|
|
|
Reviews
Murdering Holiness: The Trials of Franz Creffield and George Mitchell
|
By Jim Phillips and Rosemary Gartner
|
University of Washington Press, Seattle, 2003. Illustrations, photographs, notes, bibliography, index. 352 pages. $29.95 paper
|
Reviewed by Mark A. Largent
University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington
|
|
|
| Team researched and written, Jim Phillips and Rosemary Gartner's Murdering Holiness is an incredibly detailed analysis of a small religious sect based in Corvallis, Oregon, and the events surrounding a pair of murders. Close reading allows the authors to explore broader trends and anxieties and assumptions of Pacific Northwesterners in the early twentieth century, effectively making the generally unknown set of events a window into the workings of politics, law, and society in early twentieth-century Corvallis, Portland, and Seattle. The book admirably fulfills their goal of using "a case study to illustrate the ways in which individual aspirations and actions, and broad social processes, interacted in a particular time and place" (p. 241). |
1
|
|
The book examines Franz Creffield's religious sect, which was an offshoot and ultimately a rejection of Portland-based Salvation Army efforts and was generally representative of many aspects of the holy roller movement. Creffield moved to Corvallis near the end of 1902 and within the next year became the community's principal topic of conversation. Declaring himself a prophet and preaching that only the sanctified would be saved when the world soon ended, Creffield amassed about two dozen followers, many of whom were related to one another and most of whom were women. |
2
|
|
Phillips and Gartner explain that Creffield's sect at first "operated well within the boundaries of community toleration," but its members' growing anti-materialist sentiment — which ultimately led to their destruction of members' homes, personal property, and perhaps even a pet dog — enraged Corvallis residents and led to increasing anxieties about sexual improprieties. The authors argue that local claims about Creffield's sexual improprieties with women in his sect were inaccurate, giving the impression that they offer a generally sympathetic account of the group. Growing animosity toward Creffield's sect led Corvallis residents to resort to a form of vigilantism generally known as "white capping." White cappers borrowed from the regalia and practices of Ku Klux Klansmen to deal with non-conformists whom the legal system did not regulate, targeting "what communities considered to be moral transgressions — wife- and child-beating, neglect of family, adultery, ... immorality generally, laziness, and aberrant religious beliefs" (p. 51). Early in 1904, openly and with the general support of the community, a number of Corvallis men apprehended Creffield and one of his male associates, marched them to a bridge outside of the city limits, and tarred and feathered them. Shortly thereafter, Portland officials arrested Creffield and convicted him of adultery. He was incarcerated in the state penitentiary, while most members of the sect were institutionalized in the mental asylum. |
3
|
|
Creffield was released in 1905 and moved to Seattle, where he continued his preaching, reassembled his community, and called them to move with him to the Waldport area of the Oregon coast, west of Corvallis. The residents around Waldport rejected the sect, forcing Creffield to return to Seattle, where there was little concern about his group's activities. Throughout his travels around Washington and Oregon, Creffield was trailed by George Mitchell, the brother of two women in the sect, one of whom had married Creffield. Mitchell had made clear his intention to murder the self-proclaimed prophet, which he did on the corner of First and Cherry streets in Seattle in May 1906. |
4
|
|
By shooting Creffield in Seattle, Mitchell effectively disconnected the events in Oregon and Oregonians' anxieties about the sect from Creffield's murder. The extent of Creffield's alleged sexual improprieties and supposedly contrived religious fervor was not immediately obvious to Puget Sound residents, which allowed ample opportunity for the region's newspapers to editorialize about his activities in Oregon and the permissibility of Mitchell's actions. Both Mitchell's defense and the local newspapers' claims were founded on the "unwritten law," a nineteenth-century code of masculinity and gender relations that justified vigilante retribution based on "the right of a man to avenge sexual dishonour when his wife, daughter, or sister was seduced" (p. 126). The authors take full advantage of these resources and the opportunity to discuss the interrelationship of vigilantism, the unwritten law, and masculinity as it was understood in early twentieth-century Seattle, again using the events around Creffield's life and death to explore much broader topics. |
5
|
|
Mitchell was freed after his murder trial but was shot to death the next day by his sister Ester Mitchell, one of Creffield's most ardent followers and the sister of Creffield's wife, Maud. Seattle authorities arrested the two women and quickly tried them for Mitchell's murder. This second trial allows the authors to use their careful analysis of the role of gender relations, law, and honor killings in a new context, this time examining the reaction of Seattle residents to a woman who killed to protect her own reputation. While there was some concern about Mitchell's vigilantism in the Seattle area, most Washington and Oregon residents supported his actions and believed that he should be freed. In contrast, there was widespread concern about Ester Mitchell's murder of her brother despite her calm demeanor and her explanation that she was merely protecting her reputation from her brother, who had, she argued, "killed an innocent man, and ruined my reputation, by stating that Creffield had seduced me" (p. 198). While George Mitchell's claim of insanity had led to a not guilty verdict, the women who used the same defense and were found equally insane were considered unfit to stand trial and institutionalized. |
6
|
|
Murdering Holiness in a valuable contribution to Pacific Northwest history and a useful tool for contrasting regional legal and social norms about vigilantism, sexism, American religion, and the "unwritten law." Phillips and Gartner's work nicely demonstrates how close analysis and intensive research can produce a detailed narrative that is both specific to a constrained set of events and informative of a broad variety of contexts and concerns. |
7
|
|
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|