My grandfather’s great uncle, who shared my last name, was a Methodist Sunday school superintendent, successful farmer, lifelong Republican, local public office holder, esteemed community leader, and a Ku Klux Klan member. The Klan officiated his January 11, 1924, funeral at a Methodist church in Columbus, Indiana, which appeared on the frontpage of the town’s newspaper, The Evening Republican. It reported that the rites were “impressive and solemn, made all the more so by the presence of many Klansmen and Klanswomen.
Before the church service, forty Klansmen marched through town to the church, where special music came from a Klan quartet. A “fiery cross” was taken the previous night to the home of the deceased by “masked Klansmen” and later placed at the grave. After the church service, Klan rituals were conducted at the cemetery. Four Klan officials including the “exalted cyclops, the klud, the klokard, and the klaliff,” stood at the four corners of the casket. Other berobed Klansmen served as pallbearers and surrounded the grave in a circle.
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