The Untold Story Of Following Jesus During World War 1 - Part 2

Well, good morning. This is going to be part two, and there'll be at least three, maybe four, but this is part two of my series of messages on what happened to those who followed Jesus during World War I. I want to begin with a true-life story of a conscious objector. His name was Rudy Yoder from Millersburg, Ohio. This happened in the fall of 1918.

On October 3rd, I was drafted and shipped to Camp Jefferson, Missouri. My father gave me this exhortation: "Remember, we are not to fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." That is from Matthew.

I arrived at Camp Jefferson about a day later. My first test came as I waited in the registration line. Finally, my turn came. I told the commanding officer, "Mister, I am sorry, but I cannot fight. I am a conscious objector. I do not believe it's right to go to war and would like to keep my beliefs."

The army officer looked at me and said, "Please wait. We don't have time for your problem until we are through registering."

At the end, the army officer came back to me and said, "Suppose you go to your tent. We can see about your business later." I was given my tent number and was told to go without any threats. The next day, I awoke to the sound of a whistle and found an army uniform on my cot. I remembered from the previous day I only had 15 minutes to report to duty. I decided, "What should I do?" Finally, I decided to report with the uniform on.

Over the next two weeks, I saw that the army was teaching me to be a soldier, to learn how to fight, how to defend myself, how to kill the enemy. However, my conscience gave me no peace. I remember the teachings of Jesus, the teachings of my father, the teachings of the church.

Finally, after about two weeks, I took a stand. I could no longer appease my conscience. I discarded the uniform and took it and hid it at the laundry. Now I carried my civilian clothes again. At first, nothing happened. Then later, I entered the mess hall and was booed very loudly. This caused me to think and lose my appetite.

A couple of days later, I was accosted by two young officers. "Yoder, you come with us and do not try any tricks," they said. I saw they had guns in their holsters. I told them, "Sorry, you should wear a uniform." One of them snapped as he led me up a hill. I said, "I don't believe it's right to go to war. I believe in non-resistance because the New Testament teaches us not to kill." I was not afraid of what might happen to me. On the hill, there was a new graveyard. One of the officers pointed and said, "Look there. There are three fresh new graves.

That's what's going to happen to you if you don't wear that uniform. Those boys refused to wear it and look where they are now. Come on, make up your mind," as one shocked me. "We give you till tomorrow morning. If you don't give up by then, you'll be the fourth grave." I spoke slowly and deliberately. "You don't have to wait till tomorrow morning. I have made up my mind. I am ready to die now."

They continued to threaten me, but at last, they saw their efforts were in futile and they left me. The next day came, and no one came after me. A couple of days later, I was told I missed a board of inquiry, which I will describe in more detail in my message.

About five weeks after this incident, a sergeant came to me and told me to report to the captain's office in one hour. I entered the office and saw that there were five officers, one of them that proceeded to curse me and told me that I made his life miserable, what a nuisance I was to be here, taking my stand. Finally, running out of energy, the officer gave me several papers and said, "Never let me see your face again. Get out of my office."

I thought, "What a this person, what hateful towards me." I looked at the papers and saw they were transfer papers. I glanced at them. A friendly soldier noticed me. He looked around to make sure no one was watching, and he came over to me. He said, "Can I help you?"

I said, "I think I got my transfer papers." The soldier said, "Do you understand what they say?" "Not exactly." So the soldier helped me out. He looked at my papers and he said, "You have your train ticket, which also provides meals. Here are your service records. Make sure not to lose these." He explained everything to me. And then he looked around and snuck off because helping a conscious objector was not normally something a soldier would want to do. Conscious objectors were looked down upon.

I was extremely thankful that God had helped me there. I was transferred to Camp Sherman. I arrived there on November 9th, 1918. There were about 100 COs at Camp Sherman as well. We were able to have fellowship and encouragement, even having our own worship service.

If you remember from last time, World War I ended on November 11th, 1918, at 11 a.m. in Europe. On the armistice came and went. None of the COs were released. Finally, on January 6th, 1919, I was discharged. I was in the army approximately 13 weeks. That is a true-life story about Rudy Yoder.

