AREA HISTORY:  Slate Ridge Presbyterian Church, York County, PA

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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SLATE RIDGE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – Page 762

The Rev. Joseph Smith, now the highly esteemed pastor of Slate Ridge congregation, in October, 
1868, published in pamphlet form, an extended sketch of this historic church, from which most 
of the following facts were obtained:  The original and succeeding members of this church have 
dwelt, and its present members now dwell in part of York County, Penn., and in part of what is 
now called Harford County, Md.

The first settlers here were Scotch and Scotch-Irish.  It is stated that the influx from 1718 
to 1740, was wholly Protestant, and largely Presbyterian.  The newspapers of that time furnish 
accounts of the extent of the immigration of this class, especially from Ireland.  In 
September, 1736, 1,690 families sailed from Belfast, in Ireland, on account of the difficulty 
of renewing their leases; on the 9th of the same month, 100 Presbyterians from Ireland arrived 
at Philadelphia, as many more soon afterward at Newcastle, and twenty ships were daily expected 
from Ireland.  Wodrow, the Scottish historian, says “the departure of the people in shoals, 
excited the fears of the English government, lest Ireland should be wholly abandoned to the 
papists.”

The Scotch and the Scotch-Irish, when they emigrated, brought their church and school with 
them.  One of the first arrangements, therefore, made by the primitive Presbyterian settlers 
west of the Susquehanna, was to have the Gospel preached in their midst.  At the time, or 
shortly after the settlement of this place, an event occurred which, no doubt, increased their 
desire for Gospel ordinances.  It is stated, “There was so great a revival in Baltimore County 
in 1746 and 1747, that it seemed like the first planting of religion there.  It was in what is 
now Harford County, and extended from Deer Creek to Slate Ridge and Chanceford.”  This was an 
auspicious beginning for Slate Ridge Church.  The first house consecrated to the worship of God 
in this part of the country, was a log building near Muddy Creek.  Tradition indicates the site 
of it at the junction of Scott’s Run and Muddy Creek, east of the former and south of the 
latter.  We think the reason why this place was chosen for the site of their sanctuary was, 
that it was central to the people of Chanceford and Peach Bottom.  When a house of worship was 
built and a church organized in Chanceford, a more central and convenient place was chosen.  
Although difficult in getting to and from it at present, yet the scenery around the site of the 
old sanctuary is pleasing to the eye.  Two streams, running in opposite directions, the meeting 
of the waters, the wooded range rising gradually behind where the ancient sanctuary stood, all 
unite in forming one of nature’s very pleasing pictures.  It reminds one of some of the places 
in Scotland where the persecuted Covenanters were wont to assemble and worship Jehovah.  The 
log building at Muddy Creek was burned.  A second, and temporary building was then erected 
about three miles further south, in the State of Maryland, on land then owned by Michael 
Whiteford.  A vague tradition indicates that this “temporary building” was erected near where 
John Beattie now lives.  This building was soon deserted, and a third house of worship was 
erected, either on or near to the place where the present church stands.  In 1762 a fourth 
house of worship was built.  It is described as “a new, better and fourth church, built of 
squared logs, on the same site.”  About the year 1800 this house was burned, being set on fire, 
it is said, by an incendiary.  Soon after this the present and fifth house of worship was 
built.  One statement of the organization of this church says:  “A congregation was formed, and 
church erected prior to 1750.”  Another account is, that it was organized, not before 1750, and 
probably in 1751.  The man to whom, as is generally believed, belongs the honor on constituting 
this church, was the Rev. Eleazer Whittlesey, who was born probably in Bethlem, Conn.  He spent 
some time at Nottingham, in Cecil Co., Md., where a Mr. Finley taught an academy.  He graduated 
in 1749, at Nassau Hall, then located at Newark, and was licensed to preach by the Newcastle 
Presbytery soon after.  Writing to Belamy, May 8, 1750, from Mr. Finley’s he says, he had been 
directed to ride abroad in March and April, and supply vacanies.  Finley writes, December 3, 
1752, that “Whittlesey, whom I tenderly loved for his zeal and integrity, left my house on a 
Thursday morning, cheerful, and in pretty good health, and preached the next Sabbath at Muddy 
Run, not designing to continue there longer.  On Monday he was taken sick with pleurisy.  He 
continued in pain until Saturday, and then gave up the ghost.  The last words he was heard to 
utter were:  ‘O Lord, leave me not.’  The Susquehanna was frozen and no messenger could come to 
me till all was over.  He died December 21.  To Bellamy he bequeathed his watch, and requested 
Rodgers to take his horse at what price he pleased.”  A tradition worthy of belief, asserts 
that the body of Whittlesey was buried in a graveyard near where James Johnson, of Peach Bottom 
Township, now lives.  The successor of Whittlesey was Evander Morrison, of Scotland, who joined 
the New Castle Presbytery in 1753.  During his ministry the second house was built.  He was 
succeeded by Rev. Mr. Black, but how long these clergymen each served is not known.  There was 
no pastor in 1759.  Rev. John Strain, who was probably born in 1728, and was graduated at 
Princeton College in 1757, licensed to preach in 1759, was ordered by the Presbytery to supply 
Slate Ridge and Chanceford in July the same year, and ordained December 17, 1760, was next 
pastor.  

