In the 1930 U.S. Census, 17 year old Art Heiden (left) was listed as a farm worker who was living with the Fred Degner family at their farm on W. Dunbar Road near Ida, Michigan. This was common practice because boys left school after the eighth grade and had to find a way to make a living for themselves.

Also listed as a worker and lodger on the Degner farm at that time was Gus Lehmkuhl (right) who was born in Germany in 1903. He would later marry a distant cousin of Art's, Lucille Burmeister, and they lived in the Toledo, Ohio area. They would be regular attendees of the Heiden Family Reunion for many decades.