In 1849 a group of people began meeting to plan the formation of a Lutheran congregation near Jefferson Wisconsin and with 2 acres of land donated by Nic Bayreuther and Karl Layritz Christberg Cemetery and Church were created. The original church was a plain log structure with no tower or other marks that would associate it with a church. In the following years, pine siding would be added to give the church more character and beauty. For seven years the immigrant families worshipped at Christberg with reading services sometimes supplemented by visiting pastors from neighbouring Helenville and Watertown.

In 1857 property was acquired in the City of Jefferson to build a new church that could accommodate the ever-growing larger Lutheran community with building construction beginning in 1860. In the Spring of 1864, the congregation made up of 64 families adopted the name Evangelical Lutheran Church of St John. To accommodate all it was decided to hold services alternately both at the new location and at Christberg. This practice only lasted a few years and then was changed to have all services at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St John. In 1880 the old church at Christberg was encased in solid brick, but on June 15, 1913, it was struck by lightning and was completely destroyed. Immediately steps were taken to rebuild and on Nov 9 1880 the memorial chapel was dedicated resting on the same foundation upon which the first church stood. It was also renovated in 1913 but ultimately its congregation at Chrisberg was dissolved in the early twentieth century. The Church and Cemetery continue to be well maintained. The style of the church is called Front Gable which was common from about 1840 into the twentieth century. In 2013 the church and cemetery were surveyed by the Wisconsin Historical society

Currently 2022 the cemetery has a large number of broken and or unreadable stones. The earliest known burial is 1843. Records in parts and whole can be found at www.sjlwels.org, the Jefferson County and Jefferson Historical Society