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Benbow House, Greensboro, North Carolina, Nov. 18, 1892
Dear Nephew: I have just visited the old neighborhood so often heard about in my boyhood days. I visited the grave of my only sister and that of the only brother of Sarah Kirby resting on a beautiful hill on grandfather Tomlinson's old farm; no others are buried there.
I saw the very spot where my mother was born, raised and married.
I saw the old spring where, in her childhood, she went for water.
Now it is so lonely; no signs of a house, only the corner stones. I
was taken to the house where Sarah Kirby was born 70 years ago. It
is a good old house yet. I was thru it and then drank at the same
old spring, all in good order. From here I was taken to where Grandfather
Jacob Heath lived and where my father, Ralph Heath, was
born and raised. I stood on the very spot where my father, as executor
of my grandfather's will, placed his slaves on the block and sold
them to the bidder who would give them their freedom when they had
worked out their purchase price at so much per month. There are no
buildings there now but all in ruins. From here I was taken across
the hollow one hundred yards to the old Heath family burying ground
in which some have been buried over one hundred years. Five graves
in a row mark the resting place of my grandparents and one uncle.
From here we went to where Robert Heath and father's houses stood
when they started for Indiana. After looking this neighborhood over,
I think every member of our tribe should get down on their knees
and thank the Lord for putting it into father's heart to leave this
country for the North where we have all had greater opportunities.
I have finished my travels through the old neighborhood which is ten miles
north of this old city. I will spend Sunday with John Perdieu,
brother to Abner Perdieu, who lives at Pleasant Garden, six miles south of Greensboro.
He is 95 years old. My dear old wife, Rhoda, God bless her, has a
first cousin living in this city, 72 years old. If the rheumatism
which I have had for several days, let up I will probably leave here
for home next week. With kind regards to all, I remain as ever,