Baptist martyr in Virginia- John R Moffett by Jim Curran

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Jim Curran  · 11/2/21  · Baptist martyr in Virginia- John R Moffett

This seems to be a fitting day to relate the story of John Moffett- Virginia’s martyr. In colonial Virginia many men languished in dank prison cells for preaching the Gospel, they were threatened and their meetings violently broken up but yet none were killed for their faith. That would happen later. Moffatt died not in colonial Virginia but rather in November of 1892 in Danville, VA- a victim of the liquor trade and likely the Democratic political machine. Moffett had first came to to the North Danville Baptist Church (at the time North Danville was a separate municipality from Danville) in July of 1887. At that time the church was meeting in a rented room over the schoolhouse. God would multiply the work reaching people all over North Danville. On December 1st 1889 a $13,000 building was dedicated and the work would further multiply. Moffett also began to have an impact in other areas. He was instrumental in the founding of an orphanage. One thing that he would be noted to stand against was the liquor traffic. He had seen the horrible impact that it had on families in the community and began to publish a monthly paper “Anti-liquor” against it. He would also have a great hand in a convention that met at the same time as the Virginia house of Delegates. The convention requested such simple common sense measures as outlawing the production of liquor within 500 feet of a school or church and the licensing of distillers. This would result in a bill being proposed and quickly buried. Moffett’s continued publication of the paper would continue to rouse the ire of the liquor crowd and a large portion of the Democratic machine. This came out during several local elections when Moffett supported the prohibition party. During a local option election on liquor a speaker was pelted with rotten eggs. Moffett took a position in front of the speaker and a man liquored up with alcohol put a gun to Moffett’s chest- and the gun fortunately did not fire. The elections of this time were firmly under the hand of the Democratic machine. A secret ballot was not really possible. The democrats had the habit of having one man holding their tickets at the polling place. A man voting and not getting a ticket would be marked as voting against. In other words the prohibitionists could not secure a ballot!! Even if he were able to in all likelihood it would be counted the opposite. To counteract this an attempt was made to print tickets (with the cooperation of other democrats that disagreed with the system) by printing a ballot in the Chatham paper that was a exact duplicate and thus could be handed in when voting in person. Of course this aroused the ire of the machine when they could not control the vote and all sorts of accusations were leveled at Moffett. Moffett was walking down the street going home past the polling place when a Democratic liquor advocate Clarke rushed him waving papers in his hand screaming . Moffett punched him (I suspect feeling threatened as witnesses reported he did not show anger) and went up to tell the crowd about what had happened with the tickets to their satisfaction. Moffett would regret hitting Clark. On Friday November 11th Moffett was walking from the newspaper office to the church a man walked directly toward him and while a few feet away a shot was fired. Moffett sprang upon his assailant to stop the firing to no avail with three other shots ringing out. Moffett fell to the ground gravely wounded when his assailant aimed to fire at him one more time and was restrained by a nearby policeman and arrested. His assailant was none other than Clark who was released on Bond in 30 MINUTES! Without even hearing from Moffett or the witnesses. Moffett would be operated on to remove the bullets but to no avail he would linger from Friday until going home to be with his Savior that Sunday morning. He made a dying declaration that Clarke shot him without warning. At Moffett’s funeral the church was packed and many of the Baptist pastors of Virginia attended the funeral. Danville and North Danville were two separate communities- North Danville had largely stood behind Moffett but his stance on the liquor trade had aroused the ire of Danville- specially that of the Democratic establishment. Clarke had been a bartender and very involved in the Democratic party. Clarke’s trial was in many ways a farce. It was apparent in statements that the jury was packed. Clarke had the best five lawyers in Danville which by all accounts he could not have afforded. (Likely they were paid for by the Democratic party) The prosecutor had been in office for only about a year and was inexperienced as well as involved in the Democratic party. The defense would bring politics into the case vilifying the Prohibition party. It was even said in the trial that the prisoners act “had been applauded by Jesus Christ.” how wicked! Clarke was only given five years in prison for manslaughter. The Democratic press largely downplayed all the events- yet a Baptist pastor had been shot by a politician and a member of the liquor crowd. After his death North Danville Baptist was renamed Moffett Memorial Baptist Church. As for Danville we still retain much of the dichotomy that happened then- there are churches on every corner seemingly but the city just voted to allow a casino. Pray for us as we reach the city. His story was taken largely from a biography of him written after his death by S.H. Thompson. My copy was found in an estate sale here in Danville in a dilapidated Victorian house that must have been fabulous in it’s day but now was a run down shadow of itself. The book too is much like that house raggedy and has seen better days but is a diamond in the rough. An electronic copy is at https://archive.org/…/lifeofjohnrmoffe…/page/n7/mode/2up