My Brother Lewis McKellip, was a draft resister and had a deep love for this nation. He wanted to serve his country, but he felt Jesus did not want him to go to war and Lewis did not want to kill anyone to do it. So he joined Brethren Volunteer Service. He served for two years, He was a part of a group that took a load of Cows to Greece after WW II.
I print below a site that gives a video, and a song sung by Lewis' grand-daughter's husband, singing group,
Friends of the Weather. It shows a little of the history and tells the story..
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0j8iXUy0nU&feature=share..
Below is a reprint written originally by Peggy Miller that tells the story of the Sea Going Cowboys .
Seagoing Cowboys and the Heifer Project:
The Maryland Story
by Peggy Reiff Miller
This article first appeared in Catoctin History,
Fall/Winter 2005
Do you want your summer vacation to include a free trip to Europe and $150 in
cash when you return? You can at the same time be helping to relieve the acute
food shortage in Europe.1
So begins an April 30, 1946, news release issued from the Brethren Relief Center, New
Windsor, Maryland, recruiting cattle attendants, dubbed “seagoing cowboys,” to care for
livestock being shipped to war-devastated countries. Many similar ads had been circulating
throughout the country since the preceding summer in newspapers, farm journals, church
publications, on radio, and by word of mouth. World War II had ended in 1945 – in Europe in
May and in the Far East in August. Churches and governments alike had been planning what
they could do when the war was finished to help war-devastated people get on their feet again. A
unique church and government partnership, forged that summer of 1945, put sleepy, bucolic New
Windsor, Maryland, into a hub of international activity. The seagoing cowboys, and heifers
housed in barns of Brethren farmers, were the riders on that hub in and out of Carroll County.
The world was their range – a world devastated by war but pregnant with possibilities.
Heifer Project Meets UNRRA
The Heifer Project was the idea of Dan West, a Church of the Brethren leader and peace
advocate. In 1938, during a break in his relief work for the historic peace churches in the midst
of the Spanish Civil War, West was haunted by the gaunt faces of mothers and starving children
to whom he had been distributing reconstituted powdered milk. Alone under an almond tree, he
scanned the grassy Spanish hillside.2
“These hills could easily support cows,” he thought. “Why
not give a cow instead of a cup of milk?” West’s idea slowly caught on after he got home and
was expanded by the concept of sending pregnant heifers so each recipient could give the first
female calf to another needy household – thereby “passing on the gift.”3
The Brethren Men’s Work of Northern Indiana took the lead in organizing a Heifer Project
Committee on June 25, 1942.4
By January 1943, the Brethren Service Committee (BSC), the
outreach arm of the Church of the Brethren, had adopted a denomination-wide plan for “The
Heifer Project,” ecumenical from the very start.5
Farmers and churches all over the country began donating heifers to their local committees.
But what to do with them? In 1943, World War II was raging. Shipping them across the ocean
was impossible. So the first Heifers for Relief shipment was made from Nappanee, Indiana, to
Puerto Rico on July 14, 1944.6
In 1945, when victory in Europe was imminent, Brethren Service
Committee executive M. R. Zigler pondered the question of how to ship the Brethren heifers to
Europe.
The answer came in the form of another plan in the making at the same time as the Heifer
Project. In November 1943, representatives of forty-four nations met in the White House in
Washington, DC. They signed a document creating what was likely the first international relief
Miller, Seagoing Cowboys Page 2
agency in world history, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA).
By March 1945, UNRRA was able to make its first cargo shipment of relief supplies.7
Zigler contacted UNRRA officials. “They reported they were not shipping live gifts,” he
recalled. But when the Near East Foundation requested bulls from UNRRA to establish a
breeding program in Greece, UNRRA contacted Zigler. He in turn contacted Ben Bushong, a
farmer active in the Pennsylvania Guernsey Breeders Association, who, according to Zigler,
“was always available for church work beyond the usual.” Bushong arranged with UNRRA the
first shipment of “Heifers” for Relief to Europe – six bulls to Greece.8
On May 14, 1945, the M.S. Boolongena sailed from St. John’s in Canada to Athens, Greece,
with Bushong and six Brethren bulls on board.9
The seeds of a BSC/UNRRA partnership were
planted. Soon thereafter, Zigler got a phone call from UNRRA. “Where are your cows?” they
wanted to know. “We have seven boats.” They also needed people to take care of the cattle.
