Madge Oberholtzer was an initiate of the Indiana Gamma Chapter of Pi Beta Phi at Butler College (now University). Her death helped bring about the downfall of D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana. Its author is an alumna of the Purdue Pi Phi chapter and she has included extensive footnotes to shed light on Oberholtzer’s life. It is a compelling story.
Madge is available on amazon and from the Irvington Historical Society.
Charlotte Halsema Ottinger contacted me more than a decade ago looking for more information for a program she was doing for the Pi Beta Phi Indianapolis Alumnae Club. She mentioned Madge Oberholtzer and her death. I was fascinated.
Madge Oberholtzer
Oberholtzer’s story is a sad one, but through her death on April 14, 1925, she played a role in the rapid decline of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana which took place in the 1920s. David Curtiss Stephenson, Grand Dragon of the Indiana Branch of the Ku Klux Klan, crossed paths with her when Oberholtzer was manager of the Indiana Young People’s Reading Circle, a special section of the Indiana Department of Public Instruction. The cause of death was a staph infection attributable to the bites Stephenson inflicted while raping her. During the trial her Pi Phi sisters sat in the courtroom, making the trek from Irvington to Noblesville, where the trial was held. Stephenson was convicted of second-degree murder on November 14, 1925.
Ottinger’s book, Madge, The life and times of Madge Oberholtzer, the young Irvington woman who brought down D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan, reflects more than a decade of meticulous research. The almost 500-page book contains robust footnotes, pictures and a thorough examination of the events.
Ottinger lives in the Irvington neighborhood where both Stephenson and Oberholtzer lived. I have wonderful memories of a tour of Irvington she led and I looked forward to her emails telling me of Madge’s progress. I sat next to her at her chapter’s centennial and I brought my copy of Madge her to sign.
