First Presbyterian Church

Old Presby Days For June 22, 2008 to June 21, 2009

Old Presby Days For June 22, 2008
                       
Celebrating 140th Anniversary of First Presbyterian Church, Santa Barbara

Featuring:   I.  Organization and Settlement Era,  1865 to 1890

This first era was when American settlers were arriving from the eastern United States, and establishing homes, farms, businesses, and professions in the small, growing community of 2,000.  The Gold Rush had run its course and the Civil War was over.  In 1867 both the Trinity Episcopal and Congregational Churches were organized and in 1868 the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church came into being.  However, for some of the Presbyterians these other fledgling protestant congregations did not suit their preferences.

In June of 1869, the Rev. Thomas Fraser, then the Synodical Missionary for the Pacific Coast, stopped in Santa Barbara to visit friends and supplied the Congregational Church pulpit on June 6th.  The following week, the Rev. H. H. Dobbins, a young theological student, was visiting in Santa Barbara and talked to a number of Presbyterians about the propriety of organizing a Presbyterian Church.  As a result these Presbyterians wrote a letter asking the Rev. Fraser to return and take charge of organizing the church.  He returned on June 17 by steamer and led a devotional service on Sunday morning.  On Monday morning, June 21, 1869, in the old County Court House adobe, the Rev Fraser received into membership 19 charter members of the First Presbyterian Church.  Elected were L. G. Oliver and William McKee as Elders and the Trustees were Jonathan Mayhew, retired sea captain, A. J. C. Wilson, rancher, Enoch Covert, druggist, S. E. I. Sturgeon, attorney, N. H. Winston, realtor, and L. G. Oliver.  Rev. Dobbins was named as Stated Supply for two years.  Many of these early meetings were in the home of Mrs. F. M. Harmon.

After the Rev. Dobbins left to return to seminary, for the next 15 years, the pulpit was occupied with temporary pastors and elders, eleven in all, until the Rev. Augustus Carrier, DD, was called as the first installed pastor in 1886.  During those first two years the Sunday services were held in homes, in school rooms, and in the court house, until the congregation purchased a lot on the corner of De la Vina and Ortega Streets and built a frame chapel in 1871 seating about 100.

By 1874 even this chapel proved to be inadequate for the burgeoning congregation, so they purchased a lot on the west side of the 1200 block of State St (this is where Longs Drug Store is located in 2008).   The sanctuary seated about 400, but the most distinguishing feature was the 130-foot steeple that proved to be a reference point for sailors at sea and surveyors on the land.

Santa Barbara was no longer the sleepy little pueblo of the Spanish and Mexican days.  With the coming of electricity and the railroad in 1887, economic growth prospered.  That same year, First Church helped found the El Montecito Presbyterian Church to serve the growing population on the eastern side of the community.