REVS. R. N. T. HOLLIDAY AND GREEN WOODS.
_Rev. R. N. T. Holliday_—Statement of his Persecutions Furnished by
Dr. Richmond, a Federal Officer—Could not War upon the Institutions
of Heaven—Mr. Holliday aloof from Politics—Misconstrued—General W.
P. Hall and his Militia Proclamation—General Hall and Mr.
Holliday—General Bassett—Rev. Wm. Toole, Provost-Marshal, and Mr.
Holliday—A Renegade—Platte City Burned by Jennison and Mr. H.
Ordered to be Shot on Sight—He Escapes—Is Arrested in Clinton
County—Again Ordered to be Shot—Escapes to Illinois—Returns in
1865—Goes to Shelbyville and is Indicted for Preaching
Without Taking the Oath—Crimes of the War—Common Law Maxim
Reversed—Prominent Ministers of the M. E. Church, South, Assumed to
be Guilty of Treason—Murder of _Rev. Green Woods_—Birth, Early
Ministry and General Character—Gives up his District—Retires to his
Farm in Dent County—Affecting Account of his Murder given by his
Daughter—Extract from a Letter Written by his Wife—Details Published
in the St. Louis _Advocate_ of June 13, 1866—Reflections.
REV. R. N. T. HOLLIDAY.
The following account of the persecutions of this good and useful
minister of the gospel is furnished by Dr. Oregon Richmond, “who was an
officer in the Federal army, and always anxious for the triumph of the
Union forces.” Upon that ground he properly claims the absence of undue
bias from his statement. The whole case is so fully and minutely
reported that it needs neither introduction nor comment to aid in a due
appreciation of the facts:
“CANTON, MO., March 8, 1869.
“At the request of Rev. R. N. T. Holliday, I have consented to put
together and transmit the somewhat remarkable events of that period of
his life connected with the late war troubles. This request is the
result of an antipathy on his part to acting the part of a
self-eulogist. In my judgment no greater eulogy can be written of a
minister of the gospel than that of a calm, unvarnished recital of the
persecution to which that class of our citizens was subjected during the
prevalence of, and immediately subsequent to, the late war.
“And perhaps, after all, it is but simple justice that these facts
should be written by one who was an officer in the Federal army, and
always anxious for the triumph of the Union forces. Though an officer in
the Union army, he can thank God that his military life is unstained by
a single act of cruelty or persecution; and, above all, is he thankful
that he never made use of his military power to war against the
institutions of Heaven or the chosen instruments ordained for their
establishment amongst men. In other words, he was not attached to a
Missouri regiment, is not a son of Missouri, and hence has never been
instructed in the mysteries of that department of military tactics that
teaches the wonderful doctrine that the truest patriotism consists in
the abuse of defenseless women and children, and the subversion of the
sublimest precepts of religion by the persecution and murder of its
chosen apostles.
“In September, 1860, Rev. R. N. T. Holliday, the subject of this sketch,
was appointed by the Missouri Conference of the M. E. Church, South, of
which he has long been a member, to Rushville, in Buchanan county, Mo.
In the ensuing spring the war commenced, but it was not until May, 1861,
that he received the first intimation of the approaching trouble that
would draw him into its clutches, and ultimately make him a wanderer and
an exile from his chosen field of usefulness.
“About that time a Union meeting was held near Rushville, and addressed
by Hon. Willard P. Hall and others from St. Joseph. Mr. Holliday was
urged to be present and reply on behalf of the South; this he declined
to do. He was not even present at the meeting, believing that ministers
of the gospel should keep themselves unspotted from the political
strifes of men. Yet his enemies said that he stayed away through
personal fear, and he was henceforth the subject of various kinds of
annoyances and petty persecutions.
“The Conference of September, 1861, returned Mr. Holliday to Rushville.
