The town was situate on the maid road leading from Philadelphia to Washington, being twenty miles distant from the latter place. It is well to be remembered that Mr. Parkinson reserved the Ferry for himself and his heirs, but sold the lots in three equal annual payments, donating, however, one lot for a market house and another for a meeting house. All lots were sixty by two hundred feet with the necessary number of streets (sixty feet wide) and alleys (twenty feet wide).
An addition to the original plan of the town was made by Adam Wickerham, who laid out the lots west of Capt. Harneys's hotel, and named it Georgetown, but when the act of incorporation was procured for Monongahela City, the charter embraced both Williamsport, Georgetown, and some additional outlots.
This place has a world wide fame as Parkinson's Ferry, as it was the rallying point during the whiskey insurrection, full particulars of which will be found in the Appendix, Chapter IV. (Not online, yet)
We shall mention the public buildings and works as the were kindly pointed to us by several of the citizens.
HORSESHOEBOTTOM PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. Rev. Dr. Samuel Ralston, D. D., received a call from this and Mingo Creek congregations in November, 1796, which he accepted and was therefore ordained. In the latter church be labored forty years, and in the former thirty-five years. This Horseshoebottom congregation was originally established three and one half miles from Parkinson's Ferry, on the ridge road leading from this place to Brownsville on Simon Wilson's farm. It was a log church, had a graveyard connected with it , and part of the foundation is still visible.
Dr. Ralston preached in this church until 1807, when it was removed to (Williamsport) Monongahela City. Mr. Moore, says: Dr. Ralston preached his first sermon in a little school-house near the present church building, preaching two years in the winter time in the school house, and in the summer time in a tent in a sugar grove below town. Mr. Lamb and his wife were the first two persons who joined the church in Williamsport. The first communion was held in August, 1816, when Dr. Ralston was assisted by Rev. Matthew Brown, D. D. The whole number of communicants at that time was forty-five.
The church is located on Chess Street, a neat, substantial brick building; its pulpit has been filled by Rev. Dr. Ralston until 1835. His successors have been Rev. George D. Porter, from 1835 to 1838, Rev. J. W. Kerr from 1839 to 1861, Rev. S. G. Dunlap from 1862 to 1867, Rev. J. S. Sutchell from 1867 to the present time, but I learn he has sent in his resignation.
The following persons have been ordained ruling elders since the pastorate of Dr. Ralston, viz.: James Hair, James McGrew, James Martin, Robert McFarland, Aaron Kerr, Isaac VanVoorhis, James Gordon, Henry Fulton, Joseph Kiddoo, John Power, James Dickey, James Curry, E. W. Tower, John Wright, Francis J. Gardner, David Moore, David D. Yohe, Samuel Hindman, three of whom have passed into the spirit land, each upwards of eighty years of age, to receive a crown of righteousness.
There is a Sabbath school connected with the church, which by the last report numbers 17 teachers, 250 scholars, and has a library of about fifteen hundred volumes. Its organization is placed at various dates, but the Rev. Mr. Dunlap thinks it was established in the year 1822.
CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. Rev. John Morgan and Rev. Alfred Bryan as missionaries instituted the Cumberland Presbyterian Church on the 31st of Jan. 1833, in this place. A church was erected and ready for occupancy by September 1, 1833. The following ministers were ordained as pastors: 1833, Rev. Samuel M. Sparks; 1834, Rev. Alexander Robinson; 1835, Rev. S. M. Sparks; 1836, rev. John Carey; 1837, Rev Saml.. E. Hudson; 1849, Rev. Mr. Dunlap; 1841, Rev. B. Miller; 1842, Rev. Mr. Brice. The books show a membership of one hundred and four members, but for the last twenty years there has been no regular meetings held, the members having joined other denominations.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH was organized about the year 1812. Two local preachers by the name of Riggs (who were brothers) held the first meeting on the farm of Mrs. Baxter, now owned by Ira Butler. In 1813 the first class-meeting was held in the house which stood at the corner of Race Street and Cherry Alley, which was owned by Wm. Wickerham. The first Methodist preaching was held in the log school house, on the same lot on which the Presbyterian church now stands. In 1833, Rev. Dr. Charles Cook being stationed preacher, applied himself diligently to the work, and the substantial brick edifice on the corner of Race and Chess streets was erected, at a cost of twenty-five hundred dollars, Wm. Imsen having presented the lot. The congregation worshipped in this edifice until 1868, when they erected a new building on Main Street, which cost forty-five thousand dollars, a magnificent structure, and does honor to that denomination. Rev. Hiram Miller is the present officiating clergyman. we regret exceedingly our inability to procure the records of a church which in a little more than half a century held their first meeting in a log school-house, and now boasts of the finest architectural church in Monongahela City.
There is a Sabbath school connected with the church, organized....
(Next pages (246-247) missing... will finish at a later date!!)
(pg. 248)
...each scholar, Amount of tax levied for school purposes, $2903.88,
and received from the State appropriation, $181.74.
It would be invidious were we to enter into a full account of the iron foundries, glass works, planing-mills, saw-mills, and others of private enterprise, but we believe in doing justice to the bankinghouse of Alexander & Co., and the Union Paper Mills.
BANKING HOUSE was established in 1861, by Alexander & Co. The firm has now in process of erection a magnificent banking house on Main Street, with the private residence of W. J. Alexander, Esq., attached. The building is ornamented with a Mansard roof, Every possible precaution has been taken to make the banking departments not only fire, but burglar proof. The establishment of this house, the gentlemanly and courteous manner, and obliging disposition of those who regulate it, have secured the entire approbation of the whole community.
UNION PAPER MILLS were originally erected by S. D. Culbertson. They are now owned by his son, Albert Culbertson, Esq. They employ thirty hands, and manufacture monthly one hundred and twenty-five tons of paper straw boards, using two steam engines, one forty horse power and one twelve horse power.
A description of the Odd Fellows' Hall we will reserve for Chapter VIII,
as it more appropiately belongs there.
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