Mary Potter, West Kentucky Journal
Thursday, May 1, 2014 3:18 pm

Eddie Price, in costume, with his book "Widder's Landing."

(Clinton, KY – April 22, 2014) – For years after, preachers in the frontier would preface tent revivals with the words “Lord, make it like it was at Cane Ridge!”

Last Tuesday evening at the Young Center, author Eddie Price explained in a presentation that combined drama, song and first hand accounts why Cane Ridge held such importance in the growth of religion in the early nineteenth century. Price, dressed in period clothing, including felt hat, blouson shirt and uncomfortable shoes, kept a small group spellbound for over an hour with stories of how Kentucky’s Great Revival changed Kentucky from Wild West to Bible Belt.

Cane Ridge was a field in Bourbon County, Kentucky, south of Lexington in August 1801. Minister Barton W. Stone and other preachers decided to bring together as many living in the frontier as they could for days of preaching and teaching. Without phones, newspaper delivery, internet or reliable mail delivery, between 15,000 and 30,000 people got the message and showed up. Most came in wagons and on horseback ready to stay for awhile.

At times up to eleven stands were set up for simultaneous preaching. Some were so moved that they spoke in tongues, barked at Satan and fell into swoons. Eyewitnesses wrote accounts of bodies jerking or listeners being frozen in place upon hearing the words.

Price, author of Widder’s Landing, a novel set in the 18th century America around the time of the New Madrid Quake, is a retired history teacher. Price spent five years writing the book, a goodly portion of that time went to researching lives of the frontier settlers. It was while doing research that he learned about the Great Kentucky Revival at Cane Ridge. The presentation he brought to Clinton has been approved by the director of the Cane Ridge Shrine. Price also lectures on early hunters and the War of 1812.

Price shared the hymn “Good Shepherd” from the Great Revival sung to the tune of “Come Thou Font of Every Blessing.” The music even caused “chills” among the crowd.

Price told his audience. “Lives were changed at Cane Ridge.”

Kentucky was changed at Cane Ridge.