the descendent Adventists organizations. Russell’s belief system, with a few key exceptions, was developed while in association with Age-to-Come believers, especially those in the One Faith Movement. This movement was most closely associated with The Restitution, a newspaper published in Plymouth, Indiana. Russell’s closest associates were connected to One Faith or some form of Age-to-Come belief. This includes George Storrs.

            Storrs was an independent Age-to-Come believer, abandoning Millerite Adventism in 1844. You will find some of that history documented in this book. Storrs and those loosely associated with The Restitution avoided organizational structure. The movement spoke with conflicting voices, but they held some key doctrines in common. They believed in a restored paradise earth without the fiery destruction predicted by Adventists. They believed that the prophecies, indeed all of scripture, should be taken literally. The Jews would be restored because the plain literal sense of Scripture suggested they would be. They were divided on other issues. Storrs taught a Fair Chance doctrine that some called Second Probationism. A significant minority of One Faith believers followed this path.

            There are several reasons why this part of Russell’s history is misrepresented. Many of Russell’s contemporaries, particularly those outside the two movements, lacked a clear understanding of what Adventism was and how it differed from Age-to-Come and other pre-millennialist beliefs. One finds One Faith and Christadelphians described as Age-to-Come Adventists – a name they rejected. Because Adventists, Millenarians, and Christadelphians believed that Christ’s return was near, outsiders lumped them under the one name.

            While some of Russell’s contemporaries and some academic writers today confuse Age-to-Come belief with Adventism, the two parties saw themselves as doctrinally distinct. The decade of the 1870s was a transitional period for the Advent Christian Association. It was rapidly transitioning from a loose association of those believing in the near return of Christ with good Christian conduct as the sole standard of association into a Church with more closely defined doctrine. Some who associated with them were ostracized and found new associates among Age-to-Come believers. George Stetson was one of these, though he died before a decisive break between the two bodies occurred.

            The division between Literalist and Adventist belief affected Watch Tower adherents. Subsequent tensions between Russell and Adventists derive from his Age-to-Come (also called Millenarian) belief system which was derived from British Literalism. These differences would serve as a sieve that would catch and remove from fellowship those who accepted other systems. Paton and his followers, many of whom had been Adventists, rejected Literalism, and this rejection of “plain sense” exegesis accounts for many of their differences. Arthur Prince Adams says that his differences with Russell are based on his rejection of Literalist belief. Adams sought the “hidden meaning” behind the Bible’s plain words. He explained this in the introductory article to the first issue of his magazine:

 

By Spirit of the Word I mean its real and intended meaning, in contradistinction to its apparent and surface meaning, or the “letter.” It is a common mistake among Christians to suppose that the Bible is written in very plain and simple language, and that the correct meaning is that which lies upon the surface – the most obvious and apparent sense. If I err not, the truth is just the opposite of this. The Bible often means something very different from what it says; there is a hidden, mystical sense that is like the pearl hid in the depths of the sea, the real jewel.[1]

 

            This stands in stark contrast to Russell and his associates. They sought the Bible’s plain words. It is not our purpose to suggest he succeeded in that quest. That determination is best made by our readers. But we state the difference in theological perspective. It explains much.

Another reason Russell is seen as a closet-Adventist derives from unreasoning opposition to his teaching. The name Adventist was seen as a pejorative. Adventists were uniformly seen as on the fringe of American religious life. Newspapers noted every passing and failed prediction, every supposed and real extreme among Adventists. They described as “Adventist” those who were not such. They manufactured events. Adventism became a hot-tar-soaked brush for editors to use when news was sparse. Painting Russell with the brush of extremism is a fad among opposers.  There is, however, a real story behind the myth.

            We believe our research restores detail. In doing so, we believe that a clearer understanding of events emerges. We examine the roots of Russell’s theology, tracing his doctrinal development to various individuals and publications. This dispels the myth that Russell and his early associations studied in a vacuum, independent of the commentary or exposition of others. We explore the doctrinal disunity among early adherents. How Russell and his associates addressed this explains the transition from mere readership to an ecclesiastical unity.

            There is a startling lack of perspective in most “histories” of the Watch Tower movement or of the antecedent and cognate groups. Advent Christians liked to claim there were thirty thousand adherents world wide. We could discover no valid basis for that claim and believe the number was much smaller. One Faith believers played a significant role in Watch Tower history.[2] They counted about four thousand adherents in 1880. Russell sent out six thousand copies of Zion’s Watch Tower’s first issue. Numbers dropped precipitously as real interest replaced hoped-for subscribers. Yet, by 1882 Russell could report a circulation of nearly fifteen thousand.[3] The belief system reached England before Russell first published his magazine. There was an adherent in France in the 1870s. The message reached Germany in 1885, perhaps earlier. It reached Norway about 1880 via personal letters. This represented a social shift not just among millennialists but in American religion, and that makes this story important.

