The San Francisco call., 1906-07-15
FRANZ CREFFIELD, HOLY ROLLER
By James S. Tyler.

4" HE pretty little Oregon town Of
Corvallis awoke one day from its
i meditations over hops. grain and
manufacturing industries to a
strange condition existing among GER
tain members of it's population. The
Holy Rollers" had come to town.
Some persons said that the Rollers
had been in town for many months.
and some declared that the queer sect
had only made its appearance within a
few days, and that it would not be long
before the odd so-called religion would
die out, as public opinion was violently
set against it.
Other Oregon towns had acquired the
Holy Rollerism spirit, and Corvallis
heard of this. No one seemed to be
able to explain the faith. and no one
offered to do so. The Rollers them
selves were peculiarly reticent- Scan
dal after scandal followed, and finally
Franz Creffield. self-styled Joshua, was
in receipt of a piece of paper on which
was written, Leave town or die
Similar notices were directed to
Franz at every town he visited. and
soon the troubles of the leader of the
Rollers were the subject for all sorts of
stories in both Eastern and Western
newspapers.
In a general way the history of
Il
of an undefinable religion is known
Columns have been written about his
meetings, his influence over weak
minded men and women and his wrong
doings in the guise of "the publication
of the soul and the body at the COM
mand of the Deity who has commanded
me to reform the world"
On one occasion Creffield was found
under a house when the angry citizens
of several towns were looking for him
to lynch him. Two deputies discovered
him. without clothing and almost
starved to death and in company with
a lean canine, reading from a Rollers
pamphlet. The place he had chosen for
refuge was dark and in-odored, and
Creffield only came from 1t at night
when he went in search of scraps of
food enough to keep him alive. He did
just such tricks-sometimes of neceS-
sity and sometimes not-until the day
that he was killed by George Mitchell.
who last Thursday was killed in Seat
tie by Esther Mitchell, his sister. Esther
Mitchell was just the kind of woman
Creff1eld selected for his prey. She is
a wishy-washy female, not good look
ing and not particularly homely. She
was in Creffields power, and her little
mind had not strength enough to resist
the almost supernatural influence that
was welded over her.
Miss Mitchell is probably insane. but
Franz Creffield, in the opinion of most
persons who have seen and talked with
him, was more of degenerate knave
than a simple fool
Creffield seldom cared to talk with
any one of whom he had the slightest
suspicion. He lived in fear of violent
death, yet he courted it at every turn.
He was not we'll educated. but he had
applied himself to a course of reading
that ought to have broadened his mind
and made him decent man. His mem
ory was remarkable and he could quote
a. length from famous speeches and es-
says, and on some topics his logic was
clear and impressive. 1t was only when
questioned about his strange faith that
he seemed to lose the thread of his ar
gument and ramble into vague explana-
tions of a hereafter and the relations
of the body to the soul.
Creff1eld said that his belief was
based on three principles-that of the