O. K. Doney

As far as local Klan ministers go, Oliver Kinsey Doney probably made the most headlines as an outspoken proponent and member of the Champaign County Ku Klux Klan. He began as a pretty typical local attorney. He was featured in the 1905 edition of the History of Champaign County (volume 2):

OLIVER KINSEY DONEY, a minister and lawyer, of Urbana, Ill., was born in Deerfield, Mo., November 30, 1873, the son of Lysander and Cynthia A. (Hill) Doney. The former was a veteran of the Civil War whose first enlistment for a period of three months so inspired him with zeal, that at the expiration of this term, he immediately reenlisted for the entire war. At the Battle of Chickamauga he was twice wounded, and although he bravely kept on, he was at length compelled to fall out of line at Atlanta, in the famous "March to the Sea." The mother was, in her youth, a somewhat gifted singer, and to her san she transmitted not alone her contour of features, but a natural musical ability...

The children had no opportunity to attend school until 1885, when the family removed to Tolono, Ill., but here the two started in the same grade graduating together from the high school in 1893. Then came a separation hard to bear, since the brother and sister were like twins, for in the fall of that year the lad entered the University of Illinois, the sister's ill-health detaining her at home. Mr. Doney spent two years at this institution of learning, taught school for a term, and then decided to study law.

In March, 1899, he was admitted to the bar. He then reentered the university and graduated with the class of 1900, receiving the degree of LL. B. Since then he has practiced law, specializing as an abstractor. He is an earnest advocate of the cause of prohibition, declaring that every voter at every election should cast his vote to destroy the liquor traffic. His ambition had been, since his boyhood, to become a minister not a mere preacher, but a minister. With this end in view he made a special study of the gospels, and was ordained April 5, 1903, not as a minister of any special denomination, but of the Church Universal the Church of Christ...

On August 17, 1899, Mr. Doney was married to Hattie Myrtle, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Shuck, of Urbana, Ill. Mr. Shuck is a veteran of the Civil War. Since May, 1903, Mr. Doney has been preaching with marked success at Homer, Ill.

 As the Klan was emerging locally, O. K. Doney was retiring from the Christian church of Villa Grove. He was soon to be replaced by Reverend Hollingsworth, who would also become an outspoken advocate for the local Klan. From the 12/19/1922 Urbana Daily Courier and Villa Grove News:

Within months, O. K. Doney was openly participating in Klan events. An early example was an event honoring local WWI veteran Lt. Ennis G. Stillwell. From the 5/30/1923 Champaign News-Gazette:

One of the tactics by the second Klan in the 1920s was setting up a debate platform, often with a local Catholic leader, that helped amplify the Klan position regardless of the event itself. From the announcements in the 8/23/1923 Courier and the coverage in the Rantoul Weekly Press on 8/30/1923:

In the early days of mass marketing, these tactics may not have appeared so obvious, but the effect was the same as modern extremist groups using the platform itself as a tool of propaganda. Reverend McMahan would use the same tactic in Mattoon where he was based. From the 9/24/1923 Mattoon Journal-Gazette a few weeks later:

I don't have any information on Thomas Sunderland being anything other than a well-intentioned and good faith participant in these debates. It's quite possible he was hoping his engagement would help shine a light on the Klan's ideological flaws. Unfortunately, any such arguments did not appear in the local coverage that I could find.

O. K. Doney would also be involved in the massive naturalization, parade, and Klan meeting at Crystal Lake Park in September of that year. From the 9/25/1923 Courier coverage:

O. K. Doney would also mingle with the Imperial Wizard of the national Klan organization and the Grand Dragon of Illinois during the massive convention here in 1923. He performed the Klan wedding ceremony that completed that convention. From the 11/20 and 11/24/1923 Courier:

Other Klan ministers also participated in that convention, including J. F. McMahan covered in another post here. From the Courier coverage of the convention on 11/24/1923 and a 11/20/1923 advertisement for the events in the same paper:

As a well known figure for the local Klan, the Courier would sometimes treat him like a spokesman on local Klan matters. From the 1/7/1924 Courier:

The Klansman in this case was a local business man and grocery store owner, separated from his wife, who claimed he was in the inescapable "clutches" of a local white-passing Black prostitute. From the 12/28/1923 Courier:

As one can imagine, the marriage ended in divorce soon after.

