We are Celebrating Neshaminy-Warwick
Presbyterian Church’s 300th Anniversary!
Neshaminy-Warwick Presbyterian Church was founded in 1726. We are excited this year to be celebrating our church’s 300th anniversary. Amazingly, our anniversary coincides with our nation’s 250th anniversary, What a great year to be celebrating!
Our church has a full, rich history. Our members have been steadfast and faithful throughout the years. We thought it was fitting that we have a year-long celebration to honor that faithfulness and to provide praise to our gracious Lord who continues to guide us. The following pages provide some snapshots into our anniversary year. Happy 2026! Happy 300 years! Happy members of Neshaminy-Warwick Presbyterian Church!
300 Years of Neshaminy-Warwick History
Neshaminy-Warwick has a rich history. A lot can happen in 300 years! We have a long story to tell, so we are telling it with short blurbs about our history in the Sunday Bulletins throughout the year. It’s our version of a “mini-series.” We are calling the postings “Moments in History.” The Sunday Bulletin will have a new episode each week!
300 Years of Hymns
January 2026
How we can get our congregation in 2026 to relate to our church being 300 years old? Can our current congregation really enjoy hymns from the early days of our church? Can we relate to hymns written in the 1700s and 1800s? Will we like hymns from the 1900s? Can we learn anything about the hymns of this century?
On January 4, 2026, we embarked on a 52-week review of 300 years of hymns. Each week before the first hymn, we provide an overview of the hymns that share some facts about the hymn or its author. The review serves as a reminder each week of our 300th anniversary, and how we can enjoy music written hundreds of years ago as much as we enjoy our modern songs. Our earliest hymn was Isaac Watt’s “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” which was written in 1719. It hasn’t been hard to find great hymns in the first half of the year. By July 1, we were already past the 1860s. Keep on singing!
300th Anniversary Kickoff Celebration
February 2026
Neshaminy –Warwick wanted to begin its 300th year with a bang. We planned for a January 18 after worship brunch. Who knew that the winter of 2026 would have so many storm-filled Sundays? The weather report looked ominous, and the brunch was rescheduled for the next Sunday. Then, we had a repeat – this time with 12 -18 inches of snow in Bucks County! The worship service scheduled for January 25 was cancelled, but we’ve been around for 300 years – another winter storm couldn’t stop us! We postponed the celebration for one more week.
On February 1, our worship service included rousing hymns (“When Morning Guilds the Skies” and “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”) and was followed by a fun-filled, catered kick-off brunch. The Lloyd Rickner Auditorium was packed with people enjoying great food and lively conversation. And we were entertained by a light-hearted interview of Pastor Mark Lyndaker-Studer by Rick Rugel. Rick got Pastor Mark to tell some fun stories about the church and about his life as a minister here. It was an enthusiastic start to our anniversary year.
300+ Soup Cans for Super Bowl Sunday
February 2026
Mission projects are an important part of our 300-year celebration. This year the Mission Team had a goal to get the congregation to donate 300 cans of soup for delivery to food pantries. The Team planned the collection to coincide with the Super Bowl, that is, our “Souper” Bowl Sunday. And our congregation had a great response. The Mission Team delivered more than 600 cans of soup to those in need. Super!
300 Year Timeline of Neshaminy-Warwick History
March 2026
Neshaminy-Warwick has been here for 300 years. How can we reflect on that? How can we put that into perspective? What happened in the church during those years? Who led us through such a long stretch of time? What was going on in our community and the world as our church was traveling its 300-year path?
A giant timeline could help answer those questions! We had great resources: wonderful books about our church history, session and trustee minutes, books about Bucks County and Pennsylvania history, and books and essays about the history of the United States.
On March 22, 2026, we installed an 8-foot by 2-foot timeline for display on the wall near the front entrance of the church. The top portion of the timeline provides details about our church history. The middle portion provides the names of the pastors who were formally called by the congregation and approved by the Presbytery to lead the church. The bottom portion provides the events in the life of our community and country.
