First United Methodist Church

First United Methodist Church is a Michigan historical marker in Holland, Ottawa County, dedicated 1986.

57 West Tenth Street, Holland

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When the Reverend Albertus Christiaan Van Raalte and the first Dutch settlers came to Michigan in February 1847, they were aided by two Methodists who had settled earlier in the Holland area. George Harrington, Sr., brought the Dutch settlers from Allegan by ox cart; and Isaac Fairbanks welcomed them to his cabin, where they stayed during the building of their own log homes. Later, in 1861, Fairbanks and Harrington helped found the Holland Methodist Episcopal Church (now First United Methodist Church), which became the first English-speaking church organized in the Holland community. In 1986 the congregation celebrated its 125th anniversary at this site, its fourth church home.

TodayHistorical map

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Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library

Historical maps covering this location

1849 · Illinois (Mitchell/Cowperthwait, 1849) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1852 · Wisconsin (Cowperthwait, 1852) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1853 · Map of the surveyed part of Michigan (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1854 · A map of the surveyed part of Michigan / by John Farmer ; engraved by S. Stiles & Co. (University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
[Road map of southwestern Michigan, Grand Haven and Grand Rapids to Benton Harbor and… (University of Chicago Library, Mapping Chicagoland · CC BY-NC 4.0, used by permission)

Map of the surveyed part of Michigan, 1853, covering the location of First United Methodist Church, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Map of the surveyed part of Michigan, 1853, covering this location. Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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Marker data: Michigan History Center
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