In another unusual twist, O. K. Doney's Civil War veteran father received a Klan funeral, with full regalia and Klan drum corps. In the 8/7/1925 Courier coverage, his memberships are listed as "the Church of Christ, the Odd Fellows and at heart a Klansman." It's hard to know if he would have appreciated that description as a Union veteran or if his son inserted that on his behalf. The bizarre nature of 1920s politics make either a possibility.

The next local coverage I could find on O. K. Doney was with the passing of his wife, who had apparently been ill for some time. From the 1/13 and 1/14/1931 News-Gazette:

It's after this funeral that it appears that O. K. Doney may have soon moved to Chatham, IL according to his later obituaries (below). He pops up in local coverage, however, while working for the WPA (Works Progress Administration) under FDR's New Deal programs. In the 12/23/1935 Courier it's noted that he's working on collecting local information for the Illinois issue of the American Guide Series of the WPA.

A couple years later he's noted in the 10/13/1937 Courier organizing local government archives for the WPA:

No mention of his prominent Klan activities, support of the Klan, or even his membership were noted in his obituaries locally. Below are the mentions of his death in the 6/23/1941 Courier and News-Gazette as well as the 6/26/1941 Villa Grove News:

There may be an addendum to this post if I receive additional information on his final years in Chatham. From the information I have locally, it appears that like other Klan ministers, he went on to live a normal life. His public Klan background wasn't a hindrance or even an awkward mention in his obituary. It was just left in the past.

McMahan, National and Mattoon Politics

This post includes local letters of opposition to the Klan that are important for the record and full account of this moment in history. The vocal opposition may have often been small or tempered, but it was relevant then and today. The 1925 local elections in Mattoon, Il may have been a personal loss for Reverend Jesse Forrest McMahan when it came to his run for school board president. But he was also credited with the mayoral victory that brought us the above headline from the 4/22/1925 Mattoon Journal-Gazette. The article explains McMahan's role in the campaign:

The article notes the mayor-elect had Klan support in spite of being a Democratic Party candidate. This may seem like an odd point to highlight to those who associate the Klan primarily with the Democratic Party, especially the original Klan and southern Klan history. In the north and especially the Midwest, the Klan was commonly a part of Republican politics. As noted previously here, the Exalted Cyclops of the Champaign County Ku Klux Klan was a prominent Republican. 

Charles G. Palmer, the Grand Dragon of the Illinois Klan matter-of-factly boasted of the Klan's dominance in Illinois politics in the 10/24/1924 Chicago Tribune. The Klan was openly supporting Republican candidate and Governor Len Smalls. Infamous Klan raider S. Glenn Young stumped for Republican candidates, though not without causing a stir:  

NPR had an overview of the nuance of Illinois politics during the 2nd Klan here with helpful citations. Excerpt:

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, says four to seven million men and women throughout the country joined the Klan in the 1920s. Among them, were up to 200,000 Illinoisans, and they were political.

A Chicago Klan newspaper called, “Dawn: A Journal for True American Patriots,“ encouraged members to recommend candidates and run for office.

The June sixth, 1923 Rockford paper, the Republic, reported:

“The klan is said to have been active in Springfield elections since last fall, supporting candidates backed by (Republican) Governor Len Small.”

Tension over the Klan’s involvement with Illinois government peaked that year. Chicago Representative Thomas J. O’Grady, a Democrat, requested an investigation into Statehouse employees’ Klan membership.

