The Church of this denomination in America is a lineal descendant and true representative of the Covenanter Church in Scotland. The early Covenanters banded themselves together in groups and were spoken of and known as Societies or Society people. During the persecutions in Scotland members of this, the Covenanter Church, sought refuge in America, where they could enjoy religious freedom. The early settlements of this denomination in the early 1700‘s were in the eastern part of Pennsylvania, New York, and South Carolina. The Wilkinsburg church of this denomination had its origin in the Society meetings held in the homes of the then few Covenanters in the village shortly after 1833.
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As time passed . . . Societies of Covenanters were formed in neighboring districts of Wilkinsburg: viz., Deer Creek, Plum Creek, Sandy Creek, and East End. Prior to the organization of the Wilkinsburg Society as a church, Communion was always celebrated in the Pittsburgh church. The long distance to be travelled for church service became so inconvenient for loyal and devout members of the “Seceder” faith that the idea of a church building centrally located in Wilkinsburg was broached. Before 1845, with the increasing growth of population, Hugh Boyd, a business man of foresight and influence in the village, approached his friend James Kelly on the matter. Mr. Kelly was interested at once, and responded by donating a square of land in Wilkinsburg bounded by South, Center and Mill Streets, and extending south 264 feet to the present Franklin Avenue.
This site was selected on account of its good drainage into a run which flowed through the rear end of this plot on its way to the river. Quite a few years passed before the church was built on the plot, for money was not plentiful in those days. During this time meetings were held in Jefferson School house and other school houses, in Mr. Kelly’s barn, and later in the new Methodist Church built in 1843. A comical incident relating to the barn meetings is told by Mrs. A. S. Hunter. When meetings were held in the Kelly barn it was the duty of the young Kelly girls to round up the chickens on Saturday night and to keep them confined until the Sabbath day services were over. On one occasion, however, a young rooster escaped and the next morning a new and lusty sound from the high rafters of the barn was added to the singing of the Psalms. Needless to say the incident did not occur again.
It is interesting to note that only $800 cash was used in the construction of the new church building. When the building operations were finally begun those who could not give money gave liberally of their time, teams and timber. To quote from an old record: “Mr. Kelly was the largest contributor for, besides the ground, he donated fifty dollars in cash.” A list of 37 who contributed to the church building includes many old residents: Mr. Hawkins, father of Judge William Hawkins, George Peebles, Benjamin Kelly, Samuel Denniston, Joseph Stoner, John McMasters, and others, none of whom were Covenanters. William Boyd, a younger brother of Hugh Boyd, often recalled the days he spent on horseback riding through the country soliciting contributions from friends for the new church building, the amounts ranging from fifty cents to one dollar. Mrs. Hunter says: “As I think of this church of my childhood and young womanhood I do not recall a building modern and ornate, such as that which now stands at the southeast corner of South Avenue and Center Street; I see rather a plain red brick church of comfortable size whose only ornamentation on the outside was six white insets arranged in groups of three in the front wall above the doors. In the center inset of the lower group were these words, ‘Reformed Presbyterian Church, built A. D. 1845‘.”
With strong faith, perseverance, and sacrifice, and aided by the generosity of Mr. James Kelly and the two brothers, Hugh and John Boyd, Samuel Henning and a few others, the church was built in 1845 and for three long years services were held in the new building without an organization, with supplies when available. At the time of the organization in 1848 the approximate membership was between thirty and forty members. This was the second church built in the village, the Methodist Episcopal church having been built in 1843.
The Rev. Josiah Dodds, a student, preached the first sermon in the building in 1845. Until the calling of a pastor several years later, the newly organized congregation was ministered to by a stated supply, the Rev. Thomas Hanney, for two years (1848–1850).
In 1847, two years after the church had been built, no deed had been given for the ground. Hugh Boyd, knowing Mr. Kelly’s tendency to defer the execution of deeds, resolved to press the donation to a legal close. Accordingly he, accompanied by another church member, called one evening on Mr. Kelly and said pleasantly, “Mr. Kelly, we have come to stay until the deed is given to us.” Mr. Boyd carried the document home that night in his pocket. So to Hugh Boyd”s decision the congregation owned a clear title to the ground.
The deed is dated July 6th, 1847 between James Kelly and Sarah Ann Kelly, his wife, of Wilkins Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania to Samuel Henning, Archibald Euwer, and Hugh Boyd, in trust for the Society of the Reformed Presbyterian Congregation of Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania and vicinity; $500 being stipulated as the consideration in full which the grantor appropriates and gives as a donation to the within named Society. The document is signed and witnessed by Nathaniel Nelson and John Horner, Justice of the Peace.
