Tuesday, January 03, 2006
So, the "KKK" Shows Up in McHenry County
Additional evidence can be found in local newspapers until about 1925. Historical Museum director Nancy Fike reveals.
And, here’s a story told to me by the late McHenry County College attorney Bill Carroll about when he was a child.
He said the family lived in Woodstock near St. Mary’s Catholic Church, which they attended. Bill’s father was state’s attorney. (He held that office from 1921-29. He also served as state representative 1931-37 and was later a judge.)
Clearly Catholics had positions of power in McHenry County.
Bill asked his father who those people were outside marching with torches and crosses.
“Those are the people that don’t want us to live here, “ his father replied.
Woodstock resident Jim Keefe passed on a memory of his mother, Florence Cooney Keefe. She told him of a KKK march “when she was about 19 (about 1919). She remembers the Ku Klux Klan having a march in Woodstock.
“She was standing on Dean Street next to the Opera House and they came off the Square,” Keefe explained, “turned up Dean Street and they had sheets on themselves and their horses. And, the Irish Catholics were standing there throwing rocks at them.
“She remembers that one of the riders was Matt Hosley,” he continued. “He was a baker who had a bakery on Cass Street, right where the Chamber of Commerce is now, and his house was on Judd Street. His sheet blew up and she recognized him.
“The Woodstock Fire Department was all Catholic fire fighters. They supposedly met the Ku Klux Klan down at Main Street and Washington Street, right near the railroad station,” Keefe said, remembering another story. “The Ku Klux Klan supposedly announced they were going to march in that area and the fire department met them with fire hoses.”
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It was pretty regular in the McHenry Plain Dealer between 1922 & 23. Those were heavy years for cross burnings, recruitment, meetings. They had a big one in Hebron, burned a cross at one end of town and held their meeting in the town hall. They had other meetings in Marengo and I think the newpaper said they had 5,000 people there out on a farm just west of town.
And, here’s a story told to me by the late McHenry County College attorney Bill Carroll about when he was a child.
He said the family lived in Woodstock near St. Mary’s Catholic Church, which they attended. Bill’s father was state’s attorney. (He held that office from 1921-29. He also served as state representative 1931-37 and was later a judge.)
Clearly Catholics had positions of power in McHenry County.
Bill asked his father who those people were outside marching with torches and crosses.
“Those are the people that don’t want us to live here, “ his father replied.
Woodstock resident Jim Keefe passed on a memory of his mother, Florence Cooney Keefe. She told him of a KKK march “when she was about 19 (about 1919). She remembers the Ku Klux Klan having a march in Woodstock.
“She was standing on Dean Street next to the Opera House and they came off the Square,” Keefe explained, “turned up Dean Street and they had sheets on themselves and their horses. And, the Irish Catholics were standing there throwing rocks at them.
“She remembers that one of the riders was Matt Hosley,” he continued. “He was a baker who had a bakery on Cass Street, right where the Chamber of Commerce is now, and his house was on Judd Street. His sheet blew up and she recognized him.
“The Woodstock Fire Department was all Catholic fire fighters. They supposedly met the Ku Klux Klan down at Main Street and Washington Street, right near the railroad station,” Keefe said, remembering another story. “The Ku Klux Klan supposedly announced they were going to march in that area and the fire department met them with fire hoses.”
To return to McHenry County Blog, click here.
# posted by Cal Skinner : 8:35 AM
