Church in Springfield.
Just before the war the members and friends of the M. E. Church, South, erected in the town of Springfield, Green county, Mo., one of the largest and most elegant churches in Missouri outside of St. Louis. It was the religious centre and pride of the southwest. That part of the State was fearfully desolated by the war, and Springfield was an important base of army operations. It was a depot of supplies, and a rallying centre for all the large armies, the scouting parties and marauding bands that operated against the rebels of the South and the citizens of that portion of the State. While the torch was applied to nearly every church in the whole of southwest Missouri it is a little singular that this one should be spared. But so it was.
At what time it passed into the actual possession and use of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and precisely how long it remained in their possession, the subjoined report made to the St. Louis Conference sets forth. Many things are assumed to be of such general knowledge that no particular and definite information is necessary. The authentic information upon the subject is a follows:
1. A copy of a deed of conveyance of a lot or parcel of ground in the city of Springfield, made by Daniel Polk and E. A. Polk, his wife, to Daniel D. Berry, Jas. R. Danforth, Robt. J. McElhany, Warren H. Graves and John S. Waddill, trustees of the M. E. Church, South, for the use and benefit of said Church, to erect thereon a house of worship, &c. Consideration, $350. Dated October 11, 1856.
2. A statement of the debt incurred in the erection of said house of worship, amounting in the aggregate to $4,695.
3. A copy of deed of conveyance of October 22, 1866, made by “Robt. J. McElheny, Warren H. Graves and John S. Waddill, as trustees of the county of Green and State of Missouri,” to Richard Gott, John Demitt, J. D. Perkins, James Baker and E. S. Gott, trustees, in trust for the use and benefit of the Methodist Episcopal Church, &c. Consideration, $4,700. One thousand of which was paid to them in cash, and the balance to go to the creditors of the M. E. Church, South.
Suit was brought by the Church, South, to recover the property upon the ground that the remaining members of the original Board of Trustees had no legal right to sell and convey the property for their own benefit.
The case, like nearly all others, was compromised, and both the church and parsonage were given up and turned over to the trustees of the M. E. Church, South.
The history of the case, as gathered and reported by the committee appointed by the St. Louis Annual Conference, M. E. Church, South, will be found sufficiently full in the following statement of facts and report made by the committee to the Conference in 1868. The reader will appreciate the irony scattered here and there through the report if he can not excuse it. The material facts will be found without the publication of the correspondence to which the report refers. It should not be overlooked that the Northern Methodists took possession of the church at the same time they seized the parsonage, viz., in 1863.
“To the Bishop and Members of the St. Louis Conference:
“The committee to whom was referred the subject of your church property at Springfield, Mo., instructed to ‘take such measures as they may deem proper to recover the property,’ beg leave to submit the following