Johann Martin Heiner was born 17 March 1818, the second son of Johannes Heiner and Anna Susanna Elisabeth Hundorf in Waldorf, Sax Meinengen, Thuringia. He was baptized 23 March 1818 in the Lutheran Church. His godfather was Johan Martin Hundorf, his mother's brother. Martin had an older brother, Johann Hinrich, born 17 June 1815. Another brother, Matthaeus, was born 19 October 1822, and a sister born 14 December 1824, Eva Margretha. He also had two half sisters, Christina Maria and Catharina Elisabeth, who were born to their father's first wife. As was the custom, Martin started school when he was four years old. There he learned to read and write very fluently. At the age of fourteen, he went to live with his uncle in order to learn the weaver's trade. The trades in Germany required a boy to be apprenticed to a man who was in a trade, after which he is a journeyman and goes from one master to another getting experience until he is able to establish a business of his own. When Martin had completed his training, he went to Wasungen where he was employed by Michael Dietzel as a weaver. There he was attracted to Herr Dietzel's lovely, auburn-haired daughter, Adelgunda. (There is a small part of this story under Adelgunda Dietzel's name. The rest of the family story will be completed here.) FAMILY LIFE Four lovely children were born to Martin and Adelgunda while living in Wasungen: Mary Christina, born 28 July 1839; Amelia, born 20 February 1 841; John, born 2 July 1842; and Anthony, born 24 June 1844. Martin and his brother, Hinrich, began having trouble over their father's property. It had been in the family for several generations, even dating back to great great grandfather, Johann Adam Heiner (or Heyner) who was born in that same house 13 August 1657. Their father had died 14 February 1837, and their mother had died 7 December 1839. Martin wanted to sue Hinrich for the property. After Martin and Adelgunda talked it over, they decided to drop the lawsuit and emigrate to America where they might enjoy more opportunity. The seeds of another revolution were brewing, so this also might have been a determining factor in their decision. When Hinrich heard of their decision to go to America, he was elated and proved very helpful in assisting them with the money for their passage and the transportation to their point of embarkation. He thought that it would be cheaper than fighting a lawsuit. Martin's sister also came to America, but it is not known whether she came at that time or not. AMERICA On 18 May 1845, they were ready to start for America. They bid farewell to Herr Dietzel, other loved ones, and all their friends. It took them forty days to cross the ocean and they landed in Baltimore, Maryland on 24 June 1845. They arrived in an almost penniless condition, so Martin went immediately in search of employment, which was scarce at that time. Odd jobs accounted for their bare necessities for fourteen months, until Martin found employment in an iron factory. They secured a small room in a two room house on the outskirts of Baltimore. Another family lived in the other room. It was during this time that their fifth child, George, was born on 26 March 1846. Adelgunda would take the little children out in the woods and gather bundles of sticks and pack them home for the fire. This went on for some time and Adelgunda was so discouraged that one day, as she was tying rope around the wood, she fell on the wood almost helpless. She spent the afternoon in crying and praying for God to help them to get away from that awful condition. That night when she got home, a man on a white horse stood by the door. Martin came home about the same time. The man could talk German and he told Martin that his father, Mr. Bear, had a woolen mill over the line in Pennsylvania and he needed a weaver. He also had an empty house that they could live in. Martin was glad to get employment in his own trade, so he accepted the offer and the following week the man returned and helped Martin and his family move to Waynesboro, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Neither Martin nor Adelgunda could speak a word of English when they came to America. This was a great trial to Adelgunda, along with the other hardships, and she would get very discouraged. Martin had a bible written in both German and English and by comparing the two scriptures, he was able to learn the English language fairly well. Adelgunda grieved so much she never smiled. One day, while shaking the table cloth, a bird in the back yard chirped and a voice said to her, "Why aren't you happy like the birds? God is pleased with them." This so impressed Adelgunda that she was smiling when Martin came home. Adelgunda told him about the bird and Martin thanked God as he had worried so much. They remained in Waynesboro for 12 years. To help supplement Martin's income, Adelgunda and the children would go up in the hills and gather huckleberries, blackberries, and dewberries. They would take them to town and sell them for 6 cents a quart. In the fall they would gather chestnuts, two kinds of hickory nuts, chinkipin nuts and hazel nuts to sell. At the age of seven, Mary was hired out to work in the farm home of John Lesure, where she remained for almost nine years. During this time she assisted at home whenever she could. Five more children were born to them while in Waynesboro: Elizabeth, born 4 April 1848, Daniel, born 27 November 1850, Susannah Catherine, born 15 October 