Zigler made some calls to set the wheels in motion for obtaining heifers and men willing to
make the trip. At the June 3, 1945, meeting of the Heifer Project Committee, Zigler drafted
Bushong to go to Washington to work out details with UNRRA. “From that hour,” Zigler said,
“Ben Bushong was responsible for the Heifer Project.”10
On June 24, 1945, twenty-six cattle attendants left New Orleans for Greece on the SS F. J.
Luckenbach with 588 UNRRA horses aboard. Another twenty-six cattle attendants left Baltimore
for Greece two days later on the S.S. Virginian with 722 UNRRA horses, heifers, and bulls.11
The “seagoing cowboy” program was born. Bushong worked out the details of an agreement
with UNRRA: BSC would supply the cattle attendants UNRRA needed for the more than
200,000 animals they planned to send to Europe, and UNRRA would ship Brethren heifers under
the terms of the Heifer Project.
New Windsor Takes Center Stage
A 1944 development placed the town of New Windsor, Maryland, at center stage in this
Brethren/UNRRA partnership. On September 6 of that year, the BSC purchased the former Blue
Ridge College at public auction. Located on a hill at the edge of New Windsor, it was an ideal
facility for the Church of the Brethren to house its emerging service and relief ministries. Serving
“as an assembling station for ‘heifers for relief’ in preparation for shipment from the port of
Baltimore or other eastern ports” was one of the immediate projects identified by the BSC for the
Center.12
By the time office space was needed in mid-1945 to coordinate the seagoing cowboy
program and the Heifer Project, the campus had already become a “bustling center of service
activities.” It was a collection point for relief supplies being donated by churches, and it was
home to a Civilian Public Service (CPS) unit focusing on soil conversation on area farms. The
college dormitories were ideal for housing the CPS workers and the multitude of long- and shortterm
volunteers who came to assist with processing the clothing and other supplies that were
pouring into the Center for shipment overseas.13
This increased activity had its impact on the town of New Windsor. Additional employees
had to be hired at the post office to handle the many packages arriving daily. The Western
Maryland Railroad had to add express cars to its Baltimore-New Windsor run. Brethren college
students from across the country spent their summer vacations volunteering at the Center.
Church women’s groups around the area sent volunteers. Amidst all of the comings and goings,
nationally-known church leaders stopped in to add their insights and visions in speeches and
discussions on topics of peace and world affairs.14
Miller, Seagoing Cowboys Page 3
It was into this environment that many of the cowboys shipping out of East Coast ports
arrived to receive their instructions. Not all cowboys made stops in New Windsor. Some were
ordered directly to their port of departure. But through the nearly two years of UNRRA
shipments, many cowboys did experience the hospitality and stimulation of New Windsor, a
place that took seriously the words of Christ to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take in
the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and the imprisoned.
Many of the cowboys joined in the festivities and the work taking place at the Center. There
were trips to Brownie’s Restaurant for sundaes, sodas, and cheeseburgers. There were folk
games and ice cream socials organized by the CPSers and college volunteers, skating parties in
Hanover, Pennsylvania, and ball games between the New Windsor and Sykesville CPS units.
Some cowboys hired out to local farmers for a day and s
Miller, Seagoing Cowboys Page 4
encouraged to arrive by day, but Olive recalls one trucker from Virginia who persisted in coming
at night, blowing his air horn and waking baby, Elaine.21
Many local people caught the spirit of the Heifer Project. Union Bridge trucker Vernon
Gladhill donated his truck and his time to transport heifers from the train depot to the Roop farm
and back to the train when they were ready to be shipped. Likewise, Dr. George M. Zinkham, the
local veterinarian, donated his services for the care of Heifer Project cattle.22
Not all people were supportive, however. Directional signs to the farm were at times torn
down. The Roop’s third-grade daughter, Pat, came home from school one day asking Olive Roop
the definition of “communist.” She had heard “that Dad was a communist and that he was being
paid an enormous fee for doing this work for them.”23
There were times when the work was overwhelming, with as many as 453 head of cattle on
the farm at once. Long days were filled with sorting and preparing cattle for shipment, checking
in and dehorning new arrivals, and retesting cattle if they had not been exported within thirty
days of their tests for various diseases.
