Rev. John Knierim was born May 18, 1843 in the Kreis Royhenburg Kurhessan Germany. He was the son of Paul and Anna Knierim. As a young man he taught school in Ohio in 1881, he volunteered and served for three years in the United States Union Army. Then he returned to Ohio and the teaching profession. Meanwhile preparing for the ministry. In 1875 he was ordained by the Heidelberg classic. In the fall of 1875, he and his wife, Nancy, and family came from New Knoxville, Ohio to the German Valley neighborhood. He was sent here by the Home Mission Board to serve as a missionary. Rev. Knierim bought a farm north of where the Valley Center United Church of Christ now stands He donated an acre of this ground for the Valley Center Cemetery. When he came to the neighborhood, there was no church or schoolhouse. So church services were held in the homes of the neighborhood. Later the services were held in the Finey Reformed Church in Henry County, then later at the County Line Schoolhouse. He also started services in the Prairie City, Mo. area, which is now known as the Faith United Church of Christ today.
The German Valley School (Valley Center) House was built in 1879. Church services were held in this schoolhouse untill the first church was built in 1897,
Rev Knierim wrote the first constitution for the German Valley Church, which was signed March 26, 1882.
Rev. Knierim became ill with Bright's Disease (nephritis) a chronic disease of the kidneys. He passed away January 4, 1912. He is buried in the Valley Center Cemetery.