Sacramento County
Biographies
REV. GEORGE WATKINS HEATH
REV. GEORGE WATKINS HEATH, a retired
minister and rancher of Cosumnes
Township, was born in Montgomery
County, Ohio, January 11, 1817,
his parents being William and Amy (Watkins) Heath. In 1832 the family
moved to Adams County, Indiana,
where the father died in 1840, and the mother in 1850, both at about the age of
sixty. Grandfather William Heath died in Virginia, aged ninety-two; and grandfather Watkins, also named William, died at seventy,
but his wife reached the age of ninety-six. George W. Heath received but
little schooling in his youth, but by special industry in private study made up
the deficiency in his formal education, and was authorized to preach by the
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1841. He was married in 1837, being not
quite twenty-one. He came to California
in 1852, and mined four years, preaching as opportunity was given. In 1854
he brought out his family; and in 1856 was formally set apart
for the work of the ministry, serving first in El
Dorado County and
in 1858 he was ordained deacon; and in 1859 was placed in charge of the Cosumnes circuit. In 1861 he filed pre-emption papers
on the 160 acres he still owns, about one mile
southeast of Michigan Bar, and the title was in time perfected. He has
since been a farmer as well as preacher, with his time fully occupied in the
discharge of manifold duty, including the proper care, moral, intellectual, and
industrial, of a large family. He has been a justice of the peace eight, and roadmaster fifteen
years. He was married in Ohio, December 3, 1837, to
Miss Rachel Jane Roebuck, born in Ohio,
February 29, 1820, her parents being John and Rachel (Russell)
Roebuck. After fifty years of wedded life in Christian harmony and
fellowship she died, February 25, 1888, leaving her life-partner, whose health
has been broken for some time, to mourn her loss, but not as one without
hope. The children of Mr. and Mrs. George W. Health are: Ebenezer Goddard,
now living in Portland, Oregon; Hattie, now Mrs. George B. Walker, of Covelo,
California; John W. (See sketch); Deliah Jane, now
Mrs. Edwin W. Joseph, of Lake County, Oregon. James White Health, born in Adams
County, Indiana, January 25, 1851, came to California
in 1854. Received the education attainable in this section thirty years
ago, and was brought up to farming. He was married September 1, 1886, to
Miss Daisy Hurley, born at Cook’s Bar, in this Township, November 25, 1867, her
parents being John Pinckney and Elizabeth (Yorke)
Hurley. Her father was born in Tennessee,
March 22, 1829. Mr. and Mrs. James W. Heath have one child, Winnie, born
November 29, 1887. The other children of George W. Heath are: Warwick Petomy, born in this State in 1857, and now of Shasta
County; Edwin Barber, born at
Michigan Bar in 1860, now (1889) deputy assessor of this county.
Transcribed 11-20-07 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated
History of Sacramento County, California. Page 765.
Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.