St. Luke

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The village of St. Luke emerged around the local Lutheran Congregation in the late 19th century. By 1879, there was a separate Lutheran Church, school house, and Union Church in the community. Five years later, Lake’s Atlas indicates the village had added a post office, sawmill, and general store.

St. Luke expanded greatly during the first half of the 20th century. At various times a number of trades and businesses operated here. These included a blacksmith shop of H.B. Maurer, carpenters H.F. Coffman and John Wisman, coachbuilders J.F. and James Ryman, J.F. Piffer’s distillery, a saddlery operated by S.G. Clem, and a lime plant operated by J.M. Baker. A service station and two general stores operated in the community during the 1920s at which time a new brick school was constructed.

After the end of World War Two the community began to decline as schools consolidated and many businesses, and residents moved to towns. In 1959 the school board closed the St. Luke School due to declining enrollment. Other institutions followed suit over the next several decades. The final business, Walker’s Cash Store, closed its doors in 2015. Today only the Lutheran and Brethren Churches remain.