Montgomery County PA Archives Biographies.....Argo, Rev. Fordyce H. 1872 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson jpatter@epix.net February 22, 2026, 4:48 pm

Source: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County Pennsylvania, T. S. Benham & Company and the Lewis Publishing Company, 1904
Author: Ellwood Roberts, Editor

MEMORIAL CHURCH OF THE HOLY NATIVITY, Rockledge, 
Pennsylvania, Rev. Fordyce H. Argo, rector, is a 
comparatively new house of worship, the parish having been 
founded in November, 1894, as a mission from Trinity church, 
at Oxford, in the upper part of the city of Philadelphia. In 
the earlier days of the mission, divine service was held in 
the old school house at Rockledge, by Rev. H. A. F. Hoyt. 
The corner stone of the present handsome new church was laid 
with appropriate ceremonies on July 16, 1898, by the Right 
Rev. Ozi W. Whitaker, bishop of the diocese. About eighteen 
months later the church was dedicated by bishop Whitaker, a 
sermon suitable to the occasion being preached by the Right 
Rev. Ethelbert Talbot, bishop of the diocese of central 
Pennsylvania.

The church is a beautiful edifice of stone, the Gothic style 
of architecture being followed in its construction. It has a 
seating capacity of about four hundred. The Sunday school 
connected with the church has an average attendance of about 
ninety. Rev. Fordyce H. Argo was the first resident rector 
of the parish, he having been assigned to it while it was 
still a mission, in 1896. During his occupancy of the 
position of rector, the parish has been thoroughly 
organized, the new church edifice erected, the parish house 
greatly enlarged, a rectory purchased, and the church 
property and all its surroundings greatly improved. The 
parish is deeply indebted to the late Robert W. Ryers for 
many liberal contributions.
 
Rev. Fordyce H. Argo is a native of the state of New York. 
He was born at Manlius, and acquired his education in the 
University of North Carolina located at Chapel Hill, in that 
state. He also took a divinity course at the Philadelphia 
Divinity School, graduating from that institution in the 
year i898. He was ordained a deacon in June, 1898, by Bishop 
Talbot, at South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and in January, 
1899, was ordained to the priesthood in the church of which 
he is now the rector.

In 1902 Mr. Argo took a post-graduate course in the Divinity 
School in which he had earlier pursued his studies, 
receiving the degree of Bachelor of Divinity (B. D).

Rev. Mr. Argo is a very successful rector, and is much 
beloved by his people. The church is located in a very 
thickly settled and improving section of Montgomery county, 
and it has undoubtedly a very prosperous future before it.

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