Editing Schaumburg, Illinois (section)

===19th century===
The village of Schaumburg was incorporated on March 7, 1956, but the heritage of Schaumburg dates back to much earlier times when the first inhabitants of the area were members of the [[Sauk people|Sauk]], [[Meskwaki]], [[Potawatomi]], and [[Kickapoo people|Kickapoo]] Native American peoples. By the mid-19th century, settlers first began to arrive from [[Bonn]], [[Germany]] and the [[eastern United States]]. Many of the Germans came from [[Schaumburg-Lippe]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1117.html|title=Schaumburg, IL|website=Encyclopedia of Chicago|access-date=April 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190302035832/http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1117.html|archive-date=March 2, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> a small princely state now in [[Lower Saxony]].

Legend has it that one of the earliest settlers was Trumball Kent from [[Oswego, New York]].<ref name="Schaumburg's History">{{Cite web|title = Schaumburg's History|url = http://www.ci.schaumburg.il.us/offic/history/Pages/default.aspx|website = Village of Schaumburg |access-date = February 16, 2016|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160208155223/http://www.ci.schaumburg.il.us/offic/history/Pages/default.aspx|archive-date = February 8, 2016}}</ref> Kent, a "Yankee", as settlers from [[New England]] were called in the west, farmed property in the northeast corner of the township. Another Yankee was Horace Williams, who owned substantial lands but lived in the hamlet of Palatine in Palatine Township. Ernst Schween settled in 1835 not far from what used to be called Olde Schaumburg Centre, in what was then and is now known as Sarah's Grove. Another early settler in Schaumburg Township was German-born Johann Sunderlage.<ref name="Schaumburg's History"/> According to one legend, Sunderlage was a member of a survey team that divided Cook County into townships around 1833; according to another legend, he worked on a survey team on the [[Joliet, Illinois|Joliet]] canal. He liked the area so much that, upon completion of the project, he returned to Europe and brought his family and friends from Germany and settled in the area now known as [[Hoffman Estates, Illinois|Hoffman Estates]] in Schaumburg Township around 1836. His home still stands in its original location.

Sunderlage and his family occupied their land in the township until the federal land sale of 1842 allowed them to buy the property and obtain the deed. Sunderlage and Kent represented the predominant groups that settled Schaumburg Township in its early days. In 1840, 56 percent of the township households originated from the eastern United States, while 28 percent were German-born. By the 1850s, the population mix had changed to 28 percent "Yankee" and 48 percent German.

By 1870, Schaumburg Township had become completely German. Land records show that most of the property in the township was owned by German immigrants or their descendants. This pattern emerged as many Yankee "settlers" continued to travel west for the promise of newly opened lands on the [[Great Plains]]. The land they owned in Schaumburg was then purchased by German-born immigrants.

Schaumburg Township remained almost exclusively under German ownership until the [[Great Depression]] of the 1930s. The Depression caused the foreclosure on some German-owned farms which were then purchased by non-German individuals and companies. Nonetheless, German heritage remained important in the area. German was the first language of the majority of households until the 1950s.

St. Peter Lutheran Church, the community's oldest [[Christianity|Christian]] church, had services in German as late as 1970. The church remains as a museum, as does the second church of this congregation. Services were first held at the then-existing Rohlwing-Fenz store, at the southwest corner of the intersection of Schaumburg Road and Roselle Road, until their first church building was completed in 1847. The pastor was Francis Hoffman, who walked from the [[Bensenville, Illinois|Bensenville]] area to hold the Christian religious meetings in Schaumburg. He later served as Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. When he retired from the church's ministry, he moved to [[Wisconsin]] where he operated an experimental farm and edited a German-language [[agricultural journalism|agricultural newspaper]]. Other people of the area who were notable in the 1840s included Quindel, Winkelhake, Moeller, Fenz, Kastning, Lichthardt, Meyer, Rohlwing, Thies, Scheiderling, Hattendorf, Nerge, and Freise.

====Sarah's Grove====
The original 1842 township survey names the grove (immediately west of the center of the township, in sections 21 and 22) as Sarah's Grove. Three families lived near a grove of woods on the northwest end of the township, and each family had a woman named Sarah (Sarah McChesney, Sarah Frisbe, and Sarah Smith). At a township meeting in 1850, citizens debated new names for the town. A wealthy landowner named Friedrich Heinrich Nerge, at one point during the meeting, slammed his fist on the table and yelled in [[Low German]], "Schaumburg schall et heiten!" (The English translation: "It will be called Schaumburg!").<!--in the sources "schall" (Low German dialect for English "shall") is misspelled as "ichal", I corrected that. User:Tickle_me --> At that point, the township became officially called Schaumburg.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.intelligentoffice.com/locations/illinois/schaumburg/schaumburg/the-history-of-the-village-of-schaumburg.aspx|title = The History of the Village of Schaumburg|access-date = January 30, 2014|website = Intelligent Office|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091208115409/http://www.intelligentoffice.com/locations/illinois/schaumburg/schaumburg/the-history-of-the-village-of-schaumburg.aspx|archive-date = December 8, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.ci.schaumburg.il.us/offic/history/Pages/MoreontheHistoryofSchaumburg.aspx|title = Schaumburg's History - 1800|access-date = December 23, 2014|website = Village of Schaumburg|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141223224318/http://www.ci.schaumburg.il.us/offic/history/Pages/MoreontheHistoryofSchaumburg.aspx|archive-date = December 23, 2014}}</ref>

The name was taken from Grafschaft [[Schaumburg]] (Schaumburg County) in Germany, then a part of [[Electorate of Hessen|Hessen-Kassel]], now in [[Lower Saxony]]. Most of the township's German settlers were from Schaumburg; many were born in the parish of [[Apelern]]. Some came from [[Hannover]], but the people of Schaumburg had more influence.

Schaumburg Township prospered during its early days. The area's main occupation was farming, with potato growing, dairy products and raising cattle as main sources of income. The land was a very large meadow surrounded by extensive wilderness. Wildlife such as geese, ducks, quail, prairie chickens, rabbits, pheasant and deer were abundant. 
In 1858, a small market area emerged at what is now the intersection of Schaumburg and Roselle roads. Schaumburg Center was the market center for the surrounding agricultural producers. It included two general stores, four cheese factories, a cobbler, a tailor, a wagon maker, and a blacksmith.

Most of the early growth in the northeast region of Illinois occurred along the [[Fox Valley (Illinois)|Fox River Valley]] and the major rail lines. Since neither of these transportation networks served Schaumburg Township at the time, the township remained rather isolated. Few roads existed, and several of those were often impassable. To reach a large market, Schaumburg farmers had to travel {{convert|26|mi}} in ox-drawn or horse-drawn wagons to Chicago, which only had about 35,000 inhabitants at that time.