A couple of stampedes added to the stress. The second one gave Roger Roop a personal
understanding of “Saint Elmo’s fire.” A herd of spooked cattle came rushing towards him and his
assistant, Ted Arbaugh, one moonlit night. “We could see the bluish-green light in their eyes
which was caused by fright,” Roop said. “We were too far from any fence to outrun them so we
ran toward each other, cupped our hands and yelled at the top of our voices. The cattle did part
and ran on either side of us. If they had not done so we would have been trampled to death. I’m
wondering what was the color of our eyes!”
Despite the trials, it was in Olive’s words “an endeavor with many satisfactions.” The first
shipment of cattle from the Roop farm were 150 heifers that left for France from the port of
Baltimore on the S.S. Zona Gale September 6, 1945. A dedication service was held on the farm
for these heifers on Sunday, August 26. The animals were dedicated “that the spirit of
brotherhood might come into the hearts of men,” and “that love and goodwill may triumph in the
world and bring a new dawn of peace.” Olive recalled, “There is satisfaction in having been a
part of that which has and is making life better for many.” The Roop farm was in use by Heifer
Project until Roger Roop contracted undulant fever in 1948 and had to withdraw his services.24
The Seagoing Cowboys See the World
The seagoing cowboys signed up for various reasons, from seeking adventure to putting their
convictions of “loving your neighbor” into practice.25 Some, having served as conscientious
objectors through the war doing work “of national importance” on the home front, were eager to
be a part of the healing process of reconstruction overseas. Others, who were too young to join
the military or CPS during the war, saw it as a way to get a piece of the action. Whatever the
reasons, they responded – some 6,739 of them – for 321 UNRRA shipments from June 1945
through March 1947.26
Ads requested men of good moral character, ages 16 to 60. The minimum age was raised to
18 in mid-1946. Joseph Long, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, got caught by the change. He set sail
at age 17 for Poland in May of 1946. “When I got back in July and went to sign up for another
trip, I was too young!” The age limit was raised while he was overseas. William S. Barkdoll, of
Naperville, Illinois, was the oldest cowboy to be accepted at age 72.27
To be able to work legally on a merchant ship, the cowboys had to join the Merchant
Marines. Many cowboys who shipped out of the east coast got their seaman’s papers in
Baltimore, beginning at the Chamber of Commerce Building. “Here the fun began,” wrote
Miller, Seagoing Cowboys Page 5
Clarence Friesen. He had to first obtain a Social Security number. “[T]hen we had to have our
picture taken at another place, fingerprinting taken at a number of places, a lot of information
asked.” The next morning they had to have four vaccinations and a physical exam, “which is a
close one at that,” he said.28
Cowboys who were subject to the draft were required to have a permission form from their
draft board to leave the country, and cowboys under the age of 18 needed parental permission.
For many Brethren and Mennonite cowboys, the swearing of the seaman’s oath to receive their
papers was a moral dilemma. They were allowed to “affirm” rather than “swear.”29 On their
return, the cowboys received one cent per month for their Merchant Marine service and $150 per
trip from UNRRA, their real “employer.”30
The experience of one cowboy compared to the next is as varied as his port of departure,
destination, type of ship, cargo, the time of year, the weather, and the composition of the cowboy
crew and the ship’s crew. No two trips were alike. Ships departed from Baltimore, Houston, New
York, New Orleans, Newport News, Savannah, and Portland (ME). Destinations were ports in
Poland (the majority of shipments), Belgium, Greece, Italy, Yugoslavia (via Trieste, Italy),
Czechoslovakia (via Bremen, Germany), China, France, Albania, and Ethiopia.31
UNRRA had a total of seventy-three livestock ships crossing the oceans.32 Most of them
were converted Liberty or Victory ships that had been mass produced as supply ships during the
war. The Libertys, smaller and slower, carried 300 to 400 animals and a cattle crew of about
sisteen cowboys.33 The Victorys carried 700 to 800 animals with a cattle crew of about thirtytwo.
A Victory ship cowboy could plan to be home in four to six weeks. On a Liberty ship, it
often took two to three months, depending on conditions. But the pay from UNRRA was the
same, whether it took four weeks or four months.
