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Home , John Kline (elder), Martyr

“Living and Moving Amongst Us Again”: John Kline and Civil War Martyrdo 1

Aaron D. Jerviss

OVER the last 150 years, the story of cause. After presenting numerous examples John Kline has been well-told in Brethren of Kline remembrance, this essay will con - circles. For nearly three decades before the clude by placing John Kline’s memory in Civil War, Kline served the Brethren as a conversation with one respected scholar’s pastor, evangelist, and denominational criteria for establishing authentic - leader. His opposition to both slavery and dom. The line between and secession, along with his efforts to secure can be a thin one, and, in Brethren exemption from the Confederate examining how the Brethren remembered military, however, made him suspect among John Kline, the adjective “hagiographic” his Rockingham County, Virginia, neigh - suggests a tension with, or even a contra - bors. Kline’s June 1864 at the hands diction of, long-cherished Brethren ideals, of Confederate irregulars continues to elicit such as simplicity and humility. Such termi - speculation and finger-pointing as armchair nology, however, remains appropriate only gumshoes (Brethren and otherwise) seek to because Kline’s appeared to give the solve a puzzling “whodunit.” Considering Brethren a bonafide Civil War martyr. both his standing in Brethren leadership Throughout church history, martyrdom and the tragic circumstances surrounding has been a conceptually fluid notion. After his death, it is not difficult to see why, in the the fourth-century conversion of the Roman decades after his death, John Kline became emperor Constantine to , for the patron , in the truest sense of the example, a highly ascetic and often solitary phrase, of Brethren Civil War memory. This form of monasticism became “the new mar - article examines the Brethren martyrology tyrdom,” a way of distinguishing valid of John Kline in remembrance, poetic verse, Christianity from the fashionable Christiani - and song in the fifty years following the ty of the imperial court. According to one Civil War. On the one hand, Brethren adu - noted medieval scholar, the Late Middle lation of Kline reached back through the Ages became an era when “the patient centuries by likening Kline to the martyrs of endurance of suffering” replaced dying for the early Christian church and even biblical the as the essential prerequisite for giants of faith. At the same time, however, martyrdom. Transferring that latter under - John Kline was cast as a martyr in secular standing to nonresistants of the Civil War terms more easily grasped by post-Appo - era, one finds no shortage of martyrs. As mattox Americans: a soldier who “died at “patient sufferers,” the German Baptist his post,” a heroic Civil War-era crusader Brethren, , and members of the who laid down his life for a valued personal Society of Friends lost property, watched as

SPRING/SUMMER 2019 1 the state deprived them of basic liberties, officer by not “stopping bullets,” as and, in some cases, carried bodily scars as described by Cartland: “(Macon) seemed to remnants of physical torment for the rest of possess a charmed life. His comrades fell all their lives. A few did not live to see the end around him, their places being filled by oth - of the war. In his 1895 work Southern ers who wondered at the strange sight,—a Heroes , a lengthy description of the war man with plain citizen’s dress, having nei - time sufferings of North Carolina Friends, ther pistol, sword, nor gun, and no military cap nor coat, calmly filling his place in bat - Kline, the advocate of tle line, but taking no part.” 1 In a tragic turn of events, Macon nonviolence, met a quite died a few days after the aforementioned battle as a captive in the Point Lookout violent end, and this prison. Cartland described Macon as “a re - markably sensitive lad” (a man so uncom - murder would, to fortable with “the sight of blood…that he would rather be excused from killing the subsequent generations fowls needed for his dinner”) and attributed his death to “mental suffering caused by his of Brethren, both elevate being taken from his loved ones, and by the terrible scenes of battle.” In another passage Kline beyond the status from Southern Friends , Cartland wrote, “In the experience of those Friends, and of oth - of mere denominational ers who were conscientious in their posi - “hero” and prove that tion in favor of peace, not only did (God) support them by his presence and power, Christian martyrdom but not one of all those who steadily refused to bear arms was permitted to come to a could and did occur violent death.” Fernando Cartland classified Isaiah Macon as a “good soldier” whose on American soi l. death advanced the cause of Christian peace, but was he a martyr? That was easier author Fernando Cartland told the tale of to prove in terms of suffering for the sake of the young Quaker conscript Isaiah Macon. righteousness rather than the more tradi - Even though Macon refused to pick up a gun tional notion of voluntary and violent death or wear a Confederate uniform, this draftee for a belief or cause. Without question, the still silently endured the atrocities of battle Civil War bore some responsibility for near Winchester, Virginia. Before combat killing Isaiah Macon, yet mental anguish ever began, a Confederate officer uttered, took the life of this young man rather than “If Macon will not fight, put him in the front bullets. With Cartland asserting that no to stop bullets for those who will.” Posi - Quaker died a violent wartime death, tioned at the front of the fighting, Macon Friends could celebrate the gallantry of witnessed “the fierce shouts and fearful Macon and, at the same time, demonstrate oaths of the combatants around him,” “the a special form of divine protection for those dreadful groans of wounded men and hors - espousing the peace viewpoint. In compar - es,” and “the gaping wounds made by shell, ison to Isaiah Macon, however, the death of shot and sword.” In spite of the increasing John Kline appears to be more of a literal carnage, Macon defied the prediction of his martyrdom. Kline, the advocate of nonvio -