1852, Emma Ann, born 17 August 1856, and Rachel, born 16 September 1858. Martin was very honest in all his dealings with his fellow men and always kept his promise. At one time he didn't have enough money to pay for some purchases, so he promised to bring the money the following evening. However, the next evening it was raining very hard and Adelgunda tried to discourage him from going out. But Martin was determined, as he had made the promise to pay the money, so he walked several miles in the rain in order to keep his word. CONVERSION TO THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS In November 1852, a neighbor lady came to visit Adelgunda. She told her that her brother, Joseph Secrist, had joined a new religion called the Mormons and was going to Germany on a mission. He had stopped in Waynesboro on his way from Utah and was going to hold a meeting that night in the nearby town of Thomastown. When Martin came home from work that evening she (Adelgunda) had supper all ready for him. She told him of the meeting. He, too, was interested and decided to attend, so he walked the three miles to Thomastown to attend the meeting. At the meeting Martin noted the quotations that Elder Secrist had made from the Bible and later he and Adelgunda looked them up and found them to be correct. Martin felt that this was the true church. Elder Secrist remained in town about a month holding meetings, and Martin and Adelgunda attended them all. The following is taken from the journal of Elder Jacob Secrist. Next morning as I was about to start from home, as Brother William was about taking me to Charmsburg to the railroad. Mr. Heiner (a German at whose house I had been twice by request) came and said he wished to be baptized. "Well," said I, "We will repair to the water immediately as I am just about to start for New York." Said he, "I wish you would come to my home and bless my children." So I told my brother to put away his horse as I could not go today, neither did I want to so long as I could do good here, so I went and baptized him and then I went for William Tarman to go with me to confirm Brother Heiner and bless his children. When we got to Sister Reed's she told me Mrs. Heiner and her daughter wished to be baptized. I told her to send for them and when she (Mrs. Heiner) came she told me in substance as follows: "While I was in meeting last night, if I had got up I could have spoken English and all the way home I could not help thinking about how I felt. I kept wishing if I only had the faith as Sister Reed has. And in the night I spoke English." (She could not speak or understand one word.) The next morning she told her husband if he believed that I had the truth and should to be baptized, she should go and she would not say one word against it. He told her he believed all I said and he would go and be baptized immediately before I went away, so he started. After he was gone a little while, all in an instance such a flash of light burst upon her mind as she never felt so happy in her life, and she saw the scriptures plainer than she ever did. She saw everything a I had told her and more. Then she wished if she really was well she would be baptized (as she had been confined some 4 weeks and there was ice on the water). "But if I go in the water I shall take cold and it will kill me," one spirit would say, and the scriptures came to her mind, "He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it, and he that saveth it shall lose it." "Says she in her own minds, "I will be baptized if it kills me." Away she ran to overtake Brother Heiner and when she came to Sister Reed's, she said she was afraid I would leave and she could not be baptized by me. Sister Reed told her that she should not give herself to uneasiness, as she knew if her husband requested me to come and bless their children, I would come to their house. As we came to Sister Reed's, they sent for her (Mrs. Heiner) and I baptized her and her daughter and had a confirmation meeting at their house. She testified before the meeting how she came to see things as she did and when I left them, they thanked God that I had come under their roof. Here we see, my dear wife and children, how easy it is for the Lord to bring the honest to the knowledge of the truth. I could teach her but little as she could not understand English and I could only refer her to the scriptures on the first principles and explain very little through Sister Reed." 13 December 1852. Martin, Adelgunda, and Mary were all baptized by immersion in the icy waters for the remission of sins and were confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that same day by Elder Jacob Secrist. Martin gave Elder Secrist an introduction to his brother, Hinrich, in Germany as he wanted him to hear the gospel. Elder Secrist recorded in his journal that he called upon Mr. Heiner in Waldorf but he could see that he was not interested and did not want the truth. The death entry of Hinrich Heiner located in the parish registers in Waldorf stated, "He lived in St. Bernhard. Was once a rich man, but lost all. Was visiting in Waldorf and died there." The next day Martin went to work early. As he was warming his hands by the fire, his employer came up to him and said, "What is this I hear about your having joined the Mormons?" Martin said yes, he had been baptized. "Then," said his employer, "You no longer work for me." Although is had been 8 years since the martyrdom of the Prophet, Joseph