I want to look, as before we get into other conscious objector stories, I want to look at the government laws and regulations, just in case you don't remember, which you probably don't. I do remember because I've been studying this, as my dad said, for many months, and also in some other regulations.

We're first going to remember President Wilson, who had a big role in World War I and what happened to conscious objectors, and equally, maybe even more important, Secretary Baker. He's talked about over and over because he is the head of the Secretary of Defense, which would include the Navy and the Army.

And so because it plays an extreme role. Let's look at the law that did the draft in 1917 and see what it says again on the provision for conscious objectors.

This is what it said about being drafted, that all male persons between the age of 21 and 30, both inclusive, shall be subject to registration in accordance with regulations to be prescribed by the president.

This is one of the things that was different. You could not hire a substitute. No person liable to military service shall be permitted or allowed to furnish a substitute for such service, nor shall any substitute be received, enlisted, or enrolled in the United States military service in the United States. Nothing in this act contained shall be construed to require or compel any person to serve in any of the forces provided for who is found to be a member of any recognized religious sect or organization at present, organized and existing, whose existing and creed or principles forbid its members to participate in war in any form or whose religious convictions are against war or participation therein with the creed or principles of said religion.

Key word, no person so exempted shall be exempt from service in any capacity that the president shall declare to be non-combatant did not give a provision for conscious objector. That was the only provision that was there, non-combatant service.

And if you remember, this law was passed in April 1917. President Wilson didn't declare what a non-combatant was until March 1918, almost a year later. And this is what he declared to be a non-combatant service: service in the medical corps, service in the quartermaster corps, and service in the engineering service. Not necessarily wrong. However, it was pointed out all three of these services are under the United States military. They're not under a civilian, which they did later in World War II, where they had it under civilian direction. If you remember when I read Rudy Yoder's story, I talked about the board of inquiry.

In March 1918, the books all said that Secretary Wilson and some other congressmen decided they had to have a conscious objector, something for the conscious objectors. They were causing the issue. So they helped push through a farm furlough bill. Now, the farm furlough bill said this: yeah, at first it says the Secretary of War has authorized the grant furloughs to enlisted men of the army without pay to permit them to engage in civil occupations. The War Department, on June 1st, 1918, established the board of inquiry to implement this farm furlough act. There were three members on that farm furlough. There was a judge. There were like two other men who were like lawyer-type people. And they went around and then you would have to go and be interviewed by them, give your testimony why you were a conscious objector, and they would make the determination if you could be let go on a farm furlough.

Here's what it, like I said, it was the duty of this board to determine the conscious objector, determine the sincerity of them, to make sure such men are determined to be sincere in their attitude and desires of serving their country. And if they're approved, they may be furloughed by the commanding officer without pay for agricultural service. But they had to, you would have to apply for that. You just weren't automatically, even if you got a furlough, you still had to go through an application process. In some cases, the board would recommend furlough for service in France and the French Reconstruction Unit, which did happen. That would be under the Quakers.

However, any man who is not recommended by furlough by this board or is offered such furlough shall refuse to accept it, shall be required to perform such non-combatant service as may be assigned to him. And that also would include regular military service as well.

The board heard approximately 2,100 cases from June 1st, 1918, until early 1919. They didn't actually quit hearing people until sometime in 1919. Approximately 1,500 people were recommended for farm furlough, 390 for non-combatant service, 122 for regular military service, and 88 for that overseas relief work in France. I know it doesn't exactly get 2,100, but that's why I say these are approximate numbers.

One last thing I wanted to point out, and I think it's why the conscious objectors were so persecuted. This is a greeting. This is the actual greeting that Secretary Baker issued on January 1st, 1919, to the servicemen and women of the United States Army.

And I'm just reading this quote, and I think this is why. We were conscious objectors were not looked upon as normal or patriotic. And so because everything is against us, let's read this, let's look at this quote, what propaganda he says.

He says, "As rapidly as possible, the men who have served in the great military enterprise are now returning to civilian life. The vast majority of them better equipped physically than they were one or two years ago. I firmly believe spiritually better by token of a consciousness of duty nobly done." Isn't that propaganda? Physically better? If you served on the World War I Western Front, I don't think you were physically better serving physically. And spiritually, definitely not.

