These stories at written by Don Serfass in the Time News.
survived Battle of Little Bighorn
Part I
by Donald R. Serfass dserfass@tnonline.com
One hundred and fifty years ago, on Oct. 9, 1875, a Tamaqua man enlisted in
the U.S. Army.
Today, his service under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer is reshaping a
narrative in one of America’s most legendary war stories.
The Battle of Little Bighorn was part of the Great Sioux War of 1870. On that
day of extreme bloodshed, Custer and his outnumbered regiment died
violently after attacking an encampment of Sioux Indians in Dakota
Territory — Custer’s Last Stand.
Traditional scholarship has maintained that the cavalry was killed, more
than 260. But that’s not entirely true.
William Heath survived and lived another 15 years. He is buried in Tamaqua,
despite being listed on the memorial monument at Little Bighorn.
Heath’s background
More details are coming into focus as a result of ongoing research by
historians and genealogists, among them Heath’s great-granddaughter, Deb
Heath Brumbaugh of Blair County.
“He was 4 years old when he left Staffordshire, England, for America, in
1850,” she said. “His father, Sam, came several months earlier, along with an
uncle. I have William’s birth certificate, showing he was born in 1846.
“He grew up in Tamaqua, attended school in Tamaqua and did read andwrite. He moved to Girardville with his brother, Arthur, to work in the mine.
He married in 1872, in Girardville.”
Records indicate that Heath also worked for a time for the Coal and Iron
Police, and supposedly received death threats in the form of coffin notices
tacked to his front door. They were attributed to reputed Molly Maguires, a
band of Irish immigrant miners alleged to have caused terror in pursuit of
workers’ rights.
The Army assigned Heath to Company L, Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota
Territories, and sent him off to help crush a rebellion by Native Americans.
Civil War historian J. Stuart Richards hypothesized that Heath, a farrier, or
one who tends to horses, left the battle line to take horses to the rear, away
from the fighting.
“That was one of the roles of the farrier,” according to Richards. “When the
cavalry dismounted, he’d take three horses and lead them to the back. Heath
also could’ve been caring for an injured horse or a horse lagging behind
because the farrier served almost like a veterinarian.”
Richards, a Vietnam veteran who passed away in 2024, joined with historian
Mark Major to research Heath’s life.
He said Heath was found wounded and was nursed back to health during the
ensuing winter by Lavina Ennis and family, early settlers.
Indebted to nursemaid Lavina, Heath promised if he ever fathered a
daughter that he would name the child after her.
A return home
Heath is listed in the 1890 U.S. Census as a Tamaqua resident, 127
Orwigsburg St., where he died on May 2, 1891, of a brain tumor.His descendants knew details of his story all along.
“They heard it from their grandmother, including the fact that he had lost
part of an ear to frostbite when he was wintering in the Dakotas with
Custer,” Brumbaugh said. “Story says he was always embarrassed about this
and would wear a scarf of sorts.”
He kept to himself, although he was a longtime member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows.
He never claimed his military pension.
“Probably for the obvious reason of never fulfilling his five-year term. Yet the
fact that he served with the Seventh at Little Bighorn is irrefutable,” author
Vincent Genovese said in the 2003 book “Billy Heath: The Man Who
Survived Custer’s Last Stand.”
There is one last detail to Heath’s story.
Records show he fathered nine children, among them a daughter born July
17, 1879.
True to his word, he named her Lavina, in honor of the nursemaid to whom
he was indebted.
Heath’s body lies beneath a grave marker on the family plot next to wife
Margaret Swansborough Heath.
Many more questions could be asked. But William Heath took the answers to
his grave.
Coming next week: What do experts say? And what other details are revealed
by Heath’s family?
Spotlight: Tamaqua man
survived Battle of Little Bighorn,
Part II – Times News Online
Evidence indicates that Tamaqua soldier William Heath was present and on
duty at the Battle of Little Bighorn and lived to tell about it.
He made muster with George Armstrong Custer’s 7th Cavalry on the
morning of June 25, 1876.
This is significant because government claims and history books state that
no soldier survived.
In fact, Heath’s name is listed on the memorial monument as a victim of the
slaughter along with the entire regiment.
But that’s not what happened. Heath lived another 15 years back home in
Tamaqua.
Heath was farrier
One historian said the circumstances worked in Heath’s favor.
“If anybody could’ve gotten away, it was a member of Company L,” said J.
Stuart Richards.
Richards, a Custer scholar from Orwigsburg, spent considerable time
researching the battle. Sadly, Richards passed away late last year.
