This Day In History -- December -- Presbyterian Heritage Center

This Day In Presbyterian History — December (click year or name where underlined for more information)
December	2	1777	On Dec. 2, 1777, James Francis Armstrong was chosen chaplain for General Sullivan's brigade or division and applied for ordination from the Presbytery of Newcastle. After a Presbytery examination, Rev. Armstrong was ordained on Jan. 14, 1778. He was confirmed by action of the Continental Congress on July 17, 1778, to "be appointed chaplain of the Second Brigade of Maryland forces." Rev. Armstrong served through the Yorktown victory in October 1781. After the Revolutionary War, Rev. Armstrong accepted a call to the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, New Jersey.
	3	1794	On Dec. 3, 1794, Thomas Poage Hunt was born. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Rev. Hunt left his pastorages in 1834 to become a nationally renown Temperance leader in the mid-19th Century, as well as famous revivalist. (photo courtesy of Luzerne County Historical Society)
	4	1861	On Dec. 4, 1861, 93 commissioners from 47 presbyteries met in Augusta, Georgia, to form the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America (later known as the Presbyterian Church in the United States). The meeting was held at the First Presbyterian Church (at left), where the Rev. Joseph Ruggles Wilson (1822 - 1903, shown at right) was pastor. At the time, he also was the father of five-year-old Woodrow Wilson, future President of the United States. This southern branch remained separate until 1983, when it reunited with the northern branch, the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., to form today's Presbyterian Church of the United States of America.
	5	1836	On Dec. 5, 1836, The New York Theological Seminary (chartered in 1839 as Union Theological Seminary) in New York City opened its doors for teaching. On that day, 13 students appeared at the President's (Rev. Thomas McAuley) house at No. 112 Leonard Street to enroll and start a class.
	8	1824	On Dec. 8, 1824, the first Presbyterian church in Florida was incorporated at St. Augustine. Organized during late 1823 and 1824, Rev. Dr. William McWhir helped organize what became First Presbyterian Church and is now known as Memorial Presbyterian Church.
	9	1832	On Dec. 9, 1832, Rev. Alfred Wright (March 1, 1788 - March 31, 1853) founded the Wheelock Church in Indian Territory. A Presbyterian minister and missionary to the Choctaw in Mississippi since 1821, Rev. Wright and his wife, Harriett Bunce Wright (Sept. 19, 1779 - Oct. 3, 1863), decided to move with the Choctaws in 1832 when they were forcibly removed to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). The church was the first part of the large Wheelock Mission, which included a school. Harriett Wright was one of the original two teachers at the school.
	11	1933	In the Dec. 11, 1933, issue of Time Magazine, an article called "Missionaries" highlighted a new weekly short-wave international broadcast for missionaries. "Nkol Mvolan, meaning 'Hill of Help,' is a Presbyterian station in Cameroon, West Africa. There, deeper in the jungle than any other Presbyterian missionaries, Dr. & Mrs. George W. Thorne (listened).... Last Sunday night and the Sunday before, a short-wave broadcasting station in Pittsburgh took a half hour of worship to the thousands of Presbyterians, Baptist and Methodist missionaries in every land. "The Thornes in their house of thatch heard the words of scripture and a prayer in their own language; and also a sermon by Bishop Adna Leonard who concluded that the U. S. in the midst of all its troubles needed, even more than new laws, 'the . . . spiritual note which will lift up Jesus Christ as the burning centre of the Church's faith to you devoted missionaries who are carrying the gospel of the Son of God to the Christless millions of the earth.' "The Thornes waited expectantly through the service, and presently they heard: 'To Dr. & Mrs. George Thorne. . . . Fred and Mary join us in wishing you a happy Thanksgiving. It is our prayer that you may be able to carry your heavy load with faith and courage.' " Thirty-four years later on December 11, 1957, The American Presbyterian Mission became the Presbyterian Church of Cameroon. "Over ten thousand people attended the celebration,” according to The Drum Call, April 27, 1958.