He was not molested until March, 1862, when Brig.-General W. P. Hall
issued a proclamation requiring all men subject to military duty to
enroll themselves in the State militia. Mr. Holliday refused to enroll,
upon the ground that ministers were exempt from military duty. Gen. Hall
sent him word at once, that if he did not enroll he would have him
arrested. Mr. Holliday replied that, being exempt from military duty by
the laws of the State, he could but consider the demand extra-official,
and if an arrest must be the result of non-compliance with an illegal
demand, he preferred to be arrested. Upon this General Hall addressed a
note to Mr. H. in the politest terms, requesting an interview to arrange
the difficulty. Trusting the General’s honor, Mr. Holliday complied;
but, upon presenting himself at headquarters, the General refused to see
him, and ordered him taken to the Provost-Marshal’s office for
enrollment. Gen. Bassett, the Provost-Marshal, had the entrance to his
office securely guarded after Mr. H. was admitted, and informed him that
he must enroll under Order 19, as a Union man, and submit to a physical
examination, or under Order 24, as a rebel sympathize; and pay a
commutation fee of $30. Finding submission inevitable, or something
worse, Mr. H. registered under Order 24, but refused to pay the
commutation as an unlawful and an unauthorized exaction, and demanded
his exemption papers as a minister of the gospel, at the same time
producing his ordination parchments. General Bassett, after some delay,
gave him exemption papers, and, after considerable annoyance, he gave
him a pass also, which enabled him to travel back and forth and fill his
appointments without further molestation than an occasional petty
persecution, the instigation of malice, and an occasional threat of
being shot.
“During the summer of 1862 Mr. Bassett was superseded in the office of
Provost-Marshal by a Mr. W. Tool, who had been up to that period a
minister in the M. E. Church, South. He had, however, apostatized, and
joined the M. E. Church, North.
“Mr. Bassett’s brief apprenticeship in villainy fitted him for, and he
was appointed to, a higher office. Mr. Holliday was requested to fill
the pulpit made vacant by the military prohibition upon Rev. W. M. Rush,
of St. Joseph, and the ladies of the church in which Mr. Rush had been
silenced waited on Provost-Marshal Tool and requested permission for Mr.
Holliday to fill the silent pulpit. Mr. Tool, who was acting in the
interest of the North Methodists, refused to permit Mr. H. to come to
St. Joseph to preach the gospel.
“In September, 1862, Mr. Holliday was sent to Platte City, and there
remained unmolested until the following June, when soldiers from Kansas
took his horse, which he never saw afterward. He borrowed another, which
was also stolen and carried off. He thus lost two horses in as many
weeks.
“About the middle of July, 1863, Col. Jennison, of Kansas, went to
Platte City and burned the town. His men were ordered to shoot Mr.
Holliday down at sight. Knowing the character of Jennison’s men, and
being apprised of the order by a Union man, Mr. H. made good his escape,
leaving his family at Mr. Redman’s. On the evening of his flight his
house, containing all that he had in the world, except what the family
had on, was given to the flames. His family were thus made destitute and
reduced to beggary.
“The next day, at 3 P. M., Mr. Holliday was arrested, by order of a
Clinton county militia captain, and taken to Plattsburg. He was there
subject to some indignities, until Mr. Cockrell informed Captain Irvine,
commander of the post, of the facts, who, being a gentleman and a Mason,
ordered the instant release of Mr. Holliday.
“The next day Capt. Irvine was killed in an engagement with the rebels.
This very much enraged the militia, and an order was issued again to
shoot Mr. H. on sight. He again made his escape by flight and
concealment. He remained ten days at the residence of Mr. Powell, of
Clinton county, but upon hearing of the order to shoot him, he, with two
other ministers, Messrs. Tarwater and Jones, took refuge in the woods,
and made their way on foot to Osborn, where Mr. Holliday met his family,
and all took the train to Quincy, Ill. They remained in Illinois until
the war closed, in 1864, doing the best he could as a minister of the
gospel. Returning to Missouri in 1865, he met the Conference at
Hannibal, and was appointed to the Shelbyville circuit.
“By this time the New Constitution had been declared the fundamental law
of the State, and under it all ministers of the gospel were required to
take the iron-clad ‘test oath’ as a qualification for the work of the
ministry, or subject themselves to arrest, indictment, fine or
imprisonment.