2 BRETHREN LIFE & THOUGHT lence, met a quite violent end, and this mur - viewed Bowman’s death as tragic yet ran - der would, to subsequent generations of dom, a contingent accident of time and Brethren, both elevate Kline beyond the sta - space, based more on a refusal to part with tus of mere denominational “hero” and a horse than a defense of the faith. More prove that Christian martyrdom could and likely, Kline’s stature and longer length of did occur on American soil. 2 service within the denomination caused his Although Brethren recognized John Kline commemoration to overshadow the re- as the preeminent Civil War martyr, he was not the only Brethren figure to suffer a vio - As a Brethren pastor lent wartime death. John A. Bowman (1813– 1863) lived and ministered in Sullivan Coun - passed away, a Brethren ty, Tennessee, where his “more than ordi - nary” oratorical abilities made him a high - martyr was bor n. ly-esteemed preacher and a ubiquitous fig - ure presiding at countless local weddings membrance of Bowman. 3 and . On September 8, 1863, sever - On the fateful day of Wednesday, June 15, al men wearing the uniforms of Confederate 1864, around 11:00 in the morning, the guns soldiers entered Bowman’s barn, located near of an unspecified number (most likely two Blountville, seeking saddle-horses. Bowman or three) of Confederate irregulars perched attempted to reason with the intruders, and above the roadside fired several bullets into the 1907 Brethren history The Olive Branch John Kline as he rode atop his beloved mare described the ensuing confrontation: “(Bow - “Old Nell” after a morning of Rockingham man) implored them not to take his horse, as County errand-running. In a region and he very greatly stood in need of his service, time increasingly numbed by violence and and during the time he gently laid his hand loss of life, Brethren quickly ascertained upon the horse’s mane, whereupon one of that this was no wartime death. the soldiers drew his gun and shot him Annie Zigler Bowman (1849–1935), a dead.” Thus, a shot fired by “a thoughtless, Shenandoah Valley resident and acquain - reckless man in the garb of a soldier” cut tance of Kline, remembered the loyalty of short the life of “a useful servant of the Nell in securing assistance for her longtime Lord.” In 1912, Brethren biographers Miller traveling companion: “…it was her contin - and Royer used even more laudatory lan - ued nickerings that brought help when her guage when remembering Bowman’s death: master was brought down by the wicked “That sharp musket-shot penetrated many bullet and lay dead in the road. She never homes and touched many hearts, as the left his side but nickered again and again as dastardly deed of the assassin was borne on if she would arouse him to go home. The the still morning air by the pitiful and neighbors heard this nickering up in the moans of his loving companion and dear woods, and went to see what it meant.” For children. He truly died a martyr’s death.” others, the final lasting impression of John The practice of provided the Kline was the smile gracing Kline’s face as proof of Bowman’s death for an explicitly he sojourned into the eternal. Benjamin spiritual cause: “It is well known that the Funk, the editor of The Life and Labors of position he took in favor of peace and Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary , against war made him enemies among a vouched, “The writer’s own eyes witnessed certain class.” In general, however, Brethren this. It may be that this smile was the reflec - embraced John Kline as more of a martyr- tion of the joy that thrilled his as he hero than John Bowman. Perhaps Brethren stepped out of his broken tenement of clay

SPRING/SUMMER 2019 3 into the presence and light of his Kline’s energies and spiritual convictions Redeemer.” As a Brethren pastor passed had already cemented his reputation as a away, a Brethren martyr was born. 4 Brethren hero, but a change in status from Interestingly enough, the effort to turn hero to martyr constantly hovered around John Kline into a martyr predated the death Kline. 5 of Kline. Two separate letters printed in the After June 1864, once numerous sources January 1862 issue of the Brethren periodi - confirmed the actual murder of Kline, out - cal The Visitor repeated rumors of pourings of grief and sacral remembrance Kline’s demise circulating throughout the filled the pages of Brethren periodicals. In denomination. A correspondent writing the Christian Family Companion , editor from Mt. Morris, Illinois, inquired, “There Henry R. Holsinger differentiated the “anti- has news come to us from the South that slavery, anti-war, and anti-secession” Kline brother John Kline and another brother by from the “proslavery, anti-christian dynasty” the name of Arnold have been shot just for of the Confederacy and lamented, “Know - saying, ‘they thought it not right for brethren ing the sentiments entertained by our broth - to go to war.’ We would like to know the er in regard to the questions dividing our certainty.” At the other end of the Union, people and the spirit and character of his reports surfaced of a Berks County, Pennsyl - enemies, the intelligence of his martyrdom vania, pastor telling his congregation that was more the signal for sorrow and pain, “the Rebels” had hung John Kline. An indi - than of surprise.” Elevating Kline to hal - vidual hearing this sermon quoted the pas - lowed status, Holsinger then eulogized, tor as saying, “They had tried to force “The name of Bro. John Kline, of Virginia (Kline) into their army, which he refused to passes down to future posterity as the first do, being conscientious in the matter; they , in the history of our church then destroyed and confiscated all his prop - in America.” The editor of the Gospel Visitor erty, and hung him to a tree.” The notion of experienced the pain of not only having to Confederate military officials conscripting a report the death of John Kline but also the Brethren elder in his mid-sixties may have manner in which this fatality occurred: “… been dubious, but this did not still Brethren his sudden, violent and cruel death, being anxieties. Bombarded by requests for reli - shot down without a moment’s warning by able information concerning Kline, the edi - the hands of murderous rebels.” Drawing tor of The Visitor could only entrust Kline’s from the biblical book of Acts for an analo - current condition to the sovereign hand of gy, the author continued, “…we hope and God: “…the present state of things in our trust he was ready to depart with the land and nation, and especially in the South of the first martyr, Stephen: ‘Lord, lay not is such that ‘prayer should be made without this sin to their (his murderers’) charge!’” In ceasing of the church unto God for’ our the same August 1864 issue of the Visitor , a Brethren in affliction, for our neighbors, land, brother from West Virginia provided further and nation, rulers and lawgivers, friends details about the crime: “…Elder John Kline and enemies, and for all mankind.” Two was found dead, lying in a road not far from issues later, a reader who had recently fled his house, shot with four balls. A rebel sol - Virginia reported, “I know that brother John dier said that he was shot for traveling West Kline is still living and in health, although carrying news and helping people to get out there have been some hard threats.” This of the S. Confederacy.” Remarks such as the news temporarily eased Brethren fears, but one furnished by the unnamed Confederate the Shenandoah Valley remained an unsta - soldier prompted one reader of the Chris - ble region. In the early years of the war, tian Family Companion , under the pen

