Moritz Markus Heller

Got US citizenship in 1840-1843. Oddfellow Member in Woodstock, VA 1848. Was one of the first 33rd Degree Masons in the US. Shakman Katz inherited the regalia. (As of 1990, Mary Katz Burack doesn't know where it is.)

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Moritz's wife, Paulina, died in childbirth and the child also died. Rather than marry again he decided to go to America. Moritz Heller may have been in Shenandoah County, Virginia by 1838 but returned to Bohemia to get his brother Adolph. They arrived back in Baltimore, Maryland, together 1 October 1840. They applied for a merchant license in Shenandoah County as "Heller and Brother" 10 March 1841 and were advertizing a "carefully assorted Supply of Fall and Winter Goods" in The Sentinel of the Valley a weekly published in Woodstock, in October 1841. At that time their store was in the village of Maurertown but about 1848 they moved it into Woodstock, VA . As their business prospered eventually many of their nephews and their brother Herman and his family settled in Woodstock and surrounding communities. Moritz took the oath of citizenship in the Shenandoah County Court, 12 June 1843. He produced a certificate from Maryland indicating that he had registered his intent there (One had to be a resident for five years beefore they could become a citizen and the time was counted from the date of the official statement of intention).
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Moritz is the Moritz Heller (and son of a wealthy farmer, mentioned on p. 3 of the attached document, letter from Adolph Shakman.

That letter says he was the oldest son and was sent to Vienna and graduated as Doctor of Philosophy with high honors. He was sent to America to escape Mitary duty. He took his brother Adolph [Heller] with him. They landed in Baltimore and drifted to Woodstock, Shenandoah, Virginia.

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