by cabasilas 40 Replies latest watchtower bible
I'd think that some records must be on file somewhere as to who is buried where.
I found a few places online that say they have records of this sort, but you have to go to the facility to search. They are not available with the click of a mouse
If somebody could go there that would be awesome. I think that asking the Church for information about the history of the plot wouldn't be a bad idea either. I may just have to give them a call.
So, it's not "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" after all!
It's "Who's buried in Judge Rutherford's grave?"
Amazing that the grave of a man who had such a public life is lost to history, at least for now.
I acutally think the biggest find may be at the church. I would bet that they have old records filed away that show who is buried where.
Here's a line in a 1942 Time magazine reporting the NY burial of the Judge:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,777771,00.html
But, they may have been relying on Consolation for their source.
Just found this description of the cemetery:
Hope the link works. Supposedly it's in back of the Methodist church if I read it right. Woodworth, Van Amburgh, Judge Rutherford all together.
All the graves are unmarked.
Makes it harder to prove if JFR is actually buried there or not.
The link provided by Cabasilas said there are no markers on the Watchtower plot, and the Methodist Church had no records of who is buried there.
Also it showed that some where cremated and then buried there.
It was described as 100 feet x 100 feet by the responsible person.
Comparing the information in the book the the google maps images I have a pretty good idea as to where the grave lot is. Here is a little thing I threw togeather in photoshop:
as you can see that property in the front is around 100 feet deep and 50 feet wide. This gives us some proportions to work with. The untouched area in the back of the church (market with a green square) fits the dimentions of the 100x100 lot people have talked about.
Now all we need are some property records to confirm.
Just wanted to add that I find the stoires about JFR being buried in Beth Sarim to be highly suspect. They rely heavily upon anecdotal tales that, while creating an interesting plot twist, are nothing more than speculation.
Taking into consieration the type of guy Nathan Knorr was, breaking the law and burying JFR on Beth Sarim doesn't particuallry seem his style. But sticking him in an unmarked plot of land owned by the society does. I see no reason why we should quesiton the offical statments of the society in this respect. But that's just me.
The fact that it is a methodist church means little imo. Currently the area is surrounded by suburban homes. This may have been different in 1940. We really don't know. The book mentions that the radio station was very close to the gravesite, which provides a little perspective.
There have been more than one reports that Da Judge was buried in Beth Sarim. Ed Gruss also reports that Fred Franz stated that Rutherford was buried in Beth Sarim.
Only 4 people attended the funeral of the "greatest living Bible scholar." Knorr wasn't one of them. Franz wasn't one of them. Rutherford's wife and son weren't there.
I once had a genuine copy of that 1942 Consolation and read it thoroughly somewhere in the late 1960's. I vividly remember the "slant" the Society put on the controversy: all Da Judge wanted to do was be buried somewhere in the 100 acres or so in the canyon surrounding his beloved Beth Sarim, or even Beth Shan, but the demonized San Diego politicians at the behest of Satan himself sabotaged that request.
The society even formed a Cemetary Corporation for the sole purpose of trying to comply with the law and to get Da Judge buried on his property. Then there are the eyewitness stories about Rutherford being taken for burial at night!
I'm in the camp that thinks the Society had such little regard for the law that they smuggled Rutherford's body to San Diego and buried him somewhere in Beth Sarim.
I've seen pictures of the gravestones at the famous "launching pad" where many WTS notables are buried, but didn't see a gravestone for Da Judge.
The only wish I have about Da Judge's burial is that he's buried someplace where he can't get out and do any more damage!
Farkel
After posting my comments I kind of thought about that Consolation article a bit. The amount of effort that went into arguing for a burial at Beth Sarim does show an odd amount of persistance that gives backing to the story.
Who exactly are the eyewitnesses to the late night burial?
I've seen pictures of the gravestones at the famous "launching pad" where many WTS notables are buried, but didn't see a gravestone for Da Judge.
Yes, but that's at Walkill I believe. The cemetary where Rutherford was claimed to have been buried by the society is on Woodrow Street in Staten Island (verified by the info posted througout this thread). So either he is actually at Woodrow or he was secretly placed at Beth Sarim.
