Biography of William Henry Von der Heiden

William Henry Von der Heiden has been a resident of Newton, Kansas, forty years, and had been enrolled among the leading attorneys of Harvey County since 1889. He was born at Shullsburg, Lafayette County, Wisconsin, January 11, 1869, a son of H. D. Von der Heiden, who was born at Burbach, Germany, in 1834, who was reared in his native village, came to the United States in 1854, was engaged in the mining industry in Lafayette County, Wisconsin, was married there, and in 1861 volunteered his services for the defense of the union of his adopted land, enlisting in Company C, Thirty-third Wisconsin Infantry, under the command of Colonel Moore and General H. J. Smith. He participated in the siege of Vicksburg, took part in the ill fated Red River campaign, where he was the victim of a sun stroke, and never fully recovered his health. By trade he was a stone mason. He moved to Newton, Kansas, in May, 1878, and he built a number of the early business structures and homes of the city. He died at Newton in 1910. He was a democrat before the Civil war, and after that was an ardent republican. His church was the German Evangelical. H. D. Von der Heiden married Margaret Muller, who was born near Mainz, Germany, in 1839. She died at Newton, Kansas, in 1892. There were four children, the two youngest, a daughter and a son, dying in infancy. The oldest is Charles, a photographer located at New Orleans, Louisiana.

William Henry Von der Heiden came to Kansas with his parents when nine years of age. He had received some advantages in Wisconsin and was a student in the public schools of Newton, and also attended a private academy at Newton and in Wichita, Kansas. At the age of nineteen be began the study of law in the office of John D. Henry at Newton, and was admitted to the Kansas bar November 19, 1889, a few weeks before his twenty-first birthday. Since then he had been a general practitioner and had handled a large amount of litigation in both the civil and criminal branches of practice. His offices are at 519½ Main Street, in Newton.

In politics he graduated from the republican party into the progressive ranks, and had played an active part in local affairs, having filled the office of police judge, city attorney and county attorney. He is a member of the Harvey County Bar Association and his only fraternal connection at present is with Newton Lodge No. 142, Ancient Free and Accepted masons.

On October 9, 1907, at Newton, Mr. Von der Heiden married Miss Nellie Morgan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Morgan. Her mother is now deceased and her father is a retired merchant living at Newton.