Smith, and the expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo, Illinois and their journey westward to the Utah Territory, feelings were still very strong against this religious sect. The loss of his job was a big worry to Martin, but in a few days a farmer hired him for more wages than he was making at the woolen mills. IMMIGRATION TO UTAH Along with their testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, came also the "spirit of the gathering," and the Heiner family had a great desire to join the body of the Saints in Utah. Martin had a carpenter make him a savings box with a slit large enough to hold a dollar. When Martin was out of work in the winter time he would make baskets out of wild oak wood. He would take a small straight tree and cut it about six feet long and split it into strips about one fourth inch square. Then at night when the children came home from school, they would take a knife and whittle the corners off to a point at one end so they could poke them in the round holes which had been made through a metal bar. In drawing the oak strips through the holds in the metal bar, the corners would be scraped off making the wooden strips round for the basket making. There were various sized holes in the metal bar so \baskets could be made in different sizes. He made small sewing baskets and shopping baskets with a handle so it could be carried on the arm, and also bushel baskets. When he had enough made, he would tie them together and put them over his shoulder and carry them to the farmers and sell them. The eldest son, John, was hired out to McLivery, a farmer. He stayed with him until they started for Utah. Mary was still working for the Lesure family. She received a proposal of marriage from one of the Lesure boys but she declined in favor of going to Utah. Ten year old George was hired out to William Wiles for $1.50 a month. The next year he was hired to Jacob Wiles for $2.25 a month and the following year to Solomon Sarbach for $3.25 a month. Martin collected the money and it went in the immigration fund, so bit by bit it began to grow. Martin was very independent and wanted to earn enough money to pay their own way so he would not have to ask for help. The other children all did their share. The younger children attended school in the Blue Rock school house and when they were not in school, they helped their mother gather huckleberries to sell. Huckleberries became a hallowed name in the Heiner household. Martin was ordained an elder on 19 March 1854, and was set apart as president of the Union Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the Philadelphia conference under the hands of William Tarman. While in this position, Martin helped the Saints prepare to start across the plains. During the winter of 1858 and 1859, Karl G. Maeser was fulfilling a mission in that part of Pennsylvania. He advised the Saints to go to Utah as soon as their particular circumstances would permit, as there was going to be a civil war between the states, which would bring extreme hardship upon them if they remained. The prophecy of the Civil War had been made in 1832. Brother Daniel Robison said to Elder Maeser, "Here is Brother Heiner, he has a large family, and it would be hard for him to make the trip." Brother Maeser said, "Brother Heiner will be the first one to go." CROSSING THE PLAINS The following spring Martin had a sale of everything that they could not take with them and started for Utah on 11 April 1859. He hired John Manister to haul them across the Allegheny Mountains to Pittsburgh. This took three weeks. At Pittsburgh they took passage on a lumber craft down the Ohio River to Cincinnati. They had to sleep on piles of lumber which was crowded and very uncomfortable. At Cincinnati they visited with Martin's sister, Mary Batch, who ran a hotel with her husband. Mary had no children of her own and when she saw Martin with so many (10), she wanted him to leave some with her that she might raise them as her own. Martin's new religion taught the eternal relationship of the family, and as he and Adelgunda loved all their children very much, they had none to spare. They continued their journey down the Ohio to the Mississippi River and then to St. Louis. From St. Louis they went up the Missouri River to Council Bluffs and then to Florence, Nebraska, where they made final preparation for the long trek westward. Martin bought one yoke of oxen, a yoke of cows and a new shuttler wagon as well as other things essential for the journey. They joined the Edward Stevenson Company leaving Florence, Nebraska, 26 June 1859, with two hundred eight-five persons and fifty-four wagons. John got a job with the immigration company and came with them. George got a job driving Widow Kate Rosk's team and she gave him his board, so that made two less for Martin to provide for. With only one wagon to haul their goods in, there was no room for anyone to ride, except for the very small children. Most of them walked the entire distance, some even barefooted and often times carrying the smaller children. Little Rachel was only nine months old. It took about 90 strenuous days of walking over prairie and mountain, behind the slow heavy gait of the oxen pulling the heavy wagons. There were some hard storms while they were crossing the plains. The storms would come at night and the wind would blow the tent down, and everything would get wet. Occasionally someone would kill a buffalo and the whole