The following history was copied from A History of the Presbytery of Clarion. This is the story of the man that founded the Callensburg Presbyterian Church.
The following sketch of the life and work of the Rev. Robert McGarrough, the Pioneer Missionary in Clarion Presbytery was prepared by the Rev. Hugh F. Earsman, D. D., at the request of Presbytery at its June meeting in 1937……….
The Rev. Robert McGarrough was born January 7, 1771 in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Major Joseph McGarrough, a native of Derry County, Ireland. Joseph McGarrough came to America in infancy and was brought up near Philadelphia. He served during the Revolutionary War under General George Washington. After the war the family came to Fayette county, where he served as the first Postmaster in the county, and where he was appointed a magistrate by the governor of the colony.
Robert was brought up on the farm and was the oldest in the family of three brothers and one sister. It was hard work and long hours with little time for school or recreation. But this hard work did not unfit him for the labor of a pioneer settler and missionary to the scattered populations in that part of Pennsylvania now comprising Clarion and Armstrong counties.
He was twenty-five years of age when he entered Canonsburg Academy and it was twelve years later when he graduated. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Redstone in 1802, and ordained to the ministry in the fortieth year of his age.
No photograph or any picture of him remains. It is doubtful if any were ever taken. He probably would have considered it a sin. But a good pen picture is preserved, form the pen of one who knew him well. (We are told that.) "He was a man six feet three and a half or four inches tall. His frame was gaunt and massive. His weight about two hundred and twenty pounds. Stooping a little at the shoulder, but a man of great strength. His eyes were grey, his hair brown, combed down and cut in a circle. His gestures were more calculated to awe by their strength than to plead by their grace. His voice was soft and strong. He walked with a long swinging stride, that carried him from Concord to Rehoboth and from there to Rockland along trails that were marked only by blazed trees, and that were impossible for any traveler, save one on foot.
Clad in homespun clothes with wide-brimmed beaver hat he looked just what he was, a great massive man and an humble servant of his Master, Jesus Christ. Thus he ministered for thirty-seven years. When he began in 1804 there were no roads save wood trails. The nearest mill was in Kittanning, and the nearest post office, where Ford City now stands. The people lived in log cabins, and Mr. McGarrough, with own hands, felled the trees and hewed the logs to build his own manse. Religion was only maintained in households and in many places altogether neglected. When he came to Licking there was not a church building within the bounds of Clarion Presbytery. But at the time of his death, July 13, 1839, there were ten Presbyterian churches within the bounds of Clarion county and several in Jefferson county.
In the summer he preached under the trees, and in the winter within the log homes of the people. When he came to his charge the Presbytery of Westmoreland arranged for his ordination. Twice it adjourned to meet at Licking for that purpose but on neither occasion was there a quorum present and so the ordination had to be deferred. It was not until two whole years had passed that the ordination services could be performed.
For eighteen years he preached at Licking and New Rehoboth Churches. He found them a scattered flock as sheep having no shepherd, but he left them united and prosperous. He preached to them in the wilderness, he left them in comfortable and commodious, if not elegant churches; well grounded in the faith and with faithful elders to tend the flock. He left them not to go to a larger church and better salary, not to seek the comforts of a better home nor better facilities for educating his growing family. He left them to enter again in pioneer work, to reach the unchurched regions and not to build upon another man's foundation, but to go to the regions beyond.
As early as 1805 rumors that Licking and New Rehoboth had a minister living among them reach as far as the Concord settlement.
Mr. Alexander Wilson, who lived at the mouth of Licking creek, now Callensburg, the youngest man in the settlement, was sent to invite this minister to come and preach to them. The journey took two whole days and Mr. McGarrough consented to go. But as he did not know the way asked that Mr. Wilson blaze the trees to mark out the road for him to follow. This was done. When he arrived all the families, seven in number, living from the mouth of Licking to the Allegheny River, were assembled. He preached to them and found a set of willing listeners. From this acquaintance with the little settlement, was formed a tie that was broken only the death of the beloved pastor twenty years later. The Concord Church was organized in 1807 but had no stated pastor until Mr. McGarrough came to them. It was hard pioneer work and he grew old among them. His last sermon was preached in Mr. Patton's barn near Rimersburg. It was on Friday and was a preparatory service for the communion on the following Sabbath. The Rev. Mr. Coulter came the next day to complete the services. Mr. McGarrough attempted to address the tables but his voice failed, his work was done. He passed away July 13, 1839 at the home of a daughter, Mrs. Crawford, at Six Points, near Parker, in the seventy-third year of his age and the thirty-sixth year of his ministry. His body was placed in a coffin made of pine boards, placed on the front carriage of a farm wagon and drawn to the grave by yoke of oxen. A marble slab marked the grave for a number of years, but it fell and the weather obliterated the name and work of this eminent servant of God who counted not his own life dear that other might learn the way of life.
No work or sermon of Robert McGarrough was ever printed. The manuscript notes of some half dozen of them are still in the possession of some of the member of the family. They are written rather fully in a neat and very legible hand. They were strong, doctrinal and yet with tenderness of pleading that touched the hearts of his hearers.
As a pastor he was kind and faithful. Attentive when there was sickness, sympathetic with those in sorrow. He is said to have been cheerful and witty in company, a man who truly did weep with those who wept, and would rejoice with those who did rejoice.
Several anecdotes are related of his services, some amusing, and other of a different tenor. One day he was preaching at Port Barnett, just east of Brookville. The services were out of doors and the people were seated on benches or on the ground around him. During the sermon, the baying of hounds was heard on the opposite hill as they were chasing a deer. Instantly every man and boy grabbed his hat and went hurrying through the woods. Mr. McGarrough discouraged by such indifference, dropped his hands and said, "It is all in vain, all in vain." When one old man, who was lame, and the only man in the congregation remaining, said, "No, by gum, I'll bet they get him."
On another occasion we are told Mr. McGarrough was sleeping in the home of parishioner, when a surveyor came and asked for lodging for the night. This stranger was sent to the loft or the second floor of the house, and Mr. McGarrough was directly under him. Unfortunately the surveyor stepped on the end of a plank or puncheon that did not rest on a beam. It overbalanced and the puncheon and surveyor came tumbling down on top of Mr. McGarrough. The surveyor burst into loud profanity. "Hold on," said McGarrough, "you had better let the man that was hurt do the swearing." Mr. McGarrough was badly injured, his breast was bruised and three of his ribs were broken. And it is thought this injury was ultimately the cause of his death.