First Reformed Church

Early in 1847 a group of Dutch families met in Goes, on the island of Zuid Beveland, and organized themselves into a congregation. With their pastor, the Reverend Cornelius Vander Meulen, the group sailed in three ships to America in search of freedom. They established their new homes in this forested area of Michigan and named it after their native province of Zeeland. The center of the community was the log church. In 1866 a wood frame structure, with fieldstone foundation, patterned on the church in Axel, the Netherlands, was built on this site. Use of the Dutch language was eliminated gradually and in May 1943 was discontinued. The present church, built around the old, remains as the physical evidence of the Dutch immigrant community founded upon a resolute faith in Almighty God.