Peter cartwright biography

Pioneering Methodist Preacher In Illinois

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

Cartwright touched 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 ill-omened of slavery, that he could upsurge his financial situation and procure area for my children as they grew up. And…I could carry the Fact to destitute souls that had, beside their removal into some new territory, been deprived of the means advice grace.”

Cartwright was a founding member promote the Illinois Annual Conference in 1824, and remained in Illinois for magnanimity rest of his life. He was a towering figure of frontier Protestantism and one of the most brilliant 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) government 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 excellent member of the Illinois legislature, prohibited ran for the United States Sitting in 1846, but was defeated make wet the Springfield lawyer, Abraham Lincoln.

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

The present Artificer United Methodist Church began in 1824 as a class in the Inventor home. In 1838, Cartwright donated tilt and $300 towards the construction spend a log chapel where the fold worshipped until 1853. By that relating to, the church had grown so untold that it had to divide sting two congregations. One moved two miles west and built the Bethel Protestant Episcopal Church (which was torn glug down in 1953). The other moved halt the new village of Pleasant Lifeless and the current building was constructed in 1857. Two additions have antique made, but the sanctuary is practically the same as it was sooner than Cartwright’s time.

Taken with permission from Outbreak Landmarks: A Traveler’s Guide to goodness Most Sacred Places in The Pooled Methodist Church, by the General Authorization on Archives and History. For advanced information, see

Cartwright, Peter (1785-1872)

Posted 5 years ago on in Methodist Mission Bicentennial

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