After these original settlers, a second wave of
families moved to the Sauk Village area, including such familiar
names such as Kavelage, Reichert, Sauter, Rickenberger, Kloss, Barnes,
Jung, Schaller, Schmidt, Kline, and Peters. Postmaster Charles Sauter
named the settlement Strassburg, after Strassburg, France, home
of many of the original settlers. Back when the area was originally
being settled by Americans, land sold for a mere $1.25 an acre.
In 1847, St. Jakob's Church was built.
Father Francis Fischer was the first priest of the church, which
had twenty parishioners. In 1871, this original church was struck
by lightning and burned to the ground. The church was promptly rebuilt,
only to be struck again in 1873. After this second lightning strike,
the church was moved to the corner of Sauk Trail and the Calumet
Expressway, this building was razed in 2004. The name of the church
was changed from the German St. Jakob to St. James in 1917 as a
result of anti-German attitudes due to World War I. During the Great
Depression of the 1930s, St James Church experienced a shortage
in revenues. Area residents helped by hand-digging the basement
of the church in order to create a hall that could be rented out.
On November 11, 1940, a tornado touched down in the area, causing
extensive damage to the roof of the St. James Church. Area residents
may have known the Old St. James Church as the Old Community Center.
The graveyard directly behind where the Old St. James Church stood
is the St. James Cemetery at Strassburg. It is the final resting
place for many of Sauk Village’s original settlers. While
being readied for demolition in 2004, former Trustee Richard Derosier,
while cleaning the attic of the once old church stumbled over an
old relic cross that once hung in the old St. James Church. The
old relic cross now hangs as you enter St. James Church some 150
years later. The original bell, cast in 1800s, stand outside St.
James Church today as a testament to the history and sacrifices
of so many families of Sauk Village. |