Lutheran settlers from Germany moved to this area in 1848 and first met in family homes for worship before constructing their first church building in 1853. That building also served as a school in the 1860s. Following the Civil War, they constructed a second church building, then called "The Church in Cypress Settlement." The Rev. Andreas Schmidt became the congregation's first minister in 1872, and during that time members began a register of baptisms, confirmations, weddings, and burials in the church cemetery. In 1877, the congregation, then known as "Little Cypress," called the Rev. August Hofius as its first pastor from the Missouri Synod. In 1893, the congregation wrote in German script its first known constitution as the "German Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Congregation of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession at Little Cypress and Surrounding Areas." As membership grew, a new sanctuary was built in 1908 with a tall steeple bell that had two clangors, a larger one used to ring at the beginning and end of each service and a smaller one used during services and to communicate the Sabbath, local events, and deaths to area residents. The bell and cornerstone from the 1908 church remain with the congregation. During the 1940s, the church changed and expanded through the formation of a Ladies Society and the construction of a new schoolhouse, discontinued the use of German in services, and in 1942 joined the Missouri Synod. In the following decades, the congregation continued to grow as members worked and served together in butcher clubs, quilting bees, barn raisings, picnics, mission festivals, and other activities.