In 1794, the Rev. Walter Clark Gardner, rector of the church in Hudson, took a vacation trip through the Catskills and stopped in what was then known as Watertown, now Hobart. Here on the evening of St. Peter’s Day, June 29, “finding a number of earnest church people, I was persuaded to give a church service at the house of Stephen Barlow, after supper and before sunset. This was the first church service held in their midst,” he wrote. He added, “The people seemed much in earnest and after the service I baptized two children. Next day I spent advising many who were eager to found a congregation and build a house of God.”
On December 8, 1794 the first trustees were elected for the incorporation of the parish of the “Episcopal Church of St. Peter’s in the Townships of Stamford, Harpersfield and Kortright.” The first trustees were Augustus Bales, Gershom Hanford, Elijah Baldwin, Ebenezer Sturges, Henry Bradford, Truman Beers, Andrew Beers, Stephen Barlow and Moses Sackrider.
At a meeting of the trustees on July 13, 1795, plans were first made for a church building. They voted to construct a church “50 feet by 40 feet.” In January of 1797, even before beginning work on the church, the wardens and vestry appointed a committee to consider building a rectory. During this time of planning, meetings were held in what was known as the “Glebe House,” located in what is now Locust Hill Cemetery.
St. Peter’s parish was admitted to union with the diocese of New York on October 12, 1796, the Rev. W. C. Gardner being rector.
Subsequently there was much controversy over the location of the building and not until June 1801 was the church located on Beer’s Pine Hill, now known as Church Hill. Work on the building was begun and the frame was raised July 4 of that year. The edifice was so near completion by December 17 that a meeting was held there for the election of a rector, and the first church service was held on Christmas Day.