I'm surprised no one has brought up in this discussion the underlying anti-Masonic rhetoric in the northeast US (particularly upstate New York) during the 1800's. The Wikipedia article would be a good place to start:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Masonic_Party
Maybe this doesn't have a direct connection to Russell, but it provides some context to the historical environment in which he lived.
The point being that there have been many people over the years who have had (and still do have) a deep suspicion of the 'secrecy' of the FreeMasons.