Full birthplace: Retschwiller [French commune of Retschwiller, Canton of Soultz-sous-Forêts, Arrondissement of Wissembourg, Department of Bas-Rhin, Region of Alsace, France]. Emigrated via Rotterdam aboard “Neptune”, arriving at Philadelphia, PA on 30 September 175434.

A copy of a letter from Michael Hechler in Retschweiller, France to his brother, George, in Lower Salford Twp., Montgomery Co. PA, dated 3 May 1784 has been reproduced in the Dotterer Papers, Volume X, pp. 103, 105 (Collections of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, Volume 319). The letter requests the right to dispose of the American brother’s property in the home parish.

Upon his arrival he was quite penniless and could not pay for his passage. He was sold into servitude for eighteen pounds for a period of three years.... In the spring of 1785 George purchased his father-in-law's plantation supposed to contain 243 acres for 2000 pounds in gold and silver....On this tract was quarried some of the best building and flagstone in the township. At one time there was a strip through the upper part of the tract containing about 40 acres....called Heckler's Plain.1

George Heckler was a native of Lower Alsace, on the Rhine, where he was born in 1736. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to learn the tailoring trade, and at eighteen became free from his master, when he was compelled to go on his "wanderscraft " for three years as a journeyman ere (h)e could be permitted to set up for himself. This determined him to flee to America and he arrived in Philadelphia, September 30, 1754 in the ship "Neptune" from Rotterdam. Such was his poverty that he was unable to meet his expenses, and in consequence was sold by the captain to serve three years as a redemptioner.

His purchaser was John Steiner, a German farmer, residing in Coventry Township, Chester Co., opposite the present borough of Pottstown. The sum paid was equivalent to forty-eight dollars of our currency. After the expiration of his service he obtained employment in lower Salford where be married Christiana, daughter of Peter Freed, a substantial yeoman. Such was his industry and frugality that in 1785 he purchased his father-in-law's farm of two hundred and forty-three acres for two thousand pounds. His surplus products, he generally conveyed to the Philadelphia market on horseback. He survived until August 28, 1816, at his death being eighty Years of age, leaving an estate valued between thirty I and forty thousand dollars.35

Served in American War for Independence, Pennsylvania Militia, Bucks County, Hilltown East township, 3rd Battalion, 5th Co., under Lt. Colonel William Roberts & Lt. Col. Robert Robinson (1781), Capt. Mathew Greer 2714.gif at http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/archive.asp?view=ArchiveItems&ArchiveID=13&FID=490191&LID=490290&FL=H&Page=1

At the beginning of the American Revolution (he) bought a 200 acre farm on or near the site of the Mennonite meeting house at Blooming Glen, in Hilltown township, Bucks county. He rendered assistance to the patriots when the Continental army was in and arround Philadelphia....The European branch of the family fought alternately for and against Napoleon, according to the fate of the Alsace and Loraine provinces as determined by the fortunes of the Napoleonic wars.36

A copy of George Heckler's last will and testament, and personal inventory was donated to the Mennonite Historians of Eastern Pennsylvania at the Mennonite Heritage Center in Harleysville, PA by the children of Clarence B. Heckler.