By Dr. Curtis Varnell
Americans tend to blend the two great world wars and to lump them together as battles against the dark and evil forces of German’s like Hitler, Goebbels, and Himmler. World War I was not nearly as clear-cut and lacked the typical good against evil label that our country generally likes to ascribe to wars in which we are involved. It was a war created by big egos, bad military alliances, an arms race and fought between countries whose leaders were cousins. Without rehashing lessons from high school history, the U.S. was pulled into the war as a result of the military blockade of Europe. With an American president who supported the British and the sinking of passenger ships including the Lusitania, the U.S. entered the war against Germany and other central European states. The American public were divided in support of the war and opposition sprouted in Arkansas.
Almost 13% of the population of Arkansas are of German descent. Large numbers of German immigrants settled in the northwester portion of the state after the Civil war. Second-generation immigrants had become settled framers, bankers, and merchants but still had strong ties with the mother country. Others opposed the mandatory draft, the suppression of civil rights, or were isolationists. More than eight thousand Arkansas men either resisted the draft or fled to avoid being drafted. Antagonism against the government’s policies boiled over into violent opposition on at least three occasions in Arkansas.
The Cleburne County war began on Sunday, July 7, 1918 when Sheriff Jasper Duke lead a posse to a rural area near the small town of Rosebud in search of a group of teen-age Jehovah Witness who had refused to register for the draft. A shoot-out resulted and Porter Hazlewood, a member of the posse, was killed.
Both the Sherriff and the opposition recruited help and a forty-minute gun battle broke out between the two sides. Rumors ran rife! Heber Springs called for help, believing the insurrectionists were about to attack the town. The governor called in the National Guard and tensions ran high for a week as bloodhounds scoured the country looking for the refugees. Several were arrested for aiding and abetting the young men. Eventually, all seven surrendered and were given light punishments for the insurrection.
The Logan County Draft war actually began in Franklin County when a group of draft evaders resisted arrest near Ozark. One posse member was killed and others injured in a gunfight when the draft-evaders ambushed the sheriff. The draft-evaders then fled to a remote area of Magazine Mt. called Bear Hollow where they hid out for several days. Eventually, most of the party were captured and sentenced to life imprisonment.
A similar incident occurred in Mena when a posse attempted to arrest a gang of evaders. The gunfight between the two groups resulted in the deaths of Deputy Sheriff Charles Kirkland and resister Elmer During. The other members of the gang surrendered by the end of the day. Ben Caughron was sentenced to die in the electric chair when he pled guilty to shooting Kirkland. The others received varying prison sentences.
Suspicion and bitterness accompanied the U.S. support of the allied powers. Opposition to governmental policies resulted in squashing of civil rights, imprisonment, and the suppression of free speech. Isolated instances of violence between neighbors occurred throughout the state. On April 13, 1917, local government officials in Logan County, suspicious of German immigrants in the county destroyed the radio at Subiaco Academy with the excuse that they were preventing the monks from getting messages from the German Government. In Johnson County, the Lutheran pastor was threatened by gunmen and driven from his home. People refused to do business with German merchants and banks. The German National Bank company changed their name to American National Bank and other companies followed suit. To avoid suspicion, many of the churches that had large German congregations changed all worship to English.
The war ended, the imprisoned were released. Those that had fled returned home and America returned to its prewar isolation. According to the new president, the business of America was business and the roaring twenties began. America quickly forgets its past!
