Ku Klux Klan in Maine
Encyclopedia
Although the Ku Klux Klan
is popularly associated with white supremacy, the revived Klan of the 1920s was also anti-Catholic. In the State of Maine
, with a negligible African-American population but a burgeoning number of French-Canadian and Irish immigrants, the Klan revival of the 1920s was mainly a Protestant nativist movement directed against the Catholic minority. For a period in the mid-1920s, the Klan captured elements of the Maine Republican Party
, even helping to elect a governor, Owen Brewster
.
, and the tarring and feathering of a Catholic priest, Father John Bapst, in Ellsworth
. Catholic complaints about Protestant-oriented public schools had helped motivate the mob that attacked Bapst. The main front in the war on immigrants before the American Civil War
, however, was temperance legislation. The Maine law
of 1851 was the first state-wide prohibition ordinance in the country, and was perceived by Maine’s Irish-Catholic population as an attack on their culture. With the growing influence of mainly Democratic Irish-Catholic municipal politicians in cities like Bangor
; Lewiston
and Portland
ethnicity and religion increasingly helped to draw party lines.
, a leader of the Maine and national Republican parties following the Civil War, and the party’s candidate for U.S. President in 1884, helped deepen the rift between his party and Irish voters by sponsoring, while still Speaker of the US House of Representatives, a proposed amendment to the US Constitution which would have outlawed the use of tax money to pay for parochial schools. While defeated in the US Senate, “Blaine Amendments” were inserted into the constitutions of all US states but eleven, one of which was, ironically, Maine. The absence of a Maine Blaine Amendment would be exploited by the Klan in the 1920s, as they made the spectre of state support for Catholic schools one of their wedge issues. Blaine’s run for the US Presidency in 1884 is generally credited with having been defeated by Irish-Catholic voters angered when a prominent Blaine supporter referred to Democrats as “the party of rum, Romanism, and rebellion
”. Ironically, Blaine's mother was Catholic and his sister was a nun.
, Saco
, Biddeford
, Brunswick
, etc., and Italian, Polish, Lithuanians, and other mostly Catholic immigrants who went to work in paper mills in northern Maine cities like Millinocket
and Rumford. Irish-Catholics had also made gains in municipal politics, along with a small urban Jewish community, while rural areas had declined at the expense of a few cities such as Portland
, Bangor
, and Lewiston
. Maine's small African-American communities in Portland and Bangor had formed NAACP chapters in 1920, and the one in Bangor had protested against the third local showing of the Klan-themed movie Birth of a Nation, successfully negotiating with a local theatre-owner to edit out the most provocative scene.
The King Kleagle (chief recruiter) of the Maine Klan was the charismatic F. Eugene Farnsworth, a former barber, stage magician (or hypnotist, accounts differ), and failed motion picture studio owner. Farnsworth was born in the eastern Maine town of Columbia Falls
, but traveled widely outside the state, and likely returned to Maine as an employee of the national Klan organization. Starting in 1922-23 Farnsworth began a state-wide speaking tour that drew huge crowds – from 1,000 to even 5,000 at a time - many of whom were afterward inducted into the secret society on paying a $10 membership fee. Farnsworth would usually share the stage with a Protestant minister, and they would rail against what they perceived as growing Catholic political power in Maine. Besides existential targets like the Pope, the Jesuits, and the Knights of Columbus
, they specifically attacked the growth of Maine’s Catholic school system, as well as the presence of Catholics (and Jews) on public school boards. They credited this last development with ‘taking the bible out of schools’, as the Catholic population increasingly objected to the reading of the King James Bible in state-supported classrooms.
referendum to abolish the mayor-and-alderman form of municipal government, which allowed Irish-Catholic and Jewish neighborhoods some influence in city politics, and substituted a city manager and councilors elected at large, which diluted the power of minorities. Portland's NAACP tried to create a united front among Irish, Jewish, African-Americans, and labor unions in opposition to the change, but it was unsuccessful. Although the measure had lost by only 200 votes in a previous try (before the Klan was formed) the overwhelming margin of victory after the Klan became involved (it won by 4,000 votes) convinced local and national politicians alike that the Maine Klan was a force to be reckoned with. Maine may also have been targeted by the national Klan organization precisely because it was considered a bellwether state in national elections (“as Maine goes, so goes the nation
” was the phrase at the time). Even before the victory in Portland Farnsworth had declared that the Klan would elect the next governor of Maine.
