St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church

The beginnings of St. John go back before the Civil War. On the day before Pentecost, 1860, eight pioneers arrived to the land they had earlier purchased in the dense pine forest that once covered this area. Beginning with the oldest person, there was Frederick Hamann, his wife Maria, their 14-year-old daughter Friedericka, and their son Frederick. Son Frederick was also married, his wife was Friedericka (born Marquardt), and they had a daughter, Maria, who was two months old when they arrived. Carl Marquardt, brother of Friedericka Hamann, and Wilhelm Garbrecht completed the group. It had taken them six weeks to travel by oxen-drawn covered wagons from Stevens Point, a 40-mile trek. 

At their request in 1862, the Rev. J.J. Hoffmann of the Town of Berlin visited them in order to baptize several children. 

On July 4, 1867, the Rev. J.F. Wilhelm Hudtloff was ordained into the holy ministry at Naugart in the Town of Berlin. He visited the Town of Wien at regular intervals and played an important role in the early development of St. John. According to later reports, he assisted St. John to organize in 1869. 

On May 31, 1880, St. John affiliated with the Missouri Synod, an affiliation that continues to this day. From 1881 to 1884, large immigrations from Germany settled in Wisconsin. Many came from Pomerania, then northeast Germany, now northwest Poland. Fifty-five baptized members were added to the burgeoning congregation in 1879, and forty-one in 1881. The largest number of baptisms (twenty-one) occurred in both 1881 and 1882. 

In 1882, when the congregation called Mr. Carl Busch, a former school teacher, deposed from office in Germany, to be their pastor, the conservative minority objected to what they considered an unordained and unorthodox teacher as pastor. 

The newly reorganized St. John moved about 1/4 mile west of the original site where they worshiped in a white frame building which served as their church. This building served until 1908 when the current "high steeple" church was built. Several additions have been made to our church home over the years since 1908, most notable the addition of a parish hall built in the 1940's and the building of an enlarged ministry center (remodeling, new classrooms, church offices, kitchen) in 2004. Today, 

St. John continues to serve as a beacon of light in our community - preaching and proclaiming the Good News of Christ crucified and administering the blessed Sacraments as Jesus instituted them for us.