STODDARD COUNTY HISTORY
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Reconstruction Era 

Charleston, Missouri Klan, 1869

May 14, 1869 - The Charleston Courier - “Capture of the Captain of the Gang of Robbers” A gang of “robbers” robbed a Jewish peddler.  The men were wearing black robes with broad white stripes of some material around the cuffs, gown, and caps.  The material of the robe itself was black calico. “They found the prisoner at Charleston, Mississippi county, where he went immediately after the robbery.  He is a young, good looking man by the name Sanders, and has been employed about Morley for some time. He confessed to all and told the names of his three accomplices, for each of whom our sheriff offers twenty-five dollars reward.”  
-”Whether the designs of this organization was for robbery alone, or not, we cannot say, but think that men that would wear the uniform we have described, would stop at no crimes.”

Picture
Photo of night riders wearing the same or similar clothing as mentioned in the Charleston Courier.

Klan Activity In Southeast Missouri in 1871


On October 10, 1871, Governor B Gratz Brown ordered a miltia to be formed in Dunklin and Stoddard Counties for the purpose of ending the surge of Ku Klux Klan violence in the area.  Colonel William L. Jeffers (formerly of the 8th Missouri Confederate Cavalry) was appointed by Adjutant General Albert Sigel to lead the Dunklin County posse, while Captain William Ringer of Stoddard County was the enrolling officer of that county.  Each company would not exceed 100 men.  
Picture
Colonel William Jeffers 
Col. Jeffers, town marshall of Clarkton,  fled Clarkton (Dunklin County) after he ordered a party of the Klan to make peace while they were Clarkton.  Enough threats were made against his life he fled north to Cape Girardeau.  
Jeffers was no stranger to violence and leading men into battle.  During the Civil War he raised the 8th Missouri Cavalry (CSA).  His regiment fought well and had more success in Southeast Missouri during 1862, than any other Confederate unit that ever operated within the region during the Civil War.  
Captain William Ringer enlisted one of the first units formed up in Stoddard County for the pro-Southern Missouri State Guard.  Ringer is listed as a private in the Stoddard County Rangers, a mounted company that became Company C, 2nd Missouri Cavalry, MSG (McGee & Mayo).  
Several instances of violence throughout the region led to formation of the militia.  A man in New Madrid County was threatened and has his window busted out, Don Scarlett was murdered, and Davis S. Beath of Bloomfield was forced to leave town when he denounced the whipping of Charles Long, a former union soldier.  An African-American citizen in Allenville (Cape County) was visited by the masked men and warned not to attempt to build schools or churches for blacks in the area.   
Picture
Governor Grats Brown was member of the Liberal Republican Party and an outspoken opponent of slavery.  After the Civil War he supported Radical Republican legislation that created civil rights for African-Americans.  
Governor Brown enlisted the State Militia law after he read the report of Captain Edmund S. Woog, chief clerk in the Adjutant General's office.  Woog recommended that prominent members, especially from surrounding counties, be enlisted into a militia force.  His report found that while there were several prominent citizens from Stoddard and Dunklin Counties that had at first joined the Klan when they believed it was primarily a political organization, quit when they realized the group had other ideas.  Many of those same men now believed that the Klan was, "only a band of horse theives, robbers, and murderers...fugitives from justice from Illinois, Arkansas, and Kentucky.
Woog's report put most of the blame in Stoddard County on its sheriff, R. M. Fraker.  According to Woog, Fraker had failed to fully investigate witnesses and perform his official duties.  Woog condemned the counties leaders who signed a petition that begged for Klan to stop terrorizing the region instead of picking up arms to hunt them down (Bloomfield Vindicator, November 28, 1941).  Woog later complimented Jeffers (acting as deputy sheriff) and Ringer on their work in expelling the Klan, at least temporarily, from the region (Bloomfield Vindicator).    

Charleston Klan, 1871

September 30, 1871 - The Charleston Courier - “Ku Klux murderers are permitted to practice their crimes unmolested, fully illustrates the amicable relations existing between the Klan and the democratic officials in most of the lower counties.  A Klansman in Tennessee attacked and whipped a tenant farmer near Union City, Tennessee. The klansman’s name was Dan Lacewell. He then before running off to Mississippi County, Missouri attacked the landowner, a Mr. Snow, by firing a shotgun at him and missing.  Snow traveled to Missouri to eliminate him and did. Snow was caught in Tennessee and brought back to Mississippi County then to the St. Francis County jail for safe keeping. “He will have little hope of mercy, as his trial will take place in a community where his victim has the public sympathy simply because he was a Ku-Klux.  Arrests for crimes committed in the lower counties are so rare as to cause surprise, and the one we now record may prove to be due to the fact that the man killed was Ku-Klux while Snow was an opponent of that good democratic organization.” -Ironton Enterprise

