The Circuit Rider: A Tale of the Heroic Age

The frontier was God's country, and God's men rode circuit to reach it. Edward Eggleston's 1874 novel captures a vanished America where log cabins served as churches and young preachers walked or rode miles between settlements to bring the word to scattered pioneers. The story follows Morton Goodwin, a circuit rider whose spiritual calling collides with something far more earthly: his passion for Patty Lumsden, a spirited young woman whose father, the formidable Captain Lumsden, has other plans for his daughter. When Morton rides into the settlement, he finds more than souls to save. He finds a rival in Bill McConkey, a community still molding itself, and a battle for Patty's heart that tests both his faith and his resolve. The novel opens at a corn-shucking, one of those raw frontier gatherings where neighborskin together, customs are born, and futures are decided. Eggleston writes with humor and heart about a rough, formative time in American history, when the people who built this nation were still figuring out what they believed and whom they loved.