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 Ralph Heiden - Do you recall any stories about your grandfather,
August Heiden ?
William Frank Heiden - About all I remember of him is going over to their place
on South Custer and he would be sitting in that old high back chair.
Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - And he had that earphone in his ear so he could hear.
William Frank Heiden - Other than that, I really don’t remember anything else
about him.
Ralph Heiden - We always heard a story about when they came over that a
little daughter died on the ship. Well,
Myrna (Drake) Bishop who is
Bertha (Heiden) Drake’s daughter and granddaughter of
Herman Heiden, was told that
the little girl lived through the voyage but died here and is buried
in Monroe. Mary Lou did some detective work and found that she was
buried in Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Monroe on June 16, 1873 only 12
days after they landed in New York.
Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - And there was a gravestone for her?
Ralph Heiden - Yes.
Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - There was a
Laas baby buried next to her too.
Ralph Heiden - That’s another question. I keep hearing about the
Laas’ but
nobody really knows what relation they were to the Heidens.
 Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - They were always there at the reunions.
William Frank Heiden - I think it was
Bill Laas
(right) from Texas. They came every year.
Marie (Heiden) Tommelein -
There was
Miss Libbie Laas. I don’t think she ever got
married but I can remember her being there.
William Frank Heiden - Maybe they came over from Germany together or something.
There had to be some connection. They were always big at the
reunions along with the
Burmeisters.
Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Since
Meta was buried next to a
Laas, it makes you wonder
if they had some early connection.
Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - Did the Laas’ come over on the boat with August?
Ralph Heiden - No. The one (Laas child) that is buried at Zion Cemetery was buried in
1869, four years earlier. So, they were already here.
 Here’s an idea that I’m starting to wonder about. August, my great
grandfather, had a half sister. In the 1920's, her granddaughter
sent a series of letters to August’s wife, Rika.
I finally found an elderly German lady who could read the old script
writing and is translating those letters word for word. I have about
5 or 6 of them done now.
In one of the letters, they say that they were corresponding with
Elizabeth Laas
(Libbie Laas). So, perhaps, the
Laas’ are descendants of
August Heiden's half-sister. They would be a distant relative but still
related. I don’t have any evidence to draw that conclusion but it
might be that way.
Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - That could be the connection.
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Pictured
is what was called a cassette tape back in pre-digital
times.
Actually, the members of the Laas' family were related to August Heiden's wife, Rika
(Knaack) as shown on the following chart:
Ralph Heiden - Myrna (Drake) Bishop’s husband, Jim,
(left) is a professor at Notre Dame so
we have been emailing things back and forth for a while now. It is
a local call so it doesn’t cost anything. 
Ralph Heiden - Margie
(right) is a professor of linguistics at Purdue University.
She has her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.
Ralph Heiden - It’s also amazing to look at where all the kids have gone to
college. Some of
Carol’s (Toburen) (left) children went to Millersville
University in Pennsylvania.
Janice’s (Clark) (right) went to Louisiana Tech
and Northeast Louisiana.
Over
the years, we have also received written memories and
remembrances about this person or topic from various family
members. 
Wilma, Jeanie, Wm Frank, Helma & Marie were
children of 
