Alan Heath

A. I. Thornburg Heath lived for most of his life in upper Sumner County, Tennessee, where he continued his blacksmithing, housebuilding, whiskey making, and fiddle playing with his sons. Perhaps the most popular of the Heath gunsmiths, A.I. was born January 29, 1837 in Jefferson County. He was named for A.I. Thornburg (1793-1883) a merchant in New Market of Jefferson County. Thornburg's relationship to the Heath family is unknown.
A.I., like his brother Daniel, settled in Sumner County. He served in the Confederate Army during the War Between The States, in Co. E, 9th Tennessee Cavalry. A.I. was wounded at The Battle Of Hartsville Tennessee, a crippling spine injury that he would carry the rest of his life. He married Martha Ann "Patsy" Johnson (1848-1926) on August 19, 1867, in Sumner County. Together they had six children. (1) Ida C. (1869-1900) (2) William Thomas "Tom" (1871-1948) (3) Raleigh Thornburg "Ral" (1875-1954) (4) Tobias Franklin "Toby" (1878-1915) (5) Alonzo Garfield "Lonnie" (1882-1963) (6) Sallie Ann (1889-1967)
A.I. was a musical man, often filling the air with his fiddle playing. A.I. died January 15, 1924, and his wife of 57 years died on the same day, two years later, and they are buried at The Sherron Cemetery in Sumner County.

Glenn Heath, bright young southern soldier, was born in 1910, and died of cancer in 1962. He was a handsome, dashing young man who pulled himself up by his own bootstraps, served in the medical corps in the US army in World War II (helping to liberate the concentration camps from the western front), and went on to get his BA from Western Ky U and his MA from George Peabody College (Vanderbilt). He was a well-loved teacher and basketball coach at Westmoreland, TN, High School until his untimely death. He was one of three sons of Raleigh Thornburg Heath and Mattie Boren Heath. He married Valera M. Williams, and had one child, Alan. Glenn was a Renaissance man: a painter, a pianist, violinist, and singer, a notable speaker, a farmer, and play director.

Young A. I. Thornburg Heath, of Sumner County, Tennessee, at the start of the War Between the States. He was a gunsmith with his own 'works' near Westmoreland (then called Coatstown), but joined the Confederate Armory in Gallatin prior to enlisting in the 9th Cavalry in 1861. He was wounded at the Battle of Hartsville, taken prisoner by the feds to Bowling Green, Kentucky, from which he led the escape of all the Confederates back to southern lines. He did not rejoin the Confederate army, but operated as a 'bushwhacker' in northern Tennessee and southern Kentucky. After the War was over, he returned to blacksmithing. He died in Sumner County, in the early 1920s, and is buried at Sherron Cemetery between Portland and Westmoreland where he was honored with a Confederate monument.

The Raleigh Heath Family of Tennessee in 1928. Raleigh Thornburg Heath was the son of 'Confederate hero' A. I. Heath. He lived in Sumner County, TN, with his wife Mattie Boren Heath, and their three sons, Roy T, Cleo, Glenn until the couple divorced. When that happened, Glenn went to live with his mother near New Roe, Allen County, KY, while the other brothers stayed with their dad. Raleigh and Roy T are buried in Sherron Cemetery, Oak Grove, Sumner County, TN, near A.I. Heath and Patsy Heath's graves. Mattie is buried in the little Brackentown Cemetery close by. Glenn is buried at Mt Olive Cemetery, upper Sumner County, TN. Cleo lived most of his adult life in Indiana, where he is buried, and where his many descendents live today.

Alan & Glenn Heath, TN c1950: I (Alan Heath) had just risen from a nap, so am a bit bleary-eyed. Daddy (Glenn Heath) had been working in the garden. We were living in a 'cabin' at the time that had once been part of a 1930s motor lodge, then owned by Wayne and Arva Anderson, my aunt on mama's side (The Meadors of Adolphus). Daddy was a young teacher at Westmoreland High School at the time, fresh out of Western Kentucky State College as it was then, paid for by the generous GI bill.

Confederate RifleMaker A.I.Heath in Tennessee, circa 1860: Born east Tennessee 1840, served with Sumner County TN 9th Calvary, captured by Feds at Battle of Hartsville and imprisoned in Bowling Green from which he led the escape of all the Confederate prisoners back south. Died Sumner County, TN, 1922.

Glenn Heath, basketball coach at Westmoreland High School, upper Sumner County, Tennessee, in the late 1940s. I wish I knew the names of the boys on the team, but alas, I can't remember them, for I was only a wee lad at the time.

Glenn Heath in his new US army gear in Kentucky in 1942, prior to leaving for maneuvers in South Carolina and Arizona, and finally to Europe to help defeat the Nazis. He wanted to be a conscientious objector, but this was not allowed. Instead, the Army let him become a medic, so that in fact he was saving lives rather than shooting at people. He helped liberate the Nazi concentration camps as the Allies moved along the Western Front into eastern France and Germany.

A. I. Heath, the old Reb, in his dotage, Tennessee 1920: A. I. Heath, now blind and deaf, sat in his north Sumner County, TN, garden with his wife Patsy and his dog, for this photo. He had been a blacksmith, Confederate munitions maker, and Confederate soldier. He and his boys also traveled the country making music for dances and shindigs; he was a mean fiddler, and his old instrument can now be seen in Trousdale House, Gallatin TN. A. I. died in 1922.

(Young Love Faces World War II) Valera Williams and Glenn Heath sit on the side porch of the Williams' Sunny Hill Farm in Allen County, KY, before Glenn was shipped off on the Queen Mary to England from which he then went on to France, Austria, and Germany with the US military as a member of the medical corps. This was before their marriage, so was probably taken around 1942.
People in photo include: Valera Williams Heath