Ludwig K. and Margaret (Blaha) Heger with Nicklaus grandchildren: Romaine, Gerard, baby Justin, Georgia
Ludwig also went by Louis, or the nickname ``Louie''. ``Louis'' is the english/french equivalent of Ludwig.
Ludwig Karl Heger arrived in New York City a 2 a.m. on Oct. 11, 1889 aboard the ship the S.S. Eider. This ship had taken 9 days to cross from Bremen, Germany, with a stop in Southampton, England with 434 passengers. Ludwig, age 22, listed his occupation as ``laborer'', travelled in steerage and was from Triebendorf, Moravia, which was then part of Austria-Hungary. No one else from Moravia is listed near him in the passenger log. His day of arrival seems to have had nice fall weather, with a high of 65.
Benjamin Harrison was president of the US when Ludwig arrived. The Statue of Liberty had been dedicated 3 years earlier, so he may have seen that during the night as his ship steamed into New York harbor. Some noteworthy happenings of 1889 include:
Ludwig first came to Heron Lake, Minnesota, where he resided for about two years. He then went to St. James where he owned and operated a harness shop for two years, and where he was married.
He moved to Madelia and accepted work in the shoe repair department of the Keber store. Later, he went to work as a shoemaker for August Simonett, which position he retained for about 26 years. For his last few years he was care-taker at Flanders' Park in Madelia.
According to his son Ludwig A., Ludwig Karl was a brewmaster and apprentice harness maker in Moravia. In Madelia he did shoe repairs and made custom shoes.
According to his obituary, Ludwig Karl Heger had a brother living in Austria at the time. However, no record of who this brother was has yet been found.
In 1927 he had an operation for gall bladder trouble and since that time his health gradually failed.
As mentioned above, Ludwig first came to Heron Lake after immigrating. He may have gone there because some relatives may have previously settled there. According to another researcher, Louise Bradshaw, a Beata Winkler married Franz Liepold in 1867 in Triebendorf, Moravia. They settled in Heron Lake, Minnesota. The parents of this Beata were Franz Winkler and Theresia Winkler . Theresia was the daughter of Johann Winkler . Recall that Ludwig Heger's mother was a Winkler. I don't have any evidence that this Beata was any direct relative of Ludwig's mother, but the coincidence strongly suggests it. Heron Lake isn't a very big place, as you might guess.
Also, there were some Winkler and Heger families from Triebendorf who settled in Mankato, Minnesota (just east of Madelia). St. Peter and Paul's Catholic Church records in Mankato, MN have an November 26, 1889 marriage between Edward Winkler and Maria Heger, both from Triebendorf, Moravia (the second wife for Edward), and relatives of the above mentioned Louise Bradshaw. Again, there is no known relation to Ludwig's Heger-Winkler line. Heger and Winkler are very common surnames in the Triebendorf area, so it's possible there isn't any close relation to our line. But I find it interesting that so many families came from the Triebendorf area to the same parts of southern Minnesota.
When Ludwig Karl Heger was born in 1868, Moravia was part of the Austrian empire. The name Austro-Hungarian Empire is commonly used to describe the empire 1867-1918. After WWI, Bohemia and Moravia from the Austrian part, and Slovakia from the Hungarian part of the empire were joined to form Czechoslovakia. Moravia is now (2002) the eastern half of the Czech Republic. Thus, when Ludwig immigrated to the US and was asked what country he came from, he would have answered, ``Austria'', but the area he is from is no longer in the modern day nation of Austria.
Most of the people living in the area where Ludwig was born were ethnic germans, or Sudetendeutsch (a 20th century term). The territories in Moravia, Bohemia, and other places where the ethnic Germans lived were collectively known as the Sudetenland starting in 1937 with the Munich Convention. Mährisch Trübau was part of the Sudetenland in a german ``language island'' called Schönhengstgau. Mährisch Trübau is a district on the Moravian-Bohemian border. Triebendorf is a town in that district.
Due to the mixture of german-speaking people in territories controlled by other nations, there are duplicate names for most of the places. Mähren is the german name for Moravia, and the Czech name is Moravska. Similarly, Mährisch Trübau is the german name, and the Czech name is Moravsk\'a T\v{r}ebov\'a. The Czech name for the town of Triebendorf is T\v{r}eba\v{r}ov.
Sources for this individual: @S34@ @S35@ @S36@