John Rose

John Rose was a farmer in Newaygo County, Michigan, who took part in resistance to farm foreclosures. Born on a Minnesota farm, he worked as a steam engineer and railroad worker before joining the Chicago police in 1907. He returned to farming in 1929. Rose was arrested on March 15, 1933, during a foreclosure protest and spent fifty-four days in jail. Judge Pugsley sentenced him to six months to five years, and he obtained release on $2,000 bail while appealing. Rose and his wife attended the Second National Farmers’ Conference in Chicago in 1933. The Michigan Supreme Court ordered a new trial in October 1934. The demonstration took place in White Cloud. He was initially charged with criminal syndicalism alongside Clyde Smith and George Casper; the charge against Rose was changed to assault with intent to do great bodily harm. International Labor Defense attorneys Maurice Sugar and John Safran represented him. He was the Communist candidate for Michigan secretary of state in 1934.

The October 9, 1934 Daily Worker reports that the Michigan Supreme Court reversed his White Cloud foreclosure-defense conviction and ordered a new trial. The original accusation concerned the March 15, 1933 action and an assault-with-intent-to-do-great-bodily-harm theory involving a chain. The report recalls a six-month-to-five-year sentence and prison confinement before bond. It does not establish a new arrest, final discharge or extra continuous service across bail. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n242-NAT-oct-09-1934-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3

Sasha Small’s December 2, 1933 interview at the Second National Farmers’ Conference quotes Rose saying he had spent fifty-four days behind bars and was back in foreclosure-defense activity. It explicitly dates his arrest to March 15, 1933, names Judge Pugsley’s six-month-to-five-year sentence and confirms $2,000 bail during appeal. The fifty-four days already recorded is actual service, retained once; no discharge day is calculated from it. Rose recalls Minnesota farm work, steam engineering and railroad work, joining Chicago police in 1907 and returning to farming in 1929. His unnamed wife, described as Black with Indigenous ancestry, was also a conference delegate. Allegations of paid testimony remain attributed to Rose; reported age sixty is not converted to an exact birthday. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1933/v10-n289-dec-02-1933-DW-LOC.pdf#page=6

Page 2 lists Michigan farmer John Rose, facing jail in a prosecution described here as criminal syndicalism, as the Communist candidate for Secretary of State. This provides election and defense context, not another arrest or a replacement for the later documented verdict and custody account in his existing foreclosure-protest case. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n204-aug-25-1934-DW-LOC.pdf

A February 17, 1935 Detroit dispatch reports that Circuit Judge Pugsley dismissed Rose's remaining case at White Cloud on the preceding Monday, February 11. It recounts his March 1933 arrest during a Michigan Farmers League protest against foreclosure of William Lougheed's farm, the dropping of criminal-syndicalism charges, a later six-month-to-five-year conviction and reversal by the Michigan Supreme Court. Maurice Sugar and John Safran defended him. The report calls the later accusation assault and battery; other source charge formulations remain preserved. This outcome adds no new custody duration. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1935/v12-n042-Nat-feb-18-1935-DW-LOC.pdf#page=3

Rob Hall’s December 1933 Labor Defender account reports Rose addressing the Second National Farmers’ Conference while free on appeal bail. It gives $2,500 bail and identifies Frank Von Brocklin’s White Cloud farm, differing from the $2,000 bail and William Lougheed farm name in other accounts. These conflicting contemporary details are attributed without replacing the independently recorded fifty-four days of actual custody or imposing a new continuous sentence-service interval. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1933/v09n11-dec-1933-lab-def.pdf#page=16