The subject of this sketch, Josiah G. Heck, of Moline, was born in Harrison County, Ohio, May 8, 1840, the son of John and Sarah (Wilde) Heck, and has been a resident of Rock Island County the past sixty-four years. The Heck family is an old one; Phillip Heck, grandfather of Josiah Heck, belonging to a family that was early established in the United States.
John Heck, father of Josiah Heck, was born September 10, 1786, in Pennsylvania. In 1833 he emigrated to Harrison County, Ohio, staying eleven years there. There he married Miss Sarah Wilde, and a few years later Josiah Heck was born. In the early forties John Heck and family started for the Territory of Illinois, coming down the Ohio and up the Mississippi River to Rock Island, where he arrived May 15, 1844. In 1894 the family of Josiah Heck celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their arrival, four generations participating. Mr. Heck’s father passed away August 6, 1878, at the advanced age of 92. His wife survived him until 1881.
Our subject is an old soldier who was one of the valiant sons who responded to the call of Abraham Lincoln when the Civil War broke out. As a youth he had good educational advantages, and was a college student when the war was declared. On October 5, 1864, he joined Company C, Sixty-sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served in the Army of the Tennessee until discharged June 10, 1865.
In public life Mr. Heck has been prominent. For seven years he has been justice of the peace, and has served as collector, overseer of highways, as a member of the school board, and for twelve years served as a township trustee. As a strong temperance man his sympathies are with the Prohibition party, but he often votes independent of party ties.
Mr. Heck was married May 11, 1881, to Miss Lora E. Cornwall, who was born in Fayette County, Iowa, and is the daughter of George W. and Araminta (Crawford) Cornwall, natives of Canada. Mr. and Mrs. Heck have one daughter, Elizabeth S. Heck. They are members of the United Brethren Church. Mr. Heck belongs to the Forum Lodge of Stewartsville.