Heath, Massachusetts Veterans' Memorials

This post is part of the Honor Roll Project. Please visit here to see other transcriptions by volunteers in honor of our nation's veterans. The memorials for Heath's veterans are arranged on the common in the center of town. These photos were taken in November of 2018.

The central stone carries a 2017 dedication to veterans of all wars.

The plate affixed to a rough stone has the names of those who served in the early wars.

Revolutionary War

Charlemont Hill/South Heath

1775-1783

John Brown              Perley Hunt                    Solomon Temple    

William Brown         Benjamin Maxwell        Jonathan Thayer             

Francis Buck             Hugh Maxwell               Silas Thayer        

John Buck                 Reuben Rugg                  Silas Thompson  

William Buck            Edward Skinner             Josiah Warfield      

James Butler             Ashel Thayer                  Asaph White

Nathaniel Corbett    Dependence Thayer      Benjamin White

Joel Davidson           Jonah Thayer                 Luke White

Josiah Davidson       Salmon Temple

Valentine Harris       Seth Temple 

War of 1812

1812-1815

Amos Brooks                             David Snow                       

Abijah Gleason                          Benjamin Temple
Eli Gould                                     John Temple
Clement Porter                          Solomon Temple

Civil War

18161-1865

Henry D Barber               Charles Hamilton            Henry Rushmmore
Lemuel Bolton                 Thomas F. Harrington    William N. Sessions
William H. Bolton           Timothy M. Harrington  Elmer W. Spencer
Martin O. Brown             John L. Harris                  Herman A. Spooner         
Frederick N. Burton       Arthur W. Hall                  Edwin Sumner
Aaron Cady                       Almon Hawkes                Abraham Tanner
Nathan Chaffin                Wesley Hawkes                Amos Temple 
Patrick Connelly              John L. Hawks                 Henry H. Temple       
Lysander D. Estee           Henry B. Kinsman          William H. Temple
Edwin Fairbanks             Moses Lancaster              Aaron Trask
Luzern Fairbanks            Algernon Mandell           Horace A. Tyrerell
Adoniram J. Gleason      John Palmer                    John H. Underwood
Edward H. Gleason         Elisha Porter                    Sanford Underwood
Samuel K. Gleason          Charles F. Powers           Flavil Woodward
Thomas S. Gleason         Richard Powers
Samuel S. Gould              Charles H. Robbins

                        Spanish American War 1898

Alonzo Caswell       Fred Peon       Michael Smith       Walter Tole

The next carries the names of veterans from the two World Wars:

World War I 1917-1918

Louis Lively                     George W. Newton

Henry Lively                    Andreas E. Royer

World War II 1941-1945

David P. Beighley                       Emile T. Giard               Cleon J. Peters

Frank S. Brown                          Joseph L. Giard              Ernest H. Royer

Alton W. Churchill                    James J. Halfpenny       Louis E. Rundo

Harlow W. Churchill                 Patrick J. Halfpenny     Frederick A. Smith

Harold R. Churchill                   Henry M. Jenkins          Marshall E. Smith

Robert F. Coates                         Austin A. Leise               Richard H. Tanner  

Kenneth W. Crowningshield    John J. Leise                  Richard E.Thompson

Leonard J. Decota                      Armand M. Lively          Victor Vreeland

David J. Giard                             Bernard R. Lively           Frank D. Winters

David A. Giard                            Douglas M. Packard

The last plaque updates the WWII names and adds others who have served in more recent conflicts, including women, for the first time.

World War II (additional)

Harlow Churchill                  William Greene                  Alton Dewitt Ryan

Beatrice Nada Corey             Ada Mae Landstrom 

Korean War 1950-1953

Paul Begley                                  Russell Hillman               Thomas Sheridan

Craig Chattin                               Francis Jarrabeck            George A. Stetson

Donald H. Crowningshield       Edwin Lively                    Herbert S. Stetson

Richard Crowningshield           Maurice J. Lively             Gilbert Wilson

David J. Giard                             John MacDonald 

James R. Giard                            Bruce Patterson

John Giard                                   Frederick Russell

Vietnam War 1964-1973

Wendell T. Brown                      Alvin M. Hillman            Raymond F. Rice

Ralph E. Churchill                     Francis R. Kinsman        David F. Richardson

Arthur W. Crowningshield      Hormidas A. Lively         Leland Sherman

William E. Crowningshield     Michael T. Lively             Peter G. Smith

Richard E. Cutter                      Kris Matyas                       Roy C. Smith

Edwin H. Decker                       Fred H. Pazmino              Charles Stetson

Raymond J. Galipo                   Michael W. Rainville       Neil Stetson

                                                                                                   Robert Tanner

Veterans of Conflicts Since Vietnam

Panama 1989-1990 * Desert Storm 1991 * Bosnia 1992-1996 * Afghanistan 2001-2014

Daniel Borke            Sean P. Rabbitt                  Michael Smith

Ian Gallup                 Andrew Saunders             Joseph E. Thane

Fred Law                   Keith Sherman                  Lara R. Thane

Corey Lopes              Eli M. Smith

Veterans Serving Between Conflicts

Earle Crowningshield                 Raymond Giard            Felix Lively

Francis W. Crowningshield       Richard Giard               Levi Lively

Donald Giard                                Alexander Lively          Malvin Lively

See the World

Historic research often makes us think in a completely new way about events that we thought we understood. Civil War enthusiasts may favor a general or a campaign, and the imagery of mass casualties is striking. I have a Civil War story in my family history, complete with documents from the soldier's file. But some recent research I did for a friend gave me a new slant on Naval service during the Civil War.

