5-09-2024 12:07am

May 8, 1919: Elmer Johnson Returns Home After Armistice, Reflects on Experience

Lesley Misko Editor

Oops...I lost track of time and missed sharing Margaret's vignette this morning; so today, May 9, enjoy two! So sorry! ~ Ed.

By Margaret Leidy Harner from her book One Day at a Time: A Social History of Boyertown, PA.

May 8, 1919: Rev. Elmer S. Johnson, from New Berlinville, has returned from war-torn Germany, where he had been living for a number of years. He and his associates, sent there by the Schwenkfelder Church to do research, were not allowed to leave the country during the war.

He recounted the difficulties everyone in Germany faced in wartime. Everything was rationed; they were allowed two pounds of bread, ½ pound of meat, and five pounds of potatoes a week, 1/7 pound of butter and pound of sugar a month, and one quart of milk a day per person.

He said that there were no demonstrations following the signing of the armistice, although the terms of surrender were quite stringent. The Germans were relieved that the war had ended. He recounted that in Germany before the war, “no nation on the face of the earth was held in higher esteem than the United States” but the German people were disgusted with President Wilson for bringing America into the war against them.

Ironically, when Rev. Johnson was a student at Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson had been a professor of his. After it was over, he had no trouble getting out. He also remarked that he was very happy to be back home.