company would have some fresh meat. At a place called Ash Hollow, some of the cattle drank some alkali water, 8 head of oxen died, including one of Martin's. A fellow traveler let Martin have 2 cows to work. Martin sawed his yoke in two and hitched two yoke of cows with the oxen in head. After about two weeks, the oxen became lame, so Martin traded it off for a bull at a trading post. The bull eventually became lame and had to be traded off for a yearling steer, so the two cows had to pull the wagon the rest of the way. They passed many Indians, but the Indians didn't give them any trouble. The children would become very tired, but when Adelgunda baked a dodger for each of them on a buffalo chip fire, they would soon get rested and would be ready to play games. Daniel remarked how wonderful it was that they could be so happy with all the hardships they had to go through. The company arrived in Salt Lake City, 16 September 1859. Martin and his family finished the trek with two yoke of cows and $1.60. When Elder Secrist left the family in Pennsylvania, after returning from his mission to Germany, he gave Adelgunda a dollar and told her if she would keep it she would never go without. Adelgunda had used the last of the flour they had brought with them, but John, who had arrived in the valley three weeks earlier, had earned some flour which came in very handy for them. They were all glad when the long, tiresome journey was over, but many hardships still awaited the family. SALT LAKE VALLEY After arriving in Salt Lake, they first moved up to the mouth of Parley's Canyon, where they lived in a dugout. It had a dirt floor, no windows or doors and a dirt roof. The wagon was put near the house so that some could sleep in it. The fire was made in the middle of the house and many times they were driven out by smoke. After about four weeks in the dugout, Angus Cannon came with a yoke of oxen and moved the family to Bingham Creek on the farm of Apostle John Taylor, where they herded cattle. While living here, Adelgunda gave birth to her last child, Eliza, born 22 October 1860. Mary obtained employment in the home of Daniel H. Wells. Here she became acquainted with Arza E. Hinckley whom she married on 3 March 1861. Angus Cannon obtained employment for Amelia and Anthony to work for Brother and Sister Woodbury. John worked for Ura Eldrich. George was hired by Barney L. Adams to herd his sheep. He took care of the sheep until the next fall, staying out in the rain and shine. He had no overcoat or underclothes. Mr. Adams bought him a pair of boots that kept his feet warm. The following year he went to work for Daniel Wells. This, too, was a trying time for Martin and Adelgunda and the children as described by Daniel: We lived on bran bread part of the time with nothing to help it down, only when we could get a hare out of a hole. Many times father and I would dig half the night to get a hare out of a hole. The next summer I learned to shoot and the family fared better, as I would get two or three hares a week. The second winter we were at Bingham, a man on the Jordan got father to take a small herd of sheep, and while out herding them I got my heels frozen so bad that the flesh came off, exposing the bone and cords. I had no overshoes and very poor shoes, and it was months before the flesh grew on my feet again. I suffered very much pain and mother often cried seeing me suffer. In the spring of 1862, we moved about five miles west of Salt Lake City, out in the grease wood and alkali. Father and Anthony worked like slaves for two summers to raise some grain, but did not succeed in raising one bushel on account of water and alkali. During all this time I was herding some sheep that belonged to other people, for nothing as they did not pay their debts. That year and a half was the most lonesome time of my life. There were so many wolves that I had to keep the sheep right together and then sometimes they would break in and run a lone sheep out and kill it before I could get close enough to chase them away. When they killed a sheep I would cry for two days. When it was cold, the sheep would run for miles before they would settle down and eat. Many times I was so tired I could hardly get home. In the summer it would be so hot that the sheep would lay down and I would sit down and play mumble peg with an old broken table fork I had packed with me. When a sheep would die, I would pull the wool off and take it home. Mother would card it, and then she would be up at night and spin it into yarn. In the winter father would weave it into cloth to make clothes for the family. During those four years of severe hardship, Daniel H. Wells proved to be a friend in deed. He had a four spring wagon with a white top. He would send that wagon about every five weeks with a sack of flour and perhaps a little sugar or a few beans. We could see the white top five miles away, and we would welcome it to our little cabin door almost as much as we would an angel from heaven. MORGAN, UTAH In the winter of 1855, Thomas J. Thurston and about a dozen other men attempted to make an entry route through Weber Canyon into what is now Morgan Valley. With the most primitive of tools, consisting of shovels, picks, crowbars and small plows, they found the going exceedingly rough. In some narrow passes, they loosened boulders on the high canyon walls and rolled them into the river below to form a foundation upon which to build a road. At last they were