Ohio History Journal

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Peter Cartwright's

CIRCUIT RIDING Days in Ohio

 

by CHARLES TOWNSEND

 

 

A famous historian, referring to the people on the American frontier,

once wrote: "Whether Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, Baptist, or Methodist,

these people saturated their religion and their politics with feeling. Both

the stump and the pulpit were centers of energy, electric cells capable

of starting widespreading fires. They felt their religion and their democ-

racy, and were ready to fight for it."1 Peter Cartwright, one of the most

celebrated religious leaders of the early West, easily fits into his descrip-

tion. Though Cartwright served two terms in the Illinois legislature and

 

 

NOTES ARE ON PAGE 145