family and friends from Germany and settled in the area now known as 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 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 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 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