1887 - 1976

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• Birth	6 Mar 1887	Hamilton, NY
  Gender	Male
  Died	28 Aug 1976	Orangeville, MI
  Person ID	I2116	Rozhon's from Chicago and Elsewhere
  Last Modified	24 Aug 2004 21:30:57
  Family ID	F799	Group Sheet
  Family	Laura Ann BRADSHAW, b. 6 Mar 1893, Martin, MI
  Married	18 Jun 1912	Barry County, MI   [1]
  Children	> 1. Charles Burton HEFFNER, b. 8 Sep 1920, Martin, MI   2. Doris HEFFNER   3. Hazel HEFFNER, b. 17 Jun 1917, Martin Twp., Barry County, MI   4. Frances HEFFNER   5. George HEFFNER   6. Gordon HEFFNER
  Family ID	F798	Group Sheet

• Notes

  Grandpa was placed in an orphanage in NY when his father left the family for the Silver Rush in Colorado (peaked about 1893) before 1900. His father was killed in Colorado by a gunshot wound. The 1900 census for Hamilton, NY listed the four youngest children as "at school". More than likely this was the orphanage.The orphanage was the Madison County (NY) Home for Desititute Children in Peterboro (Smithfield), NY (the home is also known as the Peterboro Orphanage). According to my sister, Cheryl Trimble, Grandpa told her that the orphanage was a work farm. Records from the Home indicate the following (printed verbatim, mistakes and all): "Hearld Hepiner, received 10/31/1892, #14, male, age 9, white, birthplace Hamilton, parentage: half orphan; surrendering authority Madison Co. Hamilton; name and title of commiting magistrate: E. Douglass, Poor Master, Hamilton." Another entry says this: "Herald Hepner, received 8/17/1898, #112, male,age 11, white, birthplace: ____; parentage: father dead; surrendering authority: brought back by the people who took him; remarks: mental condition "knot first." " (Source: 1885-1899 Volume Peterboro Orphanage Records - Donna D. Burdick, Smithfield Town Historian). This rather sad account tells us that Grandpa's family was very poor after his father died and that the orphanage let the children out to families who used them as free labor. Grandpa was a brilliant man butwho knows what he could have attained had he not met up with some of these socalled families? According to Gordon Heffner, my uncle, Grandpa left the orphanage, bummed around the country riding the rails, joined the Marine Corps (at age 16, under the name of Fred Flanagan), did some boxing, deserted from the Marines, worked in Flint, MI at a Buick auto plant, and finally settled in Orangeville, MI. He worked at a Tech School for his last years of employment. Grandpa was a very fun grandfather. He told stories about little men that captured him in his travels and that his prominent Adam's apple was due to a cannon ball shotat him by the little men. He always had a story, a ready laugh, and loved Detroit Tigers baseball! Grandpa grew gladiolas and sold them. His farm in Orangeville was one of the happiest places in the world. He had several black walnut trees in the yard. We would pick them up, put them in a burlap sack, and lay themin the drive way to be run over by the car. This would get the green shell offthe nuts. They were the tastiest walnuts ever! Grandpa had an outhouse that all the grandkids used (the indoor plumbing was usually reserved for the grownups). The outhouse was behind the big barn. The barn was full of pigeons and the oldest things you ever saw in your life! Every moment was an adventure at Grandpa's. He had horseshoe pits on the other side of the driveway. They had wooden backboards, which we put the horseshoes over when we were done. Grandpa was a great horseshoe player - he threw them cocked to the side, like my Dad did. The dining room table was a huge oak clawfoot table that seated about 400 people itseemed. The living room was full of pictures of family members, most of whom were long passed or at least did not look that way in the present. There were bedrooms off the living room and upstairs. Grandpa and Grandma's bedroom was off the dining room and had the bathroom attached to it (we had to go through theirroom to get to it - always a cool thing to do). Their soap smelled different from anyone else's soap but it was always pleasant to take a shower there. Upstairs there was an attic that none of us was supposed to go in but it was full ofold things: swords (my Dad's Japanese swords from WWII), baseball cards (I swear I saw Honus Wagner's rookie card there), letters with old stamps, and many other things. Grandpa died of emphysema, probably from smoking, perhaps also fromasbestos. He was a great man who is missed by all who knew him.

• Sources

  [S124] Kalamazoo Gazette Obituary, (Kalamazoo Gazette).