First Church here in New Knoxville looks to the Evangelical-Reformed church in Ladbergen, West Germany as her mother-church as it was from this church that immigrants came to make their new homes here beginning in the 1830’s.

According to the earliest available documents, the church in Ladbergen began in the year 950 A.D. In 1149 the Ladbergen church was formed into an independent parish church. The year 1517 brought the Protestant Reformation and in 1527 the county of Tecklenburg (where Ladbergen is located) became the first county in Westphalia to become Protestant. For some years the church was Lutheran in character. In 1587 Count Arnold of Tecklenburg converted from the Lutheran to the Reformed Church and all churches in Tecklenburg became part of the Reformed Church.