Mrs. Hunter writes: “In 1852 my father, The Rev. Joseph Hunter, was called to the pastorate of this church and served as pastor for thirty years until his resignation because of ill health in 1882, two years before his death. At the time my father was called to the Wilkinsburg church it had under its care the Deer Creek Society, which had a much older history than that of the Wilkinsburg church, for as far back as the early twenties services were held in the log church back from Harrnarville, Pa.” The Boyd family who, on their arrival in 1823 from Ireland, had settled in that vicinity, worshipped there before some of its members located in Wilkinsburg. William Boyd often spoke of their going to church services there in the morning and returning home at sundown.
Mr. Hunter had a wide field that required much pastoral work. Those were in a sense pioneer days. Mr. Hunter ’s daughter Laetitia writes: “Many a time have I seen my father arrive home on horseback, weary and travel-stained after days of visiting his scattered membership. Traveling conditions then were very different from our comfortable journeys of today.” In relation to the church building Mrs. Laetitia Hunter continues: “The windows of the new church were shaded by Venetian blinds, as was the fashion of the times. It was heated by four large stoves, one in each corner, and as only the pulpit and aisles were carpeted, the congregation was quite apt to have warm heads and cold feet. An amusing incident occurred one wintery Sabbath afternoon when Mrs. Jane Grey Swisshelm, who was a law unto herself, and who occasionally attended the Covenanter services, discovered she had cold feet. So, tying on her grey bonnet which she always removed in church, she rose from her seat in Mrs. Wadsworth’s pew at the right of the pulpit, literally marched down the aisle to the door, crossed South Avenue to rooms where she was living at the time, returning very shortly with a piece of carpet draped around her shoulder like a shawl, marched down the aisle again into the pew, spread the carpet on the floor, sat down, removed her bonnet and composed herself for the remainder of the service. Some of those who witnessed the incident did not so soon compose themselves.
“After my father became pastor of the church the need was felt for a raised desk on the pulpit to hold the large Bible. No board of sufficient width could be found and my mother contributed her large bread board for the purpose. Covered with red plush, it was in constant use until the church was torn down.“Mr. Kelly was a faithful adherent and regular attendant at the church services. He always walked up the aisle carrying his broad brimmed hat and wearing his queue. His daughters, Jane and Rebecca, followed him but were not permitted to enter the pew until their father had taken an immaculate handkerchief from his pocket and dusted it thoroughly. . . . Mr. Kelly’s daughters, after their father ’s death, were baptized by my father and became members of the church.”
Behind and surrounding the church was a graveyard. This was a special concession on Mr. Kelly’s part, for grants to other churches contain this clause: “No dead body is to be placed in this ground.” The Covenanter graveyard was opened about 1848. Its use, at first, was confined to families of the church members, but later it was available as a burial place to the villagers in general. Not till the early nineties, when the new Borough disapproved of it in the town, was it abandoned. The bodies were then removed by friends and the unclaimed ones were placed, by the church, in a lot sixteen feet square in the Monongahela Cemetery, Braddock, Pennsylvania.
Mrs. Jane Boyd Wadsworth had planted maple trees around the Center Street or western side of the church. As they grew they formed a grateful shade. The little ones were allowed to go out to relax when the long service made them too restless and tired. Under the shade of the trees they were quietly happy and the older ones, too, loved the peaceful quiet of this place so enclosed from the outside world. Here lunches were eaten in the summer time, followed by a walk down in the ravine where there was a spring of delicious water and banks of mint. The lunch period was short, only from twenty to thirty minutes, and was so limited to bring the morning and afternoon services closer together in order to accommodate the members living far out in the country.
There were quaint customs connected with the early Covenanter Church. One was lining out the psalms. When the psalm was announced, the precentor would stand in front of the pulpit, tuning fork in hand. He read two lines of the psalm, then started the singing, in which the congregation joined. When these two lines were finished two more were read and sung, and so on until the end of the selection. Later this custom was discontinued. Messrs. Samuel Henning, William Wills, and A. C. Coulter served as precentors for a considerable length of time.
The communion services (or Lord’s Supper) were commemorated twice a year. These were solemn but joyous times. The Friday preceding the communion Sabbath was a fast day, sacred like the Sabbath, and the children were not allowed to go to school on that day. Saturday had its own peculiar services which were rather lengthy as there was preaching, exercises debarring from communion those not in good standing, and the distribution of “tokens” to the members who were entitled to commune. During the communion season the pastor always had an assisting minister, sometimes from a long distance. In this way the congregation became acquainted with different ministers of the denomination.
