Editing Charles Taze Russell (section)

==Marriage==
On March 13, 1879, Russell married [[Maria Frances Ackley]] after a few months' acquaintance.<ref>''Pittsburgh Gazette'', March 14, 1879</ref> The couple separated in 1897. Russell blamed the marriage breakup on disagreements over Maria Russell's insistence on a greater editorial role in ''Zion's Watch Tower'' magazine.<ref>{{Cite book| last = Penton | first = M.J. | title = Apocalypse Delayed | publisher = University of Toronto Press | year = 1997 | pages = 35–40 |isbn=978-0-8020-7973-2 }}</ref> A later court judgment noted that he had labelled the marriage "a mistake" three years before the dispute over her editorial ambitions had arisen.<ref>[[Barbara Grizzuti Harrison]], ''Visions of Glory – A History and Memory of Jehovah's Witnesses'', Simon & Schuster, 1978, chapter 2.</ref>

Maria Russell filed a suit for legal separation in the [[Pennsylvania courts of common pleas]] at Pittsburgh in June 1903. In 1906 she filed for divorce under a claim of [[mental cruelty]].<ref>''Jehovah's Witnesses in Canada: Champions of Freedom of Speech and Worship'' by M. James Penton, Macmillan of Canada, 1976, page 313, "Mrs. Russell obtained her "divorce", or separation, on grounds of mental cruelty"</ref> She was granted a [[Legal separation#A mensa et thoro separation|separation]], with alimony, in 1908.<ref name="Jehovah's Witnesses p. 645">''Jehovah's Witnesses: Proclaimers of God's Kingdom'', p. 642</ref> Maria Russell died at the age of 88 in [[St. Petersburg, Florida|St. Petersburg]], [[Florida]], on March 12, 1938, from complications related to [[Hodgkin's disease]].<ref>St. Petersburg Times, March 14, 1938. {{cite news|newspaper=The Evening Independent|title=Woman Religious Writer, Resident 16 Years, Passes|date=March 14, 1938|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=P50LAAAAIBAJ&pg=5060,5746821&dq}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>