Last week I wrote about the Klan taking over the volunteer “Law and Order League” in 1924. This led to Jim Milani’s telling me his grandfather, Santi Milani, had been arrested by the Klan for having his ice cream parlor on the north side of the Square open on Sunday. The Klan may have disliked Santi because he was not born in the U.S., but became a citizen at age 19.

As 1925 rolled in, the entire community was becoming stirred. There was growing opposition to the Klan as more people took sides. There was talk of organizing to bring about more harmonious conditions, to replace the leadership of hotheads with people who had long been interested in the welfare of the community. The Iowegian ran a series of editorials in an attempt to replace the animosities with reasoned judgment.

On Jan. 27, 1925, the Iowegian announced a movement was underway to rescue Centerville from a pall of distrust and dissention. The editorial said Centerville must be clean, have good law enforcement and protect morals. And there should be policies for the city and the people as a whole and not dictated by a faction. Problems should be corrected by those officials who were entrusted with the job rather than outsiders.

In mid-March the Southern Iowa American published a series of three long articles by J. Roy Wright detailing the Klan’s problems with blacks, Jews and Roman Catholics. Wright wrote that blacks and foreigners would eventually govern whites in the U.S. because of a higher birth rate and migration. The Klan did not believe in intermarriage, but that purity of race must be preserved. Wright stated that Jews barred themselves from the Klan because they didn’t believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. Wright’s quarrel with the Roman Catholics seemed to be his perception of intolerance and oppression of others throughout the ages. However, Wright proclaimed the Klan held no ill-will toward any of these groups and they desired to live with all in harmony.

Anti-Klan forces, 100 people strong, finally held a meeting on March 13, 1925 and formed the Lincoln League in an attempt to restore normalcy to Centerville. The American newspaper wasn’t told about the meeting. The League’s platform affirmed principles of liberty, equality and justice embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the U.S and Iowa. They declared for friendship and good will among all citizens regardless of race, color, religion or politics. They favored strict enforcement of the law and efficient business administration.

In the city election, the Lincoln League ticket was Jim Keller for mayor and H.E. Valentine, Louis Anderson, Ed Riepe, J. B. Bruckshaw and Oscar Bergs for councilmen. The League was backed by community leaders including C.R. Wooden, J.A. Bradley, W.M. Evans, F.L. Sawyers, H.G. Klum, Ed Buhrman, B.A. Fuller, Leo Moore, J.A. Shanks, Mott R. Sawyers, W.M. Dukes, J.J. Frankel, Henry Dukes, Frank Payne, J.M. Beck, Berg Staley, William Bradley and many others. It was a formidable group that challenged the Klan.

The Klan supported a city slate called the Citizen Ticket with Joe Allison for mayor and Albert Eckman, Bert Davison, J.W. Powell, Lincoln Knapp and E.C. Ellis for councilmen. Allison was a respected coal miner with a reputation as a fine citizen, a churchgoer and a good family man.

Centerville’s dirtiest election campaign had begun. It was a battle of editorials between the newspapers. The Iowegian explained the resolutions and positions of the League for better government of Centerville and blasted the motives of the Klan.

The American made specific and vicious accusations against individuals supporting the Lincoln League. The American claimed the League was a dictatorship of three people, Frank Payne (ISU), Robert Beck (Iowegian) and Berg Staley, a contractor. These three wanted to rule Centerville with an iron hand. Glenn Reed published a great deal of “dirt” against those three men with special venom.

March 30, 1925 was the momentous day of the city election. The result was a massive landslide for the Lincoln League nominees with a total of 4,300 voting, the largest vote ever cast. Mayor Keller won by 497 votes. There was a jubilant victory celebration in Centerville. Impromptu parading was going on. Cars formed long processions with sirens and horns screaming. Firecrackers, including skyrockets and Roman candles added to the hullaballoo.

After the election the tide began to turn against the rampant and high-handed methods of some of the Klan. The eventual doom of the Klan was assured by its many accusations of doubtful veracity made in its newspaper, seemingly at the whim of its editor. It blasted many respected citizens, including any person who didn’t go along with McDonald and his cohorts. They had their own definition of “true Americanism.”

After the Klan had folded, G.N. McDonald left for greener fields, and his whereabouts were unknown. The South Iowa American, that boasted it would be the state’s greatest newspaper, folded abruptly, and editor Glenn Reed went south to operate a printing business. The Rev. J. Roy Wright passed on. John Joseph and his enterprises also folded, and his Centerville store burned down. Some other businesses that invested in Klan enterprises lost all their money. The hall in which Klan records were kept burned down. Finally, in 1926, it all ended when the Iowegian bought the Southern Iowa American at a sheriff’s sale.

Though 1923, 1924 and 1925 brought greater discord to Appanoose County than it has ever known before or since. It was a sad chapter in Appanoose County history, but no history of that period in Centerville and Appanoose County would be complete without a reference to the days of the Ku Klux Klan and C.N. McDonald.