, but daylight parades by hooded Klansman did take place in Portland, Gardiner
, Brewer
, Milo, Dexter
, East Hodgdon
, Kittery
and Brownville Junction among other places. In the Piscataquis County town of Milo, claimed Farnsworth "everybody" belongs to the Klan, including 600 citizens, town officials, and the sheriff. The Klan parade in Milo in 1923 was the first in New England, and the first in the U.S. to take place in broad daylight. The first State Convention of the Klan was held in the forest outside Waterville
later in 1923, and attracted 15,000. Burning crosses were in abundance. That same year the Klan purchased a large estate in Portland (the Rollins Estate on Forest Ave.) for its headquarters, and 3,000 Klansmen from around the state gathered for the opening ceremony in Feb., 1924, initiating 200 new members under a burning cross. The Portland 'klavern' (chapter) was named after Dr. W.H. Witham, the Grand Klud (religious leader) of the Realm of Maine. The Klan also claimed to have opened a 'tabernacle' in Bangor.
openly declared himself a Klansman. While testifying at a public hearing of the Maine Senate in 1925 on the Barwise Bill
, a measure which the Klan supported, Leigh shouted "I am a Klansman, get it!?" at which the public gallery, also packed with Klansmen, erupted. Other ministers associated with the Maine Klan included the Rev. George S. Robinson of Trinity Episcopal Church in Lewiston, Maine
, the Rev. Nathaniel French of Auburn, Maine
, the Rev. Judson P. Marvin of Portland, and the Rev. E.V. Allen, who was described as "The Grand Klaliff (Vice Dragon) of Maine". In 1926 the Rev. Milton Charles Bennett of Bangor
sued klansmen F. Herbert Hathorn of Brewer and D.D. Terrill of Bangor because he was discharged as pastor of the 'Klan Church' of Bangor and Brewer. Bennett was awarded compensation. Klan ministers were most often Methodists, and sometimes Baptists, while the Congregational and Unitarian churches openly opposed the organization.
. An old-guard element loyal to Gov. Percival Baxter and U.S. Senator Frederick Hale
staunchly opposed the Klan. As early as 1922 Baxter had called it “an insult and an affront to American citizens” and said “I believe Maine people prefer the light of day to deeds of darkness”. The Klan found champions, however, in state senators Mark Alton Barwise
and Owen Brewster
, who sponsored legislation seeking to outlaw state aid to parochial schools. Brewster refused to denounce Klan support in his own run for the governorship in 1924. The Democrats picked as their candidate to oppose Brewster, William Robinson Pattangall
, a descendent of Mayflower Yankees, who had attempted (unsuccessfully) to insert an anti-Klan plank into the platform of the Democratic National Convention that same year. Pattangall campaigned almost entirely on anti-Klan sentiment, while Brewster said nothing about the society. Brewster won by a large margin, seeming to fulfill Kleagle Farnsworth’s promise that the Klan would select the next governor. The following year the Maine Klan elevated DeForest H. Perkins
, the former Portland School Superintendent, as the state’s own Grand Dragon. King Kleagle Farnsworth, now recruiting in Massachusetts, died suddenly of an illness in 1926.
On the county, municipal, and town levels, Klansmen captured untold numbers of offices, or at least influenced elections. Avowed klansmen became mayors of Saco
(John G. Smith), Westbrook
(Charles S. Tuttle Jr) and Rockland
. The Klan "figured prominently" in the election of mayor Allen M. Irish of Bath
. In 1923 the Klan were beginning "to take an active part in the politics" of Brewer
, and the following year Kleagle Farnsworth declared that "all Klan candidates" on the ballot had elected in the town of Dexter, Maine
(Gov. Brewster's home town). In 1928 the New York Times referred to Newport and Kennebunkport
as "old Ku Klux capitals"Other political figures whose elections were reportedly endorsed by the Klan included Androscoggin County sheriff E.E. Additon, Auburn
mayor Fred E. Walton, Lisbon Falls
state representative Louis A. Jack, and president of the Maine State Senate Hodgdon Buzzell.
saw the Klan issue played out again. This time the Republican candidate, Arthur R. Gould
ran on an explicitly anti-Klan platform, winning with the help of large numbers of Democrats who crossed over to send a message to the Klan faction of Republicans. Governor Brewster took the unprecedented step of denouncing the senatorial candidate of his own party, which only helped Gould’s cause. For the first time in a Maine senatorial election, Gould won every county and city in the state. The Chairman of the Republican State Committee declared that with Gould's victory, "the sinister influence of an oath-bound organization no longer threatens the welfare of Maine".
