Chapter 32

PETER CARTWRIGHT.

Birth--Removal to Kentucky--"Rogue's harbor"--Condition of the country and the people--Frontier life--Early life of a preacher--Becomes a Christian--His account of his conversion--Is made an exhorter in the Methodist Church--Removal to Lewiston County--Begins preaching--Qualifications of a backwoods preacher--His energy--The jerks--How Peter frightened a bully--A brimstone angel--Enters the ministry--Appointed to the Marietta Circuit--A good school--Hard times--Marries--Quiet heroism--How the old-time people married--His devotion to the Methodist Church--Troubles with other denominations--How he argued with a Universalist--How he met a wrathful dame--Encounter with a Baptist preacher--Adventure with Father Teel--Taming a shrew--Removal to Illinois--His reasons for taking that step--Death of his daughter--Arrival at his new home--Life on the frontier--A large district--The Methodist circuit riders of sixty years ago--Perils of frontier traveling--Success of Cartwright's ministry--How he was superannuated--His courage--How he cleared a camp of rowdies--Encounter on a ferry-boat--Frightens a bully--Advocates temperance--A practical joke--Is elected to the Legislature--His opinion of politics--How he raised the devil--"Another sinner down"--Missionaries from the East--Indignation of the backwoods preacher--The proposed mission to New England--Cartwright declines it--He visits Boston--His reception--How he preached for Father Taylor--Summing up--Sixty-seven years of a preacher's life.

IX. AUTHORS.