The Birth of a Congregation

Political tensions ran high in across the United States in 1860. For some time the questions of slavery and states’ rights had divided the nation and the presidential election that year promised to bring both issues to a head. In May the Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln of Illinois, a known opponent of slavery, as their candidate. By mid-summer southerners who felt threatened by Lincoln were already meeting in convention nominating their own candidates for president and whispering threats of secession if the election did not go their way.

Monongahela, although predominantly a pro-union and anti-slavery community, was not immune from the tension. The city’s industry and commerce had, by 1860, attracted immigrants from nearby Virginia (what is today West Virginia), many of whom had grown up in Protestant Episcopal Churches. No such church however existed in Monongahela at the time, so these southern transplants were obliged to worship with the Presbyterians.

At some point around 1860 an Anglican church school was started for children in the home of Mrs. Eliza J. Stuart which stood across the alley from where the church is today. The Rev. John Norman writes of Mrs. Stuart’s school “the good seed thus sown by this devoted disciple soon sprang into promise of better things; for a desire to know more about the Church, was thus awakened.” While the children began to show interest in the tradition and worship of the Anglican church, the parents soon found themselves increasingly uncomfortable in the Presbyterian church. The Rev. John Kerr, pastor of the Presbyterians at the time, was an unabashed union man and abolitionist, and was not afraid to make that known from the pulpit. In the words of Canon Davies, Rev. Kerr “allowed his Union allegiance to carry him beyond the bounds which the Episcopalians, many of them Southern by birth and sympathy, thought Christian. The Episcopalians decided that they must have their own church in the community.”

So the nearest Episcopal Church, Trinity- Washington, was contacted and it was arranged that the Rev. Dr. R. H. Lee would travel to Monongahela to conduct two services for the Feast of St. James. The services were both well attended by the citizens and clergy of Monongahela.

The Rev. Dr. Richard Henry Lee (seen here), who conducted the first services here on July 24^th, and 25^th, 1860 was born in Chantilly, Virginia on June 25, 1794. His grandfather was Richard Henry Lee, the member of the Second Continental Congress who, on June 7, 1776, first proposed that the colonies should be independent of Great Britain and later signed the Declaration of Independence.

Lee began his career as a lawyer in Virginia, but soon gave that up to pursue a life in academia. In 1833 he took the position of “Professor of Belles Lettres” at Washington College (now Washington and Jefferson College) in Washington, Pennsylvania. For twenty years he was a beloved professor at the college and had a profound influence in the life of many students. During this time Lee was also instrumental in the organization of Trinity Church in Washington. Upon retiring in 1854, Dr. Lee became lay reader at Trinity Church (an elected position in those days) and was in October, 1858 ordained priest by the Rt. Rev. Samuel Bowman and made rector of Trinity Church a position which he continued in until his death on January 4, 1865.

It was said of the Rev. Dr. Lee: “He was a Christian without guile, broad and catholic in his views and feelings. His sermons were earnest and effective, and his style and diction were perfect pieces of art – such as would naturally flow from a mind thoroughly conversant with polite literature in all its branches.”

Only one other visit of Rev. Lee to the Anglicans in Monongahela is documented, for a service on December 18, 1861. For the first two years of the existence of this congregation only the school of Mrs. Stuart met with regularity. The Rev. Edwin M. van Deusen , of St. Peter’s – Pittsburgh, also conducted services here from time to time up until 1862, when the Monongahela City Episcopal Mission was organized and an official missionary assigned.

Monongahela City, 1860

What was Monongahela like when the first Anglican services were held here in 1860?

The city was founded as Parkinson's Ferry in 1769 and was originally situated primarily around the mouth of Pigeon Creek. By 1860, however, the town had been incorporated, changed its name to Monongahela City, and was spreading northward along the river.

A bustling river town, Monongahela City had a population of 999 according to the Census of 1860. At the time there were in town five dry goods stores, six grocery stores, two clothing stores, two shoe stores, two drug stores, two millinery shops and five or six other commercial establishments. There was a bank, Alexander & Co., and two newspapers. Industry in town included two paper mills, a planing mill, a boat building yard, a foundry, a flour mill and a coal car factory. The public school had six teachers and served three hundred fifty students.

When Anglicans first gathered here there were already five other Christian bodies worshiping in town. Two Presbyterian groups, along with the Methodist and African Methodist Episcopal churches were already well established. The Baptist Church first met in February of 1860. Four of those churches still exist.

In 1860, the shoe store pictured here, stood at about where St. Paul's church stands today.