This Week in Texas Methodist History June 30

David Hoover, Suspected of Being a Northern Methodist Flees for His Life, July 1860

The lynching of Anthony Bewley is well known to students of Texas Methodist history.  Bewley was a MEC preacher who w

Less well known is the story of David Hoover who had allowed Bewley to conduct services in his house at Birdville.  Hoover, too, was pursued by a lynch mob from Fort Worth, but managed to escape home to Indiana where he told his story.   (From A History of the MEC Church in the Southwest from 1844 to 1864 by Charles Elliott, 1868

Soon after this that is, 1858 I moved

 to Birdville, Tarrant County, Texas. There

 being no members of the Methodist Episcopal

 Church in that place, and the Methodist Episcopal

 Church South promising us protection, we

 joined that Church. Previous to that time,

 I had frequently been urged by preachers 

of other denominations to join the South, 

saying then I would have friends, and might 

be useful to the Church. I was a member of 

this Church about one year, during which time

 I have frequently heard the preachers and

 official members say, that the Northern 

abolition preachers were sent here to sow 

the seed of discord among the blacks. 

After living in Birdville about a year, 

I moved back to my farm. About this time, 

I had some relations come to see me from 

Indiana; this created some excitement.

 They wanted to know of me what their business 

was. I told them they had come to look for 

homes. About the middle of July my brother 

came to see me and to settle in Texas. 

"On the 25th of July, 1860, I left for 

Fort Worth on business, in company with 

my brother. When I got home next morning 

my family told me that, soon after leaving 

the morning previous for Fort Worth, a couple 

of men who hitherto professed to be my friends,

 came to let me know that the Fort Worth

 Committee were coming to see 

me. That week the Committee heard that I was 

a Northern Methodist; that I thought John Brown 

was a Christian; and if they proved such things, 

I was to be hung. If 

I had any business to fix up; I had better

 improve the time. Some of the Committee 

told my wife that I had too many strangers 

about me. She told them that we were 

members of the Church South. They said if 

the Committee knew that, they might not 

hang me. This was soon after they hung 

Crawford and others. After deliberation, 

I concluded to leave the God-forsaken country, 

let the sacrifice be what it might, and go 

to some free State where I could live in peace. 

"I started about eleven o'clock the same day,

 sick and feeble. We expected them to follow

 us. The second day we missed our way, a

 man giving us wrong directions, and 

we did not strike the road for a hundred 

miles. On the third day, being weary in 

body and mind, I fell asleep on the saddle, 

and lost my coat, pocket-book, papers, notes, etc. 

"While I told my brother to proceed to 

where the horses might obtain water, I

 traveled back five miles in search of my 

coat, etc., and had to return without finding

 them. Here we were in a strange land, and 

not knowing what minute we would be taken 

and hung. It was then I cried : ' Lord of hosts !

 Thou who preservest man and beast; if I have

 given no just cause for this persecution,

 then do, thou deliver me from bloody and 

deceitful men.' It was midnight when I 

returned. I lay down and slept till morning.

 The fourth day I felt that the Lord was

 with us. This day we heard of some people 

being run out of the State. On the fifth 

day a friend gave me a coat and vest. 

Another gave me thirteen dollars. On the

 sixth day we rested. On the seventh day 

we saw three families fleeing to a free 

State. On the eighth day, in the after- 

noon, we passed through Clarksville. 

While there, we learned that a couple 

of men had arrived from Fort Worth, 

whom we eluded, and escaped unobserved. 

I learned that the Texans followed us 

for eight days. On the ninth day we

 crossed Red River, and saw a man 

leaving for Illinois on horseback, 

intending to send back for his- 

family. The Fort Worth Committee 

did not follow us, but another did, one at a time."