A Farm Girl from Wisconsin

Mary Louise Higgins was the tenth of fourteen children born to Elisha Albion Higgins and Susan Mabel Davis. If my count is correct that makes her the little one covering her eyes.She was born 21 August 1897 in Superior, Wisconsin, her father being a farmer.Because she was a smart girl, she soon became the teacher to the area kids.

It is hard to be a teacher to ones so close to your age,

I love the hands on the hips.

Here she is with her brother John.Bertha and May again.At the age of 18 she meets a young man of 31, Frank Heinz, who comes into the Five & Dime where she worked. He was working on the Railroad at the time, and soon they married.

He would often play his violin and sing to her, “I Found a Million Dollar Baby, at The Five and Ten Cent Store.”

They married in 1914 and started a family.

 Floyd Leonard Heinz arrived in 1915, shown here with May.

Inez Marie came shortly after in 1916May holding Carol June born in 1918.

May and Frank bought a farm and worked it together, in Matchwood, Michigan          On March 8, 1920 Leslie Eugene Heinz was born, and on June 27, 1921 Lyle Kenneth joined the family.Frank had started logging for a company in Matchwood for extra money.

One day in November of 1921, he took a visitor from Detroit out hunting.

Frank wore his warm fur coat and separating from the man, Frank decided to climb a tree. The visiting man saw the fur and shot, thinking he was a bear.

Frank was brought home where the Doctor tried to save him, but he got pneumonia and died two days later, leaving Mary Louise, a young woman Twenty Five years of age, with Five little ones to care for, the youngest being Five months old.Mays sisters gathered around to help her with the children while she worked as a cook for the loggers. May is second from the left on the top in this photo.Here she is happy to be with her brother-in-law Richard Bowser and her sister Dollie.May loved her hats! Sister Bertha and May trying to look serious.

The sisters a little older: Bertha, Mary, Dollie, Susie, Lyde

For those Heinz descendants who wonder where all that hair came from:

it’s a Higgins thing.

I have somewhere a couple photos of the Norwich Road farm in Matchwood,

but this is all that was left of it in 1989With her sisters: Dollie, May and DorothyThis photo had no year but I zoomed in and lightened it to see May’s face.Here is May with her two daughters, Carol and Inez,  a happy trio!Lyle and Les out on the farm, possibly the one out on Quick Road in Harbor Springs towards Cross Village.This photo is of Les’s future wife as a young girl, with the house May lived in behind her, at the bottom of the boardwalk in Harbor Springs.

Donna lived across the street and is standing on her own front steps here. I am sure May was able to watch this future daughter-in-law many days!Before moving to the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, May married George John Weyenburg in 1924. George took on Franks children and added one of his own. Here is May at one of my favorite artesian wells, Ramona Park in Wequetonsing, Michigan. I loved to drink the water here myself as a child. May had been born a blue baby and as such was very weak, her brother had to carry her everywhere.

Shortly after her last child, George Weyenburg, was born, her heart problems returned. Here she is with him at the Harbor Springs, bathing beach in 1931.May, or more properly, Mary Louise Higgins Heinz Weyenburg passed away on the 8th of January 1932 in Petoskey, Michigan.

May is seen here with her eldest son Floyd. This picture was always a beloved one by many.

My part of the story comes after my own mothers death. While going through the grieving process a gentleman friend with the gift to visit the other side of the veil at times, texted me.

He never met my mother, nor had I ever talked to him of her except that he heard from the grapevine that she had passed away.

He got online and wanted to chat with me as something had happened.

He said he was on the other side of the veil, in a garden of white flowers, gladiolas.  Two ladies were sittiing visiting, he assumed they were sisters, as they looked the same age. One of them wore those old hats from the ’20’s. He knew one of them was my mother though they had never met.

I sent him the above photograph and he was very excited as it was May talking with my mom and wearing a hat like this one above.

My mother wanted him to get some sort of message to me. She showed him three things.

I had asked him if it had to do with my dad who was missing her terribly.

No, this message was just for me. She got upset when he didn’t understand about a cupie doll ~ she was not using her voice and he wasn’t “hearing” her right.

She showed him a cupie doll, her last birthday gift to me, a place next to the lake with fall leaves: our last trip to Middle Village where she gave me the leaves in a frame for my birthday. And the third was just for me to know.

There is life after death and she loves me, that was her message to me. We had often gone on trips together doing family history, and had more than once talked about who would come back and tell the other that there really is life after death.

She got there first.

Always she would be sad when she talked of her grandma she never knew and how she wished she could just sit and talk with her.

Now she has.

p.s. white gladiolas are my favorite flowers.