Other Maine Republicans who took uncompromising stances against Klan influence in their party during the 1920s included state representatives Clyde Smith
(husband of future Senator Margaret Chase Smith
); Robert Hale
(cousin of U.S. Sen. Frederick Hale
and a future U.S. Congressman); and former Penobscot County sheriff Maj. Arthur L. Thayer, who mounted a primary challenge against Brewster in 1926.
(a Democrat) caused the cancellation of a large Klan rally and parade in the state capital by prohibiting marchers from wearing hoods or otherwise covering their faces. The national Klan itself would prohibit the wearing of face-covering hoods by its members in 1928, a measure which accelerated the decline in membership. Also in Feb. 1926 the sprawling headquarters of the Maine Klan in Portland was seized by the city for unpaid taxes, with the organization's affairs being described by one newspaper as "muddled". By 1928 the New York Times reported that Klan strength in Portland had fallen from 900 to 200-300. This mirrored the decline of the Klan nationally.
A 1928 Republican senatorial primary fight was the last time the Klan campaigned openly for a candidate, in this case for Owen Brewster
against incumbent Frederick Hale
. Ex-governor Baxter, also a Republican, openly accused Brewster of Klan membership, claiming he had joined the organization and sworn an oath in front of the Imperial Wizard in Washington, D.C. Baxter further testified that Brewster had offered him 25,000 Klan votes, which "he absolutely controlled" if he (Baxter) would enter the gubernatorial campaign that same year. Baxter made these and other charges in a long newspaper interview, in which he also accused Brewster of "political treachery and double-dealing" and being "unworthy of the confidence of the Republican Party".
In the Republican primary for governor that same year, the Mayor of Saco, Maine
, John C. Smith, who was an avowed Klansman, was defeated by Old-Guard Republican William Tudor Gardiner
.
The victories of Hale and Gardiner, this time without the help of Democrats, proved that the Maine Klan was a spent political force, and led to the resignation of Grand Dragon Perkins
.
Brewster was eventually elected to Congress, and then the US Senate, where he became a close ally of Joseph McCarthy
.
In 1928 the Catholic Diocese of Maine struck a triumphalist note by naming its newly-opened high school in Bangor
after father John Bapst, the priest who had been tarred and feathered in Ellsworth
during a previous period of anti-catholicism.
Klan Klaverns (local chapters) lingered on in some Maine towns years after the national and state organizations had dissolved, partly kept alive by their women's auxiliaries. In Kittery
the "ladies of the Klan" held a baked bean and salad supper at the local Grange Hall in 1931, and Kittery's Klavern (no. 5) sponsored a booth at a Depression-era "Unemployment Bazaar" in 1933, alongside the Lion's Club, garden clubs, and even the local Catholic Church. At this last event, the names of all six booth-tenders were published in the newspaper, suggesting that the "Invisible Empire" was trying to adapt to the role of local fraternal organization. By the mid-1930s, however, references to the KKK in the Maine press had all but disappeared.
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
is popularly associated with white supremacy, the revived Klan of the 1920s was also anti-Catholic. In the State of Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
, with a negligible African-American population but a burgeoning number of French-Canadian and Irish immigrants, the Klan revival of the 1920s was mainly a Protestant nativist movement directed against the Catholic minority. For a period in the mid-1920s, the Klan captured elements of the Maine Republican Party
Maine Republican Party
The Maine Republican Party is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in Maine. It was founded in Strong, Maine on August 7, 1854. The state Chairman is Charles M. Webster....
, even helping to elect a governor, Owen Brewster
Owen Brewster
Ralph Owen Brewster was an American politician from Maine. Brewster, a Republican, was solidly conservative...
.
Earlier Anti-Catholicism in Maine
The Klan tapped into a long history of fraught relations between Maine’s Protestant ‘Yankee’ population (those descended from the original English colonials) and Irish-Catholic newcomers, who had begun immigrating in large numbers in the 1830s. The rise of the Know-Nothing Party in the 1850s had resulted in the burning of a Catholic church in Bath, MaineBath, Maine anti-Catholic riot of 1854
The anti-Catholic riot that occurred in Bath on July, 8, 1854 was one of a number that took place in coastal Maine in the 1850s, including the tarring and feathering of a Catholic priest, Father John Bapst in 1851 in the town of Ellsworth. The first and most violent anti-Catholic riot in Maine...
, and the tarring and feathering of a Catholic priest, Father John Bapst, in Ellsworth
Ellsworth, Maine
Ellsworth is a city in and the county seat of Hancock County, Maine, United States. The 2010 Census determined it had a population of 7,741. Ellsworth was Maine's fastest growing city from 2000-2010 with a growth rate of nearly 20 percent...
