Eli Wilkes Heath

Why have I chosen Eli for this blog?  And why for the first blog?

First, it is his name.  I like names with vowels and ones that seem to be biblical and Eli is just fantastic (my favorite name is Ishmael).  Another reason is the middle name Wilkes - in my school days, there was the usual family tree project.  I was told that in our ancestry was John Wilkes Booth and Robert E Lee.  Now, my maternal grandparents were southerners with deep roots but there isn't a Booth or Lee among them (so far); and, I never knew my paternal grandparents.  So, I guess, I'm just drawn to Wilkes because there is a sense of familiarity.

Second, there is little information about him; and, he is from a period in which we lose my father's family.    Eli is my grand uncle from that side of the family.  It was persistent work chasing down rabbit holes and then there he was, like magic.  Also, in that effort to get more information about him, I visited his grave site this past week.

Eli Wilkes Heath was born on 21 February 1879 in Tennessee.  Our first record of him is the 1880 census when he was 1 year old and he listed as Eli.  He is on line 5 of page 7 of enumeration district 32; and recorded with family 52.  Living with them is his Aunt Catherine Heath and her daughter, his cousin, Annie Heath.  There is also a hireling, Nancy Heath - I haven't found whether she was a family member or just coincidentally had the same surname.  It is on this census that we get the confirmation that he was born in Tennessee.  As a side note, family 56, on the same page, are the Parrishs (sound familiar?).

Another tidbit - the census location is The Heaths, Gibson County, Tennessee when you do a search, even though the pages are marked 1st Civil District, Gibson, Tennessee.  In the past years, the census was often taken at a central location like the Post Office and that may be the case here.  I haven't found the family's property of that time, but perhaps the land was situated at a crossroads for the district.

Because of a fire in Washington, there a few surviving pages of the 1890 Census and where he was recorded was not one of them. 

The next time we see Eli is in Sherman, Grayson County, Texas on the 1900 Census.  He is now listed as Eli W, 21 years old and single.  He is a boarder with the Bradley family; works as a farm laborer, and went without work for 4 months of the past year. It is on this census that we get the confirmation that he was born in February 1879  His younger brother, Norman Hudson (my grandfather), is in another household just above him; and his older brother, Richard, is on a previous page.  There is no record of his parents on the 1900 Census.

Then, the last place we see him is at the cemetery in Ladonia, Fannin County, Texas.  I don't know if he died in Ladonia or that is just his burial site. He died on 8 May 1902.  He would have been 23 years old.  There is no record of him ever marrying or having children.  He is resting in Ladonia Cemetery, Lot 138, Sect 2-A of the IOOF graveyard.

I decided to visit his grave to see if there were any further clues about his life. His marker is a carved tree stump on a short plinth of logs covered in flowering vines.  There is a crest at the top engraved with Woodmen of the World (there is more but I am too short and there is quite a bit of erosion).  The inscription is

Dalhart Camp No 1214

Eli W

Heath

Born

Feb. 21, 1879

Died

May 8, 1902

My Brother,

Thou art gone,

But not forgotten

A couple of things about his burial place and marker.  IOOF stands for Independent Order of Odd Fellows which is an organization founded on the principles of Friendship, Love and Truth; and, to give aid to needy families and neighbors.  There are quite a few cemeteries in Ladonia and Fannin County and Eli is buried in the one maintained by the OddFellows.  Woodmen of the World (WOW) was/is a fraternal benefit society which provides life insurance to its members. Many of those policies included a fixed grave marker. WOW is a lodge type fraternity and they can be broken into chapters or lodges. Dalhart Camp No 1214 could, and probably does, refer to his membership in WOW.

That fraternal society coupled with him being buried in the IOOF cemetery and a farm laborer, leads me to believe that Eli Wilkes Heath was a strong but gentle man.  The inscription added by his brother(s), and the fact that his grave is next to sister-in-law, tells me that he was much loved.