In the same paper, of June 13, 1866, the following statement appears upon the same subject:
“After Brother Pugh was run off the Church was occupied for some time by the Northern Methodists, who assumed that the Church property was theirs, to have and to hold, with all the appurtenances thereto belonging, to them and to their successors forever. They abused Southern Methodists roundly, threatened them much, and with all the prestige of power assaulted the gates of our Zion until they became so offensive that all true friends of our Church and of the Government gave them a wide berth and left them alone in their shame.
“Some who in name had been with us, but were not in heart of us, went out from us to take shelter under their political banner, prove their loyalty to the Government, and—as they were told—save their property and their lives, and be fitted, as it proved, to enjoy the product of others’ labor and the spoils of pious conquest.
“The faithful of our Church pursued the even tenor of their way, and when refused their own house of worship met in private houses for worship, and when denied this means of grace they kept up the sewing circle and mite society, and in this way the ‘faithful women not a few’ preserved an organization, a name and a life. While their harps were upon the willows they often sat down together and wept when they remembered their Zion, once so beautiful for situation—the joy of all hearts. They suffered all that the betrayal of Judas and the denial of Peter could inflict upon them. Yet, believing truth and right, though nailed to the cross and buried in the tomb, would, like the divine Redeemer, rise again leading captivity captive and conferring gifts upon men, they waited patiently and hopefully till their change should come. And it did come, and that by a way they knew not. They were, like their Lord, ‘despised and rejected of men,’ yet their faith failed not. They had confidence in the Church and the pledges of her risen Head. Their faith grew sublime as the darkness increased and the troubles multiplied about them. ‘The gates of hell shall not prevail against it,’ they heard in the thick darkness, and bowing to the storm they sheltered themselves within the clefts of the everlasting Rock ‘until these calamities be overpast.’
“There were some men in authority who loved the right and hated the wrong. There were, also, ‘good men and true’ in the Church, whose loyalty to the Government was only equaled by their fidelity to the Church, and neither could be shaken by all the libels and slanders of ecclesiastical hirelings. When such men have the adjustment of the rights of property, truth and righteousness will at last prevail, and justice will be reached in the end. To such are we indebted for our Church property in Kansas City.”
These extracts show the purpose and the plan of these ministers and members of the M. E. Church. The virtues of super-loyalty claimed for themselves, and the cry of disloyalty and treason against Southern Methodists, were not to go unrewarded. It may be uncharitable to suspect the motives of others, but it is not uncharitable to record their acts and doings when the cause of truth and righteousness will be served and the truth of history vindicated thereby.
Church at Independence.
In 1857 the members and friends of the M. E. Church, South, erected, finished, furnished, dedicated and paid for a beautiful Church in the city of Independence. The architecture was half Gothic, and most elegant in its proportions and finish, two stories, with Sunday school, lecture room, pastor’s study, class rooms, closets, library and furnace rooms below, and above one of the handsomest audience rooms in the State. The whole cost was over $15,000. A convenient and commodious parsonage in the rear, on the same lot, with ample and tastefully ornamented grounds for both Church and parsonage.
This property was built and paid for by Southern Methodists, and used and occupied by them without molestation till the fall of 1862, when it was left temporarily without a pastor. A covetous eye had been on it, and the pastor for 1861 and ’62 had often been warned of personal danger and advised to seek some place of safety. He was several times put under military arrest, and several times informed of plots and purposes to shoot or hang him. The leaders of marauding bands of Kansas “Redlegs” or “Jayhawkers” had often sworn vengeance against him because he was a Southern Methodist preacher. They had hunted diligently for some accusation against him, or some pretext for taking his life, but he had been too prudent and cautious for their purpose; had pursued with singular fidelity his own calling, nor turned to the right or left for any purpose or party; had made many warm friends amongst the best Union men, who demanded that he should be let alone in his work and not molested any way by the authorities. They pronounced him loyal to his Master, his Church, his country, “and to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or of bonds.” He felt safe in the hands and under the protection of the regular military authorities, even such desperate characters as Lane, Jennison, Anthony, Montgomery, Nugent, etc., within whose military lines he had lived, and preached, and labored without any great annoyance or molestation. But the bands of lawless desperadoes and plunderers who could be used by designing men for any purpose whatever, such as Cleveland and others, from Kansas, were too irresponsible and reckless to trust. Friends had traveled in the night from Kansas City to Independence, a distance of twelve miles, to warn him of threats to hang him made by Cleveland and other outlaws, and through many other sources he was impressed with the fact that to remain would be to sacrifice his life causelessly. His friends advised him to seek safety in flight, even the Union military officers of the post counseled this course and provided the necessary facilities.
While his preparations to leave were being made the battle of Independence was fought, in which the Confederates, under Colonels Hughes, Thompson, Boyd and others, succeeded in taking the city, with its garrison, after a contest of four hours. This occurred on the morning of August 13, 1862, and precipitated the flight of the pastor. After the surrender he spent the day in caring for the wounded and dying, the night in packing up and storing his effects, and the next day at 2 P. M., with his family, his trunks and some few movable effects, in a coverless two-horse wagon, he started for Lexington and St. Louis.