I've known John all my life and he could never have said anything like that. I heard mother say 'They said John (the only Catholic farmer within miles) said that he would wade in Protestant blood to get the Pope over here to run the country.' My father exclaimed 'They are a bunch of crooks! They are out to stir up prejudice and try to scare people into giving them money. I listened quietly behind the bedroom door as my parents talked in the dining room. I woke up in the night after my mother had gone to a meeting while my father stayed with us kids. A woman I did not know talked persuasively to my mother about the membership dues, two free meetings before you had to pay, what would be worn at the meetings and you could buy or save by making it yourself out of sheets, and naming all of the neighbors who would be there. ![]() Maybe they said it had become a social organization. I never heard of them actually getting anyone to join but they held at least two recruiting meetings nearby, and I wonder now how they persuaded people to hold the meetings in their homes. They must have learned it was a WASP region of productive farms where they might easily raise money. "In the early 1920s there was a short intense attempt by the Ku Klux Klan to get started in the area. In a letter dated May 2006, she wrote this about the Klu Klux Klan in Lucas County: ![]() From time to time she shares with me stories about her family's early days in the county. Now one of the oldest living graduates, Isabelle will be 97 in December. I'm speaking of Isabelle Van Nice Winship who was valedictorian of the Russell High School class of 1933. Your blog entries about the Ku Klux Klan in Lucas County reminded me of an exchange of correspondence with a friend who has deep roots in Lucas County but has been a resident of Washington state for several decades.
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