            The actors in this religious and social drama are archetypical. Of special interest to us is the self-view of the principal and many of the minor players. You will find N. H. Barbour who saw himself as God’s spokesman even if almost no one else did. In his later years Brarbour claimed a thousand adherents, but realistically probably had fewer than two hundred truly-interested followers. You will meet Frank Burr who believed he heard Christ’s voice. There is John Paton who saw himself as divinely chosen, the recipient of divine revelation. There is Russell who believed himself divinely led, as God’s “special agent for special times.” We find Elizabeth [Lizzie] A. Allen who agonized over her life choices. We meet J. C. Sunderlin who because of war wounds became an opium addict, seeking relief in religion and a quack cure. Which of these you sympathize with will depend on your approach to this story.

            We leave issues of faith largely untouched. We’ve taken a historian’s approach. We will tell you what Russell said of himself and others. We will tell you what his associates said and did. We will not tell you that all this was guided by Holy Spirit or God’s own hand. That’s not a historian’s place. We will leave that analysis to your own prayerful (or skeptical) estimation. We have avoided the trend among modern historiographers to analyze motives. We’ve borrowed our approach from 19th Century historians who told their tales in detail, but with little commentary. So we owe much to Francis Parkman, H. H. Bancroft, and Israel Smith Clare, historians who within the limits of available documentations gave their readers detailed, largely accurate, narratives.

            However, we cannot entirely escape addressing motives. When required to do so, we limit ourselves to presenting them in the words or by the unambiguous acts of those involved. Russell is overly kind to Albert Delmont Jones. Jones was a disreputable man, a thief, a fornicator, a religious fraudster. We tell that story in Volume 2 from the public record and his own words. Other scandals will appear. (We humans are prone to stupidity.) So you will read about William Henry Conley’s faith cure house, its pastor, his relationship to the women and girls associated with Conley’s faith-cure belief. There are others you won’t read about because we cannot verify to our satisfaction that there was real scandal. Suspicion attaches to one of Russell’s early associates and a young teenage girl. We tell as much of that story as we can verify. We leave the unverified gossip to the ebay posters, the Internet scandal mongers, and the conspiracy theorists and inept Wikipedia writers.

            As perverse as it seems to say so, the endless divisions that we chronicle here resulted in doctrinal unity. They were key to the formation of an ecclesiastical unity centered on Zion’s Watch Tower and its editor, Charles Taze Russell.

 

***

           

            Watch Tower history as it has been written resembles Greek mythology. As with Greek mythology the stories are often told in conflicting ways. If you have ever read the myths of Pan’s parentage, you understand what I mean. In the Russell mythology there is Russell the saint and there is Russell the devilish, religious fraudster. We have limited ourselves to Russell the man. We deal with unfounded claims in each chapter. In the process, we probably offend everyone with a personal commitment to the myths. We have enjoyed bursting bubbles. Watch the footnotes carefully. We detail false claims in footnotes where we do not always do so in text. We’ve been even handed in this. You will find us faulting claims made by true believers and by opposition polemicists.

            The first chapter considers Russell’s youth. Several key ideas and some minor statements fall to research. Unlike a Bible Student writer, we do not chronicle Russell as the modern-day Samuel, destined to be God’s special servant in the last days. We do not question his belief. This is not about belief. It’s about accurately told history, kept within the context of real, verifiable events. We only tell the story as we can verify it, and we do that largely through Russell and his contemporaries’ own words supplemented with documentary evidence.

            Mythology replaces history when lack of curiosity is coupled with lack of thorough research. This is especially pronounced among Russell’s modern-day friends. A number of letters passed between us and institutions representing descendant religions. In a nearly uniform way, they focus on Russell, express lack of interest in anyone else, and simply do not look for detail. This distorts the history. Russell did not function in a vacuum. He was influenced by his friends, by his enemies, by what he read and experienced. These details are recoverable. The biographies of his early associates are available to a determined researcher. The “brothers” Lawver, Hipsher, Tavender, Myers, and a host of others who receive more or less mention in Zion’s Watch Tower were living people who had a physical and spiritual presence in Russell’s life and an effect on his beliefs. There are many others, some of considerable but forgotten prominence, who significantly contributed to Watch Tower history and to the development of a unified body of believers. But where is Aaron P. Riley or the small group in West Virginia who withdrew from the Church of Christ to form a congregation? Not in any history of the Watch Tower of which we are aware. Why is Calista Burk Downing a name without biography in histories of Zion’s Watch Tower?

