Full text: Education (Vol. 1, nr. 14)

tional, 22; Pentecostal Church, 7; Unitarian, 4; Church of the 
Brethren, 4; Seventh Day Adventist, 3; Church of Christ, 3; 
New Jerusalem, 2; others not enumerated 154. 
The first formal religious services by white men were held 
in Pittsburgh in 1749 by Father Bonnecamps,a Roman Cath- 
olic chaplain attached to Captain Louis De Celoron’s expedi- 
tion. A few years later, when the French from Canada seized 
the fort at the Point, naming it Fort Duquesne, they had 
with them Father Deys Baron, a Roman Catholic priest of 
the Order of St. Francis. The French erected a chapel at the 
confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers which 
they dedicated “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin of the 
Beautiful River.” In the archives at Montreal there is a regis- 
ter of the baptisms and deaths at Fort Duquesne. From the 
time the French evacuated the fort, the Roman Catholics in 
Pittsburgh had no resident pastor for a half century. 
On November 24, 1758, the English flag was hoisted at 
the Point by Colonel Armstrong and a few days later a Presby- 
terian minister, who was attached to the expeditionary forces, 
conducted the first Thanksgiving Day services west of the 
Allegheny Mountains. 
Presbyterians were in Pittsburgh as early as 1758. The 
Presbytery of Redstone was organized in 1781 at the Pigeon 
Creek meeting house, Washington County. Three years 
later the Rev. Joseph Smith was sent by the Redstone 
Presbytery to preach in Pittsburgh, he thus becoming the 
first local resident minister of this denomination. In 1784 
the Presbytery of Pittsburgh was incorporated. The Penn 
heirs gave a site to this denomination for religious purposes 
at Sixth avenue and Wood street. The first Presbyterian 
Church, a log structure, was erected in 1785. This property 
has remained the site of the First Church of this denomina- 
tion in Pittsburgh.
	        
Waiting...

Note to user

Dear user,

In response to current developments in the web technology used by the Goobi viewer, the software no longer supports your browser.

Please use one of the following browsers to display this page correctly.

Thank you.