when the first inhabitants of the area were members of the Sauk, Fox, Pottawatomie, and Kickapoo Native American tribes. By the mid-nineteenth century, settlers first began to arrive from Germany and the eastern United States. Legend has it that one of the earliest settler was Trumball Kent from Oswego, New York. 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 Hoarace Williams, who owned substantial lands but lived in the hamlet of Palatine in Palatine Township. Ernst Schween settled in 1835 not far from what is now 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. According to one legend, Sunderlage was a member of a survey team that divided Cook County into townships around 1833 or according to another legend, worked on a survey team on the 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 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 purchase 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 settled 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 church held 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 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 services in Schaumburg. He was later to become a Lieutenant Governor in Illinois and when he retired from the ministry, moved to Wisconsin where he operated an experimental farm and was editor of a German Language Newspaper addressing the issues of farming.

Other names, dating from the 1840s were: Quindel, Winkelhake, Moeller, Fenz, Kastning, Lichthardt, Meyer, Rohlwing, Thies Scheiderling and Freise. Schaumburg Township was originally known as Sarah's Grove. This name was derived from a grove of woods that ran through the northwest portion of the Township, which was named for three young women whose families lived adjacent to the grove: Sarah McChesney, Sarah Frisbe, and Sarah Smith. However, the name was never made official and the family names have yet to be accounted for in any documentation. Until 1851, the area's official name was Township 41. At the 1850 Township meeting, residents discussed two names for the Township; Lutherville and Lutherburg. In the middle of the discussion Frederick Nerge, a prominent German landowner, put his fist down on the table and called out, "Schaumburg schall es heisen!" (It will be called Schaumburg!). With this statement, a consensus was reached on the Township's official name.

This chosen name derived from Schaumburg-Lippe, the part of Germany where many of the Township's residents originated. The majority of German settlers were from the Hesse-Kassel (Hesse-Cassel) or Hanover districts, but apparently those from the Schaumburg area had more influence in the community's affairs. 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 very abundant. In 1858, a small market area emerged at what is now the intersection of Schaumburg and Roselle Roads. Schaumburg Centre functioned as the central service district 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 River Valley and the major rail lines. Since neither of these transportation networks served Schaumburg Township, the Township remained rather isolated. Few roads existed, and several were often impassable. To reach the market, Schaumburg farmers had to travel 27 miles (43 km) by oxen or horses to Chicago, which only had about 35,000 inhabitants at that time.