            Probably there are several reasons why the Watch Tower story hasn’t been told with any sort of depth. Lack of curiosity is a prime one. Exchanges with interested parties elicited comments such as, “Thank you for the photocopies. We’re only interested in Russell himself.” This approach is part of the Saint Russell myth. Time and circumstances have wounded this approach so that some who sustained it in the past are no longer able to do so. A recent change in Watch Tower Society theology diminishes Russell’s’ status as interpreted through a doctrinal lens. A new religious paradigm does not alter the historical significance of C. T. Russell and his many associates.

Another major problem has been lack of resources. The resources we use to reclaim the biographies of Russell’s earliest associates and to restate their place in Watch Tower history have always been out there. They are somewhat easier to find now than they were twenty years ago. But individuals and organizations with more resources than we have could have found them if they had the curiosity to pursue the matter.

Attachment to a religious mythos in preference to accurately told history has stifled curiosity. We have encountered a certain amount of fear and resentment while writing this book. A university professor who is writing a competing book strongly objected to our consideration of One Faith belief because it undermines his premise. Another writer fears that we will refute a story she wishes to tell. A Bible Student expressed considerable discontent that we do not present Russell as the God-directed Faithful and Wise Servant. We’re writing history, not religious commentary. A person with considerable talent as a writer, though he is published anonymously, suggested that this history might show his religion as other than the Truth. Truth rests with God. Simply because they are human, truth is never embodied in His human servants.

            Another issue we address, though on a limited scale, is the disconnect between the lives of Russell and his associates and the world they lived in. The only redeeming feature of a recently published biography of Russell is the author’s attempt to reconnect to contemporary history. Russell was born into a world without flush toilets. In court testimony someone tells of carrying “the slops” through Bible House to drop them down a drain. I’m old enough to remember my stay in a forty room mansion in Ohio where the only facilities were a two-door wooden outhouse. Most of our readers aren’t that old. Russell was born into a world of no garbage collection, where the streets were rank with filth. He walked down streets littered with the leavings of draft animals and their owners. He was taught by teachers who were outnumbered by students one hundred to one, who had little education of their own and few resources to improve what they had.

            We are disconnected from the social issues of Russell’s day. Allegheny City and Pittsburgh were by reputation better, more peaceful cities than some of their more easterly cousins. Yet, they were filled with prostitution (we give details) and violence. A gruesome murder took place just doors from the Russell’s home. The Western states were subject to Native American uprisings and brutal repression. The period from the 1870s to the 1890s was one of re-occurring financial depression. Shoeing the feet of children was a major concern and a major expense. Scandal was the norm in politics. People were willing to see the period as “the last days” because it was violent, politically unstable, and seemed to be exactly what Jesus had predicted.

            An English writer described Allegheny City and Pittsburgh in terms of the industrial area of Staffordshire. Writing in 1859, he said that “there are the same red brick housed and workshops, the same smoke, the same uneven streets – from the heavy weights drawn over them – and at night, the glare of the iron furnaces at work.” The houses were built “close up to the very tops of the hill-sides, and presenting something of the appearance which the old town of Edinburgh does when viewed from off the Calton Hill or Arthur’s Seat.” Pittsburgh and Allegheny City were large, rambling, ill designed places. In 1853 the combined population was about one hundred ten thousand. It was an area of churches. We detail Russell’s associations with several denominations.

 

***

 

This was the era of Louisa Alcott’s Little Women. Read it. It will help you connect to the age we consider. Pay attention to the details. Note the cold, rat-infested house; consider the poverty, the infant mortality, the approach to morals and religious infidelity. The era in which these events transpire is both familiar and alien. This was an era of invention. The telephone was a marvel. Cities were electrified, but most homes were without electricity. They had gas if they were fortunate – oil lamps or candles if not. Few saw a telephone. The Penny Press and letter from friends connected one to the outside world.

