Isaac Waldrip, Circuit Rider
Belle Waldrip Lunt · The Annals of Iowa · 1946
Isaac Waldrip, familiarly known in his later years as Father Waldrip, was a Methodist Circuit Rider.His courage and tenacity of purpose is exemplified by the persistence with which he broke away from his early Quaker training, and accepted the "call" to become the itinerant messenger of the gospel in what then seemed a wilderness, lying beyond the timbered hills of his native state, Virginia.Isaac, like many others of his time, felt the restraint of his Quaker upbringing, and longed to get away and explore the unknown region to the west-a land of which so many rumors and exciting tales of adventure were constantly penetrating the secluded enclosure which was the only world he knew.Being well schooled in obedience by his Quaker teachings, and, also, being very conscientious as to the homage due his parents and others in authority over him, he was only impelled by a stronger power within himself than any man-made precept-an urge that could not be denied, and must be vindicated at any cost.This inner strength enabled him to understand every argument, not in defiance, but as an earnest conviction that he must not yield to any one, however loved or revered.He was born on the Virginia side of the Ohio river in 1813.Immediately following the second victorious war with Great Britain, Americans became imbued with a new self-confidence and sense of importance.They felt that now they could rightfully take their place among th^ nations of the world, and were now free to develop the powers of their people, and the natural and varied resources of a country greater than had ever yet been known."Our old men dreamed dreams, and our young men saw visions," and they now determined to