By Velma Rose Smith, late 1960’s

People began to settle in Tioga County about 160 years ago, coming from the New England States and New York State. They came to this beautiful fertile land to build their own homes. To build schools for their children. Then came the thought of religion.

The earliest religious influence seems to have been that of a few Quakers, in Wellsboro and on the Cowanesque River. A Quaker Meeting House was built at Knoxville in 1812 and one in Wellsboro about the same time. The majority of the people at that stage in the county did not seem to be interested in religion, and the Quakers could not stem the tide of worldliness all about them and soon died out. Tioga County was really rough, with few Christians and no Churches. Saloons flourished, with drunken brawls and fighting.

Some years passed before there was any serious religious awakening. Traveling preachers, some good and some not so good, held occasional meetings in school buildings and in private houses.

About 1814 a man named David Short came and held a meeting below Mitchell Creek on the Tioga River. They formed a Church and moved to the village of Tioga and became known as the Regular Baptist Church, the first in Tioga County.

The first Church edifice was built in 1831 at Lawrenceville, I believe this was the Methodist Church.

In Elkland in 1830 a Congregations Church was founded, which five years later became a Presbyterian Church. A Presbyterian Church was organized in Mansfield in 1832.

In 1838 a public meeting was called in Wellsboro, people representing four denominations and a few Quakers decided that the religion of the community was to be guided by the Episcopal Church. A Parish was organized and St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church became the first church in Wellsboro. A Community Church as organized at Ansonia the same year.

From then on, church after church was built so that each community had at least one, and sometimes three denominations in one village. It is interesting to note that lumber could be purchased for 6 1/2 cents a foot. That the head carpenter worked for $1.75 a day. A church could be built for less than $3000. Quite often the church members purchased pews for their family, and they sat in their own pews. Gradually the pews became church property and people sat where they chose. A Minister’s salary was $50.0 to $600 a year.

As the cost of maintenance became higher, some of the churches were closed, and their congregations joined another church. Churches shared a Minister, and he drove a horse and buggy from church to church. People looked forward to Sunday, when they went to the Meeting House, met their friends and neighbors and enjoyed the social time following the Church Service.

A big percentage of the people in Tioga County still go to church on Sunday. Their Ministers drive from church to church, in their cars.

A few years back, five Methodist Churches and a Congregational Church formed the first Larger Parish in the County, known as the Whitneyville Larger Parish. (Whitneyville, Catlin Hollow, Round Top, Coolidge Hollow, Welsh Settlement, and (Morris?)

Once a year a Community Worship Service is held on the Green in Wellsboro, with all denominations welcome. A good example of how the Churches work together, for the good of all people in our Tioga County.