Presbyterian
Presbyterian
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First Presbyterian ChurchThe first settlers of Flint found church organizations on either side of them, and on the Sabbath day they could elect to go to meeting either to Genesee, four miles to the north, or to Grand Blanc, six miles to the south, so, there being no Congregational society in Flint River, on May 7, 1837, seventeen persons of that faith met at the “River House,” the home of Lewis Buckingham, and organized the Congregational Association. However, there was no Congregational Association in this region, so this society, in 1840, submitted its articles of faith to the presbytery of Detroit and was taken under the care of that body. Afterward we find it appealing to this presbytery in cases of discipline and submitting to its government. The first communion was held in a barn standing near the east corner of the square west of Saginaw and north of Kearsley streets. The Rev. Orson Parker supplied the pulpit a part of the first year, being succeeded by the Rev. John Beach. In 1845 the Rev. J. G. Atterbury was ordained and installed as the first regular pastor. Not long after Mr. Atterbury began his ministry, the church entered upon the work of erecting a house of worship and in 1848 an edifice was dedicated, being a large white wooden building, of the old-fashioned type, on the corner of Saginaw and Second streets. One of the organizers of this church society, Wait Beach, a son of Jonathan Beach, who had participated in the scenes of the Revolutionary War, gave the land for this, the first house of worship of the Presbyterian church; he also gave the land for the Methodist church and parsonage on Court street; also land for the first cemetery and the land for the court house. One of the early pastors of this church was the Rev. H. H. Northrup, who served as pastor from 1852 until 1867 and afterwards spent the remainder of his long life in Flint. During the ministry of the Rev. Archibald McSween, who assumed the pastorate of the church in 1868, the land on Grand Traverse street, now the site of the Presbyterian manse, was purchased and fitted up at a cost of about four thousand dollars. In 1876 the Rev. George P. Tindall accepted a call to the pastorate and labored for five years, during which time eighty-five new members were received. Mr. Tindall then retired from the service. In 1885, the old church being inadequate for the needs of the congregation, it was voted to erect an imposing stone structure two blocks to the south on Saginaw street. This undertaking was accomplished under the direction of the pastor, Rev. Henry Melville Curtis, who, during his pastorate in Flint, became very influential in the affairs of the church. Rev. Mr. Curtis closed his pastorate in 1890 and was followed by the Rev. George F. Hunting, D. D., who remained from 1891 until 1895; the Rev. Henry Neill, who was pastor from 1895 to 1899, and the Rev. J. G. Inglis, who occupied the pulpit from 1899 to 1891. Mr. Inglis was followed by the Rev. Charles A. Lippincott, D. D., who remained for twelve years, from 1901 to 1913. Under the pastorate of Doctor Lippincott, a man whose ability was recognized and valued both in his parish and in the business and civic circles of the community, the work of the church was rapidly extended and the membership greatly increased. Doctor Lippincott resigned to take charge of a pastorate in South Bend, Indiana, and the present pastor is Rev. H. D. Borley, under whose leadership the church rolls now contain seven hundred names and the benevolent societies carry on a large and beneficent work. This article was transcribed by Geraldine Waite from a work by Edwin O. Wood, LL.D., President Michigan Historical
Commission, History of Genesee County Michigan Volume I, Her People,
Industries and Institutions (Federal Publishing Company: Indianapolis, Indiana,
1916), Pages 729ff |
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