Part 7: The Young Men on the Front Row

 

PART 7: The Young Men on the Front Row

Young Adult Mennonite Group Attends Farmington Chautauqua, August 1910

By Elizabeth Hervey Osborn

Part 1 --  Part 2 -- Part 3 -- Part 4 -- Part 5 -- Part 6 -- Part 7 -- Part 8

Our Unknown Scribe skipped to the front row next, where all seven men in the group sat on the grass. The forecast included rain that day; I wonder if the seat of their trousers was damp when they rose?

Just a few years after this photo was taken, these men who honored their religious heritage and German-speaking community would find their worldview turned upside down and questioned as the United States entered the Great War against Germany.  

Pacifism, or "non-resistance" -- that is, taking Christ's command to "turn the other cheek" with deepest reverence -- from the beginning has been a defining tenet of Mennonite belief. This unshakeable faith was the reason that their ancestors for centuries had been martyred and forced to abandon their homes again and again in search of a place where they could live their religion in peace. 

Though Congress created service exemptions for a "member of a well-recognized religious sect or organization . . . whose existing creed or principles forbid members to participate in war in any form," it clarified "no person so exempted shall be exempted in any capacity that the President shall declare to be non-combatant." There were also exemptions for farmers whose work was "necessary to the maintenance of the Military Establishment." 

But in the tempest of public opinion men claiming such exemptions were severely criticized or at least viewed with suspicion. Teddy Roosevelt declared "the bulk of conscientious objectors  were slackers, pure and simple, or else traitorous pro-Germans." [1] President Woodrow Wilson was not much gentler, explaining "what I am opposed to is not the feeling of the pacifist, but their stupidity. My heart is with them, but my mind has a contempt for them. I want peace, but I know how to get it, and they do not."[2]

 As Congress debated the Selective Service Act, church leaders struggled to reconcile the principle of non-resistance with the idea that Christians should be subject to the "powers that be." Various branches of the Mennonite church resolved this question differently; but some groups, including the General Conference Mennonite church instructed their members to register, but to explain that "under no circumstances can they consent to service, either combatant or non-combatant, under the military arm of the government." [3] Service in the Red Cross, YMCA, and perhaps even managing War Savings Stamps were identified as possible acceptable venues for service for male members of the General Conference. [4] 

And so it was that the younger men of this group who were between age 21 and 31 in 1917 registered for selective service on June 5, 1917; the remainder would register on September 18, 1918. Many, though not all, explicitly claimed exemption from combat service due to their religious belief. From their registrations we also can learn a little more about what they looked like: tall or short, what color hair or eyes they had. A search of local newspapers revealed no indication that any of these seven men were actually drafted. It would seem that their role as farmers may have precluded the question of eligibility for alternative service. 

Unfortunately, their willingness to register and to serve in non-combatant roles did not stop local ruffians from accusing their community of cowardice, nor from defacing homes and barns with yellow paint; and the German School where generations of children had been trained in their heritage was permanently discontinued. [5] 

But those troubles were far away on this day as they posed for the photographer. Their stories include both tragedies and caring acts of service. The ties that bound them were for life.

Rudolph Jacob Krebill
1890-1950

(4KA, FamilySearch KCHH-Y5Y, Find-a-Grave 90323447)

Born in 1890 near Franklin Iowa to William Henry and Clara Eliza Weber Krebill, twenty year old R.J. was a first cousin to most of the group pictured. He had dark eyes and hair, and was of stout, medium build.

In the spring of 1914 he married Anna Christina Herdrich, and together they had two sons. When he registered for the draft, he claimed the need to support his wife and son as his exemption. 

Known for his quality sheep, R.J. was an active member of the Donnellson community to the very end; passing away suddenly at the age of 60 while helping a neighbor.

Jacob C. Lowenberg

1887-1927 

(Husband of 4JD, FamilySearch L7NJ-167, Find-a-Grave 90323501)

Possibly the least-closely related member of this group, twenty-two year old Jacob, son of Valentin and Anna Magdalena Schnebele Lowenberg, was fourth-cousin-twice-removed to Abbie, and about the same level of extended kinship to the Krebills and Webers. 

He was born in 1887 near Donnellson, and  joined the extended Krebill family upon wedding Hilda Weber in the winter of 1917, just before the US joined the War. 

Jacob and Hilda had two sons, who were still small when Jacob fell ill in the fall of 1924. Jacob was the first of the group to pass away, when he finally succumbed to pneumonia in a Davenport Iowa hospital in 1927.