            The American west was still the Wild West. The year Russell met Jonas Wendell the first transcontinental rail tracks were joined at Promontory Point, Utah. New and more powerful steam engines were marvels. Indian wars replaced the Civil War. When the Allegheny Bible Study Class was re-examining old belief, grasshoppers plagued Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri, eating varnish off furniture, paint off houses and peaches to the pits. War and rumors of war were everywhere. The Franco-Prussian war altered the face of Europe. Russia and Turkey fought, both brutalizing civilians, especially women and little girls. Fears of a general European war found a place in newspapers. Discontent and abuses in the Reconstruction South led to talk of a second Civil War. The United States had unsettled claims against the United Kingdom related to the Confederate raider the CSA Alabama. There was talk of war. An English parliamentarian suggested a test of arms. Cooler heads within the British government noted that while America maintained a severely reduced army, it had a million men trained to arms and baptized in blood. Any war with America would in high probability cost the empire the newly formed Canadian Confederation.

            Disasters beyond human control brought with them a sense of impending or wrought Divine judgment. Currency and credit manipulation by European banks, prominently the Bank of England, amounted to a quiet war against the United States. Credit manipulation brought consequences beyond those foreseen in boardrooms. Labor issues, oppressive working conditions and issues of social equality led to riot and insurrection. The year of Barbour and Russell’s grand missionary tour saw Pittsburgh burned and Federal troops engaged in battle with railroad workers. A large segment of Americans embraced protectionism. Depressions swept America and Europe. “Banker,” always a ‘dirty word,’ became a blacker pejorative.

            A pope died and another was elected. Many Protestants (and interestingly, some Catholics) saw the popes and the Roman Catholic Church as the embodiment of the more negative prophetic images. American Protestants watched Catholic affairs in that light. The pope was variously seen as the Biblical “man of sin” or the Anti-Christ. The Roman Church was seen as Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots. By the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century, a significant number saw Protestant churches as the Harlot’s Daughters. Interactions with Catholics were suspect and scrutinized as a possible fulfillment of prophecy. Otto von Zech, a German-born Evangelical Lutheran clergyman was expelled from the Ohio Synod in part for refusing to characterize the Catholic Church as Anti-Christ.

            Our ancestors were not (taken as a whole) stupid, nor were they more gullible than our contemporaries. But their frame of reference was different. While the shift to a secularist society had begun, most were still profoundly religious. Religion was a social and political power, influencing –sometimes irrationally – public decisions. If they were ready to believe what might seem to us irrational doctrines, we should note that the same tendency exists today, though more often expressed in conspiracy theory, political polemic, or ill conceived private and public policy. We haven’t improved; we have only changed focus. The characters in this history deserve a sympathetic consideration.

 

***

 

            This is a far different book than we envisioned. We anticipated a slim volume somewhat like our biography of Barbour. We believed the basic facts were known, though as presented by most writers the story lacked detail. As our research evolved, we made format and content decisions, some reluctantly. Among the decisions we hesitatingly made was that leading us to present more or less extensive biographies of the principals. You will find most of those in volume one. We believe these biographical excursions are necessary for a comprehensive understanding of the Watch Tower movement’s early years.

 

B. W. Schulz


My Turn: R. M. de Vienne’s Comments

 

Bringing this volume to print isn’t exactly like giving birth, but there are similarities. Original research has its own set of pains, agonies, and irritations. And it has its joys.

You will better understand portions of this book if you first read Nelson Barbour: The Millennium’s Forgotten Prophet. We should note that our quotations retain original spelling, punctuation and formatting. Unless we note otherwise, all italics, capital letters and puzzling grammar are as they were in the original.

 

****

 

            We knew error and fabrication colored how this story has most often been told. We did not appreciate the extent to which this is true. We expected a reasonable amount of competence among those who have tackled Watch Tower history, and we found some authors reliable. Most are not. Even among the most reliable, we found a tendency to turn presumption into “fact.”

            Many of those who preceded us were polemicists. This is true of some who presented themselves as credentialed historians or sociologists, and it is especially true of most clergy who’ve written on the subject. It amazes me that these writers are taken seriously merely because they were published.

            We do not fault anyone for having a point of view. We have our own, and privately we debate issues ranging from our personal theologies to interpretation of historical evidence. However, a point of view should not lead one to turn presumption into ‘fact.” It should not lead one to fabricate.

            The works of some are characterized by logic flaws. An anonymous writer substitutes capital letters for reason, presuming that capitalizing random words proves a point. This reflects a seriously defective education on his part and on the part of those gullible enough to find this convincing. He also withholds from his readers documentation. If the antiquated psychological-descriptor “anal retentive” has any validity, it applies here.

We reject this approach. We tell you what our sources are, and, though that results in copious footnotes, it leaves no doubt about the trail we followed. Occasionally we tell you where to find rare or otherwise hard to find sources. Don’t ignore the footnotes. We adopted the dictum “the story is in the details,” probing and poking at original sources, following hunches and hints where ever they led.

