tural than I thought it would
after so many years since I worked here.' During the time spent at Mr.
Crawford's home, Mr. Lincoln went around inspecting everything."[6]

[Footnote 6: Lincoln in Indiana in 1844. Unpublished MS. by Anna
O'Flynn.]

So vivid were the memories which this visit to Gentryville aroused, so
deep were Lincoln's emotions, that he even attempted to express them in
verse.

[Illustration: THE REV. PETER CARTWRIGHT.

The Rev. Peter Cartwright, the most famous itinerant preacher of the
pioneer era, was born in Amherst County, Virginia, on James River,
September 1, 1785. His father was a Revolutionary soldier, and soon
after peace was declared the family moved to the wildest region of
Kentucky. The migrating party consisted of two hundred families, guarded
by an armed escort of one hundred men. Peter was a wild boy; but in his
sixteenth year he was persuaded by his mother to join the Methodist
Church. He at once displayed a wonderful talent for exhorting, and at
the age of seventeen he became a licensed exhorter. A year later he
became a regular travelling preacher. His reputation soon spread over
Kentucky and Ohio. He hated slavery, and in 1823, to get into a free
State, he and his wife (he had married Frances Gaines in 1808) and their
seven children removed to Illinois. They settled in the Sangamon valley,
near Springfield. For the next forty years he travelled over the State,
most of the time on horseback, preaching the gospel in his unique and
rugged fashion. His district was at first so large (extending from
Kaskaskia to Galena) that he was unable to traverse the whole of it in
the same year. He was elected to the legislature in 1828 and again in
1832; Lincoln, in the latter year, being an opposing candidate. In 1846
he was the Democratic nominee for Congress against Lincoln, and was
badly beaten. Peter Cartwright enjoyed, perhaps, a larger personal
acquaintance with the people of Illinois than any other man ever had.
His name was familiar in every household in the West. Up to 1856 (he
wrote an autobiography in that year) he had baptized twelve thousand
persons and preached five hundred funeral sermons. His personality was
quaint and original. A native vigor of intellect largely overbalanced
the lack of education. He was a great wit, and often said startling
things. His religion sometimes bordered upon fanaticism. He was fearless
and aggressive, and was no respecter of persons. It was not a rar