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The career of Peter Cartwright has been one of the most remarkable and eventful known in the history of the great northwest. There was scarcely a town or village or city in Illinois where the name of Peter Cartwright was not familiar. He had been for sixty-five years an effective itinerant Methodist preacher, not having lost six months’ labor in that long period of time. During that period he served as presiding elder fifty years. He had wonderful powers of oratory, and often at his campmeetings there would be 200 to 300 conversions under his preaching.

He first visited that section of country between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers in 1827. He crossed the Illinois river at Beardstown, and traveled across the country to Atlas on the Mississippi river, that town then being the county seat of Pike county. He there found some ten or twelve families, and among them were three brothers, William, John and Leonard Ross. They had laid out the town of Atlas. They came from the state of New York. They had bought up considerable land in that vicinity. Mr. Cartwright stopped with William Ross over night and attended a campmeeting that was held ten miles from Atlas, which was the first campmeeting held in Pike county. The same fall he held a campmeeting in Schuyler county, near Rushville.

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He came into Fulton county, stayed at my father’s house in Lewistown over night, and preached that evening in the log courthouse at Lewistown. He went from there to Canton, where he attended a campmeeting that was held in a beautiful grove of timber on the west side of Canton. That was the second campmeeting that was held in the county. After the campmeeting was over he took a trip up into Rock river country that was then settled with Indians. His great and sympathetic heart went out for the good and welfare of the poor Indians, as well as for the white people. He believed that civilizing and Christianizing them was far better than fighting them. He was instrumental in having his church establish a mission among the Pottawattomie Indians, which was located on Rock river; and it might truthfully be said that he was the first missionary that labored among those wild Indians. He was appointed superintendent of the mission and conducted it with much ability until the Indians were driven out of the country during the Black Hawk war.

Mr. Cartwright was always in politics a democrat of the Andrew Jackson stamp. He was twice elected a member of the Illinois legislature, his opponent at one time being Abraham Lincoln, who ran on the Whig ticket. That party being in the majority in his district at the time, Mr. Lincoln was elected by a small majority.

Mr. Cartwright was a descendant of a loyal and patriotic ancestry, his father having severed for two and one-half years in the War of the Revolution for American Independence; and when the War of the Rebellion in the south took place, and Mr. Lincoln called for volunteers, Mr. Cartwright rushed to Springfield and hoisted the American flag on top of the Methodist church in that city, and used all of his influence to put down the Rebellion.

Mr. Cartwright, who had labored so heroically when he first came to Illinois to prevent the planting of the institution of slavery on the soil of that state, found, after he had lived in the state about twenty years, that an effort was being made to plant

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another institution over the state which he regarded as being almost as pernicious and vile as that of slavery, and that was Mormonism, which included polygamy, and his righteous indignation was aroused to the highest pitch. For the Mormons, who had been driven out of Missouri for their bad conduct, had crossed the Mississippi and had spread themselves over several of the counties in Illinois, and their preachers and elders traveled through every town and neighborhood and were very zealous in propagating their doctrines and winning over converts to their religion; and they also took an active part in the politics of the times, and at all elections they cast their votes as a unit; and in some of the counties they had elected some of their elders to seats in the legislature and to fill county offices. So Peter Cartwright got after the Mormons with all the power and might that he possessed, and did much to check their pernicious and mischievous conduct in many localities.

After Mr. Cartwright had been elected the fiftieth time as a presiding elder, his church, which convened in conference at Quincy in 1868, passed a resolution that at their next conference, that was to be held at Lincoln in 1869, that a grand ovation, or a kind of jubilee, should be given him in honor of his fifty years’ service as presiding elder. At that conference a very large number of ministers were present—the largest that had ever before assembled in Illinois. Also a number of ministers came from other states to pay their homage and respect to the grand old veteran. Rev. I. P. Newman came all the way from Washington City to see him. Many eloquent speeches were made, many letters of congratulations were read, and many handsome and costly presents were given him. Among the letters read were notable ones from Ex-Governors Richard Yates and R. J. Oglesby. In Governor Yates’ letter, among the many good things he had to say about the old elder, was the following:

"During the war, when the governor of the state needed the support of all good men in the union cause, he felt cheered and

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strengthened by the earnest approval and strong influence of Peter Cartwright."

In Gov. Oglesby’s letter he said:

"For as long as I can remember, the name of Peter Cartwright has been a household word in our western country. Bold, honest, earnest and untiring, he has stood on the frontier of advancing civilization to proclaim the truth of God and history. It is the completion of his semi-centennial eldership of your church. A jubilee such as this can come to few men. Few are favored with such length of life in which to do good for mankind."

At the jubilee conference Gov. Oglesby sent to the committee a beautiful and magnificent chair with his compliments, as follows:

"I will thank you to present the chair sent to your care to Elder Cartwright, and request that he will accept it as a testimonial of friendship and respect, upon which, in the weary days of an honorable old age, he may occasionally be seated to rest from his labors.

"R. J. Oglesby."

At the time of the jubilee conference Elder Cartwright was eight-four years of age, though he lived to his eight-seventh year, and his wife lived to the age of eight-six. The lived together as husband and wife for sixty-four years. They had nine children (two sons and seven daughters), fifty grandchildren, thirty-seven great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson. Three of their daughters married traveling Methodist Episcopal ministers, two of whom had been presiding elders; and all of their children, and many of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, were members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

After the jubilee conference was over, in 1869, Mr. Cartwright concluded that he would retire from further labors

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and spend the balance of his days with his wife on their beautiful farm at Pleasant Plains where they had lived for forty years. The old elder stood it bravely for six months, and then he became restless and uneasy, and his old propensity and desire for preaching and the distribution of religious books and tracts came back upon him so that he could stand leisure and idleness no longer. So he packed a carpet-sack with religious literature and started off on a missionary tour. He traveled through several of the states and territories, and on his return he said the following:

"I will furnish a brief statement of my labors during this year. I have dedicated eight churches, preached at seventy-seven funerals, addressed eight schools, baptized twenty adults and fifty children, married five couples, received fifteen into the church on probation and twenty-five into full connection; have raised $25 missionary money; have donated $20 for new churches, written 112 letters, received in donations $50, and for my lectures and sermons $700; for traveling expenses $650, and sold $200 worth of books."

Now that was certainly a good account of stewardship for a year’s labor by a man that was eighty-six years of age.

Mr. Cartwright, on his return from his last year’s missionary tour, had many circumstances and incidents of very great interest to relate, and I will relate one of them: He had taken his seat in the cars one day when a lady came and introduced herself to him, stating that he had baptized her when she was a child, and that then she had a large family, who were with her in the cars; that they were moving to a distant part of the country, away from church privileges, and she wanted him to baptize her family. When the conductor came into the car he told him that this lady desired him to baptize her children, and asked him if he would allow him the privilege. The conductor told him that there were a great many passengers on the cars who were in a hurry to get through, and he could not stop the train. He told the conductor that if he would grant him the privilege he could baptize them if

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his train was running at lightning speed. The conductor told him to go ahead; and when water was brought he baptized the family and sent them on their way rejoicing; and he would gladly have baptized the whole car-load if they had been fit subjects for baptism.

There are few ministers, if any, that have lived in the last century that can show such a record of long and faithful service in the Christian faith; and for many long years will his noble deeds and sacrifices be remembered and his sacred memory be cherished deep down in the hearts of a grateful country and generous people. It would be right and proper that a monument should be erected to his sacred memory, the same as has been done over the grave of the noble Lincoln.

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