NWPC Historical Timeline 1726-2026
300 Years of Devotions for Neshaminy-Warwick
April 2026
Prayer and Devotions have been essential elements to living and worshipping in the Neshaminy-Warwick community. This is exemplified by the regular inclusion of devotional time in our Session and Deacon meetings. They are such important aspects of our church life that members of our church requested that a special devotional booklet be produced this year. Fortunately, we have a wealth of resources available through the Philadelphia Presbytery. We gathered samples of devotions from the last 300 years. Devotional booklets were made available in April and are still available outside the church office. Enrich your devotional time with our new booklet!
300 Books for Children
May 2026
The Mission Team began the year with a goal of 300 cans of soup for food pantries. It was a great success. But the Mission Team had even bigger ideas: could Neshaminy-Warwick buy 300 books to help three Philadelphia mission partners? These books could encourage learning, spark imaginations, and bless young hearts. Could we meet that goal? Yes, we could! Members of the congregation bought more than 300 books that were delivered to Oxford Circle Christian Community Development Association, Crossroads Community Center, and West Kensington Ministry.
Family Ice Cream Social
June 2026
What better way to have a summer celebration for our 300th anniversary, than to have an ice cream social?
On June 14, we had an air-conditioned picnic and ice cream social in the auditorium. Hotdogs and hamburgers got us energized to take fun pictures at the patriotic photo booth and to play lots of old fashioned games outdoors. Kids and adults played with corn hole, hoops, croquet, and giant Jenga blocks. And we all raced to the tables when the ice cream began to be scooped. The syrups and toppings were a hit!
Neshaminy-Warwick knows how to have a good time!
Celebrations with Music
Our musicians helped lead us through a joyous year of music. We have had a great start to the year with beautiful music filling our sanctuary. The Sanctuary Choir blessed us with four special anthems based on traditional hymns including “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” “For All the Saints,” “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” and “It is Well with My Soul.” The choir also helped conclude our services with musical benedictions.
The first half of the year built up to the June 7 worship service. We had a full morning of music from our three choirs.
– the Children’s Choir led us with “My Hope Is in the Lord,”
– the Jubilate Singers(our new group), impressed us with “Whatever We Do,”
– the Sanctuary Choir sang “I Thank My God.”
The Sanctuary Choir even finished the spring choir season on June 14 with a rousing combination of “Majesty” and “Holy, Holy, Holy.” We can’t wait for more music in the Fall!
MOMENTS IN HISTORY
Mid 1790’s
Around this time a sexton was employed at eight dollars a year, “plus for every large corpse he should bury 10 shillings or $1.33 and in proportion for those that were less.” A short time later the sexton was paid an additional $2 for “cutting and splitting the stove wood.”
Late 1790’s
Rev Irwin took an interest in county politics. He was instrumental in moving the county seat from Newtown to the more central Doylestown. He also played a role in establishing the “county Almshouse” now Neshaminy Manor where he performed the first wedding. During Rev Irwin’s tenure the original church, which had been abandoned and in decay, was torn down. The stones were used to repair the graveyard wall.
1793
The Presbytery of Philadelphia met at Neshaminy and a committee was appointed to provide for their accommodations. It is recorded one committee member was to provide “cold collation” (a light informal meal) and “cyder” while another made provisions for their horses.
1812
Rev Irwin died and was buried at the spot in the cemetery over which the pulpit in the original church had once stood. The funeral procession of carriages extended all the way from his house on Easton Road to the church, a distance of 1.5 miles.
1813
The congregation voted to call Rev Robert Belville. He was a principal at an academy in Wilmington. One of the job requirements was that the principal open the exercises each day with prayer. Realizing his deficiencies he began studying theology and then entered the ministry.
1814
Lacking a regular pastor for eighteen months the congregation had dropped to about fifty; however, with Rev Belville’s “graceful eloquence, pleasant manners and social qualities” member numbers soon increased. With his salary of $600 a year and no housing, he supplemented his income by building a school house on his property starting with eleven boarders and gradually added day students.
1816
The church was in dire need of a new roof. One of the parishioners, Henry Jamison, bequeathed $500 toward the roof after winning a lottery.