Ernest Adolph  Krehbiel
1893 - 1970

(4LB, FamilySearch K8L3-QQ8, Find-a-Grave 90323468)

Of the young men pictured, at age seventeen Ernest was the youngest, tagging along with older sister Ada on the excursion. Son of Jacob August and Emma Selma Krebill Krehbiel, he was born near Franklin, Iowa in 1893. Tall and thin, with gray eyes and dark hair, Ernest would marry Jacob Lowenberg’s little sister Clara in 1918. Together Ernest and Clara had five children.

When Ernest and Clara’s son Roger contracted Polio and was confined to an iron lung at harvest-time 1950, relatives and neighbors rallied to bring in Roger’s soybean crop . Several of the once-young men in the photograph were among those who pitched in at the family’s hour of need. 

Ernest lived to the age of 82, and was buried in a cemetery in Burlington, Iowa in 1970.

Otto Christian Krebill
1885 - 1958

(4LB, FamilySearch KCGP-6GS, Find-a-Grave 32867406)

My great-grandfather, twenty-four year old O.C., was the Donnellson-born son of Frederick H. and Elizabeth Rings Krebill. He had dark blue eyes and dark hair to accent his medium build. 

Otto may have had his heart set on Abbie, his friend Clarence's little sister, for some time, biking between his folk’s place and hers on Sunday afternoons before finally tying the knot in winter 1914. 

A farmer to his core, O.C. Krebill dedicated his life to growing the best corn Iowa soil could produce, winning many prizes over the years.

Otto followed his father’s community-focused footsteps, serving as a Sunday School teacher, a charter member of the fledgling Farm Bureau, and for many years was a member of the County Fair Board. He fell ill shortly after Abbie’s death and passed away in 1958.

Walter David Krebill
1890 - 1965

4HD, FamilySearch KCCF-DHW, Find-a-Grave 116036316)

Who can resist twenty year old Walter’s jaunty grin? Or his soaring height, and bright green eyes setting off his brown hair?Well certainly not Alma!

Walter, son of Joseph and Selma Magdalena Weber Krebill, Dora’s younger brother, worked hard to woo Alma, but it would be almost four years after this photo was taken before they wed, up in Minnesota. 

After returning to Iowa, Alma and Walter had five children that they raised near family and friends. Walter was among the farmers who came to Ermest’s son's aid. 

Like his cousin Otto, Walter was committed to church and civic improvement, serving many years in the Farm Bureau and the County Fair Board, before passing away in the spring of 1965.

Daniel Jacob Schowalter
1880 - 1946

(FamilySearch KZY5-VX5, Find-a-Grave 50157348)

The oldest member of our group, thirty- year-old Dan was a man who looked after family. 

Born in 1880, the youngest child of Christian and Rosina Haffner Schowalter never married, instead looking after his mother in her old age, then his brother’s daughter Anna. 

When those tasks were completed, Dan sold his farm equipment and traveled around the country visiting friends and relatives before eventually settling near Des Moines with a few remaining family keepsakes. 

On midsummer’s eve 1946, Dan was walking along train tracks near his home and did not hear the approaching train. He passed away the next morning, at age 65.

 

Edgar Rudolph Weber
1889 - 1971

(4JB, FamilySearch K41D-X7R, Find-a-Grave 16225038)

Our last young man in the row, twenty-one year old Edgar, like Erna and Hilda, was a child of Elias P. Weber and Charlotte Krebill, born in 1889 in Kansas. 

Despite his piercing gray eyes and shock of brown hair, Edgar never married.

But he repeatedly came to the aid of his friends; the newspaper notes his help in the soybean harvest for Roger Krehbiel, and later when his friend Ernest needed surgery at harvest time 1955, he helped bring in the corn. 

Edgar farmed all his life in the Donnellson area, and passed away in 1971 at the age of 81.

_____________________________

[1] H.C. Peterson and Gilbert C. Fite, Opponents of War, 1917-1918, (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1957), 136.

[2] Ray Stannard Baker and William E. Dodd, eds., Woodrow Wilson, “Address to the American Federation of Labor Convention at Buffalo, New York,” November 12, 1917, Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. I: War and Peace, Presidential Messages, Addresses, and Public Papers (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1925-1927), 120

[3] Mennonites On Military Service, A Statement of our Position on Military Service as Adopted by the Mennonite General Conference, August 29, 1917, I-1-1 6-1 Mennonite General Conference, 1898-1971. Mennonite Church USA, Archives-Goshen. Goshen, Indiana.

[4] Id.

[5] Yellow Painters Told to Find Real Jobs." Burlington Hawk Eye, 9 August 1918 p. 3.