The Honey Creek church was organized and incorporated on Feb 8, 1847, according to records at the Sauk County register of Deeds office. Adolph Sprecher, John Schneller and George Liehs were elected trustees. It was given the name "German Salem Church of the Evangelical Association of the United States of America". It was usually referred to as the "Ragatz Church" in the early days, and sometimes it was called the "Swiss Church". Other names are the "Stone Church" or "Honey Creek Church", neither of which are too definitive as there are others to which these names apply.
Plans for building a church were made as early as 1846 and the Ragatz boys spent the winter of 1846-47 cutting and hewing logs for the structure, which was built on six acres of land donated by Bartholomew Ragatz for the church, parsonage and cemetery. Members of the Reformed faith who had settled on the prairie proposed joining in the enterprise and it was to be a joint undertaking. The walls were raised, after which a dispute about whether to put up a school and operate it in conjunction with the church occurred. The project was dropped and the Reformed neighbors were paid out and the walls stood roofless for several years. No combination church and school was ever built here, although intermarriages between the two faiths have occurred. The roof was put on and the building completed in the spring of 1851.
It was dedicated on April 8th, 1851. This was not the final building of this church, as it was not large enough and the current building was not built until 1875. The former building was located north of the cemetery, although there is not anything to remind us of this former building. The Salem Ragatz church was built in 1875. It cost $3,800.00 to build. The masons were Casper Steuber, John Peter Felix and Peter Kindschi. The latter two were members of the church and Mr. Steuber's cousins were also church members. They all had reputations as skilled masons, having built stone houses and walls in the area for some years. The stonework is a free ashlar amounting to almost rubble and is overlaid with regularly spaced raised mortar joints, purely for effect and to simulate squared blocks of stone. The quoins and stones around the openings are solid blocks of limestone. This unusual technique was introduced by German stone masons like Mr. Steuber.
Although the building burned in 1904 (and was immediately rebuilt) the stone work is in excellent condition 160 years later. The architecture is a combination of Gothic and German. The Gothic windows and doorway and traceried steeple are modestly an austere version of German Gothic, which was developed in Wisconsin, particularly in rural areas.. These masons had only a limited knowledge of the Gothic architecture, but were excellent craftsmen, with a fine appreciation for the materials they were handling. It is indeed unusual to have such a large adequate structure, built so long ago, which with a few modifications remains as beautiful as it was when it was built. It is indeed a testament to the drive of those pioneers to worship in a beautiful place.
Taken from the book by Erhart Mueller, "Salem Church", 1975.