Martyrdom in Missouri, Volume 1 (of 2)

Philosophy of Martyrdom—Living Martyrs—Names Made Immortal by Persecution—Martyrs of Missouri—Difference Between Martyrs for the Testimony of Jesus, only Questions of Time and Place—The Spirit the Same Everywhere—Causes—Explanatory Remarks—Rev. James M. Proctor Arrested Coming out of the Pulpit—Connection with the M. E. Church, South, his only Offense—Kept in Prison for Weeks, then Released—Rev. Marcus Arrington—Chaplain—Insulted—Kept in Alton Prison—Rev. John McGlothlin—Petty Persecution and Tyranny—Rev. James Penn—Meeting Broken Up—Driven from His own Churches by a Northern Methodist Preacher Leading an Armed Mob—Persecution—Prayer.

Men die, but truth is immortal. The workmen are buried, but the work goes on. Institutions pass away, but the principles of which they were the incarnation live forever. The Way, the Truth and the Life “was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”

Incarnate Innocence was “despised and rejected of men.” The Manger, the Garden, the Cross, are but different aspects of the life and light of men, and illustrate the history of the “Man of Sorrows.” The disciple is not above his Lord, nor the servant better than his Master, and if such things were done in the green tree, what hope is there for the dry?

There are many living martyrs. Death is not necessary condition of martyrdom. The souls of man martyrs have not yet reached their resting place “under the altar.” They have met the conditions of martyrdom in the garden of agony without reaching the cross. Some men, who still live, have suffered more for Christ and his Church than many who have ended their sufferings with their lives. Not the nature but the cause of suffering imparts to it the moral quality and the virtues of martyrdom. “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Many suffer and die, but not “for righteousness’ sake,” and very many “are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” who still live. The grave does not limit the roll of martyrs. Robinson and Headlee, and Glanville and Wollard may have suffered less for righteousness’ sake than Cleavland, Breeding, M‘Anally, Penn, Duvall, Spencer, Rush and many others who still live to bear witness to the truth. True, it is something to sacrifice life for a principle and a cause—to seal the testimony with the blood. Moral heroism can reach no higher form, nor express itself in a more exalted type. Its purest fire goes out and its sublimest consecration culminates in the life blood of the martyr. Many a noble spirit has been offered up in the sacrifice and service of faith, and, like Isaac, bound hand and foot upon the altar, with the fatal knife glittering and gleaming in the upraised hand of the executioner, yet has been rescued by the interposing voice, when perfect faith stood vindicated in the complete consecration. “Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he had offered Isaac, his son, upon the altar?” As much so as if the knife had been driven to his heart and the fires had consumed his body. Yet Abraham’s faith was vindicated by his works, and Isaac lived to perpetuate the story of his offering. St. Paul says: “For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” And again: “I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” He was a living martyr, and many Apostles and righteous men have, like him, been “killed all the day long” and “die daily.”

Historical facts in support of the position taken are neither wanting nor few, and the roll of living and dead martyrs in Missouri, now to be recorded in these pages, will vindicate the position and illustrate the annals of religious persecution with a chapter but little removed from the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, and the persecutions of the Vaudois Christians and Waldenses under Francis I., Henry II., Catherine De Medicis and other notable instruments of power in France, which culminated in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.

Many names have been given a fame as enduring as the virtues they were made to illustrate, by the force and fire and fact of persecution, which otherwise would have perished from the earth. And the cause for which they were persecuted has been given a sanctity in the hearts and a power over the lives of men which otherwise it could not have received. A name however obscure, and a character however humble, become illustrious despite of history when associated with persecution, suffering and death, for a principle and a cause which invest humanity with the purer and higher types of intellectual, moral and religious life. Around such names the divinest principles crystallize, and by such characters the deepest and purest fountains of humanity are touched. Hampden, and Russell, and Howard, and Sidney, and Eliot, and Brainard, and Wilberforce, and Martin, and others who sacrificed all for the political, mental and moral enfranchisement of their race, have made themselves immortal, as their names are enshrined in the deepest heart of our nature. They will live forever in the cause for which they suffered. So, too, many of less note have been given a fame as enduring as columns of brass, and they will be handed down to posterity without the factitious aid of monuments of marble or pyramids of granite.

