German immigrant farmers drawn by the fertile fields of eastern Wilsonville settled in this area and in 1878 founded Die Deutsche Evangelishe Reformierte Meridian Gemeinde des Clackamas County, Oregon, now the Meridian United Church of Christ. The first service was held in the partly completed church in 1880, and the building was dedicated in 1882. German was spoken from the pulpit for years. The church bell was cast in 1849 in Cincinnati and shipped around Cape Horn in 1855 to the Aurora Colony. After the colony disbanded, the church acquired the bell, which began service there when the bell tower was added in 1894. The church became affectionately known as Frog Pond for a boggy area just north of the church that has long since been drained.