William Hayes Hedden
b. 21 May 1877, Taylor Township, Harrison County, Indiana, to Benjamin Franklin and Anna Mae (Fertig) Hedden
d. 9 August 1964, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky

m. 9 June 1909, Ellensburg, Kittatas County, Washington
Myrtle Alice Pittock
b. 26 March 1882, Falls City, Richardson County, Nebraska, to Henry and Alice Cary (Elwell) Pittock
d. 13 January 1980, Sunland, California

William emigrated from Taylor, Harrison County, Indiana, to Red River, Kittson County, Minnesota, about 1900.

Children with Myrtle Alice Pittock:

• Wilbur Hayes (1911–1911)
• William Harold (b. 1913) married (1) Ellen Eva DeBook, (2) Irene Archuletta Naranjo, (3) Mary Fernandez Powell, (4) Anna Elizabeth Smith
• Harvey Pittock (1914–1950)
• Wilma Hazel (b. 1916) married Kenneth G. William
• Benjamin Franklin (1926–1928)

William H. Hedden’s grandparents, George Washington and Elizabeth Malone Hedden of Kentucky, were the first inhabitants of their Harrison County, Indiana, wilderness farm after the Potawatomi Indians left. Their son Benjamin Franklin, who was born in Kentucky, was the first of their twelve children. Their second son, George Washington Heddon, Jr., born on Heddon Hill in southern Indiana, was fatally wounded on the first day of the Battle of Nashville during the Civil War.

William Hayes Heddon, sixth child of Benjamin Franklin Heddon and the first of his second wife Anna Mae Fertig, told of how his family raised fruit, pork, and other farm produce. They would have relatives and neighbors come to stay during harvest and butchering times to help. Then the family produce would be taken by team and wagon to Rosewood, a shipping point on the Ohio River. William would go on the steam paddle wheeler with the produce, which was packed in locally manufactured wooden barrels, to the market nineteen miles up river at Louisville.

During one of these harvest seasons, the Heddon home, a large timber building, caught fire in the middle of the night. The family threw everything out of windows on the second story and dragged as much out of the first floor as they could. The disaster nearly ruined Benjamin Franklin Heddon, who built a much smaller house on the spot.

Submitted by:
William Harold Hedden
Arvada CO