Posts by Athanasius

56

For All Who Are Going to the Convention This Year

by drew sagan in

jw
friends

for most of us who are going to the 'delieverance at hand' district convention we want to be low on the radar.

but wouldn't it be terrible if we missed out meeting someone else from the board while we attended the same convention?

listing what convention your going to might be to much of a give away for some people, but i really don't care.

Athanasius

Anybody know when the DCs in Northern California will be held? They used to have several in San Francisco about this time.

18

Pics of Rutherford

by saved in

jw
friends

.

does anyone have pictures of rutherford & his cadillacs or better yet, driving it while smoking cigas?

.

Sorry if there was some confusion in my first post when I used the "term period in question," rather than clarifying which years were meant. I thought it was understood that the period in question was when Rutherford finished his schooling at the Hooper Institute in Clarksburg and the start of his appointment as court stenographer in Morgan and Cole Counties, which were the years 1887-1888. These would be the lost years so to speak during which Covington and the Proclaimers book (pg. 67) say Joe was a traveling book salesman, fell into an icy stream, caught pneumonia and almost died.

If there is a non-Watchtower source for the icy stream story, I haven't seen it.

While Joe Rutherford door-to-door book salesman is probably a myth, the future JW leader did enjoy reading and understood the value of books, later acquiring large personal and legal library including some of the writings of the Russells.

57

Barbara Anderson- Your new book on Russell

by IW in

jw
friends

barbara,.

i read this recently on the biblestudents.net forum:i know barbara, we use to talk on the phone, when she learned i was writing a history of pastor russell and the ibsa.

in the countless hours we spent on the phone.

Athanasius

Hi IW,

Though most of my research has been on Joseph F. Rutherford and not Pastor Russell, Maria Russell coauthored and probably wrote most of the first five volumes of Studies in the Scriptures. Interestingly after Russell and his wife separated in 1897, he only published one more book, The New Creation, volume 6 of the Studies in the Scriptures. In the early years Maria was an associate editor and secretary-treasurer of the Watch Tower and a capable writer in her own right.

You might find Jim Penton's Apocalypse Delayed helpful. On page 36 he mentions Maria's coauthoring of the early volumes of Studies in the Scriptures and gives his source information.

18

Pics of Rutherford

by saved in

jw
friends

.

does anyone have pictures of rutherford & his cadillacs or better yet, driving it while smoking cigas?

.

Athanasius

Hi Leolaia,

Rutherford's teaching years were 1887-1888. He taught at two schools, Pleasant Grove and Carpenter, both in Syracuse. He was appointed court stenographer in 1889 and moved to Boonville in April 1890, where he met Mary Fetzer whom he married in December 1891. Interestingly Rutherford got his marriage license before he received his license to practice law. In 1892 he made a formal application to practice law before the bar at Boonville. A committee of five members of the Boonville bar were appointed to examine the young stenographer to see whether his knowledge of legal procedures was sufficent to permit him to practice. The committee granted his license to practice law in Cooper County in May 1892. His marriage into the socially prominent Fetzer family no doubt opened doors for him, though Joe was also a very capable and responsible young man with his own connections.

Rutherford's first contact with Russellism wasn't until 1894. This is confirmed by a letter that he wrote and which was reprinted in the April 15, 1894 Zion's Watch Tower. But Joe didn't really get involved with the sect, other than buying a few books, until 1906. Some Watchtower sources claim he became active in 1904, but contemporaty sources indicate that this too is myth. On May 6, 1904 Hayden Samson, a prominent Watch Tower speaker addressed a group of interested persons at the Turner Hall in Boonville where Rutherford still resided with his wife and son. Samson's speaking tour had been advertised and booked months in advance, so Joe had time to arrange his affairs to be in attendance had he wanted to. So where was Joe on this special night? Rutherford was hundreds of miles away in Independence, Kansas on a business trip. Also in the fall of 1904 Joe was on the stump campaigning for Democratic candidates for local and national office. Remember that Russell's view of politics and politicians was the same as that of the JWs today. The earliest non-Watchtower source that I was able to find that indicated Rutherford's involvement with the Watch Tower was a Boonville newspaper article dated September 27, 1907. The paper said that Joe had quit his legal practice to take up the lecture circuit for the Watch Tower.