. Catholic complaints about Protestant-oriented public schools had helped motivate the mob that attacked Bapst. The main front in the war on immigrants before the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, however, was temperance legislation. The Maine law
Maine law
The Maine law, passed in 1851 in Maine, was one of the first statutory implementations of the developing temperance movement in the United States.-History:Temperance activist Neal Dow helped craft this law...
of 1851 was the first state-wide prohibition ordinance in the country, and was perceived by Maine’s Irish-Catholic population as an attack on their culture. With the growing influence of mainly Democratic Irish-Catholic municipal politicians in cities like Bangor
Bangor, Maine
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...
; Lewiston
Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...
and Portland
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
ethnicity and religion increasingly helped to draw party lines.
Blaine Republicanism and Catholics
James G. BlaineJames G. Blaine
James Gillespie Blaine was a U.S. Representative, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. Senator from Maine, two-time Secretary of State...
, a leader of the Maine and national Republican parties following the Civil War, and the party’s candidate for U.S. President in 1884, helped deepen the rift between his party and Irish voters by sponsoring, while still Speaker of the US House of Representatives, a proposed amendment to the US Constitution which would have outlawed the use of tax money to pay for parochial schools. While defeated in the US Senate, “Blaine Amendments” were inserted into the constitutions of all US states but eleven, one of which was, ironically, Maine. The absence of a Maine Blaine Amendment would be exploited by the Klan in the 1920s, as they made the spectre of state support for Catholic schools one of their wedge issues. Blaine’s run for the US Presidency in 1884 is generally credited with having been defeated by Irish-Catholic voters angered when a prominent Blaine supporter referred to Democrats as “the party of rum, Romanism, and rebellion
United States presidential election, 1884
The United States presidential election of 1884 saw the first election of a Democrat as President of the United States since the election of 1856. New York Governor Grover Cleveland narrowly defeated Republican former United States Senator James G. Blaine of Maine to break the longest losing streak...
”. Ironically, Blaine's mother was Catholic and his sister was a nun.
Maine and the Klan Revival of the 1920s
The sudden growth of the Klan in the 1920s in Maine followed national trends, but was particularly strong in comparison to Klan activity elsewhere in the Northeast. Partly it revived much older Protestant/Irish-Catholic divisions, but it was also fueled by a newer wave of Catholic French-Canadian immigrants who worked mainly in Maine’s textile mill cities, such as LewistonLewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...
, Saco
Saco, Maine
Saco is a city in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 18,482 at the 2010 census. It is home to Ferry Beach State Park, Funtown Splashtown USA, Thornton Academy, as well as General Dynamics Armament Systems , a subsidiary of the defense contractor General Dynamics...
, Biddeford
Biddeford, Maine
Biddeford is a town in York County, Maine, United States. It is the largest town in the county, and is the sixth-largest in the state. It is the most southerly incorporated town in the state and the principal commercial center of York County. The population was 21,277 at the 2010 census...
, Brunswick
Brunswick, Maine
Brunswick is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States. The population was 20,278 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area. Brunswick is home to Bowdoin College, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, , and the...
, etc., and Italian, Polish, Lithuanians, and other mostly Catholic immigrants who went to work in paper mills in northern Maine cities like Millinocket
Millinocket, Maine
Millinocket is a former mill town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 5,203 at the 2000 census. Millinocket is both a forest products and recreational area.-History:...
and Rumford. Irish-Catholics had also made gains in municipal politics, along with a small urban Jewish community, while rural areas had declined at the expense of a few cities such as Portland
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
, Bangor
Bangor, Maine
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...
, and Lewiston
Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...
. Maine's small African-American communities in Portland and Bangor had formed NAACP chapters in 1920, and the one in Bangor had protested against the third local showing of the Klan-themed movie Birth of a Nation, successfully negotiating with a local theatre-owner to edit out the most provocative scene.
The King Kleagle (chief recruiter) of the Maine Klan was the charismatic F. Eugene Farnsworth, a former barber, stage magician (or hypnotist, accounts differ), and failed motion picture studio owner. Farnsworth was born in the eastern Maine town of Columbia Falls
Columbia Falls, Maine
Columbia Falls is a town in Washington County, Maine, United States. The population was 599 at the 2000 census.-History:The town began as Township 13 SD, BPP, which was joined together with Township 12 by the Massachusetts General Court on February 8, 1796 and incorporated as Columbia. It was...
