Showing 27 results

Archival description
Mennonite Church USA Archives World War, 1939-1945 - Conscientious objectors
Print preview View:

Mennonite Central Peace Committee Meeting Minutes

  • US MCUSAA X/004
  • Collection
  • 1940-1941

Two sets of meeting minutes documenting the work of the Mennonite Central Peace Committee, a forerunner to the Mennonite Central Committee Peace Section.

Mennonite Central Peace Committee

Mennonite Research Foundation (Goshen, Ind.) Mennonite Church in World War II Study Records

  • US MCUSAA V/07/002
  • Collection
  • 1942-1948

This small set of records consists primarily of completed questinonaires regarding Mennonite congregational contact with drafted Mennonite men (Mennonite Church in World War II, Project #3).  Also includes examples of pastoral letters sent to drafted men (a number of them from Waldo Mennonite Church (Flanigan, Ill.) and minutes and other records created by the Virginia Mennonite Conference CPS Support Team.

Mennonite Research Foundation (Goshen, Ind.)

Case Files of Conscientious Objectors Court-Martialed during World War I

  • US MCUSAA HM8/037
  • Collection
  • 1917-1919

98 case files on microfilm containing the transcripts of courts-martial of 131 conscientious objectors during World War I. The records originate from the National Archives' Record Group 153 (United States. Army, Office of the Judge Advocate General).  The name index to the microfilm in this finding aid is arranged alphabetically, as are the case files on microfilm.  Researchers should note that these case files contain two courts-martial in which multiple conscientious objectors were tried together.

United States. Army. Office of the Judge Advocate General

John Thut Photographs

  • US MCUSAA HM4/388
  • Collection
  • 1920-1946

The richest materials among these photographs are the140 color slides depicing Thut's volunteer work in England with German prisoners of war after World War II and his subsequent travel in the Western United States to Civilian Public Service (CPS) camps. These labeled and well-composed slides include images of Thut's living and working conditions in England, art work made by German POWs, and scenes of CPS work in Montana, South Dakota, and California. Also of note is a slide of Peter and Elfrieda Dyck's wedding gifts.

Click on "Online Images / Records" to see an inventory of the slides.

Other materials among Thut's photographs include a number of poorly-labeled black and white photographic prints of Goshen College in the early 1920s. Notable scenes include a May Day celebration and the construction of the college gymnasium. Also included is his passport obtained in 1944.

Thut, John, 1898-1994

Harold and Philip Wik Family Papers

  • US MCUSAA HM1/991
  • Collection
  • 1900-2007

Papers of a Harold Wik, a Mennonite service worker who volunteered with Civilian Public Service, Mennonite Central Committee and missionary to China and Malaya (West Malaysia), and his son Philip Wik.  Documents include correspondence, photographs, two Wik family histories, and a Wik family anthology.  The family histories and anthologies integrate historical family documents or photocopies thereof into the text.

Wik, Harold

Gerlof D. Homan Research Files

  • US MCUSAA HM1/965
  • Collection
  • 1916-1995

Research files of a Mennonite historian who taught at Illinois State University.  These records are divided into two series:

(1) World War I Research, 1916-1989

(2) Dutch Mennonite Research, 1989-1995

Homan, Gerlof D., 1929-

Gordon Oyer Collection on Civilian Public Service Camp #115 Subunit #30 (Urbana, Ill.)

  • US MCUSAA HM1/944
  • Collection
  • 1943-1991

A set of research materials assembled by Gordon Oyer to write an article on the history Civilian Public Service in Illinois, including CPS Camp #115, Subunit #30.  CPS volunteers at this camp were "guinea pigs" for medical experiments studying the physiological effects of heat and tropical conditions.  Camp #115 was a cooperative agency administered the Mennonites, Brethren, and Friends under the direction of the Office of Scientific Research and Development.  Subunit #30 was administered by Mennonite Central Committee.

Materials in this collection include the diaries of two CPS volunteer participants in these experiments:  Duane Hougham (Methodist) and George Nachtigall (Mennonite Brethren).  Nachtigall's diary is a photocopy of the original.  Also included are letters with CPS volunteers stationed in Illinois, clippings, and a copy of Oyer's article.

Oyer, Gordon

Harvey H. Weirich Papers

  • US MCUSAA HM1/938
  • Collection
  • 1940-2007

This small set of papers focuses primarily on Weirich's Civilian Public Service (CPS) work building flood control structures in Iowa and serving as a smoke jumper. Materials include an album of photographs and documents, collected articles on smoke jumpers, and newsletters and ephemera from Camp 18 (Denison, Iowa) and Camp 103 (Missoula, Montana). Also included are 26 photographs of First Mennonite Church (Middlebury, Indiana) in the 1950s and 1960s. Subjects include members of the church's baseball team circa 1950.

Weirich, Harvey H., 1924-2010

Harry Sommers Papers 1917-1919

  • US MCUSAA HM1/887
  • Collection
  • 1917-1992

Papers pertaining to a Mennonite conscientious objector's experiences during World War I.  Includes correspondence, empemera pertaining to conscientious objection, a transcript of Sommers's court martial proceedings, a parole pass, photographs, and other miscellaneous items.  Also includes a brief two page biography of Sommers written by Myron Sommers in 1992.

Sommers, Harry, 1894-1984

Elmer Leichty Court Martial Proceedings

  • US MCUSAA HM1/839SC
  • Collection
  • 1918

Transcript of Elmer Leichty's court martial for refusing to accept work orders at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky, during World War I.

Leichty, Elmer

Philemon L. Frey Papers

  • US MCUSAA HM1/825
  • Collection
  • 1917-1973

Personal papers of a conscientious objector during World War I and Mennonite pastor in Ohio. The bulk of the material consists of sermons organized by topic..  Also included are photographs from Camp Sherman, where Frey was stationed during the First World War, and a journal recording the names of other conscientious objectors at Camp Sherman and their visitors.  A small amount of correspondence from the World War I and World War II eras may also be found in these papers.

Frey, Philemon L., 1896-1984

Payson Miller Papers 1918-1919, 1954-1962

  • US MCUSAA HM1/670
  • Collection
  • 1918-1962

A small collection of materials pertaining to Miller's experiences as a conscientious objector in World War I. Materials include transcribed outgoing correspondence, written from Camp Taylor, KY, and France from 1918 to 1919, collected articles on the treatment of conscientious objectors in World War I, and a small set of Guy F. Herschberger's research notes and correspondence regarding the Illinois and Kansas State Councils of Defense.

Miller, Payson

George S. Miller Court Martial Proceedings

  • US MCUSAA HM1/645SC
  • Collection
  • 1918

A photocopy of the proceedings of a General Court Martial at Camp Dodge, Iowa in World War I.  The defendant, George S. Miller, was a Mennonite conscientious objector.  This is an incomplete copy that does not contain the judgment.  Testimony, however, is present.

Miller, George S., 1887-1978

Timothy R. Falb Collection 1979-1984

  • US MCUSAA HM1/603
  • Collection
  • 1945-1984

A small set of research materials collected by Timothy Falb in the course of conducting three research projects -- one on the post World War II volunteers who shipped livestock overseas, one on Mennonite scholar and educator Edward Yoder, and one on the history of two sister congregations in Ohio, Martins Mennonite Church and Pleasant View Mennonite Church. Also included is an interview with Aldis Gerber, a conscientious objector during WWI. The richest sources of material in this collection are the oral histories. Researchers should note that no transcriptions are available for these oral histories.

The materials are divided into series by subject.

Falb, Timothy R., 1956-

Results 1 to 15 of 27