'The report of my death was an exaggeration'

John Hill Aughey in 1860.

The Rev. James Hill Aughey, pastor of Chariton's First Presbyterian Church, accepted a call during early 1888 to serve another congregation, this one located at Mountain Top, Pa.

So there was widespread sorrow during early August of that year when The Chariton Democrat published the following brief notice: "The report is current here that Rev. J.H. Aughey, who was formerly the Presbyterian minister at this place, died at his present home, Mountain Top, Pa., on the 28th ult. The report comes from Mr. Brownlee, of English township, who takes a Presbyterian paper in which he saw a notice of the gentleman's death."

The Rev. Mr. Aughey, aged 60 at the time, had been one of Lucas County's most widely known clerics, based upon a literary reputation forged 20 years earlier. He was serving a congregation in Mississippi during the early 1860s when the Civil War broke out and, as an abolitionist and staunch Union man, had been arrested and imprisoned in Tupelo, Mississippi, as a Union spy --- twice --- but finally had escaped, escorted to safety in Ohio by Union troops.

His 1863 volume, "The Iron Furnace: or, Slavery and Secession," based upon his experiences in Mississippi, had been widely influential --- and a best-seller --- in the North.

While working in Chariton, Aughey had revised and expanded "The Iron Furnace" into a volume he titled "Tupelo," sending it off to a Nebraska publisher shortly before packing up his family and heading for Pennsylvania. It, too, would become a best-seller, but that still was in the future when the report of his death was published in Chariton.

Fortunately for Mr. Aughey, he was able to respond --- in words similar to those Mark Twain used somewhat later --- "The report of my death was an exaggeration."

Here is his letter to the editor of The Democrat, published on August 23, 1888:

A FALSE REPORT

Mr. Aughey not dead

The following letter from the Reverend gentleman will sufficiently explain itself. It is dated at Mountain Top, Pa., Aug. 14:

"In your paper of the 9th inst. you published a rumor of my death. Many papers have done the same, but all are mistaken. A minister of my name died near this place, and someone wired the New York Tribune that I was the decedent. I wrote the Tribune asking that a correction be made. This was done, but other papers are still publishing the false paragraph. The same rumor was circulated a few years ago when Rev. A.H. Aughey, a Lutheran minister, died suddenly on the floor of Synod at Gettysburg, Pa. I had hard work at that time to convince my remote friends that I was not dead.

"I preached three times last Sabbath, walking 12 miles down and up the mountain to meet these congregations. We live on the summit of the Wyoming range, Penobscot Peak, the highest point in northeastern Pennsylvania.

"We have just moved into the new and elegant parsonage built for our accommodation by the Mountain Top congregation. Today, the good people have given us a surprise and have brought with them many presents which will prove quite helpful to us and will serve as tokens of their good will toward the pastor and his family.

"Mrs. Aughey was a great sufferer from chronic asthma in former years. She has had no symptoms of the disease since our arrival here.

"My book 'Tupelo,' which has cost me years of incessant labor, has been published in Lincoln, Nebraska, and is enroute to me, so my publishers inform me.

"Please say to your readers that I still live by the grace of God, am hard at work. From the summit of this mountain we can see Scranton with its 80,000 inhabitants, Wyoming, Wilkesbarre, Nanticoke and a host of towns and cities. More soon. Yours truly. (signed) John H. Aughey."

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The Augheys left Pennsylvania during 1891 to serve in Oklahoma Territory as missionaries and during during 1894, their daughter, Gertrude, and Dr. John Stanton were married in Chariton, providing the link that brought the John H. Augheys back to Lucas County as he neared retirement from the active ministry at the turn of the 20th century to serve the Chariton congregation again.

By 1907, the couple had moved to Newton, New Jersey, to take advantage of services offered at the new Merriam Home for Aged (Presbyterian) Ministers. The couple lived there comfortably until his death on July 30, 1911. Mary (Paden) Aughey died at the Merriam Home during 1921. Both are buried in the Newton Cemetery.