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Buffalo Grove History

In the Beginning: St. Mary’s Catholic Church

Imagine Buffalo Grove over 200 years ago. Indian trails were the only roads. All travel was done on horseback or in wagons.

Pioneers and early settlers from the east made their way across the country encountering many hardships. As they reached their destination, food and shelter had to be provided. Birds, game and wild growth made nourishing food.

Soon, crops had been planted and homes were made of logs. Furniture was homemade; stoves were unknown; clothing was made from flax-woven cloth; wool was spun and carded; socks were knitted by the women.

As time passed, early German settlers came to Illinois with visions of a better life, making their own trails in search of religious freedom. Many of these immigrants were leaders in their Fatherland, highly educated Germans—laborers, tradesmen, students and professionals—who brought knowledge and skills affecting the entire communities where they lived.

They were able to furnish themselves with new and better homes, flowers, fruit trees, books and music. Churches and schools began to appear. As they adapted themselves to the simpler standards of the people around them, they were able to gradually elevate the ideals of western life. Grateful that Illinois had so liberally provided a haven in a land of freedom where religious persecution did not exist, they began to make plans for a new church.

In the fall of 1847, the first priest visited Buffalo Grove on horseback. As a result, mass was celebrated the next morning at the blockhouse of Mr. John Simon Hennemonn. Over the following months, large numbers of Catholics from Bavaria, Rhineland and Trier arrived.

Among them were the first Weidner, Sebastian, Schoeneberger, Pfister, Horcher, and Raupp families. Also that year, three couples were married in the Hennemann blockhouse — namely, Adam Pfister and Cunigunda Lang, John Schoeneberger and Anna M. Weiland, and A. Hennemann and Catherine Schoeneberger.

As the small Christian community became organized, missionaries would stop there each month to celebrate the divine sacrifice and to administer the sacraments.