From: May Heath Saugatuck Book

Early Memories of Saugatuck, Michigan : 1830-1930
Author: Heath, May Francis
Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Grand Rapids, Mich: 1930

JOHN DEITRICH HEUER

For more than half a century a most familiar figure here in the village was one whom everyone addressed as "Dick"; John Deitrich Heuer; he was born in Germany, Nov. 10, 1864, coming to America at the age of four years, with his parents, who settled at Kalamazoo and later lived in Niagara City, N. Y., where Dick was confirmed in the German Lutheran church at the age of eighteen. He then came to Saugatuck where he engaged in the fishing business for many years, living on the west side of the river.

At the age of 25 he was united in marriage to Anna Ohlheiser and to this union were born eight children, seven of whom grew to manhood and womanhood,—viz:—Kittie, William, Gertrude, Edith, Pearl, Joseph and Shelby.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Heuer were original characters in the village activities, and were more than popular with the summer tourists, and they were given more than local fame by the brush of F. F. Fursman, whose portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Heuer have been exhibited in the Chicago Art galleries. Both lived to more than the allotted "three score years and ten" as Mr. Heuer lived to be 78 years and Mrs. Heuer to 82, though each had their share of physical suffering.