Around 1816, pioneer families from Lancashire, England, established a Catholic English settlement near the banks of Prairie Du Long Creek and named it after their leader, Thomas Winstanley. Irish and German immigrants arrived later. In 1824, a log church was built, and St. Augustine of Canterbury, The Apostle of England, was chosen as patron of the parish. In 1834, Edward Newsham and John Winstanley donated sixty acres of land, and on Nov. 11, 1836, the first church ever to be consecrated in Illinois was consecrated here by Bishop Joseph Rogat of St. Louis, Mo. In 1854, a second stone church was built, and in 1862 a rectory was built with a room to serve as a classroom; the log church also served as the first school. In 1866, a new brick school was dedicated. In 1892, the parish was relocated at the nearby Village of Freedom, later called Hecker.