ed to them earnestly the
religious Observation of God's Sabbaths, in this remote Place, where
they seldom have the Gospel preached--that they should attend with
Carefulness & Reverence upon it when it is among them--And that they
ought to strive to have it established here.[36]

Fithian's recommendation was not carried out until 1792, when the Pine
Creek Church was organized under the historic "independence" elm with
Robert Love and a Mr. Culbertson as the first elders.[37] This church,
along with the Lycoming Church, which was formed in the eastern part of
the former Fair Play territory in October of that same year, was served
by the Reverend Isaac Grier, who was called to serve Lycoming Creek,
Pine Creek, and the Great Island, and ordained and installed by the
Carlisle Presbytery, April 9, 1794.[38] He thus became the first
regularly installed pastor in what had been the Fair Play territory.

It was not until 1811 that the Presbyterian General Assembly organized
the Northumberland Presbytery, which serves West Branch Valley
Presbyterians to this day. In the days of the Fair Play system the area
was assigned to Donegal Presbytery, although in 1786 the Carlisle
Presbytery was formed out of the western part of Donegal.[39]

Missionary efforts of Presbyterians in the Fair Play territory go all
the way back to September of 1746, when the Reverend David Brainerd
preached to the Indians of the Great Island.[40] But from that time
until the opening of the West Branch Valley to settlement, following the
first treaty at Fort Stanwix, nothing concerning the area appears on
presbytery records. However, after the treaty one Presbyterian minister,
the Reverend Francis Alison, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of
Philadelphia and vice-provost of the College of Philadelphia, applied
for land above the mouth of Bald Eagle Creek and was granted some 1,500
acres.[41] Alison never came into the region and, in fact, sold his
entire purchase to John Fleming in 1773.[42]

Although Fithian was the first "orderly" preacher assigned to the West
Branch, the Donegal Presbytery had received an application from "setlers
upon the W. Branch of Susquehannah" for ministerial supplies (pastors)
in the middle of April, 1772.[43] Apparently these supplies never
reached north of present-day Lewisburg.

Presbyterianism, then, was the most significant religious influence in
the Fair Play territory. Methodists and Baptists penetrate