Major William Crow Heath

"The Monroe Cotton Mill was built on the co-operative plan...O.P. Heath is president, J.R. English vice-president, and W.C. Heath secretary, treasurer and manager...The Messrs. Heath, who own a controlling amount of stock in this mill, are interested in several other mills. Since January, 1897, Capt. W.C. Heath has been in active management of the mill, and its success is in a great measure due to his fine executive ability and splendid business methods. In this, Capt. Heath has been very successful, so that today he has 200 operatives who are contented, because they have implicit confidence in their employer. He knows every one of the operatives by name, and if one has a grievance he knows that he can get a patient hearing by Capt. Heath personally...Educated at the Citadel, the famous school in Charleston, he won much reputation as an officer of the State guard, in which he rose to the rank of major. While he was captain of the Monroe company that organization was the best drilled one in the State. He is now a recognized leader among the mill men of the State, and his reputation extends beyond the State in mill circles. He now holds the responsible position of chairman of the board of governors of the Southern Cotton Spinners' Association." (Stack & Beasley 1902)

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W.C. Heath’s uncle Osgood Pierce Heath was born December 26, 1856 in Cureton's Store, Lancaster County, South Carolina to Moses Chappell Heath (1806-1867) and Mary Morrow. O.P. Heath married Annie Lee Potts in 1878. Heath became a banker. They had many children, including Osgood P. Heath Jr., born in 1886. O.P. Heath Sr. committed suicide on February 28, 1916.

William Crow "W.C." Heath (1866-1937) was the son of Allen Watson Heath (1840-1906) and Nannie J. Crow. (Allen Watson Heath was the brother of O.P. Heath Sr.)

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W.C. Heath in Confederate Uniform
Since he graduated from the Citadel
in 1866, he may have been dressed
for some sort of ceremony or photo op.

William Crow Heath Biography from North Carolina, Secretary of State, North Carolina Manual, Volume 1925.

“William Crow Heath, Democrat, Senator from the Nineteenth Senatorial District. Born in Union County, November 24, 1866. Son of A. W. and Nannie J. (Crow) Heath. Received his education in the following schools: Common schools till 1876; Professors Hodges and Scroggs, 1877-1879; A. R. Banks preparatory school at Fort Mill, S. C, 1880-1881; Kings Mountain Military Academy 1882; South Carolina Military Academy 1882-1886; Bryant and Stratton Business College, Baltimore, 1887. Graduated from The Citadel in Class of 1886 as A.B. and C.E., and from Bryant and Stratton in 1887. Merchant. Manufacturer and Farmer. Member American Cotton Manufacturers Association, president of same 1904-1905; President Southern Carriage and Vehicle Manufacturers Association, 1907-1908; President First National Bank, Monroe, 1907-1908; Vice-President Piedmont Wagon Company, Hickory, 1900-1902. Captain Monroe Light Infantry, National Guards 1890-1894. Major First Battalion, 4th Regiment N. C. National Guards, 1895-1897. Member General Assembly session 1923-1924, Senator. Methodist. Married Miss Alice Armfield November, 1887. Address: Monroe, N.C.”

Major Heath was a champion of Confederate veterans, heading up the local veteran’s group, Camp Walkup, for many years. He and his daughter, Lura, arranged many of the trips for the veterans to the national reunions. Lura Heath was Jesse Helms' first grade teacher (1928). She died in 1971 at the age of 80; she never married.

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Osgood Pierce Heath House circa 1897 Waxhaw Weddington Roads Historic District; Junction NC 75, NC 84 and West Franklin St. (National Register 1998)

"The Heath House is located in the triangle formed by the Waxhaw and Weddington Roads, set well back from the intersection, but with an allee in front of the building. Two stories of frame construction, the house is in the Late Queen Anne style. Its asymmetrical massing consists of a high hipped-roofed cube merged with a gable-roofed rectangle on the north, and with an engaged two and a half-story octagonal tower on the southeast corner. At the southeast corner of the house is a hipped-roofed one-story wing, and at the rear is a gable-roofed one-story kitchen wing surrounded by one-story porches and rooms.

"The front and side elevations of the house have a one-story veranda of widely-spaced Tuscan columns on paneled pedestals. The front steps are covered by a projecting extension of the veranda, which also breaks out into a semi-circle on the north side. Like the main cornice of the house, the veranda cornice has a prominent dentil course. Narrow novelty siding sheathes the house. The roof is of grey slate with strips of octagon butt shingles, and the attic level wall of the tower is also covered with octagon-butted slate. There are large, corbelled-capped internal chimneys on the north and south sides.

"Most of the house's windows are tall and narrow with one over one sash in simple classical frames. However, the front gable has a Palladian window in the attic, the tower has rectangular, fixed windows, and on the north elevation is a small stained glass window high on the wall of the projecting bay that forms the dining room.

"On the interior, the first floor is organized into a series of sequential spaces opening into each other. There is a large entrance hall with paneled wainscot, a classical mantel with an overmantel, and an elaborate staircase that is separated from the rest of the room by a screen of square columns topped by an elaborate spindled fringe. The closed-string stair ascends a half-story to a stage-like landing with a bowed face and a railing of turned balusters. At the south side of the house are three parlors divided from each other by sets of tall, sliding doors. All three rooms have ornate mantels, the most distinctive of which is a classically-derived mantel in the front room which has a high, mirrored Eastlake overmantel of mahogany or cherry. The other two mantels are of oak. The first floor fireplaces have tiled faces and either brass trim or cast-iron inserts. Throughout the house are five-panel pine doors with cast brass hardware. Most of the window and door surrounds are also of pine, formed of molded architraves that intersect in bull's-eye corner blocks.

"On the north side of the house is the dining room, which extends out in a three-sided bay. This room has a high, paneled wainscot with a plate rail, surmounted by a small, stained glass window in the end wall. The mantel in this room is an ornate, classical design of oak with overmantel cabinets fitted with leaded glass. The second floor has an L-shaped hall with paneled and tongue and groove beaded wainscot, off of which are three bedrooms. The bedrooms have woodwork similar to that of the first floor, except that all three have pine mantels with colonnettes, consoles and paneled friezes. A pair of doors leads from the northeast bedroom, previously a study, to the veranda roof.

"Outbuildings
--ca. 1897 octagonal well house. Base is low brick wall on which are
set turned columns which support an octagonal slate roof. Located in
the allee of trees in front of the house.
--ca. 1915 steel-framed windmill, now non-functional, located to the
southwest of the house.
--Inscribed tombstone for W.C. Heath's pet dog Jack Heath, dated
1916, located to south of main house.
--ca. 1920 frame shed-roofed chicken house adjacent to barn.
--ca. 1920 frame, one-story bungalow facing Highway 84 west of the
main house. Apparently used as a tenant house."

NOTES:
In August 1897 Mrs. Annie Lee Heath, wife of O.P. Heath, purchased 24.75 acres from M.D. Myers--land which adjoined that of R.B. Redwine and Mrs. F.C. Crow. The Heath House was designed by architect Charles Christian Hook of Charlotte. It is is one of the two or three best examples of the Queen Anne style in Monroe. By late 1904, O.P. Heath had moved to Charlotte, selling his house outside Monroe to a nephew and business associate Major W.C. Heath. After the death of O.P. (1937) and his widow (1944), the house was occupied by daughter Lura Heath until 1971. Lura's younger sister Mary Heath McMullan inherited the house, who sold the house in 1975. Since that time the house has had numerous owners.