Eckard Toy
Eckard Toy Jr. grew up in the Pacific Northwest and earned his Ph.D. in American history at the University of Oregon. Beginning with his M.A. thesis, "The Ku Klux Klan in Oregon: Its Character and Program" (1959), the Klan and related topics have been a primary focus of his research and writing. After teaching at several universities in the Middle West and on the Pacific Coast, he retired to the Hood River Valley. Toy died in October 2013.
Author's Entries
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Billy Sunday (1862-1935)
Colorful evangelist William Ashley "Billy" Sunday and his wife Helen—usually called "Ma" or "Nell"—owned a farm in Oregon's Hood River Valley from 1909 to 1937. As the most popular American evangelist of the early 1900s, Sunday aimed his revivals at common folk, but he gained satisfaction and financial rewards from …
Oregon Encyclopedia
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Hutson Museum
The Hutson Museum, a barn-red, old-style building with a panoramic view of Mount Hood, is a prominent landmark in Parkdale in the upper Hood River Valley. The museum, located on the two-acre National Historic Site at the southern terminus of the historic Mount Hood Railroad, began as a display …
Oregon Encyclopedia
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Ku Klux Klan
Fiery crosses and marchers in Ku Klux Klan (KKK) regalia were common sights in Oregon and the nation during the 1920s. The social and economic problems following World War I only partly explain why this organization, with its southern heritage of racism and violence, appealed to the overwhelmingly white, native-born, …
Oregon Encyclopedia
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Posse Comitatus
Armed with an arsenal of conspiracy theories and anti-government and anti-tax ideas, Henry L. "Mike" Beach (1903-1989), a retired Portland businessman and former Silver Shirt (an antisemitic/fascist organization active in the 1920s-1930s), organized the Citizen's Law Enforcement Research Committee (CLERC) in 1969. The organization drew little notice until it spawned …
Oregon Encyclopedia
