Anyone looking through the old newspapers is startled by the headline on page two of the November 26, 1914 Frontier Signal: “Ku Klux Klan Successfully Organized.” There is no direct statement of the aims of the organization, but it mentions that they worked with Temperance organizations, showed their patriotism on all occasions, and learned first aid. There are several comments to make about this announcement. One is that the other newspaper in town, The Herald, didn’t even report this event. Another is that the organization was never mentioned again in the local papers. At that time, the Klan was the proponent of a “nativist” philosophy, holding that Anglo Saxons were the apex of civilized development and that “foreigners” such as Europeans and others were to be guarded against. 1914 seems very early to have seen a Klan group organized in the north, as most information I could find talks about organizing Klan groups in the 1920s in Montreal, Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, and they were mainly concerned with anti-Catholic activities. There are reports of Ku Klux Klan groups in southern Alberta working with mine owners against unions in the mines. While the Klan may have been different then from what we understand it to be today, it still doesn’t sound like a “fraternal order” that would be an asset in town.
background information from Wikipedia and The Canadian Encyclopedia
written and researched by Kathryn Auger