After reading rough drafts of some of our chapters, another writer suggested that this book is destined to be the classic presentation of Watch Tower history. I appreciated the kind comment, but we see this work as preliminary, as the first step in research that should have been undertaken decades ago. We look for more and better research from others more competent than ourselves or who are willing to follow trails we could not. A major flaw in previous research is willingness to parrot the unfounded assertions of others. If you take up the themes we’ve opened in this volume, ask this critical question of each writer you consult: “How do you know that?” Check their sources; probe for detail.

The story we tell here is, as Mr. Schulz observed in his introductory essay, different from what we presumed it would be. We presumed a “unity of belief” among Russell and his associates that did not exist. In volume two we will detail the divisions and separations and early controversies that resulted in ecclesiastical unity, a separate religion. Our premise as it finally developed is that exploration of Bible teaching resulted in a settled doctrine developed out of debate, difference, and controversy. The doctrines finally settled on created a new religious unity. It peeled off dissenters who went their own ways.

In this volume we examine the historical and theological roots of Zion’s Watch Tower. That the story is more complex than and often different from that usually presented should surprise no one. One largely-accurate history presents this entire period in six paragraphs. We presume the author told us everything he knew or thought important. The fault isn’t in what he wrote. It is in what he omitted.

Theologically I’m a skeptical believer. I approach historical research in the same way, which means I question everything including commonly believed “facts.” Many of those proved absolutely true. Some proved false. As you explore this first volume of A Separate Identity you will encounter the familiar and the new.

The men and women in this story, long dead though they are, produced an emotional response. I came to like some of them. Some of them are remarkably distasteful, mean spirited and delusional. No historian writes an impartial history. But we have written to the full measure of our ability an accurate one. Despite our best efforts, we have probably made some errors of fact. We hope not, but given the depth and complexity of this research – and the newness of some of it – it seems inevitable that we got something wrong. It won’t hurt my feelings if someone points out a flaw, but I expect proof, not mere opinion. I expect critics to be as competent as we are, and I hold them to the same standards of historical research we manifest here.

A number of people have taken an interest in our research, assisting in various ways. We cannot name them all, and some wish to remain anonymous.

            Institutions that were especially helpful included the Methodist archive at Wofford College through Dr. R. Philip Stone; the State University of New York at Plattsburg; Franklin County Ohio through archivist Sandy Eckhart; the Archives of the Episcopal Church at Austin, Texas, through archivist Laura Kata; Ohio State Historical Society through Elizabeth Plummer; Almont District Library though its librarian, Kay Hurd; Junita College through librarian Janice Hartman. I’ve probably left out others equally helpful. I apologize to those I’ve omitted.

            Some institutions were distinctly unhelpful, even hostile. We’re still waiting on replies to emails and letters sent to some several years ago. The Library of Congress was hostile and unhelpful. The National Archives of the United States of America sent us key documents connected to one of Russell’s early associates. They refused to help when we requested other documentation that may hold the Department of Justice in a bad light, even though the material is about a hundred years old. The archivist at Boston University refused to provide photocopies of key material based on her reading of the papers. One of the friends of this research traveled there and made the copies in person.

            Though the Watch Tower Society declined access to a key document, they forwarded nine pages of photocopy, four of which we did not have. They are, of course, not responsible for our research or our conclusions. Given the opportunity to review volume one, they made no comment. They did not sponsor this work.

            Some individuals were exceptionally helpful. This would be a significantly diminished work without their help. Some names that should appear in this list do not because of privacy concerns.

[list follows]


[1]           A. P. Adams: The Title of the Paper, Spirit of the Word¸ March 15, 1885, Finley Reprint Edition, page 6.
[2]           Most of our readers will be unfamiliar with the term. We explore One Faith/Age-to-Come belief in chapter two.
[3]           The 1882 edition of N. W. Ayer & Son’s American Newspaper Annual reported 14,800 copies per issue. See page 600.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Apparently everyone in the world knew this but me ...

Lytel is the old English spelling of Little and is so pronounced. Joseph L. Russell connects to the Little/Lytel family of N. Ireland.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

We need a volunteer to ...

We need a volunteer to transcribe the entire article entitled Redemption appearing in the November 1878 Herald of the Morning. Anyone?

Saturday, February 8, 2014

We need a good, readable photocopy or scan of this ...

It was on ebay for an unreasonable price. It didn't sell. It's now on Bookfiner for an even higher price.
The seller has no understand for this material, and doesn't even know what he has.
If you have a copy, please scan it for us.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Help if you can.


