During his youth, he served as a page for the U.S. Senate, and was a playmate of Tad Lincoln.
Before moving to Arizona in 1878, he worked as an attorney and in the mining industry in Colorada.
[1][5] In 1903, he was one of the founders of the Globe Mining Company,[6] and served as their president.
[7] While still president of the Globe Mining Company, in 1908 Hechtman also founded The Western Company, which would be engaged in the "manufacture, import, export, buy, sell, distribute, store, warehouse and generally deal in goods, wares and merchandise, meats and provisions, drugs and chemicals, heavy and shelf hardware and property of every class and description.
At the time of his death, he had the distinction of being the oldest living former U.S. Senate page.