It would be far less than just to leave the Back Country folk
without further reference to the devoted labors of their clergy.
In the earliest days the settlers were cut off from their church
systems; the pious had to maintain their piety unaided, except in
the rare cases where a pastor accompanied a group of settlers of
his denomination into the wilds. One of the first ministers who
fared into the Back Country to remind the Ulster Presbyterians of
their spiritual duties was the Reverend Hugh McAden of
Philadelphia. He made long itineraries under the greatest
hardships, in constant danger from Indians and wild beasts,
carrying the counsel of godliness to the far scattered flock.
Among the Highland settlements the Reverend James Campbell for
thirty years traveled about, preaching each Sunday at some
gathering point a sermon in both English and Gaelic. A little
later, in the Yadkin Valley, after Craighead's day there arose a
small school of Presbyterian ministers whose zeal and
fearlessness in the cause of religion and of just government had
an influence on the frontiersmen that can hardly be
overestimated.
But, in the beginning, the pioneer encountered the savagery of
border life, grappled with it, and reacted to it without guidance
from other mentor than his own instincts.
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