I just read this. The author was one of mom's friends and an ethical writer. I recommend this:
https://truthhistory.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-ross-libel-trial.html
The King vs. J. J. Ross
by vienne 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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vienne
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EasyPrompt
I remember reading Ross' publication that exposed Russell's affair with Rose Ball and other sketchy stuff...
https://archive.org/details/somefactsmorefac0000ross/page/n3/mode/2up
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vienne
Unfortunately, Ross was a notorious liar. He claimed an education he did not possess and he purposely misquoted the transcript.
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EasyPrompt
I thought it was Russell who did that when he went by the title "Pastor" and purposely misquoted the Bible to support false doctrines (like abandoning his wife and claiming it was for scriptural reasons).
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EasyPrompt
There are some quotes of the transcript from The Brooklyn Daily, an afternoon daily newspaper published in NYC from 1841-1955, at one time the largest daily circulating afternoon newspaper in the US. Ross' transcript quotes seem to match the ones in the newspaper. The newspaper cites its transcript source as "taken from the official report of the case on file in the office of Prothonotary of Alleghany County."
https://www.newspapers.com/image/54459467/?terms=
(Published in "The Brooklyn Daily" Volume 72, No. 300., New York City, Sunday October 29, 1911)
"GIRL KISSED PASTOR AND SAT ON HIS KNEE
But Mr. Russell of the Tabernacle Only Submitted to it to Be Kind.
MAY HAVE FELT HER PULSE.
He Sometimes Ministered to the Sick, Locked in Another Girl's Room Innocently.
(Special to The Eagle.)
Pittsburg, October 2 - The suit for a separation brought by Martha F. Russell against Charles Taze Russell, her husband, popularly known as Pastor Russell, who has just entered a libel suit against The Brooklyn Eagle, is remembered here as one of the most sensational court proceedings in the history of Alleghany County.
Pastor Russell's advertising methods had already attracted a good deal of attention to himself, and while many referred to him as "the crank preacher of Alleghaany," his unusual lecttures and effective publicity methods drew good-sized crowds to his Bible House on Arch street. When the fact that Pastor Russell's wife was suing him for a separation became public much general interest was aroused and the courtroom was thronged during the proceedings.
The testimony which elicited the most comment concerned the relations of Pastor Russell with Rose Ball, a young stenographer employed by Pastor Russell in the Bible House on Arch street. This testimony was given by Mrs. Russell on direct examination on Thursday, April 26, 1906. It was ruled out by the Court on the ground that the incidents to which reference was made were said to have occurred on a date which precedes the dates mentioned in Mrs. Russell's bill of complaint. Pastor Russell recurred to the incidents when he went on the stand several days later, and gave his version of what had happened. Rose Ball was not called to the stand, as she left for Australia shortly before the case came to trial.
The verbatim record of this testimony, taken from the official report of the case on file in the office of Prothonotary of Alleghany County, is as follows:
Q. I want you to tell us what your husband did in company with this woman Rose, in your presence and in your home.
A. In the first place, I considered it - (Objected to and witness was no permitted to finish.)
Q. Tell us what you saw and what he said what was done.
A. One evening I spent the evening downstairs, and our library and bedroom were next to each other upstairs on the second floor, and I spent the evening downstairs reading, and I went upstairs about 10 o'clock to my room, and I suppose that he was either in the library or had retired, and when I went up there I found that he was in neither place, and I stepped out in the hall and I found that he was in his night robe, sitting beside Miss Ball's bed and she was in bed. On other occasions I found him going in there and I found she called him in and said she wasn't well and wanted him in, and I objected to this, and I said that it was highly improper, and I said: "We have people about the house, and what kind of a name will be attached to this house if you do that sort of thing?" and he got angry.
Pastor's Wife Tells of His Alleged Nightly Visits.
Q. You state that you found him doing this at other times. How often after that?
A. I found him a number of times; I don't remember how often.
Q. In her room?
A. Yes, sir. And I found him in the servant girl's room as well, and I found him locked in the servant girl's room.
Q. Did he make any explanation why he was in the girl's room?
A. No, he did not; he just got angry.
Q. What did you say to him about his conduct and what did he say?
A. I said to him: "We have a great work on our hands," and I said, "In this work you and I have to walk very circumspectly before the world, and if you are going to do things like this, what will happen? Suppose you are all right, don't you suppose people will talk about things like this?" and I said, "I am not satisfied with it," and he said he wasn't going to be ruled by me. But I felt distressed about this."