Sabbath day of Communion was the great day of the Feast of the Lord ’s Supper. A very long table, placed in front of the pulpit for this occasion, was spread with a fine white linen cloth. It was a beautiful sight as the communicants marched to their places at the table singing a part of the 24th Psalm lined out by the precentor, while an elder stood at the foot of the table to receive the tokens distributed the day before. When all were seated on both sides of the table, a prayer and address by the minister to the communicants was followed by administering the bread and wine. The table services closed with singing part of the 45th Psalm as the communicants returned to their pews. In the same manner others were served until all the members partook of the Lord ’s Supper.
Monday, the closing day of the Communion season, was duly observed with an appropriate Thanksgiving service commencing at 10:30 A. M. Some time in the afternoon the pastor, with the visiting assistant, made calls on the members, the conversation being principally about the communion occasion just observed. Religious instruction was not neglected in the Covenanter homes in those early days. Sabbath was kept as a holy day. No unnecessary work was done as most of the food was prepared on Saturday. After the church services on Sabbath the children spent the remainder of the afternoon committing portions of the psalms and scripture verses and, last but not least, the catechism. And these, especially the catechism, were recited to the father or mother in the evening.
Once a year family visitation came around. The minister, accompanied by an elder, would pay a pastoral visit. The pastor would announce from the pulpit the previous Sabbath the families he would visit and sometimes two families would arrange to meet in one of the two homes. This was always a trying ordeal and needed preparation, as the children were catechised as well as the grown-ups to ascertain spiritual progress.
The old church with its plain facade broken by the six insets, in its peaceful setting of trees and God’s Acre, with its green path leading from the brow of the hill down to the spring of delicious water and to the stream, with its banks of fragrant mint, will ever be held in sacred memory by those who were reared and worshipped therein, as well as by many residents of the former village still living among us.
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The Covenanter Church in the U.S.A. is small but statistics show that, in proportion to its size, it contributes more to religious and other good causes than any other denomination. The Covenanters sing only psalms in church services. They do not use instrumental music, and abstain from politics on the ground that God is not sufficiently recognized in the Constitution of the United States. They are a faithful, loyal people, strong for every good work in church and state.
Mention should be made of the founding in 1848 of Westminster College at Wilkinsburg, Pa., by the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and of a female Seminary, which was established in connection with it, the Rev. Moses Rooney serving as its first President. In 1850 the location was changed to Allegheny, Pa., where a suitable building was erected. Dr. John Newell in i853 succeeded Mr. Rooney as President of Westminster College and Prof.James R. Newell became a teacher. After ten years Westminster College was succeeded-by Allegheny City College and at a later date, in i863, formed a nucleus for Newell Institute. A preparatory and classical school of high standing flourished in Pittsburgh for many years under the charge of Prof. James R. Newell.
In 1892 the first brick church which had been built in 1845 was torn down and the present modern edifice at the corner of South Avenue and Center Street was erected and dedicated in 1893.
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THE OLD COVENANTER CHURCH OF WILKINSBURG
Built 1845 And its First Pastor
THE REV. JOSEPH HUNTER 1852–1882
Below the old Church was a valley,
Where a stream flowed toward the sea,
Through a carpet of peppermint spicy,
It sang of its joy to be free.
And over its stepping-stone crossing
A path led up to the spring
In the rocks, where the wayfarer weary
His paeans of praises would sing.
But the church and the graveyard behind it,
Have yielded to modern advance,
And the stream with its musical murmur,
Finds itself in a strange circumstance.
The spring now no longer refreshes
The traveller who passes that way,
Nor the many who worshipped above it,
On a quiet long past Sabbath day.
The silvery haired pastor is resting
Not far from the scene of his toil.
“His works do live after him”—blessing,
For he sowed in a most fruitful soil.
The children he loved, and the youth he admired,
Perhaps have forgotten their friend.
But some still remember the long cheery road
Which he travelled straight through to the end.
LAETITIA H. HUNTER
“The Reformed Presybterian Church or the Church of the Covenanters,” Text by Jane W. Boyd from diary of Hugh Boyd and memories of William Boyd; Henning family records; and from papers prepared for and read before the Covenanter Church Societies and the Woman’s Club of Wilkinsburg, by Mrs. Leatitia H. Hunter, in Elizabeth M. Davison and Ellen B. McKee eds., Annals of Old Wilkinsburg and Vicinity: The Village 1788–1888. Wilkinsburg, Pa.: Group for Historical Research, 1940, pp. 208–215.