A cowboy’s job entailed feeding and watering their charges two or three times a day. Each
cowboy was assigned twenty-five to thirty animals to tend. Horses took more attention than
heifers. Some of the horses were wild off the range and gave the cowboys a wild time caring for
them. Lucky was the “horseboy” who didn’t get bit.
The equines had to be kept standing the whole trip. This was not a cruel practice, as horses
legs lock in a standing position, enabling them to sleep standing up. On the contrary, if a horse
got down, it was doomed to die. When cowboys were unable to get the horse back on its feet, the
veterinarian assigned to the ship was called. Rarely could a horse be saved. Dead animals were
usually winched overboard with the ship’s booms and buried at sea. On some of the older
merchant ships that were not equipped to extract the bulky animals from their holds, the
carcasses had to be cut up and the parts thrown out the portholes. Wagner Miller, of New
Windsor, recalls the death of a heifer that met a different fate on his ship. Members of the ship’s
crew cut off some large chunks, put them on a hook into the water, and snagged a large shark.
The ship and cowboy crews’ diet was enhanced with fresh shark steak that day.
The births of calves or foals often brought to the saltiest of seamen a reverence they rarely
experienced on board. Members of the regular ship’s crew would go out of their way to pay
visits to the newborns that survived. With the birth of calves came additional work for the
cowboys, however, as the heifers then needed to be milked. In turbulent weather, trying to
coordinate aiming a stream of milk into a bucket with the lunging of the ship presented a
challenge. The milk was a welcome addition to the cowboys’ diet.
One thing all trips had in common was seasickness, whether the ocean was smooth or rough.
Some cowboys couldn’t get their stomachs to adapt and were sick the entire trip. “One minute
Miller, Seagoing Cowboys Page 6
you’re afraid you’re gonna die, and the next minute you’re afraid you’re not!” was a familiar
quote. The lucky ones were able to weather even the storms without succumbing to the malady.
Dangers lurked everywhere on the voyages. The William S. Halsted had no more than pulled
out of port in Baltimore in a dense fog on November 2, 1946, when it collided with a fuel tanker
and the hay on the top deck caught on fire. Bob Ebey, of North Manchester, Indiana reports,
“Cowboys grabbed the water hoses for watering their animals and had the fire out before the
ship’s crew could get to it.”
“The storms were particularly frightening, when you see water higher than a two-story house
coming at you!” remembers Carl Shultz, of New Port Richey, Florida, also on the Halsted.
Wayne Lawson, of Milford, Indiana, tells of a two-day storm on one of his trips. “When we
came up on deck, the horses and stalls were gone! Some horses were still hanging over the edge
and we had to cut them off.” Luke Bomberger, of Lititz, Pennsylvania remembers sliding across
a wet deck on the S.S. Mexican on his back after slipping off a ladder in the rain on his night
watch duty. A one-and-a-half inch steel lip at the edge of the ship on which his foot caught was
the only thing that kept him from sliding overboard through a chained opening on the side of the
ship into the dark waters.
Many cowboys saw aquatic mines left over from the war. Walt Gingrich, of Palmyra,
Pennsylvania, tells of his ship receiving orders to stop as it was sailing up the Adriatic Sea to
Trieste. A military ship passed them and began shooting its guns when it was a mile or so
beyond them. “After a while, somewhere way up ahead of it, there was a terrible explosion,”
Gingrich said. “We discovered they were firing at a mine to blow it up.” An earlier ship was not
so lucky. Ben Bushong wrote that it “had gone to the bottom of the harbor of Trieste, having hit
a mine, crew saved, cargo lost.”34
Young boys fresh off the farm were exposed to the seamier side of life on these trips.
Cowboys were tempted by the black market prevalent in their port cities; some were
propositioned by young boys for their sisters or by the sisters themselves, desperate to put food
on the family table; and none could escape the spicy language of the seamen on ship or their
drunken, womanizing behavior off ship.
