rward with generous subscriptions and
loans; some assistance was afforded by their brethren of other
denominations; they were thus enabled to erect and cover in a brick
building sixty feet long and fifty feet broad."[127] This was partially
completed by 1774. Not until after the Revolution was the church
plastered and finished off.

The first minister of the congregation, the Rev. William Thom, was
ordained in Pennsylvania in 1772 and called to Alexandria. But in one
year the "Little Minister" was dead of a pestilential fever. Further
steps to improve the House and organize the Society were interrupted,
according to Dr. Muir's report, by the war which commenced between Great
Britain and the colonies.

In 1780 the Rev. Isaac Stockton Keith was invited to remain with the
Society during the winter. He remained nine years. The "Contract for the
erection of the manse was let in July, 1787, to Mr. Robert
Brockett."[128] In March 1789, Dr. Muir was called to the pastorate and
remained until his death, serving for thirty-one years. Dr. Muir was a
trustee of the Alexandria academy. As president of the board of
trustees, he rendered to Washington satisfactory accounting on how his
donations were being applied and what good was being accomplished, after
a rather sharp letter of inquiry. As chaplain of the Masonic lodge, he
assisted Dr. Dick with the Masonic ceremonies at the funeral of George
Washington on December 18, 1799. Ten days later the _Gazette_ carried
the following notice: "The walking being bad to the Episcopal Church the
funeral service for George Washington will be preached at the
Presbyterian Meeting House tomorrow at 11 o'clock." This was a memorial
service, one of a countless number held throughout the length and
breadth of the land. The Rev. James Muir's "Funeral Sermon on the Death
of George Washington" was widely circulated in its day by means of a
printed broadside.

When Dr. Muir died on August 8, 1820, he was held in such great
affection and respect that it was decided to bury him under the pulpit
and to erect a suitable monument to his memory. The committee appointed
for this purpose was working at least five years and submitted reports
again and again on the cost of altering the pulpit for the memorial. The
last mention of the subject in the Committee Book reads: "Mr. Mark
reports that the bannisters of the Cupola have been taken away as
ordered at last meeting ... Rev'd E. Harrison, Mr. Jno. Adam & Mr.