One of Schaumburg's original family members dies
One of the last remaining links to Schaumburg's beginnings has passed away.
Helen Slingerland, whose German ancestors in Schaumburg and Roselle date to the early 1800s, passed away on March 28, in Chapel Hill, N.C., at the age of 80.
Funeral services will take place 2 p.m. Sunday, April 19 at St. Peter Lutheran Church, 202 E. Schaumburg Road in Schaumburg.
Born in 1929 on the family farm in Roselle, as the youngest of 13 children of Henry and Emma Siems, Mrs. Slingerland's family is one of the oldest in the area, and includes Ernst Christian Ludwig Lichthardt, believed to be the first person buried at the history St. Peter Cemetery, in Schaumburg.
More recent Schaumburg residents may remember Mrs. Slingerland as the longtime school nurse at St. Peter Lutheran School and the first co-president of Schaumburg High School's VIP (Very Important Parents) Club when the school opened in 1970.
Her ranch home, where she and her husband, Walter, lived for 40 years, was located off Schaumburg Road, on the edge of her husband's family farm, which later gave way to the Schaumburg Municipal Center.
In fact, as the last surviving links to the Slingerland farm, Mrs. Slingerland and her husband joined former Schaumburg Mayor Robert O. Atcher and his wife, Maggie, at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Prairie Arts Center in 1985.
However, Mrs. Slingerland's home still survives, and serves as the location for Schaumburg's Health Services Department.
"It was so exciting to be in on all of that from the beginning, to see Schaumburg grow from nothing to what it is today," Mrs. Slingerland said one year ago, when her husband passed away.
In 2007, exactly 100 years after Mrs. Slingerland's parents married and settled on their 133-acre farm, the Roselle Historical Foundation featured the Siems family, in their newsletter, documenting their impact on the area with photos and genealogy information.
The farmhouse, where Mrs. Slingerland and her siblings were born, still stands at the corner of Walnut Avenue and Siems Circle in Roselle. Mrs. Slingerland's daughter, Mary Helen Owens of Mebane, North Carolina, says the farm was mostly a dairy farm. However, the family also raised hogs and chickens, as well as tomatoes, which they sold to the Randolph Street Market in Chicago, and the Campbell Soup Company.
Family members add that Mrs. Slingerland eagerly shared her firsthand knowledge of Schaumburg's rural beginnings with congregation members at St. Peter, as well as Schaumburg village officials, and even new friends when she and her husband retired to Florida.
"She loved Schaumburg and was its goodwill ambassador," her daughter says. "Everywhere she went, she would tell people where she was from, and all about the village."
Besides her daughter, Mrs. Slingerland is survived by another daughter, Lisa (Mark) Wallis of Shanghai, China; as well as three grandchildren, and her siblings, Loretta (Frank) Mikes of Roselle, Lucille Mikes of Lombard, Ethel Dipper of Elgin, and William (Marilyn) Siems of Dacula, GA.