Morgan Pioneer History Binds Us Together Life Sketch of George Heiner George Hehn I was born March 26, 1846, in Baltimore, Maryland. My father, Martin Heiner, was born March 17, 1818, in the town of Waldorf Sax Mein- ungen, Germany. My grandfather, Johannas Heiner, was born October 16, 1777. My great Grandfather, John Jacob Heiner, was born in 1693, and my third great grandfather, Adam Heiner, was born in 1657. All of these were born in the same house, as people did not move around in those days as they do now, but remained in the same town for generations. When mother was about fifteen years old, she and two girl chums agreed to go to a fortune teller. When the girls came for her, her father was putting a piece of cloth in the loom and he needed her help. The other girls went anyway. They asked the fortune teller if he could tell a person's fortune if the person was not there, and he said he could if they could give him the date of her birth. They told him she was born June 11,1815. He figured awhile as he told fortunes by figures, and finally he looked up with surprise and said, "Who is this lady? Where does she live?" They told him she lived in Wasengen. The fortune teller said, "She is an elect lady, she is different from you girls. She will not stay in Germany very long. She will cross the great waters and join herself to another people, yes, a strange people." The girls were so excited with the fortune that they partly forgot their own fortunes. It was shown later that she was different from them for she did cross the great waters and join herself to a strange people called the Latter Day Saints. Father and Mother remained in Germany until four children were bom to them. Father's brother managed to get his father's property and father wanted to sue his brother for part of the property. There was a great deal of talk about America at that time, saying it was a good land to live in. So father and a neighbor of his agreed to come to America. When father's brother heard of this, he met him on the street one day and said, "I hear you are thinking of going to America?" "Yes," said father, "if I can raise enough money, I will go." His brother said that he would buy the tickets and said, "There is a ship lying at the wharf now that is going to America. I will go down and see the captain." When he came back he saw father and said, "That ship will sail for America in fifteen days. I have got your tickets which will include four children. When you are ready, I will hitch the oxen and take you down." On May 18, 1845, they were ready to start for America. Father's brother took them down to the ship and gave them their tickets as agreed. It seemed that he wanted to get rid of them and the trouble about the property. He thought it would be cheaper to buy their tickets than it would be to fight a lawsuit. It looks like the Lord over-ruled these things to get them to come to America. On June 24, 1845, having been forty days crossing the ocean, they landed in Baltimore, Maryland. The next year, March 26,1846,1 was born. Two years later the family moved to Wain.sboro, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. When I was six, I remember going with mother and the rest of the children upon the hills picking huckleberries, blackberries, and dewberries. We would take them to town and sell them for six cents a quart. In the fall we would gather chinkapin nuts and hazel nuts. We sold those, too. In about November 1852, a Mormon missionary, Jacob F. Secrist, from Farmington, Utah, came to the town in which we lived. He stopped to see his father's family, who lived about two miles from us. He was on his way to Germany to fulfill a mission. His sister lived near us. She told mother about a strange doctrine he was preaching and said he was going to hold a meeting that night in Thomas town. When father came home from work that evening, mother told him about the missionary and the meeting. After eating supper, he lighted his lantern and walked three miles to attend the meeting. He noted the Bible quotations the missionary made and upon returning home, he and mother looked them up in the Bible and found them to be correct. Two days afterward another meeting was held. Father and mother both attended and were convinced that he was preaching the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Secrist stayed in Wainsboro about two weeks. When he was ready to leave, father went to him early one morning and said, "Brother Secrist,