Oregon State Council

Parade of Past State Deputies

Dr. Benjamin Louis Norden

1^st State Deputy of Oregon 1908-1910

Benjamin Louis Norden was the only son of Benjamin and Mary and born in 1879 in Portland, OR.

He was qualified both in Law and in Medicine. Dr. Norden was intern and house surgeon at St. Vincent's hospital in 1907 and 1908, and took post-graduate work at the New York Post-Graduate hospital and Polyclinic hospital. He won a law degree in 1915. He was elected coroner in 1908 and again in 1910. During World War I he was a surgeon in the navy aboard the U. S. S. South Dakota. After the armistice, he served on the U. S. S. Aeolus, in the transport service between Virginia and France. In 1921 he returned to Portland, and private practice. He was local coroner. Unlike his father who was an active Democrat, Ben Junior was a Republican.

Dr. Norden never married and made his home with his sister, Frances Norden, at 2134 N.W. Flanders Street.

He was a member of the Multnomah medical society, Knights of Columbus, Elks, Royal Arcanum, Multnomah post, American Legion, and Alpha Kappa Kappa medical fraternity.

Dr. Norden was the third Grand Knight of the Portland Council #678 from 1906-1907

Dr. Norden became Territorial Deputy with the advent of the Order into Oregon, June 15, 1902 and served in until the establishment of the State Council, May 11, 1909 when he was elected 1^st State Deputy at the First State Convention at the K of C Club room at the Portland Council #678. He gave a brief but enthusiastic speech thanking the four attending councils of Portland, Baker City, Astoria and Coos Bay. Under Dr. Norden’s administration, the order made rapid progress and advanced to a strong position, having secured the membership of a long list of the most prominent Catholic men in Oregon.

Dr. Norden continued to work within two weeks of his death when he died at the home of his sister Frances of acute coronary thrombosis. Dr. Ben L. Norden died October 19, 1951 at the age of 72. He is buried at the River View Cemetery in Portland, OR. Apparently the name Norden, in Oregon, died with him.

1st State Chaplain of Oregon 1902-1912

Rev. John Francis Andrew Waters

John Francis Andrew Waters was born January 10, 1878 in St. Louis, MO. He came to Portland as a boy with his parents, John and Margaret Lemery Waters. After receiving his early education, he entered St. Mary’s seminary in Baltimore MD. John Waters was one of the youngest priests to be ordained when he entered into the priesthood in 1900. After his ordination, he came directly to Astoria, serving as priest for 30 years. In 1933, Rev. Waters went to St. Mary’s in Albany. He returned to Astoria a few years later.

Rev. Waters was widely known and active member of the Astoria community for many years during his service for the local parish. When he began his services, Astoria was a wide-open town of brothels and saloons and was notorious all along the Pacific coast. Rev. Waters led the repression of the brothels and reduction in the number of saloons.

Rev. Waters helped to establish Columbus Day as an Oregon State Holiday. “As the Knights will probably observe the day formally, I wish to suggest that a religious function, in addition to the civil ceremonies, mark the occasion each year.” Rev. Waters May 9, 1911 Astoria, OR

Rev. Waters celebrated the 50th anniversary of his ordination as a priest in December 1950. An extensive celebration was held in Astoria for the 50th anniversary of his ordination. Bishop Francis Leipsiz of the Baker diocese conducted the mass.

Later in life, Rev. Waters was ill for several years and died March 4, 1954. He was survived by his two brother, William B. Waters, Portland, and Dr. Joseph T. Waters, Los Angeles. He is buried at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Portland, OR.

The Klan in Albany w/KofC Mention By Cathy Ingalls, Albany Regional Museum board member

The Klan in Albany history and a publisher’s pledge to the truth

By Cathy Ingalls, Albany Regional Museum board member

A reconstituted Ku Klux Klan was founded in Georgia in 1915 and spread nationwide, attracting into its fold numerous white, native-born, American Protestants living in Albany.

The KKK members in the second generation of the organization in Oregon did not, as a rule, terrorize, flog, torture, and murder former slaves but rather directed animosity toward Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and African Americans.

The group also worked to dismantle parochial schools and get fellow Klansmen and other like thinkers into political office.

The Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866, mostly as a social group for Civil War veterans, but then many members started vigilante activity against former slaves.

The name Ku Klux comes from the Greek word kyklos, which means circle. Historians contend that the second Klan in Oregon boasted about 25,000 members, and the state’s group was more a fraternal organization. It had a more terrorizing focus in the southern part of the state, particularly Medford.

A page 1 story in the May 16, 1923, Corvallis Gazette-Times details the Klan’s “grand fandango” gathering held near Albany, which was touted as the “largest gathering of Klansmen ever held outdoors in the state of Oregon.”