4 BRETHREN LIFE & THOUGHT name “A Friend,” to rise to Kline’s defense: which must be full of terror to us all.” 7 “He had been, originally, a strong and Being an unsolved murder mystery, the determined Union man, but he had made death of Kline frequently drew speculation up his mind to live and die in the Confeder - regarding the perpetrators alongside words acy, and was engaged, not in the dissemina - of reverence for the fallen. In February tion of the Union sentiments, but in striving 1865, Henry Kurtz of Mount Joy, Pennsylva - to do all the good he could to the as nia, informed fellow Brethren readers of the well as to the bodies of men.” While not denying Kline’s engagement with pressing political matters, the letter-writer testified Being an unsolved murder that the spiritual, rather than the political, mystery, the death of Kline ultimately motivated Kline. 6 In another effort to validate Kline’s char - frequently drew speculation acter, the Gospel Visitor reprinted the obitu - ary of Kline published in “a rebel paper,” regarding the perpetrators the Rockingham Register , on June 24, 1864. Under the heading “Murder,” the Register alongside words of reverence characterized Kline as “an aged Dunker preacher of considerable prominence,” “a for the falle n. man of great influence with and in his church,” and “a man of the strictest integrity Christian Family Companion that a band of in his business transactions.” These qualities Shenandoah Valley refugees who recently notwithstanding, the newspaper also remem - found their way into fingered bered Kline as “an uncompromising union one specific individual as the murderer: “… man” who had been arrested in April 1862 (they) state that the name of the rebel who while attempting to cross the Allegheny murdered our Bro. is JACOB ACKER, and Mountains in order to reach Union territory. that he boasts of having committed the The Register , however, saw no reason to wicked deed. …They say they know Acker attribute Union sympathies as the ultimate well, and that he threatened he would shoot cause of Kline’s death: “(Kline) had however him (Kline) after he came back from the been honorably acquitted, and was pursu - Annual Meeting.” Writing in the 1880s, Val - ing ‘the even tenor of his way,’ passing fre - ley resident Orra Langhorne claimed that, quently by permission of our authorities within Rockingham County, the shooters’ within the Yankee lines to preach and hold identities were no great mystery: “Although other religious services.” The author pre - the assassins who so cruelly murdered the dicted that “the removal of one of the pillars innocent old man were masked, there was of the church” could have devastating ef - no doubt in the community as to the names fects on the Brethren community, but then of the ruffians who had committed the bru - admitted that not only “Dunkers,” but also tal deed.” Langhorne failed to name names the Shenandoah Valley as a whole faced an but did acknowledge the divine retribution uncertain precarious future: “Whilst our peo - which seemingly visited three of the crime’s ple differed with Mr. Kline in the erroneous accomplices: “It is somewhat remarkable views which he entertained, yet all good cit - that three of the ruffians engaged in the izens must deplore such a lawless wreaking murder of Johnny Kline, met violent , of vengeance upon the person of an un - the fourth wandering restlessly to and fro armed and feeble old man. Such things show upon the earth, seeking rest and finding how rapidly we are drifting into scenes none.” The passage of time would not abate

SPRING/SUMMER 2019 5 Brethren fascination with the particulars of tance made the Brethren and Mennonites the murder. In 1987, Ray A. Neff released a “American strangers,” yet their peace prin - book entitled Valley of the Shadow, which ciples marked them as distinctively Chris - provided his own hypothesis concerning tian. Those who killed and spent “days in the true assassin of John Kline. 8 strife,” on the other hand, received eternal The first of several musical odes to Kline punishment. 9 drew on two weeks the murdered pastor The year 1879 marked a pivotal historical had spent in a Harrisonburg, Virginia, jail in moment in the development of John Kline 1862. At some point in their imprisonment, memory. That year, Brethren held their members of a group of eighteen Brethren Annual Meeting at Linville Creek, the very and Mennonites arrested alongside Kline vicinity where Kline’s life ended fifteen for allegedly attempting to flee the Confed - years earlier. Members of the German Bap - eracy composed the verses of “The Prison - tist Brethren family gathered from across the er’s Hymn” while Kline was credited with nation to participate in the customary year - contributing the words of the chorus. The ly activities of conducting denominational original hymn contained nine stanzas, three business, corporate worship, and food and of which proclaimed nonresistance as cru - fellowship with each other. When time al - cial in establishing Civil War heroism: lowed, however, many Brethren found their way to the meetinghouse to stand We know it is God’s holy will, in the presence of Kline’s gravestone. In his Our fellow men we shall not kill; groundbreaking study of Civil War memory Baptized in Blood , Charles Reagan Wilson But we should lead a Christian life, argues that both the American and Lost and not spend all our days in strife… Cause “civil ” highly valued the ded - ication ceremonies of military monuments. Although the world at us may look, According to Wilson, these public gather - as though too much we undertook, ings contained rituals consisting of “partly commemorative rites” (“re-creating the myth - To leave our dearest friends behind, ical past”) and “partly rites” (“con - and seek a safer place to find: verting dead heroes into revered ances - tors”). One sees both of Wilson’s ritualistic But this we did for conscience sake, functions being performed at the 1879 We did not wish God’s law to break; Annual Meeting. Benjamin Funk reported that the sight of Kline’s stirred For those who will the Savior grieve, memories of a lost and revered past among Damnation surely will receive. the Brethren faithful: “One sister, with tears in her eyes, said: ‘He preached my mother’s The chorus of “The Prisoner’s Hymn” incor - .’ Another said: ‘He used to visit us in porated the motif of , the life of Ohio; and we always loved so much to see spiritual strangers in a strange land: “We’ll him come.’…It would be vain to attempt to sure go home as soon as freed/ A holy life follow up all the affectionate memories that with God to lead/ Go home, go home, and were expressed by the loving throngs of that indeed/ As soon as God the way will sanctified hearts that surrounded his tomb.” speed.” In the earthly realm of wartime As Brethren grieved over their loss, they memory, the song also reaffirmed a sense of also converted Kline from an adored pas - self-conscious “outsider” status among the toral leader into a mythic figure. Again, Brethren. Their commitment to nonresis - Benjamin Funk observed from the vantage

