The St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Congregation was organized late in 1854 as a daughter congregation of Zion (now Trinity) Lutheran Church of Crete, Illinois. Their first church was located on Bemis Road in Crete Township not far from the Ilinois-Indiana State line. In 1866 the church was moved about 2 miles south to its present location on Eagle Lake Road in the Northeast corner of Washington Township, just across the border from Crete Township. The charter members of the congregation are said to be: Hans H. Tatge, John Hartmann, Henry Wassmann, John Scheiwe, Konrad Ohlendorf, John Windheim, F. Rotermund, Chr. Wassmann, Chr. Scheiwe and Konrad Tatge. The list which follows was extracted from photocopies of Book One (1854-1876) and Book Two (starting 1877 and containing printed forms for the entries) of the original church records. The photocopies were made by Christian Orlov of New York, N.Y. (born James Ballard, and Gr. Gr. Grandson of Christoph and WIlhelmine (Seegers) Ohlendorf and Christian and Sophia (Grages) Klemme). He, as well as the present writers who have translated and tabulated the records , are all descended from or have some close connection with early members of the Congregation. (Edwin Friedrich is the Gr. Gr. Grandson of Friedrich and Maria (Knief) Wille and Friedrich and Dorothea (Ostermeier) Battermann). All of the entries in the St. John's Church Record Books One and Two are written in German. Most of the names, dates and place names were written using the present English style script. However, the remainder of the entries were often written using the old style German script. The German United Evangelical Zion Church (Deutsche Vereinigten Evangelisches Zions Kirche) congregation was organized on August 31, 1859 as a daughter congregation of St. Johns Lutheran Church of Eagle Lake, Illinois. Their first church, measuring 40 x 30 feet, and which included living quarters for the pastor, was built at the site of the present church on 113th Avenue, about a half mile east of the Indiana-Illinois State Line. Farmer Otto Buehre donated a five acre corner of his farm for the church property. The families who founded the church lived both in Crete Township, Will County, Illinois and in Hanover Township, Lake County, Indiana. The signatures of the original signers of the church constitution on August 31, 1859 are in many cases faded and difficult to read. However, lists of the contributors from among the members of the congregation to the building and maintence of the church building are given for 1860 to 1863 in the church book and are quite legible. The names given on these early lists, in alphabetical order, are: Heinrich Bahlmann, Johann Bahlmann, Friedrich Battermann, Heinrich Battermann, Heinrich Behrens, Friedrich Braemer, Heinrich Braemer, Christian Brenker, Friedrich Brenker, Heinrich Buehre, Otto Buehre, Gottlieb Buerkle, Heinrich Claus, Johann Elting, Rosine Glade, Wilhelm Grages, Dietrich Haake, Friedrich Hasselbrink, Heinrich Hecht, Heinrich Heisterberg, Karl Hitzemann, Wilhelm Holton, Friedrich Hue, Katharina Jung, Friedrich Kahle, Father Klemme, Christian Klemme, Friedrich Klemme, Heinrich Klemme, Georg Lesemann, Wilhelm Mussmann, Wilhelm Noehren, Friedrich Oehlerking, Christoph Piepho, Friedrich Ringgenberg, Christoph Ruessel, Heinrich Schoenbeck, Christoph Seegers, Conrad Seegers, Heinrich Seehausen, Karl Tegtmeier, Heinrich Thuennemann, Friedrich Wehrmann, Friedrich Wille, Christoph Zieseniss, Philipp Zimmermann. Note that womens' names were not included unless they were widows. I've found my Will Co. ancestors in both churches! Pat Mount