Western Hearths: Food for Circuit Preachers

Think of a circuit preacher in the Old West, and you might imagine a lone rider on a dusty trail with a Bible tucked into his saddlebag. This man of the cloth travels from settlement to settlement with little more than faith and grit to carry him through. And honestly, the western stereotype isn’t far from the truth.

Circuit preachers—also called circuit riders—acted as a lifeline for farflung westerners during the 1800s. They covered hundreds of miles on horseback, most often alone, to preach in sod homes, barns, schoolhouses, and wherever else their flock might gather. If that was outdoors beneath the open sky, then so be it. They navigated rough roads on a demanding schedule, all while relying on scant supplies—including food.

A circuit preacher ate what he could carry, food others offered or bartered, supplies he bartered, and whatever he could hunt or gather along the way.

Simple Food for a Purposeful Life

Many frontier families saw feeding a circuit preacher as both a duty and a blessing. A simple meal shared at a rough-hewn table might lead into a time of prayer, Scripture, and heartfelt conversation.

And when no table was available? The preacher ate what he carried. This meant portable, durable foods that kept well and didn’t require a lot of equipment to prepare—plain fare chosen for strength first and pleasure last.

Common foods in a circuit preacher’s saddlebag included:

• Oatmeal or cracked grain.
• Dried apples or other dried fruit.
• Hard biscuits or bread.
• Salt pork or bacon (when available).
• Coffee or tea.
• Occasional eggs, milk, or fresh bread offered by hospitable families.

A Breakfast Fit for the Trail

Horseback travelors in the Wild West relied on oatmeal--a lightweight, filling, and inexpensive option. They combined it with dried fruit for a comforting meal cooked over a small fire. If prepared the night before, oatmeal could be warmed before sunrise for an early start.

Accounts of trail meals and period cooking methods inspired the recipe below. It’s simplicity echoes the breakfast of a circuit preacher preparing for another long day on the road.

Trail Oatmeal with Dried Apples

A sustaining breakfast for cold mornings and early starts.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats (Steel-cut oats are more period-accurate but take longer. If using them, add approximately15 minutes to the cooking time,)
• 2 cups water (or milk, if available)
• ½ cup dried apples, chopped
• 1 tablespoon molasses or honey (optional)
• A pinch of salt
• Optional additions: cinnamon, nutmeg, or a small knob of butter

Instructions

• Bring the water to a gentle boil in a pot or skillet.
• Add the oats and salt, stirring to prevent sticking.
• Reduce heat and simmer for about 10–15 minutes, until thick.
• Stir in the dried apples and continue cooking for 5 more minutes, allowing them to soften.
• Sweeten lightly with molasses or honey if you have it.
• Serve warm, with butter if available.

Why This Meal Mattered

"The Circuit Preacher" by Alfred Waud;
Harper's weekly, v. 11, 1867 Oct. 12, p. 641
public domain image
courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

This isn’t fancy food. It’s not meant to impress. But it tells an important story.

Such humble fare fueled men dedicated to helping others—often without recognition. A circuit preacher might ride all day in harsh weather, preach by lamplight in the evening, and sleep under the stars. The next morning, he rose early, ate something warm if possible, and set out again.

Quiet endurance like this is a quality we admire in our favorite western historical romance characters—the steady men whose strength shows not in grand gestures, but in faithfulness to calling, community, and love. I celebrated Wild West circuit preachers by creating Shane Hayes, the hero of Hills of Nevermore (Montana Gold book 1). Shane’s story honors the men who with vulnerability, passion, and zeal brought comfort and salvation to the Wild West.

Bringing It to Your Own Hearth

As you make this humble bowl of oatmeal, imagine eating it crouched beside a fading campfire with dawn lightening the sky. Remember that nourishment isn’t always about abundance—or even food. Sometimes it’s abou t fulfilling a purpose greater than yourself.

In the months ahead, the Western Hearths blog series will continue exploring the meals that sustained settlers, cowboys, minors, and families of the Old West.

For now, this simple breakfast feels like the perfect place to begin.

