CARTWRIGHT, PETER (1785-1872), Methodist Episco pal preacher of the United States, was born on Sept. I, 1785, in Amherst county, Virginia. His father, a veteran of the War of Independence, in 1790 took his family to Kentucky. Here Peter Cartwright grew up amid the rude surroundings of the frontier, received little education, and was a gambler at cards and horse racing until 1801, when he heard John Page preach. In June he was received into the church ; in May, 1802 was licensed as a regular exhorter, becoming known as the "Kentucky boy"; in the autumn of 1802 was licensed to form the Livingston circuit around the mouth of the Cumberland river; in 1806 was ordained deacon by Bishop Asbury, and in 1808 presiding elder by Bishop McKendree, under whose direction he had studied theology. He was presiding elder of the Wabash district in 1812, and of Green river district in 1813-16, and, after four years on circuit in Ken tucky and two as presiding elder of the Cumberland district, was transferred in 1823 to the Illinois conference, in he was presiding elder of different districts until 186g. Until 1856 he preached about 14,600 times, received about 10,000 persons into the church, and baptized about 12,000 persons. He died near Pleasant Plains, Sangamon county, Ill., Sept. 25, 1872. He was a typical backwoods preacher, an able, vigorous speaker, a racy writer and a powerful exponent of "muscular Christianity." See the Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, the Backwoods Preacher, edited by W. P. Strickland (1856) ; also D. C. Seitz, Uncommon Americans (1925).