Every citizen who thinks of the incalculable service that the uniformed forces of the nation have accomplished will join with me in a sincere wish that our land will yield to them prosperity and plentifulness, opportunity abounding with new sources of happiness and contentment.

Obviously, I would expect the Secretary of War to say that to the army, but that's not true. As I said, those servicemen did not come back physically better. If you have read anything about war, they came back with PTSD and all other kinds of wounds. Obviously, not all of them. It's like that is propaganda if I've ever seen it.

So now we're going to skip to what happens to you and me if we receive a draft notice.

How do you respond? Well, first of all, I really appreciated Conrad Stauffer in First Peter mentioning about the verse that is a key verse. This is First Peter 3, verse 15 through 16. "But thank the Lord God in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed." I think that is a very key verse. We need to know why we believe it. Not just we can say it in the Bible, but it needs to be in our hearts and our minds because the conscious objectors didn't always have their Bible.

Sometimes it was taken away from them. Other times when they were given their testimony, they couldn't have carried it with them everywhere they go when they were looking for the officer to share their testimony. We have to know why we believe it so when the time comes, we can say it. Some other verses that just to think about, "Love your God." That's the first commandment. "Love your neighbor," the second commandment. "Love your enemy."

I just like I said, there's many verses about non-resistance. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds." Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Remember the story about the coin there at the temple? Jesus was asked, "Should we pay taxes?" Jesus said, "Whose image is on the coin?" And they said, "Caesar's." And Jesus answered and said, "Render the things that are Caesar's, the things that are Caesar's, and the God, the things that are God's.

We are made in the image of God, not in the image of Caesar."

I'm going to go through what would be like if you were drafted when you went to the army camp from firsthand information, and then we will look again at some conscious objector stories.

So you've just received your draft notification and gone before the board. And unfortunately, in World War I, the board as a whole did not give you exemption from serving in the military. That's something you would have to go to the army camp and present your case.

It did happen at the board level, but not very often. So you would arrive at the train station. This train station exists in Greencastle, and it was one of the train stations that was made like 1909, so troop trains did leave from here to go to close to the army camp, Camp Meade, Maryland, at least where we're located here in Pennsylvania. There was also an army camp in New Jersey. There's a picture of a troop train, the men getting on the train to go to the camp.

If you remember Rudy's story, one of the things you'd have to make a decision as a conscious objector is, are you going to wear the uniform? Here's a rendition of a uniform in World War I. Next thing that he talked about, he was being trained in the military.

Military view at Camp Meade, picture of them showing them marching. Rudy described he was being trained to march. A picture of them relaxing in the barracks.

The army is trying to get you sucked into what the system is about.

Rudy specifically talked about being trained in rifles. Here's a picture of the men in their army uniforms with the rifles with the long bayonets.

And finally, there are other pictures, and finally one, teaching the men how to fight from trenches, which there was, as we shared last time, there was trench warfare in World War I.

So now the question is, what happens to you when you go to the army camp? What do you do? As I said, there was no specific directions for a conscious objector. Each experience was different. Each army officer was different. Each army camp was different. Some army camps, they were much more kind to conscious objectors.

The officers in other army camps, they were not. Unfortunately, as I studied and as you listened, there were lots of directives that were given by the U.S. Army Department. Sometimes they were followed, and sometimes they were not about conscious objectors by the army camps and the individual officers.

So the first thing you do when you got to the army camp, you would get in line to get registered. As I shared that story with Rudy, when he was getting registered, he talked to the officer and said, "Hey, I am a conscious objector. I cannot fight." And he presented his testimony.

As I was studying, it was mentioned to me, usually the less work you did for the army was better. The army had a way of sucking you into the system. As I share these stories, you will notice that the conscious objectors make that statement. They are willing to do small things, but they are very concerned they're going to be sucked into the system and lose their convictions.

Two people from that time period in 1918, the first was Ezra Dieter when he wrote to his parents. He said this, "A person has to refuse any work at all or he is a goner." And the second one, Mr. Allen B. Christoffel.

The further you went sorry, yeah, the further you went with the military officials, the further they demanded one to go. The further I went, the less reason I could give for stopping. So I concluded the best place to stop was at the beginning.

