Photographing the cemetery and gleaning information from the WPA records, the Sac County Genealogical Society cemetery canvas of 1982, and the '120th Anniversary Celebration of Emanuel & St John Lutheran Church, Lytton, Iowa' publication of 2003 was completed in 2009. This publication included Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage and Burial entries. Many names given at baptism evolved over the course of a lifetime, and were shortened and Americanized.

Lytton, Iowa was fortunate to have two very staunch, separate German communities with a 'north' church and a 'south' church within a six mile radius. Both were referred to as the German Lutheran church. This caused confusion.
The 'south' German Lutheran immigrants organized and launched their church as the "Evangelical Lutheran Emanuel's Congregation of Coon Valley Township in Sac County, Iowa" on August 5, 1883. This is the date celebrated by the German Lutheran community even though they had been in existence for several years. The church was on land donated by Charles Westphal, three and one-half miles south and one mile west of where the town of Lytton would eventually be built.

Across the road to the west of the church, a corner plot of land was donated by the William and Henry Leege families as a "Kirchhof", or burying ground. The first recorded burials in 1885 were Louise Glasenapp, infant daughter of Edward and Wilhelmine Balfanz Glasenapp and 19 year old William Tonagel.

St John's Lutheran Church was three miles north and one-half mile west of Lytton, organzied in 1888. St John's also established a "Kirchhof" on the same ground with the church building which was leased to the congregation by August Bartels.

While Emanuel was beset with wind and fire casualties, the St John's building served the congregation well until the two churches merged in 1928. One pastor served both churches. A new building was built in town in Lytton to accommodate the 400 combined parishioners. The church was renamed Emanuel and St John Lutheran Church. Emanuel was destroyed by fire when lightening hit the church steeple on Sept. 9, 1928, two months before the new building was completed. That land has been reclaimed by the rural farming community. St John's was dismantled and the land leveled to accommodate additional burials.