Henry Heath (Mormon pioneer)

Henry Heath, later years

Henry Heath (November 22, 1828 – April 4, 1908) was a Latter-day Saint (Mormon) pioneer, explorer, settler and lawman in the frontier Utah Territory, United States.

Family and early childhood

Henry Heath was born in Hanley, Staffordshire, England on November 22, 1828, the second of five children^{[note 1]} of John Heath and Barbara Hulme.^[1] Henry’s father was a decorator of fine china. Hanley, commonly known as “the Potteries” was the center of china industry in England and Henry’s occupation in the 1841 census suggests that he may have been headed into his father’s trade. His mother, Barbara, was a cook early in her marriage, and undertook training to become a doctor, but practiced medicine for only a short time.

Shortly after Henry’s birth in 1828, his father, John, became gravely ill with typhoid fever.^[2] The disease was not fatal in John’s case, but it left him debilitated so that he no longer had the dexterity to apply intricate designs to pottery and fine china.

Barbara’s income as a doctor was not sufficient to support their family and so she embarked on a daring business venture for a woman in the mid-nineteenth century—she bought a bakery.^[2] Largely due to Barbara’s industry and business acumen the bakery was a commercial success. Barbara ran the bakery from Henry’s infancy and so Henry was cared for during the day by his father and by his older sister Jane.

In 1834, when Henry was six years old, Nicholas Thomas Silcock (1819–1906) came to live with the Heaths. Silcock’s mother, Ann died when he was about 10 years old^[3] and his father, John Silcock was a carpenter who was in and out of work until his death in 1847.^[4] Aside from the Heaths’ pure charity, it is unclear what circumstances led to Nicholas attaching himself to their family. Silcock would have a significant influence on Henry Heath's life.

Silcock, who went by Thomas in the family, was apprenticed to a master carpenter and would have been well on his way to journeyman status when he married Henry’s older sister, Jane on April 14, 1841.^[5] It is likely that Thomas passed on at least some skills to Henry. The 1841 Census of England and Wales lists Henry (age 12) as working in the potteries and Thomas Silcock as a “joiner.”^[1]

Henry’s father, John, weakened by typhoid, contracted tuberculosis and died on September 8, 1841.^[6]

Mormonism

Thomas Silcock joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on August 24, 1840 after hearing the preaching of early Mormon missionaries in England, among them, Parley P. Pratt and Wilford Woodruff.^[7] Jane joined the church in 1841, but only after struggling to convince her father to allow her to do so. Since he left no known journals, it is impossible to say what his attitude was toward the Mormons as a 10-year-old boy, but the new faith would begin to influence his life almost immediately. When his older sister, Jane, left England in 1842 to join Thomas Silcock in Illinois, Henry’s mother, Barbara, confessed to Jane that she believed the teachings of the church. Barbara made plans to join the Mormons and leave England.

Emigration to Nauvoo

At age 17 Henry departed England with his mother and two brothers on September 1, 1845. Two months earlier his mother, Barbara, had sold her bakery. She packed a bake oven and considerable hardware, purchased passage and with her three boys, Henry, Thomas and Frederick, set sail on the Oregon, landing in New Orleans on October 28, 1845.^[8] They arrived some weeks later in their intended destination, Nauvoo, Illinois, an idyllic city founded by Joseph Smith on a bend of the Mississippi river.

Nauvoo was in turmoil when Henry arrived after the Death of Joseph Smith sixteen months earlier. Since that time, mobs of anti-Mormon agitators regularly harassed residents. By October 1845, the future of the Latter-day Saint settlement at Nauvoo was increasingly in doubt. Pressured by the state militia and continued mob violence, most residents were preparing to depart the city, ultimately for settlement in the American West. (See Mormon Pioneers article.) Edward Hunter and Nicholas Silcock secured a wagon (likely built by Silcock) and trained Henry and the boys to drive teams. They were scheduled to leave Nauvoo in February, but stayed behind with Hunter while he attempted to sell his considerable property in Nauvoo. When that proved futile, Barbara Heath and her three sons left Nauvoo in April, 1846 along with Edward Hunter and his family. The Heaths lived in Nauvoo for only six months.^[9] They traveled to Council Bluffs, Iowa and then on to Winter Quarters at the North part of present-day Omaha Nebraska, arriving in September, 1846.^[10] (Nicholas and Jane Heath Silcock remained behind for one more month while Nicholas assisted in the final work on the Nauvoo temple.)

Orphan

At Winter Quarters, the sudden influx of approximately 2,500 strained local resources. Despite efforts to trade with local residents and American Indians, many suffered from scurvy due to the lack of fresh vegetables in their diet. Still weak from a battle with malaria ("ague") contracted en route from Nauvoo, Barbara Heath contracted scurvy and, “lay ill for fourteen weeks.”^{[11] [note 2]} She died October 20, 1846 from either scurvy or malaria and was buried in an unmarked grave. Her name is listed, however, on a memorial to Mormons who died at Winter Quarters. Barbara’s death left Henry and his two brothers, Thomas and Frederick orphans, camped on the American plains, well beyond what anyone then considered civilization with a group of religious outcasts whose future was far from certain. Henry was 18 years old. Thomas was 15 and Frederick was 13.

