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Authority and accountability · Claim record

Russell died on 31 October 1916. Within weeks two of the five men named to his Editorial Committee had resigned and J. F. Rutherford, whom the will listed only among possible replacements, had joined it; on 6 January 1917 Rutherford was elected president of the Society.

Claim ID claim-authority-succession-1917Concerns 6 January 1917Context
Context · 6 January 1917 Verified

Russell died on 31 October 1916. Within weeks two of the five men named to his Editorial Committee had resigned and J. F. Rutherford, whom the will listed only among possible replacements, had joined it; on 6 January 1917 Rutherford was elected president of the Society. Jehovah's Witnesses—Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993), 1993The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, 1 December 1916

The organisation’s position or later explanation: Proclaimers quotes A. H. Macmillan's recollection that “throughout his life Russell had been ‘the Society’”, and says most Bible Students simply wanted the work to continue, while some “seemed more concerned with trying to copy his qualities and develop a sort of cult around him”.

Show the evidence (2 sources)
Primary JW publication Verified

Jehovah's Witnesses—Proclaimers of God's Kingdom (1993), “Chapter 6: A Time of Testing (1914-1918)”

1993 · p.64 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“In his will Brother Russell outlined an arrangement for an Editorial Committee of five to determine the contents of The Watch Tower. ... Page and Brenneisen, however, promptly resigned—Page because he could not take up residence in Brooklyn, and Brenneisen (later the spelling was changed to Brenisen) because he had to take up secular work to support his family. Rutherford and Hirsh, whose names were listed in the December 1, 1916, Watch Tower, replaced them as members of the Editorial Committee.”

The chapter records Russell's death on a train at Pampa, Texas on 31 October 1916; the publication of a brief biography and the will in The Watch Tower of 1 December 1916; the board's creation of an Executive Committee of three; and Rutherford's election as president on 6 January 1917. It also quotes A. H. Macmillan: “Throughout his life Russell had been ‘the Society.’”

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Opened on the Watchtower Online Library (jv chap. 6 p. 61 – p. 71). The quoted sentence stands between the page markers for 64 and 65, and the rest of the quotation is footnote b, whose reference mark is in that same sentence on page 64 — the library prints the footnotes after the last page marker of the chapter, so the footnote’s page is taken from its reference mark and not from where it appears in the document. Footnote b itself lists six reserve names, matching the six printed in the will.

Corroborated by. src-ctr-wt-1916-1201-will

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-ctr-jv-1993-p64-will-succession

Primary JW publication Verified

The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, “Will and Testament of Charles Taze Russell”

1 December 1916 · pp.358-360 · Charles Taze Russell · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society

“I direct that the entire editorial charge of Zion's Watch Tower shall be in the hands of a committee of five brethren ... it shall not in any manner be indicated by whom the various articles appearing in the journal are written. ... As for compensation, I think it wise to maintain the Society's course of the past in respect to salaries—that none be paid ... not more than a provision for their food and shelter and ten dollars per month ... I have already donated to the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society all my voting shares therein, putting the same in the hands of five Trustees, as follows: Sr. E. Louise Hamilton, Sr. Almeta M. Nation Robison, Sr. J. G. Herr, Sr. C. Tomlins, Sr. Alice G. James. These Trustees shall serve for life.”

The will, signed at Allegheny on 29 June 1907 and published as Russell directed in the first issue after his death. It names an Editorial Committee of five (W. E. Page, W. E. Van Amburgh, H. C. Rockwell, E. W. Brenneisen, F. H. Robison) and five reserves (A. E. Burgess, Robert Hirsh, Isaac Hoskins, Geo. H. Fisher, J. F. Rutherford, Dr. John Edgar), and asks that no author's name appear on any article.

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Read in the Reprints volume for 1916. The Will opens at the marker [5998] and runs through [5999]; the magazine page markers “(358)” and “(359-360)” are printed within the text, immediately before “DIRECTIONS FOR FUNERAL”, and the next running head after the Will reads “(360-361)”. The reserve list as printed contains six names although the will describes it as five — Proclaimers (1993) reproduces the same six.

Scan provenance. The Internet Archive item titled “The watch tower and herald of Christ’s presence, 1916” is the Watch Tower Reprints volume for 1916: it reproduces each issue with its masthead, and every page carries a continuous Reprints page number in square brackets together with the original magazine pages in parentheses in the running head. Read in the item’s OCR text file.

Notes. Russell also directed that the Old Theology Quarterly continue, that the Editorial Committee write for no other publication, and that a two-thirds-plus vote of a sixteen-member body be required to remove a committee member.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-ctr-wt-1916-1201-will

Claim page

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