“Actuated by the same motives of conscience that impelled all true
ministers of the gospel, he promptly refused to take and subscribe said
oath. He was, therefore, arrested and indicted by the grand jury of
Shelby county for preaching and teaching as a minister of the gospel
without having, under oath, attested his past and present loyalty to the
Government of the United States. The said indictment bore the signatures
of Wm. M. Boulware, Circuit Attorney, E. S. Holliday, Foreman of Grand
Jury, and James Ralph, C. R. Colton and Wm. Colton as witnesses. A copy
of the indictment is in Mr. Holliday’s possession, to be handed down to
his children as a memento of his sufferings and triumphs in the cause of
his Master. It will doubtless make their faith doubly strong in the
principles of that holy religion for which he endured so much privation,
persecution and personal danger.
“Mr. Holliday was subsequently indicted for the same offense, and held
in a bond of $500 for appearance at the November term of the Shelby
Court. Mr. M. C. Hawkins, a lawyer of Canton, made an able argument on a
motion to quash the indictment, which motion was not sustained, and the
case was continued to the ensuing May term, when a _nolle pros equi_ was
entered and Mr. Holliday released.
“The facts above narrated I have received from Mr. Holliday’s own lips.
He was so reticent of matters concerning himself personally that I can
not but regard this as a very meagre epitome of all that he was required
to do and to suffer in the performance of the work his Master gave him
to do. He evidently is already richly rewarded in the depths of his own
consciousness, and justly decided that nothing man may say for him can
serve in the smallest degree to increase that reward.
“[Signed] OREGON RICHMOND.”
The persecutions in the early part of the war were not without a sharp
discrimination in favor of the prominent ministers of the M. E. Church,
South. Few were exempt. The exceptional cases were either in the large
cities or under the protection of partisan loyalty. For some reason the
leading ministers of the Church, South, were looked upon as the very
ringleaders of the Southern revolt against the Government. So general
was this belief amongst the officers of the Union army, that whoever
escaped their surveillance had to prove a negative in the face of the
most unwarranted and unfounded presumptions of guilt, supported and
flanked by the deepest rooted prejudices and the most blinded passion.
Nor is this putting the case too strongly. It is not in excess of the
facts.
No matter how guarded, how prudent, how cautious in public or private
life, the tongue of the accuser always reached the official ear before
the accused was aware of his summons to the official bar.
That good old maxim of the English common law, that assumed a man to be
innocent until he was proven to be guilty, was reversed. Men were
assumed to be guilty, and they had to prove their innocence if they
could, or suffer the penalty of assumed guilt.
And, indeed, the right of trial was granted to but few. Many, very many,
suffered imprisonment and death without ever being so much as informed
of the crime for which they suffered.
The day of eternity alone will reveal the nameless crimes which men in
authority, and men without authority, committed during the late civil
war. May a merciful Providence forever spare the country a repetition of
the horrible scenes through which it has so recently passed. These
reflections are suggested by the murder of the
REV. GREEN WOODS.
The subject of this sketch was born in Bellevue, Washington county,
Missouri, Feb. 27, 1814, where he grew up on a farm in sight of
Caledonia.
He was received on trial in the Missouri Annual Conference M. E. Church
in the fall of 1836, when the Conference was held in St. Louis, and was
appointed by Bishop Roberts, junior preacher on the Farmington Circuit,
with George Smith as his senior.
The next year he was returned by Bishop Soule to Farmington, with Alvin
Baird as his senior.
The next year his name does not appear in the minutes, nor does it
appear again until the year 1853, when he rejoined the St. Louis
Conference and was appointed by Bishop Andrew to Cape Girardeau and
Jackson.
In 1854 he was appointed to Ste. Genevieve Circuit, and at the
Conference of 1855, at Springfield, he was received into full
connection, and returned to Ste. Genevieve Circuit, with J. H. Cumming
as junior preacher.
