Looking back over two centuries, the chronological history of the Frederick Presbyterian Church will be traced through the histories of four writers: the earliest surviving narratives of the Rev. Joseph Hamner in 1831; the "Historical Sketch of 1780?1905" by the Rev. Thomas Freeman Dixon; "Monocacy Valley Maryland Presbyterianism", the Rev. J.F. Minor Simpson in 1955; and "The Frederick United Presbyterian Church - 1780?1980", the bicentennial history by Dr. Mary Frear Keeler, an historian and former dean at Hood College. Many of these sections of this encapsulated history/narrative will be quoted verbatim in order that the readers will be able to capture some of the flavor, feelings, and language of the respective periods of history.

The Frederick Presbyterian Church celebrated the two-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the church in 1980. However, groups of Presbyterians are believed to have worshipped together from 1757 or 1760 in the frontier community of Fredericktowne. During this period, numerous Scotch-Irish settlers were moving into the valleys of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.

CONTINUED       Next