 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
  Ralph Heiden
- I
also have some papers here from the German government that gives
August and his family permission to leave Germany. It is for
August and his wife, Rika, and three children,
Heinrich,
Ernst
and a little girl,
Meta.
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Meta was the
one that died on the ship on the way over.
August and his family arrived about a year
before
William was born on April 1, 1874.
[See note below]
Jeanie &
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - We always
heard that she died on the boat and was buried
at sea.
Ralph Heiden -
Unfortunately, the ship’s records do not show
that happening. Normally, if someone died on the
ship, that would be noted and there is nothing
on the list to indicate that Meta died on ship.
The ship’s list that I have shows
August Heiden's age 34, a mason.
Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - A
mason? Oh, you mean a bricklayer, not a member
of the Masons.
Ralph Heiden - Yes. It also
lists Rika, 31, his wife, Herman, 6 years old,
male, Ernst, 4 years old, a male, his children,
and Meta, 9 months, his baby.
 Helma
(Heiden) Nickel - Herman? That should
be Henry.
Ralph Heiden - You’re right,
it is
Heinrich
(right). But there was no mention of anyone
buried at sea.
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - We
all heard the story that a baby was buried at
sea.
Ralph Heiden - That would
seem logical since there doesn’t appear to be a
record of her here in Michigan. At least not
that I have found so far. |
|
 |
|
Later research discovered that Meta made it to America but
died on June 16, 1873 only 12 days after they arrived from
Germany. She was just 2 years and 5 months old at the time
of death and is buried at the Zion Lutheran
Church cemetery in Monroe, Michigan. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Helma, I didn’t know your middle name was Nettie.
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Yes, that was after Nettie Spohr. Emma was for
Aunt Emma (Stock) Heiden. They both stood up for me.
 Ralph Heiden - That was the way they used to do it. Often the person was
named after the people who stood up for them at baptism. If they had
four witnesses, they had four names.
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - They stopped that when they got down to me.
Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - With your dad it should be
Arthur Henry Carl
(right). Carl Rathke
stood up for him.
Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Also,
Anita’s birth date should be December 3, 1900.
|
|
|
|
In
Germany, the tradition was to have
as many as 4 or 5 people act as
godparents at the baptism. That is
why my great grandfather's name is August Friedrich Anton Theodor Heiden
meaning he had four men "stand up"
for him. Great grandma's name was Elisabeth Sophia
Wilhelmina Friedericka Knaack so four women witnessed her baptism.
For
the genealogist, this brings the
complication of determining which
one was used as the person's common
name. Great grandfather was known as
August and his wife was Fredericka
with the nickname Rika. There was no
system as to which name was used.
  I'm
glad they stopped using this system
sometime before I was born or my
name would have been Mary Lou after
my godmother, Mary Lou Opfermann. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Ralph Heiden - We were talking earlier about the Laas'
and Mary Lou has a picture of some of them. Mary and William
Heiden,
Aunt
Libbie Laas,
Aunt Emma Laas formerly Ullrich?
 Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Who are they? I don’t understand what relation they are
to us.
Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - They’re Pa’s cousins. That’s where
Alice (Laas) Berlin
(left) comes in.
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - We always called them “Aunt
and Uncle.”
Uncle
Will.
Laas was
from Texas. He was the “rich” one in the family. Who were the
Paulsens?
 Helma (Heiden) Nickel
- They were relations to
Aunt Emma.
Laas, I think. They were
some of the leaders when it came to starting the annual Heiden
reunion.
Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden -
Lucille [Lehmkuhl] was a
Burmeister wasn’t she?
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Louie and
Aunt Rikie Burmeister,
she was a
Laas too. Lucille
had a sister, Mildred, who died of infantile paralysis. No, Lucille
was the one on crutches.
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Her sister, Florence Burmeister, was the Paulsen. She
married a Paulsen. They used to come out from Toledo and they were
the ones who made the lemonade at the reunion.
|
|
|
|
Actually, the members of the Laas' family were related to August Heiden's wife, Rika as shown on the following chart:
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann -
Norma Miller remembered that Grandma Rambow
(right) was a crabby
old lady.
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - She was very strict evidently. We used to get instruction
before we went there that we were to sit quietly and not ask for
anything.
Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - I remember going to Aunt Minnie Rambow’s and she would be
sitting there reading the Bible. You didn’t dare say a word until
she was done with her scripture. William and Minne Rambow were Mary (Rambow) Heiden and Fredarecka Heiden's brother and sister. They lived together through their adult lives at the family farm on South Custer Rd.  Mildred (Roggerman) Heiden - One time Lu (Lucille Heiden, mother of Mary Lou Opfermann) (right) and I were wall papering at their house.
