i BENEATH THE SMOKE OF THE FLAMING CIRCLE: EXTINGUISHING THE FIERY CROSS OF THE 1920s KLAN IN THE NORTH by JONATHAN A. KINSER Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation Adviser: Dr. David C. Hammack Department of History CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY May, 2017 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the dissertation of Jonathan A. Kinser Candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Committee Chair David C. Hammack Committee Member John J. Grabowski Committee Member John H. Flores Committee Member Kevin C. McMunigal Date of Defense March 22, 2017 *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. iii Copyright ©2017 by Jonathan A. Kinser All Rights Reserved iv DEDICATION To LP, who taught me how to finish projects. And my parents, for all that they have taught me about life. v Table of Contents List of Tables vi Acknowledgments vii Abstract xi 1. Introduction: Cutting Through the Smoke of the Flaming Circle 1 2. The Mahoning Valley’s Changing Demographics and the 29 Foundations of the Rival Factions Changing Demographics in the Mahoning Valley, 1860 to 1920 43 Patterns of Crime and Criminality in the Mahoning Valley, 1880 to 1930 64 3. The Rise of the Mahoning Valley Klan and Its Curious Auxiliaries: 90 The Klan’s Perspective on Immigrants, African-Americans, and Crime, 1920-1925 4. The Rise of Anti-Klan Sentiment and Forms of Immigrant Resistance: 136 The Knights of Columbus, Slovaks, and Italians Challenge the Klan, 1923-1925 5. Smoke on the Level: The Hopeful Spark and Furious Spread of the 183 Flaming Circle 6. Williamson County: ‘Citizen Warriors’ or Generations of 201 Protestant on Protestant Violence 7. Niles, Ohio: Bootleggers and Burning Tires 232 8. Conclusion: ‘Behold, How Great a Flame a Little Fire Kindleth!’ 274 Outcomes of the Conflict Between the Klan and the Knights of the Flaming Circle Appendix A Crime in the Mahoning Valley, 1880-1940 284 Appendix B Naturalization Statistics 1870 to 1930 296 Appendix C List of All Indictments from the November 1, 1924 Riot 305 Bibliography 308 vi LIST OF TABLES 1880 Trumbull County Population 47 1880 Mahoning County Population 48 Population Growth 1870 to 1920 57 1920 Mahoning County Population 61 1920 Trumbull County Population 62 Mahoning County Per Capita Property Crime Indictment Rates 1880-1930 70 Trumbull County Per Capita Property Crime Indictment Rates 1880-1930 71 Mahoning County Per Capita Crimes Against Persons Indictment Rates 1880-1930 72 Trumbull County Per Capita Crimes Against Persons Indictment Rates 1880-1930 73 Mahoning County Per Capita Homicide Rates Based on Coroner Inquests 1870-1930 76 Trumbull County Per Capita Homicide Rates Based on Coroner Inquests 1870-1930 77 Mahoning County Per Capita Crimes Against the Public Indictment Rates1880-1930 79 Trumbull County Per Capita Crimes Against the Public Indictment Rates1880-1930 80 Mahoning County Foreign-born % of Total Prisoner Population 1871-1916 82 Trumbull County Foreign-born % of Total Prisoner Population 1871-1916 84 vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I certainly owe a debt of gratitude to a number of people who have helped make this dissertation a reality. First, I would like to thank the members of my dissertation committee, Dr. David Hammack, Dr. John Grabowski, Dr. John Flores, and Professor Kevin McMunigal, for all of their guidance and time spent helping to refine my argument and conclusions. I would also like to thank the rest of the faculty and staff of the History Department at Case Western Reserve University for helping to train me as a scholar and historian. I extend that same debt of gratitude to Dr. William Jenkins, Dr. Fred Viehe and the rest of the faculty and staff of the History Department at Youngstown State University. In graduate school financial assistance is a necessity and I was lucky enough to be supported by both the university and a number of other benefactors. Among them, I would like to thank the Terry Lynch Foundation and the History Associates for their generous fellowships, which helped immensely as I pursued my degrees. I also want to thank Dr. Miriam Levin for trusting in my research skills and employing me as her research assistant for a number of years. Accumulating the research materials necessary for a defensible dissertation can be quite an onerous task, but it is made better by the assistance of the dedicated people working in the libraries and archives housing materials related to your subject. In this regard, I would like to thank the staff of the Local History and Genealogy Center at the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library. Over the years they have always cheerfully assisted me in chasing down information and searching through countless reels of newspaper microfilms. Also in Trumbull County, I would like to thank the staff of the viii Trumbull County