Fellowship Hall

Saddlebag Preachers

brought hope by horseback

They braved storms, streams and rugged terrains; they went for months without seeing their families, and rode for days with nothing to eat -- only to be scorned upon arrival.

Yet Saddlebag Preachers rarely complained. Theirs was a heavenly mission, the ripple effect of which is still being felt today.

“(These) preachers traveled in the farthest back settlements, in the wildest places, under the most severe privations as to food, shelter and home comforts at all seasons of the year, preaching the Gospel of Christ to the settlers,” says Charles Durance, an 1894 Presbyterian writer on Methodism.

METHODISM’S MIGRATION

Methodism originated with John Wesley, who fathered the evangelical reform movement in the Church of England in the mid 1700s. After spreading to America in the late 1700s, it caught like wildfire.

A member of Ancaster’s Ryerson United, the history book Norma Sheldrick is preparing will help to mark the 200th anniversary of Ryerson - named after one of Ontario’s most influential families of circuit preachers.

“The Methodist Church, unlike most other denominations, did not wait for a congregation to gather and then call a preacher,” writes Norma Sheldrick, a member of Ancaster’s Ryerson United Church, in The History of Ryerson Church. “Instead, they did the opposite by sending a preacher on an extended circuit so he could gather together the people and establish a congregation in their area.”

ADVENTURESOME FOLLOWERS

Sheldrick describes circuit riders as “young and adventuresome Americans” who were “highly emotional” and threatened their listeners with the torture of hell and the hope of heaven.

They opted for homelessness, hoping settlers would offer them a bed and a sandwich in exchange for the gospel message.

“As the circuit rider toured his long circuit, sometimes visiting a district once or twice a month, the settlers gladly welcomed him to their area,” says Sheldrick. “It made a break in their humdrum, hardworking lives to go to church Saturday morning, leaving a batch of bread rising in the kneading trough, and listen to a sermon three hours long.”

Those who couldn’t handle the long hours or who were unwilling to be away from home for weeks at a time chose to settle on a farm near a village where they could teach school, a term known as “locating.”

Methodists were noted for emotional services, warmth of hymnody, and the ‘Class Meeting,’ which developed lay leaders who carried on the weekly work when the saddlebag preacher was absent.

THE NELSON CIRCUIT

In 1846 the Nelson Circuit celebrated the first of 25 churches established in the area extending north to Erin, west to Ancaster and east to the border of Toronto.

Reverend Daniel Pickett was one of many saddlebag preachers who preached 15 sermons every eight days in an attempt to serve the circuit

Born in 1774 in Connecticut, Pickett journeyed to the Burlington area in the early 1800s where he promoted the Methodist faith and was well received, in spite of his stern physique. According to Dorothy Turcotte, who wrote Burlington: Memories of Pioneer Days, Pickett was “spare, sharp-featured, hook-nosed, bald and slow-spoken.”

A large majority of settlers in the Oakville region became Methodists. By 1817, two saddlebag preachers were ministering to the area. These preachers had 30 appointments in the four weeks it took to cover their post; they ministered to 400 people.

Finally, a congregation of people met in the schoolhouse at Munn’s corner at the Sixth Line; later on, they gathered in a building that became known as Munn’s Church in February of 1845.

NIAGARA’S CIRCUITS

In honour of its bicentennial birthday this year, Ancaster’s Ryerson United has asked Sheldrick, a longtime member of the Archive Committee, to record the history of the church.

As part of this project, Sheldrick detailed how the Ancaster circuit was established following the division of the Niagara area. Ancaster, East and West Flamborough, Nelson, Trafalgar and Beverly, were joined with Methodist Mountain -- four churches in the Ancaster region. The head of this circuit was Ancaster’s Bowman Chapel, named after Peter Bowman, who donated the land on which the chapel was built.

Another local stop on the Niagara circuit, Winona’s Fifty United church, was so-named because of the 50 miles between the church and Niagara Falls.

A ‘CASE’ FOR CHRIST

“The most unique Saddlebag Preacher would have to be William Case,” says Sheldrick.

William Case was a freshly ordained, zealous young preacher, who arrived in Canada in 1805 and began on the Ancaster Circuit three years later. The Canadian Protestant Experience describes Case as “youthful, beautiful and amiable,” whose singing voice spellbound his audiences.

