HARDWICK – Vermont and Hardwick were not entirely outside the sphere of influence of the Ku Klux Klan, but the organization appears not to have gained any significant foothold by its efforts.

More than a dozen references appear to the Ku Klux Klan in The Hardwick Gazette in 1924 alone. Some are simple reports of gatherings. Those expressing an opinion, exclusively question the organization’s motives and practices.
As background, an article by the Vermont Historical Society at vermonthistory.org notes, “The Klan movement in Vermont was not strong, but for about four years in the mid-1920s it did have a foothold and a significant presence in the state. National Klan officials claimed 10,000 members in Vermont in the early 1920s (population 352,428), but historian Kenneth Jackson believes a more reasonable estimate of the total number of Vermonters formally initiated in the Klan between 1915-1944 was approximately 2,000. The growth of its membership was primarily fueled by prejudice against the Roman Catholic Church.
The Gazette’s Thursday, May 1, 1924 issue reported “The Ku Klux Klan is not meeting with open arms in Vermont. In a number of places recently, organizers of the Klan have received little encouragement, and we are going to give credit to New England level-headedness as a reason for it.”
A Gazette article on Thursday, May 8, 1924, titled, “The Fiery Cross,” reported, “St. Johnsbury is having its experience with Ku Klux Klan activities and Tuesday’s Caledonian [Record] of that city sizes up the situation in an editorial copied below. Being in so close proximity and our county seat, it will be of interest to our readers.”
The article, which might appear more of an opinion piece from our present perspective, is quoted below in its entirety. It is interesting to note parallels with divisive political rhetoric in the present time, which we leave readers to identify and draw their own conclusions about.
“We don’t know of a community in the United States that [has] less need of a hooded organization than St. Johnsbury. The people of this town have lived in peace and harmony; have obeyed the laws pretty effectively; have shown unstinted pride in their town; have worked together patriotically irrespective of religion, race, social or financial standing.
“Outside promoters who come here to sell 35-cent cotton sheets at $10.00 ‘per’, under the guise of ‘regalia’ and who strive to arouse bitterness and hatred among neighbors, will not get far in this community, unless an effort is made to suppress their propaganda. If there are enough people in St. Johnhsbury who want a Klan, they should have one, It would not last long. The outside promoters who come here to fatten their individual pocketbooks, will find their business poor, however, unless they can get publicity, unless they can arouse resentments and hatreds, by which they can appear before the public as martyrs; unless they can claim they are being persecuted and arouse public sentiment in their favor.
“If the fair-minded, law-observing, honest citizens of St. Johnsbury will go on their even ways, refuse to peddle the sensational rumors which emanate from these paid organizers; if the authorities will not use repressive measures; if those who feel a strong sentiment against a hooded Klan will repress their expressions; the gatherers of the golden coin, who thrive upon opposition, will find their pocketbooks unflattened and they will soon move on from St. Johnsbury to more lucrative fields.
“Many of the followers of the Klan claim great things have been done in the South, where there is an ever-present negro problem; in California, where there is an acute alien problem; in some large centers of population where there are racial and moral problems; but in St. Johnsbury, there are none of these and probably never will be. Therefore, why a Klan, except to fatten the pocketbooks of some soap-box orators who have found poor pickings in the larger cities and are now prospering through an appeal to prejudices in small communities.
“The burning of a fiery cross shows that a ‘stimulant’ was needed to arouse opposition to the Klan. The $10.00 memberships are coming slowly. If St. Johnsbury citizens have any $10.00 bills to throw into the melting pot, save them for a good baseball team this summer. Who wants to ride around the country in a white sheet, when you can go down to the Campus and yell ‘robber’ and ‘thief’ at the umpire and get a lot more fun out of life. If we have some red-blooded citizens with an insatiable desire for excitement and action, let them get out the trusty old fishing rod and go after the wily trout hiding in our flooded streams. They will get a lot more good exercise, fresh air and enjoyment out of life than going to a stuffy hall and listening to some intellectual ‘jackass’ who cannot make a living by any means except by the tongue lashings which he can use against his more successful and resourceful fellow men.
“No Klan can exist in St. Johnsbury. The people are too well educated; too law abiding; too self-respecting. The Klan thrives where there is ignorance, prejudice, intolerance, bigotry. Don’t make the Klan an issue and there will be no Klan.”
The Klan was the subject of a Sunday morning service at Bethany M. E. Church [Montpelier] according to a Gazette notice from July 3, 1924, stating, “Mike Ceresoli and Pastor Craig, the so-called Ku Klux Klan of the Montpelier Seminary Institute, will speak. “Mike” will speak on the subject, “Montpelier Seminary Morale,” and Mr. Craig will take for his subject, “The Ku Klux Klan at the Institute.” It’s not clear from the context how the subject was approached, nor were we able to identify the relationship between the Klan and the seminary, which closed in 1947 and became the campus of Union Institute.
As 1924 continued, The Gazette carried notes of further Klan related activities. “Several from this town [Stannard] attended the Klan meeting in Barton Sunday afternoon,” said an item appearing Oct. 9, 1924.
Later that month, on October 23, The Gazette noted, “A largely attended meeting of the Ku Klux Klan was held Tuesday evening in the [Cabot] Willey Memorial Hall, every seat being filled and a large number had to stand. Later in the evening a fiery cross was burned on the hill west of the village.”
A brief note in the Dec. 25, 1924, Gazette shared an item from the Randolph Herald identifying an attempt by the Klan to formally organize in Vermont, “What is the ‘business’ that the Ku Klux Klan expects to do if chartered in Vermont, application for which has been made to the secretary of state? It would be worth while for that official to give this matter quite a thorough looking into before acting on the application.”
Ending the year of 1924, “The New Year’s ball held in the [Marshfield] K. of P. hall, under the auspices of the Ku Klux Klan was a great success. Music was furnished by Clark’s orchestra of Woodsville, N.H. There were eighty couples present,” reported The Gazette.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
fascinating!!
We were fascinated too.