• Hawaii
    1991 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • Another driver, James Harrub, enthusiastic about those Bible truths, requested further reading material. After racing through the books “New Creation” and other books in the set of Studies in the Scriptures, he was convinced that the message they contained was without doubt the truth of God’s inspired Word.

      By 1918 Ellis was conducting a Bible study regularly with James and his wife, Dora. Dora, an Episcopalian, had her interest sparked by a newspaper clipping given to her husband by Ellis. It carried an account of the debate between a “Reverend” Troy and the second president of the Watch Tower Society, Joseph F. Rutherford, during which Brother Rutherford successfully exposed the doctrines of Trinity, hellfire, and immortality of the soul as unscriptural. Sparked by this little tidbit, she began her more than 50 years of serious study and application of the Scriptures.

      First Disciples Baptized

      When James Harrub expressed his desire to be baptized, Brother Fox obtained permission to use an old church that was vacant and that had its baptistery under a trapdoor. However, the sheet-metal tank leaked like a sieve. After doing their best to patch the holes with a soldering iron, they found the tank would hold the desired water level only if the tap was turned on full. Brother Fox related: “I had finished giving the baptism talk and was standing down in the water waiting for James to come out of the dressing room when something happened that came as a complete surprise to me. That lovely, sharp-eyed little Dora Harrub got down so she could whisper in my ear without the others hearing and asked, ‘Ellis, can I get baptized too?’ ‘Of course, you can! Get in there and get your clothes changed.’ What a thrilling experience for both her husband and me!” Thus, the first two Christian disciples in Hawaii were baptized on November 19, 1919.

      The group of Bible Students moved their meeting place from the Leonard Hotel, where Ellis was living, to the home of the Harrubs on Spreckles Street in Honolulu. Nine persons regularly attended the Wednesday “prayer, praise and testimony” discussions and the Sunday Watchtower Study.