But his research and comments continue to shed light on how Heath
survived the Battle of Little Bighorn and defied all odds.
“L Company was positioned at what is now called Calhoun Hill,” Richards
said.He explained that logistics would have given Heath and maybe others an
opportunity to escape the bloodbath.
Deb Heath Brumbaugh of Blair County is Heath’s great-granddaughter. She
said Richards’ theory is similar to what his descendants have believed all
along.
“We, several cousins plus myself, never thought William was on the front
line of the battle,” she said. “As a farrier, he wouldn’t have been. He may
have been miles away, with horses. Sound horses were at a premium at the
time, as many were hurt during travel.”
Strong credibility
Over the past 25 years, research has only continued to strengthen the claim.
Historian Ken Hammer, University of Wisconsin professor and Custer
author, penned a letter supporting Heath’s story. That letter is held by
Richard Taylor, Heath’s great-grandson.
In 1999 while visiting Heath’s grave in Tamaqua, descendant June Seeds of
Camp Hill confirmed the family legacy.
“My grandmother Lavina told me the about the story ever since I was a little
girl,” Seeds said.
Heath’s descendants credit Lavina for preserving the details. The late
Tamaqua woman, buried with Heath in Odd Fellows Cemetery, knew much
about her father’s military service.
“She lived to 93 and talked about it a lot,” said Taylor. “Lavina always said he
was proud of his service. She also talked about the Molly Maguires.”
Taylor was referring to a reputed band of Irish immigrant coal miners who
allegedly sparked a reign of terror in response to oppressive workingconditions and other issues.
It is said that Englishman Heath reportedly received death threats: coffin
notices tacked to his front door. That intimidation, some speculate, is what
led him to enlist in the Army on Oct. 9, 1875.
Another descendant, Tamaqua native Nancy Everhart, Florida State
University professor, visited the battle site with husband Harry, a retired
educator. She spoke of the reluctance of tour guides to accept what many
experts now say is fact.
“He was my great-grandfather,” she said. “I talked to the park ranger and
told him the story about William Heath coming back to Tamaqua. He
brushed it off and said they had heard of it but didn’t give it any credence.
He said Heath was a common name and it probably wasn’t the same
person.”
The tour guide was wrong.
Joined with Custer
Heath was assigned to Fort Abraham Lincoln in the Dakota Territories and
sent to join Custer in crushing a Native American rebellion.
However, Heath was found wounded a few miles away and nursed back to
health by the Ennis family.
He returned to Schuylkill County the following spring and lived out his life in
Tamaqua, information supported by the 1890 U.S. Census.
He died in Tamaqua on May 2, 1891, of a brain tumor and now rests behind
Soldiers Circle Monument in Odd Fellows Cemetery.
Finally, another historian, the late Brian Pohanka, one of the most noted
authorities on Custer, went on record in support of the Heath story.Pohanka’s offered illuminating remarks in a published forward of author
Vincent Genovese’s book “Billy Heath: The Man Who Survived Custer’s Last
Stand.”
“The conflicts and controversies, theory and debate, drama and symbolism
of the Battle of Little Bighorn have and will doubtless continue to attract the
attention of researchers and buffs, journalists and historians,” Pohanka said.
“Did farrier William Heath of Company L, Seventh U. S. Cavalry, survive the
Battle of Little Bighorn? Perhaps the only valid answer to that question is, let
the evidence speak for itself.”
Deb Heath Brumbaugh, left, great-granddaughter of Little Bighorn survivor
William Heath, discusses details of her research with family members,
Richard Taylor, June Seeds, Sarah Taylor and historian J. Stuart Richards.
The family gathered at Tamaqua Odd Fellows Cemetery in 1999.
William Heath emigrated to America from Staffordshire, England, and
brought an enameled, cast-iron bank. The artifact is owned by Heath’s great-
grandson Richard Taylor and displayed here by Heath’s great-granddaughter
Deb Heath Brumbaugh. DONALD R. SERFASS/SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
NEWS
Descendants of William Heath gathered and celebrated at the 1999 front
page news that their great-grandfather was recognized as a survivor of
Custer’s Last Stand. From left are Charles Bailey, Odd Fellows cemetery
manager; June Seeds, Camp Hill; Sarah Taylor and father Richard,
Columbus, Indiana; Deb Heath Brumbaugh, Blair County; and J. Stuart
Richards, Custer historian. Ongoing research is supplying more details to a
story that changes the narrative about the famous battle.
William Heath