As we look at these couple of stories, I'm going to do three short stories and then three longer ones as we conclude. One of the things I found in some of the firsthand information was this draft, this order by the War Department. Let's look at it here, and then I'll share the stories.

This says, "By the terms of the presidential order of March 20th, 1918," that's when he declared the non-combatant service, "men reporting at the training camps under the provisions of the selective service law who profess conscientious scruples against warfare are given an opportunity to select forms of service designated by the president to be non-combatant in character.

However, by directions of the Secretary of War dated April 22nd, 1918, instructions were issued by this office, April 21st, 1918, to try by court-martial those declining to accept such non-combatant service whose attitude in camp is defiant, whose sincerity is questioned, and who are active in propaganda."

My question to you is, who defines that your attitude is defiant? Who defines that your sincerity is questioned? And who defines that you're actively trying to present propaganda? It's not you. It's the army officer.

Pretty serious thing, this war directive. Here's a picture of some conscious objectors at Camp Pike, Arkansas.

And this is an approximation. Obviously, there's not 100%, but this is an approximation of how many conscious objectors there are in World War I. About 21,000. If you remember from my last time, I said the army was made up of about four and a half million men. About half of those were drafted, and half of them chose to join voluntarily. So if you do four and a half million men, that's about two and a half million men who were drafted. 21,000 is not very much out of two and a half million men. But then if you look at what happens later by military persuasion and others, out of that 21,000, approximately 17 decided to choose and become regular military soldiers.

The remaining 4,000, 1,700 agreed to non-combatant, and 2,300 agreed to do neither one. That's not very many people who actually stood firm, about 4,000, or if you look at 2,300, depending how you define non-combatant. And I will also say the conscious objectors were made up of mostly religious people, but there were non-religious people as well. When I say religious, they were mostly Anabaptist-type people, Mennonite, Amish, Amish-Mennonite, Hutterite, Church of the Brethren, the Dunkard Brethren, which would include the old German Baptists. But there were also conscious objectors from other churches as well: Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, Church of Christ, Seventh-day Adventist, you name it.

And there were some atheist conscious objectors as well. It was mostly the Anabaptists who stood firm, but there were conscious objectors, like I said, across the spectrum. There were type thing. So I'm going to start with these short stories, and then we're going to go to some longer ones. This first short story is about a brother named Moe Joder. This story really blesses me for two reasons. Elizabeth was reading a book, and she found it, so she gave it to me and said, "Look, I found a story about a conscious objector." So I wrote the book's author, and the book's author said, "My relative is still alive, not the person who was a conscious objector, but the person who knew the conscious objector."

And so she recommended I write him a letter. So yesterday in the mail, I got the letter back from the brother. He was the older Amish, who's 99 years old. He was born in 1923. This had been a relative of his, this Moe Joder. That really blessed me.

He actually did, a 90-year-old man, was able to respond to my letter. So let me just read Moe Joder's short story. It was an example of a conscious objector loving his enemies. Since there are no provisions for conscious objectors in World War I, Moe's was in the camp with the regular army boys. It was difficult. A few conscious objectors died in similar situations. But then the army boys started getting sick one after the other. And pretty soon, almost all of them were down, but Moe's never got sick. He would take care of the others, bring them water, clean up after them, and even clean up their own vomit.

And he won the other army boys' respect. Things went much better after that. He was put in charge of the CO boys. I thought that was a pretty powerful testimony, showing love to his enemies. As I shared that first example, those army officers threatened Rudy. And in this example, Moe's showed love by actually taking care of them when they were sick.

This is a testimony of being threatened and being beaten by a boy from either Washington or Franklin County. I'm not sure which one because he didn't say, but he was a boy from either this county or Washington County. His name was Charlie Martin.

Some of you might have heard of him. This was experience at Camp Meade in the fall of 1918. When I gave my CO papers, which included his church membership certificate, to those in charge, that's when things started to happen. One after the other, they tried to get me to put on a uniform. They started shoving me around, and this went on for quite a while. Finally, the captain stepped in, gave the order to one of the soldiers to pin me to the wall with a bayonet.

This soldier came at me from about 10 feet away, head down and cursing, and all that goes with a bayonet charge, pointing his rifle straight at the pit of my stomach. I will never forget the calmness that came over my body at that time.

