In a previous post, I showed my dad's beautiful baptismal certificate from 1923. I had to show it in parts because it was so large and I wanted you to see the details. In the bottom section, shown below, is the seal of St. John's (Johannes) Church (near West Hope and Deshler, Henry County, Ohio) and the signature, "P. Peters."
As I read Michael McMaster's book, Henry County in the Great War: German-Americans, Patriots, and Loyalty 1914-1918,
I saw that the Reverend Peter Peters was a man whose loyalty to America
was questioned greatly. According to McMaster, Rev. P. Peters was a
first generation German immigrant who had done missionary work in India
before being called to St. John's Lutheran Church in Henry County. St.
John's had both a church and a school and Rev. Peters was both pastor
and teacher, with all services and teaching being conducted in German.
(I don't believe the Elling family was attending there yet in 1918 as
they lived near Liberty Center at the time, according to Grandpa
Albert's draft registration. If they had been parishioners, they would
have witnessed quite a scene in July 1918.)
The
Henry County League of American Patriots had been regularly questioning
the loyalty of various German-American citizens and trying them in
"their" courts. The League was also demanding strongly that the
Lutheran churches in the county quit preaching and teaching in German.
They made several requests and declarations and called meetings of the
pastors, yet all of the staunch Lutheran pastors turned a deaf ear
to them. As part of one last declaration, the League stated, in part:
"...any
pastor or church officer allowing German to be used in any church
school in this county, after July 1st, will be regarded by the organized
patriotic public opinion of this county as un-patriotic, un-American,
and by such action, they will be regarded as caring more for German
institutions than American.
That in further defiant action on your part, you assume full responsibility for results."
(McMaster, p. 148)
On
July 9, 1918, Rev. Peter Peters drove his buggy into West Hope to visit
the blacksmith and while there, several boys put an American flag on
his buggy. He kept taking it off and they kept putting it back on.
Accounts vary, some saying that he put it in his wagon and said he would
take it home and others stating that he threw it in the road. Either
way, this was apparently seen as a traitorous act by the League.
 |
| Reverend Peter Peters |
Late
that evening a large group of League members from all over the county
stormed the parsonage . Whether it was a spontaneous gathering or well
planned depends on the newspaper account one reads, which are all
reported in McMaster's book. The Henry County Signal stated that a
crowd of 500 people supporting the League, including carloads from
Liberty Center, McClure, Napoleon, Deshler, Holgate and Malinta, swarmed
to the church parsonage. The parishioners, hoping to defend their
pastor, also came by the carload. Some church members were in the dark
house with the pastor and when they tried to escape to hide, gunshots
were fired. It was quite an event until the Napoleon officers arrived
and broke it up. The patriots left a large American flag nailed to Rev.
Peters' door.
No
one was ever arrested, but the "West Hope Incident" gives us insight
into the climate of the times. Our German ancestors, with their thick
accents and their customs, were daily at risk of being under suspicion.
I
tried to go a little further into the life of Rev. Peters, using the
1920 census. Pastor Peters was living in Bartlow Township still, 41 and
single, born in Friesland (German) and naturalized in 1914.
He
married at age 44 to Margereth who was quite a bit younger. In the
1930 census, he was 52 and she was 33, and they had a young son,
Frederick, age 5.
According
to Mr. McMaster, Rev. Peters continued to minister at St. John's until
1939. If you enjoy reading about local history, as I do, I think you
would enjoy this book which has a much more detailed account of this and
other incidents during WW I in Henry County.
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