Many cowboy crews, however, served as an example to the seamen. Some crew members
accepted invitations to join the cowboys for a worship service on board. Many a captain was
struck by the decency of the cowboys. Ross Noffsinger, supervisor of a trip, told his family how
the captain had said, “On the sea, the captain is the law. I have a gun and I won’t hesitate to use
it!” Upon completion of the voyage, however, the captain admitted to Noffsinger, “If ever there
was a trip when a gun was unnecessary, it was this one.”35
Shore leave was a window to the world for the cowboys. Side trips to Paris, Rome, Athens,
Pompeii, or Venice were exciting. Seeing annihilated cities or exploring battlefields in Poland
covered with corpses still unburied a year after the war was sobering. Witnessing the poverty and
low value placed on human life in places like Shanghai was heart wrenching.
Many a cowboy’s life was changed by the experience. Career paths were determined. Roger
Ingold of Hershey, Pennsylvania, credits his trips to Germany and Greece for setting his life
direction as a missionary to Nigeria and then a mission administrator.36 Seeing people’s lives
turned upside down by war caused Joseph Long of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to come home
from Poland and immediately change his college major from science to psychology and
sociology. “I realized I wanted to work with people,” he said.37 For some cowboys, like Clarence
Friesen, the trips reinforced and strengthened their beliefs. “Having the opportunity to see these
destructions of humanity,” wrote the former CPS worker, “we are more convinced that we were
Miller, Seagoing Cowboys Page 7
right in our convictions. ...The teachings of Christ have become even more real to us through this
trip.”38 For others, like Harvard theologian Harvey Cox, the experience challenged their beliefs.
Humiliated by a ruthless supervisor on his trip to Poland and sickened by the devastation in
Gdansk, Cox did a lot of thinking on the trip home. “As the long, empty days passed,” he wrote,
“I became aware of a conviction growing inside me that there could not be another war. ...[The
SS Robert Hart] took me to a place where ... I found out something about who I was and what
my life was meant to be.”39 Cox, as did many other cowboys who witnessed firsthand the carnal
destruction of war, went on to be a lifelong activist and advocate for nonviolence, peace, and
justice.
The cowboys returned home telling what they had seen to their churches and local
newspapers. Their stories brought the world to New Windsor and enhanced the promotion of the
many relief programs there. Most of all, the cowboys’ stories were a boon for the Heifer Project.
Over 300,000 cattle and draft animals, including some 3,500 Brethren heifers, were delivered
around the world through the BSC/UNRRA partnership.40 When UNRRA was disbanded in
1947, the momentum was in place for Heifer Project to continue on its own. And continue it did,
developing into today’s massive Heifer International.41
A recruiting ad in a September 1946 Ephrata Review sums up the cowboys’ legacy:
Men of good moral and ethical ideals who will conduct themselves in a
manner which will be a tribute to their country and the program of which they are
a part will be welcomed and respected by the people of Europe. It is felt that by
learning to know these people and understanding their problems that the
‘cowboys’ will become more valuable citizens to the country and the world.42
And so they have.
***
Footnotes:
1 This news release entitled “Sea-Going Cowboys Take Livestock to Starving Europe” was
found in Box 245973, “Publicity” file, Heifer International Archives, Vital Records Control,
Maumelle, AR (VRC).
2 The “historic peace churches” are the Brethren, Friends (Quakers), and Mennonites.
3 Glee Yoder, Passing on the Gift: The Story of Dan West (Elgin, IL: The Brethren Press,
1978), 101-103.
4 Heifer Project Committee (HPC) Minutes, June 25, 1942, Box 217820, VRC.
5 Brethren Service Committee (BSC) Minutes, January 15-16, 1943, Brethren Historical
Library & Archives, Elgin, IL (BHLA).
6 HPC Minutes, August 21, 1944.
7 The Story of U.N.R.R.A. (Washington, DC: United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration, 1948), 3, 11. This document was found in the Dan West collection, Box 60,
BHLA.
8 M. R. Zigler, “Ben Bushong,” undated essay found in the “Benjamin Bushong” file, BHLA;
Rebecca Bushong, “Ben Bushong – Apostle of Mercy,” Brethren Life and Thought XXIV
(Spring 1979): 73.
Miller, Seagoing Cowboys Page 8
9 Robert Lintner, UNRRA Livestock Program: A Historical Report (Washington, DC: United
Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, date not discernible) found on microfilm in
the Mennonite Historical Library, Goshen, IN. Page numbers in this document are not
discernible.
