Maria F. Russell was a director of the Watch Tower Society and served as its secretary and treasurer for some years. She also was a regular contributor to the columns of Zion's Watch Tower and for a time was an associate editor of the journal.Eventually, she sought a stronger voice in what should be published in the Watch Tower. In 1879, Charles Taze Russell married Maria Frances Ackley. They had a good relationship for 13 years. When she realized that nothing that she wrote would be published unless her husband, the editor of the magazine, agreed with its contents (on the basis of its consistency with the Scriptures), she became greatly disturbed.He put forth earnest effort to help her, but in November 1897 she left him.