August Friedrich Anton Theodor Heiden was born Saturday, January 27, 1838 in the Village of Gross Wokern in the province of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in the northern part of Germany (in red on the map). He spent his youth there, got married there and started his family in that little town before coming to America in 1873.

According to the local church records, August was born to the unmarried "madchen" i.e. housemaid, named Maria Heiden. In the space for the father's name was the German word "angeblich" which means alleged to be followed by the name, Johann Cansier. As we have followed this name back in the records, it has been spelled differently many times but it appears that the name should probably be Kanseyer. August, of course, was listed under his mother's name, thus we are all Heidens and not Kanseyers.

The area where August lived was comprised of several towns, each with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants. They were spaced a few miles apart and people probably just walked between them. August's wife whom he married on February 21, 1868, Elisabeth Sophia Wilhelmina Friedericka "Rika" Knaack lived in the village of Mamerow about 4 miles away. We have included details on these small communities and how they relate to the Heiden family and other relatives.

During his early life, August must have gone through an apprenticeship because he listed his occupation as brick mason when he left for America. In the 1920s when relatives from Germany sent letters to him and his wife, they addressed them to Maurer August Heiden. That is the German word for brick layer and it must have warranted the use as a title of sorts.

In the U.S. it appears that August made his living farming and building houses. The story is that he did the brickwork on what eventually became his third son, William Carl's house at 8861 Dixon Road (left). He also is credited with building the house of fellow immigrants from Gross Wokern and future in-laws, Heinrich and Wilhelmine (Milhan) Rambow at 7400 South Custer Road (M-50).

Whatever he did, August was certainly successful because in less than 20 years in this country, he owned two small farms in Raisinville Township. After living in the City of Monroe when they first arrived, the family would make their long-term home at a small farm at 8700 South Custer Road (M-50).

August and his wife, Rika, had eight children with six of them surviving to adulthood. Three were born in Germany (Heinrich, Ernst and Meta) and five in the U.S. (Wm Carl, Bertha, Herman, Lena Koster and John) They are covered in more detail in Subtopic 6 below.

On September 5, 1922, August died at his home at the age of 84. In his later years, he was known to be hard of hearing and used an ear horn. He also suffered at least partial blindness which may have been due to cataracts. He is buried at the St Matthew Lutheran Church cemetery.

We know nothing of her early years or how she and August eventually got together. In those days in Germany, most people worked on the estate of a duke or other powerful person. People had to get the landowner's permission to get married and this was not easy since the area was experiencing an over-population problem. Since the landowner was responsible for the people on his property, they were reluctant to allow people to marry and contribute to even more mouths to feed.

This was probably a contributor to the fact that August and Rika's first child, Heinrich was born in 1866 and their marriage took place in 1868, a few months before the birth of their second child, Ernst.

The couple experienced more than their share of grief during their lives. Just 12 days after they arrived in New York and made their way to Monroe, Michigan, their third child, Meta, died at the age of 2½. In 1876, they had fraternal twins, Herman and Bertha but the girl died when she was only 6 months old. In June of 1922, their 55 year old son, Heinrich, collapsed in the field with a heart attack and died. Two months later in September, August passed away at the age of 84.

In the 1920s after August died, descendants of his half-sister, Friedericka (Heiden) Schmidt, sent heart wrenching letters from Germany asking for financial help. Germany was in the grip of hyperinflation following the end of World War I in 1918 and these relatives were having a very hard time. From the letters we have included here, it appears that she was able to help at least a little.

Rika passed away on January 14, 1926 also at the age of 84. She too is buried at St Matthew Lutheran Church cemetery.
 

The area where August and Rika lived was comprised of several towns with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants each. They were spaced a few miles apart and people probably just walked between them. August's wife, Elisabeth Sophia Wilhelmina Friedericka "Rika" Knaack lived in the village of Mamerow about 4 miles away.

Our ancestors in the Rambow and Milhan families also originated in this area. The Roggermans were from Rügen Island, Germany which is about 80 miles northeast from Gross Wokern.

We have included details on these small communities and how they relate to the Heiden family and other relatives.

Like so many other common German folks of that era, August and Rika decided that there was a better future for them and their family in America. Times were tough in Germany for the working class, so many people chose to emigrate even though the outside world was unknown to them.

The Heidens' journey led them to the port city of Hamburg and on to New York aboard the S.S. Saxonia in June of 1873. Within a few short weeks after their arrival, they were in Monroe, Michigan to start their new lives.
 

He and his family eventually settled in a house on a farm on South Custer Road where August and Rika lived for the rest of their lives. Their youngest son, John and his wife, Agnes, lived there until her death in 1981.

Through U.S. Census reports and plat maps, we have been able to trace the family's progress through the 1920s. August died in 1922 and Rika passed in 1926.

Germany born Meta, died in infancy two weeks after the family reached Monroe, Michigan in 1873. Bertha and Herman were fraternal twins born in 1876 but she died in January, 1877.

The children were quite prolific and they produced 38 grandchildren and 105  great grandchildren for August and Rika. Through 1995 when The Heiden Family book was produced, there were several hundred more descendants of August and Rika (Knaack) Heiden. There are bound to be many, many more now, thirty years later but we have not been able to keep up to date on births.

According to the German church records, August Heiden's (left) father was "alleged to be" a man named Johann Canseir. As we followed that person back in the German records, it appears more likely that the actual surname was probably Kanseyer.

Inconsistencies in name spellings were common in the old records due to the general illiteracy in those times. Various record keepers, such as the local pastor, had to figure out spelling based on the spoken word alone.