Commerce United Methodist Congregation

A Methodist Episcopal class, which later became a church society, was organized in Commerce in 1838. For many years, it was part of the Farmington Circuit. The Reverend Daniel C. Jacokes was the church’s first circuit minister. Religious meetings were held in a schoolhouse until the society erected its first church in 1842. In 1854 Commerce, with its seventy-one members, was made the head of a circuit. The congregation organized a Sunday School in 1855 and an Epworth League for youth in 1891. The Ladies Aid Society, organized in 1885, hosted maple sugar and lawn socials to supplement its dues of five cents a month. By 1915 the local Presbyterian and Baptist congregations had disbanded, leaving the Methodist society as the sole church in Commerce.

[Back]: In 1842 the Methodist Episcopal congregation of Commerce erected a modest Greek Revival frame church at the northwest intersection of Commercial and Ponderosa Streets. Logs for the church, including oak for the frame, were hauled to Lapeer to be sawed. The land for the church had been purchased a year earlier for $75. The cost of the church was $1,200. The handsome structure was moved to its present location in 1957 and enlarged. The original portion, presently used as a chapel, is easily distinguished by its towering steeple, a replica of the original one. Known as the Commerce United Methodist Church, the structure is recognized as the oldest Methodist church building in Oakland County and one of the oldest in Michigan.