St. John's Lutheran Church is located five miles northwest of Dongola.  It is the oldest Lutheran congregation in Illinois.  It was organized two years before Illinois became a state, when there were only ten counties in the Illinois Territory with a population of 30,000.  At that time wild animals roamed over a large part of the territory and Indian tribes still claimed most of the prairies as their hunting ground.

Lutheran came to Southern Illinois at a very early date, with most of them coming from Rowan and Cabarrus counties in North Carolina.  The first to arrive was the Jacob Lingle family in 1807.  The families of Joe and Ben Lawerance, Ben Eccles and Adam Clapp came in 1810.  They were followed in the next few years by the families of Jacob Rhinehart, Adam Hileman, Henry Cruse, Moses Goodman, John Fink, George Brown, Jacob Dillow, John Kelly, John Ury, Mowery Heilig and the Albright family.  A history of Union County says that Moses Meisenheimer settled northeast of Dongola in 1816, and John Fisher, Joseph and Adam Eddleman, Daniel Karraker, Daniel Lingle and Edward Davis came to the St. John's community some time during the year 1816.  Christian and John Miller families came sometime between 1816 and 1818.  The early Union County settlers were deeply religious and were mostly of the Lutheran faith.  Some had come to this new land because of being opposed to slavery.  They were attracted to Union County because the hilly land resembled their native North Carolina, and because of the water supply in the springs and streams, even enough in places for their water mills.

In the moving caravan to Southern Illinois was a school teacher who was an ordained pastor of the North Carolina Lutheran Synod.  He is known to us only as Rev. Murrets.  He organized St. John's congregation and served at least as part time pastor form 1816 for a period of several years.  The first services were held in homes, mostly in the home of John Miller.  Miller was the outstanding leader of the congregation from the beginning.  Some services were held in barns belonging to Mr. Eddleman, who lived about two miles west of Dongola.  Since the preacher was also a school teacher, he served only part time as pastor.  In 1818 St. John's petitioned the North Carolina Synod for a regular pastor.  The Rev. John L. Markert, who had been serving in Ohio, came to administer to these Union County Lutherans.  He began his ministry sometime in 1817.  It is not know how long he served.

In 1825 forty members of the congregation again asked the North Carolina Synod for a pastor who could preach in both English and German languages.  A Rev. Wm. Jenkins came in 1825 but his stay was short.  It seems Rev. Jenkin's ministry was largely in Tennessee.  St. John's records show that he was paid $13.00 to come from Tennessee for a Good Friday's service at St. John's in 1869.

Rev. Jenkins served as president of the Synod of the West, organized in 1824.  At this session of the Synod, E. T. Olmstead of Union County was ordained and a layman from St. John's, Levi Dillow, was appointed on the committee to make plans for the Synod of the West to unite with the General Synod.

The successor to Rev. Wm. Jenkins was a Rev. J. C. Shoenberg who came as a missionary from the North Carolina Synod.  He served as pastor from the latter part of 1826 to 1829, when he was forced to resign because of ill health.

A Reform Church had been formed in the St. John's community and the two congregations used the same building on alternate Sundays for their worship services.  The church building was erected about the year 1822 and stood at the place in the cemetery where the large spruce trees now stand.  The trees seed cones were brought from North Carolina so the trees are the same as those found in the Great Smokies or the Blue Ridge Mountains.  These trees are the landmark of the St. John's Cemetery. The church building was made of hewn logs and had a board roof.  Split logs were used for the floor and an open fireplace was used for heat.  Split logs were used for seats with pegs for legs to form a bench seat.  The size of the original building was 18 x 24 feet.

St. John's cemetery was started at an early date and has been added to a number of times.  There are stones in it marked as early as 1818.  In the early days the road went around the cemetery.  It was in October 1899 that the congregation gave permission to have the road go through between the cemetery and the present church.  There is a record of deed in Jonesboro dated January 22, 1839 signed by Jacob and Margaret Miller to John Fink and John Light, elders in St. John's Church deeding to the church two acres of land on which to build a church.  The present church building stands on this plot of ground.