It is sad to record the wanton murder of so many good and true ministers of the Gospel, so many who had spent half a lifetime in their holy calling, and done so much good in their day and generation.

 In what rapid succession did they pass away by the hands of violence during those dark and bloody days!  In no part of the State were ministers exempt from persecu­tion and suffering for righteousness sake.

The name of another good and useful minister of the Gospel, and the manner of his cruel murder, must find a place here and illustrate this sad history.

The Rev. William Polk was a minister of the United Baptist Church, and resided eight miles east of Ironton, in Madison County, Missouri. He had been a minister of the Gospel over thirty years, and much of that time was a member of what is known as the Bethel Association.

 As a minister he had been the means in the hands of God of doing much good. His labors extended through the counties of Iron, Madison, St. Francois and Reynolds, in which he had been extensively useful and wielded a very large influence for good.

At one time he published a religious newspaper at Ironton, Iron County, which circulated principally in Southeast Missouri.

Mr. Polk was a peaceable, quiet, orderly, upright man; intelligent and honored in all the relations of life and loved and respected by all who know him.

The following brief statement will bring sadness to many fond hearts:

“On the 4th day of November, 1864, three men belonging to the Missouri .State Militia, then stationed at Ironton, went to the house of Rev. Mr. Polk and arrested him in the presence of his family.

They rob­bed him of his money, about forty dollars, and started off with him, as they said, to Fredericktown.    

The conversation at the house, when he was arrested, and many other intimations of their purpose, induced Mr. Polk to anticipate their designs. They started with him toward Fredericktown, and after going about one hundred yards from the house they shot him three times, killing him instantly. After seeing him fall and expire they rode away, leaving his lifeless body in the road as it fell.

Before leaving the house Mr. Polk was so certain that he anticipated their designs that he told his wife and children that they would kill him. He also told his captors, in the presence of his family, that he was aware of their intention, that he was prepared to die, had no fear of death, and that he forgave them, and from the sincerity of his heart prayed to God to forgive them.

"Rev. Wm. Polk was a true man, a good neighbor, a generous friend, a useful minister, highly esteemed by his Church, respected and beloved by all who knew him, and his death, together with the manner of it, is deeply regretted in all this section of the country. He was fifty-eight years of age."

It is scarcely a matter of doubt in the minds of those in the community where Mr. Polk was murdered as to the author of the horrible crime. About a year after the war closed the Grand Jury for Madison County found a true bill of indictment against one David Man­ning for the murder of Mr. Polk. He was duly arrested and by change of venue formally tried in the Circuit Court for Iron county. The evidence against him was very clear and positive, but the jury, for reasons best known to themselves, declined to convict him.

The determination to acquit Manning was so apparent that the attorneys for the prosecution absolutely abandoned the case in disgust and contempt.

This Manning belonged to the command of a Major Leeper, stationed at Ironton at the time of the murder. The responsibility of this foul murder reaches those who were high in authority; and the names of other well known ministers had been put upon the "dead list" at the same time.

The murderers went from the dead body of Mr. Polk to the residence of Rev. Andrew Peace, of the M. E. Church, South, with murderous intent. Not finding him at home they departed, but returned again in about two weeks to find Mr. Peace absent again. They were so enraged that they shot and killed a young man on the spot, and also shot down the stock belonging to the man whom a kind Providence shielded from their bloody purpose.

Should any be tempted to question the correctness of these statements, he is requested to call on the author.

Of what crime were these good men guilty? When, where, by whom were they tried, convicted and sen­tenced? Who were their accusers, judge and jury? All the efforts made to ascertain the crime for which Mr. Polk was murdered, or the accusation against him, have been fruitless. The only rational hypothesis scorns to be this, that the general spirit of persecution marked Mr. Polk as its victim because he was a minister of Christ, a good and useful man, and the cowardly instru­ments stood ready to execute the decree of this modern Antichrist of which those in authority, with their aiders and abetters, seem to have been possessed. The spirit of an unclean devil entered into them, and God's high

and holy ambassadors were the victims.

"Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea, rather that is risen again"

Rev. Thomas Johnson

"Some there are By their good deeds exalted, lofty minds, And meditative authors of delight And happiness, which to the End of Time Will live, and spread, and flourish."

Martyrdom In Missouri – Volume II - 1870

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