ABOVE LEFT: Brothers William Henry Hecht, left, and Edward Joseph Hecht, right, as boys. They were raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, by their maternal grandparents after the deaths of both their parents, George Joseph and Mary (Grothaus) Hecht, in 1883.
ABOVE RIGHT: William Henry Hecht (1878-1967) and his son Raymond H. Hecht (1915-1986) were photographed May 20, 1965, on the occasion of Raymond's daughter's wedding. William was 87 years old at the time; Raymond was 50 years old.

All photos above courtesy of Hecht descendant Amy Ray.

Pictured above are four Hecht siblings, the children of Henry J. and
Elizabeth (Ziegler) Hecht. Seated in front are Anna Margaret (Hecht)
Leyes (1869-1948) and Charles J. Hecht (1872-1946). Standing in
the back, on the left, is Clara Hecht (1887- >1944). Dorothy "Dora"
Hecht (1874-1964) stands in back on the right.

We have it on good authority that the gentleman in this photo is not
Harry Hecht, as previously thought, but his older brother Charles.
Richard J. Hecht, Charles’s grandson, remembers standing to the
side when this picture was taken, and says that Harry Hecht (1880-1930)
was already dead by that time.

LEFT: Anna Margaret (Hecht) Leyes (1869-1948) sits with a bowl of apples.  RIGHT: This cast iron dutch oven once belonged to Anna (Hecht) Leyes. She would be pleased to know that one of her great-granddaughters still uses it for cooking.

Above, left to right: Dorothy Hecht, Clara Hecht, and Cecilia (Leyes) Jergens traveled to Jersey City,
NJ, in October 1942 to attend the funeral of Gertrude Hecht (1885-1942).  Gertrude was a nun in
the Order of St. Francis of the Poor; her religious name was Sister Flavia.  Dora and Clara Hecht
were Gertrude's sisters; Cecilia was Gertrude's niece.

Cecilia's daughter Margaret accompanied the three older women to NJ.  On the train back to Ohio,
Margaret sat next to a young man in uniform (this was during WWII).  The soldier, smitten, later
sent Margaret a postcard.  Thus began a yearlong courtship which led to their marriage.

This watch belonged to Sister Flavia [Gertrude Hecht] (1885-1942). Her initials (GH) were engraved in script on the front of the watch case (top left). The decorative engraving on the back of the case (right) includes a tiny scene with buildings and trees. The watch case measures scarcely more than an inch-and-three-eighths across.