Methodist Circuit Rider Peter Cartwright Feared No One
A frontier evangelist, Cartwright had many interesting tales to tell.
PETER CARTWRIGHT grew up a Kentucky tough guy. Born in Virginia in 1785, his parents took him west to Logan County when he was about six. Known as “Rogue’s Harbor” because of its swarms of outlaws, Logan County was an ideal training ground for a future evangelist who would work among truly desperate men. At sixteen, though, he was becoming a wild man. Cartwright’s Methodist mother pleaded and prayed for him.
The Lord heard her prayers. Following one wasted night, Cartwright was temporarily blinded and thought death had come. He recognized he was a sinner in need of a savior and fell on his knees, imploring God’s mercy and promising to live for Jesus. For several months afterward he wrestled with guilt and terror. Finally, after attending a nearby camp meeting and struggling for hours, he received the strong impression that Christ forgave his sins.
At once he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. Within two years, over his protests, he was impressed into service as a traveling preacher. He pleaded his lack of education and inexperience. Methodist leaders said the job would be the best education he could get, and commanded him to create a circuit around the mouth of the Cumberland River. Next year, he reported that Livingstone Circuit was organized with seventy members.
In later years, his rough past and hardy constitution served him well, for he encountered floods, thieves, hunger, and disease. He was particularly apt at dealing with rowdies who tried to disrupt his meetings. When one bully swore he would whip him, Cartwright suggested they step into the woods and duke it out. Leaping over a fence at the edge of the campground, he landed painfully and clutched his side. The bully thought he was going for a dagger and ran for his life. One rumor said Cartwright had even fought legendary river boatman Mike Fink.
As his fame grew, crowds flocked to hear him. Cartwright preached throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, and Illinois. It was not uncommon for him to speak three hours at a stretch, several times a week. His meetings sometimes lasted all day and through the night. Ten thousand came to Christ through him. He baptized them, organized them, and urged them to build churches. Recognizing a desperate need for preachers to lead these new converts, he backed the creation of Methodist colleges.
Although his salary was barely $50 a year, Cartwright married and started a family. He lost one of his daughters when a tree fell on her in the night, where they had been forced to camp in the open. He had difficulty finding anyone to help with the girl’s burial.
In 1823, Cartwright left Kentucky for Illinois. He was afraid his daughters would marry slave owners. In Illinois, he beat Abraham Lincoln in a local election, but lost to him for a place in the U.S. Congress.
Cartwright was afraid of no one. Once he warned General Andrew Jackson (a future President of the United States) that he would be damned to hell just as quickly as the lowest slave if he did not repent. When another preacher apologized for Cartwright’s words, Jackson retorted that Christ’s ministers ought to love everybody and fear no one, and wished aloud for a thousand officers with the courage of Cartwright.
Peter Cartwright died on this day, 25 September 1872. He was eighty-seven. His autobiography became a classic of frontier literature.
—Dan Graves
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Peter Cartwright rode a circuit in an effective system developed by Methodist innovator Francis Asbury. Christian History #114, Francis Asbury: Pioneer of Methodism
For more about circuit riders such as Cartwright, see Christian History #45, Camp Meetings & Circuit Riders
