“We had a call from Mr. John Stearns, late a resident of Miller county, Mo. He was formerly of Pennsylvania, but for some years had resided in Missouri, and has been a member of the M. E. Church over thirty-five years. He gave us the names of two of his neighbors who had, been hung for their Union sentiments, and for being members of the ‘so-called’ Northern Methodist Church. The leaders of the mob hanging these men were members of the M. E. Church, South. Mr. Stearns says further that he was informed through a friend that he himself was to be hung Saturday, June 1st, but that he defeated the attempt by escaping the previous night. The man who led on the mob of Jefferson City in riddling the Methodist Episcopal Church there, of which the expatriated Rev. Z. S. Weller was pastor, was the son of Claiborne Jackson, the Governor of Missouri. Mr. Stearns tells us that but for the M. E. Church, South, there would be no secessionism in the State. The preachers and members of that denomination see that the triumph of Unionism is their death knell, and hence the fury and despair which characterize their fight.”
It will not be unkind to say now that such stories were manufactured to order and published for effect. The war has come and gone, and passion and prejudice have been measurably displaced by peace and order; and yet, to this day, the hanging of two of Mr. Stearns’ neighbors, in Miller county, Mo., has only come to the knowledge of the people of Missouri through the Western Christian Advocate, and upon the authority of one Mr. Stearns, “formerly of Pennsylvania.”
But that this assertion is not made without good authority, read the following extracts from two letters, as only a sample of many others on hand:
“Pleasant Mount, Miller Co., Mo., July 4, ’61.
“Mr. Editor: I see in your issue of June 20th a statement from one Mr. John Stearns, who says he has been a citizen of Miller county for some years, and that two of his neighbors were hung for their Union sentiments, and for being members of the M. E. Church, North; that he himself barely made his escape by starting the night before.
“Now, as to the hanging part, Mr. Stearns has grossly misrepresented the people of Miller county. There has never been any person hung in the bounds of the county, under any pretext whatever, much less for their political or religious creed; and Mr. Stearns knew when he made the statement that it was false. In fact, I doubt whether there has ever been such a man in Miller county, at least I have found no one who has ever known such a man, and I have inquired of the Sheriff of the county, and the Clerk of the County Court, as well as of a number of citizens who have lived here ever since before Miller county was organized, and none of them have ever known such a man as John Stearns; and if it were necessary I could get hundreds of the most reliable men of this county to bear testimony to the truth of the above, &c., &c.
“(Signed) Thomas J. Smith.”
Another letter, written by Wm. M. Lumpkin, July 2, 1861, says:
“I was born and raised in this (Miller) county, and can safely say there never was a man hung in this county to my knowledge. I have served a good time in this county in the capacity of Deputy Circuit and County Clerk, and County School Commissioner, and I have never heard of such a man before as Mr. John Stearns,” &c.
The statements were denied at the time, and means instituted to ascertain their truth or falsity, but up to this time no information of such hanging has come to light. But the article served its purpose, and, like one that appeared a short time before in the New York papers, about the hanging of a Rev. Mr. White near St. Charles, Mo., where no such man had ever been seen, known, or heard of, and many others of a similar style, character and purpose, it passed away much sooner than the prejudices and passions it excited, and which were left to expend their fury upon those who made no “fight,” and whose “death knell” was not heard in the triumph of Unionism, except only as it was uttered from the pulpits and pens of “false prophets.”