John Heim (1836 - 1916)

Born 18 Jul 1836 in Lycoming, Pennsylvania, United States

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 14 Apr 1916 at age 79 in Grant Township, Richardson, Nebraska, United States

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Biography

John was born in 1836 in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Christian Heim and Johanne Wagner. He passed away in 1916 in Richardson County, Nebraska.

John Heim is buried in the Heim Cemetery.

Feature Story from The Pennsylvania Colony of Nebraska Historical Society

Johnnie Heim and wife Margaret (Heim) Heim story from the old Colony Penn website

Johnnie Heim and wife Margaret (Heim) Heim came to Dawson in May 1881, bringing their family of six children. All were natives of Pennsylvania. There were relatives of the Jacob G. Heim family and lived with them for a time until they found and bought the farm they wanted. They had shipped a car load of possessions from their former home to this new home in the “west,”

Thomas Fenton owned the land joining Dawson on the northwest. This was near the other Heim families and was good soil for farming so Johnnie and Margaret chose this farm and bought it from Mr. Fenton. Part of this land went all the way south to the Nemaha River and later became part of Dawson in the “Heim Addition” to the town. Also part it was land used for the United Evangelical Church building in 1882 and another part of this piece of land was bought by the Cemetery Association for the Heim Cemetery.

The home quarter section of the Johnnie Heim farm was passed on to a grandson of his Dr. Harlan S. Heim and Golda (Mountain) Heim, and is now owned by Dr. Heim's daughter and husband, Donna and Lloyd Epley of Choralville, Iowa.

The children of Johnnie Heim and Margaret (Heim) Heim were as follows –

• Rosa (married Joseph G. Heim)
• Regina (married Henry W. Heim)
• Jonas A. (married Ida Emerson, daughter of Dawson”s Dr. Emerson)
• Charles F. (married Ada Barlow, he became a Minister in the Evangelical Conference)
• Linda (married Delbert B. Judd, They were the parents of the Drs. J. Hewitt and Delbert K. Judd)
• Alma (married Will James, a teacher in the Dawson school and later in Lincoln)

All are now deceased.

Margaret told her grandchildren how the women used to combine work with pleasure in the early days in Pennsylvania. Since spinning was one the ever present tasks, she would carry her spinning wheel on her back and go calling on her neighbors, and together they spent the afternoon spinning and visiting. Margaret's spinning wheel is now a prized possession of her great granddaughter Irene (Belden) Irwin of Oklahoma City, who is passed away and hopefully still in that family.

(Editors note: It is on this land that the Henry Heim house is still standing and the home of the Pennsylvania Colony Historical Society Museum. The land around the 4 acres of the museum is currently owned by Donna Heim Epley and her husband Lloyd of Choralville, Iowa. It is thru their generosity that this house and museum is made possible.)

Life Story of Johnnie's parents

CHRISTLY HEIM

Written by Ephraim Shafer, a grandson.

How my grandfather, Christian Heim, got the name "Christly", I do not know, but that was what he was called by everyone except us. We called him "Grandpap". He was born in 1799 and came with his parents, brother and sisters to America in 1817. He was eighten years of age at that time.

I do not know what kind of school he went to in Germany, but he was an intellectual giant. His home was one of the rare homes having books. There were books on the table, on the cupboard and on shelves. A wealth of books at a time when books anywhere were scarce. It used to fill me with awe to see so many. True, they were mostly German and largely on religion, but he also had books on Mathematics, Astronomy, Surveying, etc. Many of these are now to be seen in the Blooming Grove museum. Having so wide a variety of interests, he was a wonderfully interesting man.

He told me, when he was a student in Germany, how he and fellow students would get together on a bright night and go out on the top of a house, lie on their backs and gaze at the stars, watching them in their 24 hour movement around the North Star. He used to point out to me the North Star, the Big and Little Bears, and other forms of constellations.

In his house there was a barometer which hung on the wall. It was the only house in Blooming Grove that had such a thing. It showed the mechanical trend he had, and the education. There also was a sundial in that house. It was a perpendicular sundial. There was a vertical sundial on the barn wall, but I think that part of the barn has since been covered up.

Another thing he had was a little looking glass imbedded in the window sill. It was about the size of a penny. When the sun shone on it a light was cast on the wall which traveled across the room as the sun traveled across the sky. At a certain place there ...

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... Pennsylvania was established here there was, quite naturally, a lot of prejudice against English customs. The result was that one winter day in 1867 or 1868 the German people took their children out of the English school and established a German one with Christly Heim as teacher. That school was held in the shop on Fred Schaefer's farm, now the home of Fernando Heim. We all faced the wall, with our backs to the middle of the room. I just found my school books the other day that I used in that school. The first book was called the "A B C Book." When we finished that we were put in the Psalms class, then promoted to the New Testament class. The more advanced class was the Old Testament class. The writing in this school was all done by dictation. After we knew how to make the letters, it was dictated paragraph by paragraph. There was a game we played called "Auflogging". The teacher would read a certain verse from a chapter of the Bible and the pupil who could find the chapter first was the winner.

