HISTORY

CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH WAS ORGANIZED IN 1839 AS A RESULT OF A REVIVAL MEETING LED BY REV.  JOHN BURROWS, A TWENTY-FIVE YEAR OLD BAPTIST PREACHER.  THE YOUNG MINISTER DREW SOME TWO HUNDRED CONVERTS, "ALL MEN AND WOMEN OF MATURE YEARS."  SOME BECAME MEMBERS OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH, SOME PART OF THE METHODIST SOCIETY, AND THE REMAINDER FORMED THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
  THE CHURCH WAS LOCATED ON THE WEST SIDE OF ST. ANN STREET, BETWEEN THIRD AND FOURTH STREETS.  THE BUILDING WAS THE FIRST BRICK STRUCTURE IN OWENSBORO AND WAS LARGELY CONSTRUCTED BY JOSEPH WEAVER AND HIS TWO NEPHEWS, JAMES AND JOHN LONG.  MR. WEAVER MAKE THE BRICKS BY HAND AND THEY WERE LAID BY THE TWO BROTHERS.
  IN FEBRUARY OF 1886, THE OWENSBORO CHURCH HAD PURCHASED A LOT AT FIFTH AND ST. ANN STREETS FROM B. BRANSFORD.  ALTHOUGH THE NEW CHURCH WAS COMPLETED DURING THE TENURE OF REV. BOWERS, IT WAS NOT DEDICATED UNTIL 1893.
   THE CHURCH WAS WTITHOUT A PASTOR FROM OCTOBER, 1909, UNTIL MARCH OF 1910 WHEN REV. R. EXCELL FRY ASSUMED THE DUTIES OF PASTOR.  REV. FRY, A BACHELOR, CAME TO OWENSBORO WITH HIS MOTHER.  DURING HIS PASTORATE HERE HE MARRIED A LOCAL GIRL, MISS MARY OWSLEY, DAUGHTER OF MR. AND MRS. E. E. OWSLEY OF HARTFORD.
  ALTHOUGH REV. FRY STAYED ONLY ONE YEAR, THERE WERE MANY IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CHURCH, ONE OF WHICH WAS THE PURCHASE AND INSTALLATION OF A NEW ORGAN

   THE ORGAN INSTALLED DECEMBER, 1909, WAS BUILT BY THE HENRY PILCHER CO. OF LOUISVILLE AT A COST OF $1,825.