Henry Heier, engaged in the undertaking business in St. Louis, was born in California, Missouri, March 20, 1871. His parents died in his infancy and he was reared in a German Protestant orphan’s home on St. Charles Rock road in St. Louis county, there remaining until he reached the age of sixteen and a half years, when he started out to provide for his own support, securing a position with a wholesale glass and queens ware company of St. Louis. His capability and trustworthiness were so manifest that he remained with the firm for eight and a half years, working his way steadily upward from the minor position of office boy to that of traveling salesman. He acquired his early education in the orphan’s home and after securing his position and recognizing the value of educational training he took up study in a night school and also pursued a business course in the Perkins & Herpel Business College of this city. He likewise became a student of anatomy and embalming at night school and thus qualified for the work which is now claiming his attention. In 1893 he was made assistant superintendent of the orphan’s home in which his own youth was passed, and owing to the fact that the superintendent was away on account of his health, he practically had full charge of the institution.
It was in the fall of 1894 that Mr. Heier established an undertaking business as senior partner of the firm of Heier & Wiebusch, and in 1898 he purchased his partner’s interest and has since continued the business under his own name. He is accorded a liberal patronage and is now meeting with well merited success.
In St. Louis on the 15th of June, 1895, Mr. Heier was married to Miss Bertha Schumacher, a daughter of Henry F. Schumacher, and they have become parents of six daughters: Eunice, Evelyn, Elvera, Edith, Ethel and Elizabeth. Mr. Heier and his family attend the Tyler Place Presbyterian church. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and has become identified with the Knights Templar Commandery and the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Century Boat Club, to the Riverview Club, to the Tower Grove Gymnasium Society and to the Mound City Undertakers Association. His political endorsement is given to the republican party, and at all times he keeps in touch with the trend of political thought and activity but has never been desirous to hold office as a reward for party fealty. He certainly deserves much credit for what he has accomplished. Handicapped by the lack of home training and dependent upon his own resources from an early age, he has worked his way upward through capability and reliability and is today at the head of one of the oldest and most liberally patronized undertaking establishments of St. Louis.