After their wedding in February, 1897, William Carl and Mary (Rambow) Heiden lived for a year at the "Adler" farm at 8420 Dixon Road.

They then moved to the "Eby Farm" on South Custer Road. That is where their first child, Edna was born in 1898.

From about 1899 to 1909,  William and Mary made their third home at what was called the "Albright Farm" which was just a short distance east of the Eby Farm. On the plat map below, William is shown as the owner of the farm in a 1901 plat map.

That was where their next five children were born including Carl (1900), Leo (1902), Lester (1905), Hilda (1906) and Mildred (1908).

Their first three children, Edna (Heiden) Berns, Carl Heiden and Leo Heiden attended the one-room King School located a short distance away from this farm on the south side of South Custer Road.

In 1909, William Carl Heiden and his family moved about 3.5 miles west to 8861 Dixon Road and the children would then go to Bridge School.
 

Shown above is how the location looks in 2020 from the road side. It is difficult to see if the original school was converted into a house or, more likely, it was torn down and replaced by a new structure in the last century or so.

Arthur and Mildred Heiden lived very near this school when their son, Ronald, was born in 1942. Their oldest son, Harold (right), would have been 8 years old at that time so we might speculate that he attended King School before the family moved to a house near Bridge School.
 

The map shows a plot of land with William Heiden shown as the owner. We have not been able to come up with any information about him owning property at this location. He and Mary lived there for about 12 years after they were married and he purchased the farm at 8861 Dixon Road on his 35 birthday, April 1, 1909.  This was a 76 acre farm laid out in the old French style of having long, narrow properties with access to the River Raisin.

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."

The river was named "Riviere aux Raisin" by the French-Canadian people that first settled in Monroe County. They called it the River Raisin because of the wild grapes growing along its banks. This led to the naming of Raisinville Township and the community of Grape. Also many of the farms along the river are long and narrow so that each farm has access to the banks of the river in the French tradition.