All was not harmonious in the former College Church. The year following the change of name the local newspaper reported: "At a congregational meeting of the First Presbyterian Church of Canonsburg held in the Chapel November 12, 1888, a majority of those present decided to leave the present place of worship immediately. Those dissenting therefrom continued to worship in the Chapel, and their petition was presented to Presbytery…asking for a division of the First Church or the Organization of another church in Canonsburg." Thus, what was one, became two: the First Presbyterian Church and the Central Presbyterian Church.

The photographs, above, show the First Presbyterian pulpit, and probably were taken a half-century apart. In the earlier one, on the left, the sanctuary was illuminated by gas lamps. Organ pipes can be seen in the more modern photograph, on the right. Right, First Presbyterian Church, about 1910. Going down North Central Avenue, toward the left of the photograph, you would pass the two brick buildings that had been Olome Seminary for Women some fifty years before, then the First National Bank and Pike Street. The lower Olome building was razed to enlarge the bank. The site of the upper building is now a parking lot. Across Pike Street can be seen the Citizens Trust (now Colaizzo) Building and the Notes Building. The church site is now occupied by the Canon House apartment building.

Having removed from the Chapel in Providence Hall, the First Presbyterian congregation held services in the Coliseum skating rink for the next two years (the site is now the front lawn of the Canon-McMillan Administration Building on Jefferson Avenue). The large brick church building on North Central Avenue was finished in 1890.

The Rev. Charles Pridgeon was the first pastor to serve after the construction of the new church building. During his pastorate a parsonage was built on West Pike Street and a mission Sabbath School started in Strabane.

Mr. Pridgeon was released from his charge in 1902, and the same year the Rev. Robert Howard Taylor was installed as pastor. One year later the final payment was made on the building debt and at a service attended by a large number of members and friends, the mortgage was burned. After a pastorate of three years, Rev. Taylor requested the congregation to unite with him in asking presbytery to dissolve the pastoral relationship.

The records of this period reveal numerous session actions involving drunkenness and immorality. These actions resulted in admonitions, suspensions and even excommunication of the accused members, but by this time the Presbyterian elders had lost most of their temporal power. In 1903 the session received a petition from the Women’s Christian Temperance Union calling attention to posters and notices in a local newspaper advertising the coming of a play to the local Opera House. The escape and capture of the Biddle brothers, convicted murderers, would be represented upon the stage. A request was made that the session take action to stop the play, as the ladies of the WCTU believed it would have a demoralizing effect on the people of Canonsburg. Action was taken, but the show went on.

Rev. Ardven E. Linn, a native of Mercer County and a graduate of Westminster College and Allegheny Seminary, was installed as the next pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in 1906. Dr. Linn died after serving only four years.

The following year the Rev. George Gibson Kerr was called and would become the pastor with the longest term of service at First Church. In 1914 the church roll numbered 536 communicants, the duplex envelope system was instituted, and a paid leader for the Sunday School orchestra was appointed. Conferences involving the sessions of the First Church and Central led to a September 1916 vote on reunion by the two congregations. At First Presbyterian, the vote was nearly unanimous for merger. Central’s communicants, however, voted two to one against, and reunion was not pursued.

First Presbyterian Church pastors Robert Howard Taylor, left, and George Gibson Kerr, right .

The congregation was shocked by the sudden death of Rev. Kerr in June 1936 after 25 years of faithful service. In December of that year, Ellwood M. Schofield was elected pastor. In 1943 the session and Dr. Schofield were planning on how to best contact the many new families that had moved to Canonsburg to work in the war plants, when he resigned. Shortly after, the session decided to discontinue Sunday evening services. They also voted to sell the old manse on West Pike Street and purchase a more modern house on Hawthorne Street.

Nine months after Dr. Schofield’s resignation, the Rev. William Wallace Morgan was elected pastor at a salary of $3,000 per annum and manse furnished. He had been born at Ingram and graduated from Grove City College and Western Theological Seminary. Two years after he assumed the pastorate, there were 619 members on the church roll, and the Strabane mission, under the direction of Mrs. G. C. Kerr, was well attended. On May 25, 1947, a service was held in honor of the 113 men and women from the First Presbyterian Church who had served in the armed forces.

Above, left, Rev. William Wallace Morgan, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church from 1944 to 1952. The photograph, above right, is from the 1956 Canonsburg High School yearbook and shows three of the Religious Education teachers: Reverends John T. Brownlee (Chartiers U.P.), Carl H. Lenz (Central Presbyterian), and Daniel B. Eveland (First Presbyterian).

Rev. Morgan resigned in February 1952 to accept a call to Millville, New Jersey, and one year later the Rev. Daniel Buckley Eveland was installed as pastor. Mr. Eveland was a graduate of Maryville College and Princeton Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Virginia, were especially active in working with the young people of the church and the community.

The 125th anniversary of the Presbyterian Congregation in Canonsburg was celebrated in 1955, and commemorative plates were issued for the occasion. The session minutes of the following year note that Mrs. Edna Jacobs, superintendent of the Strabane Mission, made a request for additional teachers and workers. Two years later, the session ruled to close the mission and requested Presbytery to furnish bus transportation between Strabane and the church. The budget for 1960 included $360 for a radio ministry.