Some time in September, 1860, the Northern Methodists held a camp meeting not far from Utica, in Livingston county, North Missouri. The preacher in charge was one Rev. Mr. Gardner, who had already rendered himself obnoxious to the people by intermeddling with politics, tampering with slaves and unministerial conduct in the social circle. This camp-meeting was broken up on a Monday without service and in great confusion. The cause was no matter of conjecture, nor of its authenticity were the people permitted to doubt.
The Rev. Mr. Gardner had, the night before, been found in the wrong tent, from which he was summarily ejected by the ladies. The public indignation was too intense the next day to allow services to be held, and the crime of the preacher was made too apparent by the separation of a man and wife, the latter of whom had made herself rather conspicuous by her great zeal in the service of Gardner and the Church.
The Central Christian Advocate published it as a “great outrage,” and made the breaking up of that meeting do good service in the persecution of the ministers of the M. E. Church by the ministers and members of the M. E. Church, South. The editor of that paper said so much about it that good, honest, reliable men went to the place and investigated the matter. It was afterward ventilated through the public prints, to the infinite humiliation of the profession which the man disgraced and the reproach of the cause which he shamelessly belied.
Many other things of similar character did much good service for the party and the Church during the following winter and spring, doubtless designed to manufacture prejudice against the people of the State, and especially the Southern Methodists.
The Central, of May 15, 1861, contained the following:
“Men and Brethren, Help!
“One of our preachers, last Sabbath week, some thirteen miles from this city, was struck down, his meeting broken up, and members of the M. E. Church, South, had oversight of the assault, which was conducted under their superintendence. So said Bro. Miller, the preacher, and a member of our Church, a Missourian, whose father and mother were buried in Missouri, and in which he proposes to be buried, whether killed by others or dying in the natural way.”
While the editor should be excused for writing a paragraph so awkward and bungling, the real object will not be mistaken. It is only necessary to state that an intelligent gentleman who was present pronounces the whole thing utterly false. The meeting was not broken up, the preacher was not knocked down, and there was but one member of the M. E. Church, South, present at the service, and he left before the trouble, which occurred outside of the church after services were closed, and grew out of some insulting language used by the preacher to a gentleman present, which was resented with only one slight blow which scarcely reached the reverend offender. They were separated before any damage was done, and left the Central to do all the damage.
In this case, as in the Gardner case, the Southern Methodists were not implicated; but for these and many other things of which they were wholly innocent they had to suffer deeply and grievously, as these pages will show.
During the summer of 1861 a number of ministers in different portions of the State were robbed of all that they possessed of this world’s goods, some were driven into exile, and some arrested and put into military prisons. But more of these hereafter.