During the Revolutionary War William [Rigdon] served as a private in Company No. 12, commanded by his older brother Alexander Rigdon. After the war, William, who owned a large plantation and a number of slaves, decided that "from conscientious scruples in regard to the lawfulness of slavery," he should free his slaves. He did so, sold his property, and moved to the southwest corner of Pennsylvania with his older brother Thomas.

The Rigdon brothers settled in Washington County, later to become Allegheny County, about fifteen miles from Pittsburgh. On 10 February 1785, 150 acres of land were granted Thomas Rigdon. Eight months later William received 358 and 3/8 acres situat4ed nearby along the Piney Fork branch of Peters Creek in St. Clair Township.

The township—today comprising more than a dozen communities, including Library, the city closest to the Rigdon homesite—was bounded by the Ohio River, the Monongahela River, and Chartiers Creek. An 1805 description claimed the township was a "full fifteen miles in length ranging in breadth from six to ten miles."

Past forty, William Rigdon married Nancy Gallaher, eldest daughter of Bryant and his second wife Elizabeth Reid Gallaher. The Gallaher family had moved to Pennsylvania from New Jersey and apparently lived in St. Clair Township also. William and Nancy Rigdon became the parents of four children. Carvel was born in 1790; Sidney S. entered the world on 19 February 1793, followed by Loammi (also spelled Loami and Loamie) in 1796 and by Lacy (the only daughter), who arrived in 1799.

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Young Sidney, introverted and melancholy, held a contrary opinion [to his father] about learning. Possessing a restless mind that revealed itself early, he began borrowing books from whomever would lend them and spent time alone, pondering and reading. A son, Wickliffe, later wrote that Sidney "was never known to play with the boys; reading books was the greatest pleasure he could get." Rigdon himself recalled that in his youth he had "an insatiable thirst for reading."

History, literature, English grammar, and the Bible were Sidney's passions. Wickliffe, who eventually became an attorney, noted that his father "was as familiar with the Bible as a child is with his spelling book." Sidney enjoyed an impressive memory and could recall "everything he read and in this way he laid up a fund of Knowledge that was of great value to him in later years. . . . [H]e was regarded as a well informed young man in the community in which he lived."

But William Rigdon did not support his son's passion for books, particularly when reading interfered with chores. He refused the boy's request for candles to read by after dark. Undaunted, Sidney gathered a supply of hickory bark. At nightfall, after his parents had retired, he would burn the bark in the fireplace and read by the hearth.

Upon completing his common school education, Rigdon wanted more, but the opportunity for further education fell instead to his younger brother Loammi, who, because of an unspecified medical condition, was less suited for strenuous work. Wickliffe explained that "It was the rule in the country, that when a boy was too feeble to work on a farm they would send him to school [higher education]. . . . Sidney Rigdon wanted to go to school and pleaded with his father and mother to let him . . . but they would not consent . . . saying to him that he was able to work on the farm and he could not go."

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Although Sidney stayed on the farm for another nine years, until he was twenty-six, he could not quell the restless stirring to break free of farm life. A neighbor, Isaac King, later affirmed that Rigdon's farming was rewarded with "indifferent success." The general verdict can that "he was too lazy or too proud to make a good farmer." A more likely possibility—one Sidney suggested—was that God had put his signature on Sidney's brain. In 1868, enraptured in prophetic loquacity, Rigdon intoned: "From his earliest infancy my fear saith the Lord was the ruling principle in his hear. . . . I the Lord called him from his plow as I did Amos from among the herdsmen of Tekoa."

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During Sidney's early adolescence revival ferment was still in full swing in western Pennsylvania, and from a young age he likely attended Peters Creek Baptist Church. His own account, given in 1869, simply says, "[I] became acquainted with a Baptist minister . . . [who called my] attention . . . to personal religion." Reverend Philips, a Welsh native, served the Peters Creek congregation from 1780-1824.

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The exact nature of Sidney Rigdon's conversion experience is not known. Years later, as a Mormon, he reportedly said of his Baptist initiation: "When I joined the church I knew I could not be admitted without an experience: so I made up one to suit the purpose, but it was all made up, and was of no use." Peters Creek leaders apparently did have some reservations in 1817 about Sidney's sincerity. The Reverend Samuel Williams, in a derogatory account written after Rigdon became a Mormon, noted that "there was so much miracle about his conversion, and so much parade about his profession, that the pious and discerning Pastor [Philips], entertained serious doubts at the time in regard to the genuineness of the work."

Despite the implied controversy, Rigdon was received by the church, baptized by Father Philips, and later given a favorable letter of recommendation when he separated from the congregation. By this time, and possibly much earlier, Sidney had recognized religion as a way out of the dreary, moribund life of farming. Inculcated with an overwhelming sense of talent and destiny, the ambitious plowman set out to become a Baptist minister.

While Rigdon had a humble, compassionate side, he was also opportunistic and mean-spirited as he single-mindedly sought the esteem he craved. The first evidence of this is in a Baptist minster's retrospective report that Sidney had coveted the aging David Philips's pastorship. The Reverend Samuel Williams, at the time a hostile witness, said that Rigdon "began to put himself forward and seek the preeminence, and was well nigh supplanting the tried and faithful minister who had reared, and nursed, and fed the church, for a long series of years."

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According to his own account, Rigdon was permitted to "exercise his rights" as a preacher in March 1819 when he was awarded a "ministerial license."

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When Rigdon first arrived [in Warren, Trumball County, Ohio], the town had no Baptist meetinghouse, and the small congregation met in various homes. His acceptance, noted in the church's minutes, simply states: "Bro. Sidney Rigdon presented his letter of dismission from the Church of Christ called Providence Pa. dated August 4th 1819 . . . received into full fellowship." On 1 April 1820 Rigdon preached at the church's "regular monthly meeting." At the same session "Bro Rigdon requested a certificate from the Church stating his standing with us as a Member in fellowship and a li[c]ensed Minister of the Gospel, which was granted." This was also when Rigdon received his "Certificate of Ordination."

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Rigdon simply said he continued to preach in Trumball County, Ohio, until November, 1821. "At that time," he noted, he was requested by the First Baptist Church of the city of Pittsburgh, to take the "pastoral charge of said Church."

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Rigdon reported on 28 January 1822 as the fourth pastor to the ten-year-old church [in Pittsburgh]. He found 113 members who gathered weekly in their own meetinghouse but who were in a state off precarious equilibrium due to the disjointed leadership of the previous minister, John Davis.

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There could not have been a resignation in 1824 because [Rigdon] had already been released on 11 October 1823.

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Sidney and Phebe Rigdon's family, now including children Athalia (b. 1821), Nancy (b. 1822), Elizabeth or Eliza (b. 1823), and Phebe, Jr. (b. 1824), moved their meager belongings in December 1825 to Bainbridge, Geauga County, Ohio, in the Western Reserve.