The First Congregational Church of Hancock was officially established on September 20, 1862 under the leadership of the Rev. Thomas Eliakim Bliss. In January 1863, the congregation dedicated its first church building. Unfortunately, this home would be short-lived, falling victim to the devastating Hancock fire of April 11, 1869. The people of the church were undaunted, however, and continued to gather on Sundays at a surviving schoolhouse until the basement of the rebuilt structure was sufficiently complete for them to meet there.

Fire was inextricably linked not only to the history of the First Congregational Church but to its Ladies Industrial Society. Perhaps the intimate knowledge of fire acquired in the 1869 Hancock blaze inspired an even deeper compassion among the women when they heard of the disaster suffered by Peshtigo, Wisconsin, in October 1871. With that town in ruins and its people destitute, the ladies of the congregation banded together to send clothing south. In a history written to celebrate the church’s seventy-fifth anniversary, Dr. James Fisher noted that “five poor families and one orphan girl were provided for and thus the good work of what later became the Ladies Industrial Society was started.” The society emphasized charitable work and practical and financial support to the local church. After the building burned down a second time in 1917, for example, the group took it upon themselves to repay a construction loan from the Congregational Church Building Association. Members also provided furnishings for the kitchen and dining room, among other improvements.

In 1969, the First Congregational Church of Hancock merged with the First Presbyterian Church of Houghton, forming the Portage Lake United Church near the Michigan Tech campus. The church building in Hancock was sold and razed that year.