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Arthur H. Bell
Arthur Hornbui Bell (February 14, 1891 - March 1973) was a Ku Klux Klan Grand Giant[1] and lawyer from Bloomfield, New Jersey.[2] Bell had been a leader of the New Jersey Klan since the 1920s. In 1940 he was removed from the Klan by Imperial Wizard James Colescott for helping to organize the August 18 joint meeting of two hundred Klansmen and eight hundred German American Bund members at Bund Camp Nordland.
| Arthur Hornbui Bell | |
|---|---|
| File:AHB LB Portrait.jpg | |
| Born | February 14, 1891 New York City |
| Died | circa 1973 possibly Bloomfield, New Jersey or Trenton, New Jersey |
| Resting place | possibly Trenton, New Jersey |
| Known for | Ku Klux Klan |
| Title | Grand Dragon |
| Spouse | Leah Hamlin (1895-1951) |
| Parents | William John and Ellen M |
Early years
He was born on February 14, 1891 in New York City to William John Bell of England.[3] Arthur was a member of a vaudeville team known as "Bell and Bell", after marrying Leah Hamlin (1895–1951).[4][5] They went to Europe after World War I in 1919 to entertain the troops, "for the boys," as a members of the "Y" and "Overseas Theater League under Y.M.C.A.".[6][7][8] Leah Bell rode a unicycle and Art and Leah had ventriloquism dummies shows.[9] Arthur Bell is known to have been a member of the "Over There" theatre organized under Benjamin Franklin Keith and visited Belgium, England, France, and Holland.[10] Art and Leah are also listed in the official record of the "Over There" theater as vaudeville players.[11]
Klan years
Around 1922, Bell became the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan for New Jersey.[12][13][14] In 1925 he wrote the introduction to Alma White's pro Klan book, The Ku Klux Klan In Prophecy:
This book brings out vividly the titanic struggle now taking place, not only in the United States, but over the entire world, and while at the present time the battle raging has not reached the point where bullets, swords and poison gas are the reasons used, the time will soon arrive when the Roman Catholic craving for world-power will, if not checked, cause a revival of a religious war that will be far more disastrous than the late World War. Bishop White deserves the highest praise for her work on this truly wonderful book of "light" and it is hoped that it may reach out into the minds of Protestants and Catholics alike and bring them to a sense of realization as to where this great un-American movement to make the world Catholic will ultimately end.[15][16]
In 1926, he wrote the introduction to Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty and he headed a group that converted Camp Evans into a Klan resort.[17] In the same year, he was paid $1,596.96 by the King Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan in New Jersey, to save the Kleagle's son, Roscoe Carl Ziegler, from charges of embezzlement.[18] In 1928, he called the New York Governor, Al Smith unfit to lead.[19]
His first wife's Leah spoke at many Klan events.[20][21] In 1940 he was investigated by the Dies Committee for plans to merge the KKK and the German American Bund.[22] Bell was interviewed by the Military Intelligence Service and investigated for "disaffection" in 1942. The case was closed, "no further investigation appears warranted," and the report sent to J. Edgar Hoover [10] Later in life he had changed his outlook and said: "I think tolerance should be taught in the public schools."[23]
Works
- The Ku Klux Klan Or the Knights of Columbus Klan: America Or Rome (1921) 32 pages
- Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty (1926) by Alma White, he wrote the introduction
References
- ↑ Earliest sources name Bell as Grand Giant which is below the rank state Grand Dragon
- ↑ Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan, By David Mark Chalmers, page 322
- ↑ Wild, Michael R., great-grandson of Arthur H. Bell and Leah: downloaded copy of WW1 draft card and 1920 census for New Jersey, Essex county, Bloomfield.
- ↑ Wild, Michael R., great-grandson of Arthur H. Bell and Leah picture of tombstone for Leah in Ovid, Michigan.
- ↑ Women of the Klan University of California Press (1992). ISBN 0520078764
- ↑ Wild, Michael R., great-grandson of Arthur H. Bell and Leah
- ↑ Arthur H. Bell passport application page 2. United States Department of State. Retrieved on 2009-12-13.
- ↑ Arthur H. Bell passport application page 1. United States Department of State. Retrieved on 2009-12-13.
- ↑ Wild, Michael R., great-grandson of Arthur H. Bell from family stories and pictures. Pictures show the Arthur and Leah in Y.M.C.A uniforms in Europe in pictures clearly taken after the war
- ↑ Jump up to: 10.0 10.1 Wild, Michael R., FOI/PA No. 1133485-000 Unclassified 17 September 2009 case #690F-09: Investigation Report of Arthur Bell Army Air Forces
- ↑ Entertaining the American Army p. 251 Association Press (1921).
- ↑ The good of the Klan. Archived from the original on 2008-06-30. Retrieved on 2008-08-14. “The KKK first spread to New Jersey from the states of New York and Pennsylvania early in 1921 and has had a history of being a peaceful Klan. Attorney Arthur Bell was N.J.’s first and longest reigning Grand Dragon. He ruled the New Jersey KKK right up to the Klan’s disbandment in the 1940’s. His wife, Leah Bell, was the state leader of the Women of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan’s first strongholds were in Passaic, Bergen, Essex, Union, and Morris counties and in the area around Trenton and Camden. But the Klan grew strongest in Monmouth county.”
- ↑ broken cite news
- ↑ Alma Bridwell White (1926). Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty Pillar of Fire. “The Introduction to this book is by Arthur H. Bell, Grand Dragon, Realm of New Jersey, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.”
- ↑ Charles Wright Ferguson (1929). The New Books of Revelations: The Inside Story of America's Astounding Religious Cults Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1417979550 “This book brings out vividly the titanic struggle now taking place, not only in the United States, but over the entire world ...”
- ↑ Alma White (1925). The Ku Klux Klan In Prophecy Pillar of Fire. “This book brings out vividly the titanic struggle now taking place, not only in the United States, but over the entire world ...”
- ↑ broken cite news
- ↑ broken cite news
- ↑ broken cite news
- ↑ David Mark Chalmers (1965). Hooded Americanism: the first century of the Ku Klux Klan, 1865-1965. “So was Arthur Bell, who with his wife, Leah, often represented the New Jersey”
- ↑ Wild, Michael R., great-grandson of Arthur H. Bell, Leah was his first wife. He and Leah divorced and he re-married
- ↑ Wyn, Craig Wade (1998). The Flaming Cross. “When asked what he thought about a Klan-Nazi merger, Bell said that he had thought it a good idea at the time, 'but I don't now.'”
- ↑ broken cite news
Images
- Bell and camp hand bill.png
Vaudeville team with Art and Leah circa 1910
- Leah Bell handbill.png
Bottom part of hand bill with Leah's act circa 1910
- Bell-Arthur 1917 draft.png
WWI draft of 1917
- AHB LB Portrait.png
Art and Leah Portrait from WW1
- AHB with tank.png
Art and Leah with tank from WW1
- Bell-Arthur 1919 passport 01.png
Page 1 of passport application of April 1, 1919
- Bell-Arthur 1919 passport 02.png
Page 2 of passport application of April 1, 1919
- 1920 census Bell.png
1920 US Census
- AHB Flyer Flint.JPG
Flyer from show
- Bell-Arthur 1941 draft.png
WWII draft of 1941