The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1935-08-29


years he rode up and down the land
carrying the Word to the remotest
settlements
During that time he preached more than Is 600
sermons and haptised more than 1900 persons
And those are only the highghts In the career
OF Peter Cartwright, backwoods Methodist
preacher, circuit rider and one of the most pic
turesque figures In the history of the American
frontier. Because he spoke the language OF the
pioneering folk, could hold his own as a man
among men In the rough and tumble of debate
o. OF physical encounter but. more particularly,
because of his eccentrictIes, the legends OF him
were almost numberless. They were as famil-
lar at the iresides of an elder generation as the
tales of the Cid were to the people OF Spain In
the olden times. Not mfr. Travers or Davy
Crockett hardly even President Lincoln was
tho subject of more anecdotes than this ouch
beloved itinerant preacher"
A native Of Amherst county, Virginia, Cart
wright when six years old, was taken by his
parents to Kentucky. They settled first In Lin
ccln county, near the present site OF Lancaster,
then moved to place south of Rnshvie In
Logan county, within mile OF the Kentucky
Tennessee boundary line Cartwright describes
this section as such a haunt for refugees from
justice that 1t was called "Rogues Harbor,"
filled with "murderers, horse thieves highway
robbers and ccunterfeiters." Certainly 1t was
virgin soil for the labors of the future preacher
and It gave him valuable experience for the role
which he to play In the future In the from
tier country Of the Mississippi Valley.
In 1901 young Cartwright was converted and
united with the Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal
church. He displayed such talent and fervor
In speaking that the following year he received
from the Society of Ebenezer permission to ex-
ercise his gifts as an eXh0rter so long his
exhorting conformed to Its doctrines In 1903
he became regular travelling preacher or circuit
rider on the Red River circuit. Within nine
years he was presiding elder In Kentucky and
In Illinois to which he removed In 1923. He held
that office for half a century, during which time
the membership of the church within his juris-
diction grew from 10000 to 1,T50,000
One Of his contemporaries has left us this
vivid word picture Of the famous circuit rider.
Telling Of attending services in a little church
In Illinois, he says:
"Our attention was arrested by strange ap-
partition striding up the aisle. All seemed whis
pering to their neighbors, There he goesr and
all eyes were riveted upon man OF medium
height, thickset, with enormous bone and muscle
and although his iron-gray hair and wrinkled
brow told of the advance OF years his step was
still vigorous and firm His face was bronzed
by exposure to the weather. he carried a white
Quaker hat In his hand, and his upper garment
was a furnturecalico dressing gown without
wadding The truant breeze seemed to seize
this garment by its skirt, and lifting 1t to level
with his armpits, disclosed to the gazing congre-
cation a full view of the ccpperas-coored panta-
looms and shirt of the divlne-for he was d.
vine, and one worth days journey to see
"He had then been a backwoods preacher for
nearly 40 years, ranging the country from the
n IN
the Mississippi. He Injured to every form
of hardship and had looked calmly at peril Of
every kind-the tomahawk of the Indian the
spring of the panther, the hug of the bear. the
sweep Of the tornado, the rush of swollen tor
rents, and the fearful chasm of the earthquake
He had lain in the canebrake and made his bed
upon the snow of the prairie and on the oozy
soil Of the swamp. and had wandered hunger
bitten, among the solitudes of the mountains He
had been In jeopardy among robbers and In dan
ger from desperadoes who had sworn to take his
life. He had preached In the cabin of the slave
and the mansion of the master, to the Indians
and to the OF the border. He had taken
his life In his hands and had ridden In the path
o. whizzlng bullets, that he might proclaim peace
He had stood on the outskirts OF civilization and
the first corners to the woods and
praires
MANY son of Anak had been leyeled In the
dust by his sledgeke fist, and when the blind
fury Of his assailants urged him headlcng into
personal conflict with him his agility strength
and resolution gave them cause for bitter re-
pentance.
Such was the man that now stood before rs
IN the desk, the famous presiding elder OF ILL.,
nois-the renowned Peter Cartwright"
Truly churchman militant was this same,
renowned Peter Cartwright One story told Of