Editing Mequon, Wisconsin (section)

===Freistadt===

[[File:FSLG.jpg|thumb|right|While Trinity Lutheran Church of Freistadt moved to a stone church in 1884, a reconstruction of the original log structure stands at the Trinity-Freistadt Historic Site.]]

In October 1839, a party of twenty German families from [[Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)|Pomerania]], [[Prussia]], settled the Freistadt community in the western part of the Town of Mequon. They were [[Old Lutherans]] who had resisted the Prussian government's attempts to take control over the Protestant churches through the [[Prussian Union of Churches]].<ref>Ozaukee County. [http://www.co.ozaukee.wi.us/777/Trinity-Evangelical-Lutheran-Church---Fr Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church - Freistadt]</ref> In German, "Freistadt" means "Free City".<ref>*[http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=5544 Freistadt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610211334/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=5544 |date=June 10, 2011 }} in ''Dictionary of Wisconsin History''</ref>

In 1840, they built a log cabin church, which they named Trinity Lutheran Church. It was the first Lutheran church in Wisconsin. In 1845, what would become the [[Lutheran Synod of Buffalo]] was organized in Freistadt. However, the Freistadt church became a part of the [[Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod]] in 1848.<ref name="Early">{{cite web|title=Early history of Ozaukee County, Wisconsin|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/WI/WI-idx?type=turn&entity=WI.OzEarlyHist.p0103&id=WI.OzEarlyHist&isize=M|publisher=University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries|access-date=January 3, 2020}}</ref> The wooden church was replaced with a limestone building in 1884.<ref>{{cite web|title=Property Record: 10729 W Freistadt Rd.|date=January 2012|url=https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Property/HI13485|publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society|access-date=January 3, 2020}}</ref>