From the Florida home where I grew up, if you drive just one block south, you’ll reach a Baptist church. Three blocks west is an Assembly of God church. Half a mile north is a Pentecostal church, and one mile east is a Christian (Disciples of Christ) church. There are places of worship on nearly every corner in my town, with plenty of denominations represented. By and large, most of those who lead these churches have probably been through some formal training for their positions, whether a church-ordained training program, a 4-year Bible college, or a full-fledged theological seminary. And in many cases, the churches in my area don’t have just one pastor, but two, five, or twenty, depending on the size.
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Desolate old church on a foggy morning. |
In the Old West, such saturation of churches and preachers was hardly the case. In the days of the various western gold rushes, many men flooded into the western territories with a lust for riches. Some tent churches cropped up in the various mining communities, but by my research, the preachers in those areas had difficulty drawing men from their claims long enough to attend a Sunday service once a month.
After the Civil War ended, disillusioned soldiers from both sides, many who’d lost everything, also went west. Those early days after the war, when the population was mostly men (with some “women of ill repute” thrown in), were fraught with wildness and a lack of civility. Villages and towns cropped up, but they were largely populated by people whose focus was on carving out a life--mere survival. The niceties of polite society—like Sunday church services—often became distant memories rather than regular occurrences.
However, as time went on, women began to join the western culture. With them came the more refined aspects of society—schools and churches. While a few western towns had a church with a regular preacher (probably the larger ones), many had no such luxuries. In towns where a church hadn’t become a regular fixture, they might be fortunate to have a circuit-riding preacher visit two to four times a year and hold a prayer meeting. The occasional visit of the preacher was a planned event, with word circulating through the town and outlying areas. Folks would plan weddings and baptisms to coincide with the itinerant preacher’s arrival, and his coming often meant a large community event with a potluck meal and much celebration. Because those communities didn’t have a dedicated church building, they might meet in a schoolhouse or in an open meadow or empty town lot. Sometimes the meetings were held at someone’s home. Or, at times, the service would be held in a…saloon. Yes, a saloon, because it was one of the larger buildings in town with the ability to host a large number of people at once—and it typically wouldn’t be in use on a Sunday morning.
The preachers in the West were an interesting lot. They came from many
denominations—but the largest sponsoring body was, by far, the Methodist church. They saw the need of the Gospel early on and sent preachers into the western territories in droves. By and large, these ministers of truth fell between the ages of 18 and 30. Often, they were poor, and most were unmarried. Unlike today, many had no formal training. They simply preached what they knew. I’ve heard it said that the circuit-riding preachers had a single sermon they delivered at every stop, no matter how many times they’d visited the area. Of course, these factoids didn't represent all western preachers. Some worked into their old age, despite the hardships of life on the circuit. Peter Cartwright is one such preacher. I invite you to watch a short video on his fascinating life here.
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| Peter Cartwright |
Interestingly, while these men of God preached a message of peace, many lived by (or with?) the sword—er, gun. Many western preachers came with a Bible in one hand and a pistol in the other. Some would remove their gun belts during services. Others would leave their weapons on their hips in case of danger. And lest we think that all western preachers were angels, they weren’t. I’ve read stories of plenty of “preachers” who used their position to bilk parishioners of money, who worked as bounty hunters or hired guns in addition to their preaching, or one who even murdered his wife in order to be with his secret love. Yet most were honest and god-fearing men who truly did feel called to preach God’s word to the lost in the Western Territories, no matter how humble or broken their own beginnings were.
It’s your turn: The hero of Taming Petra, one of four novellas from the Cameo Courtships collection, is a western preacher. For a chance to win a copy of this wonderful collection plus a fun cameo necklace, please leave a comment (including your email address) telling me what, if any, of the details about western churches or preachers surprises you and why.
Jennifer Uhlarikdiscovered the western genre as a pre-teen when she swiped the only “horse” book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has finaled and won in numerous writing competitions, and been on the ECPA best-seller list numerous times. In addition to writing, she has held jobs as a private business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, and her favorite—a full-time homemaker. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers, Women Writing the West, and is a lifetime member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband, college-aged son, and four fur children.
Cameo Courtships
A Family Heirloom Inspires Romance
In 1851, a special cameo is gifted by Queen Victoria to Letitia Newton, who though considered an old maid, meets the perfect gentleman minutes after donning. Told by the Queen the cameo is to be shared, Letitia gifts the "Victoria Cameo" to a woman in her family, hoping adventure and romance will follow each of its subsequent wearers.
In 1851, a special cameo is gifted by Queen Victoria to Letitia Newton, who though considered an old maid, meets the perfect gentleman minutes after donning. Told by the Queen the cameo is to be shared, Letitia gifts the "Victoria Cameo" to a woman in her family, hoping adventure and romance will follow each of its subsequent wearers.