successful in completing a crude, though passable, road into the valley. The forbidding mountains were conquered by a small handful of men equipped with little other than strong determination and the will to accomplish the seemingly impossible. They were soon followed by other settlers, eager to make homes in the promising, green valley which was named Morgan after Jedediah Morgan Grant. Martin and Adelgunda were discouraged with the struggle to provide for their family. They were also greatly sorrowed when little Rachel, at the age of 5 years, contracted scarlet fever and died 14 September 1863. They decided they would go to the Morgan Valley to make their home. In December 1863, Daniel (who was 13), and one of the girls set out for Morgan. Daniel tells of their entrance into the valley: I will never forget the night father, one sister, and I, as we came up the canyon with two yoke of oxen and a load of things. There was about six inches of snow. It was after dark, but the moon was shining. On this side of Devil's Gate we had to cross the river. The ice was frozen out about ten feet on each side of the river. We got the oxen and wagon over the ice but when they came to the ice on the other side, the oxen started down the river. I did not want father to get wet, as it was a very cold night. I jumped from the top of the wagon into the river. There were large, slick rocks in the bottom. I stumbled over them until I was wet all over, but I succeeded in turning the team and wagon around and came back up and got them over the ice and out on the road. My clothes froze on me, and father thought sure I would freeze to death, but I ran up and down the road to keep from freezing until we got to Mountain Green to a house where they had a big fire in the fire place. I stood by that fire until my clothes were dry. I did not take cold. The next morning we started for Morgan. When we were about three miles on the way we came to a deep slough that was frozen over with snow on the ice. When we got the oxen and wagon on the ice it broke and we got a real ice water bath. They settled in Mount Joy which was later named North Morgan, and Martin began preparing for the rest of his family. Martin and Adelgunda had finally come home. It had been 17 years since they left their native land of Germany, and now in this fertile little valley of Morgan, they found peace and joy. Martin bought a forty acre farm. They had to clear the sagebrush from it and build a fence before they could plant any crops, so with only hand tools they worked hard and long hours. By 1864, the little community had its first meeting house built of logs, which also served for a school. In 1865, Martin built the first rock house in Morgan. It consisted of two rooms--a kitchen and living room which would also serve as a bedroom. When he was ready to put the roof on, counsel came from President Brigham Young advising everyone to build two stories, so Martin added two rooms upstairs. He planted the first fruit and shade trees in the young settlement. In 1868, he assisted in quarrying stone and hauling it into town for the purpose of building a meeting house. This building, 24 x 40 feet, replaced the log cabin and was also used as a school. In 1864, George and Elizabeth, who were still working for Daniel Wells, came home for Christmas. Elizabeth became acquainted with George's friend, Thomas Grover, who she married 10 March 1866. Martin asked George to remain in Morgan as there was so much work to be done on the farm, which he did. That summer they raised 300 bushels of grain. There was no threshing machine in Morgan, and the river had washed out the road at Devil's Gate, so they couldn't bring up a machine from Weber Valley; therefore, the people had to thresh their own grain. They hauled some clay on a spot of ground then turned water on it. When it was well soaked, they yoked up two oxen and chained them together and drove them around on the clay until it was well mixed. They they leveled it off with a shovel and hoe and when it dried it made a very good threshing floor. A frame was built to which was hitched two horses. The wheat would be place on the floor and the horses would turn the roller around until the grain was well threshed out. Then the straw was raked off and the wheat pushed to the middle of the floor. They also made a fanning mill to clean the wheat. All their crops were cut by hand, the hay was cut with a scythe, the grain with a cradle which was then raked and bound by hand. They built a granary to store the grain in. Amelia married George Andrew Schwartz, 29 July 1865, and Anthony married Lucinda Henderson, 17 September 1865, and both made their homes in Morgan. There were still many sorrows and hardships for Martin and Adelgunda to share in their new home, although they found comfort in the knowledge that through the Holy Priesthood here upon the earth and the sealing powers performed in the holy temples of God, they would again be reunited with their loved ones in the hereafter. An epidemic of scarlet fever occurred in 1865, taking the lives of 9 year old Emma Ann, 3 December 1865 and the baby, 5 year old Eliza on 6 December 1865. It was with great sorrow that they laid these two little ones to rest. John married Sarah Jane Coulam, 23 March 1867 in the Endowment House, In 1868, he and Sarah, with Elizabeth and her husband, Thomas Grover, were called by Brigham Young to help colonize the Muddy located in St. Joseph, Lincoln County, Nevada. When