William Case

In lieu of this, Case dutifully spent his days riding horseback with nothing but the Bible and a change of clothes. In good weather he could ride and read, but often the woodsy trails turned into tumultuous streams. One story recalls Case on a new horse, not sure whether the horse could swim but forced to take the chance. Thankfully, it could.

Case accompanied the circuit’s principal saddlebag preacher, six-foot former boxer Henry Ryan. “Ryan and Case were a stark contrast to one another,” writes Sheldrick, “but … they were destined to leave their imprint on the cause they took in hand.”

For 40 years Case devoted himself to preaching fire and brimstone, to singing Methodist hymns with gusto, and to feeding off of the Word of God when no actual food was to be found. In a journal entry recalling one meeting, he wrote, “The people continued praising the Lord with shouts of glory until 10 o’clock at night, about seven hours without intermission.”

He died in action on October 29, 1855 at 75 years of age, after being thrown from his horse and fracturing his thigh.

THE GREAT EDUCATOR

While Case was one of the most unique preachers, Sheldrick highlights Egerton Ryerson, born in 1803, as one of the most impressive.

Egerton Ryerson

At 18, Egerton would rise early in the morning and write his sermons on horseback as he jogged from charge to charge.

According to John Durfey, who wrote a history of Winona’s Fifty United, Ryerson described the population as being “like sheep without a shepherd in the midst of an isolated natural and moral wilderness.”

Most know Egerton for his irreplaceable role in the Ontario school system. Referred to as “the great educator,” he became Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada in 1844.

According to Tyndale’s professor of historical theology Victor Shepherd, “Ryerson struggled to give birth to, refine, and expand public education with his second last breath. His last breath, of course, was reserved for what was incomparably dear to him … ‘Next to the gospel,’ the multi-talented German reformer had exclaimed, ‘there is nothing more glorious than humanistic learning, that wonderful gift of God.’

PARDONING PRAYER

John Ryerson was remembered for his long-winded prayers. One incident in particular, involving the potential death of two poor men who’d stolen an ox, highlights this characteristic.

In those days, stealing was a capital offence. While executions were a well-attended form of entertainment, there were some who were horrified by the infliction of torture for so small an offence.

John was one of them, as was his friend Dr. Rolph. The latter decided to go to Toronto to intercede on behalf of the prisoners with the Governor of the Province.

When the day of execution arrived, Dr. Rolph still had not returned. After the gallows were erected and the hangman had arrived, John began to pray.

He didn’t stop until two hours later when someone shouted, “Here is the doctor!” Sure enough, Dr. Rolph had ridden in, holding a reprieve from the Governor. At that point, John fainted from fatigue. Meanwhile the men were saved.

BOLD ‘BANGS’

Nathan Bangs came to Canada in 1799 as a teacher and a surveyor. He converted to Methodism after listening to Saddlebag Preacher James Coleman, then set out in 1801 to develop a circuit in the Niagara Peninsula.

Nathan Bangs

Winona’s Fifty United credits Bangs as one of its biggest influencers. He organized the first camp meeting in Upper Canada in the fall of 1805, which catalyzed years of revival and spiritual awakening.

“The outbursts of prayer and praise, the words of power, the cries of penitents, the joyful testimony and, at the closing of the meeting, the songs of thanksgiving, all harmonized with an evangelizing spirit to provide gospel privileges to the scattered communities,” Sheldrick relates.

After facing numerous obstacles, Bangs contracted a case of Typhus in December 1803 that was so severe his attendants all but gave him up as dead. While he eventually recovered, the disease and his premature return to preaching left him with a strange “double-voice” that lasted the rest of his life.

In 1925, the Methodist Church of Canada merged with the Presbyterians, most Congregationalists, Union Churches in Western Canada, and the American Presbyterian Church in Montreal to form the United Church of Canada.

To think, it all began because of a few preachers, determined to bring hope by horseback.

“Their work was hard, their remuneration small but these faithful servants of God carried on,” says Sheldrick, “encouraged through their faithful ministry when Christ came in the fullness of His love and power into the cabins of the lonely settlers.”