As of this morning we have had 73,808 visitors to this blog. That’s not a huge number considering that accounts for repeat visits and is the total count since the blog was new.

If you like this blog, tell your friends and anyone else you think might be interested. I know I’m the one saying so, but there isn’t another Watch Tower history sight that is as detailed or as well researched. We don’t turn a soda-ash and salt mine into a secret Gold Mine. We don’t make up scandal where it doesn’t exist. If we find it, we tell you either here or in whatever book we’re writing.

We don’t cry about current Watch Tower policies, belief, or practices. Mr. Schulz is a Witness. I am not. I am not unsympathetic, but I believe enough differently that I’m not an adherent. You will get the facts from us as we find them. We have no agenda but accurately told history.

We have an invitation only blog that is in abeyance as we finish volume 1 of A Separate Identity. We’ll return to it after this volume is published and we resume work on volume 2. So tell your friends. …

 

We have a huge wish list. On it are items we do not expect to find, but we keep looking. We need any issue of Rice’s Last Trump. Paton’s personal letters would be helpful. Any letter by Russell. (We have a few, but only a few.) Opposition booklets published in Russell’s lifetime. Any of the German language Watch Tower with von Zech as editor. Von Zech’s magzine. (We have one year only.) Anything related to the earliest days of Watch Tower evangelism in Europe. Most of this history is earlier than the Year Book histories suggest, but the evidence is sparce.

We need a volunteer living near the Library of Congress who can copy some items with a digital camera and make photocopies of others. Some of this is simple work and some will require turning pages in an archive.

We need a volunteer to visit the National Archives of the United States.

Other than the first year, we need any and all issues of A. P. Adams’ magazine, The Spirit of the Word.

We need at least the location of The Millenarian, a magazine or paper.

We need copies of as much of the Canadian National Archives records of the word war 1 ban. That will require someone to visit, and, at their expense, make copies and mail them to us. Or if you’ve made copies, to scan them and get them to us. This is a  huge imposition, and you’d have to be really interested. We hope there is someone that interested.

Personal letters of any Russell era Bible Student would help, even if the contents seem inconsequential. Many of our readers have no clue how important small bits are. We are led to sound, important research by small clues.

Help if you can.


I should add … 

There are a few congregational histories out there. We don’t have many of them. If you have notes or a finished manuscript detailing the history of a Watch Tower congregation, please pass it along.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

We need ...

Any and all material related to Russell's newspaper sermons and their syndication.

Biographical material concerning M. F. Russell, even if you think we probably have it.

There were numbers of booklets published about the 1881 speculation. Only one of them was published by the Watch Tower, but we're interested in all of them. We aren't interested in the Mother Shipton booklets  unless they cover a wider field than the fake Shipton  prophecy.

We need Paton's private letters. (Probably wishful thinking.)

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Afterward

Mr. Schulz tasked me with writing an afterward for volume one. Here's what I have in very rough draft. Comments welcome.


What to Expect … 

            We do not have a release date for volume two of this work. If one measures by our current outline, it’s about half complete. Ultimately, this is not a good measure. Experience has taught us that we will stumble into the hidden closets and passages of history. This will force us to revise existing work and perhaps to add new chapters. But in a broad way I can tell you what to expect.

            For readers of Zion’s Watch Tower the years from 1879 to 1887 were tumultuous. They set the course for a new religious movement for decades. With some exceptions, volume two is limited to these years. Zion’s Watch Tower was launched. Russell and his associates traveled, visiting small groups, preaching their message and trying to sway their hearers to their point of view. A Year Book history asserts the formation of congregations. We will tell you what these groups were like. In most cases, they were not at all like what the Year Book suggested.

            The dispute of the nature of salvation, ransom, and atonement continued. It intensified as the movement fragmented. Paton, A. D. Jones, and others left. Each fragmentation has the unexpected effect of unifying what remained. Issues were openly debated between key periodicals.

Adams left Barbour starting The Spirit of the Word. Myers, an Age-to-Come evangelist, dropped his initial interest, starting his own periodical to advocate contrary doctrine. He published The At-One-Ment about 1883. We don’t have this, and cannot find it. We know of it from other sources. If one of our readers has this, please use the email on the copyright page to contact us.

With Russell’s blessing, Jones started Zion’s Day Star, soon to be renamed simply Day Star. Within a short time Jones was swayed by Josephite belief, the claim that Jesus was the biological son of Joseph. Jones fell into wealth, squandered it, and then turned to fraud to recoup.

