Third Presbyterian Church

 

In the mid 1800s, members of First Presbyterian Church of Wheeling reached out to South Wheeling (called Ritchietown at the time) and organized the Third Presbyterian church. In 1848, Samuel Ott organized a Sunday School, which met in the basement of his home at 4002 Water Street. In late 1849, a group of members of the First Presbyterian and Forks of Wheeling Churches joined with the Reformed Dissenting Presbyterian Church of Three Ridges, Pennsylvania, and organized the Third Church. There were 14 charter members.

 

At that time, Ritchietown was outside the corporate limits of Wheeling. Cornfields and swamps separated the little village from the city. There were no paved streets, no streetlights, and no streetcars. People walked through mud to go to church, carrying lanterns to guide their way and candles to light the church. If the sermon was long, all candles but one on the pulpit were blown out to economize.

 

Early in 1850, Alfred Paull became the minister.  Apparently a man of means, Alfred Paull not only refused any pay for his services but also donated a house and lot at 3804 Jacob Street. The frame house on the site was torn down, and a one-story brick church was built by Elder Andrew Hall, who was also a contractor.

 

Edgar Woods became the next minister and served from 1852 until 1857, when he accepted a call to a church in Ohio. For the next several years, no new minister could be found, and the congregation reached a point that negotiations were in progress to sell the church. In late 1866, however, Rev. Jonathan Crosse was installed. This “earnest and evangelical pastor” strengthened the church during his tenure, which lasted until 1873.

 

Construction of a new church building began in 1884, under the leadership of the Rev. Joseph G. Lyle. The foundation of the church was almost completed when the flood of February 1884 wrought great havoc in Wheeling. Rev. Lyle reportedly did all he could to protect the church property and minister to his people. As a result, he undermined his health and died a couple of months later. The new church building was completed in mid 1887, under Rev. L.W. Barr.

 

Revivals and evangelistic meetings, led by the Rev. Robert R. Bigget led to a large growth in membership, adding 75 new members in 1895 and another 65 in 1898, and bringing the membership roll to 314 members, with 504 members in the Sunday School. At that time, the Sunday School had outgrown its seating capacity, so the church was remodeled, and the church auditorium was improved. Extensive remodeling was also done in 1910.

 

Third Presbyterian session minutes recorded the spring 1912 revivals led by Billy Sunday. The revivals lasted six weeks in Wheeling; details can be found in the Wheeling newspapers of the time. In preparation for the revival, a 1500-foot temporary tabernacle was built.  “On the first day of construction 225 workers, professional people, merchants, and laborers turned up to help. Klieves and Scott’s lumber yards provided the building materials, and 156 carpenters directed the volunteers. The city railway transported workers to the First United Presbyterian Church for lunch. That same day, 165 homes hosted “cottage prayer meetings,” which more than 3,000 people attended.

 

Wheeling’s tabernacle faced 26th street and could seat 8,000 people on wooden benches. The choir loft rose behind the stage and could seat 700. On the platform was a borrowed pulpit [that can now be seen in First Presbyterian Church]. To disguise the barn-like appearance the interior was decorated with bunting and was complete with a ventilation system and hundreds of lights.

 

Billy Sunday arrived on February 18, 1912 with a staff of eleven, including pianist, choir leader, soloist, Bible leader, tabernacle custodian, and various others. Three sermons a day were preached for six weeks, and collection amounts were reported in the local newspaper daily.

 

Although the temperatures outside were frigid, the tabernacle proved quite warm and cozy. At a time of no television, this was pure, FREE entertainment. A celebrity of Sunday’s quality, who could speak at over 225 words a minute, dive into “home plate” on stage, leap to the top of the pulpit, and deliver a hellfire and damnation sermon was an exciting addition to Wheeling’s pursuit of leisure-time distractions.

 

The first day’s revival services reportedly saw 20,000 in attendance, and the Wheeling Register described them as a ‘cosmopolitan crowd, rich and poor, humble and great, all mingled together on the crude benches.’ Sunday preached his last sermon in Wheeling on April 1, 1912. When he left Wheeling, he reportedly stated, ‘Oh, Lord, I know you are proud of Wheeling. The devil used to have Wheeling but his hold is broken.’”

 

Session minutes from Third Presbyterian Church reported that during the period when Sunday was in Wheeling, some “8,437 men, women, and children confessed faith in Christ,” with all but about 1000 being new converts. The minutes then list 124 people who united with Third Presbyterian as a result of this campaign. Presumably other churches in town saw similar increases.

 

Church minutes also report on the effects of the flu epidemic in the fall of 1918. Because of the epidemic, the City Health Department closed all churches (along with movie theatres and other places of public gathering) the help prevent the spread of the deadly influenza. Services at the Third Church were suspended for the entire month of October.

 

In 1927, church enrollment reached an all-time high of 561 members. This number then began to fall off during the depression years. Floods in 1936 and 1937 did a great deal of property damage to the church as well as to Wheeling in general, adding to the hardship of the area.

 

The church commemorated its 125th anniversary by a month-long celebration in October 1974. The membership had dwindled to 25 members by the time of the church’s 158th anniversary in 2006, when the decision was made to close. The last services in the church were held on Easter Sunday, 2006. Debi and Greg Smith purchased the building later that year, and it served for the next five years as the home of the Wheeling Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The building was sold again in 2011 and currently houses “Saints, Inc.”

 

 

 

Prepared by Jeanne Finstein.