But the thing Christly Heim is remembered for most often is the fact that he was the last minister of the Blooming Grove Dunker church. Here he preached for 35 years. They had services every other Sunday afternoon, right after dinner. Everybody walked to church, the minister included.

He was an intensely religious man, and about 1855 he became concerned about the spiritual welfare of the young people. He held cottage prayer meetings and as a result forty young men and women were converted and baptized. Among them was Dr. Adams. After a while, when Christly Heim became old and physically unable to preach, the young people gradually, drifted to other denominations.

As I remember it there were a lot of things emphasized in his preaching. All of it was done in German. One thing in particular that was stressed, was putting off of the old man and putting on of the new man. Another thing that was emphasized was humility. He not only preached that but he lived it. That was one of the things he excelled in - he practiced what he preached. Another thing he dwelt on was obedience. When he was a boy in Germany and first became concerned about his spiritual welfare, he went to his pastor and asked for advice. His pastor told him, "You go home and obey your parents and when prayer meeting night comes around, if you have a desire to go to a prayer meeting and your father tells you to clean the cow stables, you clean the cow stables." In his long experience, Christly Heim said that he found the pastor was pretty nearly right. Obedience is better than sacrifice, he said.

One of the things believed in this church was that ll differences should be settled without going to law. They opposed war. He preached plainness of speech and plainness of dress. He bitterly opposed anything like pride, hypocrisy or sham.

I think the preaching of Christly Heim resulted in a solid foundation for good character and good citizenship in this community. Not only to those who heard him, but the influence has gone down to the children and the children's children, and the men and women who have gone out from this community have carried with them some of his teachings.

A man who knew him longer than I said to me once, "I have known Christly Heim in hi work on the farm. I have known him and heard him preach on Sunday. I saw him when he was well and when he was sick. I visited him on his deathbed (he died in 1879), and he religion and Christianity lasted to the end."

When Christly Heim, his parents and other members of the family, came to Blooming Grove in 1817, it was still largely wilderness. They located on the farm now occuped by David Noel. The log buildings still standing there are the ones put up when they cleared the land. Christly was the only member of the family to marry. He was married to Rosina Wagner in 1825 and they all lived on that farm.

His mother died in 1838, his father in 1840, and his wife died in 1842 all within a period of six years. He continued to live on the farm till all his children were married, but one who remained single. In 1866 another house was built on that farm. This has recently been destroyed by fire. Here Christly Heim lived until his death. This is the house the grandchildren remember as Grandpap's.

Children who grew up in this home were:

• Elizabeth, who married John Shafer
• Mary, who married Jacob Ulmer
• Jacob C., who married Rosanna Ulmer
• Margaret, who never married
• John (Johnnie), who married Margaret Heim
• Rosina, who married John J. Heim

Of these, three emigrated to Nebraska - Mary, Johnnie and Rosina, with their families.

CHRISTIAN (CHRISTLY) HEIM

Christian Heim, always known as "Christly", son of Christian and Elizabeth Guinter Heim, born in Germany Oct. 26, 1799 died March 30, 1879; buried in Blooming Grove Cemetery. He married Rosina Wagner, who was born March 14, 1799; died May 24, 1842; buried in Blooming Grove Cemetery. He was very well educated for that time, was a cooper by trade, also did surveying. He studied astronomy and higher mathematics. A piano he made stands in the Blooming Grove Museum. He was one of the most conscientious religious leaders of the Dunker church, and acted as their minister for many years. He was also a farmer.

Children:-

• Elizabeth - born Nov. 17, 1827, died Sept. 6, 1912. Married John Shafer.
• Mary - born Nov. 19, 1829, died Nov. 9, 1905. Married Jacob Ulmer. Their record is found under theJacob Ulmer family.
• Jacob C. - born Jan. 23, 1832, died Dec. 29, 1889. Married Rosanna Ulmer.
• Margaret - born April 24, 1834, died Dec. 21, 1913. Unmarried.
• John - born July 18, 1835, died April 14, 1916. Married Margaret Heim.
• Rosina - born Aug. 8, 1838, died Oct. 7, 1918. Married John J. Heim. Their record is found under the John J. Heim family.
• Stillbirth - May 14, 1842, the mother passing away ten days later.

Sources

• "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MX56-87H : 18 February 2021), John Heim in entry for Barbara Gonter, 1860.
• "United States Census, 1900", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M3B1-WL9 : 17 December 2021), John Heim, 1900.
• "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVK1-1SW4 : 2 August 2020), Johnnie, ; Burial, Dawson, Richardson, Nebraska, Heim Cemetery; Find A Grave: Memorial #54168816
• History of Lycoming County Pennsylvania wikitree page
• The Pennsylvania Colony of Nebraska website
• Pennsylvania Colony Historical Society of Nebraska wikitree page
• Heim Cemetery, Dawson, Nebraska wikitree page
• History of Richardson County Nebraska its people industries and institutions wikitree page

• John Heim at FamilySearch