Organizations
Collection for organization entities.
Pages
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- Knights of Columbus (Salida, Colo.)
- The Knights of Columbus are a charitable organization and Catholic fraternal benefit society.
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- Knights of Pythias. Iron Mountain Lodge #19
- The Knights of Pythias based in Salida, Colorado.
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- Ku Klux Klan
- A series of right-wing movements made up of extremists who want to "purify" America by attacking and killing those they consider unworthy which includes people of ethnic minorities Catholics and Jews. The first incarnation was established during the 1860's and died out a decade later. After D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" film romanticized the original Klan, a second incarnation was born after 1915 becoming swiftly popular during the 1920's. Then since 1950 came a third incarnation, which is still present to this day.
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- Ku Klux Klan (Grand Junction, Colorado)
- A branch of a revised version of the organization that began in 1915 and grew stronger in the 1920s. The Ku Klux Klan inflamed prevailing prejudices against Catholics, Jews, Blacks and immigrants, and promised a return to "Old Time Religion" and Americanism. As Colorado was a primarily Protestant state, the Klan's influence was particularly strong here during the 1920's. The Klan had several members in positions of power, including the governor, state representatives, judges, city council members, and mayors. According to Mesa County Oral History Project interviewee and former Daily Sentinel Advertising Manager Al Look, in a 1972 interview with local historian Kenneth Baird, it was The Daily Sentinel publisher and Democratic Party power broker Walter Walker who brought the Klan to Grand Junction. Look goes onto say that Walker aspired to be the Kleagle of the local Klan, and that when he failed to achieve this, he left the organization. In his own 1972 interview with Baird, William "Bill" Nelson quotes his father and avowed Klan member Clarence Herbert Nelson as saying "Mr. Walker was a member of the Klan." Robert Goldberg, author of Hooded Empire: The Ku Klux Klan in Colorado, used internal Klan documents as sources in writing his book. He confirms that Walker was an early leader of the Klan in Grand Junction. But he also says that the Western Slope, isolated from the power centers of the Eastern Slope by poor roads, was able to create its own version of the Klan. Strangely enough, says Goldberg, the Klan here did not actively persecute Catholics or other minorities. Goldberg also describes early Grand Junction Klan meetings led by Walker as serving beer, though the Klan supported Prohibition. Many Protestants in Grand Junction viewed the Klan as just another sort of social club, says Goldberg, similar to the Elk's. Yet interviewees of the Mesa County Oral History Project say that prejudice and discrimination against Mexicans and Italians in particular was a problem in Grand Junction during that time. They describe cross-burnings and attempts to intimidate immigrants. Interviewee Clem Goettelman, a Catholic, describes some prejudice from a coworker at The Daily Sentinel newspaper during the Klan's ascendance in the 1920's. He confirms in his 1972 interview that Walker was once a member of the Klan, but also mentions that Walker was accosted (some say beaten) in the street by Klan members after using the Sentinel as a pulpit to turn public sentiment against the organization. Goettelman also talks about Klan members burning crosses in front of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in downtown Grand Junction, and protesting in front of the Sentinel building on Main Street. Interviewee Mary Elizabeth (Buthorn) Price describes her great fear of the Klan. Her father William Buthorn was a German immigrant and owner of the LaCourt Hotel. He had a picture of the Kaiser removed from the hotel because he feared reprisal from the Klan. Price describes a Klan parade down Main Street as a "grim," frightening affair. During the parade, there were hardly any men watching, because they were almost all in the parade. Other observers second this account. Al Look, who briefly joined the Klan but, as he said, "never bought the sheet," said that at a meeting of the Klan in the old Armory, the place was filled with angry men, and that it was this anger that alienated him. By 1925, the Klan's power waned as several corruption scandals ruined their reputation and even the Colorado Grand Dragon himself was investigated for tax evasion.
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- Ku Klux Klan (Trinidad, Colorado)
- A branch of a revised version of the organization that began in 1915 and grew stronger in the 1920s. The Ku Klux Klan inflamed prevailing prejudices against Catholics, Jews, Blacks and immigrants, and promised a return to "Old Time Religion" and Americanism. As Colorado was a primarily Protestant state, the Klan's influence was particularly strong here during the 1920's. The Klan had several members in positions of power, including the governor, state representatives, judges, city council members, and mayors.
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- Kuner Canning Company (Grand Junction, Colorado)
- A canning company located in Grand Junction, Colorado in the early Twentieth century. According to Cordelia (Hamilton) Files, the Kuner factory suffered a fire in the 1940's and was forced to sell it's surviving stock as salvage. Files' husband Loyd Files bought the stock through his company Files Brother Wrecking Yard.
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- Kurtz Lumber (Montrose, Colorado)
- A lumber yard in Montrose, Colorado in the early to mid Twentieth century. It was owned by William Clarence Kurtz.