Profane history, philosophy and poetry may treat the martyr for the truth cavalierly or ignore his claims altogether, while they panegyrize his executioner. Yet he will live in the hearts of men, ennoble the virtues of men, illustrate the heroism of men, and thrill the purest souls of men with life and immortality after the names of those who despised and rejected him have perished in eternal forgetfulness.

The sweet-spirited Cowper has anticipated this fact and put his more than poetic conception into the most expressive and poetic language:

The martyrs of Missouri, though unknown to fame and unambitious of distinction, have, in their humble, unostentatious, quiet way, suffered as keenly and as severely as any others. They have taken the spoiling of their goods as joyfully, “counted all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord,” “counted not their lives dear unto themselves so that they might finish their course with joy and the ministry which they have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God,” and in all their sufferings for righteousness’ sake have entered as fully into the spirit of the Master, even in sealing their testimony with their blood, as did John Calos, Nicholas Burton, Paul Clement, John Huss, Jerome of Prague, Bishops Latimer and Ridley, Archbishop Cramner, or any other of the long roll of distinguished martyrs.

The martyrs of Missouri may not occupy a place as high as others on the scrolls of fame, yet it is only a difference of time and country. It is the meridian of the nineteenth, instead of the fifteenth, sixteenth or seventeenth century. We are in Missouri, one of the United States of America, instead of Madrid, the valleys of Piedmont and Savoy, or Paris, or Italy, or Bohemia, or Turin, or London, or any other country or place where the blood of the martyrs has been shed for the testimony of Jesus. The spirit of persecution is the same, and the high sense of consecration to God and fidelity to Jesus that led the old martyrs to the rack and the stake have not been wanting in the ministers of the gospel in Missouri. The spirit, the heroism, the faith, the zeal, the devotion, were all here; and but for the remaining sense of enlightened Christianity that had been so long fostered by the genius of our free institutions, and the power it still exercised upon the public mind, the rack, the stake and all the horrible fires of the Inquisition would have been here also. The absence of these and other instruments of torture from the history of martyrdom in Missouri is due to other causes than the spirit and design of the authors and agents of religious persecution. The spirit was willing, but the cause and the occasion were wanting. Mobocracy sometimes invented a cause and made an occasion. The victim was found and offered without an altar. In such cases brutal cruelty was scarcely softened by religious refinement.

Some suffered for intermeddling with party politics; some for declining to take the oath of loyalty to the Government, as ministers; others for refusing to preach under a flag; others because they did not pray for the destruction of all rebels; others for expressing sympathy for one side or the other; others because they were born and brought up in the South; others, still, for declining to sanction the wrongs and outrages committed upon defenseless citizens, and helpless women and children, and still others because they were ministers and belonged to a certain ecclesiastical body.

How far these various considerations were only pretexts or occasions can not now be determined, other than by the analysis of the state of society heretofore given and the real animus of these persecutions.

The following instances of persecution are furnished, in substance, as they came into the hands of the author. Nothing is added, and nothing material to the facts is omitted. In some instances the phraseology is a little changed, more to secure a uniform tone and spirit throughout the work than to alter the sense; but material are nowhere sacrificed in the narratives of others, even to the author’s taste. Where it can be done, the language of each one’s own history is retained; but where only the facts and dates have been furnished, they are put up with the strictest regard for truth and consistency. The reader will see from the narratives themselves that it is impossible to observe chronological order. And, indeed, the classification of subjects makes it necessary to break the narrative of individual persecutions where it can be done, that each individual may illustrate the several stages of this remarkable history. For instance, some men were persecuted during the continuance of the war, and then again under the application of the “test oath” of the new Constitution. These, it is true, are but different aspects and stages of the same system of proscription and persecution, yet the nature and bearing of events require separate treatment where it can be done. The purposes of history can only be served by proper classifications and distinctions. The following narratives of persecution are fully authenticated by official records and responsible names.

The trials and persecutions of ministers of the gospel varied somewhat with the locality. In some parts of the State ministers were partially exempt from the influence and power of lawless men, while in other sections property, liberty and life were all at the mercy of irresponsible mobs.