At the meeting of the Presbytery, October 14, 1760, a number of members of Slate Ridge 
congregation asked “that their meeting-house be continued where it is.”  At the ensuing meeting 
a committee was appointed by the presbytery to go to the spot and decide the matter, consisting 
of Messrs. Blair, Bay, James Finley and S. Finley, moderator.  They reported “they had met the 
Slate Ridge congregation and determined the place of building their new meeting-house.  A good 
spring may be had by going a little way from that place.”  This was doubtless the spring now 
owned by the congregation.  Mr. Strain was installed pastor of the Slate Ridge and Chanceford 
by Messrs. Sterling, Bay and Finley, November 17, 1762.  Not long after his installation, he 
and his congregations were annexed to the Donegal Presbytery, the sessions of which he and his 
elder James Smith met, June 20, 1763.  Some of the ruling elders of Slate Ridge and Chanceford, 
at this time, were Hugh Whiteford, Rowland Hughes, Joseph Watson, John Steel, James Leeper, 
James Gordon, James Clarke, James Smith, Patrick Scott, J. Cowen and Thomas Scott.  The oldest 
grave now marked in the present Slate Ridge burying ground is that of a child of Alexander 
McCandless, in 1764.

Mr. Strain purchased a farm adjoining the land of John Edmundson and James White in 1765, 
within the present limits of Peach Bottom Township.  He was not a man of great physical 
endurance.  Hezekiah James Balch, a graduate of Princeton, pursued the study of theology with 
him about this time, for one year.  In 1768 Revs. Strain and Duffield, received a call to 
become joint pastors of the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, at a salary of £200 
each.  The next session of Donegal Presbytery assembled at Slate Ridge, when a joint address 
from the congregations of Chanceford and Slate Ridge, remonstrated against the removal of their 
pastor.  He yielded to their wishes, and remained as their minister until his death, in 1774.  
He is traditionally remembered as “one of the most eloquent ministers of the Presbyterian 
Church of his time, and very earnest and zealous in this work.”  There are a number of eulogies 
of his character, delivered at the time of his death, still in existence, and the Pennsylvania 
Gazette, then the leading paper in Philadelphia, published were extended obituary of him.  His 
remains were interred in the graveyard adjoining the Slate Ridge Church.  On the tombstone 
neatly carved is the following inscription:  “In memory of Rev. Dr. John Strain, who departed 
this life April 12, 1774, aged forty-three years.”  During a part of the period of the 
Revolutionary war, this and the Chanceford congregation was without a regular pastor; Rev. 
William Smith was for two years of this time a supply; other supplies were Messrs. Sample, 
Luckey, Finley, Tate and Joseph Smith.

Rev. John Slemons, a graduate of Princeton College in class of 1760, became supply to Slate 
Ridge and Chanceford congregation in 1781, and was installed in 1783.  He had been pastor of 
Lower Marsh Creek congregations (now Gettysburg) From 1765 to 1774.  He purchased a farm in 
Peach Bottom, containing 238 acres for £500, and continued to serve these congregations until 
September, 1791, when he resigned, and there was no regular pastor until 1795, when Rev. Samuel 
Martin, D. D., was chosen.  He was born in Chestnut Level, Lancaster County, January 9, 1767, 
of parents who belonged to the Associate Church.  He was graduated at the University of 
Pennsylvania in 1790, and licensed to preach three years later by the Baltimore Presbytery.  
He, at first, was pastor of this church only, but April 1, 1800, the congregation of Chanceford 
asked for one-half of his time for a consideration of £100.  He continued pastor until 1812.  
During this period “the new and better and fourth church built of squared logs” was burned.  He 
lived on the farm, where his successor in the ministry, Rev. Mr. Parke afterward resided.  For 
a time he kept a classical school near the church.

August 10, 1814, Mr. Parke was ordained and installed pastor of this church:  “For forty-three 
years he continued to preach the word, administer the sacraments, visit, catechise, comfort the 
mourning and bury the dead.”

The present pastor began his labors here September, 1860.  The congregation numbers 200 members 
and the Sunday-school, 120 members.  The congregation having been in existence since 1750, is 
now (1885) 135 years old.