Rev. Jeremiah Reed Brittain, D. D.,
late pastor of the United Presbyterian Church of Greenville, but now
located in Englewood, Ill., was born near Beaver Falls, Beaver Co.,
Penn., July 26, 1839, and is a son of Joseph and Belinda (Clark)
Brittain, natives of the same county. The Brittains were originally
from Maryland, and removed to Berwick, in Eastern Pennsylvania, whence,
about 1796, Jeremiah Brittain, grandfather of our subject, immigrated
to Beaver County, where, during a long residence, he was widely known
as one of the most prominent farmers and sheep growers of that section
of the State. Both he and his wife died on the old homestead in Beaver
County. They reared a family of seven sons and three daughters, Rev.
Brittain’s father, Joseph, being the ninth and youngest son. He
inherited the old homestead, and reared a family of three sons and two
daughters, all of whom are living. He now resides with his daughter,
Mrs. W. C. Chamberlain, of East Palestine, Ohio, where his wife died
August 5, 1886.
Rev. Brittain was the oldest of the family, and
his boyhood days wee principally spent on his father’s farm. His first
schooling was obtained in White’s school house, which stood near his
home and not far from the site of Geneva College. In his fourteenth
year he attended one term at Darlington Academy, in Beaver County, and
when seventeen again spent some time in the same institution, then
under the charge of Joseph B. Kiddo, afterward a brigadier-general in
the Union army. He taught one term of school when seventeen years of
age, and from that time till attaining his majority worked on the farm.
In September, 1850, Mr. Brittain entered Beaver Academy, then under
Simon B. Mercer, and the next autumn cast his first vote for Abraham
Lincoln for President. He spent two years at Beaver Academy, and then
entered Westminster College, New Wilmington, Lawrence County, then
under the presidency of Dr. James Patterson, where he graduated with
first honors in June, 1863, delivering the Greek salutatory on
commencement day.
Immediately after graduating he enlisted in a
company of volunteers, made up chiefly of students, Dr. George C.
Vincent, captain, but only experienced a brief service. In the fall of
1863 Mr. Brittain entered the United Presbyterian Theological Seminary
of Allegheny City, where he spent three years studying for the
ministry, but was licensed at the end of the second year. In March,
1866, Dr. Brittain received a call from the united Presbyterian
congregation of Greenville, where be entered on his work July 1, and
where he was ordained and installed pastor by the Lake Presbytery in
September, 1866. The following year the present church building was
erected, and under his pastorate the congregation increased from 100 to
300 members. Dr. Brittain has been a member of the board of trustees of
Westminster College ten years, and in June, 1885, that institution
conferred upon him the title of Doctor of Divinity. He has also been a
director of the united Presbyterian Theological Seminary six years.
Dr.
Brittain was married August 30, 1864 to Miss Nannie D. King, of
Illinois, who has borne him nine children, eight of whom are living,
two sons and six daughters. During his pastorate in Greenville of
nearly twenty-two years Dr. Brittain received several calls from other
churches, but his popularity among his people was such as to deter his
departure from the field wherein he had labored so long and faithfully,
until his acceptance of the call from the United Presbyterian
congregation of Englewood, Ill., in February, 1888. He is one of the
ablest men of his church, and throughout his long residence in
Greenville was recognized as a hard-working, successful minister, and
an enterprising, influential citizen.
(Source: History of Mercer County, 1888, pages 778-779)
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