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Klansmen line road in rural area in show of force during heyday in 1920s.

POISON ON TWO FRONTS: Klan's Grand Dragon Attacks Schools, Teachers

December 16, 2017       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the seventh in a series of semi-fictional articles describing conditions in this area during World War I. It is based on real events described in historical and archival documents. Any co-incidence with white nationalism prevalent in the U.S. today is purely intentional)

I got a newsletter in the mail telling that the KKK activities were not just in underground law enforcement. A tri-state meeting was planned at Columbus, Ohio, where 20,000 robed Klansmen were to hold a mammoth parade. Big Harbor was forming a Bugle Corps for open-air meetings. A dramatic degree team was in organization in Saginaw with rituals much like the Masons.

The Grand Dragon was pushing a bill in the State Legislature to restrict teachers' certificates to U.S. citizens who had attended public schools anywhere in the U.S. for at least six years. Any non-public school was in their sights for closure and they were pressuring the Catholics and the Lutherans to stop private education.

In some ways the Klan was passing itself off as just another innocuous community organization, working for common betterment. At least that's what they wanted everybody to believe. Macomb reported it had cleared $200 in a Christmas tree sale, the newsletter commenting: "building its treasury in a field where the enemy has often times profited." I wondered, who was the enemy? The Catholics, I suppose.

The Realm of Michigan listed the following offices: Grand Dragon, executive officer, from Detroit; Grand Klaliff, from White Pigeon, who takes over for the Grand Dragon when he is gone; Grand Klokard, from Detroit, head of the ritual work; Grand Kludd, from Grand Rapids, chaplain; Grand Kligrapp, from Owosso, the secretary and record keeper; Grand Klabee, from Owosso, treasurer; Grand Kladd, from Grayling, ceremonial leader; Grand Klorago, from Stambaugh and Grand Klexter, from Saginaw, guards for the meetings; and Grand Night Hawk, from Halfway, investigator. Five banishments were announced, all from Lenawee County Klan #16, with no reason stated.

Terrors meetings are scheduled at Jackson, Livingston, Ingham, Lenawee, Hillsdale, Branch, Calhoun and Eaton counties. The Grand Dragon of Indiana is to deliver an address at Danceland on Woodward Avenue in Detroit. "Terrors that will attend the banquet will kindly advise KL. W. Jackson, P.O. Box 82, Detroit," the newsletter read. A banquet was slated after the regular Klavern meeting at Saginaw: "Terrors from the following counties are requested to be present: Saginaw, Genesee, Shiawassee, Meridian, Big Harbor, Gladwin, Tuscola, Lapeer, Sanilac, and Huron. Kindly advise Fred W. Fields, Saginaw."

Provinces of Michigan were to hold a picnic at Rock Lake near Vestaburg on trunk line M-46 for a Sunday basket dinner, gospel singing and speaking: "all Protestant people are welcome; come prepared to help with the program. Grand and Great Officers of the Ku Klux Klan will be present." The flier promoting the picnic displayed a picture of Lady Liberty clutching a Holy Bible and an American flag.

"America Today, Tomorrow, Forever; Purely 100% American" it proclaimed.

I thought: "I'm not even an American; I'm from Canada; what the hell am I doing in the Klan? Let's hope they don't find out I'm a "hated foreigner."

However, out of curiosity, I went to hear KKK firebrand Pat Malone from Wisconsin speak in the tent meeting at the fairgrounds. He was in the midst of condemning the Catholics and accusing Father Bouchard from St. Joe's of fathering a child when it seemed like hell visited Brinewell Center.

The Frenchmen, many of whom worked in lumbering at Cadillac and were Wobblies, had gotten wind of the speech ahead of time and had quietly filed into the tent. I hadn't seen these guys before and they looked pretty mean and ready for a scrap, so I knew something was up.

Even the Meridian Klansmen were upset with the tone of Malone?s speech because the Kloran stated that the Klan didn't oppose anyone for religious beliefs. That didn't square with their talk, but there it was in black and white. When the French lumberjacks charged the speaker's platform, the local Klansmen did not interfere and Malone was tossed outside and chased from the grounds with a sheriff's escort. That made the papers, with headlines about Malone's charge that the priest had scandalously fathered a child with his housekeeper. We heard there was a lot of that going on, especially out in the boondocks where the farmers weren't too aware of what was going on at the rectory or in the convent.

