John left home at a young age, and was occupied as a farmer in Snelling, Minn., when he enlisted for the Army in 1912. He was honorably discharged in 1915. He was a farm laborer for a William Rupp in Adrian, Minn., at the time of his registration for WWI in 1917. According to both John’s service card and his later application for compensation, John was inducted in June of 1918, was quickly promoted to Corporal and then Sargeant in October of 1918, and then honorably discharged at Camp Lee, Va., without any overseas service, in February of 1919. John was said to have served in Galveston, Tex., either before or during the war.

After the war, John and Alma married and lived in Logan Twp., Blair Co., and in Cresson, Pa. In the 1920’s he and Alma moved from Pennsylvania to Minnesota for a short time, where John again worked on a dairy farm. Their daughter Anne was born in Minneapolis. But they soon returned to Pa. and when the older children settled in Michigan, John and Alma followed them out in the 1940s. John played the violin.