g the favor of those among
whom they live indicates the character of those whose favor has been
gained. Preachers, land dealers, lawyers, town builders, and politicians
can not thrive in a hostile community. It is worth while in studying
Illinois in its frontier stage to notice some of the chief traits of its
leaders.

No better type of the pioneer preacher need be sought than the Rev. Dr.
Peter Cartwright. He preached in the West for nearly seventy years, during
which time he delivered some eighteen thousand sermons, baptized some
fifteen thousand persons, received into the church nearly twelve thousand
members, and licensed preachers enough to make a whole conference. He was
for fifty years a presiding elder in the Methodist Episcopal church. His
home was in Illinois from 1824 until his death in 1872. Aside from his
ministerial duties he twice represented Sangamon county in the Illinois
House of Representatives; was a candidate for congressman against Abraham
Lincoln in 1846; and was a member of an historical society founded as
early as 1827.

Cartwright had a number of traits that attracted frontiersmen. In person
he was about five feet ten inches high, and of square build, having a
powerful physical frame and weighing nearly two hundred pounds. "The
roughs and bruisers at camp-meetings and elsewhere stood in awe of his
brawny arm, and many anecdotes are told of his courage and daring that
sent terror to their ranks. He felt that he was one of the Lord's breaking
plows, and that he had to drive his way through all kinds of roots and
stubborn soil.... His gesticulation, his manner of listening, his walk,
and his laugh were peculiar, and would command attention in a crowd of a
thousand. There was something undefinable about the whole man that was
attractive to the majority of the people, and made them linger in his
presence and want to see him again." He had a remarkable power to read
men, his first impressions being quickly made and almost always correct.
He was often gay, but never frivolous; often eccentric, but never silly. A
Cumberland Presbyterian, after attending a communion service administered
by Cartwright and at which the Baptist, Rev. John M. Peck, was present,
wrote: "After meeting, I invited these two men to spend the night with me,
which they did; and such a night!--of all Western anecdotes and manners,
flow of soul and out-spoken brotherhood--we had never seen, and never
expect to enjoy again. These we