Posted at This Day in Presbyterian History: Rev. Samuel Wylie [1790-1872] The history of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Randolph County, Illinois, goes back to the year 1818. To the Rev. Samuel Wylie belongs the credit of the planting of the church. He was born in County Antrim, Ireland, February 19, 1790; came to the United States in 1807; entered the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in the class of 1811; prepared for the ministry in the Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, under the care of his uncle, Dr. Samuel Brown Wylie, and was licensed to preach in May, 1815, at Philadelphia, by the Middle Presbytery. In the summer of 1817 he visited various places in the West, passing through Illinois and continuing his travels as far as Boonville, Missouri. One his return he again passed through Illinois and spent the winter in supplying the vacancies in Tennessee and South Carolina. At the meeting of the Synod in Pittsburgh in the latter part of May, 1818, he reported