When I was a little girl, we lived in a large brick duplex at 312 Jefferson St. in the older part of St. Charles.
This house was in an area where many of my ancestors from Hannover, Germany settled in the 1850s, in a community surrounding the local Immanuel Lutheran Church which was built in 1867.
One of my mother’s relatives owned this duplex and I remember going with my dad to pay the rent, $60 a month, to Mrs. Iborg, who lived in a big brick house south of town off Highway 94.

“Back in the day” the ground this house was built on was called, “Kuhlmann’s Grove” and I remember the front yard was very large and the Kuhlmann family would host picnics there. St. Charles County Executive, Steve Ehlmann (my second cousin) wrote about this home in a blog post dated June 26, 2019:

 …Frederick “Fritz” and Anna Kuhlmann purchased approximately 113 acres ( in 1897) for $10,500, and fell in love with it. In fact, they liked it so much that they wanted everyone else to enjoy it, and opened the land to the public for picnics and baseball games. It became known as Kuhlmann’s Grove.

After Fritz and Anna Kuhlmann both died in 1928, their will stipulated that their daughter, Caroline Iborg, receive 245 acres, and their grandson, Erwin Ehlmann (my distant cousin), receive 104 acres. Iborg and her husband, and Ehlmann and his wife, all lived in the house at Kuhlmann’s Grove. The family lived on the land until the 1970s, when part of it was sold to housing developers for Heritage Landing.

In 2006, St. Charles County purchased the house and two acres and dedicated as a museum of local history. The current display is four rooms which showcase the rich local sporting history. Exhibits include the local high school teams and also Major League Baseball players from St. Charles County.
And since St. Charles is really just a little big town, a relative of Mark Buehrle lives across the street from my son.