Heiland Family – Evergreen Cemetery, Offerle, Ford County, Kansas

They are 54 headstones with the surname of Heiland located in Ford County. They are descendants of Ernest and Mary Faust Heiland.

The Heiland Family story begins with the birth of Ernest Heiland in Prussia in 1831. He came to America in 1857 and arrived at the port in New Orleans. A few years later, Ernest, was living in Adams County, Illinois. It was there he married Mary Faust.

Mary was born in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France in 1844. At the age of 11, Mary came to America with her parents, one brother, and four sisters. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to Adams County, Illinois.

Ernest and Mary were married on March 29, 1865. They were the parents of nine children with five being born in Illinois. The Heiland’s joined several other families and left Illinois by train. They arrived in Kinsley, Edwards County, Kansas in March of 1877. At the time, Kinsley was the last stop on the railroad.

The family loaded into a wagon and made their way south to Apple Valley which was south of Offerle. Apple Valley later became Wheatland Township.

Their first house was a dugout and one son was born there. Eventually, a sod house and a wooden frame house were built. Ernest was one of many prosperous farmers from the area. Each of his children was given 80 acres of land to start their own farms and families.

Ernest and Mary’s children all married and had children of their own. The three daughters married other pioneer people. Mary married Daniel Weyrich, Jr. in 1893. Carlina Anna married Joseph E. Juttner in 1901. Emma married Tony Kolbeck in 1902.

Ernest passed away in 1912 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery. He shares the same stone with Mary who died in 1935.

The rest of the story: Other families which came with the Heiland’s were Louis Wetzel, Werner, and Heitledge.