Picture of Malcolm Rutherford

by cabasilas 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  cabasilas

  Got the Souvenir Notes of the 1911 Bible Students Convention in today. It has several pictures of various Bible Students of the day. I came across this one of Malcolm Rutherford (son of J.F. Rutherford). It's while Russell was still alive and apparently Malcolm was deeply involved with the Bible Students at the time. He is listed as Pastor Russell's stenographer. I know there have been discussions of him before but I don't think anyone has ever posted a link to his picture. It can be seen here:

  http://www.catholic-forum.com/members/popestleo/malcolmrutherford.pdf

  I wonder what led to his apparent disenchantment with the movement? Was it his Dad? Or failed predictions?
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  Lady Liberty

  Thank you for the post! It would be interesting to learn of what ever became of him.

  Sincerely,

  Lady Liberty
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  VM44

  This is a great find cabasilas, thank you for making it availalbe. From social security data Malcolm C. Rutherford was born on Nov. 10, 1892, and died on June 22, 1989, so in 1911, when the picture was taken of him, hew would have been only 19 years old! Interesting that he is Russell's stenographer. Stenography is what Judge Rutherford learned at the beginning of his path to become a lawyer. --VM44
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  cabasilas

  Just came across another gem in the 1911 Report. Paragraph 4 of the Foreword explains the Bible Students' view of Russell as "that servant" (Matthew 24:45). I know when I was a JW I thought that it was primarily after Russell's death that he was seen as the "faithful and wise servant," as a natural reaction to his sudden death. I thought: Well, it was wrong but their emotions got the better of them after he was gone.

  The cult of C.T. Russell as "that servant" was promoted during his life as can be plainly seen here:

  http://www.catholic-forum.com/members/popestleo/1911thatservant.pdf

  Russell may have been more careful not to make very many such bald statements but he allowed his closest friends to do so and did not stop them from so doing.

  It was not a development after his death but was an article of faith during Russell's life.

  I'm hoping to eventually find a way to make the entire Report available. It's pretty brittle and will take some work to do it without damaging it too much.
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  VM44

  The problem with the older Watchtower documents is that they are falling apart literally if you turn the their pages. Scanning them often is destructive to the document. You might get a good scan, but the document is worse off than before. Some have suggested spraying old, brittle pages with hairspray before scanning to help them hold up. This helps in making the scan, but I do not know what effect hairspray has on the document. Probably not a good one. I have some convention reports I would like to scan from the late 1930's, early 1940's, but have put off doing the work as it will require that I remove the staples from them. Perhaps someone here has some scanning techniques that they can share. --VM44
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  VM44

  Cabasilas, how is the 1911 convention report bound? As a hardback book? --VM44
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  VM44

  Here is an idea. Make copies of the pages using a high quality photocopier, such as what Kinko's has. I have found that making photocopies with commercial copiers is a little less damaging to the documents. One reason is that the photocopier takes less time to make a copy than the scanner does. Then you can scan the photocopies without having to handle the original document anymore. --VM44
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  cabasilas

  Interesting ideas. I'd appreciate other suggestions, too. This Convention Report is literally falling apart but it looks like all the pages are there with very little text missing. There's a ton of interesting historical tidbits in such documents.

  Another thought about the idolizing of C.T. Russell as the "faithful and wise servant" during his life-time. Our Bible Student friends may think that's ok as they still believe he was "that servant." But, for a JW, it's a bit more problematic.

  If C.T. Russell permitted his followers to believe and print such plain declarations about himself (and he even printed a couple of such similar statements in the Watch Tower magazine itself), what does that say about his personality? Certainly, he had a very inflated view of himself. To be more blunt...he was quite arrogant. And God was using this guy?
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  cabasilas

  VM44...it's bound as a sewn softcover. I think your idea of photocopying it first is a good one. I'll try a few pages and see how it goes.
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  VM44

  "I wonder what led to his apparent disenchantment with the movement? Was it his Dad? Or failed predictions?"

  It might be because in 1916 Father Rutherford left Mother Rutherford in California and ran off to Brooklyn to become the president the Watchtower corporation. This was Father Rutherford's big chance in life, and he took it!

  From 1916 to 1942 Father Rutherford saw very little of his wife Mary, perhaps he never visited her at all during that time. Mary Rutherford certainly did not reside at Beth Sarim when Rutherford came to California. She lived in Monrovia in the Los Angeles area.

  Simply put, Joseph Rutherford was estranged from his wife Mary!

  This was probably enough for Malcolm not to want anything to do with the religion after 1916.

  --VM44