More at the full article here. The "Klan question" was a fairly divisive issue within both major parties' 1924 political conventions. The divisions and infighting among Klan and anti-Klan Democrats was a notorious party disaster for their convention that year. The Republican convention avoided taking a stand for or against Klan candidates. The Courier had coverage explaining the pragmatic political decision on 5/23/1924:

An editorial in the Courier on 9/10/1924 highlighted the political advantage of avoiding a fight on the issue in states where the Klan was more dominant in the Republican Party. In this example, the Courier lamented the influence of groups like the Klan and disputed whether such overt support helped or hurt Republican wins in Maine:

Indiana political trends and influence are probably more relevant here, especially as we see a lot of cross-over, both physically and organizationally across the boarder with Klan leaders in East Central Illinois. From the 6/6/1924 Courier:

This is the national and regional context for Klan politics heading into the local 1925 elections. And also just prior to some of the more headline grabbing scandals and attention the Klan would receive that year. This isn't an indictment of one party over another. The Klan had varying influence in both major parties at the local and national levels. There was also varying levels of opposition within each party. Letters to the editor in the Mattoon Journal-Gazette help highlight some of that contemporary opposition locally. These letters help show that some people at the time "knew better" and openly opposed the Klan, even while most may have remained silent, complicit, or welcoming of the Klan. From 4/7/1925:

From the 4/9/1925 Journal-Gazette (click to enlarge):

And the 4/10/1925 Journal-Gazette:

McMahan lost the school board race by roughly 600 votes, a pretty decent margin in a smaller local election, especially considering how the mayoral race went later. From the 4/13/1925 Journal-Gazette:

Klan Reverend McMahan

Several area ministers helped propagandize and recruit for the Klan. Probably the most notorious in East Central Illinois was Reverend Jesse Forrest McMahan of Mattoon. He was usually listed in the papers as Reverend J. F. McMahan, although sometimes the reporters goofed the first name. He helped spread the Klan over a vast area of the State and not just Champaign County. Additional information on McMahan, including an attempted run for school board in 1925 is available in "Tale's of Cole's County" by Michael Kleen. There's also another post on McMahan's local political moves here. From the Mattoon Journal-Gazette on 11/25/1922:

Reverend McMahan had come to Mattoon as part of special revival services around the beginning of 1920 and was asked to come on as the pastor of the local Christian church. From a Journal-Gazette clipping on 1/19/1920:

As noted in previous posts and pages, the Klan made its first public appearance in the usual way, in full regalia and with a gift to the local Protestant church. From the Journal-Gazette on 7/29/1922:

By October he was admitting openly what local folks had long suspected, that he was an open and unapologetic member of the Klan in his lecture tour around the State of Illinois. From the 10/17/1922 Journal-Gazette:

The Mattoon Klan itself was letting other area towns know about their presence and recruiting in the process around this same time. From the 10/31/1922 Journal-Gazette:

By December, internal power struggles with the Church were being resolved with aid of Klan visits and support for his side against the head of the Sunday School classes and trustees (click to enlarge these clippings from the 12/5/1922 Journal-Gazette):

 He was present at some of the larger Klan gatherings in Champaign-Urbana throughout 1923. In one of the first large public gatherings locally he defended the Klan from accusations of racial and religious prejudice. This may seem absurd to a modern reader, especially since he was simultaneously making white supremacist arguments about protecting racial purity. He delved into racial hygiene theories common to eugenics and other "race science" at the time, such as intra-racial arguments about superior whites over "white trash." From the 1/31/1923 Urbana Daily Courier and Champaign News-Gazette:

He was also present at the massive two day Klan convention in Champaign-Urbana attended by the national Imperial Wizard at the time, Hiram Evans, Illinois Grand Dragon Palmer, and our local Exalted Cyclops J. J. Reynolds. From the 11/24/1923 Courier:

And others, like this massive Klan gathering at Crystal Lake Park covered in the 8/24 and 9/25/1923 Courier:

But he was also a large part of spreading the Klan message and recruiting in the smaller communities in the area such as:

Atwood (2/28/1923 Courier):

Sidney (7/11/1923 Courier):

Pesotum (8/1/1923 Courier):

Villa Grove (8/11/1923 Courier):

Philo (8/14/1923 Courier):

Rantoul (10/3/1923 Courier):

Throughout this time his family was helping sell the Klan newspaper, "The Fiery Cross" and he was traveling to Indiana for Klan events and other meetings. Indiana was the central hub of the second Ku Klux Klan movement in the North. From the 5/19 and 6/27/1923 Courier:

