William W. Heckman, born on July 28, 1854, in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, was a progressive farmer who managed 160 acres of well-cultivated land across South Dixon and Nelson Townships, Illinois. He moved to Illinois in 1865 with his uncle and established his homestead in 1877. Heckman married Hannah Missman of Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and they had three children: Grace A., C. Eugene, and Walter I. The couple, active members of the Evangelical Church, supported the Prohibition party and advocated for temperance. Their well-improved farm included advanced irrigation facilities, reflecting Heckman’s dedication to modern farming practices.
William W. Heckman is a young man of much natural ability and displays an enterprising and progressive spirit in the management of his farming interests, which comprise eighty acres of land on section 30, South Dixon Township, where he makes his home, and a tract of the same size on section 25, Nelson Township, the whole being under good cultivation, well watered and drained, and subject to excellent improvements.
Mr. Heckman was born in Bedford County, Pa., July 28, 1854, and was there reared until he was eleven years old, when he came to this county with his uncle, with whom he lived until of age. His mother, wife of Talbot Rose, is now living with her husband in the city of Bedford, Pa. She is also a native of Bedford County. She has been a kind and loving mother to our subject, and carefully trained him to a manly and honorable manhood. Mr. Rose, a native of Bedford County, where he has always lived, is a shoemaker by trade, and he and his wife and children have a comfortable home.
Our subject has lived in this county since 1865, and since attaining manhood has identified himself with its farmers and stockmen. He came into possession of his homestead in South Dixon in 1877, and since then has put up a good class of well-arranged farm buildings, and has all the conveniences for tilling the soil and caring for stock. He has excellent facilities for watering his cattle and horses, and on that part of his farm in Nelson Township is a fine artesian well that throws water two and a half feet above the surface.
The marriage of Mr. Heckman to Miss Hannah Missman was celebrated in Nelson Township, and her devotion to his interests and cheerful cooperation in the making of a home, has greatly encouraged him in his work. Their family circle is completed by the three children born unto them: Grace A., C. Eugene, and Walter I. Mrs. Heckman is also of Pennsylvania birth, born in Somerset County, April 20, 1853. She was but two years old when her parents, Gerhardt and Mary (Leydig) Missman, came to this county and settled in Nelson Township. Mr. Missman improved a fine farm of three hundred and twenty acres before he retired to Dixon in 1886, to enjoy the money that he had made by hard work, and he and his good wife are now living in that city in quiet and ease, enjoying in a full degree the respect of all about them. They are the parents of six children, of whom Mrs. Heckman is the second in order of birth.
Our subject is a man of correct habits, has kept his reputation unsullied, and is always to be found on the side of the right. He and his wife are earnest-working members of the Evangelical Church. Politically, they are in full sympathy with the Prohibition party, and believe in legislative measures to suppress the great evil of intemperance.