Fayette County History & Genealogy

History of Fayette County

From R. S. Dills' History of Fayette County

CHURCHES

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

The Presbyterian Church of Washington Court House was organized October 10, 1813, three years after the county was organized. There were thirteen members, and James Clark, William Blair, Samuel Waddle, Annences Allen, and Col. James Stewart, were chosen elders.

The Rev. Mr. Baldridge had charge of the church for a time. After him the pulpit was supplied by several different ministers, till Rev. William Dickey came to be pastor in 1817. The church had no house of worship, and meetings could not be held very regularly.

In 1817 part of the church was set off to form a separate congregation at Bloomingburg, and Thomas McGarraugh and Henry Snyder were chosen elders. Mr. Dickey supplied the church at Washington, and also the one at Bloomingburg, which was now the larger. Shortly after he seems to have given all his attention to Bloomingburg, and there are no records of the Presbyterian Church of Washington for fifteen years.

In 1834, the church took a new start. Nine of the old members were still on the ground, and seventeen were received. James Pollock, John Wilson, Isaac Templeton, and Joseph McLean, were chosen elders, and S. F. Kerr was made clerk of the session.

About 1835, Rev. John C. Eastman took charge of the church, and the church seemed to progress nicely. They undertook, for the lirst time, to build a house of worship, and soon it was constructed and dedicated.

In 1840 Mr. Eastman left the church, after six years of faithful and successful labor. The next eight years passed with very irregular ministrations. Rev. James Dunlap, and Rev. J. A. I. Lowes, preached for a time.

In the winter of 1847-8, the church was incorporated. About this time J. G. Hopkins came, as a licentiate, to supply its pulpit. James N. Wilson and Eliphas Taylor were chosen and ordained elders. Mr. Hopkins, some time after, was chosen pastor and ordained. A division in the church grew out of this. Robert Robinson and Joseph McLean, two of the elders, and others, left the church ; among them Col. S. F. Kerr. This was a great loss to the feeble church. Mr. Hopkins soon left, and in the spring of 1851 Rev. S. J, Miller, was called to the pastorate, after which church affairs ran along more smoothly. A new church edifice was built about 1856. Rev. Miller continued pastor for fifteen years, leaving the church in 1866 with seventy-five members.

In January, 1867, the Rev. George Carpenter was called to the pastorate, and is still at his post, in the fifteenth year of his labors.

The church has had some very precious seasons of revival, and has a membership of two hundred. The house of worship has lately been enlarged, improved, and greatly beautified, and has a competent corps of elders and deacons, and a good Sabbath-school. During the pastorate of Rev. Miller, James Allen, Henry D. Ritter, and Joseph Bryan, (perhaps others,) were made elders. During the last pastorate, in 1867, I. C. Van Deman, William Robinson, Joseph Parrett, and William II. Devalon, were made elders. In 1871 J. P. Robinson, and P. E. Moorehouse, and in 1879 Dr. S. S. Salisbury and W. A. Ustick, were made elders. Some have gone to their reward, and some have moved away. The present session are : Williani Robinson, I. C. Van Deman, J. P. Robinson, Dr. S. S. Salisbury, W. A. Ustick, and Rev. George Carpenter, pastor.