6 BRETHREN LIFE & THOUGHT point of Linville Creek, “…there was one ers and leaves plucked by 1879 conference grave from whose humble mound each vis - attendees), and a site of pilgrimage. 11 itor seemed eager to pluck a flower, a leaf, The language of hagiography permeated or any other little thing that might be carried Kline remembrance throughout the late- back home and enshrined in a casket for a nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. memento of one never to be forgotten. That Instead of drawing comparisons to Catholic grave was the grave of John Kline.” 10 or Orthodox , however, Brethren Long after the 1879 gathering ended, the trips made by Brethren admirers to Kline’s graveside continued. Charles E. Nair served As Brethren grieved over as a minister at the Linville Creek Church of their loss, they also the Brethren in the early-twentieth century and witnessed firsthand the continued converted Kline from an Brethren preoccupation with the memory of Kline: adored pastoral leader

Since that memorable day (the day of into a mythic figur e. Kline’s funeral) an untold multitude from all over the Brotherhood have likened Kline’s life and death to those of come and stood with unexpressed familiar biblical heroes. Benjamin Funk emotions and looked on his mound, associated the visage of the dying Kline and read the names and dates, and with the first martyr of the church: the striking inscription at the bottom “Stephen’s living face was as the face of an of them on the modest tombstone: angel. Brother Kline’s dead face was the “When he was present he was useful/ face of a saint—no, not the face of a saint, When absent wanted much,/ He lived but the face of the earthly casket in which a desired. When Killed lamented.” saint had lived, and labored, and rejoiced; and out of which he stepped into the glories In a distinctly Brethren way, the John Kline of the eternal world.” Funk may have gravesite served as a Civil War monument gleaned literary inspiration from the sermon by honoring the memory of a beloved figure delivered at Kline’s funeral based on Acts who displayed spiritual bravery before 8:2 (“And devout men carried Stephen to being struck down by the exigencies of war. his , and made great lamentation over In an era when Civil War military monu - him”). The Olive Branch , written as “a his - ments increasingly dotted the landscape, tory of the trials and experiences of the the Kline tombstone commemorated the Brethren during the late war between the heroism of both an individual and a reli - States,” found the selected scripture verse gious community attempting to counteract for the memorial service to be and the suffering of military campaigns and bat - fitting: “As Stephen was the first Christian tles with a message of peaceful nonresis - martyr, and Brother Kline the last then tance. While a historical product of the known, the appropriateness of the text was Civil War, however, the John Kline burial apparent.” Charles Nair recreated Kline’s plot also represented a throwback to a final horseback ride as a mid-nineteenth much earlier form of religious . century “triumphal entry”: “Did (Kline), like The simple mound and modest tombstone the Master, who was going to Jerusalem last, contained three necessary elements of mar - feel that his time was drawing near? Had he tyrology: a saint, holy (e.g., the flow - in following his Master, chosen the path that

