Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: January 1990 Volume 28 Number 1, Pages 24–27

The Presbyterian Sabbath School and the Early Years of the First Presbyterian Church in Paoli

Barbara Fry

Page 24

In the latter half of the 19th century, the scattering of homes along the Lancaster Turnpike and Pennsylvania Railroad became parts of more substantial villages. With the development of these villages came the formation of organized churches, first in Berwyn, and later in Paoli.

In both communities, Christians first joined together for worship and study in Union Sabbath Schools. Taking part in these Union Sabbath Schools were a combination of Baptists, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Presbyterians.

The first established church in what is now Berwyn was Trinity Presbyterian Church, established on January 1, 1863, while the first church in Paoli was the Church of the Good Samaritan, an Episcopal church, which was consecrated on September 28, 1877.

By 1891, when discussions of a Presbyterian Sabbath School in Paoli first began, Paoli was a village of some 200 people. It had but one Sunday School, an Episcopalian Sunday School, under the direction of the Good Samaritan Church. Berwyn at that time had a population of about 675, and the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Roman Catholic churches were all by then well established. The Baptist Church of the Great Valley also had built a chapel in the village.

Berwyn saw its greatest development during the last two decades of the 19th century. It was the principal freight station for the area; four tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad came into Berwyn, with only three going on to Paoli. By 1900, Berwyn had a population of 1200. Not until the second decade of the 20th century would Paoli become the terminus of the newly-electrified commuter service on the railroad and become a boom town.

Edwin B. Linn, who later wrote the definitive history of the Sabbath School and early Presbyterian Church in Paoli, came to Paoli around 1889. Records at the Trinity Presbyterian Church show that Linn and his wife transferred their membership to Trinity on December 7, 1890, from the Wyoming Reformed Church of Delaware. Linn wrote that, in 1891, Reverend Thomas Aiken of Trinity said to him, "There should be a Presbyterian Sabbath School in Paoli." A short time afterwards, on December 1, 1891, the session of Trinity appointed a committee to look into the possibility of establishing such a Sabbath School. The committee included Elders Frank J. Beale, Joseph Williams, and Frank H. Stauffer. In February 1892 progress was reported.

Page 25

Organization of the Sabbath School in Paoli went forward, and the first exercises were held on July 2, 1892 in a building rented from Henry Schofield, on the north side of the Lancaster Pike west of what is now Route 252. The officers of the school at that time were Reverend Thomas J. Aiken, superintendent; Edwin B. Linn, secretary; J. W. Conner, treasurer; and Annie Hayburn, librarian.

Present on the first day were Morrill, Maggie, and Mary Linn; Mrs. Emma Stratton; W. C. Druckett; Mary, Emma, and Jennie English; Lizzie Linn; Lee H. Williams; Mabel Conner, William Russell; Morris Hughes; Harry Davis and Annie Scott.

Plans also went forward to build a chapel for use by the school. A loton Darby Road was purchased for $560.

This year of 1892 was an important and significant year for Presbyterians in Tredyffrin and Easttown townships, and the Trinity Presbyterian Church. While the Sabbath School at Paoli was getting underway, a group of people from Howellville approached Trinity and asked for help in establishing a mission Sabbath School there also, to which Trinity's session agreed. In the meantime, Trinity had outgrown its little brown church of 1862, so that church had been demolished and a new sanctuary was being constructed on the same site. When the exercises opened for the dedication of this new church in September of 1892, students from both the Paoli and Howellville Sabbath School were in attendance.

The work on the chapel building at Paoli moved steadily forward. Ground was broken for the building on the Darby Road site in October 1892. On March 19, 1893 the chapel was completed, and the school moved into the building. It was built by Otto Palmer; the cost was $715.

On June 5 of that year, Pastor Aiken reported to the session at Trinity that possession of the building at Paoli had been taken, and that for six weeks he had also been holding Thursday evening prayer meetings there, with attendance being "fair". The chapel was formally dedicated on the next day. The Reverend Dr. Patton of Wayne preached the sermon in the afternoon, and members of the mission school at Howellville attended in a body and participated in the exercises.

On the first anniversary of the Paoli Sabbath School, the number on the roll was 40 and the average attendance was 35. By October of 1893, the number on the roll had increased to 77, with the highest attendance 60. Six months later, in February 1894, Pastor Aiken again reported that the mission Sabbath School in Paoli was getting along "nicely". There were two Bible classes and a primary class of good size there. At the same time, he noted a need for resident teachers; the deficiency, he said, was being made up by teachers from the Sabbath School at Berwyn. (He also reported that this was true of the school at Howellville.)

In August of 1894 Reverend Aiken again reported that the mission in Paoli was continuing to grow, that interest was increasing, and that the prayer meetings on Thursday evenings were well attended.

Page 26

In October the session of Trinity officially noted that the missions under their care at Paoli and Howellville were "in flourishing condition and showed promise of future growth". Accordingly, it was agreed on motion that this information should be sent to the Outreach and Sustenance Committee of the Presbytery of Chester with the object of seeking pastoral keep and a grant of money to support the same. In December a report came back from the Outreach and Sustenance Committee of the Presbytery. Init, the Presbytery looked with favor at the mission at Paoli, and recommended $150 a year be granted for its support. However, it considered the mission at Howellville to be in the bounds of the Great Valley Presbyterian Church, and the Presbytery therefore recommended to that church that it take into consideration the work of the Howellville mission.

