Charles Taze Russell Biography

Charles Taze Russell was an American Christian Restoration minister in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was the founder of the International Bible Students Association which is also known as the forerunner of the Jehovah’s Witness group. Hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he spearheaded what is now known as the Bible Student Movement. Following his death, the Bible Student Movement gave way to numerous independent Bible student groups all over the United States. Charles Russell initially came to popularity with his monthly religious publication ‘Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence’. A few years later, he co-founded Zion’s Watch Tower Tract Society with Mr. William Henry Conley, who was a philanthropist as well as an industrialist based in Pittsburgh. This society was later officially registered as a corporation with Charles Russell as the president. Through the late 19th century, Russell wrote several articles, books, tracts, and pamphlets and delivered hundreds of sermons. The total number of pages he had printed was over 50,000. He also published a six-volume Bible study series which was initially titled ‘Millennial Dawn’ but was later renamed to ‘Studies in the Scriptures’. Nearly twenty million copies of this study series has been distributed all over the world.