Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/269

 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 209 the state, as we have seeu, was the result of the sending of missionaries from the East. A similar movement assisted and encouraged the work of the Baptists, when Peck and his companion, Welch, were sent into the terri- tory. The work of the Methodists began in an organized form by the erection of part of the territory into a circuit, and the ap- pointment of a minister to supply the needs in the vast territory included within his cir- cuit. By the time of the transfer to the United States these denominations were flourishing, their work was progressing and they were building houses of worship, establishing Sun- day schools and schools in many parts of the territory. It is plain to be seen that they labored imder very great difficulties. The ter- ritory over which the ministers were called to travel was very extensive, the means of trans- portation very poor, the roads were simply paths and there were but few accommodations provided, in most places, for visitors. Many of the ministers were accustomed to travel on foot for distances that seem almost impossible. It is said of Clark, who was an early min- ister of the Baptist church, that he would never ride to his appointments. Some of his friends presented him with a horse, but he was dissatisfied with it and returned it, pre- ferring to walk from one place to another. Some of the Methodist circuit riders traveled over immense distances to reach their various appointments. Those who lived east of the river, not infrequently walked for miles to reach a place where the river might be crossed and, having crossed, walked a long distance on this side to the place where they were to preach. Another thing which very greatly retarded and made more difficult the work of the early ministers, was a feeling among the people that these ministers should labor without pay. Not all of them were of this belief, but it was sufficiently prevalent to render the sup- port of the ministers very meagre and very uncertain. Perhaps all of the preachers in the early time were compelled to recoup their salary by work of one kind or another, that they might support their families. We have seen that Elder ]IcMurtry, an early minister of the Christian church, was a carpenter, and we find that Peck supported himself, in part, by teaching, as did Flint and many others. Another thing which made their work diffi- cult and their lives hard was the condition of many people among whom they must labor. Many of them were illiterate and could not appreciate the eiforts which were being made for them. Some of these people lived imder the most severe conditions of life, and some of them had no hope or ambition for better things. It was a work of the very greatest difficulty to arouse the people to action and to get them to accept the things which the min- isters brought to them. Peck and Flint both relate amusing but unpleasant experiences concerning their visits in different parts of this section. They frequently were received into homes, if a single roomed log cabin may be so described, in which only the barest necessities were to be found. These hardships are set out fully in the ac- count which Peck gives in describing one of his trips from St. Louis, on horse back, to Bethel association in Cape Girardeau county. He made this trip in September, 1818, and the experience through which he passed in- duced him to moralize a little on the hard- ships which attended the life of the traveler. He says: "The route was the same one I last traveled until I got below Herculaneum, and then gradually bearing to the left and down