A
Manuscript Copy of the
Biography of CHANDLER GRAHAM
HEATH (1795-1888) of Fryeburg, Oxford, ME;
Barrington, Strafford, NH;
Chatham or Conway, Carroll, NH; and Mineral Point, Iowa, WI
Chandler Graham Heath
In the last Record, brief
mention was made of Chandler
Graham Heath, recently
deceased. He was the oldest man
in this Pequawket Region. A few
evenings since, Mr. Heath, a
picture of whom, taken for a few
years a go, accompanied this
sketch, returned to his Eastern
home after an absence of three
years in the West. His arrival
here was quite a surprise to his
kinsmen and neighbors, he being
so advanced in years that it was
not expected he would ever again
come East.
With the snows of ninety-two
winters resting upon his brow it
was not expected, though hale
for a person of his extreme age,
he would have the courage to
leave his children in the West
and start out alone on a fifteen
hundred mile journey to see the
few remaining friends of his
early home.
It has been truly said there is
no person, however humble his
lot, in whose life there is no
incidents of interest to the
world. This being the case,
what shall be said of a person
whose term of years has well
nigh filled a century, whose
theater of action has been the
continents, seas and even the
globe, and has participated in
many of the grand enterprises,
marvelous events, and exciting
scenes that have marked the
century now drawing to a close.
It would not be exaggerating to
say that nations have been born,
acted their little part on the
stage of human affairs, and
passed away without leaving a
deeper impress upon the sands of
time that has been produced by
some individual lives; and the
faithful biography of some
individual characters celebrated
for their devotion to humanity,
liberty, art, science, religion,
and progress would make a volume
a thousand fold more interesting
than the entire history of some
nations that have encumbered the
earth.
We are about to give a
biographical sketch of a man
whose life, though was unknown
to fame has been intimately
connected with some of the
leading events of our nation's
history.
He was not an orator whose
eloquence has charmed the
multitude s, but "the round
unvarnished tale" of the strange
scenes in which he has
participated and of which he has
enacted a part is not less
thrilling than the orator's most
impassioned periods. His life
has been one of toil, hardship,
privations, and danger, and has
been marked by noteworthy
incidents and startling events.
His book education was meager
but natural power of mind were
good and his knowledge of human
nature remarkable acute.
On his recent sixty-hour ride
of over fifteen hundred miles,
he rode without sleep, his only
sustenance being a buffet of
cake, sandwich, and sausage
stowed away in his carpetbag.
Upon his arrival here he
proceeded to one of the country
stores where he was kindly
invited by the keeper to go with
him to the house and get a good
square meal and a night's
refreshing rest. He firmly
declined the invitation,
however, stating that he wanted
to get home, and had not the
merchant insisted upon hitching
up his team and taking him to
his destination, he would have
walked the four miles, which he
had to go.
Mr. Heath was born in Rumford,
Oxford County, Maine, Oct. 17,
1795. About the year 1800 he
came with his parents to Conway,
NH on the place now occupied by
Charles Lewis, it being
also the birth place and
ancestral home of the writer.
He belonged to a hardy and long
lived family and was fortunate
in inheriting an iron
constitution. He was the fifth
of nine children and was the
sole survivor of them all. His
brother John W. Heath, a
soldier in the War of 1812, died
about a year ago at the advanced
age of ninety-five years. (His
father Benjamin Heath,
who lived to the age of ninety,
served seven years as a
Revolutionary soldier, a portion
of the time being a servant to
General Washington. He was
brought up the well-known and
somewhat eccentric Col. David
Page, one of the pioneer
settlers of "Seven Lots" men of
Fryeburg, Maine.)
The mother of the subject of
this article is Dolly Wyley
(Willey) Heath, who died in
1850 at the age of eighty-five
years, being an ancestor of the
Wiley (Willey) family who
perished in the famous White
Mountain slide of 1826.
When six or seven years old,
Mr. Heath came to this
village to live with Dr.
Griswold, a well known
physician, who practiced
medicine in Fryeburg and
vicinity for many years, and
remained with him four years.
While living with
Dr.
Griswold, he attended the
academy at the base of Pine
Hill, where Daniel Webster
was preceptor in 1802, and was
the last survivor of those who
were pupils in the old building
where the great expounder taught
the young idea how to shoot.
(See picture of building in
Fryeburg, Webster Memorial,
facing page 31)
At the age of ten or twelve Mr.
Heath went to live with Edward Watson, where he
remained about two years. He
says while there, he was many
times called to tend the ferry
across the Saco River, Watson's
Bridge not then having been
built.
When he left
Mr. Watson,
he went to live with Harry
Osgood, a well-known citizen
of Fryeburg in the early part of
the century. He subsequently
went to Waterford, in this
county, to learn the carpenter's
trade.
The embargo with its hard times
soon followed and his employer
was imprisoned for debt. Ere
long the tocsin of war sounded
and young Heath, filled with
patriotic fervor, enlisted in
the service of his country,
going as a substitute for David Hardy, on Fryeburg
quota, and receiving the
magnificent bounty of twenty
dollars.
