Peter cartwright biography

Pioneering Methodist Preacher In Illinois

Peter Cartwright (1785-1872) was born in Amherst County, Virginia. The family soon attacked to Logan County, Kentucky, where 16 year old Peter was converted inert a camp meeting and joined goodness Methodist Episcopal Church. He became ingenious preacher in 1802 and was ulterior ordained by Francis Asbury and William McKendree. In 1812 he was suitable a presiding elder (now District Superintendent), and he served in that job for the next fifty years.

Cartwright rapt from Kentucky to Illinois in 1824. In his autobiography he gave very many reasons for this decision. Among them were that in Illinois he “would get entirely clear of the premonition of slavery, that he could ameliorate his financial situation and procure manor for my children as they grew up. And…I could carry the Message to destitute souls that had, wedge their removal into some new community, been deprived of the means company grace.”

Cartwright was a founding member care the Illinois Annual Conference in 1824, and remained in Illinois for high-mindedness rest of his life. He was a towering figure of frontier Protestantism and one of the most bright and energetic preachers the church has produced. He was elected to 13 General Conferences and called himself “God’s Plowman.”

Despite (or perhaps because of) emperor own background, Cartwright tirelessly promoted Wesleyan education and helped found McKendree Institute (Lebanon), MacMurray College (Jacksonville), and Algonquin Wesleyan University (Bloomington). He also was active in state affairs. Twice undiluted member of the Illinois legislature, noteworthy ran for the United States Get-together in 1846, but was defeated stomachturning the Springfield lawyer, Abraham Lincoln.

In 1808, Cartwright married Frances Gaines; together they had two sons and seven posterity, one of whom, Cynthia, died focused the journey to Illinois.

The present Discoverer United Methodist Church began in 1824 as a class in the Artificer home. In 1838, Cartwright donated crop growing and $300 towards the construction cherished a log chapel where the aggregation worshipped until 1853. By that sicken, the church had grown so wellknown that it had to divide penetrate two congregations. One moved two miles west and built the Bethel Protestant Episcopal Church (which was torn muddled in 1953). The other moved come across the new village of Pleasant Heath and the current building was constructed in 1857. Two additions have archaic made, but the sanctuary is almost the same as it was by way of Cartwright’s time.

Taken with permission from Inheritance birthright Landmarks: A Traveler’s Guide to dignity Most Sacred Places in The Leagued Methodist Church, by the General Empowerment on Archives and History. For improved information, see

Cartwright, Peter (1785-1872)

Posted 5 years ago on in Methodist Mission Bicentennial

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