First Methodist Episcopal Church of Pokagon

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

From the record

“The First Methodist Episcopal Church of Pokagon is a historic church at 61041 Vermont Street in Pokagon Township, Michigan. It is the location of the first performance of the hymn "The Old Rugged Cross." The church was listed as a Michigan State Historic Site in 2000 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.”
Wikipedia article First Methodist Episcopal Church of Pokagon, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 9 National Register listings published here for Cass County · listed in 2002 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 60041 Vermont St., Pokagon Township, 49047
When was it listed? April 2002
Category. building
Township. Pokagon township
National Register reference number. 02000295 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

12 since 2018

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 12 fires within 5 miles of First Methodist Episcopal Church of Pokagon between 2018 and 2019, burning about 13 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	6
Equipment and vehicle use	5
Natural	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
31 August 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	HOWARD TOWNSHIP VFD 2019278 - 2019
27 July 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	HOWARD TOWNSHIP VFD 2019238 - 2019
6 May 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	CASSOPOLIS VFD 0000067 - 2019
22 May 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	HOWARD TOWNSHIP VFD 2018131 - 2018
15 May 2019	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	CASSOPOLIS VFD 0000071 - 2019
3 April 2019	Natural	2.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	POKAGON VFD 2019022 - 2019
26 April 2018	Equipment and vehicle use	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	EAU CLAIRE FD 49 - 2018
25 April 2018	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Michigan Department of Natural Resources	HOWARD TOWNSHIP VFD 2018102 - 2018

Every fire recorded in Cass County

Mines and quarries near this property

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of First Methodist Episcopal Church of Pokagon: 4 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Limestone, General. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Poehlman Marl Pit	Limestone, General	Producer
Cass Co Pit Yerington Const	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Niles Dredge and Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Three S Pit & Mill	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer

Every working recorded in Cass County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

3 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Thompson Road-Air Line Railroad Bridge	1.7 miles	1999
Criffield-Whiteley House	5.7 miles	2016
Michigan Central Railroad Dowagiac Depot	5.8 miles	1993

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 02000295 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Cass County	All 9 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.