The Freistatt and fertile Spring River valley was settled soon after the arrival of the railroad. Pierce City was founded in 1870, and the railroad arrived there the same year. Around Christmas of 1873, a group of Germans from Minnesota and Wisconsin arrive in Pierce City on the train. David, August, and John Fritz, Louis and Gottlieb Krueger, Wilhelm Zemke, and Ferdinand Mahlzahn and their families were the first Germans to arrive and establish farms in the area. There were wide open spaces along the Spring River on the east, plentiful forests to the south, and access to markets via the new railroad depot in Pierce City. Initially, the first worship services (called Lesegottesdienst) were family affairs held at the homes of the new settlers. At times, an ordained itinerant pastor conducted services, but mostly the services were led by a local member reading from the Predigtbuch (German prayer book). They all shared a common first language, German, although many spoke English fluently, and they all shared their deep adherence to the Lutheran faith.
At one of these early Lesegottesdienst on September 8, 1874, a formal meeting was held with the purpose of organizing a congregation and to call a pastor. Rev. H. F. C. Grupe arrived in April 1875, and the first church building was dedicated on April 11, 1875.
The Kleiboekers left Hoyleton, IL, in 1884 and arrived in Freistatt, which by this time was a strong, growing community of German Lutherans. In 1883, Freistatt built their second church, and the original church building served as a day school with its first full-time Lutheran-trained teacher, Heinrich Nehrling, who would later go on to become the head of the Public Museum in Milwaukee and establish horticultural gardens in Gotha, Florida.
An 1888 edition of the "History of Lawrence County” describes Freistatt as follows: 'On the southeast half of the Spring River Prairie is located the famous German neighborhood, which is now fast becoming the most populous and wealthy district of its size in the county, not withstanding that fifteen years ago it was said that a man would starve to death on the very prairie which is now adorned with some of the handsomest homes in the county and produces thousands of bushels of wheat, oats, and corn and many tons of hay.'