10 Zigler; HPC Minutes, June 3, 1945.
11 There are conflicting dates (by one or two days) for the departures of these trips in various
publications. I am going by the dates recorded in the diaries of cowboys who were on these
two trips. All reports indicate the SS F. J. Luckenbach was the first to leave a U.S. port.
12 BSC Minutes, November 7-9, 1944, Addenda.
13 Kenneth I. Morse, New Windsor Center (New Windsor, MD: Brethren Service Center, 1979),
19, 24.
14 Ibid., 46-47; Kathryn Root, unpublished diary.
15 Root; Diaries of numerous seagoing cowboys.
16 Roger and Olive Roop, personal papers.
17 Ibid., Letter from John D. Metzler to Roger Roop, July 9, 1945.
18 W. Roger Roop, “Summary of Activities of Heifer Project as Seen from Farm,” undated
report found in the Dan West Collection, Box 40, File 48, BHLA.
19 Roop, “Summary of Activities of Heifer Project as Seen from Farm.” In this earlier account,
the name was Wilmer Kline.
20 Roop, personal papers.
21 Ibid.; Interview by author with Olive Roop, November 17, 2003.
22 Ibid.; Conversation of author with Pat Roop Robinson and William Zinkham, August 13,
2005.
23 Pat Roop, “A Place for Heifers,” Messenger (May 1976): 39. A letter in the Roop papers
dated May 9, 1947 from John D. Metzler to the Heifer Project Committee proposes a raise in
Roop’s initial salary, begun when the entire farm was given over to the business of the Heifer
Project, from $1800 to $2100 per year, with additional reimbursements of $800 for rent of
farm, $840 for use of machinery and equipment, and $400 for travel and meal costs – hardly
an “enormous fee.”
24 Roop, personal papers.
25 The information not footnoted in this section comes from interviews by the author with over
seventy seagoing cowboys to date.
26 Lintner. During this time period, additional cowboys went on a small number of trips
arranged directly through the Heifer Project that were not UNRRA trips. Lorell Weiss in Ten
Years of Brethren Service (Elgin, IL: Brethren Service Commission, 1952), 57, said
“Brethren Service reported that 7,412 men had served as ‘cowboys’ for UNRRA through
Brethren Service channels.” The author has to this point been unable to verify that figure, but
her research suggests that a figure over 7,000 is tenable.
27 Lintner; Galen Erb Barkdoll, The Barkdoll Horse-Hair Chair, self-published, no date
available.
28 Clarence Friesen, “My European Voyage,” unpublished document found in Hist. Mss. 1-204,
the Mennonite Church USA Archives, Goshen, IN (MCA-G). The required vaccinations
were typhoid, typhus, tetanus, and smallpox.
29 The belief in affirming rather than swearing an oath comes from Matt. 5:33-37. “....Do not
swear at all.... Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from
the evil one.” [NRSV translation]
Miller, Seagoing Cowboys Page 9
30 Lintner; “Agreement Between BSC & UNRRA,” Heifer Project files, “Correspondence ‘45-
’46” file, BHLA.
31 Lintner. The shipments to Belgium and France were not through UNRRA, but rather
arranged directly with the foreign governments by Heifer Project.
32 Lintner.
33 A small number of Liberty ships, designed with four larger holds instead of the usual five,
had the capacity of a Victory ship.
34 Letter from Benjamin G. Bushong to Paul W. Kinsel, February 25, 1946, found in Box
217784, “Benjamin Bushong” file, VRC.
35 Conversation of author with children of Ross Noffsinger, January 23, 2004.
36 Stephen Kiehl, “A Last Roundup,” The Baltimore Sun, August 15, 2005.
37 Ibid.
38 Friesen.
39 Harvey Cox, Just as I Am (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983) 31-41.
40 Lintner; George Woodbridge, ed., UNRRA: The History of the United Nations Relief and
Rehabilitation Administration (New York: Columbia University Press, 1950) I, 487.
41 Information about Heifer International can be found at www.heifer.org.
42 “Brethren Need 2000 Sea-Going Cowboys,” date on clipping not completely legible, found
in “Seagoing Cowboys, Information on” file, MCC collection, IX-12-1, Box 22, MCA-G.
