East Mississippi times. (Starkville, Miss.) 19??-1926, 1912-03-01
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&>ksESest\ 1t was necessary
SSssSs that they do so, had
Ts.x.$,>sSH their moral a9h facul. Gu /.
after time they stuffed them when there
was no necessity. Only the strongest
characters stood the test and preserved
their honor inviolate. Passing like the
Hebrew children unscathed through the
flames, they saved the South.
just It's soon as these measures of eX-
pediency ceased to be called for in the
closing of the imminent deadly breach
through which the hosts of carpetbag
misrule were rushing to prey upon the
defenseless South-t their use was dis
couraged by the southern leaders.
Gen j. z. George early sounded the
note of warning against the use of such
methods. He early saw the creeping
miasma of moral obliquity and advised
the southern white man to turn aside
from such methods, to get guns, and If
iaSSS'c"iJt Sbdhu dU IuC pVltS hilu use
open violence rather than fraud.
The Ku Klux Khan wss organized In
Starkrille in about 1868. The best men
IN the county were in IT,. Col. IL. l..
Muldrow, than whom no man was more
loved and honored, was grand Cyciops
-1ehief organizer and head of the Klan..
Other prominent members were
Messrs Gay, Page, Carothers, Rhett
Fand Murray Maxwell, Thomas and,
George Gillespie, Hub. Saunders and
Henry Their usual meeting place
was IN a grove near George Gillespie's
house AbQut half mile from the town
Of Starkyille. The Klan adopted and
carried out only preventive and renee
dial measures in. ,Oktibbeha county.
They Were particularly active about
election times frightening, and some-
times as an extreme measure, whipping
unruly negroes, Though sometimes ir=.
Responsible parties .massqnerading as, ,Ku
Kiex ran to an excess of. riot, it is. the,
proud and truthful boast of the regular
Organization in the, county of Oktibbeha
that at no time were their hands stainesH!
with human blood. They Sode in, nom
descript.: costumes Designed by. them7
selves. Usually their only disguise .syas
sheet dFapped about their, persons -.
The negroes were not always as badly
deceived as they appeared. .An,old ne
gro named johnson Gillespie, who had
belonged to DR.. W. f., Gillespie, of
starkville, said to his young plaster,.
''Marse George, what are these things
that go AROUND at night called ku Klux?
George Gillespie: answered; 81 do not
know, but they say, they are the spirits
of the dead" The old, negro answered:
IF dey are de sperits of de inst: who
: went to heben don't think dey would
want ter come back to dis country, and
if .dey are de sperits of de wicked its "a
mighty poor hell dat won't hold 'em!"
The most picturesque and interesting
character among the carpet-baggers of
Oktibbena was one Mclaughlin. He had
zeal, bnt not according to knowledge
and the fanaticism it not the courage of
old John Brown. Having been presid-
ing elder In the Northern Methodist
church, after coming South he assisted
[ in:the organization Of the. negro Metho-
dist church and accepted the, sanre posi-
ton M its economy. Soon after his ar
rival in Starkville he became the head of
the Freedman's Bureau. =, He. was also
dn organizer ofloyal ,leagaes, chief pro..
moter Of political unrest, and an eneour
ager OF social equality, At the Freed-
mans Bureau headquarters near the
present courthouse in Starkville he es-
tablisled a sort Of cooperative store or
stock company, Stock was $500 per
share and corn or other produce was
taken in lieu OF money. Anegroe s cred
1t was in proportion to the number ,of
shares he held, AS Mclaughlin lived at
the store on terms of social alequaity with
the negroes, it NATURALLY became negro
head quarters" Encouraged by him the
negroes becttlie more and more insolent
every day. White men and wenren wefe
crowded into the cutters by the march,
ingntgroes' 1t was about this time that
as q consequence Of the ELLIS riot Capt.
McOrcisht was appointed by Sheriff
Powers to guard tile town. y Conditions
finally becadre so ttnbearable that thirty
or lofESzmeHs from the western part of
tle,e6anfy organized to come in, and as
1855 altT s@ti'H "