community
february16
2017
3
The Ku Klux Klan and My Grandmother’s
House in Vernonia continued from front page
electricity, its work buildings cement, houses and a dance hall.
isters became deeply involved in the
its equipment the best. It pounded out
At the same time that O and A new Klan. The message behind the new
the timber -- 350,000 board feet for each was transforming this community, the face of the Klan also emphasized social
of two eight hour shifts. By 1924, there revival of the Ku Klux Klan was trans- activities and business agendas like re-
were 1,500 souls in the town and then, forming Oregon and some of it strongest ferrals and mutual marketing. Accord-
by 1928, 2,500. A company town of outposts were communities at the edge ing to Professor Thomas Pegram, who
sixty or so structures grew up on what of the great Douglas fi r forests, like Ver- wrote recently of the rise and fall of the
people called O and A hill. Management nonia, Tillamook and St. Helens.
Klan in the 1920s:
lived in a row of craftsman homes while
From its founding in 1865 in
“Within the restricted spheres
smaller worker bungalows tumbled Pulaski, Tennessee by confederate vet- of religious, racial and often gender ex-
down the hill toward the town and along erans, the Klan has had several incarna- clusivity, the Klan provided meaningful
the east side of the mill pond.
tions, the fi rst characterized by its resis- community and sociability for its mem-
Oregon American and its owner, tance to reconstruction and the growing bers.”
Central Coal and Coke, brought several political power of Blacks in the South.
The New York Times, in its re-
of their southern workers to Vernonia Increasingly, it became a terrorist orga- view of Professor Pegram’s book, One
with them, and many were minorities. nization and extremely violent. By the Hundred Percent American, described
The 1930 census had 96 Filipinos liv- time federal troops put down the rebel- the twenties version of the Klan as “sort
ing in Vernonia, 55 African Americans, lion, the terror had been successful and of Rotary, for white supremacists.”
51 Japanese, 5 Hindus and one Eskimo. reconstruction overturned along with
Part of this sense of belonging
Those who worked at the mill and lived the rights of former slaves. Another in- in Oregon came from early political
in Vernonia were well below the O and carnation was the civil rights era in the success. The Klan messaging in Ore-
A Hill, segregated by race in shacks and 1960s when the Klan became even more gon was working. Few African Ameri-
in a hastily put up boarding house. The secretive and violent, though its efforts cans then lived in Oregon and the state
census worker called the area “Down were less successful.
was more than 90% Protestant, leading
River Road” to distinguish
to a focus on anti-Catholicism
Governor
Olcott
tried
to
rally
the
anti-
it from O and A Hill “Up
along with vigilantism against
River Road.” It was located
bootleggers and speakeasies,
Klan community in the state:
across Rock Creek, close by
public drunkenness and marital
“The time has come to determine wheth-
the high school ball fi eld.
infi delity.
er
our
state
government
shall
maintain
Those
minorities
The Klan helped put
its orderly way, controlled by the voice
that didn’t live on Down
together and backed a ballot
River Road were scattered
measure in 1922 that required
of all the people, or whether it shall be
in a few locations in the
all children within the state to
turned
over
to
some
secret
clique
or
town, in logging camps
attend public schools, shutting
clan, to be made the tool of invisible
outside of town, or in a big
down the parochial schools of
boarding house for Japanese
the Catholic Church. Governor
forces, working in the dark toward aims
rail workers on St. Helens
Benjamin J. Olcott, a Republi-
unknown to others than themselves.”
Road. Some worked for the
can, was vigorously anti-Klan
railroad, some owned laundries, some
The Klan’s appearance in 1920s and against the Klan’s Compulsory Ed-
cooked, one was a musician in the dance America was different, rising from what ucation Act.
hall and another was the proprietor of a would have been called ‘the new media’
Some vigilante episodes in
pool hall, but the biggest employer was of its day. The release of D. W. Griffi th’s Medford led the Governor to attack the
the mill.
fi lm Birth of a Nation portrayed a Klan Klan in the middle of a vicious primary
Not all lived on platted streets. struggling against a hostile world order fi ght against a Klan-backed candidate.
Gessaro Kuge and his wife Takae ran that favored immigrants, Catholics and Olcott could feel his government slip-
a boarding house located by the census Blacks over whites and Protestants, en- ping away in the face of 58 Klaverns
taker as ‘by the river across the tracks.’ dangering their women and fl ooding the across the state. Some, like Tillamook,
Mr. Kuge was a timber sorter at the country with people who didn’t speak LaGrande, St. Helens, and Medford
mill as were most of the eight boarders. English. The Klan in the early twenties were clearly in the thrall of the Klan;
They had fi ve children, four boys and was organized much like we would orga- their public offi cials and law enforce-
one girl, the eldest 16 and the youngest nize it today -- targeting specifi c groups, ment were Klan members or Klan sup-
one month. Takae described her voca- tailoring messages to time and place and porters. The Medford Mail Tribune
tion as ‘cook.’ Oregon American paid its offering substantial fi nancial rewards for fought the Klan, but in Tillamook the
minority workers the same as the whites. success.
paper supported the Klan.
About 500 people worked at the mill site
Klan membership soared na-
Two weeks before the 1922 pri-
at its peak and another 200 at its logging tionally to somewhere around 2-3 mil- mary, Olcott tried to rally the anti-Klan
camps in the forest.
lion members, with about 35,000 in Or- community in the state:
In 1928, the town contained egon.
“The time has come to deter-
nine churches, two theaters, seven ho-
The focus on membership was mine whether our state government shall
tels, three schools, two auto repair shops, on existing organizations like the Ma- maintain its orderly way, controlled by
four pool rooms, fi ve bars and taverns, sons and Elks as well as Protestant the voice of all the people, or whether it
four doctors, three dentists, two whore- churches and evangelicals. Many min- shall be turned over to some secret clique
Publisher and Managing Editor
Scott Laird
503-367-0098
scott@vernoniasvoice.com
Contributors
Chip Bubl
Brent Davies
Tobie Finzel
Karen Miller
Shannon Romtvedt
Bob Royer
Debbie Taylor
Photography
Jessika Goodman
Scott Laird
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or clan, to be made the tool of invisible
forces, working in the dark toward aims
unknown to others than themselves.
The true spirit of Americanism resents
bigotry, abhors secret machinations and
terrorism and demands that those who
speak for or in her cause, speak openly,
their faces to the sun.”
Olcott barely survived his pri-
mary election but went down in the gen-
eral after the Klan threw its support to
the democrat, Walter M. Pierce, who
hailed from another strong KKK com-
munity, La Grande. The Compulsory
Education Act was approved by the
voters and Klansman Kaspar K. Kubli,
(No I’m not making this up) was elected
Speaker of the Oregon House of Repre-
sentatives. The legislature soon passed
the Alien Property Act, designed to deny
Cedar Side Inn
continued on page 5
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