In 1843, the Reverends Mason Knappen and Ova Hoyt organized Cooper Congregational Church with families from New York and Vermont, including founders Laura Blanchard, John and Betsy Borden, Mace, Nancy and John Borden, Matilda Delano, David Deming, Eliza Earl, Lydia Hart, Fidelia Pratt, William and Susan Lyman, and Almon and Phoebe Monroe, who first worshipped in a log schoolhouse at Cooper Centre. The present church was erected in 1856 with money raised through the sale of family church pews, a popular fund-raising method in New England and New York. Ephraim Delano, George Delano, George Hart, A.R. Allen, A.W. Ingerson, Allen Chappell, and John Walker built it on land donated by Barney and Eliza Earl. Its cornice returns, triangular pediments, and square louvred belfry, containing a bell cast by Meneely & Kimberly of Troy, New York, reflect Greek Revival styling.