As he paid no heed to these threats, he received a visitation during the Spring of 1871, which utterly ruined him, and from which he escaped with his life, only by the aid of Kaufmann. It appears that the Klan having beat McPherson almost to death, gave him twenty-four hours in which to leave the country, threatening to kill him if he did not do so. Suffering terribly from the dreadful scourging, McPherson was just able to get as far as Kaufmann's house, where he sought protection until such time as he might be able to travel and get away from the place. The good-natured German, filled with the humane instincts, natural to his people, at once took the refugee into his house, and cared for him for several days, without dreaming that he would incur the displeasure of anyone for such an act. He nursed McPherson tenderly for some four days, when the latter, dreading that the Klan might discover, and destroy, not only him, but his generous benefactor, left the house at night, and removed himself as far as possible from his persecutors. The fact of his having been harbored by Kaufmann, became known to the Klan, however, by some means, and they forthwith classed the latter as a radical. On the third night after McPherson's departure, about eight o'clock in the evening, the unsuspecting German was sitting with his wife and children before a log-fire--as the weather was still chilly--when the door was unceremoniously burst in and a score of the Klan filled the room. Kaufmann was rudely seized and a demand made upon him to know what he had done with that d--d radical McPherson. To this he made reply that he "didn't know such mans." Upon this, one of the band struck him a severe blow, telling him they meant to learn him not to interfere with their business. Mrs. Kaufmann implored them in broken English, not to hurt her husband; he had done nothing, and they had made a mistake. "He's done enough," said Butch Williams, the leader of the crowd, "You can't make any mistake on these dutchmen, they are all d--d radicals anyhow. Its born in 'em, but by ---- they shan't spit it out here." Kaufmann was then securely pinioned and whipped until he became unconscious. When the castigation was ended, the leader turning to Mrs. Kaufmann, and pointing to the bruised and bleeding body of her husband, as it lie upon the floor, said:-- "Now if that dirty, dutch scallawag ever comes to himself, you tell him to sell out and get away from here, or we'll be the death of the whole of you and burn the house over your heads. We'll give him just ten days to do it in." Kaufmann did revive at last, and when he learned the dread message which the Klan had left behind, saw with sorrow that he must relinquish his pleasant home, and become a wanderer; but the necessities of the case admitted of no other course. His property was disposed of at a ruinous sacrifice, and with his wife and little ones, he made his way to Illinois, where he now is.