It had more appeal to Americans of the era, and in 1837 a group called the Methodist Protestant Society of West Somers bought a half-acre ( 0.5 acres ) parcel on the present site for $100 ($formatnum: in modern dollarsUS) Thomas Tompkins Miller, a builder who was one of the society's trustees, a town justice of the peace and a descendant of one of the older families in West Somers, built the church himself.