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Saint John's Lutheran Church

St. John's Lutheran Church Complex

German settlement in Benton Precinct of Nemaha County commenced in the spring of 1856 when a small group of German Lutherans came from Illinois and settled by the timber-lined Muddy Creek. A Lutheran congregation was established in 1866. The church complex is a unique assemblage of buildings and includes the "old stone church," built about 1868; the 1903 Gothic Revival frame church building; a two-story parsonage constructed in 1925; and the parish cemetery, which contains over 500 tombstones, the earliest one dated 1857

Located 4 miles south of highway 136, 3 miles east of Johnson (or intersection of US136 and N105), Stone Church is one of the oldest and most historically interesting churches in the county.  It was built in 1868 out of native limestone and is adorned by a bell cast from cannons from the Franco-Prussian War (this one comes from cannons used in the Battle of Sedan) and given as a gift to the largely German congregation by Kaiser Wilhelm I.  Although services are now conducted in an adjacent modern structure, the old church is in active use for meetings and Sunday school.

Interior Saint John's Lutheran Church

(Stone Church)

Diamond Jubilee 1941

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Last Up-Date   12/30/2007 08:08:01 AM