In early June the Army came or rather invaded, Woodland. The train from Detroit deposited two squads of soldiers with a skinny lieutenant and a captain, a big burly guy with a pistol in his holster sticking ominously out from his hip and a big stogie clamped between his teeth; Capt. Rouse, Lester Rouse, M.D. he said. From Brooklyn, we heard by the grapevine, he was a big Tammany ward heeler and soapbox orator with connections that had gotten him his medical credentials; supposedly he was only a veterinarian.

Right away there was trouble. Rouse was peeved that nobody picked him up from the train station in a car. "What kind of one horse burg is this, anyway?" he sputtered to Barlow, his beetling eyebrows raised, black eyes flashing hostility and his mouth in a cruel sneer.

The other officer also was no gentleman. Rail-thin, pock-marked Lt. Harvey Harper looked around suspiciously, saw nothing but Brinewell hayseeds and was spouting off about how he wished he had been sent to Cleveland instead. That's where the big Ben Hur Motor Company plant was being converted to make poison gas -- they called in Lewisite and it was 47 times more powerful than mustard -- at least that's what he said.

There were over 1,000 men working there under a couple of big shot scientists from Harvard. Instead, he complained, "I'm in the middle of a godforsaken woods in the middle of Michigan and being asked to work with hicks from the sticks. They have zero chance of ever making mustard oil here."

Maj. Gen. W.L. Sibert, commander, U.S. Chemical Warfare Service, had described Lewisite, the new weapon: "It had the fragrance of geranium blossoms. It was an oily amber liquid, highly explosive and bursting into flame with water. It was the American super poison gas, deadly by contact or by inhalation of the smallest detectable portion and it was the climax of the country's achievement in the lethal arts."

The Woodland effort was puny by contrast to that being put into Lewisite, but Dr. Adams and Mr. Barnes were determined to beat all the other labs and production facilities to the punch. "The first U.S. poison gas will ship from Brinewell Center," Barnes vowed. "And it will be mustard oil, just like Haber's. Lewisite degrades with exposure to moisture and mustard has much more potency."

Bigger trouble came when Capt. Rouse moved into the first aid clinic, set up a cot and started ordering the nurses around; "fix me something to eat; here, wash these clothes; go get me some whiskey and cigars." He was foul-mouthed and abusive and the head nurse, Bridget Riley, a feisty Irish redhead, let him know right quick.

His biggest mistake was asking Bridget to go to Big Harbor and spend the night with him in the Wayfarer Inn. Unbeknownst to him, she was a devout Catholic and had been in the convent preparing to be a nun but had quit just before her final vows. Of course she was outraged by his proposal, but even more so when he asked if she would ask one of the other nurses to be his consort for the night.

"Captain Rouse, you are making disgustingly indecent proposals that no proper young woman would entertain. And your language around this clinic, which you have improperly occupied, is horrible and offensive. I will be making a formal complaint to Mr. Barnes and asking him to forward it to your superiors in the Army."

Rouse countered: "It appears you are working against the government and, being a foreigner, probably are in league with the Germans. I am going to ask for an investigation into your loyalty, and that of the idiots running this company. I think you are all subversives trying to stop the production of an essential war weapon."

If that wasn't enough, a team of horses was injured while being used to take some of the waste from the G-34 pilot plant to the dump on company property. One of the blocks on the bed of the cart slipped and a barrel of waste fell, splashing drops on the legs of the horses. Although a veterinarian immediately washed the horses' legs with soap and water, one animal died. The other was in severe distress but survived. The dead horse was buried in a remote area of the town dump near Paddy Hollow.

The following statement was sent by Woodland Chemical to the government:

1 Horse, died from effects of burns from G-34 gas ?. $175.00

1 Horse, injured from effects of burns from G-34 gas ?. $75

Expenses of Dr. F.B. Alcorn, Veterinarian ?. $35

TOTAL $275

Although the accident resulted from negligence by company employees, the government paid.

(To be continued) ###

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Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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