About Janalyn Voigt 

Janalyn Voigt fell in love with literature at an early age when her father read chapters from classics as bedtime stories. When Janalyn grew older, she put herself to sleep with tales "written" in her head. Today Janalyn is a storyteller who writes in several genres. Romance, mystery, adventure, history, and whimsy appear in all her novels in proportions dictated by their genre. Janalyn Voigt is represented by Wordserve Literary.

Learn more about Janalyn, read the first chapters of her books, subscribe to her e-letter, and join her reader clubs at http://janalynvoigt.com.

Discover Montana Gold 

Based on actual historical events during a time of unrest in America, the Montana Gold series explores faith, love, and courage in the wild west. 

Irish Orphan Girls

By Susan G Mathis


In the 1870s, hundreds of Irish orphan girls, many between the ages of 13 and 16, left the only homes they’d ever known—city orphanages and asylums—and stepped into a world that demanded both obedience and resilience. Their destination—the grand houses and estates of America’s growing middle and upper classes. Their occupation—domestic servants.

Behind the lace curtains and polished silver of the Gilded Age, their hands made life run smoothly—and their quiet strength helped shape the households of a new nation.

The story of these girls began decades earlier, across the Atlantic. The Irish Potato Famine and its aftermath had devastated families and communities. Waves of Irish immigrants—many widowed mothers or orphaned children—flooded into American port cities like New York and Boston, hoping for work and food.

But life in these cities was harsh. The Irish were often despised, forced into overcrowded tenements, and paid meager wages. For the countless children left parentless by disease, accident, or poverty, the only refuge was the orphanage.

By the 1870s, these institutions were full of Irish children. Among them, teenage girls stood at a crossroads—too old to adopt easily, too young to live on their own. The answer, for many, was service.

At orphanages like The Irish Rose Asylum, daily life was built around routine and discipline. The girls learned not only reading and religion but also jobs that would secure their future employment like laundry, mending, and ironing, sewing and embroidery, cooking and serving meals, polishing brass and silverware, childcare and nursing.

By the time they turned thirteen or fourteen, many were deemed ready to go out into service. It was the most respectable—and often the only—path available to poor Irish girls in the Gilded Age.

In my newest novel, Irish Rose Orphans’ Christmas, seven young women are about to experience a Christmas that will change everything. As they experience Advent and prepare their hearts for a deeper calling, each young woman must face the truth of her past and the hope of her future.

Did you grow up around orphans? Next month, I’ll continue sharing about these children. Leave your answer or comments on the post below and join me on the 19th for my next post.

ABOUT IRISH ROSE ORPHANS’ CHRISTMAS:

Seven young women experience their last Christmas together before stepping into lives of service. United by trials and an unbreakable bond, they’ve pledged to remain “forever sisters.” But as the season of parting approaches, buried wounds rise to the surface. When Sister Rose invites the girls to prepare their hearts during Advent for a deeper calling, each young woman must face the truth of her past and the hope of her future. This Christmas, seven orphans will discover that no matter where life leads them, love and faith will go with them.

ABOUT SUSAN:

Susan G Mathis is an international award-winning, multi-published author of stories set in the beautiful Thousand Islands in upstate NY. Susan has been published more than thirty times in full-length novels, novellas, and non-fiction books. She has sixteen in her fiction line. Susan is also a published author of two premarital books, stories in a dozen compilations, and hundreds of published articles. Susan lives in Northern Virginia and enjoys traveling the world. Visit www.SusanGMathis.com/fiction for more.

Aurora’s 1897 UFO Crash — A Texas Tale That Won’t Stay Buried

  by Tom Goodman

These days, stories about strange objects in the sky are no longer confined to the fringes. Military pilots testify before Congress. Intelligence officials brief lawmakers behind closed doors. The Pentagon has an office devoted to tracking what it now calls unidentified anomalous phenomena. Whatever these things are—or aren’t—the claims are being explored with new soberness.

Which makes this a fine moment to revisit one of Texas’s oldest sky stories.

On the morning of April 19, 1897, readers of the Dallas Morning News woke to a small headline: “A Windmill Demolishes It.” The article claimed that an unknown “airship” had drifted low over Aurora, Texas, a small town about 45 miles northwest of Fort Worth. The airship struck "Judge Proctor’s windmill," and exploded in a shower of debris. The lone occupant, described as the pilot, was said to be “not an inhabitant of this world.”

