Westward expansion of white settlers in the late eighteenth century encouraged the founding of Episcopal Churches near the Ohio River. Unlike most Virginia churches, mountainous geography led many churches in West Virginia to be planted by congregations from Pennsylvania, Maryland, or Ohio. Mirroring Virginia politics, diocesan bishops based in Williamsburg and Richmond often overlooked Episcopalians living west of the Blue Ridge. Efforts of the Rev. Dr. Joseph Doddridge, a Pennsylvania-born missionary, were especially significant in establishing frontier churches in the Upper Ohio Valley. In 1793, he founded Olde St. John’s Episcopal Church in Colliers. It remains the oldest continuously active Episcopalian congregation in West Virginia.