“At that March Court two indictments were found against me, for preaching the gospel without first taking the oath of loyalty. Simon E. Odell was summoned before the following grand jury and gave information, viz.: George W. Sargeant, foreman, George W. Foster, John Bogart, H. E. Owens, James T. Lamar, David Conner, Charles B. Bacon, Holland Vanderpool, Jeremiah Campbell, Wm. Vanhobber, James Hughes, Joseph Gossage, Daniel Cramer, Edwin Odell, Sam’l Clevinger, John Query, Daniel Parker and Isaiah Mansur.
“I will now relate another case that came under my notice.
“About the first of February, 1866, Aaron Cleavinger gave information to Elisha Riggs, Esq., that Elder Isaac Odell had preached without first having taken the oath of loyalty. About the same time Aaron Cleavinger gave information to Elisha Riggs, Esq., that Allan Sisk had also violated the law by ‘performing the functions’ of a minister in like manner. Wherefore, the said Elisha Riggs, Justice of the Peace, did authorize and require one Charles Perkins to arrest the said Isaac Odell and Allan Sisk, and bring them before him, the said Elisha Riggs, J. P., which he did about the 11th or 12th of February; and because they refused to give bail in the case, did actually send them to Richmond and put them in the county jail.
“Friends interfered, and Judge Walter King granted a habeas corpus, and had them brought before him in Judge Bannister’s office. Allan Sisk was now bound in the sum of two thousand dollars to appear at the next Circuit Court; Lawson Sisk, John Seek and Simon E. Odell, securities. Elder Isaac Odell was bound in the sum of two thousand dollars to appear at the next Circuit Court; Lawson Sisk, John Seek and S. E. Odell, securities.
“These bonds and fetters, and this species of tyranny and persecution, did not yet satisfy the enemies of the cross of Christ; their malicious hatred and fiendish propensities were not yet satisfied; they must show the spirit of their master yet a little farther—‘Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do.—John viii. 44. So about the last of May or the first of June, 1866, Nathan W. Perkins informed Elisha Riggs, J. P., that James Duval had again, at some place, or at some time (for the information did not state when nor where the misdemeanor was done), violate the law by preaching without first having taken the oath of loyalty.
“Near about the same time, Alfred Nelson informed Elisha Riggs, J. P., that Elder Isaac Odell had violated the law by preaching without first having taken the oath of loyalty. But he, too, like Nathan W. Perkins, failed to set forth the time or place.
“The warrants to arrest and bring before him or some other justice of the peace the said Duval and Odell were placed in Constable Sisk’s hands to execute, so he deputized Joshua Smart to execute them. Deputy Smart arrested Elder Odell, and came to my house June 12th and arrested me in like manner, and took us to Richmond, before D. H. Quesenberry, J. P. Here we were, like criminals, arraigned in open court to answer the charge—for preaching.
Mr. E. F. Estebb, Prosecuting Attorney, appeared against us. Our mutual friends, Hon. G. W. Dunn and C. F. Garner, Esq., appeared in our behalf before the court without charge. We had quite a contest over the case. Several speeches for and against were made, but as the charges were not very criminal and the information very indefinite upon the allegation—a poor thing at best—the prosecuting attorney failed to convict us, and the unfortunate informers had the costs to pay.
“After the decision of the ‘Cummings case’ we were all discharged from custody, and are still engaged in trying to preach Christ—the Way, the Truth, the Life—to sinners. ‘But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.’
“Only think of the age of the world in which we live, with all the teaching and preaching, and laws to restrain men from doing violence and wrong to their fellow-men. Yet if men are so wicked and demoralized, and are living in our midst, is it not right and just to hold them to strict responsibility for what they have done? ‘Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.’