JOHN WITMER

A World War IConscientious Objector

by James Witmer

John Witmer, A World War I Conscientious ObjectorJAMES WITMER

John M. Witmer was born April20, 1897, the first child of Daniel C.Witmer and Annie Martin Witmerof Columbiana, Ohio. His father,Daniel, was a progressive farmer forhis time and he was also known asone of the few honest horse tradersin northeastern Ohio. He was great-ly respected for his judgment ofhorses.1 Later, Daniel was selectedby lot and ordained to the ministryin the White Mennonite Church,about three miles north of Colum-biana, Ohio. The ideals which hisfather supported and upheld pro-vided a very pious home environ-ment for the youthful John.

As a boy, John attended the oneroom Germantown School only dur-ing the winter months when thefarm work was slow. Under his in-structor, Estella Esterly, he provedto be especially adept at arithmeticand history. His report cards de-note excellent work in these sub-jects. He also found reading apleasurable pastime and, as he grewolder, he spent a great deal of hisleisure time in reading. Amongmany other books, the Bible washis preference.

John was baptized June 3, 1917,and became a member of the WhiteMennonite Church, upon his confes-sion of faith and his belief in JesusChrist.

On July 25, 1918, John received anotice from the United States WarDepartment, Local Board for Ma-

honing County, Ohio, designatinghim as Order No. 149, Serial No. 296,and entitling him to a place in Class1-A. By this time he had developeda concept of Jesus Christ as the Godof love. To him the Gospel ofChrist was a message of peace andgood will.

His beliefs and convictions are ex-pressed in a letter sent to a Mr.N. A. May of Youngstown, Ohio.Mr. May was a business friend ofthe Witmer family. He had sent acard to John explaining that his ex-perience and excellent ability withhorses would be of great benefit tohim when he was drafted into thearmed forces. John’s letter of July1, 1918, was an answer to this card.In his letter John thanked Mr. Mayfor his card, then went on to sug-gest that Mr. May was not aware ofthe fact that his being a servant inChrist’ s kingdom meant that hecould not fight. He called attentionto John 18: 36: “ Jesus answered, Mykingdom is not of this world: if mykingdom were of this world, thenwould my servants fight, that Ishould not be delivered to theJews.” Matthew 6: 15 was also sug-gested: “ If ye forgive not men theirtrespasses, neither will your Fatherforgive your trespasses.” He wenton to explain that the apostles werepersecuted and martyred but they

1 Interview with Edwin Weaver, Decem -ber 23, 1902.

did not resort to fighting for re-venge.2

Early the following month a cardcame from the Local Board for theWar Department dated July 31,1918, which read, “ You are herebynotified that, as a result of yourphysical examination you have beenfound by the Local Board qualifiedfor military service which leavesyou in Class 1-A, subject to call inyour order of call when the Gov-ernment may have need of yourservices.” 3

Later a card post-marked August29, 1918, brought the message,“ Kindly be prepared to report forduty between the 3rd and 6th ofSeptember. Official notice will fol-low later.” 4

The official notice which came la-ter requested John to report for ser-vice on September 6. This was thebeginning of a new experience forthe young farmer who had spent al-most all his life in his rural homecommunity. Order No. 149, of whichJohn was a member, left Youngs-town for Camp Sherman, Chilli-cothe, Ohio. John and a friend,Harvey Blosser, from Columbiana,were the only two among Order No.149 who opposed military servicefor conscientious reasons.5 Official-ly the United States Governmentallowed for freedom of religion andrespected individual conscientiousbeliefs, however, this official standoffered limited protection at the in-dividual and local level. The con-sideration which the conscientiousobjectors received depended to alarge extent upon the attitude of the

particular group to which they wereassigned.6

Unfortunately, Order No. 149 heldlittle regard for the two young con-scientious objectors and in John’sfirst letter home he reports: “ Thetreatment that I get is not alwayswhat one would desire but we arelooking for a City which hath foun-dation whose builder and maker isGod.” (Heb. 11:10) .7

John and Harvey refused to wearthe military uniforms or to carry agun. Consequently, their civilianclothes were forcibly removed neverto be seen again. This included theirwallets containing money as well asother personal possessions. Theywere forced either to wear militaryuniforms or nothing at all.

Being arrayed in military uni-forms posed another problem. Theylooked like all the rest of the men,so the soldiers could not easily iden-tify them when they wanted tomock and to sneer at them. To solvethis problem, a group of soldierscompletely shaved their heads.

John was abused somewhat morethan was Harvey because he hadbeen baptized only a short time be-fore he was called by the draftboard. He was accused of being

2 Card of July 1, 1918.* Card of July 31, 1918.4 Card of August 29, 1918.6 Letter of September 9, 1918.

Interview with Amos Weaver, Decem -ber 27. 1962.

