An itinerant preacher, usually of the Methodist or Baptist persuasion.
1838. A little, portly, red-faced man at my side, in linsey-woolsey and a broad-brimmed hat, saluted me frankly with the title of “friend,” and forthwith announced himself a “Baptist circuit-rider!”—E. Flagg, ‘The Far West,’ ii. 60 (N.Y.).
1845. Your uncle Moses was a circuit-rider, on the Green Meadow circuit, for upwards of five years, until he went to live in the Hogtown settlement, where he died, poor ——.—W. T. Thompson, ‘Chronicles of Pineville,’ p. 16 (Phila.).
1850. I have to do as all other preachers, especially Methodist circuit riders—eat chickens…. These same circuit riders undergo more toil and privation for less pay than the ministers of any other denomination.—James Weir, ‘Lonz Powers,’ i. 153, 156 (Phila.).
1853. Judicial circuits, a court-house and jail, Methodist circuits and circuit-riders, and meeting-houses, were established. All this was rough, like the country itself.—Simon Oakleaf, ‘The Log-Chapel at Puddleford,’ Knickerbocker Mag., xlii. 587 (Dec.).
1858. There am three varmints what kin charm wimmin an’ birds,—the suckit [circuit] rider, the cat, an’ the black snake.—‘Sut Lovengood’s Chest Story’: Olympia (W.T.) Pioneer, Sept. 4.
