1. Rambows to America
2. Wm Carl Heiden’s Jobs
3. Rambow Family

1. Bridge School

Ralph Heiden - What did Grandpa Heiden do for a living? Didn’t he work as a carpenter in addition to farming?

Helma (Heiden) Nickel - He worked for Henry Milhan as a carpenter sometimes. I know he helped build a couple of houses over on Lewis Avenue as you go into Ida. The Sheid house and one for the Feinauers, I think. He also worked on Ed Miller’s place too.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - I remember them building that front porch on the house (8861 Dixon Road pictured above). They laid the blocks and built it form the ground up.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - Pa didn’t get a lot of schooling but he was very good with math.

Wilma (Heiden) Bicking - He only went through the sixth grade at Bridge School (left). But, if he were going to put barley in the bin, he could sit down and figure out how many bushels there were to go in. He could figure out most anything.

Norma "Jeanie" Heiden - When we had math problems from school, he could always help us out. People were intelligent without necessarily having to go to school for a long time.

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.

Ralph Heiden - What do you two (William Frank and Marie) remember about going to Bridge School?

Marie (Heiden) Tommelein - I had Kenneth Bordine the first year I went there and then Harrison Dentel the rest of the way.

William Frank Heiden - We had fifty some kids all together in one room. He would teach one grade at a time. But I really don’t remember much about my childhood.

Helen (Henning) Heiden -   Seems funny he doesn’t remember any of his childhood about going to school and stuff.

Brick Tommelein -   I agree with William, I just remember a few bits and pieces here and there but not that much.

William Frank Heiden (left) - I remember Fritz Milhan hit me in the head with a ball bat. We would play toss up and he swung and got me good. I didn’t have to go to school for about 3 months!

Ralph Heiden - I have a scar underneath my chin. The teacher used to ring a bell at the end of recess and I was standing too close and she popped me right under the chin.

William Frank Heiden - You should have sued them for that, Ha!