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A congregation of the Presbyterian Church was present in Bedford County, Pennsylvania as early as 1775. In fact, two Presbyterian preachers are claimed to have ministered to the troops under Colonel Bouquet during the Forbes Expedition of 1758. The earliest congregations met in various of the homes of the members. In 1782 they sought a resident minister in hopes of establishing a permanent church. The Reverend David Baird accepted the request to serve as the first minister in 1786.
The Presbyterian Church traces its theological viewpoint to the teachings of John Calvin, a significant figure in the Sixteenth Century Protestant Reformation of Catholicism. The name Presbyterian refers to a form of church government in which assemblies of elders provide guidance. Quite a number of the Reformed churches used the presbyterian form of organization. The Presbyterian denomination, tracing its history back through Scotland, was at times found within unions with other Reformed denominations such as the Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists and various Congregationalist churches.
John Knox, a Scotsman, was a student of John Calvin, a French theologian at Geneva, Switzerland. After absorbing Calvin’s brand of Protestantism, Knox returned to Scotland and shared it with his fellow countrymen. His teachings were embraced wholeheartedly, to the point that on 27 August 1560 the Scots Confession was adopted by the Scottish Parliament as the national creed. Riding the wave of reformation sweeping Europe, the Parliament of Scotland was anxious to reform the nation's official stance on religion. To that end John Knox was requested to lead five other leading theologians, to produce a Confession of Faith. In December, the First Book of Discipline was published. In addition to establishing regulations for the church government, the book outlined the creation of ten ecclesiastical districts known as presbyteries.
The first congregation of Presbyterians in the British colonies was established in Philadelphia in 1703. Two congregations were established in addition and they joined in 1717 to form the first synod in the Colonies. By 1789 the synod had evolved into the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.
In 1838, the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America divided into two factions along theological and north versus south regional lines. During the American Civil War, Presbyterian churches in the southern states joined together in 1861 under the name of Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America. Following the Civil War, its name was changed to the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) and existed until 1983.
The residual Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), after the southern congregations left, merged with the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA). The latter church was a theological descendant of the Covenanter~Seceder tradition. The merger between the two entities was conducted at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on 28 May 1958. The result was named the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (UPCUSA). It was the largest branch of Presbyterianism in the United States until 1983.
A merger was ratified in 1983 between the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) and the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America to form the Presbyterian Church (USA). It is currently the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States.
