Protestant settlement from the Palatinate, Baden and Wuerttemberg is seen around Blue Creek at St. Jacob's Evangelical Protestant Church (now U.C.C.) which was established in 1838, and at its sister church, St. John's at Pennsylvaniaburg, established in 1840-41.

Catholics from Baden, particularly from Offenburg, established a church at St. Nicholas west of Sunman in 1836 and at St. Pius further south in 1854. Protestants from Baden also settled along the Napoleon-Lawrenceburg road. German Catholics who settled in 1840 around Morris (then called Springfield) came from both Baden and Oldenburg, Germany. They attended either St. Nicholas or the Holy Family Church at Oldenburg until St. Anthony's congreation was established at Morris in 1856.

By 1837 many of the more recent immigrants were coming from northern Germany. Some of these immigrants were particularly affected by enclosure of common lands and by difficulties in the cottage linen-making industry around Osnabrueck caused by the industrial revolutiion. In 1837 a financial panic struck U.S. cities, prices of farm commodities soared and German immigrants in Cincinnati headed towards the contryside for the security of land.