Finding they could not scare me that way, another soldier who was drinking and was badly drunk came at me and knocked me out cold. When I came to, my own clothes were gone and the uniform on its place.

That's pretty powerful. This boy lived in this area because I'm not sure what county, but he was from this area.

Here's a story of one of the conscious objectors. His name was Dan Otto, who actually received farm furlough.

He went to Camp Taylor, Kentucky, in the summer of 1918. Initially, he says, "Initially, I was shown kindness by an officer when I first arrived at the camp. Then a couple of days later, the soldiers forcibly put boxing gloves on my hands and encouraged me to fight. The other soldier put gloves on too. He hit me on the one cheek.

I naturally gave him the other cheek to hit as well and said, 'I cannot fight.' The soldier got mad and cursed me. A few days later, I went to the personnel office. I was supposed to tell them what branch of the service I wanted to serve in. When the officer looked up and saw me, he said, 'What are you doing here? You would have done more good for our country if you stayed home.' They could see by my papers that I was a farmer. Then they asked me, 'Can you go across for reconstruction work?' I said, 'Yes, if I can go in my civilian clothes.' I was moved with the other COs at Camp Taylor to the other COs, which means he was separate from the regular army men because they often kept you with the regular army where you would get most likely mistreated or worse.

About a week later, all the COs at Camp Taylor were transferred to Camp Sherman. Two days later, after being transferred to Camp Sherman, all the COs here were taken before the board of inquiry. I was interviewed along with two other conscious objectors. I was granted farm furlough with one other. Unfortunately, the other CO was sent to Fort Leavenworth. I will talk more about Fort Leavenworth later.

I stayed at Camp Sherman a few more days, and I got to go on two farm furloughs. The first one lasted five weeks. I was at an apple orchard, and I picked apples. A lot better than serving in the military.

Then I spent four weeks at a dairy farm. At the end of those four weeks, I got notice that my aunt passed away, and I was able to get a three-day pass to go to her funeral. When I came back to the dairy farm, instead of continuing my furlough, I was sent back to Camp Sherman.

I was there a couple of days, and I received my discharge right before Christmas 1918.

I was in the army about five months, and I was able to wear my civilian clothes and was able to contribute in a non-military way. That was a pretty neat little story about somebody who was actually given farm furlough.

Now we're going to go to three slightly longer stories with a little more detail. Some of you are familiar with this first story. Some of you I know are not. It's the story of the Hutterite marchers from South Dakota.

Their story begins on May 25th, 1918. Jacob, Wiff, and three of his relatives, David, Joseph, and Michael Hofer, were drafted. They were from the Rockport Hutterite colony in South Dakota. In my next message, I will also talk a little bit about some couple of other things that happened in the same Hutterite colony.

When they were put on the train, the troop train, like I showed you that picture going to Camp Meade, they got a separate compartment to get away from the other draftees. Somewhere on the journey from South Dakota to Washington State, some of the draftees forced their way into their compartment and said, "We will help you look like normal people," and gave them a haircut and a shave, forcibly.

On May 28th, the Hutterites arrived at Camp Lewis, Washington. This was a large military reservation.

The Hutterites, unlike some of the others, chose not to do any participation, any cooperation. So when they were asked to get in line to register, they refused, which caused this whole episode. They were put in the guardhouse and charged with disobeying two orders of war.

The prosecutor wanted to know exactly why the men would not serve in the armed forces in any capacity. This is a brief excerpt of testimony of Jacob Wiff. He was the first defendant. The prosecutor says, "Are you willing to take part in any non-combatant branch of the service of the army?"

And he says, "No, we can't." "What are your reasons?" "Well, it is all for war. The only thing we can do is work on a farm for the poor and needy ones of the United States." "Well, what do you mean by poor and needy ones?" "Well, those that can't help themselves. Would you include soldiers who are crippled for life?" "Yes, they are poor and needy ones."

The four Hutterites, the three brothers and their relative, were found guilty and were sentenced to 25 years hard labor at Fort Alcatraz, which is in California in the Bay Office, San Francisco. This happened within three weeks after arriving at Fort Lewis.