In November the pastor reported that there were now 88 on the roll at the Paoli school, and again that attendance at the weekday evening services was good. He also noted that a Childrens Temperance League had been organized at Paoli.

As Reverend Aiken's pastoral and preaching responsibilities at Paoli continued to increase, Frank H. Stauffer, who was Clerk of the Session and superintendent of the Sabbath School at Berwyn, took over as superintendent of the Sabbath School at Paoli as well. Stauffer was a well-known author at the time, and we are greatly indebted to him for the twenty-nine years of history that he wrote in the Session minutes at Trinity. He unfortunately died suddenly in February of 1895, and Elder John Rowe assumed his duties at Paoli at that time. (After Frank Stauffer died, we begin to see the term Sunday School, rather than Sabbath School, used more often.)

The mission continued to grow. Edwin Linn, in his history of the Paoli Sabbath School and Church, noted that Reverend Aiken preached at Paoli without compensation, from the organization of the Sabbath School in 1892 until the organization of the church in Paoli in 1899.

In December 1895 the relationship between the mission at Paoli and the Trinity Church in Berwyn entered a new stage. Those working with the mission at Paoli asked that a communion service be held at the chapel. In response, Reverend Aiken and members of the session at Trinity went to Paoli on December 15 for a communion service at 3:00 p.m. At this time, the workers in the Paoli Sabbath School were received into membership of the Berwyn church. Under the organizational patterns of the Presbyterian Church, both those connected with the service in Paoli and the members at Berwyn were now members of one church, with locations in two places.

Over the next four years the Presbyterians in Paoli moved steadily toward the establishment and charter of a church of their own. The Matthews family, who had been prominent in the establishment of the Berwyn church in 1861-1863, had been farmers in Berwyn; now they had moved to Paoli and would also be instrumental in establishing the church there. Robert Finley Matthews had a farm down South Valley Road, and his son Joseph had a farm down Cedar Hollow Road. Through their efforts, and those of other Presbyterians in Paoli, the First Presbyterian Church of Paoli was established on October 26, 1899.

Page 27

The twenty-three founding members of the Paoli church were Robert F, Matthews, Mrs. Eliza Matthews, Edwin B. Linn, Mrs. Lizzie C. Linn, Alvah L. March, Mrs. Ida V. March, Joseph F. Matthews, Mrs. Ida Matthews, Joseph Gowdy, Mrs. Sadie E. Gowdy, Mrs. Sarah English, Jennie English, Mrs. C. Gertrude Davis, Miss Minnie S. Davis, John D. Burns, Rachel Huntley, Joseph Plank, Charles Elkinton, Mrs. Caroline Gannon, Miss Mary Coburn, J. Alexander Curry, and Miss Annie Curry. The first sixteen names on this list had been members of the church in Berwyn, and were released from Trinity on October 2, 1899 by letter of transfer to the new First Presbyterian Church of Paoli about to be established.

The first session at Paoli met on November 2, 1899, with Reverend Aiken acting as moderator and Elders Robert F. Matthews, Charles Elkinton, Alvah J. March, and Edwin B. Linn in attendance. Edwin Linn was instructed to correspond with W. W. Heberton with reference to preaching services at the new church. From November 1897 until April 1901 the ministers who preached at Paoli included Reverends Heberton, Candes, Landis, and Davis.

In April of 1901 Reverend Thomas Aiken was called to be Pastor of the Paoli Church, having been released with regret by the congregation at Trinity in Berwyn. For the next four years Reverend Aiken served both the Paoli and Malvern churches, preaching on Sunday mornings at Paoli and on Sunday afternoons at Malvern until September 1905, when he became Pastor of the Malvern Church only. In 1907 he suffered a catastrophic illness from which he never recovered; he died at his home in Berwyn in 1909 at the age of 69. (His youngest son, Harold, would have graduated from college in 1907, but instead returned home to care for his parents. The attitude of the times was: "The Lord will provide", and pensions for ministers were considered a lack of faith!)

On December 13, 1905, the First Presbyterian Church of Paoli called Reverend Euclid Phillips to be its Pastor. He was installed on April 24, 1906 and served until January 29, 1910.

When Reverend Phillips came to Paoli it had already been decided that the chapel was too small for the growing congregation. In August of 1906, a lot on the north side of the Lancaster Pike was purchased. Two months later, in October 1906, the cornerstone was laid for a new building on this lot. The new church was dedicated on June 30, 1907, and the chapel on Darby Road was no longer used for the church services.

The mission in Paoli had grown from the 19 members present on the first day as a Sabbath School of the Trinity Church on July 2, 1892 to a church with 91 members and a Sunday School with 163 in June of 1907, according to the Linn history. For six years the little wooden chapel had served the Sabbath School, and for another seven years it was the home of the newly-formed First Presbyterian Church of Paoli. Now it would become the Town Hall for the village of Paoli.