Thanks to Eric Gabourel for sharing this story from 1918, during World War I. 

Dave Allen, a member of the Church of God (Cleveland, TN) in northern Alabama, was brutally murdered, apparently by two law officers, for refusing to register for the draft. J.B. Ellis, the state overseer of Alabama, who himself was arrested and spent time in jail for not buying war bonds wrote in the Evangel:

While in Cleveland, Tenn. At the Elders’ Council, Brother Tomlinson received a letter from Sister Allen telling of the murder of her husband. He asked me to make a thorough investigation and get all the facts in the case before he published it in the Church of God Evangel.Upon arriving in the community where he lived I found the whole country stirred over the affair. The general sentiment of the people is that it was inexcusable murder.The statement of his wife is as follows:

“My husband was at home with me on his twenty-sixth birthday. We were all alone. Two officers came up and asked where Mr. Allen was. I have him no answer. Upon their arrival my husband had concealed himself behind the headboard of the bed. One of the officers looked under the bed and seeing his feet, asked him to come out. He did so. They asked him to hold up his hands; he did that also. They then proceeded to handcuff him. He asked them not to do it as he would go without it. They then began beating him almost to death, they shot him and lift him dead in the floor.”

I talked to many who were present immediately after the killing and they all said that the circumstances surrounding the murder corroborate with the testimony of Sister Allen.  Evidently they had knocked him over on the bed and beaten him almost to death there. A great pool of blood was on the bed. From the sign on the floor, as well as the statement of his wife, he got up off the bed and was beaten across the room, through the door and about three or four feet into another room where they shot him twice. Both balls entered his breast ranging downward, indicating that he was on his knees when they shot him.Sister Allen said that he kept his hands above his head all the time trying to ward off the blows and protect his head. His hands, head and neck were beaten almost to a pulp. The Dr. who held the inquest said he would hardly have recovered from the blows if they had not shot him.Brother Allen was is the second draft and was called for in October. Knowing that his Bible church opposed war, he felt that he could not kill and had been hiding out. He carried his Bible with him everywhere he went.

While we do not endorse the way he proceeded to evade war, yet we feel that from his view point he might be classed among the martyrs. We extend unto his wife and parents our heart felt sympathy. God’s grace will be sufficient. Keep pressing on, the battle will soon be over.I am looking for the time to come when many will have to seal our testimony with our blood.

J.B. Ellis, “The Murder of Brother Dave Allen,” Evangel, 27 Apr. 1918, p.4.