Scranton is pre-eminently a city of churches. THe hardy pioneers who came here to carve their homes out of the forests brought with them that true Christianity that made the building of houses of worship so-incident with the building of homes, and that same high religious spirit characterized the pioneers who came later to build up a great city around the iron and coal industries.
Today the city has 130 churches, chapels and missions. Its church edifices are as handsome as may be found in any city and they represent the voluntary contributions of the men and women of the city.The city has numbered and still numbers among its clergymen some of the greatest religious teachers in the country. The pews of its churches are well-filled at every service with devout worshippers. The congregations contribute large sums annually for te teaching of the Word of God in the home and foreign missionary fields. Charitable organizations that quietly go about dispensing aid to the needy are part of every church in the community. In no city are the men of the churches more earnest in their work for the advancement of Christianity and the Bible classes and other men's organizations of the churches of Scranton are famed throughout the country for their work.
In the last few years of the eighteenth century and the first few years of the nineteenth century, there were only a few scattered homes in the area now covered by Scranton, and these were far removed from the other settlements in this part of the country. The settlers even in the earliest days, however, held preayer services in their homes, the histories tell.
The first clergyman to make his home here was Rev William Bishop, a Baptist. He came in 1794 and settled on the "parsonage lot," a strip of land that contained 400 acres and that took in the most valuable part of West Scranton today and part of Central City. Rev Mr Bishop erected a log cabin at whatis now the corner of North Main avenue and Price Street in West Scranton and there he held