The German Reformed Church was organized on Kelleys Island in 1865, and the congregation built the church from island stone in 1866 on one-half acre of land purchased from Alfred S. and Hannah Kelley. By 1871, one of five congregations on the island, it held services in German and had 25 member families, including Baumler, Beatty, Becker, Boker, Burger, Cattenach, Dodge, Elfers, Fischer, Gerlach, Hess, Jordon, Keifer, Lange, Nowalk, Pringnitz, Huber, Renter, Schaedler, Scheele, Smith, Stoll, Suhr, and Trieschman. Rev. A. William Von Kaske was the congregation’s last resident minister, leaving in 1915. The final service, the funeral for William Burger, was held in 1942. The Ladies Aid Society maintained the building until 1957, after which it stood vacant. The Kelleys Island Historical Association leased the church in 1981 and received the deed in 1986. The congregation also built a parsonage on land bought for $51 from Mrs. Anne Twidney on August 8, 1888. By 1915, the island’s population and the congregation had dwindled so much that a resident minister could no longer be supported, and the trustees rented the house to the Betzenheimer family. Florence (“Sis”) Betzenheimer McKillips continued her mother Emma’s care for the church and parsonage even after both became part of the Kelleys Island Historical Association in the 1980s. The association granted Mrs. McKillips use of the house until her death in 2013 at age 92. The parsonage has no running water and is served by a hand pump in the kitchen and an outhouse in the back yard.