Historic Naperville's spiritual heritage dates back to the earliest members of Community United Methodist Church. German-American families from Ohio and Pennsylvania first settled in Naperville in 1837. Many of them were members of the Evangelical Association, a small, pietistic German-speaking denomination founded in eastern Pennsylvania in about 1800. In 1837, a group of 15 men of this religious heritage met to plan the organization of a congregation and to seek help from their eastern brethren in obtaining a minister. Later that year, the Reverend Jacob Boas of Ohio was dispatched to the Illinois frontier to serve the Evangelicals of Northfield, Elmhurst, Naperville and other northern Illinois communities. Wishing to obtain a full-time pastor to serve in Naperville, the Evangelicals decided in 1841 to build a wooden frame church on Van Buren Street, between Eagle and Webster. This building, now known as the Meeting House, still stands at Naper Settlement - as the oldest church structure in the area. From this modest beginning more than 165 years ago grew what is today the Community United Methodist Church