Q. What did Rose do at the Watch Tower?
A. She attended to the correspondence.
Q. Where was her desk with reference to the desk of Mr. Russell of the Watch Tower Society?
A. It wasn't near his; it was in the office.
Q. When would he go to the Watch Tower in the morning?
A. I don't remember; he generally went down alone.
Q. Who would return with him?
A. She came with him in the evening and they came about 11 o'clock, and the young men that were in the office - she was the only girl, and the young men would go home, and he wouldn't allow her to go home with them, and she must wait and always go with him.
(Objected to.)
Q. I want the mere fact. Did this girl Rose go home with your husband?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And the young men came home ahead of them?
"Yes, sir.
Q. State to the court and jury what talk, if any, you had with this girl Rose, in regard to her relations with your husband, which you communicated to your husband?
This question was objected to and it was changed to read as follows:
Q. You are to tell what you stated to your husband that Rose had said and his reply to you.
Mrs. Russell Says Girl Told Her of Pastor's Caresses
A. I told him that I had learned something that was very serious, and I didn't tell him right away. I let a day elapse until I felt I had control of myself and could talk and then I told him that I had something very serious to tell him about this matter, and he said, "What is it?" and I said, "Rose has told me that you have been intimate with her, that you have been in the habit of hugging and kissing her and having her sit on your knee and fondling each other, and he tells me you bid her under no account to tell me, but she couldn't keep it any longer. She said if I was distressed about it she felt that she would have to come and make a confession to me, and she has done that.
(By the court.)
Q. What did he say?
A. He tried to make light of it at first and I said, "Husband, you can't do that. I know the whole thing. She has told
Continued on page 3"
(There was a typo in the newspaper and the story actually continues on page 6)
"GIRL KISSED PASTOR AND SAT ON HIS KNEE
Continued From Page 1.
me straight and I know it to be true." Well, he said he was sorry; it was true, but he was sorry. He said he didn't mean any harm. I said, "I don't see how you could do an act like that without meaning harm."
Q. What year was that?
A. In the fall of 1894.
(By Mr. Porter, attorney for the plaintiff.)
Q. Did you state to your husband at this meeting any endearing terms?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What were they?
A. I said, "She tells me that one evening you came home - " I asked her when did these things occur. I said to him, "She says they occurred down at the office when she stayed down there with him in the evening after the rest had gone, and at home at any time when I wasn't around."
Q. Now, about the endearing terms?
A. She said one evening when she came home with him, just as she got inside the hall, it was late in the evening, about 11 o'clock, he put his arms around her and kissed her. This was in the vestibule before they entered the hall, and he called her his little wife, but she said "I am not your wife," and he said, "I will call you daughter, and a daughter has nearly all the privileges of a wife."
Q. What other terms were used?
A. Then he said, "I am like a jellyfish. I float around here and there. I touch this one and that one, and if she responds I take her to me, and if not, I float on to others"; and she wrote that out so that I could remember it for sure when I would speak to him about it. And he confessed that he said those things.
Pastor Russell's explanation of the above incidents is contained in the following verbatim extract from his testimony given on the stand on Friday, April 27, 1906:
Q. Did you ever at any time undertake to humiliate, or did you ever do any act or say any words, such as using the expression, "jellyfish," or anything that would hurt Mrs. Russell's feelings in any way?
A. Nothing intentional, sir. If I might I would like to explain. We had in our family this Miss Ball that was referred to. Might I mention that?
Q. Yes, if there is anything of that kind.
A. We had a young man in the office by the name of Charles Ball, who came to us from Buffalo, and was deeply interested.
Q. What has that to do with the girl?
A. This was her brother. She wanted to come because her brother was here. After her brother died, she was lonely, and Mrs. Russell and I both thought a great deal of her. She was a very young-looking girl, wore short dresses, and Mrs. Russell and I thought it would be best to have her come into the room - in the same room with us - so she would read in our study in the evening. We had a large study. She kissed us both goodnight when she was going to bed, and we treated her in every way as a daughter, and told her that we considered her such, and she told us she considered us as her parents. This might be considered by Mrs. Russell as being something offensive, but I will explain it. This Miss Ball one evening came to me in the front room - or, rather, I heard someone sobbing, and I turned around to see, and she was crying at her desk, and I inquired what was the matter, and she didn't answer for quite a while, and finally she jumped up and came over and sat down on my knee, and was still crying, and I inquired what was the matter, what could be the matter. She said Mrs. Russell had been overworking her or something, and I tried to show her that she was mistaken, that Mrs. Russell wouldn't do anything of the kind, and I tried to allay her feelings.
"Another time she came and sat on my knee when there was some young man who was giving her attention more than she liked, and had been making himself unpleasant, and she was worked up and was crying. But she merely came to me as a father."
Q. She had been with you for some time?
A. Yes, sir; she had no relatives there, and we told her she could call herself by our name. She said the only reason she didn't do that she was afraid if her father heard of it he would think she had lost her self-respect for him.
