I was recently searching for articles written by a former pastor of our congregation and stumbled upon a document published to celebrate 100 years of Beaver Falls, Pa.
The Beaver Falls Centennial (published online at the Little Beaver Historical Society and orginally prepared by the History Book Committee and published by the News-Tribune on June 22, 1968) contains information about the founding of Beaver Falls and its surrounding municipalities including information about Geneva College and the Reformed Presbyterian Churches in the area.
Our congregation was the first (hence First) RP congregation in the area. The Centennial document tells a fun story of its founding:
“Seeing a flagman signaling him to stop, the engineer brought the train to a screeching halt. Passengers alighted after learning that they had to lie over for a while at the Beaver Falls-New Brighton Station, because of an accident further down the track. One of them was J. D. McAnlis, who was on his way to Sewickley, where he hoped to settle. After waiting a while, he asked the conductor how much longer they would be detained. Learning that it would be a hour or more, he decided to walk up to the town of Beaver Falls. While walking the streets, he met and got acquainted with a Mr. Bruce, a business man who operated a store. Soon Bruce introduced him to a Mr. McKee, who operated a grocery store, commenting that his was the only Covenanter family in town.
Bruce and McKee evidently liked McAnlis and were very much impressed with him, because they talked him into settling in Beaver Falls instead of going on to Sewickley. They told him he could do just as well, if not better in the jewelry business in Beaver Falls. McAnlis roomed with Bruce and his family for a while and made his first sale there, a watch. This is how McAnlis, a man who was to play an important part in the life of the First Beaver Falls Reformed Presbyterian Congregation, came to live in Beaver Falls.
It was natural for the McKee family to invite their new boarder to attend church with them. Every Sabbath that they were not detained by impassable roads or some other legitimate excuse, McAnlis accompanied them to the little Beaver Congregation in New Galilee. When they were unable to get there, they worshipped at the Covenanter mission at Rochester, which was a mission of the Little Beaver congregation. This group, which was composed of about 50 people (who were almost all women), met in a storeroom each week to Worship God, and to hear the preaching of N. M. Johnston on six Sabbaths a year.Sometimes they met in Beaver Falls and some of the people of the town then assembled with them. After a short time, they obtained space in a hall which they furnished with seats purchased from the church at New Galilee. In January 1869, Johnston preached at an evening service in Beaver Falls. That was the first time a Covenanter minister had preached there. The hall became their regular meeting place, with Dr. J. R. W. Sloan, Dr. D. B. Willson, and seminary students filling the pulpit.
The first time Dr. Willson preached for them, he was surprised and pleased with the large audience and suggested that the group organize. The people said that the idea had never occured to them but they expressed a desire to do so. Upon his suggestion, the group sent McAnlis, who was well known as a jeweler in Beaver Falls by then, to represent them at Pittsburgh Presbytery which was meeting at Rose Point. The Presbytery formed a commission which made plans to establish the congregation.
Then, on Nov. 10, 1874,they organized First Reformed Presbyterian Church, Beaver Falls, with 24 charter members. The energetic new congregation was anxious to begin operating on a full scale as soon as possible and called Dr. Robert James George.”
Another well-known story is that the first chapel built in Patterson burned to the ground the night before its dedication:
Under the leadership of Dr. Glasgow, the records show the mission on Patterson Heights was flourishing, with an attendance of 103 in 1894. The work looked so encouraging there that the church set up a fund for buying a lot and erecting a place of worship there. In 1894, the church bought a piece of land in Patterson Heights and built a chapel on it during the same year.
The people’s hopes of dedicating the chapel were dashed to pieces the night before the dedication services.
At 6:30p.m. Dec. 24, 1894, the Dawsons, who lived next to the chapel, noticed flames shooting from the new structure. There was no fire department in the area then, so the people formed a bucket brigade hoping to control the fire. As the alarm spread and the neighbors hurried through the snow to the scene, they saw that the fire was out of control. All they could do was to join the others as they tried to save the Dawson house by throwing snowballs against the side.Their work was successful in saving the house, but the new $1,450 chapel was in ashes and a piece of the pulpit was the onlything that they were able to save. They rebuilt the chapel the following year.
You can read the full history of the First RP Church in the Centennial document on pages 92-93. The following pages give a history of each of the RP churches in the Area including many daughtered by First RPC. A history of Geneva College begins on page 127.
The history of our church is also discussed in a document about the 175th Anniversary of Patterson Township which can also be downloaded for free online on the webpage of the Patterson Township Volunteer Fire Department.
On page 74, a home is pictured being moved.
In order to build the new Reformed Presbyterian Church the Iden home next to the old church had to be moved. It was moved to Fifth Street and the photo below shows it in the process of being moved.
This home was moved in order to make way for the current sanctuary of the First RPC building.
As we get closer to celebrating our 150th Anniversary as a congregation in a few months, do you have stories you can share? I’d love to compile them onto the web page for others to enjoy.
-Heidi Filbert