PBA Galleries

Autograph Letter, unsigned, but with writer identified on partial original mailing envelope. 2 pp.

To a cousin, Mrs. Mary E.Smith. Decatur, Illinois. “…Sunday night last… went to church in Farmington and heard Dr. Atkinson, the country biggest rebel – K. K…. I fellowship[p]ed rebs, but I cant fellowship K.K.s I did not think that the rebels were Murderers per se, but the Ku Klux are, they are the vilest of murderers, they have no government de facto as the confederates claimed that they had… Bro. John C….gave me a dollar to preach to the Darkies, tell him that I preached a sermon to them Sunday…that a man sayed was worth $20…I am now going to collect money to build a Col. Church…” A Methodist Minister, Rev. Hunter (1806-1908) was an anti-slavery, pro-Union Tennessee native who served as a guide for federal troops battling the Confederates in his state - despite relatives who despised him for “piloting the Yankees”, and death threats from Confederate bush-whacker guerrillas. He was probably referring here to Virginia Gen. Homer Atkinson, who helped organize the Klan in North Carolina and was preaching to the choir in Tennessee, where the Ku Klux Klan was born.