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 German, "Schaumburg schall et heiten!" (The English translation: "It will be called Schaumburg!"). At that point, the township became officially called Schaumburg.