Koethe Family/Salzer German Methodist Church

 The Koethe Family Cemetery was loosely associated with the Salzer Memorial Methodist Church of La Crosse and is technically just over the border of the town of Greenfield into Vernon County. A mission church, or Methodist Society, was organized and met in the Town of Hamburg, Vernon County. Although this cemetery is also known as the Koethe Family Cemetery, the oldest Koethe stone is that of Sophie who has a death date of 1877, while the oldest burial in the cemetery is that of Johanna Koch in 1858. Many members of the Koethe family are buried here and the most recent burial was that of William Koethe in 1942. The Koethe family later joined the main Salzer Memorial Methodist Church in La Crosse.

From Emil J. Bernet's article titled "Beginnings of the Salzer Memorial Methodist Church" in the La Crosse County Historical Sketches (series 7) published in 1945, described:

the "people in Chipmunk Coulee and on Brecken Ridge [later called Brinkman Ridge bordering La Crosse and Vernon counties] were largely German Bohemians, most of whom were Catholics. In Mormon Coulee there were chiefly Swiss and in other places there were German Lutherans. These settlers were pious, God-fearing people with religious training in school in youth; but even with this religious background they had been entirely neglected by their churches before this time. There was an occasional priest in the towns who could be called upon to baptize, marry, or bury. The Methodist circuit riders were ready to pray with a penitent sinner under a tree in the woods or on the lee side of a hay stack, and administer all religious rites when necessary. Literally left as 'sheep without a shepherd' by their own churches, there was an immediate response to the earnest, sincere preaching of the gospel according to Methodist principles. Meetings were held in homes and schoolhouse whenever anyone would listen."

While the main La Crosse church began to have regular preaching services in 1858 and a small church building was erected, missionary work outside La Crosse was growing. Revival meetings during the winter season and camp meetings in the summer time to which people came from long distances were popular. Spiritual interest was shown and the preaching of the gospel became more widespread. The missionary societies were established by 1860. These included La Crosse (main church), Brecken Ridge, Chipmunk Coulee, Mormon Coulee, Burr Oak and Jacksonville (Monroe Co.).

In 1860 it was decided to build a church on Brecken Ridge. It was to be a log structure and timbers were prepared during the winter. The building, 22 feet x 30 feet, was erected in the spring of 1861 on two acres of land that Frank Koch donated. Lamprecht, Koch and Koller were appointed as the building committee.

Early family names that joined the Hamburg church were Lamprecht, Koller, Thiel, Koch, Theyson and Woodbridge. In the 1870s the congregation turned almost entirely to the Evangelical Association. Some ten years later, when the evangelical fervor had died down somewhat, services were resumed for a few years. When the Mormon Coulee mission church was discontinued in 1887, the few remaining members from Mormon Coulee and Brecken Ridge transferred to North La Crosse.

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