The Jehovah’s Witnesses trace their origins to Charles Taze Russell, who began a Bible study group in the 1870s in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (near Pittsburgh). In 1879, he began publishing Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, marking the formal beginning of the movement. Russell founded the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in 1881 (incorporated in 1884), which became the group's legal entity. He didn’t set out to create a new denomination but rather to study the Bible independently of mainstream churches. His followers were initially called “Bible Students.”