This was so they could stay arrived in May. About three or four or five weeks, they went to Alcatraz. The Hutterites went to Alcatraz with the same attitude, "We're not going to participate." So on arrival, the four men climbed a series of switchbacks to reach the cell house on top of the island. Once inside, they were unwilling to put on the uniform. I'm assuming it's meaning prison uniform, but it could have been also meaning military uniform since this was a military prison or to perform any type of work.

So the men. Here's a picture of Alcatraz. It was an island off the bay of San Francisco. It still exists now. It's a museum.

Here is a map of it. Like I said, they had to climb up, and like I said, they didn't participate. So this is where they were sent to, the hole where the four conscious objectors were kept. Here's the story. These men were stripped of their underwear. They were forced to sleep on the cold, damp floor without blankets and something like this. During the first four and a half days, they were all given nothing to eat and received only a half glass of water every 24 hours. Then for the next two days, their hands were chained to iron rods above their heads so their feet barely touched the floor. Something like this with handcuffs.

That's not very comfortable, and they were chained for a long time that way. At least one time, according to the records, they were beaten by the guards, and Michael passed out. At the same time, they were separated from one another so as to prevent communication. David later heard Jacob crying out, "Have mercy, God."

When the men were brought up into the dungeon within that time period, containing other prisoners, and there were other prisoners there, they were brought into the yard. They had eczema and scurvy and had been badly bitten by insects. Their arms were so swollen, they were unable to put on their coats. Altogether, they had not eaten for about six days. They were finally fed, but then they were returned to the cells and locked in for 24 hours a day, apart from a singular hour on Sunday when they were allowed to stand in the courtyard under heavy guard.

Now, I don't know. The account doesn't say if they were treated that way every time, but it does know they were in the solitary confinement. I think most of the time they were at Alcatraz. And they were at Alcatraz approximately four months. They got there at the end of June, beginning of July, 1918.

On November 14th, 1918, three days after World War I ended, the Hutterites left for Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, again in chains and escorted by armed officers. Here's a picture of Fort Leavenworth. This is the original castle that is talked about when I'm talking about Fort Leavenworth in these three stories.

On the train ride, Michael Hofer wrote his final letter to his wife. "Grace and peace be to you. I want to write to you that we are now on our way to Fort Leavenworth. We don't know, however, what will become of us there."

Likewise, Joseph wrote his final letter to his wife as well, Maria. "And when you look at her scrawling, you can well imagine how low our spirits are, for we are where the waves are roaring and in that time where the seas throw us up to the dead."

On November 19th, 1918, they arrived in Kansas, where Fort Leavenworth is. Sometime in the evening. Now, unfortunately, I don't have a 100% firsthand account of what actually happened, so these are the stories. They're probably off a little bit, but this is the best information I have. They arrived at Kansas at 11 o'clock in the evening and were driven through the street by armed guards with handcuffed hands holding their Bible and bags and other shoes. They were forced to run uphill. They came from California, San Francisco area, to Kansas in the fall. Normally, falls are cooler than California, Kansas Falls. So they went uphill. Then they were forced to undress. I'm not sure why, but they were forced to undress.

I think they probably were in their civilian clothes, forced to undress, and they waited for a couple of hours in the cold before they were finally given their prison uniform. So they were outside in their underwear for about two hours, shivering in the wind. Now, it's about 1:30. At 5:00 AM, they were finally brought into Fort Leavenworth after being forced to stand in the cold. That was November 19th into November 20th. On November 20th, the same day, Michael and Joseph collapsed in pain and were taken to the Fort Leavenworth Infirmary or Hospital.

Jacob and David stood fast in their refusal to do work. Remember, I said they didn't want to participate. So what happens at Fort Leavenworth? Again, they're sent into solitary confinement, and they are chained. Thankfully, Fort Leavenworth was slightly more humane than Fort Alcatraz. They were only chained for nine hours a day, the amount of time you were supposed to be working.

Their hands were stretched to the iron bars and chained together, and they were fed bread and water at Fort Leavenworth. As November drew to a close, Michael and Joseph's condition continued to deteriorate. David was able to send a telegram to his family members in South Dakota and asked them to come quickly. They started out for their homes at night, leaving their children.