W. Conley drifted into the Faith-Cure movement, becoming entangled with a rogue Christian and Missionary Alliance clergyman who seduced and molested the women connected with Conley’s Faith-Cure home. Conley had other issues. We tell you what they were and how they affected his relationship with Russell.

We consider early interest, focusing on new evangelists, their work, and the push to alter Russell’s views in key areas. We tell you of new doctrinal developments, a key one being the change from belief in a two-stage advent to a belief in a totally invisible advent. L. A. Allen played an important role in this. As far as I know, no-one has ever documented this.

We explore the publication of Food for Thinking Christians. There is a hugely unexplored story here. While this did not open the “foreign field” (There was prior interest in Canada, the United Kingdom, and France), it expanded if largely. We tell you in detail about the early work in the UK, Canada, China, Liberia and elsewhere. We explore the roots of foreign language work within the United States. These chapters restore names and biographies to people long forgotten. They give, we think, a clearer insight into the nature and cohesiveness of the earliest Watch Tower adherents.

We tell you about their expectations for 1881. Watch Tower readers were neither the first nor the only group to focus on 1881 as a year of prophetic significance. You will see that among Watch Tower readers expectations differed. The 1881 failure was disastrous for Barbour. It shook Jones loose from his spiritual moorings. Russell promulgated a new doctrine which some readers found disturbing.

This period is one of developing self view. We’ve detailed some of that in this volume. We explore it more fully when we chronicle the division between Russell and Paton.

We tell you about the publication of Plan of the Ages, exploring Maria Russell’s claim to joint-authorship. We tell you about the first booklets and tracts. We explore the influence of Smith-Warleigh. We present a biography of one of Russell’s early associates, an English writer.

The last chapter, as we have it in our outline now, is a consideration of the first congregations. We explore their nature and development. We tell you something of the individuals who helped found them. This is an interesting story that takes us to a ship’s captain, a man who fled a murder charge to become a newspaper editor, and others equally colorful.

You will find a more complex, more interesting story than is usually told. Personally, I like volume two. I think this volume is important for the background it presents, the clearer picture of Russell’s youth and of those who influenced him. But the story we tell in volume two explains the nature of the movement started with the publication of Zion’s Watch Tower, and that is the heart of this history.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Fretting

I've written and rewritten my introduction. I threw everything out and wrote this instead. Rough Draft follows:


My Turn: Rachael’s Comments

 

Bringing this volume to print isn’t exactly like giving birth, but there are similarities. Original research has its own set of pains, agonies, and irritations. And it has its joys.

 

****

 

            We knew error and fabrication colored how this story has most often been told. We did not appreciate the extent to which this is true. We expected a reasonable amount of competence among those who have tackled Watch Tower history, and we found some authors reliable. Most are not. Even among the most reliable, we found a tendency to turn presumption into “fact.”

            Many of those who preceded us were polemicists. This is true of some who presented themselves as credentialed historians or sociologists, and it is especially true of most clergy who’ve written on the subject. It amazes me that these writers are taken seriously merely because they were published.

            We do not fault anyone for having a point of view. We have our own, and privately we debate issues ranging from our personal theologies to interpretation of historical evidence. However, a point of view should not lead one to turn presumption into ‘fact.” It should not lead one to fabricate.

            The works of some are characterized by logic flaws. An anonymous writer substitutes capital letters for reason, presuming that capitalizing random words proves a point. This reflects a seriously defective education on his part and on the part of those gullible enough to find this convincing. He also withholds from his readers documentation. If the antiquated psychological descriptor “anal retentive” has any validity, it applies here.

We reject this approach. We tell you what our sources are, and though that results in copious footnotes, it leaves no doubt about the trail we followed. Occasionally we tell you where to find rare or otherwise hard to find sources. Don’t ignore the footnotes. We adopted the dictum “the story is in the details,” probing and poking at original sources, following hunches and hints where ever they led.

After reading rough drafts of some of our chapters, another writer suggested that this book is destined to be the classic presentation of Watch Tower history. I appreciated the kind comment, but we see this work as preliminary, as the first step in research that should have been undertaken decades ago. We look for more and better research from others more competent than ourselves or who are willing to follow trails we could not. Where we reached “dead ends,” others may find a trail to follow.

A major flaw in previous research is willingness to parrot unfounded assertions of others. If you take up the themes we’ve opened in this volume, ask this critical question of each writer you consult: “How do you know that?” Check their sources; probe for detail.

