- Early Lutherans settled in America in the 16th century, with the first Lutheran colony in Florida in 1564 and Danish vessels arriving in what is now Canada in 1619. - The first major Lutheran settlements were New Sweden established by Swedes and Finns in the Delaware Valley in the 1630s and Lutherans in New Amsterdam among the early Dutch settlers in the 1640s. - Lutheranism grew over the following centuries as more German immigrants arrived, establishing congregations across the mid-Atlantic region. Notable pastors included Justus Falckner, the first Lutheran ordained in America, and Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the "Patriarch of American Lutheranism."