Good evening all..
Thank you for your input. You may find this very interesting straight from Barbara Anderson on a earlier thread:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/99745/1.ashx
Great material on Conley, West70. When I was researching for the Proclaimer's book, I had GB permission to go anywhere in Bethel to search for Watchtower historical or archival material. During one research expedition, I made an extraordinary find, that of the first accounts book of the Watch Tower Association, established in 1881. I found the book buried in old files which were in file cabinets located in the concrete vault in the middle of the Treasury Dept. at 25 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn. And nobody in Bethel knew it was there. And the dead don't tell tales! It is a small red cardboard-covered spiral notebook. On the backside of the cardboard cover was a folded sheet which had been glued there. When I opened the cover and unfolded the sheet, I saw the first charter of the WT Society. It probably hadn't seen the light of day in many, many decades. The charter was handwritten in beautiful script. Later, when I compared the handwritings of people in the early Bible Student group, I found that it was Maria Russell who penned the charter. It was a thrilling discovery and really took the men, who were working on the Proclaimer's book, by surprise. Nobody, and I'll say it again, Nobody knew that Conley was the first president of the Watchtower Society.
The book also revealed that Joseph Russell, C.T. Russell's father, was the vice-president, and C. T. was secretary-treasurer. The positions were attained by buying shares and the person who purchased the most shares at $10.00 per share became president, etc. I think Conley purchased $3,500 or $4,000 worth of shares, but I just can't trust my memory. However, I'm certain that Joseph Russell bought $1,000 worth of shares, or 100 shares because I verified that information through another source. And I think C. T. Russell bought 50 shares or $500.worth of shares, but don't quote me on that. The accounts book was only in my hand for a short period of time and in the excitement I didn't reopen the book to take a second look but took it directly to Karl Adams in the Writing Department.
One thing for sure, in 1884, C. T. Russell owned the most shares when he and Mrs. Russell chartered the new Pennsylvania corporation because he became president.
During my last day at work before I permanently left Bethel, David Iannelli, a senior writer, came up to me to say goodbye. He thanked me for my work with the Writing Department and said I should be very proud because if it wasn't for my research, nobody would have known that C. T. Russell was not the first president of the Watchtower Association, rather Conley was. I certainly was happy to have discovered that and many other historical facts previously not known by the modern-day group of JWs. But the happiness was fleeting because it was about a year later that I began to learn the facts about the Watchtower's sexual child abuse cover-up and every good thing I thought I had accomplished in "God's" organization became as nothing in my eyes.
Barbara
