In 1857, twelve German families started a Protestant mission church, bringing their Christian faith and German language to what is now Muskego. Services were conducted in German once a month in a rented one-room log schoolhouse on Tess Corners Drive. In 1858, the mission congregation bought the land and took the name "The First Protestant Church of Muskego," and by spring a small wooden frame church had been built. A reed organ furnished the music, a pot belly stove warmed the congregation in winter, and women and children sat left of the aisle while men sat on the right, following German custom. Men and women continued to worship separately until 1950. The transition from German to English services came in 1937, although German was still used twice a month and on festival occasions, and the final German service was held on Maundy Thursday 1949. The cemetery was established in 1857, with the first burial in 1861, and there have been 828 burials since then. In May 1878, the congregation filed its first constitution with the Town of Muskego and chose the name "St. Paul's German Evangelical Lutheran Church." In 1890, a schoolhouse for German religious instruction was built. In March 1905, a large brick church was built and a Star Tower Clock was installed in its steeple. By 1911, the congregation had joined the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod and English services were held once a month. A used pipe organ was installed in 1919, but its large five-foot by eight-foot bellows still had to be pumped by hand because electricity had not yet come to Tess Corners. In 1958, a youth center and playground were built to accommodate growing Sunday School needs. In September 1968, St. Paul's Lutheran School opened to fifty-eight students in grades one through five. In September 1976, a new church was built, and on June 4, 1978, the last regular services were held in the old church; as the congregation filed out that Sunday, each member tolled the old church bell one last time in farewell.