Inheriting a strong love of
adventure he thus early started
out as the sequel proved, on a
venture full of change, novelty,
hardship, and danger. Returning
to New Hampshire at the
expiration of his term of
service, which was short, he
went into the White Mountain
Notch and hired out with Rosebrooks at twelve dollars
per month, while there he caught
mink and muskrat enough to make
his pay amount to twenty dollars
per month. He thought this was
better than soldiering as he
could make but eight dollars a
month at that business.
Soon after this he thought he
would try his hand at a sailor's
life, and in 1815 (April), he
enlisted in the Navy and went
out under Commodore Decatur to
fight the Algerian pirates.
Here he had new experiences and
his eyes looked upon strange
scenes. Decatur made quick work
of the pirates who had attacked
our merchant vessels and
enslaved our seamen.
Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli
soon yielded to the demands of
our brave tars, giving up their
prisoners, relinquishing all
claims for tribute from the
United States and paid full
damages for property taken and
destroyed.
The corsairs being subdued, the
rest of the time Mr. Heath spent
in the Mediterranean waters
visiting the historic and
classic lands bordering on the
great sea.
Sicily with her ancient cities
of Palermo and Syracuse was
visited, and Naples with her
matchless bay met his enraptured
gaze. He saw the ruined city of
Pompeil and Herculaneum, and the
lofty peak of Vesuvius and Aetna
belch forth their thunders and
fiery streams before his
astonished vision. In sad
contrast with these pleasant
recollections and almost making
he blood freeze in ones veins
are the harrowing tales he told
of flogging in the navy in the
days when the barbarous
practice, more cruel that the
wars direct woes, was in vogue.
Soon after leaving the navy he
returned home and in August 13,
1820 was married to Lydia
Wyman, a niece of the
philanthropist, Abiel
Chandler, who endowed the
Chandler Scientific School of
Dartmouth College. Mr. Chandler
gave his niece, Mrs. Heath, a
section of land at Mineral
Point, Iowa County Wisconsin.
With her Mr. Heath wended his
way thither in 1842 and made a
new home on this tract, then the
extreme West.
Here he "roughed it," out from
civilized society, from
railroads, and from comforts of
his early home until 1849 when
news of the discovery of gold in
the new Elderado spread over the
country. The fabulous stories
of sudden accumulations of
wealth and of the lumps of gold
that could be had for the
picking up, set his ambitious
heart on fire, and like many
another in those pioneer days
the gold fever took complete
possession of him at once.
But a little time was lost in
the packing up of his household
goods and starting with a slow
ox team on the four months
journey over the plains. So
great had been the gold
excitement, even at that early
day the trail had already become
a thorough-fare. The prairie
schooners with their man
attendants resembling a huge
caravan and the dead mules,
horses and cattle, with the
broken down and abandoned teams
and wagons, in appearance,
marking the line of retreat of a
lately defeated army.
Their route lay through Salt
Lake City where they stopped two
days for rest and repairs. The
little band of Mormons had then
just pitched their tents in the
beautiful valley having marched
thither in the dead of Winter
with nothing but white cotton
tents to protect them.
Mr. Heath has been much of a
traveler and has seen much of
the world. He has visited the
Pacific slope not less than 4
times and has spent years
hunting for the shining ore and
cultivating the soil.
After many years roaming o'er
land and sea he seemed delighted
in the evening of his life to
greet the friends of his youth,
to look on the early home and
scenes of childhood.
Copied from the "Oxford County
Record"
Fryeburg, Maine February 11,
1888
===============================================================
OBITUARY
OF CHANDLER GRAHAM HEATH
Probably from the "Oxford County
Record", Fryeburg, Maine
(Publication date unknown but
after 2 Feb, 1888)
Died at Chandler's on Green
Hill, three and half miles from
Fryeburg, N.H. It is thought
that he was of English parents.
Following are the names of his
brothers and sisters; Lewis,
Ben, John, Oliver, and George. One sister married
Mr. Haley, and another
sister married Mr. Stevens
at Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. His
father, Benjamin Heath
was in the Revolutionary War for
7 years.
"The State of New Hampshire,
Vital Statistics"
Chandler
G. Heath of Batchelder's
Grant, N.H. and Lydia Wyman
of Chattam, N.H. Intention
filed: August 13, 1820
By whom married: David
Badger, Chatham. Justice of
the Peace.
Date of Marriage: Aug. 13,
1820, Chatham N. H.
==============================================================
Washington D.C. War Record of
the War of 1812
CHANDLER G. HEATH
Chandler C. (G.) Heath served in
the War of 1812 as a member of
Matross in Capt. Phillip
Eastman's Company of
Artillery-Massachusetts Militia,
called into service for the
defense of the town of
Portland. His name is born on
the company muster roll for the
period from September 11 to 24,
1814, dated at Portland Nov. 23,
1814, which shows that his
service commenced September
12th, 1814 and that he deserted
September 25, 1814. His place
of residence was Fryeburg
Maine. No record found of the
service of any other man named
Chandler Heath.
Signed:
C.H. Bridges, Major General
Compiled by Nettie White
Wolcott, August 1958
Transcribed to text file by
Karen Heath Penman, Ogden, UT
mailto:[email protected],
June 2000