Local color filled out the account. A U.S. Signal Service officer opined that the pilot hailed from Mars. Papers found on the body were written in undecipherable symbols. The wreckage, fashioned from a strange silvery metal, defied identification. The pilot, mangled beyond recognition, received a Christian burial in the Aurora Cemetery.

At the time, few took it seriously. Newspapers of the era trafficked freely in hoaxes and high imagination, and the Aurora story was only one of hundreds of airship sightings reported across the country during 1896 and 1897. 

The story went quiet for nearly seventy years.

It resurfaced in the 1960s and roared back to life in the 1970s, when reporters and UFO enthusiasts descended on Aurora. Metal detectors swept the alleged crash site. Investigators fixated on a grave beneath a large oak tree, marked by a curious symbol said to resemble a flying craft. A handful of odd metal fragments fueled headlines. When talk turned to exhuming the supposed alien pilot, local residents and cemetery trustees drew a firm line. A court injunction ended the digging, and the mystery retreated underground once more.

Later embellishments followed, as they always do. One version had the alien surviving the crash, blending into town life, developing an enthusiasm for whiskey and gambling, and eventually meeting an untimely end at the hands of Texas Rangers.

With official eyes trained skyward again, Aurora’s airship still hovers mysteriously over the imagination.

Answers to Prayers that Inspired a Nation

 

For the month of January, our church is having 21 days of fasting and prayer. I became curious about some of the historical calls to prayer and fasting. In my research, I found many since the first settlers came to this continent. But we are not always told what the answers were in history books. Let me share a few significant answers to those calls to prayer and fasting.

Powerful answer to prayer in 1746

During the French and Indian War, prayer stopped the advance of the enemy. France desperately wanted Novia Scotia and other parts of Canada back from Britain. They also wanted to damage the colonies on the east coast of America.

French Admiral Jean-Pierre Louis Frederic de La Rochefoucauld de Roye, Duc d'Anville took  command of a fleet of 70 ships and 13,000 troops to fulfilled that desire. He arrogantly proclaimed he would take back Louisburg, Nova Scotia, and wreak havoc along America's east coast all the way to Georgia. Burning Boston was on his agenda.

A Day of Prayer and Fasting was called by Massachusetts Governor William Shirley on October 16, 1746, after hearing the plan for the French invasion. 

Here's a snippet about the prayer meeting.

 Reverend Thomas Prince, standing in the Old South Meeting House, prayed: "Send Thy tempest, Lord, upon the water… scatter the ships of our tormentors!"

According to Historian Catherine Drinker Bowen, as he finished his prayer the sky darkened, wind shrieked and church bells rang "a wild uneven sound… though no man was in the steeple."

Wrought with calamity

Admiral D'Anville's mission was slow to start. For reasons not explained, the fitting of the ship was slow and difficult. It didn't sail until June 22, 1746. Their journey took three months rather than the average six to eight weeks.

At the beginning of the journey, adverse winds slowed the fleet

Typhus and scurvy broke out onboard.

In the Azores, the fleet was trapped in a long dead calm. When the wind finally picked up, it became a vicious storm. Lightning struck several vessels. One ship's magazine, struck by lightning, ignited into a fire, caught the ammunition on fire and exploded, killing or wounding thirty men.

By August 24^th they had been at sea for two months but were still 1,400 km (870 miles) away from Nova Scotia.

September 10^th. The flag ship and a few others had arrived at Sable Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia. A violent gale scattered the fleet three days later. The damaged ships were forced to return to France.

By the time the expedition arrived in Nova Scotia in late September, hundreds of soldiers and sailors had died from typhus, scurvy and typhoid, and hundreds more were gravely ill.

Six days later, September 27^th, Admiral d'Anville died from a stroke.

His replacement Admiral Constantin-Louis d'Estourmel became overwhelmed and attempted suicide before resigning.

And the commander who took over, the Marquis de la Jonquiere, had planned to go ahead with the attack even with sick soldiers. Even after reinforcements arrived, Jonquiere changed his mind. He ordered his fleet back to France and told the Indian and French reinforcements to go home.