, but traveled widely outside the state, and likely returned to Maine as an employee of the national Klan organization. Starting in 1922-23 Farnsworth began a state-wide speaking tour that drew huge crowds – from 1,000 to even 5,000 at a time - many of whom were afterward inducted into the secret society on paying a $10 membership fee. Farnsworth would usually share the stage with a Protestant minister, and they would rail against what they perceived as growing Catholic political power in Maine. Besides existential targets like the Pope, the Jesuits, and the Knights of Columbus
Knights of Columbus
The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization. Founded in the United States in 1882, it is named in honor of Christopher Columbus....
, they specifically attacked the growth of Maine’s Catholic school system, as well as the presence of Catholics (and Jews) on public school boards. They credited this last development with ‘taking the bible out of schools’, as the Catholic population increasingly objected to the reading of the King James Bible in state-supported classrooms.
The Klan and the Portland Referendum of 1923
The Klan scored its first political victory in 1923 when it threw its support behind a Portland, MainePortland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
referendum to abolish the mayor-and-alderman form of municipal government, which allowed Irish-Catholic and Jewish neighborhoods some influence in city politics, and substituted a city manager and councilors elected at large, which diluted the power of minorities. Portland's NAACP tried to create a united front among Irish, Jewish, African-Americans, and labor unions in opposition to the change, but it was unsuccessful. Although the measure had lost by only 200 votes in a previous try (before the Klan was formed) the overwhelming margin of victory after the Klan became involved (it won by 4,000 votes) convinced local and national politicians alike that the Maine Klan was a force to be reckoned with. Maine may also have been targeted by the national Klan organization precisely because it was considered a bellwether state in national elections (“as Maine goes, so goes the nation
As Maine goes, so goes the nation
"As Maine goes, so goes the nation" is a phrase that at one time was in wide currency in United States politics. The phrase described Maine's reputation as a bellwether state for presidential elections...
” was the phrase at the time). Even before the victory in Portland Farnsworth had declared that the Klan would elect the next governor of Maine.
The Klan on Parade, and Cross-Burnings
Although a secret society, the Klan maintained a very public image in Maine from the time recruitment started in earnest in 1923. Farnsworth's speeches were made in large open halls and sometimes reprinted in full in local papers. In September, 1923, the Mayor of Portland refused a Klan request for a public parade on Columbus DayColumbus Day
Many countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492, as an official holiday...
, but daylight parades by hooded Klansman did take place in Portland, Gardiner
Gardiner, Maine
Gardiner is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. The population was 6,198 at the 2000 census. Popular with tourists, Gardiner is noted for its culture and old architecture.-History:...
, Brewer
Brewer, Maine
Brewer is a city in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. It is part of the Bangor, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is named after its first settler, Colonel John Brewer. The population was 9,482 at the 2010 census....
, Milo, Dexter
Dexter, Maine
Dexter is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,890 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Bangor, Maine metropolitan statistical area...
, East Hodgdon
Hodgdon, Maine
Hodgdon is a town in Aroostook County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,240 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water....
, Kittery
Kittery, Maine
Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 9,543 at the 2000 census. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals...
and Brownville Junction among other places. In the Piscataquis County town of Milo, claimed Farnsworth "everybody" belongs to the Klan, including 600 citizens, town officials, and the sheriff. The Klan parade in Milo in 1923 was the first in New England, and the first in the U.S. to take place in broad daylight. The first State Convention of the Klan was held in the forest outside Waterville
Waterville, Maine
Waterville is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States, on the west bank of the Kennebec River. The population was 15,722 at the 2010 census. Home to Colby College and Thomas College, Waterville is the regional commercial, medical and cultural center....
later in 1923, and attracted 15,000. Burning crosses were in abundance. That same year the Klan purchased a large estate in Portland (the Rollins Estate on Forest Ave.) for its headquarters, and 3,000 Klansmen from around the state gathered for the opening ceremony in Feb., 1924, initiating 200 new members under a burning cross. The Portland 'klavern' (chapter) was named after Dr. W.H. Witham, the Grand Klud (religious leader) of the Realm of Maine. The Klan also claimed to have opened a 'tabernacle' in Bangor.
Klan Ministers
A number of Maine's protestant ministers spoke at Klan rallies and at least one, Methodist pastor Arthur F. Leigh of Randolph, MaineRandolph, Maine
Randolph is a town and a census-designated place in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,911 at the 2000 census. The town was named for Randolph, Massachusetts.-Geography:Randolph is located at ....
openly declared himself a Klansman. While testifying at a public hearing of the Maine Senate in 1925 on the Barwise Bill
Mark Alton Barwise
Mark Alton Barwise was the only publicly practicing member of the Spiritualist religion known to have been elected to a state office in the United States. Born in Chester, Maine of a medianistic mother, Barwise became an attorney and nationally-prominent member of the National Spiritualist...