7 Letter of September 9, 1918.

baptized only to avoid the militaryservice.8

In his next letter home John says:“ We never know one minute whatwill happen next. Remember us inyour prayers so we may hold fastthe profession of our faith. He-brews 10: 23.” °

Several days lapsed until Johnwrote again. When the letter final-ly came it began: “ I guess you won-dered why I did not write more butsome of the threats were so horriblethat I am glad that you dear folksat home were not near enough tosee or hear what was going on.” 10

John and his friend, Harvey, werecontinually threatened to be shot ifthey did not drill with the rest ofthe soldiers. On one occasion theywere both lined up together to beshot on the count of three unlessthey would consent to join the sol-diers in drilling. They neither re-canted their convictions, nor werethey shot.11

On another occasion, Harvey waslate in leaving the barracks forlunch. Four other soldiers cameback to join him. They dragged himupstairs and threatened to drop himhead first on a cement platform sev-eral feet below. Three of the menheld him out the window by his feetand the fourth ordered them to drophim on the count of four. He count-ed to three, stopped, and blurtedout, “ I am afraid to count four.”The other three replied, “ If you areafraid to count four, we are afraidto drop him.” They hauled himback in and they all went to din-ner.1-

John’s letter continues, “ By Mon-day afternoon it began to go a littlebetter. Harvey and I were told to getour Bibles which we gladly did. Twoboxes were set on end in a publicplace where we were in sight ofhundreds of soldiers and we wereordered to read it without takingour eyes off it for a moment. Ourfeet did not reach the ground whenthe box stood on end. Other timesthey would order us to stand andother times to lay the box down andsit on it. As the soldiers walkedpast us they would yell such thingsas ‘slackers’ and ‘yellow’. Anotherfavorite phrase was, ‘We are edu-cating them to preach the Kaiser’sfuneral.’ ”

Several days were spent on thebox reading the Bible or followingthe officer around the traininggrounds carrying their Bibles.13

In closing, John says, “ We cer-tainly should continue to pray forpeace and deliverance and thankGod that we are yet permitted toenjoy religious freedom.” 14

Two days later John wrote again,“ There are some officers here whoare kind to us. There is a soldier

8 Interview with Harvey Blosser , Decem -ber 23. 1002.

0 Letter of September 11, 1918.10 Letter of September 15, 1918.11 Interview with Ilarvey Blosser, Decem-

ber 23, 1902.12 Interview with Ilarvey Blosser, Decem -

ber 23, 1902.18 Letter of September 15, 1918.“ Ibid .

from Lawrence who treats us verynice but most of the soldiers tryhard to get us to give up ourfaith.” 15

The next day John wrote, “ I thinkI will get pretty good treatmentnow.” 16 In the rest of the letter hegave directions on how he wantedhis farm managed. He had just be-gun farming before he was calledby the draft board. His operationsconsisted of ninety acres, a smallherd of cattle, and a team of horses.

“ I am not feeling very well to-day,” was the report of the letter ofSeptember 28.

One evening during the time whenJohn was not feeling well, a groupof soldiers gave him a cold showerin the drinking fountain while hewas fully clothed. Since his civilianclothes had been taken and not re-turned, he had only his soaking wetmilitary uniform. The single blan-ket which had been given to him didnot provide sufficient warmth againstthe ground floor of his bedroom andthe frosty autumn night. After thisincident John’s illness became in-creasingly more serious.

The third of October John wrote,‘T am still very weak from my fe-ver. I can walk around and takecare of myself but it goes hard toeat anything . . . . This disease isover the whole camp. They think itis Spanish Influenza.”

In the last letter that John wrote,he was in the camp for conscienti-ous objectors. He explains that hehad to walk a mile to the CO campand when he got there his tempera-ture was 103 degrees. He had not

been very well after that, althoughhe said that he liked the companymuch better.

The letter which John’s familyreceived October 6 was not in John’shandwriting. It read, ‘‘Your son issick in the base hospital. He askme to write for him. He says hedoes not suffer much. He thinks thenurses are very kind. He says heinvites you to come as soon as youcan to visit him and I will add thathe is very sick and come if youcan.

John’s father went to see Johnimmediately. The report which Mrs.Witmer received from her husbandsaid, “ John was so very glad to seeus but his voice is so low that it ishard to understand him.”

John talked in spite of his weakvoice. He was especially interestedin the church at home and he in-quired about the last Sunday’s ser-vices.

In concluding the letter John’sfather said, “ I don’t know when Iwill come home but it may not befor some time.”

John’s declaration, “ We neverknow one minute what will happennext,” was true. October 8, 1918,John went to that City for which hewas looking: “ A City which hathfoundation whose builder and mak-er is God.” ( Hebrews 11; 10) .

The story of John Witmer remainsas a monument to one who stoodfor Christian principles; to one whostood for what he knew to be truth.

16 Letter of September 16, 1918.16 Letter of September 17, 1918.

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