The following statement is furnished by the minister himself. He has long been a faithful, earnest, exemplary member of the St. Louis Annual Conference, M. E. Church, South. Few men have stood higher in the ranks of the itinerant ministry in Missouri or done more faithful service than

He says: “I was arrested by W. Hall, at Darby’s chapel, on Sabbath, July 6, 1862. Hall, with his company, reached the chapel before me, and had the ‘stars and stripes’ placed just above the church door. He said that he had been informed that I would not preach under the Union flag. After preaching, and just as I was coming out at the door, near which he had taken his position, he accosted me and said, ‘You are my prisoner.’ He trembled like an aspen leaf. I said to him, ‘Why this emotion, sir? Show yourself a man, and do your duty.’ He replied, ‘I hate to arrest you, but I am bound to do my duty.’ He said I must go with him to his father’s then, and the following morning he would take me to headquarters at Cape Girardeau. I could not well go with him that night, as I had been caught in the rain that morning, and had to borrow a dry suit on the road, which I was under obligations to return that evening.

“After some parley, he granted me permission to report at the Cape in a few days, which I did promptly, to Col. Ogden, then Provost-Marshal. Col. Ogden paroled me to report at his headquarters every two or three weeks. On the 29th of September, 1862, I reported to him the fifth and last time, when I was tongue-lashed at a fearful rate by Lieut.-Col. Peckham of the 29th Mo. regiment, and by him sent to the guard-house.

“I asked this irate Colonel if the front of my offending was not my connection with the M. E. Church, South. He replied, ‘Yes, sir; and the man who will belong to that Church, after she has done the way she has, ought to be in prison during the war; and I will imprison you, sir, during the war.’ ‘It is a hard sentence for such an offense,’ I said. He replied, ‘I can’t help it, sir; all such men as you are must be confined so that they can do no harm.’

“I remained in the guard-house at the Cape until Thursday, October 2, 1862, when—in company with thirteen other prisoners, three of whom died in a few weeks—I was sent to Gratiot street military prison, St. Louis. In this prison I met several very worthy ministers of different denominations, and also Brother J. S. Boogher and two of his brothers, nobler men than whom I have not found any where in the world.

“October 20, 1862, I was released on parole, there being no crime alleged against me. The little man who first arrested me was a Northern Methodist. He wrote out and preferred two charges against me, which were so frivolous that the officers in St. Louis would not investigate them. I furnish them here as items of curiosity, as follows:

“’1. He, the said J. M. Proctor, threatened to hang Mr. Lincoln.

“’2. He said that the Federal soldiers were horse thieves.’

“After my release from Gratiot street prison, St. Louis, I went to the town of Jackson, where I was again arrested at the special instigation of a Northern Methodist preacher named Liming. I continued to preach during and after my imprisonment. When the notorious test oath was inaugurated I continued to preach, and was indicted three times before Judge Albert Jackson, of Cape Girardeau county. Revs. D. H. Murphy and A. Munson were also indicted for the same offense.

“I never took the test oath, nor any oath of allegiance during the war. It was plain to all that the Northern Methodists were our worst enemies during that long and cruel war.”

It is only necessary to add that Mr. Proctor remained at home when permitted, attending to his legitimate calling during the war as a minister, and was no partisan in the strife—a peaceable, law-abiding citizen, and an humble, inoffensive minister of the gospel. As he was informed, “the front of his offending was his connection with the M. E. Church, South,” while it seems that both the instigators and instruments of his arrest and imprisonment were members of the M. E. Church, North. Proscription and persecution do not always hesitate in the presence of opportunity.

Rev. Marcus Arrington.

It is sad to record the following details of suffering inflicted upon one of the oldest, most useful and honored members of the St. Louis Conference, M. E. Church, South; a man who for many years has been an humble, exemplary and influential member of the Conference, who occupied a high position in the confidence of the Church, and has been intrusted with high and responsible positions in her courts and councils. No man, perhaps, of any Church has stood higher in the esteem of all men of all Churches in Southwest Missouri, where he has so long lived and labored, than Marcus Arrington. Let him tell in his own way the story of his sufferings:

“When the troubles commenced, in the spring of 1861, I was traveling the Springfield Circuit, St. Louis Conference. I was very particular not to say anything, either publicly or privately, that would indicate that I was a partisan in the strife. I tried to attend to my legitimate work as a traveling preacher.

“But after the war commenced, because I did not advocate the policy of the party in power, I was reported as a secessionist, and in the midst of the public excitement it was vain to attempt to counteract the report.

“At the earnest solicitation of divers persons, I took the oath of loyalty to the Government. This, it was thought, would be sufficient. But we were mistaken.

