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10
THE ACKLEY CONNECTION
In The Watchtower and the Masons the early history of C . T. Russell
is given. Charles and his father
married two Ackley sisters a number of years after Charles’ mother died. What is an intriguing item
is
that C . T. Russell’s mother’s will indicates she owned land in Iowa. A description
of that land shows
it was north of the town of Ackley, Iowa. It turns out that a man named William Ackley had
purchased the land in that area, and had sold it in large part to Scot-Irish settlers of the Presbyterian
faith as they were coming to America. At the time C T. Russell’s mother died a town named Ackley
had been staked out in 1857, but the Civil War had interferred with construction
plans. A Presbyterian
congregation
had been formed in the area during the early 1860s in the Ackley area, which indicates
some settlers had arrived. What connection did the Russells have with the Ackleys years before
Charles T. and his father married Ackley sisters? Who are the Ackleys? Maria Ackley, who was
Charles T. Russell’s wife, was well-educated
and an excellent writer. Interestingly,
in the 19th
century she believed a socialist revolution was coming. She wrote, "This great revolution has not yet
come, but where is the statesman or the intelligent citizen that does not see it coming?" (Russell,
Maria. This Gospel of The Kingdom, p. 26.) She was the ghost writer and ghost editor for much of
her husband Charles Taze ‘ s work. Her family was well-off. William Ackley, the land
speculator/seller
in Iowa, traces his ancestry back to Prence Doane and Elizabeth Godfrey. Elizabeth
Godfrey in turn was the great-granddaughter
of William Brewster of the Mayflower
fame. The
Ackleys were Puritans to begin with and seem to have been concentrated in the Connecticut area, and
from there their family members moved out into NY and PA. Another Ackley (1832-1881) at that
time was Richard Thomas Ackley, a Freemason who worked for the Miller, Russell and Company
store in Salt Lake City in 1858 soon after the Mormons built Salt Lake City.
LEADS
Of course, these are all simply tantalizing
leads for the investigator
but nothing solid. There seems to
be much more to Charles Taze RusseU than the little that the public has been told. In the next few
chapters we will attempt to dispel some of the mystery surrounding the man.
God’s "Annointed
Seed"
In 1852, the Joseph Lyttle Russell family had a baby who they gave the same name to as his uncle
had. This baby, named Charles Taze Russell had a brother Frank who was two years older, but
Charles ended up the favorite of his father. Later Charles would get a sister Margaret M. Both Charles
T. and his sister Margaret spoke on various occasions that his had been chosen before his birth for the
work that he was to carry out.1 Margaret referred to her brother as the greatest man alive "a giant
unmatched."
She stated that he had been choosen for his religious work before his birth. Perhaps,
Charles’ Russell family, and his father Joseph L., (like Joseph Kennedy who had goals for his son to
be president) had goals for Charles. If Charles had been encouraged to meet such expectations and
had gone forward, then that could account for his sister’s great admiration for him. He had fulfilled
her father’s wishes. At the Put-In-Bay Convention his sister Margaret had outlined how God planned
and chose her brother. First God had planted a seed with the early church. But the seed had laid
dormant for centuries. "In due time", she says, the seed of truth grew and was watered according to
God’s plan. During the Dark Ages the seed of truth was barely kept alive waiting for God’s Chosen
One to bring it to fruition. When it was time, God "annointed the eyes" of her brother at age 17, and
"God’s smile of favor rested upon him." Margaret said her brother was the one, the faithful one who
God could depend upon, the "one despite the burden and heat of the day" would remain faithful to
God.2
NOTES
1. C.T. Russell is noted to have privately admitted his belief that he was chosen for his great work before his
birth. The Finished Mystery. The Watchtower Bible & Tract Soc. 1917, p. 53. A testimony speech given by his
sister at the Put-In-Bay Convention where she said similar things is commented on the The Laodicean
Messenger, pp. 179-180.
