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Herman Heller Was Near To Home

When considering the theme for this week “Near to Home” my great grandfather, Herman Heller, came to mind. I grew up in the South Wayne area of Lafayette County, Wisconsin. I also knew that Herman Heller owned a farm in the South Wayne area. But the surprise came when I discovered how very near to home that farm was.

During my preteen and teen years we lived on a farm on Hwy 176 (now County D). I attended the one room Blaisdell School and the South Wayne High School. The earliest record I have found for Herman and his family living in Lafayette County is 1916. My grandmother, Martha Heller would have been 16 at that time. She may or may not have attended the same grade school I did at that age but possibly her younger siblings did. That is a research project I plan to do.

This land ownership map from 1916 shows the Heller farm in the red square. The red “X” marks where I grew up. That is near to home!! I did not know until I gathered my information for this blog that my great grandfather and grandmother lived within a couple of miles of where I grew up.

Wayne Township 1916

Herman Heller & Leona Koehn

Herman Heller with granddaughter Leona Koehn

Herman Heller was born 16 January 1866 in Pommern/Pomerania, Germany possibly in the city/area of Patclick. That is the only information I have of Herman’s German ancestry. I have not yet been able to determine who is parents were. Herman immigrated in 1894 to the United States with his wife, Emilia, and three children, Bertha, Reynold and Emma. The passenger list of the “Italia” lists their last residence as Petznick. They arrived 28 March 1894 and settled in the Warren, IL area in Jo Daviess county and Emelia died on 16 April 1894. Less than a month after arriving in this country Herman was raising three children, ages 2-6, by himself.

On 1 March 1895 Herman married my great grandmother, Matilda Bellert, in Chicago, IL. She had two children so they started their marriage with a family of 5 children. They had 7 children together (2 died, Elsie at the age of 2 and Richard as an infant). They rented their farm in Jo Daviess county in Illinois until purchasing the farm in Wayne Township in Lafayette County, WI sometime between 1900-1916. The two counties bordered each other on the Illinois-Wisconsin state line. In 1918 Matilda filed for divorce and the divorce was granted in 1919. Herman continued to live on the farm with the children while Matilda lived with a nephew in Chicago until living with my grandparents sometime before 1930.

Herman Heller died 2 April 1932 in Rush Township of Jo Daviess County, IL. He may have been living with one of his children while ill as the Illinois death index lists him as living at the residence for 1 month and 10 days. He is buried in the Elmwood Cemetery in Warren, IL. No other ancestor lived so close to home.

Matilda’s Story can be read here: https://ginnysgems.wordpress.com/2015/01/15/mathilda-marie-krebs-bellert-heller-getting-a-fresh-start/

Since I wrote Matilda’s story I found this picture of her.

Mathilda Heller

 

  1. Indexed County Land Ownership Maps, 1860-1918, database, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 4 March 2015), Land Ownership record for Herman Heller, Wayne Township, Wisconsin, Land Ownership Map, 1916, Collection Number: G&M_68; Roll Number: 68
  2. Ancestry.com, “Herman August Heller in the Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths Index,” abstracts, ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com/cgi- bin/sse.dll?db=FSIllinoisDeath&h=1512002&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt&ssrc=pt_t27497458_p5068608528_kpidz0q3d5068608528z0q26pgz0q3d32768z0q26pgplz0q3dpid: accessed 3 March 2015), record for Herman Heller, 2 April 1932.
  3. Manifest, Italia, 28 March 1894, List 49, for Hermann Heller (age 28), digital images, Massachusetts, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1963 (http://ancestry.com: accessed 3 March 2015).
  4. “Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920,” index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/N7XQ-79N : accessed 3 March 2015), Herman Heller and Mathilda Bellert, 01 Mar 1895; citing Chicago, Cook, Illinois, , Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm 1,030,249.
  5. Herman Heller with granddaughter, Leona Koehn photograph, Monroe, Wisconsin, ca 1920-1925; digital image 4 March 2015, privately held by Ginny Gerber, for private use only, Monroe, Wisconsin], June 2008.
  6. Matilda Heller photograph, Monroe, Wisconsin, ca 1940; digital image 4 March 2015, privately held by Ginny Gerber, for private use only, Monroe, Wisconsin], June 2008. Photo is from a Christmas card.

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