John J. Lambert was 36 when he was enumerated in the 1860 census of Kittery, Maine with his family, which included his wife Hannah and seven children . The older children were born in New Hampshire. Kittery is a coastal town on the New Hampshire border. I was able to follow the family in the census from 1850 to 1900, when John was 74, widowed, and living with a grand daughter in Kittery.

Although I didn't expect to find an 1890 record, an Ancestry.com search turned up the 1890 Survivor's Schedule, which listed John Lambert among the veterans. Instead of a Company or Regiment, his listing contained the word "Kearsarge."

A Google search yielded a series of descriptions of the steam-powered sloop of war, and later name-sakes. John J. Lambert was a fireman on the ship which was built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. She was 201 ft. long with 34 ft. beam and 14 ft. draft, built under the 1861 American Civil War emergency shipbuilding program and launched September 11, 1861. John served from January of 1862, when she was commissioned and soon after left for European waters, under Captain Charles W. Pickering, hunting for Confederate raiders.

A book entitled “Civil War Papers Read Before the Comendary of the State of Massachusetts, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States” published in 1900, gives a first-person account of its duty. They sailed to Spain and kept watch on the CSS Sumpter at Gibraltar for several months, then spent the later part of the summer of 1862 in the Atlantic waters around the Azores. From December to March they were in the Spanish port of La Carracas being repaired. They spent several months off Brest, waiting for the CSS Alabama. John Lambert's record says his service ended in October of 1863, before the decisive battle with the Alabama in June of 1864.

From this information we can picture the family man from Maine sailing into unfamiliar waters and spending time in Spain in 1863. That is a very different picture of the Civil War than I have every had. How did he return home? The 1890 schedule says he had bronchitis. He lived for more than 30 more years, so his illness was cured. What were the stories he told his children and grandchildren in later years?

You Say Potato, I Say Potaaato; When it's Carved in Marble it's Forever

Alternate spellings sometimes make a researcher wonder who they are following through the maze of documents. Some name changes were deliberate, due to family arguments or delusions of grandeur. We know that naming patterns of children can sometimes hint at the names of their grandparents. How did you choose your children's names?

George and Sarah Haith were British immigrants in the first half of the 19th century, who lived in Springfield, Otsego County, NY with their large family. In various records, the name is spelled Heath, Heith, or Haith, indicating that they may have been illiterate. “Haith” would sound like a cockney pronunciation of “Heath.” George was born about 1800 and Sarah about 1805.

The family first appears in the 1840 census in Springfield, although their children born in the 1830s were said to be born in NY. They do not appear to have owned land. In the 1865 NYS census, Sarah was said to have borne 13 children. Eight are known from census records, born between 1825 and 1849, which would have been Sarah's likely childbearing years. Two sons who are also found in the Otsego County census, born in England, may be among their children:

• Mary, born about 1825 in Lincolnshire, married Dewitt C. Colman about 1844 and had 11 children in Otsego County. Sarah was living with Mary’s family in 1870;
• Edward, born about 1826, married Elizabeth
• John, born about 1827 in England
  
• Dennis, born about 1830 in England, married Mary A. Rhyde;
• Sarah Jane, born about 1833, married Henry Wiltse and moved to Hamilton, NY, mother of pro baseball players “Hooks” and “Snake” Wiltse;
• Ann E., born about 1839, married Tunnis V. Leroy after 1855 when she was working as a dressmaker and living with her sister Mary;
• Henry, born 1841 in Otsego County, married Martha O. Willsey before 1865;
• Albert C., born in Springfield, NY in 1842
• Fannie, born 1843, married Eugene O. Ayres
• Prudence born 1849 in Otsego County, was said to be “idiotic by fits for 16 years” in the 1865 census. By 1870 she is no longer listed with her mother, and it is not known what happened to her.

At least one son served in the Civil War. Albert C. Heith mustered into Company D of the 152nd Regiment of NY Infantry at Mohawk, NY on 15 October 1862. He gave his occupation as a farmer, and was listed at 6 feet 2 ½ inches tall, light complexion, blue eyes, brown hair. He was appointed as Corporal on 20 September 1862, after enrolling for three years on 18 August in Springfield. He was promoted to Sergeant on 12 March 1863. On 19 September 1863 Albert was detailed as Sergeant of the Guard at the Headquarters of the Provost Marshal of the Fifth District in New York City. Nine “substitute volunteers” were committed to his custody, three of whom escaped. He was charged, reduced from the rank of Sergeant to Private, and placed under arrest. Parker D. Fay, Captain of Company D, vouched for his character, stating that he had never been “censured or reprimanded” in the past. On 3 November the prisoner was received at Fort Columbus NY. By the time the muster roll was entered for March/April 1864 he had been promoted to Corporal once again (April 24). On 5 May 1864 Albert was mortally injured at Wilderness, Virginia. Three officers and 10 enlisted men died in battle; 36 were injured. Albert was one of the four who did not recover. He died on 12 May 1864.

Henry Haith named his son Albert C. Heath in 1869.

George died 20 February 1869. Although his headstone gives his age as 56, census records indicate he would have been 69.

Sarah R. Haith died 25 January 1874, aged 69, and is buried in the Springfield Center cemetery on Route 20. In 1870 she had been living with her daughter Mary Colman in Middlefield, but she is also listed with Sarah Wiltse's family as a “domestic servant.”