Heath - David N.
Source: H. W. Beckwith History of Montgomery County, Indiana. (Chicago: HH Hill, 1881) p. 208
David N. Heath was born May 11.1820, in South Carolina, and is the son of Joseph and Rebecca (Jackson) Heath both natives of the same state.
His parents were large planters and owned from 150 to 175 acres.
They were members of the Old Baptist Church. His father died when he, David, was an infant.
He had been a life-long democrat of the Calhoun stripe.
David N. Heath left his native state in 1837, and went to Boyle County Kentucky, and attended common school, then Center College at Danville. September 29, 1841, he was married to Mary J. Walker, daughter of Harrison Walker, from Culpepper County, Virginia.
She was born in 1823. Her father was a plain, stern Virginian, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church over sixty years, and died in Crawfordsville in 18689, at the age of eighty-three, never having been sick a day in his life. He had been a whig and a republican. He came to Putnam County, Indiana, in 1859, and to Crawfordsville in 1867.
He was a great reader, a lover of history and devoted to his bible.
Her mother, Katy Thomas Walker, a native of Kentucky, still lives at tile age of eithty-seven.
Mr. and Mrs. Heath have four children Mahala C., Henrietta C., James I. and Maria L. Both are members of the Methodist Church.
Mr. Heath was a whig prior to the war, but since has been an active democrat.
His business career has been a varied one, sometimes fortunate and sometimes disastrous.
From 1850 to 1855, with his brother, he dealt in mules and horses as extensively as any other two men over the mountains.
In connection with G. F. Lee, of Boyle County, Kentucky, he undertook to monopolize the sugar mule trade in New Orleans, but failed.
In 1859 he moved to Greencastle, Indiana, and engaged in the livery business.
He bought 107 extra fine horses and ninety-three fine mules in Kentucky, walked them over the mountains to South Carolina, and the war coming on he sold twenty-four for cash and the rest on time.
The latter he lost altogether by the war.
During the rebellion he bought and sold government provisions, and at its close lie went to Bourbon County, Kentucky, and settled.
From thence he, with W. F. Jinkins, of Indianapolis, went to Montgomery County, Alabama, and planted 1,050 acres of cotton and 450 acres of corn.
In this speculation they lost about $38,000 in one year.
He then traded in mules and horses in Kentucky and sold in Columbus, Mississippi, till 1873, when he came to Crawfordsville.
Here he opened a private stable and bought and shipped horses to New York for two years, then engaged in the livery business in Chicago, where he again lost all he had.
He returned to Crawfordsville and continued to buy and ship horses.
In July 15, l880, he leased the boarding, feed and sale stable on Pyke street, at which place he is now doing business.
Mr. Heath is a member of the order of Masons.