SPRING/SUMMER 2019 7 was now bringing him to a point he could dwell…There was something almost femi - not with honor avoid? He seems as a lamb nine in his gentle presence, and fierce going to the slaughter.” In describing Kline’s indeed must have been the nature, which powerful preaching abilities, Brethren elder coming in contact with him, did not feel his Daniel Hays measured Kline against a hal - calm, sweet influence.” When Langhorne’s lowed American political hero: “The per - father warned Kline that his Unionism and sonal bearing of Benjamin Franklin before noncombatant stand placed him in great jeopardy, Kline responded that “…he felt no anxiety on his own account and hoped he One Kline tribute, however, should never shrink for the call of duty.” The cast the murder in star k next day, Langhorne and her siblings heard violent “sobbing and weeping” coming from terms, a death comparab le their father downstairs. “Four masked ruffi - ans” murdered John Kline “in cold blood,” more to a modern soldie r Langhorne’s father informed the rest of the family. In Langhorne’s recollection, “‘A more than a saint of antiquit y. cruel murder has not been committed since was beheaded,’ said my Parliament is not more worthy of a place in father, as we all sat weeping over the story history than that of Elder John Kline before so common in human annals since all the an audience.” Returning to more spiritual days of Abel, of the innocent life of the holy language, Hays summarized and consecrat - one taken by the hands of evil men, who ed the last moments of Kline’s life: “He had but lack the bodily form to make them ascended the mountain of life, and in the beasts of prey.” In the last words of the arti - light of heaven from its summit was con - cle, Langhorne established Kline as a gen - templating that ‘better country where the uine Brethren martyr: “Among the Dunker wicked cease from troubling, and the weary communities throughout the Union the are at rest.’” 12 memory of old gentle Johnny Kline will ever The story and adulation of John Kline re - be revered, and the example of his patient, ceived national attention in 1886 when an faithful life will be held up for emulation article by Mrs. Orra Langhorne appeared in among his people. Today in all that region The New England Magazine . Langhorne grew Johnny Kline is spoken softly as the house - up in Harrisonburg and, although not Breth - hold word—of whom God has taken.” 13 ren, knew Kline and his reputation well. Re - Like other John Kline narratives, Lang - ferring informally to the Brethren minister horne repeated the portrait of the “tranquil as “Old Johnny Kline,” Langhorne meticu - while dying” Kline. According to Langhorne, lously recalled Kline’s characteristic “blue word spread throughout the community homespun garments which are the uniform that the “country man” who first discovered of the Dunker Brethren”: a flax-linen shirt, Kline’s body encountered “…the calm face, cut-away coat, homemade shoes with leather which wore its habitual look of heavenly strings, and a broad-rimmed felt hat. In an peace, a faint smile resting upon the lips, era that linked wartime heroism to masculin - the eyes gently closed, as if in sleep.” Such ity, Langhorne found something more tender imagery suggested certain martyrdom, a in Kline’s physical presence: “…there was serene transition from a violent earthly end altogether about him an air of peace and to an eternal peace. One Kline tribute, how - serenity, seeming to lift him above the ever, cast the murder in stark terms, a death world of strife in which ordinary mortals comparable more to a modern soldier than

8 BRETHREN LIFE & THOUGHT a saint of antiquity. At an unspecified date and denied the dying an opportunity to pro - soon after Kline’s death, an individual iden - fess faith in Christ. Faust concludes, “The tified as simply J. Senger composed a song sudden and all but unnoticed end of the in Kline’s honor entitled “The Lonely Grove.” soldier slain in the disorder of battle, the Senger depicted Kline as a great pastoral fig - unattended deaths of unidentified diseased ure shedding “tears of love” for the sur - and wounded men denied these consola - rounding region: “He often crossed the moun - tions (cultural expectations of ‘the good tains high and often journeyed prairies death’).” While local townspeople, such as through/ To warn the flock of dangers nigh Langhorne’s “country man,” easily identi - and tell them what they ought to do.” The fied the body lying along the road as Kline’s, majority, however, failed to heed Kline’s evan - a solitary violent death in a disorderly envi - gelistic call: “Few here and there would join ronment still invited comparisons between his band, while passing through this wilder - the death of Kline and the wartime deaths of ness/ While Satan fought him hand to hand, military personnel. Whether intentional or to drive him back in and distress.” In the not, Senger’s song contextualized the mar - final two verses, Senger provided his own lit - tyrdom of John Kline within the distinctive erary interpretation of Kline’s last moments: cultural and philosophical concerns created by the Civil War. 14 While others died upon the bed, The drawing of analogies between Kline with sighing friends to weep around; and the military heroes of the era continued He in the distant grove lay dead, on with the often-reprinted poem, “He Died at nought but leaves and stones and His Post.” Both Benjamin Funk (in 1900) ground. and Brethren authors D. L. Miller and Galen A sudden blow took life and sense, B. Royer (in 1912) included the poem with while passing through that lonely grove, their biographical recollections of Kline. Yet none could tell from whom nor Brethren attributed the poem to Kline him - whence, but he who lives in heav’n self as a tribute written for his late friend above. Joseph Miller, but a soldier’s poem with the same title authored by J. W. Holman exists References to the “calm face” and “faint from the era. Holman’s poem praised the smile” of Kline are nowhere to be found in patriotic made by fighting men: “The Lonely Grove,” only a hero dying in “Farewell youthful soldier! we ne’er will isolation. Senger’s musical ode thus reflect - forget/ The life thou has offered, the death ed the dislocation brought by the Civil War thou has met!/ Of thee may our nation in to traditional religious understandings of history boast/ And tell the whole world, death as a communal event. In her magnif - thou didst die at thy post.” Kline’s poem, icent study, This Republic of Suffering , schol - however, used nonresistant language and ar and former Harvard University President subsequently became both self-authored Drew Gilpin Faust writes that, in the Victo - eulogy and Civil War reconceptualization. rian mindset, the hors mori or “hour of Fighting the influence of Satan and his min - death” required numerous family members ions, Kline represented a powerful spiritual and friends as bedside onlookers to ensure warrior: “For in order he led in the van of that the deceased would smoothly enter eter - his host/ And he fell like a soldier, he died nal bliss. Wartime, however, disrupted this at his post.” In a generation that assigned cultural understanding of “the Good Death.” great weight to the last words of dying sol - Rifles fired at close range in the heat of bat - diers, Kline’s final utterances only solidified tle mangled human bodies instanta neously his reputation as a giant of the faith: “He

