First Known Religious Services in Mason County

Early settlers in this area were German immigrants who arrived about 1850. Their first worship services were held about twenty feet north of this site, under a large oak tree on the property of August H. Leifeste, Sr. (1812-1884). During the early 1850s, Conrad Pluenneke (1819-1897), a local preacher, held Methodist services. In 1852, the Rev. Charles A. Grote (1819-1887), a Methodist, and the Rev. Philip F. Zizelmann (1824-1902), a Lutheran, traveled from Fredericksburg to hold services once a month. Although the oak tree no longer stands, the site remains important to the religious heritage of Mason County. (1985).