Upper Darby Township.

St. Charles Borromeo Church. - Soon after Charles Kelly purchased the mills at Kellyville a Catholic mission was established there. In 1849 it was determined to build a church, ground being donated for that purpose by Charles Kelly, as also for a burial-place. On Sunday, Oct. 13, 1850, the stone church, forty by eighty feet, which had been erected, was dedicated; the Very Rev. F. X. Gartland, V. G., conducted the ceremonies, and the Rev. Dr. Moriarty preached the dedicatory sermon. On Dec. 30, 1854, the church was found to be on fire, caused by a defective flue. The flames were extinguished before much damage was done. The membership of this church has fluctuated, at some times very large, at others much less, owing to employment being brisk or slack at the mills. The pastors of the parish of St. Charles Borromeo have been the Revs. McGinnis, John Shields, I. P. Dunn, Hugh Lane, John Branagan, Dr. Balch, Richard O'Connor, John Kelly, John McGovern, and M. C. McEnroe, who at present is in charge of the parish.

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Clifton. - The first services of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Upper Darby were held in the public school-house in the village, May 5, 1872, the Rev. James S. Brooke, the rector of St. George's Church, West End, officiating. On October 27th of the same year communion was administered, fourteen persons uniting in the sacred ceremony, and on Thursday evening, November 1st, the bishop of the diocese made his first official visit to Clifton Heights, on which occasion eleven persons were confirmed. In May of the following year a Sunday-school was organized in connection with the mission. From the establishment of the mission to the beginning of the year 1877 the congregation were under the pastoral care, successively, of the Rev. Mr. Brooke, the Rev. Gideon J. Burton (warden of the Burd Orphan Asylum), the Rev. W. C. Cooley (of West End), and the Rev. Charles A. Maison (of St. James', Kingsessing), the latter having the oversight for about three years. During this period the congregation was composed almost exclusively of the people working in the mills near the village. They were poor and few in number, but they struggled on in the face of many discouragements, giving far more than they could well afford from their slender income to maintain the services of the church, to which they were warmly attached. Among the most zealous in the work of the little mission was John Shaw, who subsequently was elected one of the original vestry. In 1876 services began to be held regularly every Sunday morning by Mr. Thomas A. Bent, a lay-reader. At his death, in October, 1876, he was succeeded by Mr. William W. Taylor. In the fall of 1878, Frederick Chase and wife became earnest advocates of the cause of the mission, and their efforts being seconded by many others in the neighborhood, its prospects began to brighten. Oborn Levis donated several lots fronting on the Baltimore turnpike, and enough subscriptions were soon secured to warrant the erection of a church, notwithstanding by the failure of the Franklin Savings-Fund, in Philadelphia, a sum of money which had been accumulating towards a church erecttion-fund was lost. Accordingly, the corner-stone was laid Oct. 12, 1878, and on Sunday morning, March 16, 1879, the sanctuary was dedicated by Bishop Stevens, at which time the church was entirely out of debt, subscriptions having been obtained sufficient to discharge every obligation for its erection. The building, which is in the Gothic style of architecture, is laid in pressed brick, with stone trimmings, and ornamented with colored brick, while internally it is finished in oiled hard woods, with an open roof and exposed rafters. In the recess chancel is a handsome stained-glass window, the contribution of the Sunday-school scholars.

A parish was now organized under the name of St. Stephen's Church, Clifton Heights, a charter was obtained, and a vestry elected. The first vestrymen were Frederick Chase, Dr. J. W. Phillips, Dr. R. A. Given, John Shaw, Edward Walden, Richard Barlow, and William Kane. At this time, the Rev. Charles A. Maison having resigned, the Rev. G. J. Burton was elected rector in charge, and the lay-reader was chosen assistant minister. He was ordained to the deaconate in the new church Nov. 1, 1879. On Oct. 9, 1880, the corner-stone of a Sunday-school and parish building was laid with impressive services.

This beautiful structure, one of the finest in the county, was the gift of Thomas A. Scott, then president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, who was much interested in the little church. A memorial brass tablet on its walls bears this inscription: "Erected in memory of Thomas A. Scott, Jr., who died Ascension Day, 1879. Of such is the Kingdom of God." On Easter Monday, 1881, Rev. Mr. Burton resigned, and his assistant, Rev. W. W. Taylor, was elected rector. In the fall of 1882 ground adjoining the church property (which had already been enlarged by gifts of lots from Dr. R. A. Given and Thomas A. Scott) was received and a rectory begun. It was finished and occupied the following spring. The present value of the church property, real and personal, is twenty thousand dollars. The actual communicants number seventy. There are in the Sunday-school eight teachers and one hundred scholars. In the parish day-school, one teacher and twenty-eight pupils, and in the night-school, three teachers and forty scholars. Connected with the church there are also sewing and altar societies. Services are held twice on Sundays, on all the holy days, and communion is celebrated twice in the month.

It will be seen by the foregoing sketch that the parish has grown rapidly, and that now, in its sixth year of organization, it is fully equipped for aggressive work in the midst of an increasing population.