, a measure which the Klan supported, Leigh shouted "I am a Klansman, get it!?" at which the public gallery, also packed with Klansmen, erupted. Other ministers associated with the Maine Klan included the Rev. George S. Robinson of Trinity Episcopal Church in Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in Maine, and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 41,592 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine...
, the Rev. Nathaniel French of Auburn, Maine
Auburn, Maine
Auburn is a city in and the county seat of Androscoggin County, Maine, United States. The population was 23,055 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included in the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan...
, the Rev. Judson P. Marvin of Portland, and the Rev. E.V. Allen, who was described as "The Grand Klaliff (Vice Dragon) of Maine". In 1926 the Rev. Milton Charles Bennett of Bangor
Bangor, Maine
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...
sued klansmen F. Herbert Hathorn of Brewer and D.D. Terrill of Bangor because he was discharged as pastor of the 'Klan Church' of Bangor and Brewer. Bennett was awarded compensation. Klan ministers were most often Methodists, and sometimes Baptists, while the Congregational and Unitarian churches openly opposed the organization.
The Klan and the Maine Republican Party
The arrival of the Klan on the local political scene split the Maine Republican PartyMaine Republican Party
The Maine Republican Party is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in Maine. It was founded in Strong, Maine on August 7, 1854. The state Chairman is Charles M. Webster....
. An old-guard element loyal to Gov. Percival Baxter and U.S. Senator Frederick Hale
Frederick Hale
Frederick Hale was a politician from the U.S. state of Maine, representing the state in the United States Senate from 1917 to 1941. He was the son of Eugene Hale, the grandson of Zachariah Chandler, both also U.S. Senators, brother of diplomat Chandler Hale, and the cousin of U.S...
staunchly opposed the Klan. As early as 1922 Baxter had called it “an insult and an affront to American citizens” and said “I believe Maine people prefer the light of day to deeds of darkness”. The Klan found champions, however, in state senators Mark Alton Barwise
Mark Alton Barwise
Mark Alton Barwise was the only publicly practicing member of the Spiritualist religion known to have been elected to a state office in the United States. Born in Chester, Maine of a medianistic mother, Barwise became an attorney and nationally-prominent member of the National Spiritualist...
and Owen Brewster
Owen Brewster
Ralph Owen Brewster was an American politician from Maine. Brewster, a Republican, was solidly conservative...
, who sponsored legislation seeking to outlaw state aid to parochial schools. Brewster refused to denounce Klan support in his own run for the governorship in 1924. The Democrats picked as their candidate to oppose Brewster, William Robinson Pattangall
William Robinson Pattangall
William Robinson Pattangall was a Maine politician, particularly known for his support of public schools and opposition to the Ku Klux Klan. He was later the Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court retiring on July 16, 1935....
, a descendent of Mayflower Yankees, who had attempted (unsuccessfully) to insert an anti-Klan plank into the platform of the Democratic National Convention that same year. Pattangall campaigned almost entirely on anti-Klan sentiment, while Brewster said nothing about the society. Brewster won by a large margin, seeming to fulfill Kleagle Farnsworth’s promise that the Klan would select the next governor. The following year the Maine Klan elevated DeForest H. Perkins
DeForest H. Perkins
Deforest H. Perkins was the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Maine from 1925 to 1928. This was the high period of the Klan's ascendency nationally, and in Maine. He resigned in 1928 after a Klan-backed Republican candidate for U.S. Senator, Owen Brewster, lost his primary contest to Sen...
, the former Portland School Superintendent, as the state’s own Grand Dragon. King Kleagle Farnsworth, now recruiting in Massachusetts, died suddenly of an illness in 1926.
On the county, municipal, and town levels, Klansmen captured untold numbers of offices, or at least influenced elections. Avowed klansmen became mayors of Saco
Saco, Maine
Saco is a city in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 18,482 at the 2010 census. It is home to Ferry Beach State Park, Funtown Splashtown USA, Thornton Academy, as well as General Dynamics Armament Systems , a subsidiary of the defense contractor General Dynamics...
(John G. Smith), Westbrook
Westbrook, Maine
Westbrook is a city in Cumberland County, Maine, United States and a suburb of Portland. The population was 17,494 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metropolitan statistical area.-History:...