Unfortunately, the families were given wrong information and ended up going to Fort Riley, Kansas, instead of Fort Leavenworth. So by the time they arrived to Fort Leavenworth, it was November 28th, like a day or so later, at 11:00 PM.

The wives of the husbands, Joseph and Michael, their husbands were very weak and stuff. The next day, November 29th, Joseph was dead.

His wife begged and pleaded, and finally, she was able to see her husband's body. But to her surprise and horror, he was dressed in, guess what, the military uniform, what he had specifically said he was not going to wear the whole time.

Michael Hofer, his brother, died a day or two later. His father was able to persuade the authorities at Fort Leavenworth, "Please let us put our son in civilian clothes," and not the military uniform, which they granted that request.

After Michael's death, David Hofer was brought back to a cell, and guess what? Was there any mercy shown? No. He was chained to a cell again by the handcuffs for refusing to work.

The next morning, with a willing guard, David relayed a message, this would be early December, to the commanding officer requesting that he might be placed in a cell closer to his relative, Jacob Hofer. The guard came back about an hour later and told David, "Pack up your things. You're released."

David could hardly believe it, but he believed it was true. He packed up, and he was released from Fort Leavenworth. This would be like December 4th.

The only explanation that they could all say is that the army, the Fort Leavenworth, the army officials didn't want this stuff getting out in public with the death of these two men because of the army mistreatment.

The official cause of death listed by the United States Army surgeon of the disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth was pneumonia. The Hutterites said instead these men died in prison as a result of cruel mistreatment by the United States military.

I think the Hutterites were correct. These men were mistreated.

This is what Jacob writes to his wife, because Jacob was, like I said, now the last remaining Hutterite in prison.

"Sometimes I envy the three who've already been delivered from their pain. Then I think, 'Why is the hand of the Lord so heavy upon me? I have always tried to be faithful and hardworking and hardly ever made any trouble for the brotherhood. Why must only I continue to suffer? But then there is joy too, so that I could weep for joy when I think that the Lord considers me worthy to suffer a little for His sake. And I do have to confess that compared with our previous experience," I think referring to Fort Alcatraz, "the life here in Fort Leavenworth is like a palace." That's pretty bad to have to say that.

That if he's saying Fort Leavenworth is like a palace, after describing what he went through, finally, on April 13th, 1919, about almost five months after his two relatives died, he is released from Fort Leavenworth.

We'll finish up these last two stories here. Like I said, I find these stories extremely challenging, extremely encouraging for me to think about my own life. What do I believe and why do I believe that? I hope that's the same for you.

This other story is a story that some of you might be familiar with, but I doubt very many. And the story is about a brother named Robert, sorry, Maurice Hess. Some of you familiar with that name? Hess is a common name. He was a member of the old German Baptist brethren here in Franklin County, specifically Quincy, Pennsylvania.

He had received his master's degree in Latin in 1917 from the University of Pennsylvania. And I like his story for one of the reasons why I like his story. He sent letters back to his family members. So I was able to read his letters. He also kept a journal. So I was able to read his journal. And like I said, it's very fascinating, and it's from the horse's mouth. He's describing what happened to him.

He was sent to Camp Mead on November 5th, 1917. On November 6th, 1917, Maurice and four others, this would be a day later, stepped out of the line again, the drilling line, to state their conscious objection to participation in military service.

That act started a series of threats, intimidation, and other testings of us by the group of military officers. We were finally taken to the segregation camp for COs to be interviewed by the head officer. Four of us satisfied him for our integrity. However, one did not.

That one conscious objector was persuaded to take up regular military service. And he was sent to France, and he died in combat right before armistice in France.

Skipping a little bit to November 19th, 1917, Maurice writes to his father from Camp Mead, "I cannot accept hospital work because I was told by the general coon at Fort Mead that if you're in hospital work, you are required to carry a sidearm and, if necessary, use it to defend the hospital if we're attacked."

He was told that by the commanding general at Camp Mead. A couple of months later, February 6th, 1918, Maurice writes again to his father from Camp Mead, "One of the meanest things yet was pulled on us on Monday. Someone with authority came into our barracks, opened over a third of the windows, the width of a whole window pane, and put a nail in front of them to keep us from shutting the windows. It was one of the coldest days we've had yet. There was a very strong wind. The temperature in our barracks dropped to about 40 degrees or below. We had to put on overcoats and sweaters to avoid catching cold. I do not write these things to alarm you, but to show you additional concrete reasons why we can never become part of the military system."

