Fonds F2026 - W. H. Hutchison fonds

The Ku Klux Klan is an organization that expanded operations into Canada, based on the second Ku Klux Klan established in the United States in 1915. It operated as a fraternity, with chapters established in parts of Canada throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. The first registered provincial chapter was registered in Toronto in 1925 by two Americans and a Torontonian.

On 1 December 1924, C. Lewis Fowler of New York City, John H. Hawkins of Newport, Virginia, and Richard L. Cowan of Toronto signed an agreement to establish the Knights of Ku Klux Klan of Canada (Kanada). Funding responsibilities for the provincial organization were split equally among them, and each was a founding Imperial Officer of the Provincial Kloncillum, the governing body of the organization. Fowler travelled to Canada on 1 January 1925 to officially establish the organization. Cowan was the Imperial Wizard (president), Hawkins the Imperial Klaliff (vice-president) and Chief of Staff, and Fowler the Imperial Kligrapp (secretary). They also split the organization's income equally. Fowler left Canada in 1926.

During the mid 1920s, Ku Klux Klan branches were established throughout Canada. These groups observed the same racial ideology but had a narrower focus than those in the United States, primarily to preserve the "Britishness" of Canada with respect to ethnicity and religious affiliation.

William Hanlan Hutcheson was born in Clarendon, Oso Twp., Frontenac Co., Ontario on 25 Apr 1884. Not a lot is known about his history. At some point it is believed that he was a telegraph operator and then an agent for for both the Grand Trunk Railway and for Canadian National Railways. He was also a breeder of Airedale terriers. He was a member of the Klu Klux Klan of Canada for a number of years in the 1920s. He passed away on 12 Aug 1965 in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.