“Soon after this, my life was threatened by those who were in the employ of the Federal Government. But they were, as I verily believe, providentially prevented from executing their threat.

“After the battle of Oak Hills, or Wilson’s Creek, July 10, 1861, it became my duty to do all I could for the relief of the sick and wounded, and because I did this I was assured that I had violated my oath of allegiance. I was advised by Union men, so-called, that it would be unsafe for me to fall into the hands of Federal soldiers. Believing this to be true, when General Fremont came to Springfield, I went to Arkansas, as I think almost any man would have done under the circumstances.

“While in Arkansas, I met Bro. W. G. Caples, who was acting Chaplain to General Price. He requested me to take a chaplaincy in the army, informing me at the time that, by an agreement between Generals Fremont and Price, all men who had taken the oath of loyalty as I did were released from its obligations.

“In December, 1861, I was appointed by Gen. McBride Chaplain of the 7th Brigade, Missouri State Guard. In this capacity I remained with the army until the battle of Pea Ridge, March 7 and 8, 1862. On the second day of this battle, while in the discharge of my duty as Chaplain, I was taken prisoner. Several Chaplains taken at the same time were released on the field, but I was retained. I was made to walk to Springfield, a distance of 80 miles. We remained in Springfield one day and two nights, and whilst many prisoners who had previously taken the oath as I had were paroled to visit their families, I was denied the privilege.

“We were then started off to Rolla, and although I had been assured that I would be furnished transportation, it was a sad mistake, and I had to walk until I literally gave out. What I suffered on that trip I can not describe. When we reached Rolla I was publicly insulted by the Commander of the Post.

“From Rolla we were sent to St. Louis on the cars, lodged one night in the old McDowell College, and the next day sent to Alton, Ill.

“Whilst I was in Alton prison a correspondent of the Republican, writing over the name of ‘Leon,’ represented me as a ‘thief and a perjured villain!’

“I was kept in Alton prison until Aug. 2, 1862, when I was released by a General Order for the release of all Chaplains.

“I then went to St. Louis, and thence South, by way of Memphis, Tenn., into exile. I would have returned to Missouri after the war closed but for the restrictions put upon ministers of the gospel by the new Constitution.

“Eternity alone will reveal what I have suffered in exile. The St. Louis Conference is properly my home, and her preachers have a warm place in my affections. They are very near my heart. May they ever be successful.”

Rev. Mr. Arrington pines for his old home and friends, and few men have a deeper hold upon the hearts of the people in Missouri. Thousands would welcome him to warm hearts and homes after these calamities are overpast.

Rev. John McGlothlin.

As a specimen of petty local persecution the case of Rev. J. McGlothlin, a worthy local preacher of the M. E. Church, South, who has long stood high in that part of the State where he resides, will be sufficient for this place.

It was with some reluctance that he yielded to the demands of history enough to furnish the following facts. He is a modest man and shrinks from notoriety.

In 1862 he was residing in Ray county, Mo., when Major Biggers, the Commander of the Post at Richmond, issued an order that no minister of the gospel should preach who did not carry with him the Union flag. A few days after the order came out Mr. McGlothlin was called upon to go to Knoxville, Caldwell county, to procure suitable burial clothing for a Mrs. Tilford, a widow, who died in his neighborhood, as he was the only man available for that service. After the purchases were made and he was ready to return, a Captain Tiffin, of Knoxville, stepped up and asked if he had “reported.” He answered in the negative, and convinced the Captain that there was no order requiring him to report, as he had license to preach. Tho officer then asked him if he had a “flag.” He told him he had not. “Will you get one?” “No,” said he, “I will recognize no State or military authority to prescribe qualifications for the work of the ministry.” The officer at once arrested him. Mr. McGlothlin acquainted Capt. Tiffin at once with the peculiar character of his business in Knoxville, and the necessity of his speedy return, offering at the same time his parole of honor to report to him at any time and place he might designate. This he promptly refused, and the officer said that he would ride out a part of the way with him. When they arrived within a few miles of the house where the dead lay waiting interment, the officer pressed a boy into service and sent the burial clothes to their destination, after detaining them three or four hours on the way.

The minister was not released, even to attend the funeral service, but was kept in close confinement, dinnerless, supperless, bedless and comfortless.