It is needless to follow his appointments in the Conference further than
to say that everywhere he was well received and always well reported of
for good works. He was a diligent and faithful laborer in his Master’s
vineyard, and few men stood higher in the estimation of the people or
was more securely enthroned in their affections. He was a man of
unblemished character, unswerving integrity, unwavering fidelity, deep
and fervent piety, and of good preaching ability. He was unobtrusive,
unostentatious, civil, courteous, gentle and kind to all; had many
friends and few enemies—lived for his work, and attended strictly to his
own business. The last man who would ever intermeddle with politics or
make himself officious or offensive to any man or party of men. He had
charity for all, and malice for none. This is written by one who knew
him well, and loved him much, and was a member of the same class of
undergraduates in the Conference.
When the war broke out Mr. Woods was Presiding Elder on the Greenville
District, St. Louis Conference; was extensively known in Southern and
Southeastern Missouri, and had been just as extensively useful. But the
troubles thickened so fast and the country was so generally disturbed
and distracted that with a heavy heart he gave up his regular work on
the district and contented himself with such preaching as he could do
near his home in Dent county, while he attended to the cultivation of
his little farm.
The following account of the events of 1862, furnished by his eldest
daughter, will be read with deep interest, as they culminate in the
awful tragedy of his murder:
“In the spring of 1862 the excitement in the country became so intense
that my father could no longer travel his district, so he thought he
would stay at home and try to make enough to support his family on his
farm. As the people in the neighborhood desired him to preach to them,
he made an appointment to preach, about three miles from home, the
second Sunday in May. He filled this appointment, and announced another
at the same place for the second Sunday in June. Before that time
arrived he was advised by some of his friends not to go to his
appointment, as they believed that he would be taken prisoner, and
perhaps killed, that day by the soldiers if he attempted to preach. But
he told them that he would go and preach, and if the soldiers wished to
arrest him they could do so; that if necessary he could go to jail. He
said that he did not believe that they would kill him, as he had not
done anything to be killed for.
A man by the name of Silas Hamby, a member of the Methodist Church,
North, had said some time before that no Southern Methodist preacher
should preach at Mount Pleasant again. But my father thought it was an
idle threat, as he had heard of no preacher being killed because he was
a preacher.
“When Sunday morning came, father and my sister, younger than myself,
went to Mount Pleasant, and he preached to a small congregation—the
people being afraid to turn out on account of the soldiers—and returned
home the same evening unmolested. The next morning he took my
sister—just thirteen—and two little boys he had hired, and went out to a
field one mile from home to finish planting corn. While they were at
work the mother of the boys came by the field on her way to our house.
She saw that they were nearly done, so she thought she would wait till
they finished and come along with them. By this means there was one
grown person present to witness his arrest. I think it was about the
middle of the forenoon of that Monday, June 9, 1862, when sixteen men,
armed and uniformed as Federal soldiers, came to our house and
surrounded it. They inquired for father. Mother told them that he was
not at home, but out in the field (father told her if they came and
called for him, to tell them where he was). They made a general search,
and then huddled up out in the yard and held a council a few minutes.
Five of them were sent to the field, and while they were gone those at
the house were stealing everything they could get their hands on that
belonged to father, leaving very few things behind.
“When the five soldiers got to the field father was not quite done
planting. They rode up and asked if his name was Green Woods; he told
them it was. They told him that he was the man they were after, and
ordered him to alight over the fence. He asked them if they would not
wait until he could finish planting, as he had then but a few short
rows; but they told him, with an oath, that they were in a hurry, and
kept hurrying him while he was getting his horse ready to start. When
they started from the field my sister asked them what they intended to
do with father. They told her, with an oath, that it was uncertain where
he would get to before he came back. They brought him to the house and
allowed him to eat his dinner. But when he went to dress himself, he
could not find a change of clothes, as the soldiers had taken all that
he had, and would not even give him his pants and hat. They took him
about three miles from home, to a man’s house by the name of Jones, and
pretended to get evidence against him. (This was northwest from where we
live). They then took him about three miles from home, to where a man
lived named Peter Skiles, who kept a blacksmith’s shop. They stopped and
staid there awhile, and searched the house, as Skiles was a Southern
man. They then took father about half a mile and killed him, and left
him lying out in the woods away from the road—no one knew where except
those who placed him there. Two guns were heard after the soldiers left
Skiles’.
