William Carl Heiden was the first of his family to be born in America. He was born on Wednesday, April 1, 1874 as the fourth child of August and Rika (Knaack) Heiden. In the 1880 census, six year old "Willie" was living with his family at 248 9th Street in Monroe so this may have been his birthplace.

His two older brothers, Heinrich and Ernest were 8 and 6 years old respectively when William was born. Two years after his birth, twins, Bertha and Herman, were born followed in 1881 by his youngest sister Lena. She was the only daughter of the family to survive childhood. His last brother, John, was born in 1884.

During his early years, William helped on the family farm and attended the Bridge School which was located a couple of miles from his home. He was baptized into St Matthew Lutheran Church which at that time was still meeting at the Bridge School house. By the time he was ready to finish catechism and become a confirmed member, the church occupied its new building at 96 Ida-Maybee Road around the corner from the Heidens’ home.

When he was about 12 or 13, young Will helped his father, who was a brick mason, do the brick work on the house at 8861 Dixon Road which was then owned by a man named Meyer. He certainly did not know then that he would spend the majority of his adult life living in that very house.

According to a history of Grape, Michigan, William at the age of 17 in 1891 worked as a carpenter on the construction of a Raisinville Township Hall in nearby Grape, Michigan.

William and his wife, the former Mary Rambow, had 13 children who all lived into adulthood. He bought the family farm at 8861 Dixon Road in Raisinville Township on his 35th birthday, April 1, 1909. He lived there until his death at the age of 93 in 1967.

As of this writing in early 2024, they have over 234 direct descendants and counting. (This does not include almost all of those born since the 1995 book so the true number is much larger.)

There were 3 William Heidens in the early generations. To differentiate among them, we will include their middle names. William Carl Heiden (left) to avoid confusion with his youngest son, William Frank Heiden (right). (They were sometimes mistakenly designated as Sr. and Jr.) William Leo Heiden is their nephew and cousin, respectively. He was a son of Heinrich Heiden.

In a recent search for images on Ancestry.Com, I found references to 20 other William Heidens who, as far as we know, are not related to the Heidens of Monroe County, Michigan. They were located in the following places in the U.S.

  1. Los Angeles, CA
  2. Santa Ana, CA
  3. Bethany Beach, DE
  4. Chicago, IL
  5. South Bend, IN
  6. Hadley MA
  7. Benton Harbor, MI
  1. Forestville, MI
  2. Minden City, MI
  3. Saint Joseph, MI
  4. Stephenson, MI
  5. Thayer Twp, York Co., NB
  6. Deer Park, NY
  7. Rochester, NY
  1. Toledo, OH
  2. Mulhall, OK
  3. Sioux Falls, SD
  4. Lake Geneva, WI
  5. Milwaukee, WI
  6. Sheboygan, WI

Possibly at church or a local social function, William met his future bride, Mary Rambow. Actually, it appears that their two families may have known each other for a long time.

Her parents, Heinrich and Wilhelmina (Milhan) Rambow, had emigrated to America from Germany in 1874 about one year after William’s parents had arrived. They came from the same small town, Gross Wokern, Germany.

Mary, however, was born on Monday, January 13, 1878 at the family home On Wednesday, February 17, 1897, William Carl and Mary became man and wife in a ceremony held at her parents’ house  at 7400 South Custer Road. The Reverend Carl Henske performed the ceremony. He was nearly 23 and she was 19 years of age.

Wm Carl and Mary were married for 66 years and had 13 children who all grew to adulthood. They grew up only a few miles apart in Raisinville Township and attended the same school and church.

In their married life, they lived on the farm and seemed to lead a fairly prosperous life. There was always a lot of fun and good times around the house and their large family was at the center of it all.

Big families were more common back in the early part of the twentieth century and Wm Carl and Mary's family was...very big! They had 13 children, eight girls and five boys and, for the most part, they were a healthy brood. The only exception being daughter, Mildred Eipperle who died at the age of 31 of kidney disease. Twelve of them lived to be 70 or older with an average age at death of 77.  In the end, they produced 38 grandchildren and 86 great-grandchildren for William and Mary.

Click on the name below to see more details on each of the children:

     

During their married life, Wm Carl and Mary lived in three different places before settling on the Home Farm at 8861 Dixon Road in Raisinville Township in 1909. Many people's lives moved in and out of that big brick house over the next eight decades. The farm provided a good living for the family.

While it is nice to have the facts and figures about our ancestors, it is the actual stories of their lives that mean the most in the end. We have collected anecdotes and stories from family members about their parents or grandparents, William and Mary Heiden. Some of the remembrances were written and submitted while others came from recorded interviews with sons, daughters, grandchildren and in-laws of the couple.

Picture Left to Right: Edna Berns, her mother Mary Heiden and one of Mary's daughters-in-law, Lucille Heiden.

August Heiden and Heinrich Rambow came from the same small village, Gross Wokern, in Germany. August emigrated in 1873 and Heinrich followed in 1874. Both sets of families ended up within a few miles of each other in Raisinville Township, Monroe County, Michigan.

As the fates would have it, two of Heinrich's daughters married two of August's sons. Mary Rambow married William Carl Heiden and her sister, Fredareka married Herman Heiden.

This is the family of Mary's mother, Wilhelmina "Minnie" (Milhan) Rambow. Her brother, Fred Milhan (right), came to Monroe County in 1873 one year before the Rambows and built a log cabin a mile or so from the eventual home farm of the Rambows. Fred lived to be over 100 years old.