0 This Week In History

This Week In History

September 18, 1716

On September 18, 1716, the first Presbytery in America (located in Philadelphia) met in session. At this multi-day meeting, the participants voted to establish the first Synod (of Philadelphia) with new presbyteries to be located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Newcastle, Delaware; Snow Hill, Maryland, and Long Island, New York. The Snow Hill Presbytery did not get organized.

September 19, 1722

On September 19, 1722, the Rev. Jonathan Dickinson preached a sermon to open the Synod meeting at Philadelphia — "Wherein is Considered the Character of the Man of God, and his Furniture for the Exercise both of Doctrine and Discipline, With the True Boundaries of the Church's Power." Rev. Dickinson lead his church in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, to join the Presbyterian denomination in 1717. He would go on to be highly influential in the early America church and served as the first president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).

September 20, 1716

On September 20, 1716, the first Presbytery in America split into four new Presbyteries — Philadelphia, New Castle, Snow Hill and Long Island — that would gather once a year beginning in 1717 at the first American Presbyterian Synod meeting.

September 21, 1766

On September 21, 1766, Presbyterian ministers Charles Beatty and George Duffield (1732 - 1790, shown at right) preached to a group of Native Americans at a site near present day Newcomerstown, Ohio, on the Tuscarawas River. The two Pennsylvania ministers were scouting the Northwest Territory (Ohio) for possible missions.