I thought that was a pretty mean thing to do.

On June 8th, 1918, Maurice is sent before the board of inquiry along with those other conscious objectors at Fort Mead. It was one of the first places the board of inquiry went. And they would grill you, the board of inquiry, on the same stuff that my brother Mike shared last week, what would you do in these circumstances?

On this case, the board of inquiry asked him about church membership. And it was over 100 men who were interviewed. The board gave about 90 on a firm furlough, and about 15 or so were not. And unfortunately, Maurice Hess was not one of the ones who got firm furlough on June 8th, 1918.

He would be sent to Fort Leavenworth next. At Fort Leavenworth, July 19th, 1918, again, I came before the board of inquiry, and this time, I was placed in class 1A, the draft classification, and was told that I would be given an opportunity to apply for a firm furlough.

A couple of days later, Maurice Hess was transported to Fort Riley, Kansas, from Fort Leavenworth. They're a couple of hours away.

On September 28th, 1918, at Camp Riley, a big trial occurs for all the segregated conscious objectors. There was about 120 of them at Fort Riley. They were sent to the parade ground and ordered by the lieutenant, each individually, to take a rake, a shovel, a hoe, a trash bag, whatever, and police the ground.

And most of the conscience, some of them said yes, and some said no. Policing the ground was meaning you're cleaning it up, getting it ready for people to drill on, march, present, all that type of stuff, more or less military operations. Maurice Hess, with some of the others, said, "No, we are not going to parade the ground."

And he was sent to stay in the guardhouse at Fort Riley. I will share a little bit more in my last conscious objector. Maurice Hess then is court-martialed on November 10th, 1918, and sent to Fort Leavenworth of all places again, and sentenced to 25 years of hard labor. In November, here's another picture of Fort Leavenworth, the entrance to the old Fort Leavenworth disciplinary barracks.

And then a clock tower at Fort Leavenworth. I'm going to go back to that one of the entrance for a second as we just share the last little bit of story from Maurice Hess. November 16th, he gets his military uniform and his number. Three days later, 11 of the conscious objectors, including Maurice, refuse to work. They're given 14 days on bread and water, and they're again, like I said, they're chained by handcuffs to their prison door nine hours a day, the amount of time they should be working.

Thanksgiving comes, and their Thanksgiving is on bread and water because he's in solitary confinement. The day after Thanksgiving, which is November 29th, board beds arrive. You might ask, "What's a board bed?" They were sleeping on the concrete floor with no blankets in solitary confinement. And the stories I read in that part of Fort Leavenworth, you're sleeping on damp concrete, and the bedbugs by the hundreds would come out the wall and get you. So sleeping on a little board bed gave you protection. Doesn't sound like a lot, but compared to sleeping on damp concrete, I would like to sleep on a board an inch thick, giving me a little protection.

Also, there was an inspecting colonel, and Maurice asked, "Could I have my Bible back?" They took his Bible away. That's why I said we need to put our Bible in her memory because Maurice didn't have his Bible. On December 1st, 1918, the prison objector gave me my Bible back. Then, December 3rd, Maurice received a 14-day on regular diet.

At Fort Leavenworth, if you were in solitary confinement, they alternated 14 days on solitary, 14 days of regular, then 14 days on, 14 days regular.

So let's skip over here. I didn't share in the one with the Hutterites, but it applies to both stories. On December 6th, 1918, the Secretary of War authorizes the following statement: "Disciplinary regulations enforced in military prisons have been modified by the War Department. Fastening of prisoners to the bars of cells will no longer be used as a mode of punishment."

That's a pretty big change. Before, you were being chained to your cell. Like I said, what happened to the Hutterites and Maurice Hess and obviously other conscious objector-type people and obviously other prisoners as well. However, December 6th, it takes six days before this rule is implemented at Fort Leavenworth. So it's December 12th when they stopped using handcuffs at Fort Leavenworth. I don't know why it took six days for them to implement the rule, but it took six days.