Pen Drawing of the Ralph Heath Cabin, built in 1828.
Drawn from memory by Dr. S. W. Heath.
Page 70 - 76
The family spent the winter in this cabin and early the following spring Ralph and his oldest son Albert drove back to Wayne County for supplies, leaving Mary and the three little boys in the cabin. It was three miles to the next cabin. At night the wolves would gather about the cabin and give one of their howling concerts by running around the cabin and jumping against the quilt hung up for a door shutter. The fire, built on the ground in the center of the cabin, kept them from coming in. Bears, panthers and wild cats were frequently seen and heard prowling around the cabin at night. Grandmother told the writer that she counted eleven deer in one drove near the cabin one day while Ralph was away on this trip. They were gone two weeks on account of rains and swollen streams and no bridges leaving grandmother (Mary Heath) in the above environments.
The furniture of the cabin consisted of forks driven in the ground and sticks laid in the forks and in the cracks between the logs; on these were placed a few clapboards and dried grass from the swamp nearby for beds. The cabin was covered with clapboards held on by poles as they didn't have any nails. A few boards were left off at the top for the smoke to escape. The cracks were stopped with moss gathered from old logs and tree trunks. Grandmother said what annoyed her more than anything else was the crying of the panthers which sounded so much like a lost child crying that she wanted to go into the forest and find it. She would keep answering until they would stop crying. Before long another cabin was built on what is now the old Stewart farm. This was built by a Mr. Shawhorn and Grandmother and Mrs. Shawhorn would visit each other and accompany each other to a half way point where they would stop and visit on a big log until they were compelled to get back to get their meals, then they would run for life to keep from being captured by wild animals. It was interesting to hear these old ladies, years after, when they would get together and talk over their pioneer days while smoking their clay pipes. They could tell just what they had to eat forty years before. They didn't have the variety to remember that we have now; cornbread, hominy and venison was about the extent of their bill of fare.
Grandfather went out one morning after the horses which had been turned out to browse during the night. He always carried his gun with him and about a quarter of a mile east of the cabin he saw a large buck coming through the timber, so he stepped behind a tree and as the buck came near he gave a sharp whistle and the deer stopped and dropped his life right there. Grandfather knew from the way that one was running there was another not far away, so he loaded his gun and didn't have to wait long until the other deer arrived and stopped to see what had happened to his antagonist. A crack from grandfather's rifle planted him on the same spot.
Father relates that he was sent out for the horses one morning and as usual took the gun along and brought back a wildcat, which he said, when he took it by the hind legs and swung it over his shoulder, its nose touched the ground. All of this seems like delightful sport, but when we think of the deprivations and inconveniences, year in and year out, it becomes very monotonous. Such experiences would do for a summer outing but would not be appreciated as a continual life.
The above pen drawing is the site of the old log cabin only forty years later. The orchard to the left was planted about 1835 and is said to be one of the first in the township. Most of the trees were seedlings; that is they grew from apple seeds planted and not grafted which resulted in a different variety from that planted. A few varieties were afterwards grafted on such as the Orange apple, Bellflower, Vanvier and Vandeview pippin, Rhode Island Greening, Coles Quince or Horseapple and Smith's cider apple. In the upper right corner (of the picture) is the old Heath cemetery where many of the relatives are buried including James Tomlinson and wife, Ralph Heath and wife, James W., John W. and George A. Heath and many old neighbors.
Our last visit to the old farm was some 20 years ago (about 1885) and rummaging around in the garret of the old house we found a package of old letters and papers. One of the letters was dated 1832 and addressed to Ralph Heath from Greensboro, N.C. The letter and envelop was all one sheet of paper and sealed with red sealing wax. The postage was marked on the upper right corner, 25 cents to be collected by the one receiving the letter. In the letter it was stated "you will find enclosed the right half of a fifty dollar bill; the other half will follow in another letter." Compare the above method of sending money with our present methods.
Another document was a petition from Aaron Ross and wife to Judge John Tomlinson who was the class leader of the Methodist class to have James McKimmey turned out of the class or they would withdraw from the class because he had borrowed their gun and kept it longer than two weeks and when he returned it, they refused to accept the gun and wanted him to keep the gun and pay for it which he refused to do - and Mr. McKimmey, not being dismissed - they left the church. Mr. and Mrs. Ross were good people but very sensitive. The old gentleman took the unpopular side of the slavery question and tried to prove by the Bible that a negro had no soul. A Methodist minister who was debating the question with him at the school house before a public assembly made him admit that the two races would mix and demanded of him to state just when they would begin to have a soul. At this, the old man became offended and left. He also attempted to prove by the Bible that the earth was flat. His sons and daughters were all members and active workers in the Methodist church and not in sympathy with their father's peculiar ideas.
Ralph Heath was a bitter anti-slavery man, and just prior to the Civil War he would become very much excited when talking on the slavery question. He died with pneumonia only a few days after the firing on Fort Sumter, 1861, age 69. His wife, Mary, lived until 1876 when she died with old age at the age of 84. Two years prior to her death there was held at the old farm a family reunion which was attended by her five sons, all being together with her for the first time in 25 years. It was the first time we had ever seen people sit and cry for joy as they did. They were all so glad they could not talk. Albert, the oldest, who had been lost for fifteen years supposed to have been killed in the war had suddenly returned and there was great rejoicing. No death had occurred since he had been gone, but the following two years my father, James W., Uncle George and grandmother all died.
Heath Cemetery Listing
Heath, Mary wife of Ralph Heath Died May 20, 1876 Age 78 yrs. 3 mo.
Heath, Ralph Died May 14, 1861 Age 68 yrs. 5 mo. 20 da.
The Muncie News, 21 May 1876
DIED - At her residence on south Monroe Street at five o'clock yesterday morning, Mrs. Mary Heath. The funeral will take place today at Zion Chapel at eleven o'clock. Service by Rev. Benjamin Smith assisted by Rev. W. C. Kegg. Interment at family burial ground.
Mary Heath was born in Guilford county, N.C. where she lived until about thirty years of age. Her father's name was James Tomlinson. She was married to Ralph Heath, November 23, 1815. They lived in North Carolina for thirteen years, when they moved to Delaware county
where they continued to live happily together until May 14, 1861, when they were separated by the death of her husband. They had a family of six children, raising five, all of whom are living save one, James, who passed away about one year ago. There are several grandchildren living. Mrs. Heath was a devoted
Christian, having been a member of the church sixty years. She died with a blessed hope of a glorious resurrection. Age seventy-eight years, three months. "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord."