BIO:Peter Cartwright 1785-1872

American Methodist circuit rider. Peter Cartwright was born 
in Amherst County, Virginia. His father was a colonial 
soldier in the War of Independence. Shortly after the War, the 
family moved to Kentucky, which was then a wilderness filled 
with thousands of hostile Indians. There, in those frontier 
surroundings, Peter Cartwright was reared. And, like many of 
the young men in that primitive area, became wild and wicked, 
engaging in many sinful practices. His mother was a devout 
Christian woman, who opened their cabin home for preaching by 
the Methodist circuit preachers.

        As a young man of 16, Peter was convicted of his sins 
as a result of these meetings. And, after several weeks of 
deep agony and contrition, he was soundly converted at an 
outdoor revival meeting. His new faith completely changed his 
life, and he immediately began to witness for Christ.

        One year later, he was licensed as an "exhorter" and 
began riding a circuit of his own. His appointments were few 
and far between, and he preached wherever people would open 
their homes, because meeting houses were few. At the end of 
three months, he had taken 25 people into the Methodist 
Church, and had received a salary of $6.00. This was the 
beginning of his long career as a circuit-riding Methodist 
preacher.

        Cartwright was a hellfire-and-brimstone preacher after 
the style of Wesley, and his character and personality 
often matched his sermons. Often, he personally thrashed the 
rowdies who disturbed his camp meetings--after which he saw 
many of them "get religion."

        His fearlessness is described in an incident which 
took place in Nashville. As he was preaching, General Andrew 
Jackson entered the service. The local preacher whispered the 
news to Cartwright, which prompted him to thunder, "And who 
is General Jackson? If General Jackson doesn't get his soul 
converted, God will damn him as quickly as anyone else!" 
Jackson smiled and later told Cartwright that he was "a man 
after my own heart."

        In over 50 years of traveling circuits in Kentucky, 
Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, Cartwright received 
10,000 members into the Methodist Church, personally baptized 
12,000, conducted over 500 funerals, and preached more than 
15,000 sermons. He was strongly opposed to comfort in religion, 
education, and culture in the ministry; his equipment 
consisted of a black broadcloth suit and a horse with 
saddlebags, while his library was composed of his Bible, 
hymnbook, and Methodist discipline. He was the epitome of the 
Methodist circuit riders who preached, traveled, suffered, 
and firmly planted the old-time religion in the frontier of 
the infant United States of America.
