Peter Cartwright (revivalist)

Peter Cartwright, Jr., the son of Peter Cartwright, Sr., and Christiana Garvin, was born in Amherst County, Virginia, present-day Nelson County, Virginia, between Findlay Mountain and Purgatory Swamp. Soon after his birth, Cartwright's family moved to what was then Kentucky County, now Logan County, Kentucky.

In 1801, at the age of 15, Peter Cartwright was converted, at a camp meeting, associated with the Revival of 1800, a series of sacrament meetings conducted by Presbyterian James McGready and other Presbyterian and Methodist ministers. He subsequently joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. He became a preacher in 1802 and was ordained in 1806 by Francis Asbury and William McKendree.[1] In 1812, Cartwright was appointed a presiding elder (now District Superintendent), and he served in that office for the next thirty-five years.

In 1808, Peter Cartwright married Frances Gaines. Together they had two sons and seven daughters, one of whom, Cynthia, died on the journey to Illinois.

Peter Cartwright served as a military chaplain during the War of 1812.

Peter Cartwright's tombstone, in Pleasant Plains Cemetery, Pleasant Plains, Sangamon County, Illinois

Peter Cartwright called himself "God's Plowman." As a circuit rider, he explained in his Autobiography, "My district was four hundred miles long, and covered all the west side of the Grand Prairie, fully two-thirds of the geographical boundaries of the state."

Peter Cartwright was a founding member of the Illinois Annual Conference in 1824, and remained in Illinois for the rest of his life. He was a towering figure of frontier Methodism and one of the most colorful and energetic preachers Methodism has produced. During his five decades of ministry, he was elected to 13 General Conferences (1816 through 1856, missing only 1832).

Peter Cartwright was charismatic; he pursued a divine calling, not a profession. His conversion of others to Methodism, rather than his own education, gained him admission to the ministry and verified his methods. His sermons were always extemporaneous, anecdotal, and participatory. He was a master of charismatic domination and used it effectively to create the ecstatic conversion required to be reborn. He opposed the routinization and institutionalization of religion and favored the more democratic, egalitarian, and associational form of the frontier circuits. Theologically he was an Arminian, and was convinced that all people could be saved, especially through the camp meeting revival.[2]

In the Methodist church, the presiding elder oversaw the works of preachers and churches to which he was assigned, and was below the bishop in the denomination's chain of command. In the 19th-century presiding elders were the most important officers in the Methodist "army" that sought to "conquer the land for Christ." Cartwright, who served as a presiding elder for 50 years, demonstrated that the office was that of a sub-bishop who was not always popular with his subordinates. Cartwright was strong-willed in his office and was often accused of being dictatorial, but he eventually earned notoriety as the father of Illinois Methodism.[3]

Peter Cartwright had little formal education and was skeptical of its value at first, but reversed course and promoted Methodist education. He helped found McKendree College (Lebanon), Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington); and Illinois Conference Female Academy in Jacksonville (now MacMurray College).

Peter Cartwright jumped into politics as a Democrat. In the 1832 election for what became his second term in the Illinois legislature, Cartwright was one of four candidates elected (in a field of thirteen including a Kentucky store clerk and rail splitter named Abraham Lincoln, who came in eighth). "I was beaten", Abraham Lincoln later wrote, "the only time I have even been beaten by the people." Cartwright had first met Lincoln in 1830, during his own unsuccessful run for Governor.[4] In 1846, the Springfield Whig, Lincoln, defeated Cartwright to represent the area in the United States Congress, some constituents being offended by Cartwright's mixing of religion and politics, others by his vehemence against alcohol.[5]

Politically, Peter Cartwright was a Jacksonian Democrat who trusted in the ability of the common man. Unlike Jackson, Cartwright opposed slavery. He advocated moral suasion to end it, fearing that political action would threaten the federal union, another core element of national identity. Cartwright also supported expansionism—both to spread American values and to increase economic opportunity. To him, manhood was demonstrated by singleness of purpose despite all obstacles and by economic independence.[6]

Peter Cartwright's hatred of slavery in Kentucky, and his failure to convince the slaveholders to free their slaves, led him to move to Illinois in 1824, where slavery was illegal.

In his Autobiography he said that in Illinois he,

would get entirely clear of the evil of slavery, that he could improve his financial situation and procure lands for my children as they grew up. And ... I could carry the Gospel to destitute souls that had, by their removal into some new country, been deprived of the means of grace.

From his Autobiography of Peter Cartwright: The Backwoods Preacher, published in 1857, Peter Cartwright described his conversion in his own words:

To this meeting I repaired, a guilty, wretched sinner. On the Saturday evening of said meeting, I went, with weeping multitudes, and bowed before the stand, and earnestly prayed for mercy. In the midst of a solemn struggle of soul, an impression was made on my mind, as though a voice said to me, "Thy sins are all forgiven thee." Divine light flashed all round me, unspeakable joy sprung up in my soul. I rose to my feet, opened my eyes, and it really seemed as if I was in heaven; the trees, the leaves on them, and everything seemed, and I really thought were, praising God. My mother raised the shout, my Christian friends crowded around me and joined me in praising God; and though I have been since then, in many instances, unfaithful, yet I have never, for one moment, doubted that the Lord did, then and there, forgive my sins and give me religion.

Peter Cartwright died, near Pleasant Plains, Sangamon County, Illinois, on September 15, 1872.[1]

A Virginia Historical marker honors Peter Cartwright, near his birthplace.[7][8] Kentucky's Adairville marks his boyhood home.[9] An Illinois Historical marker honors Peter Cartwright in Sangamon County, near his home and grave.[10]

The present Cartwright Church began in 1824, as a class in the Cartwright home. In 1838, Peter Cartwright donated land and $300 toward the construction of a log chapel where the congregation worshipped until 1853. By that time, the church had grown so much that it had to divide into two congregations. One moved two miles west and built the Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church (which was torn down in 1953). The other moved into the new village of Pleasant Plains, Illinois and constructed the current building in 1857. Two additions have been made, but the sanctuary is nearly the same as during Cartwright's time.

• Cartwright, Peter. Autobiography of Peter Cartwright: The Backwoods Preacher. Carlton & Porter, 1857.
• Bray, Robert. Peter Cartwright, Legendary Frontier Preacher. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2005.

• Auto-biography from Illinois Historical Digitization Project
• Autobiography of Peter Cartwright