The district presently has congregations in the states of Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as the Canadian province of Ontario.

[1] The district has its origins in the congregations of the former English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States, which merged with the LCMS in 1911.

The conference therefore organized as the independent English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri and Other States in 1888.

The Lutheran Witness, the main lay-oriented magazine of the LCMS, was originally published, starting in 1882, by the Cleveland District Conference.

A. O. Preus on April 2, 1976, for non-compliance with synodical directives on the ordination and placement of improperly endorsed ministerial candidates from Seminex.