Uncle Will Rambow came out of the kitchen and stood in the doorway
because he had dinner ready.
Lu said to me, “We might as well go home now because he won’t let
her eat until we leave.”
So, although we had only one strip of paper to hang to finish the
room, we left for the day and came back the next day so they could
eat their dinner. Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - That was the quietest house I was ever in, I remember.
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I used to have to stay there all summer. That was torture.
That’s why I am such a quiet person. (Laughter)
Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - Tick Tok, Tick Tok, that old clock they had was so loud
in the quiet of the room.
  Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - At ten minutes to nine every night, Uncle Will (right) would get the
Bible and hand it to Aunt Minnie (left). She would then read to him in
German until 9 o’clock. And I’d set there real still, never saying a
word.
When she was done, he would take the Bible and put it back on the
shelf. Without saying a word, he would go upstairs to bed. There
wasn’t any talking going on at all in the house.
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - There wasn’t anything for them to do. They didn’t have a
radio or anything. After Grandma Rambow died, Herb and I used to go
down there to visit. Uncle Willie just loved to play cards. We would
have a real good time. Edna and Henry used to go there and have a good time too. The two of
them were so used to just sitting there in the quiet by themselves.
Mary Lou (Heiden) Opfermann - After Aunt Minnie died, Uncle Will finally got a
television.
Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - He had a dog that he used to fry two eggs for each day.
 Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I would think that the Rambows and the Heidens came over
from Germany about the same time. They had some of the same type of
furniture. Remember that settee that you had, Helma? Grandpa and
Grandma Rambow had a similar piece of furniture in their house.
Maybe the two families knew each other before they came over from
Germany.
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - Well the Milhans all went to Bridge School way back then
too.
|
|
|
|
August Heiden and family came to America in 1873 and Heinrich Rambow came in 1874. They were from the same small village in Germany, Gross Wokern. Wilhelmina Rambow's maiden name was a Milhan.
The picture is of a typical 19th century German settee but, unfortunately, it is not the actual one referenced above. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - Were the Rambows on the ship list that you got, Ralph?
Ralph Heiden - No but I don’t have the complete list. I only have a copy of
the first page with the details about the ship and then the page
that lists August
Heiden and his family. They were passengers number
304 through 308 so there were probably 400 or more people on the
boat. I will check it out.
Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - It is funny that they lost that baby, Meta and didn’t name
some other children after her later on.
Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Helma, is your middle name, Meta?
Helma (Heiden) Nickel - No, its Nettie. That was Nettie Spohr, they were a neighbor
and she stood up for me. She and Aunt Emmie and Uncle Heinrich "Henry" Heiden
were my Godparents.
|
|
|
|
The Rambows came to America in April, 1874 on the ship, S.S. Thuringia about one year after the Heidens arrived in 1873 on the S.S. Saxonia. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
 Ralph Heiden - Grandpa
(William Carl) Heiden bought this farm in 1909 or there about.
There are stories about great grandpa
(August) Heiden doing the masonry work
on the house. Do you know anything about that?
William Frank Heiden - I heard them talking about walking over here from
South
Custer when Pa was about 13 or 14 to help his dad do the brick work.
Ralph Heiden - Then that would have been about 1890. So that was when
someone else owned it?
William Frank Heiden - Yes, I think it was the Langs or someone else who owned
the farm at that time.
Ralph Heiden - The 1873 county plat book I think lists the owner of this
farm as a man named Meyers.
William Frank Heiden - They called him “Milky Meyers.” I always heard Pa talking
about him.
Ralph Heiden - The plat map also showed a piece of landlocked property
located on the back of this property. There wasn’t any access from
Ida Maybee Road, Dixon, Mulheisen or South Custer.
 William Frank Heiden - That would be on the back end of Suhciks farm. It was the
Stokes (Stock) that had an old house back in there on a hill. Could be some
relation to Bill Stokes (Stock),
Aunt
Emma’s (right) relations.
Ralph Heiden - There also used to be a house on the north side of the road
just east of here. I know Mary Lou was born there and
Carl and Anita
lived there for a while too.
William Frank Heiden - Carl lived next door here where Jessie Barnes lived.
Verdell was born there.
Edna and Henry lived in the other place for a while and
Bill and
Alice (Brossia) Heiden lived there too. Bill worked the farm. That was when
old Jesse Wakefield owned it.
|
|
|
|
Wm Carl Heiden
bought the farm on April 1, 1909 which was his 35th
birthday. August Heiden was a brick mason by trade.
Also, although the family of Emma (Mrs Heinrich) Heiden was often
referred to as the "Stokes", but in the
obituaries of other family
members, they were always under the name Stock.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
 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 
