Biography
John E. Downey was a conscientious objector from Ohio imprisoned during World War I. Court-martialed for refusing military service, he was held at Fort Leavenworth; Fort Douglas. Sentenced to 20 years in prison - reduced to 3 years. (Documented in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection's World War I Conscientious Objectors database.) Archival note: registered for the draft on June 5, 1917 but not as a CO; interviewed by Special Board, on charge of disobedience of orders, in June 1918 at Camp Sherman, in Sept. 1918 at Ft. Riley, and on Jan. 15, 1919 at the Disciplinary Barracks ; sentenced to 20 years in prison - reduced to 3 years; …
Confirmed Camp Funston guardhouse transfer
The signed report on treatment of conscientious objectors identifies John E. Downey among those received at the Camp Funston Military Police Guard House on September 27, 1918. This is a confirmed facility receipt, not an independently established new arrest or beginning of all imprisonment. The September 5 and September 27 groups explicitly came from the Fort Riley guardhouse. The October 6 entry names Downey among men subjected to a forced midnight shower, and the October 10 entry names him among those joining the hunger strike. The signatory list prints John Downey. The report covers events through October 21 but does not supply an individual discharge date. Existing original-admission, release, sentence and total-duration fields are not replaced by this receipt date or calculated from a military sentence.
