Francis Arnold Hoffmann was born 5 June 1822 in Herfordk Kreis Minden , Westphalia, Prussia. He emigrated to the United States in 1840. He was a teacher and a pastor in Dunklee's Grove (now Bensenville, Illinois) until 1847. He served as pastor and teacher at St. Peter's Church and School in Schaumburg from 1847 to 1851. Hoffman became the first postmaster of the community of Sarah's Grove , and also served at times as a banker, a lawyer and a statesman. During the U.S. Civil War he helped to found the Republican Party in Illinois and was the Lieutenant Governor of that state from 1861 to 1865. He supported Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. As an agricultural writer and editor, he wrote using the pen name "Hans Buschbauer".