FRED HECHT

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For over a half century Fred Hecht has been actively engaged in business in Cedar county, where he has made his home since 1855. The years chronicle the progress he has made and his fellow citizens bear testimony of the honorable and progressive methods which he has pursued in all of his business relations. He was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, February 13, 1836, and is a son of John Hecht, a native of Germany, born in the year 1800, who spent his youthful days in that country and was there married, January 12, 1826, to Louise Catherine Eisley, who was also born in Germany. Coming to the United States in 1832, they settled in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. Mr. Hecht was a mechanic, who followed the trades of a stone-mason, brick-layer and plasterer while in Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1854 he came to Cedar county, Iowa, and turned his attention to general agricultural pursuits, opening up a farm. Some of his family had preceded him here and reported favorably concerning the condition of the country and its future prospects. John Hecht passed away at Clarence, May 11, 1880, and his wife’s death also occurred in that city on the 11th of August, 1881.

Fred Hecht was reared in Pennsylvania to the age of nineteen years and benefited by the instruction given in the public schools of that state. He started out in life as a clerk in a store in Pittsburg and there received a thorough practical business training that well qualified him for the duties that have devolved upon him in later life. In the spring of 1855 he came to Iowa and engaged in clerking in Tipton, which was then but a crossroads village. He remained there for six years and in 1861 came to the town now known as Clarence. Here he purchased an interest in a general mercantile store and carried on the business until 1885. In connection with the store he also conducted a banking business for several years, opening the second bank in the town of 1885. He owned and controlled the institution until 1894, when it was reorganized under the name of the Clarence Saving Bank with Mr. Hecht as vice president. For some years now he has been engaged in the real-estate business, largely handling Dakota lands. He has embraced his opportunity for judicious investment here and is now the owner of four business houses, one a good brick store building. In 1862 he erected a residence in Clarence and has since lived upon the same lot although he now occupies a large two story dwelling, which he erected and which is one of the best homes in Clarence. It is built in modern style of architecture, is supplied with all modern conveniences and equipments and is one of the most attractive homes of the town.

Mr. Hecht was married in Cedar county, June 8, 1865, to Miss Margaret E. Bossert, a native of Pennsylvania, who was born in Hollidaysburg and is a daughter of Benjamin Bossert, who removed from Pennsylvania to Iowa in 1850. Mr. Bossert, who was one of the early settlers of Cedar county, was born in Marietta, Pennsylvania, October 27, 1813. On the 7th of May, 1839, he was married at Hollidaysburg, to Miss Eleanor Marshall Jones, and in 1850 they removed to Iowa, arriving at Muscatine in June of that year, making the entire journey from Pittsburg by water. They lived in Tipton for nine years and afterward took up their residence on the bare prairie, about four miles northeast of Tipton, where they made their home for twenty-three years. At that time the town of Clarence had not yet been laid out, and there were but few houses between their place and where the town of Tipton now stands, and they were witnesses of the growth of all the farming interests of the entire northern part of Cedar county from the earliest period in the history of this district until the time of their demise, Mr. Bossert passing away at his home in Clarence, July 22, 1882. Mr. Bossert, who was born at Milford, Perry county, Pennsylvania, on the 9th of April, 1811, survived her husband until the 12th of March, 1903, when she passed away at Clarence at the very old age of ninety-two years. Mr. and Mrs. Hecht have three living children and have lost one, Murton P., who died in his second year. Those who still survive are: Winifred E., the wife of J. T. Moffit, a prominent lawyer of Tipton; Eleanor Louise, at home; and Charles B., a business man of Seattle, Washington.

Mr. Hecht joined the Knights of Pythias lodge in Clarence and is now a member of the Tipton lodge. He has filled all the chairs in the local organization, is a past chancellor and has been representative to the grand lodge of the state. Politically a democrat, he has never sought office yet was officially identified with the Clarence schools for thirty years and was town treasurer for a number of years. Through his long residence in this section of the state Mr. Hecht has become well known in Cedar, Jones and Clinton counties. He has always stood for progress and improvement and has cooperated in many measures that have been directly beneficial to the community. In his business affairs he has displayed marked enterprise and ready adaptability, and the results which have crowned his efforts indicate sound judgment, clear discernment and indefatigable energy.