Others who knew him better have furnished the following account of his life and labors, together with the circumstantial details of the dark and bloody tragedy which closed his career of usefulness on earth—one of the most heartless and cruel assassinations in all the dark history of martyrdom in Missouri.
The following sketch has been furnished by an intimate friend of the martyred minister, and will be read with mournful interest:
“Rev. Thomas Glanville and Son.—It was the privilege of the writer to be intimately acquainted with the subjects of this sketch for more than a score of years. Without reference to official documents or private papers, I write mostly from memory, hoping thereby to preserve the precious memory of two worthy men.
“Rev. Thomas Glanville was born in England about A. D. 1811, and came to America when about sixteen years of age. He was converted to God in early life, and after much mental agony yielded to the conviction that it was his duty to preach.
“Soon after he began to preach, he joined the St. Louis Conference M. E. Church, South, and traveled several years. But family afflictions came upon him—his wife died and left him three children. He married again and soon afterward located.
“Time rolled on and ever found him diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; and laboring efficiently as a local preacher.
“In the fall of 1852 a camp-meeting was held in his neighborhood by the lamented Leeper, Anthony and Bond. Bro. Glanville’s three children were at the altar as penitents. All the tenderest sympathies of a father’s heart went out after them. How pointed his instructions! and his prayers O, how fervent!
“He told the writer that he had made a vow that if the Lord would accept his three children at that meeting, he would rejoin the Conference and travel and preach as long as his way seemed open. The Lord did mercifully accept his three children; and, true to his vow, he rejoined the Conference and remained an acceptable member till the day of his death.
“When the late civil war commenced and the flock in Southwest Missouri was left for the most part without a shepherd, he and the local preachers a his neighborhood met in council and went out ‘two and two’ and held meetings in the most destitute neighborhoods.
“After a time he was ordered by a militia Captain to discontinue his preaching. This grieved him much, but he yielded and remained silent for almost a year.