The 13 children were born in 3 different houses.

  1. Edna (1898) was born at the "Adler Farm" where Wm Carl and Mary lived for a year or two.

  2. Carl (1900), Leo (1902), Lester (1905), Hilda (1906) and Mildred (1908) at the "Albright farm" where they lived for about 10 years.

  3. Helma (1910), Arthur (1912), Marie (1914), Wm Frank (1917), Helen (1919), Wilma (1922) and Norma (1927) at 8861 Dixon Road which Wm Carl bought in 1909.
     

  4. All 13, however, spent part of their lives on this farm.

The Heiden Family Reunion was held here in 1922, 1930, 1936 and 1985.

Grandma and Grandpa Heiden's home was always a welcoming place. By our count, 30 members of William Carl and Mary Heiden's extended family including children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and in-laws lived for some period of time in the house at 8861 Dixon Road. The property was owned by members of the Heiden family for over 107 years, having been purchased in 1909 by Wm Carl Heiden and sold after the 2016 death of Helen (Henning) Heiden, wife of Wm Frank Heiden.

William Frank and Helen (Henning) Heiden moved into the west side of the house at 8861 after their marriage in 1938. Their children Carol, Janice, James, Dianne, Richard Carl and Gene were born while the family lived in this house.

They then moved about half mile east to 8420 Dixon Road in 1952 and Cheryl was born while the family lived on that farm. On September 28, 1960, William bought his parent's farm at 8861 and moved back to occupy the west side of the house. His parents continued to live in the east side of the house until their deaths, Mary (1878-1963) and Wm Carl (1874-1967). William Frank (1917-2008) and Helen (1919-2016) also stayed in the house until their passing.
William Frank Heiden Helen (Henning) Heiden Carol Janice James William Heiden
 
Dianne (Heiden) Houpt Richard Carl Gene Cheryl  

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After Carl and Anita were married in 1930, they lived at 8861 for a couple of years. Their first child, Velda was born there in 1931 before they moved a short distance away to 8530 Dixon Road.
    Carl Heiden Anita (Kroeger) Heiden Velda Heiden
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Leo and Lucille (Smith) Heiden and their children Mary Lou and David briefly lived at 8861 with Leo's parents. David, Sr. was born while they were sharing the house with Wm Carl and Mary. After that, they moved to 8201 South Custer Road where their final son, Roger, Sr. was born in 1939.

I don't remember much before school but was told we lived in several places because of the Great Depression. Dad worked for different farmers and didn't have steady work. When I was six we lived on the west side of Grandma and Grandpa's house on Dixon Road and lived there until William got married and needed the house because he worked the farm so we moved to S. Custer Road behind the grocery store.

Leo Heiden Lucille (Smith) Heiden Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann David, Sr.
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After Wm Carl and Mary's daughter, Mildred (Heiden) Eipperle died in 1938 at the age of 30, her husband, John and their  daughter Sally lived with them from 1939 to 1946.

Later Sally lived here again for a few years after her son, Bruce, was born. They were there from 1957 to 1959.

John Eipperle

 Sally (Eipperle) Guy

Bruce

William Carl and Mary had a large home with many rooms on two floors and a large basement. It would be needed since it had to accommodate them and their 13 children along with some of those children's families who came home to live with Ma and Pa for a while as they made their way through the adult world.

William Carl's father, August (left), was a brick mason by trade when he came from Germany in 1873 and the story is that he did the brick work when the house was built or, perhaps, when it was upgraded after William Carl purchased it on his 35th birthday, April 1, 1909. A man named John M. Meyer owned the farm previously and we have to assume that he had a house there before that date.

One memory that almost everyone who frequented the home of William Carl and Mary (Rambow) Heiden has is of card games being played around the dining room table. Euchre or cribbage games kept everyone busy having fun.

From Left to Right above, Bill Bicking, Art Heiden, Mary (Rambow) Heiden, Carl Heiden and Wm Carl Heiden enjoy a game of Euchre. According to the calendar on the wall, the game is taking place in January of 1960 when Wm Carl would have been 86 and Mary was 82.

You can see Grandpa's ever present corncob pipe in the ash tray between him and Bill.

This is the old smokehouse behind the family home where meat was cured. One of the favorites was a German sausage called mettwurst. You can see the structure's location on the aerial photo at the top of this page.

Like a lot of pieces of family history, we do not know how August Heiden (left), who had immigrated from Germany in 1873, was able to purchase two properties with over 90 acres of land in Michigan by 1890. He was a "mason" i.e. brick layer and a carpenter so we assume he was good at his craft and many houses at this time were built of bricks.

One source said that he built the house where the Rambow family lived. With the help of his then teenage son, William Carl, he put the brickwork on the house at 8861 Dixon Road which was then owned by Mr. Meyers. Later after William bought that farm he helped build an addition to the house.

Not only did August seem to prosper but his two sons, Heinrich (right) and Ernst (left), who accompanied him from Germany also bought farms during these years. Heinrich's was at 8420 Dixon Road while Ernst's place was at 8925 South Custer Road. This was next door to August's house at 8700 South Custer.

William Carl (left), who was born in the U.S. in 1874 purchased a small farm in the late 1890s and then bought a larger farm at 8861 Dixon Road in 1909 on his 35th birthday. He worked as a carpenter as well as farming and helped build a township hall in the community of Grape in 1891.

In family stories, he always seemed to drive a big car and the farm house always had extra family members coming back to live for a while during their times of need. All this while raising 13 children!

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That is 8861 Dixon Road in the background.