© From Life and Labors of Elijah H. Pilcher of Michigan

Circuit Rider Elijah Pilcher

Preaching for 24 cents a day

by Laura Bien

posted 12/20/2009

Slimy logs shifting along the swollen Grand River trapped the horse's hock. But the rider didn't curse--that would be unseemly for an itinerant Methodist preacher on the Michigan frontier. Elijah Pilcher freed his horse's leg, then rode into the October-chilled water near Jackson. Unexpectedly deep, it lapped over his thighs and into the leather saddlebags that

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