My Genealogy Hound

DELOS L. HEATH, M. D., is a well known physician and surgeon of Seneca Falls. He was born in Ithaca, Tompkins County, N. Y., April 11, 1828, and is a son of Hiram H. and Clarissa H. (Barnaby) Heath. His father was born in Harpersfield, Delaware County, N. Y., January 9, 1802, and died February 9, 1895, in Louisa County, Va., where he had removed some years before and bought a farm of three hundred acres. His widow, who is still living in that county, is in her eighty-ninth year. David Heath, the grandfather of our subject, was a native of New York, but was of English descent.

The subject of this sketch was one of eight children born to his parents, five of whom are still living. His boyhood and youth were spent in Ithaca and Auburn, N. Y., where he attended the public schools and later those of Seneca Falls, to which place his parents had removed. After leaving school he went to work on a farm, but as he had made up his mind to enter the medical profession he soon afterward went to Ann Arbor, Mich., and entered the medical department of the university of that place, from which he graduated in March, 1853. Returning to Seneca Falls after his graduation, Dr. Heath entered into practice, remaining here but a short time, however, and then locating at Ridgeway, Lenawee County, Mich., where he was successfully engaged in practice at the beginning of the war. In November, 1862, he was appointed Assistant Surgeon of the Seventeenth Michigan Infantry, and, joining his regiment, went with it to the front just before the battle of Fredericksburg. After the battle he took charge of the hospital at Aquia Creek, in Virginia, and later was ordered to Newport News, where, in March, 1863, he was taken sick with typhoid fever. He was sent to the hospital at Baltimore, Md., and on his recovery went to Glasgow, Ky., having been commissioned Surgeon of the Twenty-third Michigan Infantry. He was in Burnside’s expedition to East Tennessee, and was in Knoxville at the time it was be sieged by Longstreet. While there he was appointed Chief Operating Surgeon of his division, which position he held as long as he remained in the army. Later his command joined Sherman at Red Clay, Ga., and he participated in all the battles in which his command was engaged in the campaign to Atlanta. The Doctor was within a few feet of General McPherson when he was killed.

Again succumbing to sickness, the Doctor was given a leave of absence, and after remaining at home twenty days returned to his regiment. He was ordered to appear before an examining board at Cincinnati, where he was declared unfit for duty, and was sent to the officers’ hospital, remaining there about three months. At the close of the war he returned to Ridgeway, Mich., and later removed to Grand Rapids, where for six months he was in partnership with Dr. J. D. Bevier. The three following years were spent in Tecumseh, that state, and from there he went to Brooklyn, N. Y., and engaged in business and in the practice of his profession for about seven years. From Brooklyn he went to Hackensack, N. J., and in the fall of 1887 returned to Seneca Falls, where he has since continued to reside and practice his profession.

In 1854 Dr. Heath married Miss Mary J. Peck, of Ridgeway, Mich., and a daughter of James Peck. They have one son, Harry, who is engaged in business in New York City, but who lives in Brooklyn. Mrs. Heath is a member of the Episcopal Church. Fraternally the Doctor is a Mason, and in politics is a Republican.