Trek to Salt Lake Valley

Edward Hunter became the Heath boys surrogate father. He led a wagon company of 155 people and 59 wagons from Winter Quarters to the Great Salt Lake Valley. Henry, and most likely Thomas Heath, were teamsters in the company. They are listed as members of the company in a letter sent from the trail by Hunter to Church leaders on August 17, 1847.^[12] Henry departed Winter Quarters June 19 and entered the Salt Lake Valley on October 1, 1847.^[12]

Exploration of the Southern Great Basin

By 1849, the Mormon pioneers were well established in the Salt Lake Valley and their leader, Brigham Young, was anxious to branch out. At his request, the territorial legislature commissioned an exploring party to map the country to the south and identify areas that would make good settlements. Parley P. Pratt led the party that departed on Nov 23, 1849.^[13] Henry Heath was one of the 47 men in the company who explored as far south as the confluence of the Virgin River and Muddy rivers (south of present-day St. George, Utah). They traveled over 526 miles, identified more than 26 sites for future settlement, described soil, vegetation and watershed and charted the transportation routes used in settlement. Heath was 21 years old at the time.

The expedition was arduous. They departed at the beginning of winter and soon encountered bitter cold and deep snow. The original plan was to go to the southern end of the Virgin River gorge. By the time they reached the Muddy river, supplies were running low. (Several men on horseback did explore part of the Virgin River gorge.) The return journey was harrowing. As they traveled north, they encountered deep snow that made travel with the wagons extremely difficult. At one point they even removed the wheels from the wagons and attempted to pull them like sleds over the snow.^[13]

In January 1850 the expedition was mired in snow near present-day Filmore, Utah. With supplies running dangerously low, Pratt decided to take about 20 of the infirm, older and married men on horseback and sprint to Fort Utah (present-day Provo, Utah), approximately 100 miles north.^[13] From there he could send a rescue party back to the main body of the expedition. He did so, barely making it to Fort Utah alive. Henry Heath remained with the main body of the expedition bivouacked near Filmore.^[14] They survived mainly on rabbits and sleeping in holes in the snow. Although rescue party was sent back, it was seven weeks before the snow was melted enough to return with the wagons.^[13]

Marriage and family

Henry Heath married Sarah Ann Bird on February 19, 1851 at Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. The marriage was performed by Parley P. Pratt.^[15] Henry and Sara had 12 children born from 1852 to 1878.^{[note 3]} All were born in Salt Lake City, Utah. The oldest, Sarah Malissa died in April, 1861.

Frontier lawman

Henry Heath worked as a law enforcement officer from as early as 1862 until at least 1868. In his own account his describes himself as, “a member of the Salt Lake police force in 1862.”^[16] At least one other account describes him as a Deputy Sherriff.^[17] During that time he participated in several cases that typified the rough-hewn legal system in the American West. The most famous, the apprehension of a grave robber, has been widely embellished, prompting at least one article attempting to debunk some of the more fantastical claims.^[16] Contemporary accounts paint a much less sensational picture.

In 1862, Henry discovered evidence of grave robbery in the city cemetery when following up on the burial of an indigent criminal killed in a shoot-out with other officers. His investigation soon led him to the house of the grave digger, Jean-Baptiste, where he found piles of clothing pilfered from graves in the cemetery. Henry feared that the grave-digger may have disturbed the grave of his daughter, Sarah Malissa, who had died within the last year. He apprehended Baptiste and took him to Sarah’s grave site. Interviewed years later, Henry said he had determined to kill Baptiste on the spot if he had robbed his child’s grave.^[16] Baptiste was able to satisfy Henry that Sarah’s grave was untouched and so his life was spared.

With Baptiste apprehended, Henry's problem quickly turned from revenge to protection. He reported that, “The news of our discovery and Baptiste’s confession spread like wildfire and it was with difficulty that we got him to the county jail in safety.”^[16] Baptiste had been at his macabre misdemeanors for some time and so his crimes touched hundreds in the community. But grave robbing, however repugnant, was not a capital offense, even in the frontier west and Baptiste’s capture posed the problem of how to both protect and punish him.

One of the officers, Albert Dewey, described the community response: “It meant death to him to turn him loose in the community. So, to give him a chance for his life, to save him in reality from an exasperated public, it was decided to banish him and a well-stocked island in the Great Salt Lake was chosen for his future home. He was conveyed there but there was not ball and chain or shackles or gyves of any kind on his limbs. He was absolutely untrammeled.”^[16] Baptiste's forehead was tattooed, "Branded for robbing the dead," with ink, not with hot irons.^[16] Some recent dramatizations of Baptiste's case have his ears being clipped or "docked." Detailed accounts recorded at the time of the banishment have no mention of such treatment.

Contemporary accounts, including Henry Heath’s own, do not indicate whether he participated in Jean-Baptiste’s banishment, but Henry’s involvement with the grave robber certainly ended at that point if not before. None of contemporary sources cited in the Deseret News account, including Heath and Dewey, believed that Baptiste remained on the island for any length of time. Most believe that he drowned attempting to leave the island or that he actually escaped and fled the state.

Later life

Heath continued to work as a law-enforcement officer until at least 1868. During that time he also farmed land in Salt Lake City and worked as a night watchman^[18] to support his large family. He was well known in the community and was celebrated later in his life as one of the original Utah pioneers of 1847. He died in Salt Lake City on March 30, 1908.^[19]

Notes

References