“The Rev. Thomas Glanville was born in England, May 15, A. D. 1811. Came to this country about the year 1829 or 1830, and a short time afterward was married to Miss Donnell, of Green county, Mo. Not long after this event he embraced religion and united with the M. E. Church, and in 1841 was received on trial in the Missouri Conference.
“In 1843 he was appointed to Buffalo Circuit, where he endured much affliction, both of body and mind. His wife died and he married again, and the next year he located. For a time he traveled under the Presiding Elder and was readmitted into the St. Louis Conference in 1855, and then traveled regularly until the war came up. He did not cease to preach in his neighborhood. He had an appointment the day he met his awful fate, but dared not attend it, as his avowed enemies were watching his movements. This was Sabbath, Sept. 20, 1863. At night three outlaws, guided, no doubt, by another who was not responsible to any military organization, approached his peaceful home and shot him. And what for? No one knows. He, like all good men, was self-denying and made no compromise with sin, wicked men or devils; reproving sin in all its forms and in all places, he had enemies who threatened him years before, and this was a good time to put their designs into execution.
“At first he was ordered from home; he went, remained some three weeks and returned. Then they compelled him to take an oath and give bond, in which he was bound to stay at home—just what he wanted to do. But in a few days after giving bond there came a stripling of a boy, purporting to have orders from a Lieutenant of the same family whence all his troubles came, ordering him to again leave home forthwith, and be quick about it. He then, as a law-abiding man, went to Captain Allen, then at Hermitage, for protection to enable him to keep his obligation, and to know how to act under the circumstances. But the Captain refused to protect or instruct him, only to tell him that he had better leave quickly, knowing at the same time that such a course would forfeit his bond. He had made up his mind to leave the next morning, but, as stated, three armed men came after dark and shot him some three or four times, and he expired instantly. His last and dying words were, ‘Lord, have mercy on my enemies.’
“He was buried without a song; not even a prayer was permitted to be offered in behalf of his disconsolate wife and weeping children. But the good man exchanged a world of woe for a land of rest.
“Thomas Glanville was always known to be a law-abiding man and a peaceable citizen. He often boasted of the privileges he enjoyed under this benign Government, and only claimed his rights under its Constitution and laws. He was never known to violate any law, abhorred a mean thing and would speak out against it. He strenuously opposed all bushwhacking, stealing, murder, and any and all infringement upon the rights of others. He stood up squarely for the rights of the M. E. Church, South, and contended boldly for the principles of religious liberty. In view of these things it is not difficult to account for his shameful and brutal murder.
John Monroe.”
It is quite a relief to turn away, for a time at least, from the contemplation of such scenes of barbarity and more than savage cruelty as the history of the terrible past presents to our faith and philosophy.
Three long chapters, prepared for this volume, are laid over for the second, by the decree of the publisher, to prevent the enlargement of the present volume to an improper size. By it the next volume will be enriched beyond measure. What is lost to this will be gained for that, and neither the work, as a whole, nor the reader will be damaged.
The deferred chapters contain an account of the “Rosecrans oath,” in “Special Order No. 61,” of March 7th, 1864, and its designs upon the common laws and facts of religious liberty; the persecutions, trials, banishment, etc., of the Rev. Drs. McPheeters and Farris, of the Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Tyson Dynes, of the M. E. Church, South, the long imprisonment and peculiar sufferings of the Rev. Dr. McAnally; the effort to crush or confiscate the publishing house at St. Louis, and its preservation and security by the agent, the Rev. P. M. Pinckard; and a “Chapter of Martyrs,” detailing with careful minuteness the cold-blooded murder of the Rev. John L. Wood, the Rev. George L. Sexton and the Rev. Edwin Robinson.
The history of the indictments, trials, imprisonment and persecutions of ministers under the “test oath” of the New Constitution will form a prominent and extensive feature of the second volume, with due attention to the particulars of the murder of the Rev. Samuel S. Headlee and others, which will invest the work with thrilling interest. The future historian will assign to these names a conspicuous place upon the long roll of martyrs, and the future Church will reap a rich harvest of souls, with multiplied agencies and resources, from the blood they shed “for the testimony of Jesus and the word of God.”