The Reverend John Hays Grier arrived in Jersey Shore in 1814. He was a Presbyterian missionary who originally set out from his home of Doylestown Pennsylvania with the intention of serving the pioneers of the west. He stopped one Sunday in Jersey Shore and for the most part never left. He built a strong at Jersey Shore and another upstream on the West Branch in Lock Haven. Grier served the churches in Lock Haven and Jersey Shore for fourteen years before serving alone at the church in Jersey Shore for an additional twenty-three years. Rev. Grier was also elected sheriff of Lycoming County in 1822.