Record Center and Archives Department for their hard work helping me to track down court documents related to the Niles anti-Klan riot and the rioters. They were able to locate an enormous number of criminal case files for me and I am deeply in their debt. Finally, in Trumbull County, I would also like to thank the members of the Niles Historical Society and the Niles city government who aided me in my research and allowed me access to archived city council records. Their help was greatly appreciated. In Mahoning County, I owe a debt of gratitude to the staff of the Genealogy and Local History Center at the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County. Like their counterparts in Trumbull County, their knowledge of their collection helped me to quickly find relevant source material. Also in Mahoning County, I would like to thank the staff of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society for allowing me access to their collection of materials related to the Klan in the region. I owe thanks as well to the staffs of the Youngstown City Health District, the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office, and the Mahoning County Microfilm Department who allowed me access to archived death records and assisted me in researching historic homicide rates in the Mahoning Valley. Outside of the Mahoning Valley, I also owe thanks to many people and organizations. This includes the staff at the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council Archives in New Haven, Connecticut, as well as the staff at the Williamson County Historical Society Genealogy Library and Museum in Marion, Illinois. Similarly, I owe thanks to the staff of the Local History and Genealogy Department of the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County in Steubenville, Ohio. Lastly, I would also like to thank Dick Bly and Dennis Driscoll, of the Kane Historic Preservation Society in Kane, ix Pennsylvania, for their help with collecting information on the town and its history and their gracious hospitality when I spoke on the topic of my dissertation there last year. The next group of people I would like to thank played an indispensable role in the success of this project and without them Chapter Four would not have been possible. The first two of these four individuals are Dr. John Grabowski and the late Joe Hornack. Without their help it would have been far more difficult to find the people I needed to translate the numerous articles from the Youngstown Slovak and Italian newspapers that I had collected. Not to mention, Mr. Hornack provided me access to the archives at the Slovak Institute and an afternoon filled with his recollections of the Slovak community in Cleveland and Northeastern Ohio. To my translators, Dr. Constance Sanchetta of the Italian American Cultural Foundation, and Paul Burik of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, I am eternally grateful. The sheer amount of translations they completed for me, the quality of their work, and the rapid turn-around they provided for each document was nothing short of priceless. I am truly appreciative of their efforts on my behalf. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family for putting up with me for all of these years. Among this mix of people and personalities are my friends from grad school at both Youngstown State and Case Western Reserve, as well as the people I worked with outside of school. Within this group I would like to say a special thanks to Ray Villers, for helping me to examine microfilms of newspapers on a number of occasions, and Greg Horodyski for reading drafts of each chapter and offering helpful critiques of each. I would also like to thank a few people who kindly listened to me discuss my dissertation project even though I may have been interrupting them as they x tried to do their jobs. To this end, I would like to thank my barber, the CWRU History Department Office staff, and the CWRU Custodial Services staff who maintained Mather House. Members of my immediate family deserve credit as well for dealing with me throughout this process. This includes my nieces and nephews who have had to endure discussions of the 1920s at Thanksgiving dinners and at Christmas-time for more years than I would like to admit. I would also like to thank my siblings and their spouses for their input and observations during those same discussions. The same goes for my girlfriend’s family who have also graciously discussed my project and been supportive of my studies. Additionally, my parents have been, not only, strong supporters of my academic career, but they have helped me to navigate through the ups and downs of life by sharing their wisdom and their love. Last but not least, I would like to thank my girlfriend for enduring my bad habit of comparing everything to the 1920s and the duration of my time in graduate school.