Itinerant pastors began to include the Fair Play territory in their travels in the decade of the 1770's. Philip Vickers Fithian learned from his host, Squire Fleming, that he was the first "orderly" preacher in the area.[34] Fithian's visit came about after he obtained an honorable dismissal from the first Philadelphia Presbytery--as no vacancies existed--in order to preach outside its bounds.[35] Although in the territory for only one week in the summer of 1775, Fithian's account of his Sunday sermon on the banks of the Susquehanna clearly describes the nature of wilderness preaching:
At eleven I began Service. We crossed over to the Indian Land, & held Worship on the Bank of the River, opposite to the Great Island, about a Mile & a half below 'Squire Fleming's. There were present about an Hundred & forty; I stood at the Root of a great Tree, & the People sitting in the Bushes, & green Grass round me.
They gave great Attention. I had the Eyes of all upon me. I spoke with some Force, & pretty loud. I recommended to them earnestly the religious Observation of God's Sabbaths, in this remote Place, where they seldom have the Gospel preached--that they should attend with Carefulness & Reverence upon it when it is among them--And that they ought to strive to have it established here.[36]
Fithian's recommendation was not carried out until 1792, when the Pine Creek Church was organized under the historic "independence" elm with Robert Love and a Mr. Culbertson as the first elders.[37] This church, along with the Lycoming Church, which was formed in the eastern part of the former Fair Play territory in October of that same year, was served by the Reverend Isaac Grier, who was called to serve Lycoming Creek, Pine Creek, and the Great Island, and ordained and installed by the Carlisle Presbytery, April 9, 1794.[38] He thus became the first regularly installed pastor in what had been the Fair Play territory.
It was not until 1811 that the Presbyterian General Assembly organized the Northumberland Presbytery, which serves West Branch Valley Presbyterians to this day. In the days of the Fair Play system the area was assigned to Donegal Presbytery, although in 1786 the Carlisle Presbytery was formed out of the western part of Donegal.[39]