A lost local election triggered the founding of the A.P.A.

Evidence

The immediate circumstances from which the order arose were, however, political and social; its origin reflected in miniature the general crisis of the eighties. Bowers was a close associate and adviser of Clinton’s mayor, Arnold Walliker, who had come into ofice with the combined support of local businessmen and the Knights of Labor. Walliker soon alienated the biggest corporation in town and also lost the backing of the Knights. His defeat for reelection in 1887 was due chiefly to the Irish mill workers who comprised a large part of the union’s strength in Clinton. Convinced that Catholic influence had undone Walliker, Bowers and he organized the A.P.A. within a week after the election. The small group that met in Bowers’ office to found the secret order included several businessmen and dissident members of the Knights of Labor who shared a bitter determination to thwart the growing power of Romanism in local politics and labor. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 376

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: flagged by the selector, no supporting note recorded