SKETCH, &c

From the best information, which the writer of this sketch has been able to obtain, it appears that the Pine Creek Church, in Indiana township, is indebted for its origin, under Providence, more to the exertions of William Davis Hawkins, Esq. than to those of any other individual.

This gentleman came with his family, in the autumn of 1801, from the vicinity of Baltimore in Maryland. In 1832, he became a resident at the place of the blue house, so called, built by the late Gen. John Wilkins, and, two years after, on a farm, now a part of the possessions of James Ross, Esq. located on the extensive bottom, which, in former times was claimed and occupied by Gai-a-Soot-ther, of as the name is pronounced by some, Gai-a-Sooth-ther, a noted aboriginal warriour.

The inhabitants of this region, at that period, were few, and those, who remembered the Sabbath day to keep it holy, were still fewer in number. It is painful to add, the beasts of the forest had more to fear from the weapons of death, on that sacred day, than on any other day of the week.

Mr. Hawkins early made application to the Synod of Pittsburgh for ministerial supplies; but was referred to the Presbytery of Erie, which, then, embraced all that part of Western Pennsylvania, extending from the Alleghany river to the eastern boundary of the State of Ohio and, northerly, from Pittsburgh to Lake Erie. At length, he succeeded in securing the services of the Rev. Robert Patterson, a certain portion of his time, for the space of two years. The Rev. Abraham Boyd and the Rev. James Graham were the only Presbyterian ministers, who, so far as has been ascertained, ever occasionally officiated, in this destitute part of the country, previously to the engagement with Mr. Patterson.

The Rev. Joseph Stockton, having resigned his parochial charge at Meadville, became, in 1809, a citizen of Pittsburgh; and, on the suggestion of Mr. Patterson, succeeded him as a stated supply. At first, he preached to the little congregation, for several years, one third, and, afterwards, one-half, of the time; his clerical services, for the residue, being devoted to the soldiers of the United States' garrison, in Lawrenceville, and to the gathering of a church in what is now the borough of Alleghany.

As no building for a place of public worship had been raised in the township, the convocation, on the Lord's day, was at the dwelling-house of Mr. Hawkins, for a considerable period, and, subsequently, at a lent in the woods, till the year, 1814, when a log edifice, of competent dimensions, was erected , in a commodious situation, on a lot of land, consisting of two acres and a half, procured, for the purpose from Mr. Kennedy, by the aid of his agent, on the western side of the Kittaning road, eight miles from Pittsburgh. In consequence of the increase of the population, the building was enlarged about the year, 1824.

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE PINE CREEK CHURCH, WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE LATE REV. JOSEPH STOCKTON, A.M. BY REV. TIMOTHY ALDEN. S.S. OF THAT CHURCH. PITTSBURGH; PRINTED BY WILLIAM B. STEWART, 1839.