Mitchell and Catherine Wolff Heintz were both born in Sessenheim, Alsace, France. They married there on October 26, 1830. The family immigrated with their nine children in the 1850s during the second wave of immigration to the village. They settled in the southern part of the township near others from their homeland, such as the Sucher family. They had two more children once they arrived in Downers Grove area. After the parents died in the late 1850s the older children took over running the farm and raising the younger children.
Some of the children moved out of the area when they became adults. Mitchell stayed and fought with Captain Walter Blanchard during the Civil War. He lost his arm in the battle of Vicksburg. He eventually married Catherine Guyler and went into business with George Downer, the grandson of Pierce Downer. Their son Mitchell is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Downers Grove Township.