(Charles S. Tuttle Jr) and Rockland
Rockland, Maine
Rockland is a city in Knox County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 7,297. It is the county seat of Knox County. The city is a popular tourist destination...
. The Klan "figured prominently" in the election of mayor Allen M. Irish of Bath
Bath, Maine
Bath is a city in Sagadahoc County, Maine, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 9,266. It is the county seat of Sagadahoc County. Located on the Kennebec River, Bath is a port of entry with a good harbor. The city is popular with tourists, many drawn by its...
. In 1923 the Klan were beginning "to take an active part in the politics" of Brewer
Brewer, Maine
Brewer is a city in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. It is part of the Bangor, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city is named after its first settler, Colonel John Brewer. The population was 9,482 at the 2010 census....
, and the following year Kleagle Farnsworth declared that "all Klan candidates" on the ballot had elected in the town of Dexter, Maine
Dexter, Maine
Dexter is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,890 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Bangor, Maine metropolitan statistical area...
(Gov. Brewster's home town). In 1928 the New York Times referred to Newport and Kennebunkport
Kennebunkport, Maine
Kennebunkport is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,720 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford metropolitan statistical area....
as "old Ku Klux capitals"Other political figures whose elections were reportedly endorsed by the Klan included Androscoggin County sheriff E.E. Additon, Auburn
Auburn, Maine
Auburn is a city in and the county seat of Androscoggin County, Maine, United States. The population was 23,055 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included in the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan New England city and town area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine metropolitan...
mayor Fred E. Walton, Lisbon Falls
Lisbon Falls, Maine
Lisbon Falls is a census-designated place in the town of Lisbon, located in Androscoggin County, Maine, United States. The population of Lisbon Falls was 4,420 at the 2000 census...
state representative Louis A. Jack, and president of the Maine State Senate Hodgdon Buzzell.
The 1926 Special Senatorial Election
A 1926 special election for U.S. Senator from Maine following the death of Sen. Bert M. FernaldBert M. Fernald
Bert Manfred Fernald was a United States Senator and the 47th Governor of Maine.Born in West Poland, Maine, he attended the public schools, Hebron Academy and a business and preparatory school in Boston. He then taught school , and then engaged in the canning, dairy, and telephone businesses...
saw the Klan issue played out again. This time the Republican candidate, Arthur R. Gould
Arthur R. Gould
Arthur Robinson Gould was a United States Senator from Maine.Born in Corinth, Maine, he attended the common schools and East Corinth Academy. He moved first to Bangor, Maine, where he opened a candy factory and met and married his wife, and then to Presque Isle, Maine, in 1887...
ran on an explicitly anti-Klan platform, winning with the help of large numbers of Democrats who crossed over to send a message to the Klan faction of Republicans. Governor Brewster took the unprecedented step of denouncing the senatorial candidate of his own party, which only helped Gould’s cause. For the first time in a Maine senatorial election, Gould won every county and city in the state. The Chairman of the Republican State Committee declared that with Gould's victory, "the sinister influence of an oath-bound organization no longer threatens the welfare of Maine".
Other Maine Republicans who took uncompromising stances against Klan influence in their party during the 1920s included state representatives Clyde Smith
Clyde Smith
Clyde Harold Smith was a United States Representative from Maine.Born on a farm near Harmony, Maine, he moved with his parents to Hartland, Maine in 1891. He attended the rural schools and Hartland Academy, and taught school...
(husband of future Senator Margaret Chase Smith
Margaret Chase Smith
Margaret Chase Smith was a Republican Senator from Maine, and one of the most successful politicians in Maine history. She was the first woman to be elected to both the U.S. House and the Senate, and the first woman from Maine to serve in either. She was also the first woman to have her name...
); Robert Hale
Robert Hale (Maine)
Robert S. Hale was a U.S. Representative from Maine, and first cousin of U.S. Senator Frederick Hale, also of Maine....
(cousin of U.S. Sen. Frederick Hale
Frederick Hale
Frederick Hale was a politician from the U.S. state of Maine, representing the state in the United States Senate from 1917 to 1941. He was the son of Eugene Hale, the grandson of Zachariah Chandler, both also U.S. Senators, brother of diplomat Chandler Hale, and the cousin of U.S...
and a future U.S. Congressman); and former Penobscot County sheriff Maj. Arthur L. Thayer, who mounted a primary challenge against Brewster in 1926.
Decline of the Maine Klan
Even before the Gould election revealed the limits of Klan influence, the organization began to weaken in other ways. In May of 1926, Mayor Ernest L. McLean of AugustaAugusta, Maine
Augusta is the capital of the US state of Maine, county seat of Kennebec County, and center of population for Maine. The city's population was 19,136 at the 2010 census, making it the third-smallest state capital after Montpelier, Vermont and Pierre, South Dakota...
