Patriotic Murder: A World War I Hate Crime for Uncle Sam

279 Pages·2018·4.91 MB·English

by  Peter Stehman

“An undertone of cold fury pulses through Peter Stehman’s meticulously researched account of Robert
Prager’s lynching by an Illinois mob in 1918 and the subsequent trial that let his murderers off scot-free.
The tale he tells is by turns touching, troubling, and timely. It amounts to a parable about the ease with
which inflamed patriotism and ignorant prejudice can brew a toxic storm that exposes the frailty of our
humanity as well as the fallibility of our judicial system.”
—David M. Kennedy, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Over Here: The First World War and American
Society
“Patriotic Murder offers the richest account ever of this tragic and forgotten chapter of American history.
Peter Stehman is a master storyteller who brings the personalities and political passions of World War I
America to life and shows us, a century later, what we can learn from the lessons of the past.”
—Christopher Capozzola, author of Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern
American Citizen
Patriotic Murder
Patriotic Murder
A World War I Hate Crime for Uncle Sam
Peter Stehman
Potomac Books | An imprint of the University of Nebraska Press
© 2018 by Peter Stehman
Cover designed by University of Nebraska Press; cover images are from the interior.
All rights reserved. Potomac Books is an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Stehman, Peter, author.
Title: Patriotic murder: a World War I hate crime for Uncle Sam / Peter Stehman.
Description: [Lincoln, Neb.]: Potomac Books, An imprint of the University of Nebraska Press, [2018] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017053879
ISBN 9781612349848 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 9781640120983 (epub)
ISBN 9781640120990 (mobi)
ISBN 9781640121003 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Prager, Robert, 1888–1918. | Germans—Illinois—Collinsville. | Lynching—Illinois—
Collinsville. | Collinsville (Ill.)—History. | Coal mines and mining—Illinois—Collinsville. | World War,
1914–1918—Social aspects—United States.
Classification: LCC F549.C725 S74 2018 | DDC 977.3/86—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017053879
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-
party websites or their content.
This work is dedicated to my parents, Lucille and Milton Stehman, who taught
their children to learn and respect local and U.S. history, to stay well-informed
about public affairs, and to serve the community and nation in which they live.
Never have those attributes been more necessary than today.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. It’s Plain Murder, but What Can You Do?
2. A Small Town, a Great War
3. United We Stand
4. You Are Either for Us or against Us
5. A Little Tar Might Help
6. I Am Heart and Soul for the Good Old USA
7. I Want to Tell and Get It off My Mind
8. A Farcical Patriotic Orgy
9. It Seems a Nightmare
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations
1. Robert Prager
2. Lumaghi Coal Company Mine No. 2
3. Men at the main shaft of Consolidated Mine No. 17
4. George Creel
5. CPI poster targeting coal miners
6. CPI poster demonizing Kaiser Wilhelm II
7. Women of the Red Cross in Collinsville
8. Workers at the St. Louis Smelting and Refining Company
9. Aerial view of the St. Louis Smelting and Refining Company
10. Jenkin Jenkins
11. Government poster blaming German sympathizers for labor strife
12. Notice to watch for spies
13. CPI poster encouraging immigrants to buy war bonds
14. Cartoon run six days before the lynching
15. ABC Bar
16. Main Street near Center Street in Collinsville
17. Collinsville’s city hall and fire station
18. J. H. Siegel
19. Robert Prager’s final note to his parents
20. Robert Prager in bowler hat
21. Hanging tree atop Bluff Hill
22. Poster for the third Liberty Loan campaign
23. J. O. Monroe and son
24. Newspaper advertisement attacking slackers
25. Defendants as photographed at the courthouse
26. Defendants as pictured in the Post-Dispatch the following day
27. Joseph Streuber
28. C. W. Middlekauf
29. Louis Bernreuter
30. James Bandy, Harold Bandy, and Thomas Williamson
31. Nineteen Collinsville men who reported for the draft
32. Robert Prager’s headstone
Acknowledgments
Since I was first told of the incident as child, I have always held a certain
fascination for the story of the lynching of Robert Prager. I was probably drawn
by the macabre sense that something that wicked, that sensational, had actually
occurred in my hometown, where nothing ever really seemed to happen. To
make it all the more mysterious, there seemed little to document the event—no
memorials or books, just the story as related by my parents. They were too
young to have witnessed the lynching, but they dutifully passed on what they
had been told by my grandparents and others. But why was Collinsville the only
place where a German immigrant was lynched during World War I? What were
the ingredients that had cooked up so much trouble here?
For generations the lynching wasn’t openly discussed in Collinsville, initially
because those most deeply involved probably didn’t want it brought up. It was
kept tucked away by later generations, who felt no need to discuss something
that may have shamed their families and certainly shamed the community. That
the whole affair seemed Collinsville’s open secret only increased my intrigue.
It was never a question of if I would write on the Prager lynching but simply a
matter of when. I had two primary goals for the project. The first was to tell the
complete story, including a description of the turbulent environment that allowed
it to happen in Collinsville. The second was to provide the most accurate account
of what actually occurred, an effort that would also require extensive research.
There are many people I wish to thank for their assistance, whether it was a tip
on a possible resource, answering some obscure question, providing technical
advice, reading portions of the manuscript, or just providing overall support. My
thanks to all of you for helping me tell this important story: Harper Barnes, Mike
Bartsch, Charles Bosworth, Delores Cox, Francis Jo (Bruno) Elkins, translator
Carmen Freeman, Patrick Gauen, Loretta Giacoletto, Steve Giacoletto, Annette
Graebe, Paul Guse, Philip Herr, Robert Herr, Wayne Hinton, David and Marian
Hoskin, Louis Jackstadt (rest in peace, Lou), Robert Johann, William Jokerst,
Phyllis (Riegel) Kesler, Judy (Mueller) Kramer, Rev. Dr. Martin Lohrmann,
Jeffrey Manuel of Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville Historical Studies,