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About two miles West of the village of Mount Nebo in Martic Township is located the brick structure which was once the Mount Nebo Presbyterian Church. While the walls and roof seem to be in fairly good condition, the interior was found to be in a state of great disrepair at the time it was visited by the Solanco Church History Committee in the Summer of 1966. The burying ground adjoining the rear of the building, which was formerly the old Clark grave yard, was found to be very well kept. In it are burials dating from 1811.
It is not known definitely just when and at what place services were first held in this vicinity; but it must have been some years before the erection of the building which, according to the date stone set high in the front gable, was 1854. The group evidently were strong enough in both numbers and finances to effect a stable organization and build a Church building without assistance, since it was not until 1858 that a petition was presented to Presbytery for admission. Klein's History of Lancaster County, Vol. 11, states that it Was given corporate existence in 1854 with John Bear, Maria Hoopt'N, John J. Porter, Thomas Stewart, and George Campbell as Trustees. It is further stated that at the time of organization, Mr. William Mc Creary gave $1,000 to establish a fund for increasing the stipend of the pastor; he gave his own library and later another $1,000 to found a library for the Church. The people of Mount Nebo must have been under the guidance of the Reverend Lindley C. Rutter of Chestnut Level, for the Reverend Robert L. Clark, in his History of Westminster Presbytery, re-cords that on April 13, 1858, the Reverend Rutter presented to the Presbytery of Donegal Third a request from the pew-holders and Trustees of the Mount Nebo House of Worship that a Church be organized at that place. A committee composed of the Reverend Lindley C. Rutter, the Reverend John Farquhar and Ruling Elder James A. McPherson were appointed to visit the field and organize a Church if it seemed advisable. This committee reported to Presbytery on October 6, 1858 that a church of seventeen members had been organized September 18, 1858, and Samuel Allison ordained and in-stalled as Ruling Elder.
The Church was ministered to by supply preaching until 1879 when the Reverend Ezra S. Heany became the first and only regularly installed Pastor. This relation was ended by his release in 1883. Sup-ply pastors continued to be the only source of worship service until 1915 when, because of continued decline in the work here, the Presbytery of Westminster dissolved the Church as of July 1, that year.
The Mount Nebo congregation boasts one prominent Son in the Ministry, the late Reverend John B. Laird D.D.