No matter what trail we take, there are always side paths begging to be explored. Although such jaunts off the beaten path usually expand and enrich our understanding of the topic at hand, they do slow down the rate of blogging. I note that to explain why it has taken several weeks to return to the topic of Bullers who registered for the World War I draft.
Discoveries made on these side trips include an explanation why the B and C registrations cards (see the earlier post here) no longer had a place for registrants to document their claim to exemption and a fairly lengthy history of York County’s support for and participation in the U.S. war effort, including Selective Service registration. Those matters deserve their own posts; today our focus is on the individual Bullers who registered for the World War I draft.
As mentioned before, fifteen Bullers registered for the draft in York County; to that fifteen we can add another five who registered in Hamilton County, which borders York County to the west. If you recall, Peter D and Sarah Siebert Buller first settled on the east edge of Hamilton County, approximately a mile outside of Henderson. In light of this close connection, in what follows we will consider all twenty registrants from both counties.
All twenty men who registered can be grouped into one or another Buller family. For example, six of the registrants—Andrew (Andreas), David Adam, Frank (Franz) P., Jacob P., Peter Henry, and John Jacob—were brothers, sons of Peter J. Buller, who had immigrated from Friedensdorf in Molotschna Colony. As the map here shows, Friedensdorf was among the villages where most Molotschna Bullers settled, so this family was no doubt related to us in some way. However, the exact connection to us is unknown at this time. One thing we do learn from the GRANDMA database is that most of the information for this family comes from the Henderson Mennonite Brethren church book; this is supported by the statement on David Adam Buller’s registration that he was a member of the MB church. Three of the six used the first (A) registration card that asked about a claim of exemption; all three claimed exemption from the draft on religious grounds.
A second family group includes three brothers: Frank (Franz) D., Geo (George), and Henry F. Buller. They were the sons of a David P. Buller, who also immigrated from Molotschna Colony. David’s village, named Friedensruh (not to be confused with Friedensdorf), was on the south edge of Molotschna near Alexanderkrone and Kleefeld, where Peter D and Sarah had lived. As before, this family was certainly related to ours in some way, although we cannot say how. Only Frank completed the A registration card, and he claimed an exemption because he had had two operations; there is no mention of exemption due to religious convictions. George’s registration card lists his present occupation as “insane patient” at the Ingleside State Hospital near Hastings, Nebraska; the card was signed by a Dr. Christie, presumably from the hospital. Sadly, George never left the hospital; he died on 24 May 1929 and was buried on the grounds (see here; for additional background on the hospital, see here).
A third family consists of brothers Peter C. and Jacob, sons of Peter Buller, originally of Landskrone in Molotschna Colony. Once again we can say that this family is related to us in some way, but we do not yet know how. Neither of these Bullers completed registration card A, so we do not know whether or not they claimed a religious exemption. According to GRANDMA, information about them can be found in the Bethesda church book.
Yet a fourth family also included two brothers: Heinrich and John (Johann) D. They were sons of a Peter Buller from Friedensdorf in Molotschna Colony, though not the Peter J. Buller from Friedensdorf listed in the first family group. Both men used registration card A, and both claimed a religious exemption. According to GRANDMA, they were members of the Henderson MB church and are recorded in the church book. How they are related to us remains unknown.
The seven remaining Bullers who registered for the World War I draft are all members of our family line. We begin with the two most distant: Peter B and Henry (Heinrich) B. Both were born in Inman, Kansas, but the family moved to Oklahoma sometime between 1900 and 1910, after which at least the brothers relocated to the Henderson area between 1910 and 1917, when they registered for the draft. The B in their names stood for their father Benjamin, who was David and Helena Zielke Buller’s sixth child. In other words, Peter B and Henry B were our ancestor Peter D’s nephews (Peter D was David and Helena’s second child). Both completed registration card A and claimed an exemption on religious grounds.
Four sons of Peter D and Sarah Siebert Buller registered for the draft in York County: David S, Cornelius P, Jacob P (aka J. P.; see here), and Abraham P. All four registered on the third and final date, after the range had been expanded to include all men ages eighteen to forty-five. Because of this we do not know if they claimed a religious exemption, although that was presumably the case.
Finally, Benjamin P Buller, the son of Peter P and Margaretha Epp Buller, registered in York County on 24 August 1918. As noted in the first post in this series (here), this registration supplemented the second one for men who turned twenty-one between 5 June and 24 August 1918. In fact, Benjamin was born 5 July 1897, so he did turn twenty-one within that time frame.
As far as I can tell, all the Bullers who were required to register did so; in all likelihood, all of them also asked for an exemption from the actual draft. One final observation: seventeen of the twenty Bullers who registered listed their occupation as either farmer or farmhand. This is not surprising, but it does show just how unusual it was for Bullers such as J. P. (and later Henry) to pursue a different career.
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