Forum Flashbacks: June 8-14

FORUM FILE PHOTO
25 YEARS AGO: Town & Country Day – Face-painter Polly Barton (far right) looks on as several children wait to get their faces painted during the Burlington Junction Town & Country Day Saturday. Barton painted everything from rainbows to frogs on children’s faces.

15 years ago

At 8:40 a.m., Monday, June 10, 2002, Lloyd Jeffress entered Conception Abbey and began randomly shooting.

That day, both Father Philip Schuster and Brother Damian Larson … died while Father Kenneth Reichert and Father Norbert Schappler were injured.

Having then turned the gun on himself, questions were left unanswered about why Jeffress would commit such an assault.

Six years following the (shooting), Danny Schuster, nephew of Father Philip Schuster who was killed, wants to honor the lives of the monks at Conception Abbey with a book entitled “Blessing out of Tragedy.” …

“These men touched so many lives,” he said. “I know there are more stories out there. I’d like to use them in the book. I want to highlight the blessings that have come in the past years.”

25 years ago

The Maryville Parks and Recreation Board and the Maryville Friends of the Parks Board conducted a press conference Thursday, June 11, to announce a large new donation for the development of the Westside Park and Sports Complex. Mrs. Jack (Ruth) Donaldson presented a check for $400,000 to Steve Sherry, president of the Maryville Friends of the Parks to assist in the building of the complex.

“This is the largest single private donation to the community that we can find from past records,” Jim Nichols, president of the Maryville Parks and Recreation board, said.

“The Maryville Park and Recreation Board would like to honor your commitment to this area for generations to come. The new park will be named the Donaldson-Westside Park and Sports Complex,” Nichols said, as they unveiled the huge sign.

100 years ago

KU KLUX KLAN

MAY BE FORMED HERE

A local order of the Ku Klux Klan may be organized in Maryville.

About 125 persons attended a meeting last night to hear Zack Harris, a national lecturer on the Ku Klux Klan, its purposes and work. The crowd consisted of men engaged in almost every occupation. A local minister was there, several business men, a county official, a number of laboring men and several local professional men — all were in the audience.

Admission to the meeting was by ticket only. These tickets were distributed yesterday afternoon. Men from nearby towns were in charge of the meeting last night. These towns have already organized orders of the Ku Klux Klan.

The meeting was held at the Woodmen of the World dance hall. All the curtains in the hall were lowered and the meeting was held behind a locked door.

Harris lectured on “Americanism.” …

“The United States has always reached out for liberty,” he said. “In 1812, it was for liberty of the seas; in 1848, for the liberty of Texas; in 1863, for the liberty of a race; in 1898, for the liberty of Cuba, and in 1918, for the preservation of ideals. Doesn’t this make our nation worth thinking for, worth talking for, and worth acting for?”

Harris then discussed the immigration problem which is facing America. He called attention to the great increase in immigration, and the change in the type of immigrant from the northern Anglo-Saxon to the southern Latin and Slavic races. The influx of aliens will eventually cause a lowering of American ideals, he said. Harris said that only 49 per cent of the persons now living in the United States were native white-born Americans.

He then defined the Ku Klux Klan as an organization for native white-born Americans only, in order to promote fraternalism among the American people.

He declared that in secrecy there is power, and that is why the Ku Klux Klan with its 2 million members is perhaps the most powerful single organization in America, he said.

Native white-born Americans, Gentile, Protestant and good moral character are the four qualifications for membership to the Ku Klux Klan.

According to Harris, the Ku Klux Klan stands for:

• The tenets of the Christian religion.
• White supremacy.
• Protection of the pure womanhood.
• Just laws and liberty.
• Closer relationship of pure Americanism.
• The upholding of the Constitution of the United States.
• The sovereignty of state rights.
• The separation of church and state.
• Freedom of speech and press.
• Closer relationships between capital and American labor.
• Preventing the causes of mob violence and lynchings.
• Preventing unwarranted strikes for foreign labor agitators.
• Prevention of fires and destruction of property by lawless elements.
• The limitation of foreign immigration.
• The much needed local reforms.
• Law and order.

It is said that a local order of the Ku Klux Klan will be formed in Maryville next Tuesday night.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The 100-year flashback is courtesy of the Missouri Digital Newspaper Project from the State Historical Society of Missouri, viewable at shsmo.newspapers.com. The original article ran in the June 13, 1923, edition of The Maryville Daily Democrat-Forum, which later would become the The Maryville Forum.