Biography
Jan Wittenber was a coal-field organizer for the International Labor Defense and one of fourteen unemployed workers and Progressive Miners of America activists arrested in Montgomery County, Illinois on May 31, 1934. Prosecutors charged the group under the state’s 1919 sedition law with conspiring to overthrow the government. Supporters posted an exceptionally large collective bail, freeing the defendants before trial. On January 7, 1935, they stipulated to guilt on the reduced charge of conspiracy to commit an illegal act and were released on nine months’ parole.
Daily Worker, August 20, 1934, page 2: A John Reed Club protest describes him as a Chicago painter and condemns his treatment while jailed in Hillsboro, Illinois. This adds an artistic occupation to his existing Montgomery County prosecution; it does not establish another arrest.
His prison letter in the August 30, 1934 Daily Worker describes his separation from other Hillsboro defendants with John Adams and discusses the prisoners’ hunger strike and restrictions. The article calls Adams a young New Masses writer and Marine Workers Industrial Union member. It describes eleven original May arrests and four further August indictments; group counts and maximum legal exposure do not establish another individual arrest or sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n208-aug-30-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The January 24, 1935 Daily Worker, page 5, prints an official Chicago District International Labor Defense statement about the Hillsboro settlement, spelling his surname Wittenberg. It says all fourteen defendants accepted nine months of parole on a plea of not guilty, after rejecting proposals to imprison five defendants for a year or to jail only Wittenberg and John Adams, the two defendants from outside Montgomery County. The twelve local defendants insisted that all should be free or none. This is the defense organization’s contemporary account. Its not-guilty characterization conflicts with the existing recorded stipulation to guilt on January 7; the disagreement is preserved rather than silently replacing the recorded disposition. The rejected prison terms are not imposed sentences or additional custody. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n021-Nat-jan-24-1935-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5.
The December 1, 1934 Daily Worker, page 3 individually identifies this Hillsboro defendant in the caption accompanying the unemployed-worker prosecution report. The December 4 issue, page 1 reports all fifteen defendants pleaded not guilty on December 3 and trial was postponed to December 7 before Judge McWilliams. This is an interim procedural plea, not a replacement for any later settlement or plea. Sources: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n287-Nat-dec-01-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3 ; https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n289-Nat-dec-04-DW-LOC.pdf#page=1
The June 4 dispatch names him among ten Montgomery County leaders said to have been arrested the previous day after protests against local restrictions on speech, assembly and picketing. It prints Wittenberg, Pancsik and Prisckett for the corresponding established defendants. The June 3 group chronology differs from the existing May chronology for some defendants; it is preserved as a contemporary discrepancy rather than creating a second Hillsboro arrest or replacing an established date. Daily Worker, June 5, 1934, page 3. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n134-jun-05-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3
The July 3 issue captions his individual portrait as a Chicago artist jailed at Hillsboro with ten other unemployed demonstrators. This corroborates his occupation and existing detention; it is not a new arrest. Daily Worker, July 3, 1934, page 5. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n158-jul-03-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=5
Sender Garlin's page-7 column specifically describes Wittenber as an artist of the Chicago John Reed Club then imprisoned at Hillsboro for helping organize the unemployed. Page 1 reports the grand jury's August 9 indictments of the Hillsboro eleven, while the page-3 collective letter signed John Adams describes their earlier hunger strike and fear of lynching. These observations add organizing identity and continuing custody, not a new individual arrest or completed sentence. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n192-aug-11-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
The Journal-News retrospective of July 1, 2019, printed page 7A, names this person among fourteen arrested Hillsboro defendants and describes the January 7, 1935 negotiated disposition: all fourteen stipulated to guilt on the lesser charge of conspiracy to do an illegal act and were placed on nine months of parole. The original Illinois 1919 syndicalism indictment alleged advocacy of violence by speech and writing, without charging specific violent acts. George Hall prosecuted; Judge Paul McWilliams heard the December 1934 proceedings after transfer from T. M. Jett. Pretrial bail must be distinguished from the January parole disposition, which does not itself prove uninterrupted jail custody through January 7. The retrospective summarizes the arrests as June 1934; existing individual May/August chronologies are not overwritten. Source: https://cdn1.creativecirclemedia.com/journalnews/files/20190630-202614-HJN%207-1-19.pdf#page=7
Labor Defender, July 1934: The report says the eleven Hillsboro prisoners began a hunger strike on June 17 over visiting restrictions, food and bail of $8,000 cash or $16,000 property each. A defense conference met that day in Taylor Springs. The requested double-conspiracy indictment and November grand jury sitting were prospective; no new arrest or completed additional sentence is established. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1934/v10n07-jul-1934-orig-LD.pdf#page=24
Page 5's Chicago Artist Faces Lynch Terror column identifies him as an artist and Chicago John Reed Club founder held in southern Illinois under the criminal-syndicalism law with John Adams of the New Masses and others. It alleges drunken American Legion deputies beat him in open court and dragged him out. Protests were sent to Sheriff Saathoff at Hillsboro. Continuing confinement and alleged mistreatment are reported; the warned summer of detention is prospective, not a measured completed term. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n161-jul-06-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
The July 3, 1934 New Masses editorial reports a St. Louis writers-and-artists delegation visiting Wittenber roughly ten days before the report and learning of alleged vigilante beatings while he was in the sheriff’s custody. It describes the original eleven-prisoner Hillsboro phase, $88,000 collective cash bail and three hunger strikers. The collective amount is not assigned as his individual bail, the threatened ten-year term is prospective, and the approximate visit timing is not converted into an exact day. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1934/v12n01-jul-03-1934-NM.pdf#page=9
Page 7's Jan Wittenber Committee appeal describes the Chicago artist and John Reed Club founder sweltering in the Hillsboro jail under $4,500 cash bail. It says property offered for bail was systematically undervalued. The appeal is a continuing-custody and fundraising report, not proof that the bail had been posted; later bail and settlement evidence is preserved. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n198-aug-18-1934-DW-LOC.pdf
Labor Defender, February 1935, PDF page 9: Jan Wittenber’s first-person Hillsboro account says defendants rejected proposed one-year, ninety-day and other jail compromises. They ultimately accepted quashing treason and conspiracy indictments, a not-guilty plea and nine months suspended to Vandalia farm with monthly parole reports; all fourteen were free when written. The suspended term is not time served. January 7 is the scheduled trial/conference day; no separate imprisonment is inferred. Jurkanin is explicitly identified as the Socialist defendant. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1935/v11n02-feb-1935-orig-LD.pdf#page=9
Adams identifies Wittenber as the ILD coal-field organizer among the Hillsboro fourteen already free on bail, preparing self-defense at an October trial with Mucci and Adams. This corroborates actual bail liberty without a newly invented exact release date.
The Daily Worker of October 23, 1934, page 2, profiles Illinois miner and labor-defense activist LaVerne Pruett and states that he acted as Southern Illinois ILD secretary until Jan Wittenber and ten others were released from the Hillsboro jail in the criminal-syndicalism prosecution. This corroborates pretrial release already documented in the Hillsboro case; it does not give an exact discharge day or establish acquittal or a completed sentence. Pruett explicitly says he has never been arrested in this account and is not added as a prisoner.
Daily Worker, July 6, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
Daily Worker, August 18, 1934; relevant page stated in the accompanying profile note.
