Person:Nicholas Pittenger (11)

The family of the Rev. Nicholas Pittenger is reported to have been of German descent. They left Germany for Holland and then America, specifically New Jersey, around 1700. The Henry Pittenger (father of Nicholas) family eventually moved to northern Virginia (now Hancock County, West Virginia) where the men of the family served as elders in the local Presbyterian Church.

Nicholas Pittenger was born June 18, 1766 in New Jersey. He received his training privately from the Rev. George Scott and then the Rev. John McMillen, D.D. at the Canonsburg (PA) Academy, which soon afterward would be transformed to Jefferson College. Reports say that while a student Pittenger and others stayed in a log house in Dr. McMillen's yard.

The Reverend Nicholas Pittenger was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Ohio in October 1803, was ordained and attached to the Presbytery of Erie in June 1804 when he assumed the positions at Poland and Westfield in Lawrence County, Pa., which he held until 1810.

Nicholas Pittenger was the first minister called by the Poland Presbyterian Church while also serving the Westfield Presbyterian Church. He apparently lived near the Westfield church and commuted to Poland since his Poland successor is known as the first "settled" pastor. Services would have been held in the recently built log church or in the out-of-doors.

After leaving Poland Pittenger is reported to have served churches in Kentucky, Rocky Springs, Ohio, Chillicothe, Ohio, and as a missionary in Indiana. After a year as a missionary, he returned to Rocky Springs in Highland County, Ohio in 1824 where he served as a stated supply pastor until he died in 1831.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Family Recorded, in Eaton, S. J. M. History of the Presbytery of Erie: embracing in its ancient boundaries the whole of northwestern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio, with biographical sketches of all its ministers, and historical sketches of its churches. (New York, New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1868)
   p [needed].

   ... "Mr. Pittenger is reported as having been remarkably plain. His manner was blunt and uncompromising, exhibiting more of the spirit of John the Baptist than of John the beloved disciple"
   News of the Times:
   Ohio had become the 17th state the year before Rev. Pittenger came to Poland and Chillicothe was the capital.
   Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States...

2.   Family Recorded, in Dale, F. Hiner (Fred Hiner). A history of the Pittenger family in America. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1986)
   p [needed].
3.   Jordan, John W. (John Woolf). Genealogical and personal history of Beaver County, Pennsylvania. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1985)
   Vol 2, p [needed].