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Luther S. Pike – White Supremacist, 1866
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on November 2, 2018
The obituary of Luther Samuel Pike appeared in the Harrisburg Daily Independent, 4 December 1913, which was the day he died:
VICTIM OF PNEUMONIA
Luther Pike Dies of Second Attack While Aged Wife is Ill
Special to the Star-Independent
Halifax, 4 December 1913 – Luther Pike, aged 80 years, died at 11 o’clock this morning at his home on Market Street of pneumonia. His aged widow is sick in bed and so far the news of her husband’s death has not been broken to her. Mr. Pike had suffered an attack of pneumonia last year at this time but had recovered.
Mr. Pike was a resident of this town for many years and was well known throughout the countryside. in earlier life he had held several important borough offices. He was a retired Pennsylvania railroad employee, a prominent member of the Odd Fellows and a veteran of the Civil War. Mr. Pike had been affiliated for many years with the Grand Army of the Republic. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
Previously on this blog, Luther Pike was mentioned in the post Halifax Area Civil War Veterans.
During the Civil War, Luther Pike served in the 192nd Pennsylvania Infantry, Company H, as a Private. He was mustered into service on 21 February 1865 and was honorably discharged on 24 August 1865.
After the war, Luther S. Pike openly supported the white supremacist views of Heister Clymer by signing a call for denial of equal rights to African Americans, both those who were previously slaves and those who were previously freemen. The statement was published in the Harrisburg Patriot of 24 July 1866 and included his name, regiment, company and rank.
Heister Clymer was a white supremacist candidate for Pennsylvania Governor on the Democratic Party ticket in 1866, and was previously profiled here on 26 April 2016.
The call for a meeting of Union Soldiers was printed in the Harrisburg Patriot, 24 July 1866, along with an up-to-date list of Clymer supporters who openly supported Heister Clymer‘s white supremacist views and wanted to deny “negro equality and suffrage” even to those who had been free men before the war.
The undersigned honorably discharged Union soldiers, believing that we battled in the late war for the Union of these States, and had successfully maintained it, view with alarm the persistent efforts of radical men who seem determine, practically to destroy the Union we went forth to save. They would have the community believe that Union soldiers are willing to give up in the hour of victory the great object to which their sacrifices and toll and blood were given….
Therefore we unite in requesting all the honorably discharged officer, soldiers and seamen of Dauphin County who favor the wise and constitutional policy of President Johnson, who oppose the doctrine of negro equality and suffrage, and desire the election of the Hon. Hiester Clymer, to meet in Mass Convention at the Democratic Club Room, Walnut Street, below Third, Harrisburg, at 7 1/2 o’clock, on the evening of the 25 July 1866, for the purpose of electing fourteen delegates to the Convention of Union Soldiers, which is to assemble in this city [Harrisburg] on Wednesday, 1 August 1866.
The Dauphin County veterans who signed the racist petition calling for the meeting were from a variety of regiments and social levels. Included in the list were some residents of Upper Dauphin County, the area north of Peter’s Mountain – all of which is included in the geographic area of the Civil War Research Project.
The above Pension Index Card from Fold3 notes that on 7 March 1891, Luther Pike applied for a pension based on his war service and that he received the pension. After his death, his widow Susan [Spies] Pike applied for benefits, but she died so soon after her husband that she was unable to collect.
Luther S. Pike was only one of many honorably discharged Union soldiers who openly supported the white supremacist gubernatorial campaign of Heister Clymer in 1866. The full list of those with a connection to Upper Dauphin County will be presented over time.
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