On June 6, 1881, thirty-three German immigrant families, led by Pastor G. Schmidt, established a church, bought five acres from Carl Boy for $10, and first built a parsonage. The church building followed in 1883 and was originally named Wall Lake Zion Gemeinde. A church bell cast in St. Louis in 1890 for $303 was nearly dumped while being hauled from Sioux Falls when a wheel came off the buckboard crossing the Sioux River, and it bears the church name and German words translated as "Glory to God in the Highest." Arch windows were installed in 1931 for $500. Services were conducted in German until 1919, when an English service was held on the last Sunday of the month, and by 1940 all worship services were in English. After lightning struck on Easter Sunday 1955, immediate repairs were made and the church proper was enlarged by thirty feet. The cross atop the original steeple fell in 1977, and in 1996 the steeple and cross came down again in a windstorm. Over the years, congregation members provided improvements including planting trees, digging a full basement under the church, adding a balcony, and constructing a new entryway. The Ladies' Aid Society, established in 1920, performed works of charity and helped provide improvements and interior decoration. The adjoining cemetery was also established in 1881, with lots mapped and sold to church members for $3.50 each. Early settlers faced hardships including epidemics and high infant mortality; in 1894 a diphtheria epidemic brought twenty-three funerals, and the Kruse family lost eight children in July 1894. Church records set burial charges at $15 for members and $25 for non-members, and the cemetery became the final resting place of many charter members.