Q. You treated her as a daughter in your home?
A. Yes, sir; she looked to be about 13. I don't know how old she was.
Q. She may have been older?
A. I heard someone say that she was only 10. She was a very young looking woman.
Q. Wore short dresses?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And grew up in your home?
A. Yes, sir, I should say that some time later Mrs. Russell told me that Miss Ball had come to her and said that there was one thing she should tell her - that she had kissed me at some time when she wasn't present.
Q. She went to tell her about that?
A. Yes, sir. Miss Ball was very conscientious and she thought that this was something Mrs. Russell should know, and when Mrs. Russell mentioned it to me I said, "That is so, that was all right, there was nothing improper about that," and I explained to Mrs. Russell -
Q. There was no further trouble about that?
A. No.
Q. They have mentioned that matter when you were found in her room.
A. I don't remember the occurrence, but it is very likely it would be true that Mrs. Russell might have come in and found me by the bedside with her hand in mine. I suppose I was feeling her pulse, I don't know anything else. It would be a common occurrence; I gave medicine in the family, and not only to our own family, but Mrs. Russell's sister living in the adjoining place. I used to be the family physician over there; they sent to me always for medicine. I happened to have some knowledge of medicine, but if anybody would get bad we would send for a regular physician.
Q. Anything of that kind that occurred was just in the interest of family health?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. You would just as likely have gone into one house as another?
A. Yes, sir. Another matter Mrs. Russell mentioned to me years ago, when she was intimating that she might bring a suit. This was in 1896, ten years ago, and she was intimating she might bring suit. She said: "It would look very badly for you if I would tell the court that I found you once in the room with Emily." I can't think of the name, Matthews, since married. "And that the door was locked." I said, "Dear, you understand all about that. You know that was the room in which the slops were emptied and the water was carried, and that was the morning that Emily Matthews was sick, and you told me of it and asked me to go up and see her, and when they were running out and in with water pails I turned the key for half a minute until I would have a chance to hear quietly what she had to say, and there wasn't the slightest impropriety in anything that was done." I would just as soon that everybody in this room would be present.
Q. It was simply to keep the people from running in and out?
A. Yes, sir. The slops were emptied in that room, and there was a pump and it made a great deal of noise when they operated the pump.
Q. There was some expression used here about a jellyfish?
A. No, sir, I never made use of such an expression. I hope I don't look idiotic enough to say that. In my opinion, any man that claims to be a jellyfish would have no sense at all. I would like to be given credit for having some backbone.
Mrs. Russell did not resume the stand. She said out of court that Rose Ball was about 18 years old when she entered the Russell household. She denies that any slops were carried through the room in which she found her husband locked in with Emily Matthews."
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vienne
Wrong transcript. That's from the 1907 suit for separate maintenance. Not from the Ross trial. And it omits Russell's rebuttal.
In the Russell era, most pastors especially among Methodists, Baptists, and some of the smaller sects where ordained by congregation election. And most were not college graduates. Some branches of the Methodist Church did not require a university education until 1940. Russell was 'ordained' in the same way, that is by congregation election.
His doctrines were on the fringe. But ordination is a false issue. If we blacken Russell's reputation instead of refuting his doctrine, we fall into one of the worst of logic flaws. And as far was this section of the divorce [from bed and board] trial went, where does Mrs. Russell claim he was immoral? On cross she specifically said she was not making that claim. She also failed to call or get an affidavit from Rose Ball, whose address she very well knew, so all of this is an unsupported claim. Read the entire transcript.
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vienne
Each denomination set it's own method of ordination. The charge that Russell wasn't 'ordained' was no more than saying, "we didn't ordain him, so he's not ordained." But the same standard was not applied by Baptists to Lutherans. It is a red herring.
The Brooklyn Eagle chose segments of the divorce transcript to help bolster it's case. It was being sued by Russell. So it was running a propaganda campaign. And as such, it omitted anything that refuted Mrs. Russell's testimony.
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EasyPrompt
I thought you were the one who brought up that court case, since it is the one I was referring to in my first post on this thread. But that doesn't matter. My point in sharing it and the Brooklyn article was to show that Russell is the one who has a history of lying and of not following the clear direction in the scriptures but instead twisting it.
https://www.newspapers.com/article/8218803/charles_taze_russell_2161907/
"NOTHING FOR WIFE NOW. Rev. C. T. Russell Says That He Has Heeded All To Religious Rev.