According to the Rev. Lawrence J. Saalfeld in his 1984 book Forces of Prejudice: The Ku Klux Klan in Oregon 1920 – 1925, the religious bigotry of the Klan was challenged in Albany by the Knights of Columbus when a member of the Klan purportedly was to lecture at the Globe Theater on April 20 and 21, 1922, on “The Truth about the Ku Klux Klan.” Instead, the speaker leveled a series of charges at the Catholic Church. He said that anyone wishing to ask questions or debate any points he made would have to hire his own hall to do so.

Two of the speaker’s charges were that the pope sought to control American politics, and Catholics were forbidden to read the Bible. The Knights of Columbus posted a $500 reward to be given to the Red Cross if any of the Klansman’s charges could be proven, which they couldn’t.

On January 7, 1923, Saalfeld writes that a woman named Dorothy Nichols spoke in Albany’s Grace Presbyterian Church saying girls staying at the Catholic Home of the Good Shepherd in Portland were forced to work in “sweat-shop fashion,” they lived in squalor and immorality, and the premises were closed to inspectors and the courts. The Knights of Columbus after Nichols’ talk offered to pay $250 to the Red Cross if any impartial jury of three non-Catholic judges could find the charges to be true. Nichols declined the challenge.

On a positive note, Saalfeld writes that the Klan donated $50,000 to help build the Children’s Farm Home on Highway 20 between Albany and Corvallis.

On a day in May 1923, Ed Loy in his book Gem of the Willamette Valley: A History of Albany, Oregon and available at the Albany Regional Museum, states that about 2,000 Klansmen assembled at what is now the airport to, among other things, present official Klan charters to the cities of Albany, Lebanon, Corvallis, and Mill City. Later, about half of those who had gathered at the airfield participated in a parade through downtown Albany. Loy has a photo of the parade in his book.

On file at the museum is a copy of an “Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan” form that lists beliefs of the group. Those sharing those ideals were to “immediately” call Room 204 at the St. Francis Hotel. The last paragraph of the form states: “Be prudent, be wise, be discreet, and discuss this matter with no one whatsoever and destroy this notice after reading.”

One final, personal note: Saalfeld states that, in the entire state of Oregon, only three daily newspapers fought against the KKK and told the truth about the organization: They were The Portland Telegram, the Capital Journal in Salem, and the Corvallis Gazette-Times.

My grandfather, C.E. Ingalls, was the G-T’s editor and publisher at that time. For his stand against the Klan, he is reported to have lost advertising, received late-night phone calls, had his family threatened, and his character was slandered. There was a rumor that a cross was burned on the family’s front lawn, but I can’t confirm that. But my grandfather did not back down and continued to expose the Klan for what it was.

Klan activity petered out in Oregon in the 1930s while succeeding attempts to revive it failed.

City Bridges is published monthly by the City of Albany and distributed through email. Archives of past issues are available on the City website.

The Oregon Daily Journal from Portland, Oregon May 11, 1915

May 11- The annual grand council of the Knights of Columbus convened In this city ; yesterday at West Park and Taylor streets at the headquarters of Portland council. W. P. O'Brien, of Astoria, state deputy, presided. .The reports showed over 1500 members in Oregon in l different local councils, with a rapidly Increasing membership. Archbishop Christie and M. G. Leahey. fourth degree master, of rapidly Increasing membership. Archbishop Christie and M. G. Leahey. fourth degree master, of Seattle, addressed the counciL - The next annual convention will be held In Portland In May, 1916. The following officers for the ensuing term were elected: William Barrett, of Albany, state deputy; A. A. Mlckel, of Albany, state secretary: M. S. Donahue, state treasurer: Hugh McLaine, II E Up to Five Years Ago Was Owner of Pillar Rock Can1 nery, John T. M. Harrington. ; John T. M. Harrington,

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/78426393/

Conflict in Paradise: The Oregon Knights of Columbus vs. the Ku Klux Klan, 1922-1925

In the early 1920s, Oregon, with a population of only 700,000 and an agriculture- and timber-based economy, seemed far removed from the unrest that buffeted other parts of the United States in the wake of the First World War.

Read about the KofC vs KKK in an article published by Faith Patterns

http://www.faithpatterns.com/2014/12/02/conflict-in-paradise-the-oregon-knights-of-columbus-vs-the-ku-klux-klan-1922-1925/

Dec 2, 2014

Photo: In 1922 the virulently anti-Catholic Ku Klux Klan was a powerful force in the Pacific Northwest as seen here in this photo of Klan members parading in the Southern Oregon town of Ashland.

State Council History