(a Democrat) caused the cancellation of a large Klan rally and parade in the state capital by prohibiting marchers from wearing hoods or otherwise covering their faces. The national Klan itself would prohibit the wearing of face-covering hoods by its members in 1928, a measure which accelerated the decline in membership. Also in Feb. 1926 the sprawling headquarters of the Maine Klan in Portland was seized by the city for unpaid taxes, with the organization's affairs being described by one newspaper as "muddled". By 1928 the New York Times reported that Klan strength in Portland had fallen from 900 to 200-300. This mirrored the decline of the Klan nationally.
A 1928 Republican senatorial primary fight was the last time the Klan campaigned openly for a candidate, in this case for Owen Brewster
Owen Brewster
Ralph Owen Brewster was an American politician from Maine. Brewster, a Republican, was solidly conservative...
against incumbent Frederick Hale
Frederick Hale
Frederick Hale was a politician from the U.S. state of Maine, representing the state in the United States Senate from 1917 to 1941. He was the son of Eugene Hale, the grandson of Zachariah Chandler, both also U.S. Senators, brother of diplomat Chandler Hale, and the cousin of U.S...
. Ex-governor Baxter, also a Republican, openly accused Brewster of Klan membership, claiming he had joined the organization and sworn an oath in front of the Imperial Wizard in Washington, D.C. Baxter further testified that Brewster had offered him 25,000 Klan votes, which "he absolutely controlled" if he (Baxter) would enter the gubernatorial campaign that same year. Baxter made these and other charges in a long newspaper interview, in which he also accused Brewster of "political treachery and double-dealing" and being "unworthy of the confidence of the Republican Party".
In the Republican primary for governor that same year, the Mayor of Saco, Maine
Saco, Maine
Saco is a city in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 18,482 at the 2010 census. It is home to Ferry Beach State Park, Funtown Splashtown USA, Thornton Academy, as well as General Dynamics Armament Systems , a subsidiary of the defense contractor General Dynamics...
, John C. Smith, who was an avowed Klansman, was defeated by Old-Guard Republican William Tudor Gardiner
William Tudor Gardiner
William Tudor Gardiner was an American politician and the 55th Governor of Maine.- Early life :Gardiner was born in Newton, Massachusetts on June 12, 1892. He studied at the Groton School. He went to Harvard University for his higher studies and completed his law degree in 1917.- First World War...
.
The victories of Hale and Gardiner, this time without the help of Democrats, proved that the Maine Klan was a spent political force, and led to the resignation of Grand Dragon Perkins
DeForest H. Perkins
Deforest H. Perkins was the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Maine from 1925 to 1928. This was the high period of the Klan's ascendency nationally, and in Maine. He resigned in 1928 after a Klan-backed Republican candidate for U.S. Senator, Owen Brewster, lost his primary contest to Sen...
.
Brewster was eventually elected to Congress, and then the US Senate, where he became a close ally of Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
.
In 1928 the Catholic Diocese of Maine struck a triumphalist note by naming its newly-opened high school in Bangor
Bangor, Maine
Bangor is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States, and the major commercial and cultural center for eastern and northern Maine...
after father John Bapst, the priest who had been tarred and feathered in Ellsworth
Ellsworth, Maine
Ellsworth is a city in and the county seat of Hancock County, Maine, United States. The 2010 Census determined it had a population of 7,741. Ellsworth was Maine's fastest growing city from 2000-2010 with a growth rate of nearly 20 percent...
during a previous period of anti-catholicism.
Klan Klaverns (local chapters) lingered on in some Maine towns years after the national and state organizations had dissolved, partly kept alive by their women's auxiliaries. In Kittery
Kittery, Maine
Kittery is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 9,543 at the 2000 census. Home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island, Kittery includes Badger's Island, the seaside district of Kittery Point, and part of the Isles of Shoals...
the "ladies of the Klan" held a baked bean and salad supper at the local Grange Hall in 1931, and Kittery's Klavern (no. 5) sponsored a booth at a Depression-era "Unemployment Bazaar" in 1933, alongside the Lion's Club, garden clubs, and even the local Catholic Church. At this last event, the names of all six booth-tenders were published in the newspaper, suggesting that the "Invisible Empire" was trying to adapt to the role of local fraternal organization. By the mid-1930s, however, references to the KKK in the Maine press had all but disappeared.