	12	1838	Although opened in 1836, the first Union Theological Seminary's (New York) first building (below) wasn't opened until Dec. 12, 1838. The building was located at No. 9 University Place, New York. It had a 63-foot frontage and held a chapel, three lecture rooms, a reading room, a library, and a few rooms for students.
	15	1918	On Dec. 15, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson attended Presbyterian worship services in Paris, France, as he prepared for the Paris Peace Conference (Jan. 1919) to implement peace after World War I. Son of a Presbyterian minister, Wilson also laid a wreath at the tomb of Lafayette that day and met with French Premier Clemenceau. (Wilson is shown during that visit raising his hat to the crowd)
	16	1714	On Dec. 16, 1714, revivalist and evangelist George Whitefield was born in Gloucester, England. His preaching in the middle American colonies helped to create the Great Awakening of the 1740s.
	18	1915	On Dec. 18, 1915, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson married Edith Galt, a year after his first wife died. Picture at right shows them after their wedding. Wilson was the son of a Presbyterian minister and a life-long Presbyterian.
	20	1560	On Dec. 20, 1560, the first General Assembly of the Church of Scotland convened in Edinburgh. Led by John Knox (shown in drawing at right), five other ministers and 34 elders met and adopted the Book of Discipline and submitted it to the Scottish Parliament.
	22	1921	On Dec. 22, 1921, the first radio station license for a religious broadcaster in the U.S. was granted to the National Presbyterian Church of Washington, D.C.
	25	1749	Colonial Christmas observations were varied. On Dec. 25, 1749, Finnish-Swedish naturalist Peter Kalm was in Philadelphia and noted in his diary: "Christmas Day. . . .The Quakers did not regard this day any more remarkable than other days. Stores were open, and anyone might sell or purchase what he wanted. . . .There was no more baking of bread for the Christmas festival than for other days; and no Christmas porridge on Christmas Eve! One did not seem to know what it meant to wish anyone a merry Christmas. . . .first the Presbyterians did not care much for celebrating Christmas, but when they saw most of their members going to the English church on that day, they also started to have services."
	25	1775	Presbyterian Missionary Philip Fithian toiled as a missionary in the western counties of Virginia among the Scots and Scot-Irish Presbyterians. On Dec. 25, 1775, his diary read: "Christmas Morning — Not A Gun is heard — Not a Shout — No company or Cabal assembled — To Day is like other Days every Way calm & temperate — People go about their daily Business with the same Readiness, & apply themselves to it with the same Industry."
	25	1924	On Dec. 25, 1924, the Pasadena Presbyterian Church launched its non-commercial radio station, KPPC-AM, with carols (December 1924 newspaper story announcing the station right ). The Californa station would operate with a limited schedule (twice a week) and low power (50 to 100 watts). The church sold the station in October 1967, but it continued operating until 1996. The church's Sunday morning services were broadcast for 72 years — perhaps the longest continuously running program in radio history!
	25	1928	One of the top cowboy actors in Hollywood, Fred Thomson died on Dec. 25, 1928. A Presbyterian minister and former U.S. Army chaplain, Thomson married screenwriter and director Frances Marion in 1919. When an actor failed to show on a set in 1920, his wife drafted him into the movie. By the mid- 1920s, Thomson was a star, being named by movie exhibitors as the number two male box-office draw in 1926 and 1927, only behind fellow cowboy star Tom Mix.
	28	1797	On Dec. 28, 1797, Rev. Charles Hodge was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After graduating from the College of New Jersey and Princeton Seminary, Hodge was ordained by the Presbytery of New Brunswick in 1821, and then appointed to the Princeton faculty in 1822. He served there for 56 years, training over 3,000 students. In 1825, he founded the Princeton Review. (Photo at left is circa 1870.)
	31	1997	On Dec. 31, 1997, America's second oldest hospital, The New York Hospital, merged with Presbyterian Hospital (founded 1868) to form Tthe New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. The hospital is the university hospital of Weill Medical College of Cornell University and College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University.

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