SPRING/SUMMER 2019 9 wept not for himself that his warfare was paucity of photographic source material. done/ The battle was fought and the victory Noting the “scores of people living who saw won/ But he whispered of those whom his him,” the editor of The Messenger asked heart clung to most/ ‘Tell my brethren for readers for help in constructing a long-over - me that I died at my post.’” Unlike other due composite picture: “We wish those wartime heroes, however, this soldier who remember how he looked would make demanded no days of remembrance or a drawing of him as his features are remem - memorialization in marble: “He asked not a bered or select a picture resembling him, stone to be sculptured with verse/ He asked and send the same to us. A score of draw - not that fame should his merits rehearse/ ings, or selected pictures, would help us to But he asked as a boon when he gave up form some idea regarding the appearance the / That his brethren might know that of the remarkable man.” The editorial he died at the post.” As Kline expired in the encouraged those without drawing abilities temporal sense, he simultaneously arose to to send in their written recollections of meet his master: “He passed o’er the stream Kline and inquired specifically as to “the and has reached the bright court/ For he fell color of his eyes and hair,” “his height, like a martyr; he died at his post.” Kline’s weight, and general appearance,” and “his great legacy, therefore, was a standard for pulpit habits, his manner of presiding over a future Brethren to follow: “An example so Conference, and his manner of life in gen - brilliant shall not be lost/ We will fall in the eral.” The Messenger thus sought to recover work, we will die at our post.” Thus, “positive knowledge” of Kline’s appear - through no conscious effort of his own, a ance, demeanor, and ministry to help alle - poem written (perhaps with inspiration from viate the pain of a brutal wartime loss. 16 a secular source) by John Kline furthered This plea from the Gospel Messenger John Kline’s reputation as “soldier-martyr.” elicited only two subsequently published The account of Kline, his bloodshed, and responses. Henry Niswander of Kinross, Iowa, spiritual warfare on behalf of the cause of spent time with Kline in the Harrisonburg peace stood as an alternative to the military jail cell in 1862 and remembered well soldiers remembered in verse, song, and Kline’s “medium height,” “nearly white” public ritual throughout both the North and hair, “short, chubby beard,” and plain dress South. 15 consisting of “a homespun suit of blue In 1912, amid the fiftieth anniversary of jeans.” Kline spoke with ease from behind the Civil War, the the pulpit, Niswander remarked, but his periodical, The Gospel Messenger , con - concern for people of all ages truly made ceived yet another tribute for John Kline. him an admired pastor: “He was especially Part of the mysterious allure of Kline down respected by the young people, as he was of through the years rested on the absence of a social turn of mind, and seemed to realize any photographs taken of the Brethren pas - that the future welfare of the church would tor. Those who knew Kline well said that he, depend on the rising generation.” The great like other Brethren of the time, interpreted geographic distance separating Niswander Exodus 20:4 (“You shall not make for your - and Kline made contact between the two self an idol, or any likeness of what is in rare during the last months of Kline’s life, heaven above or on the earth beneath or in but the elderly Niswander still treasured the water under the earth”) quite literally Kline’s memory and character: “…if Timo - and understood the Mosaic commandment thy loved Paul more than I loved Bro. Kline, to prohibit photographic images. The Mes - his love was great…In the death of Bro. senger , however, sought to rectify this Kline, surely a father of Israel passed away.”

10 BRETHREN LIFE & THOUGHT Daniel Hays of Broadway, Virginia, in respect - ber entitled “The Ballad of John Kline,” writ - ing the convictions of Kline, wrote the Mes - ten by composer Andy Murray. This Kline senger without forwarding an accompany - ballad borrowed liberally from the early- ing picture: “…Bro. Kline, like many of the 1960s Jimmy Dean hit “Big Bad John” as it Brethren of the day, was conscientiously compared Kline’s small physical stature opposed to the taking of likenesses, and any (“Little John”) to his spiritual standing (“… attempt at a picture of him would not be little John Kline was a great big man—big true to the original, and anything but pleas - ing to him, were he living, or to his friends who know him and remain.” Hays estimat - e predominant theme ed Kline to stand five feet, six inches tall of Hays’ remembrance, and weighing near one hundred seventy pounds and, like Niswander, described hair however, was how the color, facial features, and voice timbre. The predominant theme of Hays’ remembrance, simplicity of Klin e however, was how the simplicity of Kline comprised his greatness. Kline’s trademark comprised his greatness. felt hat and blue denim suit resembled his inner life and outer profession; all were John”). As the centennial of his assassina - “simple in form and color, and free from all tion arrived in 1964, Kline also found him - ornamentation.” In fact, Hays argued, a pre - self as the subject of a children’s book enti - occupation with the physical presence of tled The Middle Man . Being a piece of chil - Kline would only detract from the memory dren’s literature, the book understandably of his true spiritual strengths: “There was avoided the delicate subject of Kline’s vio - nothing attractive about him except it be his lent death. The conclusion, however, left no unwavering devotion to duty and the solid - doubt that Kline was both a great historical ity of his character.” Pointing to the “home wartime figure and a spiritual exemplar: feeling” and “consistency of life” that ac- “And so John Kline rode Nell in peacetime companied Kline’s personality, Hays regard - and in the middle of the war to visit people, ed Kline as a model worthy of imitation: to heal people, and to tell people that God “Here is the picture of a well-spent life, and loves everyone. John Kline was full of God’s this way is open to all.” The fiftieth anniver - love for everyone. He was God’s middle sary of the war with its Blue-Gray veterans’ man.” In June 1997, the Linville Creek reunions and battlefield remembrances may Church of the Brethren hosted a three-day have compelled Brethren to collect exten - John Kline Bicentennial Celebration (the sive reminiscences of their greatest Civil 200th anniversary of Kline’s birth) filled War figure. If, however, Brethren clamored with historical reminiscence and family- for extraordinary heroic details concerning friendly recreational activities. Young chil - John Kline, those few remaining individuals dren crafted John Kline necklaces and cre - who did remember Kline represented him ated salt maps detailing John Kline’s mis - in an older Brethren language of “unattrac - sionary travels, while adult attendees lis - tive” simplicity, a portrayal only reinforcing tened to workshops on herbal medicine and a status of religious outsider. 17 blacksmithing, chatted with a John Kline John Kline memorials continued in impersonator roaming the grounds, and Brethren circles deep into the second half of experienced a dinner theatre presentation the twentieth century. Musicians created entitled “The Final Journey of John Kline.” more songs about Kline, including a num - That same year, a small but dedicated group

