August and Friedericka Heiden were both born and raised in rural areas of Mecklenburg, Germany in the mid-1800s. In 1873, they and their first three children, Heinrich, Ernst and Meta boarded a ship in the Port of Hamburg and made their way to the United States. From there, they traveled on to Raisinville Township in Monroe County, Michigan where they had five more children.

As mentioned before, we do not know why August and his family came to settle in Monroe County. It was common then for relatives or friends who emigrated to America earlier to help those who came later. They might line up jobs or arrange for the purchase of land so that the newcomers would have a good start. Whether August Heiden had such help is not known for certain, however, there is some evidence that someone might have been here to pave the way.

First, the fact that, on June 16, 1873, within two weeks of their arrival in New York, Meta died and was buried in Zion Lutheran Church cemetery in Monroe. This would indicate that they made their way rather quickly to Monroe. They knew where they were going and probably knew someone in Monroe who had connections with the local Lutheran church.

Second, the fact that the daughter, Meta, is buried in the graveyard next to another infant named Laas may indicate a connection. The Laas’ were known to be “distant relatives” of August and Rika (Knaack) Heiden. They obviously must have lived in Monroe at that time since an infant child of theirs was buried there in 1866. Later, most of the Laas family seems to have lived in Toledo. Perhaps they were the link between America and Germany that helped August and his family make the transition.

As of this writing in  2024, August and Rika have over 673 direct descendants and counting. [This does not include almost all of those born since the 1995 book so the true number is much, much larger.]

On April 4, 1879, six years after arriving in America, August Heiden went to the court house in Monroe and filed papers declaring his intention on becoming a citizen of the United States. The document indicates that he had to renounce his allegiance to all foreign governments but especially to the Emperor of Germany. August became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. on November 2, 1896.

In the 1880 U.S. census, the family was listed as living at 248 9th Street in the City of Monroe.  The children are shown as Ernst (12), Willie (6) and Herman (4). "Willie" is William Carl (right) who was born in 1874. By this time Heinrich, age 14, might have been "working out" and living with his employer on a farm somewhere to bring a little more money into the family.

Since August was a brick mason and builder, he probably started plying his trade in Monroe. We don't know for sure what he was doing but the odds are good that he was gainfully employed because according to the 1896 plat book for Monroe County, August Heiden was listed as the owner of two pieces of property in Raisinville Township.

The one known as the family farm where his youngest son, John Heiden (left) lived until his death, was at 8700 South Custer Road, but he also owned a 47.3 acre piece of land on the southeast corner of the intersection of Lewis Avenue and South Custer Road. We don't know what eventually happened to this property.

August and Rika's children were maturing and getting married. Ernst married Anna Knaak on April 17, 1895, William Carl married Mary Rambow on February 17, 1897, Herman wed Fredareka Rambow on February 22, 1900,  Heinrich married Emma Stock on January 31, 1901, Lena wed John Koster, Jr. on February 19, 1903 and John and Agnes Brockman got marred on November 2, 1910.

The 1900 census report has the family living at 8700 South Custer Road with unmarried 33 year old Heinrich listed as the head of the household.  Also living in the house were his parents, August and Rika and his siblings Lena (18) and John (15).

Next door to the west, August's son, Ernst (31) was living with his wife, Anna, and their children Frank (2) and baby Edwin "Pete" who was 10 months old. Their address was 8925 South Custer Road.

Heinrich (left) got married in 1901 so the 1910 census showed him living with his wife, Emma at 8700 with new children August John, William Leo, Elsie (Klatt), Dorothea (Strzesinski) and Esther (Kehrer). They also had a border, Clarence Miller, who probably was a hired hand for them.

His brother Ernst (right) continued to live in the next farm in 1910 with his wife Anna and their children, Frank (13), Edwin "Pete" (11), Walter (6), Ada (Robbins 3) and baby Elmer (14 months).

While they lived on South Custer, the children would have attended the one-room Fonia School. It was located about a mile or so away at 11411 Trost Road. One of Heinrich's daughters, Dorothy (Heiden) Strzesinski lived there in the 1950s when it had been converted to a residence after the school district was consolidated into Dundee Community Schools.

We must assume that things went pretty well for the Heidens since by the 1920 census, Heinrich was shown to own a larger farm at 8420 Dixon Road about 2 miles by road from 8700 South Custer Road. However, if you walked across country, the new land was almost directly north of August's property. Heinrich and Emma were farming there with their children, William Leo, Elsie (Klatt), Dorothy (Strzesinski), Esther (Kehrer), Henry William and Libby (Murdoch).

The Dixon Road was the property which was rented and farmed by William Frank Heiden in the 1950's and later by his brother, Arthur Heiden during the early 1960's. At that time, it was owned by the Suchik family who lived in Detroit.

August and Rika were shown as living with their youngest son, John and his wife, Agnes (Brockman) who he had married in 1910, at 8700 South Custer Road.

Two events occurred in 1922 which greatly affected the Heiden Family in Monroe County. On April 20, fifty five year old Heinrich was in the field planting some early potatoes when he keeled over and died of a heart attack. As a result, his widow, Emma, had to sell the farm and move to nearby Ida, Michigan where she lived the rest of her life. Her unmarried son, August John lived with her.

On September 5 of that year, August Heiden died at the age of 84 at the home at 8700 South Custer. They say he had been blind for the last two years of his life although the reason was never given. Perhaps he had cataracts which were less treatable at that time.

As far as we know, Rika continued to live with her son, John, until her death on January 14, 1926 also at the age of 84.