they arrived in St. George, John was stricken with pneumonia and died 12 January 1868 and was buried there. His young wife came back to Morgan where their child, Sarah Coulam Heiner, was born. The Union Pacific Railroad was completed through Morgan in 1868. This historical event changed the character of the entire valley, but it particularly affected North Morgan as it soon became the trading center for the county. George married Mary Henderson, a sister to Anthony's wife, 22 December 1866. He built a red brick home on the left of Martin's home. Daniel married Martha Stevens, 31 March 1873, and at the same time, took for his wife the widow of his brother John, Sarah Jane Coulam Heiner. He built a house on the right side of Martin's. In 1971, this home was listed on the Utah Register of Historic Sites by the recommendation by the governor's Historic and Cultural Sites Review Committee. Anthony also built a rock house on the opposite side of the street from Martin's home. When Suzanne was a young girl, she was attracted to a young man who could not take her to the temple, so she gave him up in favor of a celestial marriage. She became the second wife of Joseph W. Ovard, 28 June 1875, when she was 23 years old. This was not a happy marriage, so after discussing it with the authorities, she divorced him, 15 May 1883. She kept very active in church activities and later married Parmino A. Jackman, 14 February 1892. Martin became very active in civic and church activities. He assisted in building the first canal on the north side of the Weber River. On 20 August 1870 Martin was appointed as a city councilman on the second city council of Morgan City. 9 March 1872 was a laudable spirit of public improvement, they appointed a committee to superintend the planting of shade trees. During the summer of 1877 there was a heavy loss of crops due to the depredations of grasshoppers. The following year the city council ordered that no tax should be assessed. In church activities Martin served as a High Councilman, and on 15 May 1893, Martin was ordained a patriarch by Francis M. Lyman. He gave many patriarchal blessings to his grandchildren and others. The Martin Heiner home was always cheerful and bright and full of inspiration. He always had a word of good cheer for everyone who visited them. Martin was very exact in all things and always kept his promise. He had a mild temperament, and always honored the Priesthood. As a father, he was all that could be asked. His advice was noble, good, and on the right side, and his family expressed thankfulness that they were born of such noble parentage. As a husband he was loving, generous and kind under all circumstances. Martin played the zither, and in the evenings the family would sing while he played before they lit the candles. Martin and Adelgunda took great interest in the work for redeeming their dead relatives, depriving themselves of many comforts to send money to Germany for records. They got good records back for 400 years. Adelgunda cared for the sick for miles around. She was always available when her children needed her. On one occasion, in August of 1880, she traveled in a wagon over rough roads to Echo Canyon to stay with Elizabeth at the ranch when 2-year-old Pauline was seriously ill. Although she worked faithfully to try to save her, the child died. Adelgunda suffered a stroke in her later years and was left speechless and unable to walk. Her granddaughter, Sophia Heiner Andersen, recalls how, as a young girl of 9, she would brush her beautiful. thick auburn hair for her. When Sophia became tired and stopped, her grandmother would look at her with such a pitiful look, Sophia would brush some more. Adelgunda passed away on 20 November 1894. Martin survived her by a little more than two years. He passed away 11 March 1897, just a year after Utah had been granted statehood, which was in January 1896. He was buried in the North Morgan cemetery next to his beloved wife and two little children. The following is an extract from his obituary, which appeared in the Deseret Evening News 23 March 1897, written by Daniel Heiner: Even since Mother Heiner died Father Heiner has expressed himself as ready to go in his last illness which lasted about two weeks, he bore his testimony a number of times. He had a blessing for everyone that called to see him. At 2 o'clock Thursday morning he offered up a prayer for his family and all Israel, after which he dedicated himself to the Lord. He then went to sleep until 11 o'clock when his spirit quietly left his body without moving a limb. If he had lived until Wednesday, March 17, he would have been 79 years old. His grandson, Nephi Heiner, who was a son of Daniel Heiner, lived in Martin's home with his family after Martin passed away. It remained in the possession of Nephi's family until it was sold and demolished about September 1969. Martin and Adelgunda had the vision and the faith to--as the poet Shakespeare wrote--"Forsake the ills we have and fly to others that we know not of." Through these humble and noble saints have come some of the very elect spirits of the Lord, Bishops, High Councilmen, Stake Presidents, a Regional Representative, High Priests, Patriarchs, and many others. Great will be their reward in the Kingdom of God. *This history was taken from writings by Louise Heiner Anderson. "The William Albion Worlton and Evelyn Maria Grover Family," complied and edited in 1996 by Beth Worlton Porter, p. 35-43.