SPRING/SUMMER 2019 11 of horse and Kline enthusiasts in Rocking - long-held Anabaptist tenet that obedience ham County founded the John Kline Memo - to God necessarily resulted in earthly suffer - rial Riders. Over the last two decades, the ing. Seen in this perspective, John Kline pro - Kline Riders have frequently embarked on vided a bridge from American Brethren horse rides seeking to revive the historical back to the . A more memory of Kline throughout the Shenan - contemporary and secular source of martyr doah Valley region. 18 conceptualizations, however, existed in the Civil War military monuments and memori - Seen in this perspective, al days pervading postbellum America. As demonstrated by “The Lonely Grove” and John Kline provided a “He Died at His Post,” Brethren possessed a familiarity with the language of of bridge from American life spoken at Decoration Day observances and monument dedications, and appropri - Brethren back to the ated this distinctly American language of martyrdom to serve their own needs. John Radical R eformatio n. Kline not only died for his faith, but died the death of a Civil War soldier: violent, sud - den, and alone. 19 A LL of this celebration of John Kline in As a second martyrdom prerequisite, word, song, and ritual prompts the ques - Brad Gregory explains, “There must be peo - tion: Was Kline truly a martyr? Which con - ple willing to punish the heterodox with ceptual construction of “martyrdom” is death.” Both John Kline’s nonresistant faith most helpful in evaluating Kline? What dif - and his stances against slavery and seces - ferentiated Kline from John Bowman, sion placed him outside of Confederate reli - another Brethren wartime casualty, or other gious and sociopolitical “orthodoxy.” If eye - peace church members who experienced witnesses are correct, those hostile towards physical pain, underwent psychological Kline made highly visible and audible per - anguish, or lost valuable property during sonal threats towards him in an environ - the war? A helpful means of qualitatively ment where, by all accounts, nothing less appraising the validity of martyrdom can be than anarchy prevailed by the summer of found in at Stake , a study written 1864. Thus, from the beginning of the war by Brad Gregory examining Protestant, (if not earlier), John Kline had foes, but the Catholic, and Anabap tist martyrs of the six - political, legal, and economic deterioration teenth century. Gregory offers four “prereq - of the Shenandoah Valley in the last year of uisites for martyrdom,” which, although the war made violently “punishing the het - focused on the Reformation era, remain erodox” simpler. Thirdly, Gregory argues, useful criteria for confirming or denying the “There must be people willing to die for martyrdom of Kline. First, Gregory states, their religious convictions.” According to “…the notion of martyrdom must exist and Kline’s diary, on May 31, 1864, while din - be available to contemporaries.” For the ing at the home of George Cowger in West Brethren, two sources of “martyrdom Virginia, Kline informed the dinner guests, notions” served as plausible inspiration for “I am threatened; they may take my life, but the rhetorical elevation of Kline. Their theo - I do not fear them; they can only kill my logical roots in gave Brethren body.” Even if Kline’s remark is apocryphal, both knowledge of printed , evidence still confirms that a) someone with such as Martyrs Mirror , and belief in the Confederate sympathies issued well-publi -

12 BRETHREN LIFE & THOUGHT cized threats against Kline, b) Kline knew of fully drifted out of American . these threats, and c) Kline did nothing to In the public spaces of New Orleans, Rich - alter his actions or beliefs in light of these mond, Memphis, and other Southern threats (e.g., refusing to travel to the North locales, the question “How should the Civil for Annual Meeting). Finally, Gregory’s War be remembered?” continues to arouse fourth stipulation coincides with the main fierce debate. Incongruous as it may sound, argument of this article: “There must be sur - the Brethren, with their long tradition of vivors who view those executed for their nonresistance, staked a claim to the bloody religious convictions as martyrs.” In his terrain of Civil War remembrance. In the edited version of the Kline journal, Ben - immediate postbellum era and beyond, the jamin Funk positioned John Kline as an Brethren remembered the murder of John intermediary between and humani - Kline as an unmistakable wartime casualty, ty. As a historical figure, Kline’s name the Brethren equivalent of losing an Abra - deserved inclusion on “the list of great ham Lincoln or a Stonewall Jackson. At the men,” according to Funk. The circum - same time, Kline’s death constituted a true stances of his death, however, seemed to martyrdom, death by execution because of place Kline in another realm as a spiritual and for the good of the faith. Even as the being: “We saw him, not as Elisha saw Eli - Civil War introduced new social, political, jah in sight, ascend to heaven, but with the economic, and technological phases of eye of faith we saw him clothed in a celes - American modernity, Brethren combed the tial body, and with the ear of faith we heard past to appropriate the language of canon - the welcome: ‘Enter thou into the joy of thy ization. The life of John Kline may have Lord.” The Civil War thus provided the made him a saint in Brethren circles, but his Brethren with the means to practice an death made him an American martyr. ancient form of religious veneration within the context of wartime commemoration Aaron D. Jerviss is a lecturer of history at Johnson University in Tennessee. He is a grad - familiar to postbellum Americans. 20 uate of Ashland University, Ashland Theologi - The controversy in recent years over Con - cal Seminary, and holds a Ph.D. in history federate monuments and their removal from the University of Tennessee. proves that Civil War memory has never

