Frankenlust / St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church

One of four colonies in Michigan settled by people from Franconia, Germany, Frankenlust was founded by Pastor Ferdinand Sievers and fourteen immigrants who established Saint Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church in June 1848. On July 4, they arrived at what is now St. Paul Cemetery. The Franconians built log houses along the south side of the Squaconning Creek and cleared the land for farming. They built a log church in 1849 and replaced it with a frame one in 1857. Originally part of Kochville Township, Saginaw County, the settlement petitioned the state legislature to become Frankenlust Township, Bay County, in 1881. They named their colony by combining the name of their homeland, Franconia, with the German word lust, meaning joy. Thus, Frankenlust means “Joy of the Franconians.” St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church Bay City architects Pratt and Koeppe designed this Neo-Gothic church, the third house of worship for St. Paul congregation. Completed at a cost of $21,857 and dedicated on December 17, 1905, the church features a cruciform plan. The altar, pulpit and baptismal font came from the previous church and date from the 1860s. Lightning struck the steeple in 1984, and fire destroyed the roof, belfry, organ and entrance. Repairs were completed and a replica of the original steeple was erected in 1986. The remains of Frankenlust’s earliest settlers are interred in the adjacent cemetery and date from as early as 1848.