Arabella Mann & Mary J. Whitehouse on Russell’s Pyramid?

by betterdaze 1 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  betterdaze

  Following info is culled from:
  
  Cemetery Inscriptions from
  United Cemeteries
  226 Cemetery Lane
  Pittsburgh, PA 15237-2722
  
  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/%7Enjm1/united2002.htm
  
  
  RUSSELL, Charles T., Feb 16, 1852-Oct 31, 1916, "Pastor RUSSELL, The Laddicean Messenger"
  
  RUSSELL, Charles T., no dates, age 64, "Dead With Christ" and I.B.S.A. at top of monument, same stone as Arabella MANN & Mary J. WHITEHOUSE
  
  Okay, the first listing is definitely the headstone, the second has got to be the pyramid monument.
  
  
  MANN, Arabella, no dates, age 86, I.B.S.A. at top of monument, same stone as Mary J. WHITEHOUSE & Charles T. RUSSELL
  
  WHITEHOUSE, Mary J., no dates, age 61, I.B.S.A. at top on monument, same stone as Arabella MANN & Charles T. RUSSELL
  
  Can anyone explain who these women were, and why their names are inscribed on the pyramid, yet they have no headstones? I've haven't noticed their names in any photos. Google isn't much help.
  
  ~Sue
• 

  Nathan Natas

  Many times I have wished that *someone* would document all the names on the Pittsburgh Pyramid, but as far as I know, no one has -- yet.

  My guess would be that Arabella Mann and Mary J. Whtehouse were just two of the many nameless, faceless women who lived and "served" at either the old Pittsburgh Bible House or Brooklyn Bethel.

  Someone has to do the menial, day-to-days chores --- the washing, bedmaking, and cooking, and you can bet your bippy it wasn't Brother Russell or any of his divinely appointed amigos.

  There is virtually no memory of ANY Women of the Watchtower. Almeta Nation Robison was one. She was the wife of Fredrik H. Robison, who was Russell's personal secretary at one time. We are told - not by the WTB&TS, of course - that she was an osteopath. Quite likely she attended to the medical needs of the Bethelites, but she was nobody. Luie T. Van Amburgh was another. While her husband Bill was an exalted member of the "inner sanctum" - he was secretary treasurer of the WTB&TS for something like 43 years, SHE contneted herself with... what? Well, we don't know if she was a charwoman at Bethel or what. She was a woman; she didn't count. Luie died before Bill did, and so she was treated to an anonymous burial (of her ashes, likely) at the Watchtower plot located on Staten Island at a Methodist Church, just as Bill later got. We wouldn't want to engage in any 'creature worship," would we? O no! all our adoration should rightly go to the One, the Only - Judge Rutherford.

  The case of Almeta is different - when Fred left the WTB&TS in the early 1930's, she left with him. His grave can be found today, but hers? Not so easy.