BioA: Hein, Mr. and Mrs. W. F. (Golden - 1957)

Contact: Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Email: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 
 

Surnames: Hein, Phillips, Jeffrey, Bills   
 

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI.) September 26, 1957 
 

Hein, Mr. and Mrs. W. F. (Golden - 1957) 
 

Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Hein of Humbird, who "sort of sneaked away to get married" 50 years ago, will observe their golden wedding anniversary Sunday.  They will hold open house in the Methodist Church from 2 to 4 p.m. Their two children, Beth Jeffrey of Lemmon, S. D., and Col. Neil Hein of Fort Meade, Md., both expected to be home to join in the celebration. 
 

When the Heins "sneaked away" a half century ago, it wasn’t that they were doing something to which their parents might object.  After all, they were 24 and 21 years old - and in the eyes of the law, eminently old enough to be responsible for them.   
 

But the fact was that they were trying to make as little noise about it so that their friends of the Humbird area wouldn’t have a chance to pull any of their favorite pre or post wedding tricks. 
 

"We regretted it when we got back from our honeymoon," Mr. Hein mused the other day.  "They pulled a really big charivari on us." 
 

Mr. Hein and his bride-to-be, Kittie L. Phillips, ran off to Merrillan, where they were married in an unusual 6 a.m. wedding in the Methodist parsonage by the Rev. Burton Sills.  The early hour was part of he young couple’s scheme for getting away unnoticed, and they boarded a Green Bay and Western train at 7 a.m. for La Crosse.  
 

They spent their honeymoon in Prairie du Chien and in Mrs. Hein’s old home town, Mount Sterling, and then returned home to Humbird to face the music - of beaten dishpans, cow bells, and almost anything that would make noise.   
 

In his early years Mr. Hein worked for his father and brother in the feed mill which is near his home and now is owned by Herbert Green.  But in 1911 he became the rural mail carrier, a job which he held for 32 years. Starting in the horse and buggy days, he continued through the transition to the automobile. 
 

His route at first was 25 miles long, and he covered it with horse and buggy in six to seven hours, from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.  Sometimes, in the winter, it took him two or three hours longer; but he recalls only once of his return being as late as 6 o’clock. 
 

But as the automobile came in, the route was expanded, until it became an automobile route of 47 miles.