1824
The early history of the church was inseparable from that of schools in the area. A schoolhouse, also constructed of logs, was built just outside the cemetery walls not long after Log College closed. It was replaced by a stone building in 1824 and used by the township for one of the early public schools.
1838
Rev Belville suffered a condition that affected his voice and was unable to preach for over a year so he resigned after twenty-five years of service.
1839
Choosing Rev Belville’s successor led to another split in the church membership. James Wilson was nominated by a thin majority; however, the Presbytery considered this an inadequate call and decided to appoint substitutes until the dispute could be settled. One group led by the Trustees supported Wilson and the other group led by the Elders opposed him. One wintry Sunday the sexton having the only key was instructed by the Trustees to open only for Wilson who strode in and took the minister’s chair. The appointee sent by Presbytery subsequently appeared. When Wilson didn’t leave the chancel, the appointee invited all who sympathized with the Elders to withdraw to the schoolhouse in the cemetery to hold services there
1842
After the split in church membership the break-away group built a new stone sanctuary about half a mile away on the Old York Road in Hartsville. It was called Neshaminy Church in Warminster to distinguish from Neshaminy Church in Warwick. The meeting house in Warwick was renovated with new stained-glass windows, a vestibule and new pews. After the church was renovated Rev Wilson moved in his own pipe organ, which Mrs. Wilson played each Sunday
1840s The church flourished under Wilson’s ministry. According to records he baptized 75 adults and 196 infants. In 1847 Rev Wilson tendered his resignation when he was asked to be the president of the College of Delaware. Substitutes again filled the pulpit, one of which was “an Indian Chief of the Cipaway tribe.”
1849
With the help of generous contributions from the Ladies Society, holding fairs to raise money, a stone building, the Neshaminy Lecture Room, was erected on the present site of the fire company. This building was the social center of the community. With high ceilings and good acoustics, many musical performances and singing classes were held here. During the Civil War members met here to pack boxes for the soldiers.
1850
A large white building called the Tennent School was erected across Meetinghouse Road. This building housed thirty boys from Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware. One of its most well-known pupils was Dr. Henry Chapman Mercer of Doylestown (who later built Mercer Museum).
1853
A new pipe organ was purchased to replace the one Rev Wilson took with him when he resigned. It was the sexton’s job to pump the air for the organ, steadily raising and lowering the wooden handle that projected from the rear. An organist during this time recalled the sexton was prone to mild but frequent epileptic attacks. When this occurred, the organ would go mute; the choir would continue acapella until the sexton recovered.
1850s, 1860s & 1870s
A number of improvements were made to the sanctuary including carpeting (70 yards for $54), shades on the windows ($11), a new slate roof ($200), a new picket fence surrounded the property, six sheds for horses and carriages were built ($29.05 each), a brick platform and a covered porch by the front door.
1872
The cemetery chapel was built and dedicated. A large crowd assembled to celebrate the dedication of the chapel as well as the fifty-fourth anniversary of the church’s Sabbath Schools. Distances were too great for children to travel to the church each week so Sabbath Schools met in schoolhouses scattered around the countryside and came together once a year at the church.
1873
Rev Turner resigned in ill health after twenty- five years of service. He continued to live nearby and was asked to write a history of the church in celebration of the church’s Sesquicentennial and the country’s Centennial. This 370 page book was published in 1876 and is now a collector’s item.
1873 to 1884
After Rev Turner resigned the congregation realized in order to attract a minister, they would need to provide a manse so the farm adjoining the graveyard was purchased. William Jones was offered twelve hundred dollars a year plus a house.
In 1876 the USA celebrated the country’s Centennial and the church celebrated its Sesquicentennial.
1889
President Benjamin Harrison came to Neshaminy to honor Log College and its founder. He was accompanied by Postmaster General John Wanamaker and Governor Beaver of Pennsylvania. All three men were Elders in the Presbyterian Church. They traveled the nine miles from the Wanamaker mansion in Jenkintown up York Road, escorted by regimental bands and a mounted guard of Civil War Veterans. The crowd came in vehicles, hay wagons and trains with the numbers estimated anywhere from 12,000 to 25,000 people.