Indexing the Klan in Lucas and Wayne counties

Filmmaker Ken Burns, whose documentary "The U.S. and the Holocaust" premiered in September, frequently uses a quote attributed to Mark Twain --- "History does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes."

I've been thinking about this recently in terms of current events in Lucas County and elsewhere and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan here during the 1920s.

My research into the Klan in Lucas and Wayne counties was posted in segments to The Lucas Countyan some years back, but not indexed coherently --- so the whole doesn't hang together unless you know what you're looking for.

So now I've indexed all of the Klan posts and you'll find the result in the sidebar here, under a portion of the image above --- Costumed Klan members entering Chariton's United Brethren Church for what appears to be a funeral. Just scroll down a little.

One of these days, I'm going to recast the contents of these posts with added material into a single document, but that will take time.

The Rev. Jesse D. Pontius, pastor of Chariton's First Christian Church at the time, outlined the Klan's goals and purposes during an organizational meeting in Seymour during May of 1924:

"The meeting was called to order and the first verse of 'America' was sung, followed by prayer. The speaker read the creed of the Klan, Proverbs 14th chapter, 31st verse. In his address, he stated that the Klan is composed of native-born Americans of the Caucasian race who must be supporters if not members of some Protestant church. The object of the Klan is the protection of the United States by aiding officers in the enforcement of the law, the restoration of the Bible to the public schools, the shutting off of undesirable immigration, resistance to any further gain in power by either Jews or Roman Catholics and awakening the native born Caucasians of the United states to the fact that this is their country."

Detect any rhymes?