However, at his 1918 trial Rutherford testified that 1906 was the year he accepted the Watch Tower and made a consecration to the Lord. Since Joe didn't have any reason to lie about this under oath, 1906 is probably the year that he first got seriously involved with the Watch Tower. Thus 1906 was the year that launched the theological career of the man who would mold Russell's sect into a religion of misery for millions of innocent people.

18

Pics of Rutherford

by saved in

jw
friends

.

does anyone have pictures of rutherford & his cadillacs or better yet, driving it while smoking cigas?

.

Athanasius

Hi Leolaia,

The story about young Joe Rutherford going door to door selling encyclopedia sets, falling into a stream of icy water, and almost losing his life to pneumonia, is probably a Watchtower myth. During the period in question Rutherford was the primary teacher at Carpenter Elementary school in Syracuse. The school board liked him so much that they wanted to extend his contract for another year. But Joe declined the offer and accepted appointment as court stenographer, a position that would better advance his career in politics. While contemporary accounts frequently mention Rutherford's business activities and his travel, nothing is said about him selling books, nor is there mention about him suffering from a bout with pneumonia that almost cost him his life.

No doubt Hayden Covington heard the tale of "shoeless Joe Rutherford door-to-door book salesman," from the Judge himself. It does make a good propaganda piece, Rutherford going door-to-door trying to make a living while enduring extreme weather and getting doors slammed in his face. This would especially appeal to the JWs of the 1930s and 1940s who were trying to survive by selling Rutherford's books door-to-door and enduring similar hardships. Such a story couldn't help but motivate the flock to strive for more sales.

48

LETS GET LOST

by Elsewhere in

jw
friends

the season finale is tonight!!

!

Athanasius

The two guys in the Arctic/Antarctic were not speaking Russian. I watched the episode with my fiancee who is Russian, and she said they were not speaking Russian, not even the bad Russian typical of American actors trying to impersonate Russians. My fiancee thought the two guys might be speaking Romanian, which is also a Romance language.

26

Where did Rutherford go to school?

by VM44 in

the story is that rutherford was so determined to go off to school that he hired a man to take his place as a worker on his father's farm.. eventually rutherford got a job in a lawyer's office, but i do not recall that the school that rutherfrod attended has ever been mentioned.. shorthand is the only subject by name that it is known that rutherford studied.. what this indicates to me is that rutherford attended some sort of trade school rather than a college.. if he had attended and graduated from a college, rutherford would have certainly listed it as one of his accomplishments.

he was that type of person.. --vm44

Athanasius

The Watchtower story that Rutherford's father opposed his pursuit of higher education and that young Joe had to take out a loan to hire replacement to work on his father's farm while he was away at school has no historical basis. True the senior Rutherford at the time was expanding his farm and adding a new well, but this work was completed before Joe went off to school. Though Rutherford never attended the University, he did attend a teachers college, or normal school as they were called in those days, for one year. Joe's older sisters were school teachers and no doubt they encouraged him in this field. Thus in March 1888 he was hired to teach elementry school in Syracuse, Missouri. He proved to be a popular teacher and well liked by the school board. Nevertheless, young Joe did not pursue a career in the field of public education.

In November 1889 Joe took the examination for court stenographer in Morgan County and passed with flying colors. The law required applicants to be able to write 600 words in shorthand in five minutes. Rutherford wrote 600 words in three and one half minutes. He got the job and that was the beginning of his legal and political career.

My book has an entire chapter on Rutherford's education and unlike the Watchtower history book, all my sources are footnoted and documented.

So both the Watchtower and its critics are wrong regarding Rutherford's education. True he never attended university or law school, but he did have a year of higher education, a year that he used wisely to learn the skills that he would need in the fields of public education, politics, and religion.

13

How to Get WT Publications

by Broken Hearted in

okay remember i am non jw so how can i get the wt publications or them on cd or without going to my local kingdom hall?

just want to be able to relate to what is being taught and to do my own analyzisis so that when i am having conversations with the jw guy i have fallen in love with i will have my scriptures to back up the publication researched and any questions i have ready?

Athanasius

Here in California we have Friends of the Library book sales where lots of second hand books are made available for a minimum cost. The sale I attended last month had a number of JW publications in the religion section. Or you could try the Thrift shops they also will have JW books.

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