Blood River Rising The Thompson-Crismon Feud Of The 1920s [Paperback]

When author Victoria Hubbell, a rural historian in Missouri, meets elderly Hadley Thompson, she expects nothing more than a simple interview about farm life. Instead, she meets a man who can talk rings off a coon's tail. Hadley insists Hubbell research the two 1924 feud-related murders that changed his life forever. I know what I saw, and I know what I heard, but I don't know what it meant, Hadley insists. When the eighty-six-year-old describes sneaking off in the woods to spy on Ku Klux Klan meetings as a boy, Hubbell is hooked. She begins searching through court records and newspapers looking for reasons why the KKK was active in this predominantly all-white community and why they sought to turn friends into enemies.

In 1919, the country is still shaken from the casualties of World War I when the Crismons move to an idyllic bend of the Osage River known for prosperous farming. At first, the teetotaling Crismons are friends with the rowdy, fun-loving Thompsons. But as America's emotional devastation becomes a financial one and the economy slides toward depression, the Klan capitalizes on the nation's suffering. Declaring themselves the All-American Lodge, they blame the country's ills on a lack of morality and all things foreign. Crismon and his sons join the group, while Hadley Thompson's father does not. Before long, events turn as black as sin.

The thriving Klan chapter holds outdoor meetings at night, surreptitiously watched by the Thompson boys. They witness whippings and a call to klanishness. Members are admonished to ignore the Thompsons, yet Crismon goes to Thompson for help when a flood destroys his crop and he has no reserve left in the bank. Although they save the farm that season, Crismon later claims Thompson is a thief.

Despite prohibition, Thompson continues making his homemade brew. This, along with his irregular church attendance and love of fox hunting, bothers Klan members. They blame Thompson for a death from poisolҦ