Joseph Franklin Rutherford - Personal Life

Personal Life

Rutherford married Mary Malcolm Fetzer of Boonville, Missouri on December 31, 1891. Their only child, Malcolm Cleveland, was born on November 10, 1892. The couple separated after Joseph Rutherford became president of the Watch Tower Society. Mary remained an active member of the Jehovah's Witnesses until becoming confined to her home in the years before her death in 1962 at age 93.

Rutherford had reportedly lost the use of one lung from pneumonia suffered during his imprisonment in 1918 and 1919; finding New York's winter weather "impossible", Rutherford was encouraged by a doctor to "spend as much time as possible" in a more favorable climate. In 1929, a residence named Beth Sarim (literally, House of Princes) was constructed at San Diego, California for Rutherford's use, initially as winter accommodation and later as a full-time residence. He died at the property in 1942. The villa was sold in 1948, with The Watchtower declaring, "It had fully served its purpose and was now only serving as a monument quite expensive to keep."

The standard of Rutherford's accommodation and his personal conduct attracted criticism from some Bible Students and Jehovah's Witnesses in the 1930s. Walter F. Salter, the Society's former branch manager in Canada, wrote a public letter to Rutherford in 1937, the month he was expelled from the religion, claiming that Rutherford had exclusive use of "luxurious" and "expensive" residences (in Brooklyn, Staten Island, Germany, and San Diego), as well as two Cadillacs and alleged that on more than one occasion he had purchased for Rutherford cases of whiskey, brandy, beer and other liquors, and 'go from "drink to drink"'. In July 1939 Olin R. Moyle, legal counsel for the Society, wrote an open letter of resignation to the president, in which he complained about behavior of some members of the Watch Tower Society, including Rutherford himself, that he considered excessive and inappropriate. Moyle mentioned California when discussing "the difference between the accommodations furnished to you, and your personal attendants, compared with those furnished to some of your brethren." Moyle also accused Rutherford of "unkind treatment of the staff, outbursts of anger, discrimination and vulgar language" and condemned his allowing the "glorification of alcohol" at Bethel. Penton notes that Moyle was a "teetotaller" and "puritanical", but claims Rutherford's drinking habits were "notorious" and cites unnamed former Brooklyn Bethel workers who told of occasional difficulties in getting Rutherford to the podium to give public talks due to inebriation.