1. Brad S. Gregory, Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), 52, but all of chapter 2, “The Late Medieval Influence,” proves helpful; Fernan - do G. Cartland, Southern Heroes or the Friends in Wartime (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Riverside Press, 1895), 191–94. 2. Cartland, Southern Heroes , 191–94, 143–44. 3. S. F. Sanger and D. Hays, The Olive Branch of Peace and Good Will to Men, Anti-War History of the Brethren and Mennonites, the Peace People of the South, During the Civil War, 1861–1865 (Elgin, IL: Brethren Publishing House, 1907), 96–97; D. L. Miller and Galen B. Royer, Some Who Led, or Fathers in the Church of the Brethren Who Have Passed Over (Elgin, IL: Brethren Publishing House, 1912), 87–89. 4. Annie Zigler Bowman, “Memories of Elder John Kline,” Gospel Messenger (April 18, 1936): 20; Ben - jamin Funk, Life and Labors of Elder John Kline, the Martyr Missionary, Collated from his Diary by Ben - jamin Funk (Elgin, IL: Brethren Publishing House, 1900), 479. Civil War historian Edward L. Ayers refers to the Shenandoah Valley of 1864 as “notoriously chaotic,” a place where the line between “regular” military activity and guerrilla activity blurred. See Ayers, The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America (New York: W.W. Norton, 2017), 184. 5. Gospel Visitor 12:1 (January 1862): 30; Gospel Visitor 12:3 (March 1862): 92–93. 6. Christian Family Companion 1: Specimen Number 2 (October 4, 1864): 9; Gospel Visitor 14:8 (August 1864): 228; Christian Family Companion 1:15 (April 11, 1865): 119. 7. Gospel Visitor 14:8 (August 1864): 228. 8. Christian Family Companion 1:9 (February 28, 1865): 71; Brethren’s Family Almanac (1894): 15; Ray A. Neff, Valley of the Shadow (Terre Haute, IN: Rana Publications, 1987).

SPRING/SUMMER 2019 13 9. “The Prisoner’s Hymn,” date and author unknown (emphasis mine). Box H, Folder 15. Durnbaugh Research Collection, Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. 10. Charles Reagan Wilson, Baptized in Blood: The of the Lost Cause, 1865–1920 (Athens: Univer - sity of Georgia Press, 1980), 29; Funk, Life and Labors , iv. 11. Charles Nair, “John Kline Among His Brethren,” unpublished manuscript, Donald Durnbaugh Papers, Box 1, Folder 24, Brethren Historical Library and Archives. Elgin, Illinois. 12. Funk, Life and Labors , 479–80; Sanger and Hays, Olive Branch , 7, 126–27; Nair, “Kline Among His Brethren”; Brethren’s Family Almanac (1898): 17. 13. Brethren’s Family Almanac (1894): 3–17. 14. “The Lonely Grove,” Words and Music by J. Senger (date unknown). Box H, Folder 15 (John Kline). Donald F. Durnbaugh Research Collection. Young Center. Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania; Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering: Death and the (New York: Vintage Books, 2008), 9, but for a richer understanding, see Faust’s chapter 1, “Dying,” pp. 3–31. In his lengthy manuscript concerning John Kline, Charles Nair seemed to dispute the characterization of Kline’s “lonely” dying. According to Nair, “A man told me he was a boy then, and ran up over the hill through the woods nearly a mile from home to the place and there was a crowd already ahead of him and he did not get to see the face of the dead, as he was already covered with leafy branches cut from the trees.” Nair, “Kline Among His Brethren.” 15. Funk, Life and Labors , 480; Miller and Royer, Some Who Led , 47; “He Died at His Post,” by J.W. Hol - man, www.civilwarpoetry.org/union/soldierlife/post.html. Accessed November 24, 2018. For more on the significance attached to soldiers’ last words, see Faust, Republic of Suffering , 10–18. 16. Exodus 20:4 NASB; Gospel Messenger 61:23 (June 8, 1912): 358; Gospel Messenger 61:18 (May 4, 1912): 280. 17. Gospel Messenger 61:23 (June 8, 1912): 358. 18. “The Ballad of John Kline,” Andy Murray (date unknown). Box H, Folder 15. Durnbaugh Research Col - lection. Young Center, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania; Dorothy Brandt Davis and Sara Elizabeth Davis, The Middle Man (Elgin, IL: Brethren Press, 1964, 1992); John Kline Bicentennial Celebration registration packet. Box DD (Durnbaugh Lectures and Publications), Folder 32 (John Kline Bicentennial Celebra - tion). Durnbaugh Research Collection, Young Center. Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania; John Kline Memorial Riders pamphlet, mailed by Emmert F. Bittinger of Broadway, Virginia to the author, April 2011. 19. Gregory, Salvation at Stake , 26. I am indebted to Denise Kettering-Lane of Bethany Theological Semi - nary for bringing Gregory’s monograph to my attention. 20. Gregory, Salvation at Stake , 26; Funk, Life and Labors , 479, vi, iii–iv.

14 BRETHREN LIFE & THOUGHT