A poem immortalized the event.

The prayer was so powerful and the event so startling that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his Ballad of the French Fleet retelling the tale.  Click here to read.

In 1774

On May 24, 1774, in response to the British Blockade of the Boston Harbor, Thomas Jeffereson drafted a resolution in the Virgina House of Burgesses declaring a day of Fasting, Humiliation, and Prayer "to implore the Divine interposition, for averting the heavy calamity which threatened destruction of our civil rights."

Virginia's Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, considered the prayer resolution as a protest against King George. He dissolved the House of Burgesses. The legislatures moved their meeting to the loyal tavern and began planning the Continental Congress.

How exciting to know the response to a prayer pushed the founding fathers to press on.

Another powerful answer to prayer

1814

James Madison declared a Day of Prayer during the War of 1812. (1812-1815)

America was struggling to win the war. Britain was in a vengeful mood over the burning and looting of York in northern Canada. Madison requested the Day of prayer and fasting knowing the British were headed their way. Madison and the legislature had already fled Washington City (present day D.C.) They'd remove important documents.

On August 25, 1814, British soldier set fire to the White House, the Capital and a few other government buildings. We learned in school that the British only occupied D.C. for 26 hours. But it is rarely mentioned in history textbooks the why behind it. Dark clouds rolled in and a tornado touched down, sending debris flying. The British were bombarded with sections of roofs and chimneys. Horses and their riders pelted to the ground. Two cannons flew up in the air and landed yards away. It is said more British soldiers were killed by nature than from all the weapons of the Americans. Rain followed the tornado, extinguishing the fires. Americans saw it as Providence intervening. 

 

National Days of Prayer

Over the centuries, presidents have called for national days of prayer. I wonder what miracles were performed by God because of those prayers. In this new year, perhaps our prayers will turn the tide of unrest in a way that can only be attributed to God.

Cindy Ervin Huff, is a multi-published award-winning author in Historical and Contemporary Romance.  She’s a 2018 Selah Finalist. Cindy has a passion to encourage other writers on their journey. When she isn’t writing, she feeds her addiction to reading and enjoys her retirement with her husband of 50 plus years, Charles. Visit her at www.cindyervinhuff.com.

 

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COST OF PERSERVERANCE (Part III)

 

By Catherine Ulrich Brakefield

         Born dirt poor, in a one-room cabin in the primitive backwoods of Kentucky, with little formal education, his business enterprises often failing, his love life often wanting, and his political career in shambles, Abraham Lincoln persevered toward his God-ordained destiny.

        

He never apologized for his humble beginnings and once told a person, “I am not ashamed to confess that twenty-five years ago I was a hired laborer, mauling rails, at work on a flat-boat – just what might happen to any poor man’s son. “

         But now, Abe had hit a brick wall. He spent hours contemplating his life choices during the weary weeks in the saddle riding the circuit, serving the remote towns and villages.  

On one depressing day, which happened to be a Sunday, he decided to listen to Reverand James F. Jacques preach about the new birth. Moved by what he heard, Lincoln sought Jacques a few days later. They spent hours talking, and then they prayed together.

         Jacques later said, "I have seen hundreds brought to Christ, and if ever a person was converted, Abraham Lincoln was converted that night in my house. "

Lincoln read his Bible in earnest now. He was ready to toss politics out with his new conversion. He humbly had said, “Though I now sink out of view, and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I am gone.”

 But his wife felt God was calling him to help their countrymen. She encouraged him not to give up, and so he ran for president in 1860—and won!

The South threatened secession, the abolitionists wanted the slaves' freedom. Lincoln diligently read and studied his Bible. His daily readings encouraged Lincoln to remain hopeful. After all, there were Christians in the South as well as the North. God loved all equally. His Divine Providence would conquer Satan’s deviousness. All would work out right for his countrymen, northerners, and southerners alike.

I display these thoughts in the passages I quote in Swept into Destiny on Lincoln’s inauguration address to the public.  “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”

Lincoln made it clear, he would do God’s bidding and keep these United States united, “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn oath to ‘preserve, protect, and defend it.”