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  • Home
    • Southeast Mo to 1811
    • Southeast Mo 1820 - 1850
  • Communities
    • Dexter >
      • Castor St.
      • Stoddard St.
      • Walnut St.
      • North of Tracks
      • Locust St & S. Main
      • East Dexter
      • West Dexter
      • Vine Street
      • Poplar Street
      • Prominent Citizens
    • Aquilla
    • Swinton
    • Bloomfield >
      • Bloomfield People
      • Businesses
      • Churches
      • Courthouse
      • Fire - 1912
      • Poor Farm/County Home
      • School
      • Stock Show 1909
    • Buffington
    • Essex >
      • Essex History
    • Bernie
    • Ardeola
    • Bell City
    • Brownwood
    • Dudley
    • Leora
    • Puxico
    • Acorn Ridge
    • Advance
    • Powe
    • Penermon
    • Gray Ridge
    • Stoddard (Town)
    • Rural Stoddard County
    • Communities Outside Stoddard >
      • Butler County >
        • Ash Hill
        • Broseley
        • Fisk
        • Qulin
        • Poplar Bluff
        • Harviell
        • Neelyville
        • Rombauer
        • Lost Towns of Butler County >
          • Poplin
      • Cape County
      • Dunklin County >
        • Kennett
        • Malden
        • Clarkton
        • Wilhemina
      • Mississippi County >
        • Bird's Point
        • Charleston
        • Wyatt
      • New Madrid County >
        • Boekerton
        • Canalou
        • Conran
        • Gideon
        • Kewanee
        • Lilbourn
        • Marston
        • Morehouse
        • New Madrid (Town)
        • Parma
        • Portageville
        • Risco
      • Scott County >
        • Vanduser
        • Oran
        • Chaffee
      • Pemiscot County >
        • Hayti
        • Pascola
        • Caruthersville >
          • 1950 - 1985
      • Wayne County >
        • Piedmont
      • Carter County >
        • Ellsinore
        • Grandin
  • Civil War & Other Periods
    • Stoddard Rangers
    • Post Reconstruction >
      • Swamp Drainage
      • Small Pox Outbreak, 1895
      • Spanish Influenza
      • Yellow Fever Epidemic, 1905
      • Crime & Punishment >
        • Stoddard County Sheriffs
      • Spanish-American War
      • Civil Rights Southeast Missouri
    • Reconstruction Era
    • Pre Civil War >
      • Slavery
    • The Civil War >
      • Union Stoddard County >
        • 2nd Mo State Militia Cavalry
        • 3rd MSM Cavalry
        • 12th MSM Cavalry
      • 1st Division Missouri State Guard >
        • McDonald's Co. C Artillery
      • 2nd Missouri Cavalry
      • 4th Missouri Cavalry (CS)
      • 7th Missouri Cavalry
      • 8th Missouri Cavalry
      • 12th Missouri Cavalry
      • 1st Confederate Infantry Btn
      • 6th Cavalry (Phelan's Regiment)
      • 6th Missouri Infantry >
        • Roster of Company D
        • Stoddard Countians in Company D
        • Roster Company K
      • Pilot Knob
  • Other Categories
  • Sources
  • Mr. Arnold's Classroom
    • Nat'l History Day
    • 7th Grade World History >
      • Unit 1 Intro & Geography
      • Unit 2 Page
      • Unit 3 England's Colonies
      • Unit 4 Colonies To Revolution
      • Unit 5 American Revolution
      • Unit 6 New Nation
      • Unit 7 - Early Republic
      • Unit 8 - Emergence Of American Economy
      • Unit 9 Nat'l & Sect
      • Chapt 10 - The South
      • Unit 11 - The Gathering Storm
      • Unit 12 Civil War
      • Unit 13 - Reconstruction
      • Unit 14 - Bus. & Labor
      • Unit 15 - New South & West
      • Unit 16 - SEMO History
    • 8th Grade American History >
      • Unit 1 - Civil War Reconstruction
      • Unit 2 Bus & Labor
      • Unit 3 - New South
      • Unit 4 Gilded Age & Populism
      • Unit 5 - The Progressive Era
      • Unit 6 - WWI
      • Unit 7 - The 1920s
      • Unit 8 - The Great Depression
      • Unit 9 - WWII
      • Unit 10 Post WWII to Korea
      • Unit 11 The Cold War in the 50s
      • Unit 12 - Turbulent 1960s
      • Unit 13 - Nixon & Ford Years
      • Unit 14 - Conservative Revival
      • Unit 15 - The 90s
      • Unit 16 - 9/11 To Present
      • Unit 17 - Global War on Terror
    • 3rd Hour Gov't >
      • Introduction
      • Chapter 1 - Ideals of Democracy
      • Chapter 2 Types of Democracy
      • Chapter 3 The Constitution
      • Chapter 4 Principles of Constitution
      • Unit 5 - Civil Liberties & Civil Rights
      • Chpt 6 Civic Resp. & Civic Duty
      • Chpt 7 American Political Ideologies & Beliefs
      • Chpt 8 Spec Interest
      • Chpt 9 - EOC Economics
      • Chapter 10 Elections
    • 4th Hour Gov't >
      • Introduction
      • Chapter 1 - Ideals of Democracy
    • DC American History >
      • DC Unit 1 - Exploration/Colonization
      • Unit 2 - English Colonies
      • Unit 3 - F & I War To Revolution
      • Unit 4 - The Early Republic
      • Unit 5 - Age of Jackson
      • Unit 6 - Religion, Romanticism, & Reform
      • Unit 7 Westward Expansion
      • Unit 8 The Gathering Storm
      • Unit 9 The Civil War
      • Unit 10 - Reconstruction
      • Unit 11 The Industrial Era
      • Unit 12 - The New South and New West
      • Unit 13 - Imperialism & Reform
      • Unit 14 - WWI & the 1920s
      • Unit 15 - The Great Depression
      • Unit 16 WWII
      • Unit 17 - The Cold War & 1950s
      • Unit 18 The Vietnam Era
      • 2nd Semester Final