History:

No less than half a million Scotch-Irish people came to the United States between 1700 and 1775 seeking religious liberty denied them in the Old World, landing in Pennsylvania. Around 1732 these people began moving southward across the Potomac into the Valley of Virginia. They were encouraged to settle far up the valley west of the Blue Ridge Mountains by the opening of the Beverly Manor and Borden's Grant, which eventually became our Rockbridge and Augusta counties.

In September, 1740, the Reverend John Craig accepted a call for the congregation of Shenandoah and began a ministry to a congregation which covered the valley from the Blue Ridge to North Mountain. A second Presbyterian community developed on the watershed of the James and Shenandoah rivers. Some of the settlers, with the construction of their homes completed, turned their attention to the building of a place of worship. To it was given the name "South Mountain Meeting House". This meeting house was supplied by John Craig once in two months.

In 1746 the Rev. John Blair visited the community around South Mountain Meeting House and organized New Providence. The first meeting house, of log construction, was located at or near the spot where Old Providence A.R.P. Church now stands. By 1748 this was a flourishing Christian society and New Providence, Timber Ridge and Falling Spring joined in calling Mr. Elisha Byram. He refused the call and supply ministers were secured by New Providence and Timber Ridge until settled ones could be called.

Mr. John Brown, a ministerial candidate in New Castle Presbytery, was sent to supply and was called in August of 1753. He was ordained as the first minister of New Providence and Timber Ridge on October 11, 1753 at a meeting of New Castle Presbytery.

Around the late 1740's a number of members of New Providence began planning to move the church to the Walkers, Hays and Moffats Creek area because this was a more central point considering the large territory from which the congregation grew. And so the second log church was built on a hillside across the creek from where the present church stands.