Lincoln, with his son, Willie, beside him, looked out at the crowd compassionately, yet with a heavy heart. “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

    The South remained determined to succeed. They started to print their own money in March of 1861. They fired upon Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, at 4:30 a.m. The battle clouds of war swirled like a hurricane above Washington, D.C. The Founding Fathers had hoped these United States of America would be a City set upon a Hill and emulate to the world that a nation under God, of the people, by the people and for the people could prosper and endure—but that idea was now a dream gone awry. On July 13, 1861, Congress passed an Act authorizing President Lincoln to declare a state of insurrection. And the bloody Civil War began that would separate brothers from fathers, sons from mothers, and young men from their true loves.

Two years later, Tad and Willie fell ill with typhoid fever. Tad recovered, but Willie died. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth. God has called him home,” Lincoln moaned. Willie was only eleven years old. William (Willie) Wallace Lincoln died on February 20, 1862. Sorrow trodden on the footsteps of Lincoln. Still, through the hardships of losing two sons (he had lost Eddie when he died of consumption at the young age of three years old, in 1850, and sadly, unknown to Abe at the time, he would lose Tad when he turned eighteen years old) Lincoln's faith remained unwavering. The Lincoln family continued to attend the Presbyterian Church on New York Avenue in Washington, DC.

With the Civil War in full fury, the hours of Lincoln's day were too fleeting to fulfill everyone's needs. Acquiring an interview with him was extremely difficult. One gentleman arrived fifteen minutes early for his 5:00 a.m. appointment. Waiting outside of Lincoln's office, he heard muttering, and he asked the secretary who it could be. Is someone in there with the president?

         "No, he (President Lincoln) is reading the Bible and praying."

         "Is that his habit so early in the morning?"

         "Yes, sir, he spends each morning from four to five reading the Scriptures and praying."

        

Throughout President Lincoln's remaining years, he sought guidance from the Bible and often quoted Mark 3:25: "'A house divided against itself cannot stand,' and I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free."

         God’s Word, the Bible, was Lincoln’s constant companion. He never shied from asking for help from his fellow Christians. Twice, Lincoln called for a day of humility, asking God's direction by fasting and prayer, in 1861, and again in 1863.

On his knees, he pleaded his case before the Almighty God. His concern was that it was God's judgment on the United States due to exploiting the slaves. He called for prayer, for "malice towards none and charity to all."

         That ‘charity’ was needed more than ever when Lincoln was called to the bloodied fields of Gettysburg.

         Don’t miss next month’s spine-chilling conclusion.

DESTINY’S WHIRLWIND (book 2 of the Destiny Series) A deathbed promise, a dashing Rough Rider, the parable of the Sower, take on unimaginable consequences. A disgruntled in-law and a vindictive lawyer place the McConnell clan in the clutches of life’s tangled web of deception and greed. As Collina fights to keep her promise, the words of Esther 8:6 ring in her thoughts. “How can I endure to see the evil that will come to my people?”

Destiny’s Whirlwind by Catherine Brakefield is a beautiful inspirational love story that will reel you in and win your heart…The story is beautifully written and filled with triumph and heartbreak. I couldn’t put it down…” LS 

Catherine is the award-winning author of Wilted Dandelions, Swept into Destiny, Destiny’s Whirlwind, Destiny of Heart, Waltz with Destiny and Love's Final Sunrise. She has written two pictorial history books, The Lapeer Area and Eastern Lapeer, and short stories for Guideposts Books, CrossRiver Media Group, Revell Books, Bethany House Publishers. Catherine and her husband of fifty-three years live on a ranch in Michigan and have two adult children, five grandchildren, four Arabian horses, three dogs, two cats, one bunny, and six chickens. See CatherineUlrichBrakefield.com for more information.

References:

https://presidentlincoln.illinois.gov/lincoln-quotes/?sort=1a&pg=44&sz=10&q=

https://lightmagazine.ca/abraham-lincolns-freeing-encounter-with-christ/

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/march-20/republican-party-founded

https://www.history.com/articles/abrham-lincoln-family

Swept into Destiny, copyright 2017 Catherine Ulrich Brakefield Pgs. 173,174