The story we tell here is, as Mr. Schulz observed in his introductory essay, different from what we presumed it would be. We presumed a “unity of belief” among Russell and his associates that did not exist. In volume two we will detail the divisions and separations and early controversies that resulted in ecclesiastical unity, a separate religion. Our premise as it finally developed is that a group exploration of Bible teaching resulted in a settled doctrine developed out of debate, difference and controversy. The doctrinal set finally settled on created a new religious unity. It peeled off dissenters who went their own ways.

In this volume we examine the historical and theological roots of Zion’s Watch Tower. That the story is more complex and often different than usually presented should surprise no one. One largely accurate history presents this entire period in six paragraphs. We presume the author told us everything he knew or thought important. The fault isn’t in what he wrote. It is in what he omitted.

Theologically I’m a skeptical believer. I approach historical research in the same way, which means I question everything including commonly believed “facts.” Many of those proved absolutely true. Some proved false. As you explore this first volume, you will encounter the familiar and the new.

The men and women in this story, long dead though they are, produced an emotional response. I came to like some of them. Some of them are remarkably distasteful, mean spirited and delusional. No historian writes an impartial history. But we have written to the full measure of our ability an accurate one. Despite our best efforts, we have probably made some errors of fact. We hope not, but given the depth and complexity of this research – and the newness of some of it – it seems inevitable that we got something wrong. It won’t hurt my feelings if someone points out the flaw, but I expect proof, not mere opinion. I expect critics to be as competent as we are, and I hold them to the same standards of historical research we manifest here.

A number of people have taken an interest in our research, assisting in various ways. We cannot name them all, and some wish to remain anonymous.

            Institutions that were especially helpful included the Methodist archive at Wofford College through Dr. R. Philip Stone; the State University of New York at Plattsburg; Franklin County Ohio through archivist Sandy Eckhart; the Archives of the Episcopal Church at Austin, Texas, through archivist Laura Kata; Ohio State Historical Society through Elizabeth Plummer; Almont District Library though its librarian, Kay Hurd; Junita College through librarian Janice Hartman. I’ve probably left out others equally helpful. I apologize to those I’ve omitted.

            Some institutions were distinctly un-helpful, even hostile. We’re still waiting on replies to emails and letters sent to some several years ago. The Library of Congress was hostile and unhelpful. The National Archives of the United States of America sent us key documents connected to one of Russell’s early associates. They refused to help when we requested other documentation that may hold the Department of Justice in a bad light, even though the material is about a hundred years old. The archivist at Boston University refused to provide photocopies of key material based on her reading of the papers. One of the friends of this research traveled there and made the copies in person.

            Though the Watch Tower Society declined access to a key document, they forwarded nine pages of photocopy, four of which we did not have. They are, of course, not responsible for our research or our conclusions. Given the opportunity to review volume one, they made no comment. They did not sponsor this work.

            Some individuals were exceptionally helpful. This would be a significantly diminished work without their help. Some names that should appear in this list do not because of privacy concerns.

            ** and his wife took time from a business trip to photocopy archival material at an archive that was reluctant to help. This provided key documentation.

            ** provided photocopies of rare material.

            An individual we’ll leave unnamed visited the New York Public Library to view and copy documents we would otherwise not have seen.

            ** of the Netherlands provided significant research assistance, forwarding his “finds” on a regular basis. Key documentation came from his efforts.

            ** of the United Kingdom gave us access to much of the material we used to develop our profile of George Storrs. He helped us analyze a mass of One Faith material and he obtained in our behalf rare magazines and pamphlets. He carefully read our manuscript, challenging some statements and adding to our understanding of some issues. Our greatest debt is to ** and **.

            Dr. ** sent copies of key early booklets. This book would not be as accurate without access to them.

            William Buvinger allowed access to the Buvinger family archives and provided the relevant photos used in this book. Members of the Barbour, von Zech, Wendell, and J. A. Brown families forwarded important material, including wills, family papers and photos.

            Jan Stilson, editor and author of Biographical Encyclopedia, Chronicling the History of the Church of God Abrahamic Faith, 19th & 20th Centuries, shared her research with us and read a key section of this book. She helped us access material from the archives of Atlanta Bible College.

            ** of Italy transcribed the articles found in Appendix 2. He said nice things about us in the two books he edited, and he provided moral support that I found valuable.

            ** and ** helped us overcome copyright issues connected with two photographs. Additionally, we found ** research very helpful.

            ** of Austria provided key help with some of Russell’s earliest associates.

            I’m certain we’ve left off many who helped in various ways. To those not found in this list, I apologize. To those who wish to be anonymous but who helped in various ways, my thanks.

 

Rachael de Vienne

 If you should be on this list and don't see yourself here, email me. I didn't intentionally leave anyone off except those who should remain anonymous.