Charles T. Russell, of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, of Arch street. Allegheny, whose wife, Mrs. Maria T. Russell, secured a.
divorce, several months ago and later filed a petition for alimony, filed an answer in Court to a rule granted on him to show cause why he should not pay the alimony. Mrs. Russell stated that Russell's income from the Watch Tower Society alone was a year and that in addition he was the owner of valuable real estate and had various interests in oil lands, mining properties and commercial companies. In his answer Mr. Russell makes the claim that he has no income at all, but receives only-food and shelter "and an allowance of a year for clothing" from the Watch Tov.
er Society. Everything else he owned he alleges he has donated to the society for the advancement of the work it is engaged in. Mr. Russell admits owning a large number of shares in the Watch Tower Society, but states that it is-only for voting purposes, and that the holders of stock derive no income, as all money Is expended in the work. He states that he did own the property on Cedar avenue.
Allegheny, mentioned in his wife's petition, but when Quarter Sessions Court ordered him to pay Mrs. Russell a month he deeded the property to tbe Watch Tower Society, which agreed to assume the payment. In regard to stock owned by him in various companies Mr. Russell claims that much of It is worthless and that all has been transferred to the Watch Tower Socitv. Interests in oil lands which he owned he states he also transferred to the society.
In concluding his answer Mr. Russell says that all his possessions are consecrated to the religious work he is engaged in.."
Here is C.T. Russell's own testimony quoted from The Watchtower, 1972, 6/15, page 384
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1972449
"...and when she desired to come back I totally refused, except upon a promise that she should make reasonable acknowledgement of the wrong course she had been pursuing for a year, and give some assurance of being a friend and not an enemy."
Russell is a liar. If he was following Bible counsel, he would have taken care of his wife regardless of whether he thought she was an "apostate" or not. The Bible says that anyone not taking care of his own family is worse than one who has disowned the faith. Since its foundation, the WTBT$ has a history of covering for abusers and "disfellowshipping" anyone who tells the truth. That's what Russell did to his own wife.
There were clearly "two witnesses" - Rose Ball and Maria Russell, but the WTBT$ chose not to listen to them because they were women. (You didn't exactly see CT Russell going to secure an affidavit from Rose Ball did you? He could have had her give testimony in order to clear his name if in fact he was innocent. He wasn't innocent. For some strange reason, when all the court stuff starts happening Rose Ball goes off to Australia. I wonder how she could afford that trip, since she was supposedly "alone in the world". 🙄)
The WTBT$ has a way of omitting anything that doesn't support their propaganda campaign. It's the same reason they don't want anyone to watch The Photodrama of Creation, because people will see what a quack and a fraud Russell was...
Most of the Photodrama of Creation, in four youtube videos...
1 of 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7X9RnIO9pw&list=PLzKdkZE7J8Zq7KTdOxDzekG7KSzpcHPpz
(at minute 57:25, Russell says crazy stuff about Adam being Egyptian and also Noah was a Pharoah)
2 of 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuWMGMIkIK8&list=PLzKdkZE7J8Zq7KTdOxDzekG7KSzpcHPpz&index=2
(at minute 3:45, Russell says some wacky stuff about Melchizedek building one of the great pyramids and how it delineates history in advance by means of the length of the pyramid passages)
3 of 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glXYJvnf_Pk&list=PLzKdkZE7J8Zq7KTdOxDzekG7KSzpcHPpz&index=3
(at minute 12:30, Russell applies the vision of dry bones from Ezekiel to the modern Jews and the Zionist movement)
4 of 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi_YxugXm_I&list=PLzKdkZE7J8Zq7KTdOxDzekG7KSzpcHPpz&index=4
(at minute 48:53, Russell says the Daniel verse about "knowledge being increased" in the end times is fulfilled because of many governments having libraries)
CT Russell is not trustworthy. He is not "a faithful witness". He made stuff up all the time.
Proverbs 14:5
"A faithful witness will not lie,
But a false witness lies with every breath."
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vienne
I see you can cut and paste. but none of this is relevant to the Ross case.
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EasyPrompt
I know you can cut and paste too. Maybe you could share the transcript of the Ross case so we can see the "evidence" of your allegations against Ross?
As regards Russell, not only is he like a "jellyfish" but he is also like a "barracuda", a predator known for its ferocious behavior. The WTBT$ he founded is the same way. Their foundation is not the Christ - their foundation is Russell. Their foundation is cracked, and the entire structure will be burned down, in harmony with Jesus' words:
Matthew 7:17-27
"Every tree not producing fine fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Really, then, by their fruits you will recognize those men.
"Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of the heavens, but only the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them: ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!’
"Therefore, everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does them will be like a discreet man who built his house on the rock. And the rain poured down and the floods came and the winds blew and lashed against that house, but it did not cave in, for it had been founded on the rock. Furthermore, everyone hearing these sayings of mine and not doing them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain poured down and the floods came and the winds blew and struck against that house, and it caved in, and its collapse was great.”
The collapse of the WTBT$ is here. Jesus foretold it. Its collapse will be great.