“Early in 1866 Mr. Sorin, his Presiding Elder, announced publicly from the pulpit on the Sabbath that the house belonged to them, and henceforth they intended to hold and possess the same.
“That week Bro. Wallace, one of the trustees of the church, who had been a member for two score years, locked the door, took possession of the key and notified Mr. Miller that he could not preach there any more.
“Mr. Miller then notified Bro. Wallace that he would bring suit for the church. Bro. Wallace assured him that when the law gave him the house he would give him the key.
“In the meantime the Radicals of the town rented a hall for Mr. Miller, in which they put an organ to help him make music.
“I held a quarterly meeting in Potosi in January, 1867, and while there I learned that the Rev. Major had sold his friends’ organ, pocketed the money and gone on a long journey toward the north pole. So Madam Rumor reports.
“Our people are in quiet possession of our church house, have an excellent Sabbath school, an organ to help the children sing, a very gratifying increase in the membership of the Church, and no fears of being disturbed by Messrs. Sorin, Miller and company, unless they do as their confederates did on Castor—burn the church.
“Several of our church houses at other points have been quietly occupied by them, but I believe they have run their race and are not likely to trouble us much more.
W. S. Woodard.”
This case, as it exists in the above statement, ought to be sufficient for all the purposes of history.
In Plattsburg, Clinton county, they purchased an old debt and in that way obtained a kind of title to half the church. They also purchased an old debt and got a title to the Plattsburg High School property, and retain it to this day.