By early 1924 he was openly announcing Klan related sermons in the local Mattoon paper at the First Christian Church of Mattoon. From the 3/14 and 3/28/1924 Journal-Gazette:

He also continued his efforts to spread the Klan message and recruit within Champaign County:

The ill-fated Homer Klan event interrupted by drownings: 

Mahomet (8/1/1924 News-Gazette and 8/7/1924 Mahomet Sucker State):

Urbana, where he was even in the Klan advertisement as well (8/29/1924 Courier):

Tolono (9/17/1924 Courier):

The last reported Klan function I found coverage of with Reverend McMahan was for a Klan funeral in the 5/11/1927 Journal-Gazette:

He and his family were still engaged in the community, but he stopped talking about the Klan, at least in public. Local coverage of his family's comings and goings didn't appear to inquire into his Klan activities and everyone just seemed to move on. In 1956, for example, the paper had a puff piece about his wife's costume shop that mentioned him. It notes he had been a priest at the local Christian church and that he and his wife also ran an apartment house. 

The irony of this notorious Klan family selling costumes and masks for dress up in the area didn't get a mention. From the 10/30/1956 Journal-Gazette (click to enlarge):

Reverend McMahan died shortly afterward in 1957. His obituary from the 4/10/1957 Journal-Gazette does not mention his years of open Klan activity or hint of anything controversial in his past:

The small town Mattoon Journal-Gazette was almost certainly aware of his history, but like everyone else, people just didn't talk about it. The Journal-Gazette wouldn't mention it, as far as I could find, until 1972 as part of a few "this day in history" style blurbs called "Glancing Back" under "50 years ago today (1922)" on 7/29, 8/12, and 8/14/1972:

This follows a trend of Klan leaders and members, organizers, ministers, and so on who just moved on with their lives. They never had to atone or apologize for their actions or beliefs. They weren't ostracized or even asked about something that clearly they wanted to keep quiet and in the past. Unfortunately, this trend will bear out in upcoming posts about other Klan leaders and open Klan ministers in future posts.

There was no conspiracy. Just a culture that had long encouraged letting the past be the past since the death of Reconstruction and into the racial Nadir of American history. Records didn't have to be destroyed or altered. It required no effort at all. Later we'll see that when people attempted to raise the issue they were vilified as unamerican, communist fifth columns, and other dangerous radicals. Whether it was during the Cold War or the War on Terror.

Area Klan Meetings - Partial Listing

The following links are to a partial listing of various Ku Klux Klan activities, meetings, and attendees listed in the local press in the 1920s. This will eventually include all of the newspaper clippings and references to these events. A couple large blocks of information pertaining to the Champaign-Urbana area and the St. Joseph Klan activities will be added at a later date.

This is by no means a complete list of activities or even of published activities in the area. These were the easiest to find via a preliminary simple search while I was researching related topics. I'm hesitant to publish this list, only because I think its sparseness is misleading. But these times, dates, attendees, and locations could be helpful to someone looking for a starting point to research activity in their locality.

In other words, these are starting points for future research in local archives, oral histories, and documentation. The second Klan movement was only one small part of many white nationalist movements and cultural beliefs that came together during the racial Nadir in this era of American history. I also encourage people to find old textbooks and teaching materials that provide context for a lot of common neo-confederate revisionism, eugenics, and racial hygiene views inside and outside of the Klan.

Localities listed are mostly in or near Champaign County. There are some duplicate items, e.g. where a locality is listed as the location of a meeting and the location of attendees from other areas.

Jump to a Locality Links: Listed by locality in alphabetical order. 

Allerton

Atwood

Broadlands

Clinton

Champaign-Urbana: There will be a separate page for C-U.

Dewey

Fairland

Fisher

Foosland

Gifford

Homer

Hoopeston

Longview

Ludlow

Mahomet

Mansfield

Mattoon

Monticello

Ogden

Parkville

Penfield

Pesotum

Philo

Rantoul

Sadorus

Savoy

Sellers

Seymore

Sidney

St. Joseph (on a separate page).

Thomasboro

Tolono

Villa Grove

White Heath