“This was done on Monday, and his body was not found till the next
Monday. We did not know that he was killed until his body was found.
When found he was lying on his back with his overcoat spread on the
ground under him; one arm was stretched out one way, and the other
stretched out the other way, his hat drawn down over his face, his coat
and vest and left glove lying on the ground near him, his right glove
on, his left shirt sleeve torn off, and his left hand off and gone. He
seemed to have been dragged some two or three hundred yards before he
was shot, as there was but little blood along the trail, and was found
as above described near a large tree and among some low bushes.
“We have heard several times that the Northern Methodist presiding
elder, by the name of Ing, sent the men to kill my father. I have given
you the substance of what we know of father’s death.
(Signed) “JOSEPHINE M. A. M. WOODS,
“Eldest Daughter,
“E. A. WOODS, Wife, and
“MARY LOUISA, Daughter of
“Rev. Green Woods.”
Mrs. Woods furnishes the following additional particulars:
“While eating his dinner the soldiers asked him if he did not think he
ought to have taken the oath—meaning the oath of allegiance which all
citizens were required to take. He replied that he would be candid with
them, as he tried to be with all men; that it afforded no protection, as
only the day before the soldiers had been taking the property and
breaking the guns of those who had taken the oath, and he could not see
that the oath had profited them any. They hurried him much to finish his
dinner. He asked them for his hat, which they refused to give him. He
said that he would then wear his old one, and be with his equals—meaning
that he was about as near worn out as his hat.
“Thinking that it might have some good effect upon the soldiers, I
reminded him, in their presence, that the meal was out, and asked what I
must do, now that he was going away. He replied, ‘the Lord will
provide.’ And, so far, it is literally true; the Lord has been merciful
to give us our daily bread, as we have never had a single meal without
bread.
“When he started he told me to do the best I could, and seemed to have a
presentment that he would never return.
“On the way that evening he was stopped at the house of Dr. Boyd. While
there he said to Mrs. Boyd, ‘Tell Mrs. Woods that you saw me here.’ Mrs.
Boyd also heard him tell the soldiers to hurry up and take him wherever
they intended to take him; that they would keep him in the hot sun till
he would be down sick. They replied that they had a good doctor. He had
been very sick only a short time before. It was his custom to hold
family worship night and morning, no matter what else was to do. The
last day of his life he read for the morning lesson the thirty-seventh
Psalm.”
Strenuous efforts have been made to obtain the names of the guilty
parties, with but little success. The following statement is the latest
and most reliable:
“A man by the name of Dennis was the pilot, and it is said helped do the
shooting. A man named Wells was in the company. We can not give the
first names of either of these men now, but have the promise of them.
“A young man named Bill Fudge, the son of North Methodists who were once
members of the Southern Methodist Church, and another named Harrison
Ratliff, it is said, helped commit the murder.”
To the question, “What evidence have you that Ing, the North Methodist
presiding elder, sent the men to commit the murder?” the following reply
was furnished:
“All the evidence we have that Ing sent the men is, that he was their
commander at the time; and it has been told, by those who said they saw
it, that father’s hand was carried to Ing as proof that they had killed
him, and that he still had it in his possession a year or two ago.
“Respectfully, JOSIE M. A. M. WOODS.”
When Mr. Woods’ dead body was found, “his left hand was off and gone.”
Common rumor in the community, and the statement of several reliable
gentlemen—which may hereafter be given—go to confirm this horrible and
savage report about the hand.
