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Overview
Introduction and Summary
The story of Calvin of Oakknoll is a story of intolerance. It
is
a story that has played out time and time again across
America.
Intolerance has fueled wars, bigotry and injustice. In a
small
town in 1980 it led to death.
Born in 1930, Calvin of Oakknoll grew up as Calvin Williams Kline in
Frewsberg, NY. His tumultuous life, involving fringe
ideologies,
flirtations with practical utopianism, and Mary, the love of his life,
all came to an end when Calvin died in prison in 2001 still fighting
for his freedom. Imprisoned from the age of 54 until his
death,
he believed he was convicted of murder solely due to his unconventional
beliefs. His widow, who waited devotedly 17 years while
Calvin
languished in prison, still believes he was the victim of failed
justice. In many ways, this story is familar.
Crusading
outcasts, ideologues, a community turned against one of its own...
these are archetypes of the American experience. What is the
true
story of Calvin of Oakknoll, and what does it tell us about the people
we are, or may become?
Like many restless dreamers, Calvin's life led down many dead-ends,
including a first, failed marriage, leaving two estranged children and
one deceased, numerous low-pay, undervalued jobs, and all the while,
his untapped reserve of intellect and idealism unfulfilled.
Finally, fed up with only dreaming, and married again to an equally
idealistic young bride, Calvin made his way back to his home town to
build a new community founded upon his ideals.
In 1968, Calvin Kline returned to Frewsburg, NY his place of his birth
with his second wife Mary. They bought 350 acres of land to found a new
community: The Society of Families. They named the property Oakknoll,
and Calvin and Mary Kline became "Calvin and Mary of Oakknoll."
Calvin was hardly the sort of charismatic leader usually associated
with reform movements. Called “Pee-Wee”
by his
family, he was small and sickly, an unimposing figure with a mousy face
accentuated by horn-rimmed glasses. But he was smart--he
attended
MIT -- yet equally stubborn and fanatical. Over the years,
his
view of the world became increasingly dominated by the ideas of
population control, radical environmentalism, and humanism.
Idealistic products of 1960's, Calvin and Mary believed that their
ideals could change the world.
They made their enthusiastic start near the rural community of
Frewsburg, a town with a population of fewer than 2000 people, mostly
farmers and hunters. Their land bordered the crossroad of the Dodge and
Anderson/Sandburg roads.
This was an area that was no stranger to free-thinking
communities. All through the nineteenth century, this area
was
called the "Burned-Over District." It was a fertile breeding ground for
reform movments, unorthodox beliefs, utopian communities and other
forms of "spiritual creativity." Mormonism began not far from here; the
women's suffrage movement germinated and flourished here; spiritualism,
and a host of other small sects and cults began between western and
central New York State.
It seemed the perfect place for Calvin's Society of Families -- at
least in Calvin and Mary's minds. But to some local residents, Calvin,
Mary and their followers were the worst kind of outsiders: an annoying,
threatening intrusion to an otherwise orderly American town.
A brutal collision was inevitable.
When hunting season opened in 1980, two families were changed
forever as traditional small town mores collided with utopian
dreams at the
remote intersection of two country roads.
Calvin insisted that he pulled the rifle trigger in self-defense as
Douglas O’Kelley, a local hunter armed with a shotgun,
trespassed
on his posted property. There were no other witnesses to the shooting.
Only one thing is absolutely certain—one man was left dead,
the
other was left to die in prison, convicted -- not on the evidence --
but for his unconventional beliefs.
The presiding judge claimed he didn’t want a heresy trial,
but to
this day, Calvin's wife Mary insists that's what he had. In
her
own words, Mary of Oakknoll, tells the tragic story of the rise and
fall of the Society of Families, and her fight to save her husband and
pull meaning out of their ravished lives.
This tragedy casts light into the dark corners of American injustice.
Calvin of Oakknoll: An American Apostate will be a poignant commentary
on a judicial system that does not always dispense its justice fairly
and a society that often responds with contempt and intolerance toward
people it does not understand. It is a cautionary tale that has meaning
for each and every one of us today.
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