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- He is a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church and was commissioned justice of peace by Governor Pollock on March 13, 1855 for five years. He was thre first postmaster at Pollock p.o. and served for a term of two years, 1869 and 1870. He now has eight oil wells on his farm of seventy five acres, three of which are producing. (Source - History of Clarion County, A. J. Davis, Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & Co., Publishers, 1887.)
Presbyterian Marriages Performed by Rev. James Montgomery, 1842-1868
Transcribed by Dr. James H. Sterrett and published in the Western PA Genealogical Society Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Feb. 1983), pg. 121. No copyright infringement intended.
The Presbyterian Church of Clarion was organized in that town on May 15, 1841, with sixteen charter members. These original members were Hugh A. Thompson and Elizabeth his wife; Thomas Sutton; John McConaughey; Abram Richards and Rebecca his wife; John Clark and Mary his wife; Elizabeth Kelly; and Lucinda Hamilton.
The first resident pastor was Rev. James Montgomery. He was born in Ireland in 1811 and graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in 1838 and Western Seminary in 1841. He was ordained by the Presbytery of Clarion in 1842 and was pastor of this church from 1842 until 1868 when he was released from the pastorate because of ill health. He was also part-time pastor of the New Rehobeth Presbyterian Church in Clarion County from 1845 to 1868. He died in the town of Clarion on August 10, 1871.
The attached list of marriages (James Pollock and Elizabeth Stewart on July 30,l842)were those performed by him in Clarion County from 1842 to 1868, the twenty-six years that he was a minister in the area. A great many of these marriages are of residents of other counties.
The above information on the church and Rev. Montgomery was taken from A History of the Presbytery of Clarion of the Presbyterian Church of the of the United States of America, by Rev. J. Wallace Fraser, 1939.
Permission to publish this material has been given by the Presbyterian Historical Society, 425 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147, where the original records of this church are held.
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