The next day, with over twenty others, he was taken to Richmond and confined in the Fair Grounds and in the old College building for five weeks, and then unconditionally released. The only charge they could bring against him was that he would not take the oath of allegiance, give bond in the sum of $1,000 for his good behavior, and buy a flag to carry about with him as an evidence of his loyalty and a symbol of authority to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Few instances of petty persecution in the exercise of a little brief authority can surpass this. It needs no comment, except to add that the minister who was thus made a victim of the narrowest and meanest spitefulness was a high-toned gentleman of unblemished character, against whom even the petty military officers and their spies could never raise an accusation.

Rev. James Penn.

This venerable minister and member of the Missouri Annual Conference, M. E. Church, South, was the subject of a peculiar class of trials during the war. Mr. Penn is one of the oldest and one of the best men in the itinerant ministry in Missouri.

He has furnished to the ministry four sons, all of whom are worthy and useful men. While the father has given his life and his children to the work of the ministry, it is peculiarly gratifying to the Church and their co-laborers of the Missouri Conference that, up to this time, no moral taint has ever rested upon a single member of the family.

So long known and so highly esteemed by the people of the State generally, it was hoped—vainly hoped—that at least he would escape the fiery ordeal. No one at all acquainted with his spirit and character can ever believe aught against him of harm to any human government or human being. During a long, eventful life he has been a man eminently pure in spirit, and singularly devoted to his one work. In that work he has had no divided heart, or head, or life.

His sons follow in his footsteps—worthy sons of an honored sire—and as such it is not altogether an unmeaning pun which has so generally designated them “Gold Penns.”

But it is still true that “they that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” It would be wrong not to let this honored servant of God tell his own story.

“First. I was arrested in August, 1862, and carried to Keokuk, Iowa, and there detained for about a week. There being no well founded charges against me I was released.

“Second. In August, 1863, I held a meeting in Williamstown, Mo. There was present at that meeting a minister of the M. E. Church, whose name I believe was Moody. On Sunday morning, during prayer meeting, this man, while we were kneeling in prayer, arose and began to read in a very loud tone of voice. The people got off their knees. The man who had thus disturbed an unoffending company of praying men and women was armed, as were some fifteen others whom he had brought with him. I walked toward the door and the people followed me and took a position in the street. I then preached to a large concourse of people, the armed minister and his valiant company retaining possession of the house. I continued the meeting until the next Sabbath, when this preacher with his armed band came again and drove us out of the house the second time. I preached out of doors, as on the preceding Sabbath. The meeting resulted in much good, there being about forty accessions to the M. E. Church, South.

“On another occasion flags were brought and placed on and around the pulpit, and a company of armed men sat near to prevent any one from taking them down. Seeing that this would not deter us from a discharge of Christian duty, a lot of wicked women raised a fight and fought like savages, so we were compelled to leave the house and ceased to preach at that place. Moody was asked why he did so, and his reply was: “Because I can.” He is now, I believe, a minister in good standing in the M. E. Church, but many responsible people regard him as a very bad man.

“At Winchester, Mo., we had a very good house of worship, but they ran us out, as they did at Williamstown, until our own people were unwilling to attend divine service in the town. Then the house was almost destroyed, so that there we had no place in which to worship.

“They seized our house at Lagrange, a Mr. Stewart and others of the M. E. Church being the chief actors in this matter. After three years they relinquished their hold upon this splendid house.

“In addition to all this, I have suffered personal wrongs, in various ways, at the hands of these people. But I have tried to keep a conscience void of offense toward God and men. Their wrong-doing is upon themselves. I leave them to be judged by him who is too wise to err and too good to do wrong. May he forgive the wrong done.”

This simple narrative speaks volumes, and needs neither note nor comment. The Rev. Colonel Moody, who figured so conspicuously in the persecutions above detailed, it is said, read on the occasion of the first disturbance of Mr. Penn’s prayer meeting from Gal. iii. 1: “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?” &c.

It is a singular fact that the ministers of the M. E. Church, North, were conspicuous from first to last in the persecutions of the ministers of the M. E. Church, South; and, indeed, all other ministers who were under the ban of the Federal authorities. There was not only a bold scheme devised by Bishops Simpson and Ames to possess themselves of the property of the M. E. Church, South, through military authority, as the rightful booty of Northern Methodist conquest, but every minister and member who had position and power in the army, or who could evoke the military power, seemed to consider themselves specially commissioned to seize the property and exterminate the very existence of Southern Methodism.