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 U.S. Census, six year old "Willie" was living with his family on West 9th Street in Monroe so this may have been his birthplace.

His two older brothers who were born in Germany, Heinrich and Ernst, were 8 and 6 years old respectively when William was born. A sister, Meta, who was born in Germany in 1870, died shortly after the family arrived in Michigan in 1873.

Two years after William's birth, fraternal twins, Bertha and Herman, were born but Bertha died the following year. In 1881, the only daughter to survive childhood, Lena (Koster) was born followed by their final child, John 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 on South Custer Road.

When he was about 12 or 13, young Will helped his father, August, 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. As a carpenter later, he helped build several of the houses along Ida Maybee Road.

According to a history of the area, 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 on January 31, 1967 just shy of his 93rd birthday.

As of this writing in 2025, William Carl and Mary have over 270 direct descendants and counting. (This does not include almost all of those born since the 1995 book so the true number is considerably larger.)
 

It is always a challenge to describe someone's personality and character to others who never personally met the subject. I only knew my Grandpa Heiden for the last 18 years of his long life but that was enough for me to develop a deep respect for him.

Over the years, we have gathered many family members' memories and remembrances about him but a story from my cousin, Dianne (Heiden) Houpt (right) who lived at Grandpa's house for many years seems to really hit the mark. Take a look at this and other memories.

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 William Carl's older brother, 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 school 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 at that point.

Her parents, Heinrich and Wilhelmina (Milhan) Rambow, had emigrated to America from Germany in 1874 about one year after William’s parents made the long journey. Both families came from the same small town, Gross Wokern, Germany and eventually ended up in Raisinville Township just a few miles from each other.

Mary was born on Monday, January 13, 1878 at the family home which was then in Dundee Township. On Wednesday, February 17, 1897, William Carl and Mary became man and wife in a ceremony held at her parents’ long-time house  located at 7400 South Custer Road. The Reverend Carl Henske performed the ceremony. Willam was nearly 23 and Mary was 19 years of age. Her sister Reka (spelled "Ricky" on the marriage document) and William's sister, Lena were witnesses.

She and William raised 13 children during their married life with the first one, Edna Berns, coming in 1898 and the last one, Norma "Jeanie", arriving in 1927 when Mary was 49 years old. All of the children except Jeanie were born at home.

William and Mary lived at the home farm at 8861 Dixon Road until her death on June 11, 1963 at the age of 85.

In 1900, Fredareka "Reka" Rambow married William's younger brother, Herman Heiden. The picture to the right is Mary with her great grandson, Bruce Eipperle about 1960.

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. Their entire lives revolved around an area of a few square miles.

In their married life, they lived on the three different farms and seemed to lead a fairly comfortable 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 their 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 or on the Family Summary Link graphic to get started:

     

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 nine decades. The farm provided a good living for the family.

In 1952, in honor of their 55th wedding anniversary, D.N. Roberts, known as The County Visitor, interviewed Wm Carl and Mary for an article which appeared in the Monroe Evening News. The following paragraph appeared in that article and it helped us find the four places they lived as a married couple starting after their marriage in 1897 and lasting until Wm Carl's death in 1967.
 

"Mr and Mrs. Heiden rented a farm just east of their present home on the same road. The farm is known now as the Albert Adler farm. [8420 Dixon Road]. Here they farmed for one year, then moved to a farm John Eby now owns on South Custer Rd. [6130 South Custer] They bought the place next to it, where August Albright now lives [6003 South Custer], and when they sold that farm, they bought and moved to their present location [8861 Dixon Rd], where they have lived for the last 43 years."

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, the eldest of the 13 children, her mother Mary Heiden and one of Mary's daughters-in-law, Lucille Heiden, wife of Leo 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 whose brother, Fred Milhan (right), came to Monroe County in 1873 one year before the Rambows and his other siblings.

Fred lived in Monroe for a while and then built a log cabin on South Custer Road a mile or so from the eventual home farm of the Rambows. Fred lived to be over 100 years old.