St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church and School

Side A: St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized in 1838 by German Lutheran immigrants, primarily from Bavaria and Hesse-Darmstadt, who located in this vicinity in the 1830s. The congregation, called Neudettelsau, erected a second log church in 1843 centrally located in the “German Settlement”. A congregational split in 1846 resulted in the conservative members building a separate brick church a half mile away. This church in 1847 became one of the 12 charter members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Growing membership required a larger brick church built on this site in 1860. In 1878 the two St. John’s congregations in the settlement reunited. Side B: The current Gothic style church was designed by G.F. Walker of Cleveland and built by A.M. Fry of Piqua in 1900. An addition was constructed in 1989. The original building cost was $17,043 not including member donations of labor, materials, and furnishings. A parochial school, built of logs, was established in 1843 and supplied with free books from friends in Germany. After the school was housed in the vacated church, a brick school was built in 1864 on the current property. An increasing number of students required the school to be replaced with a two-story brick building in 1880. The school was destroyed by a fire and rebuilt in 1937, with later additions. The church and school continue to faithfully serve the community.