The following account of the affair was published in the _St. Louis
Christian Advocate_, of June 18, 1866, and signed “R.,” of Crawford
county:
“REV. GREEN WOODS.—_Mr. Editor_: In the letter of your California
correspondent, in last week’s _Advocate_, the names of several ministers
formerly connected with the St. Louis Conference are mentioned with that
of the lamented Green Woods, who the writer too truly mentions as having
been cruelly murdered in the summer of 1862. And, as the writer of this
sketch had known the deceased for many years, and was living in an
adjoining county at the time the cruel murder was committed, he may be
able to furnish some facts relative thereto that would interest his many
friends and acquaintances of by-gone days. He was at the time (1862)
living at his home, in Dent county, Mo., on a little farm that he was
quietly cultivating with his own hands, and had been guilty of no other
offense that that of preaching through the county in which he lived
every Sunday, and oftener as he found opportunity. And, at the time he
was torn from his weeping wife and little ones, he was at home plowing
in his field, when suddenly he was surrounded by men wearing the uniform
of soldiers, and hailing from Kansas—regular ‘Jayhawkers.’ How many
broken-hearted wives and mothers, and destitute orphan children,
throughout Missouri will have cause to remember these cruel ‘Kansas
Jayhawkers!’ The cruel assassination of loved husbands and fathers; the
burnt and blasted homesteads, where lonely chimneys only are left to
tell the tale of once happy and contented households now scattered and
torn by the ruthless storm of war in the wake of these Kansas
desperadoes. Truly the fate of Missouri has been hard; and of many it
may be said they are strangers in their own land.
“When informed by them that he must go with them as a prisoner, and
probably knowing from the fate of others what he might expect of them,
he told them that he had violated no law, that he was a minister of the
Methodist Church, South, and that if they intended to kill him, he was
not afraid to die. Then taking, as he well believed, a sad and final
farewell of his wife and little children, he started with his captors to
the town of Salem, as he thought. But, alas! what must have been the
agony of the fond wife when she learned, several days afterward, that he
had not been taken to Salem at all! Diligent search but confirmed her
worst fears. He had been taken about two miles from home by the road
side and shot. There the mortal remains of Green Woods were found—a cold
and lifeless corpse—with the fatal bullet shot through the head.
“In contemplating such a scene as this, how the heart saddens and
sickens to know that humble and devoted ministers of the cross are put
to death for no other cause than that of being ministers of the M. E.
Church, South. Is it because that Church has been, and still is, in the
way of those who profess to have all the piety, loyalty and religion in
the land, that its members and ministers are specially denounced,
proscribed and persecuted, and are the marks of special vengeance for
every gang of raiding soldiers that chance to come into Missouri?
“I am credibly informed that the deceased had never taken any part in
the excitement growing out of the war up to that time; that he had never
mentioned politics in the pulpit, and had never left home on account of
the troubles during all the dark days of ’61 and ’62.
“Rev. Green Woods was a native of Missouri, and through many portions of
Southern and Southeastern Missouri will he be remembered, as his
powerful and eloquent voice echoed and died away upon the gently
murmuring breezes of his native hills and vales in calling sinners to
repentance. But he now sleeps the long sleep of death. That clarion
voice is now silent, and will no more be heard on earth proclaiming the
good news and glad tidings of salvation which shall be unto all people.
But we close, and drop a silent tear to his memory; knowing that He who
holdeth the earth in the hollow of his hand, and who numbereth the very
hairs of our heads, doeth all things well.
“We have good reason to believe that the religion he so long and
faithfully preached to others sustained him in the last trying hour; and
in the great day, when all mankind shall stand forth to be judged
according to the deeds done in the body, many will rise up and call him
blessed.
R.”
Thus passed away, by the hand of violence, one of the excellent of the
earth, “of whom the world was not worthy.” A faithful witness for the
word of God and the testimony of Jesus, having committed no offense
against the laws of God or man, he fell a martyr to the truth; gave his
life for a principle and a cause, and offered himself upon the service
and sacrifice of his chosen Church, and the faith she vindicates in his
death, and ascended the thrones of martyrdom, to await, with the martyrs
of all ages, the final and glorious triumph of the Kingdom of Messiah,
in whose service he counted not his life dear unto himself. It is a
grand thought that Infinite Goodness and Power has ordained that “Christ
must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet.” “Then cometh
the end.” “Even so: come Lord Jesus.”