Incorporated on February 14, 1785, just a few days
after neighboring Rowe, Heath was orignially part of Charlemont, its
neighbor to the south. The town's first 10 years were spent in settlement.
Farms sprang up, and the water power in the now-extinct neighborhood of Dell
ran several mills. One unlikely major industry from the 1830's to the
Civil War was the braiding of palm-leaf hats. In the winter months, women
and children made hats for extra income.
The palm leaves were brought up
from the Carolinas by a middle man and the women would bleach the leaves,
split them into two and braid them. A skilled braider could make six Huck
Finn-style straw hats in a day, at a price of 6 to 12 cents a hat. John
Warner Barber, in his "Historical Collections" published in
1939, wrote that about 30,000 hats had been made in Heath in 1837, at a
total value of $5,000. Some of these hats are on display in the Heath
Historical Society Museum. Heath's population reached its peak around
1830, when 1,199 people lived there.
Ten years later, 895 people remained.
According to Edward Calver, author of the town's history, the exodus from Heath
was due to the difficulty of farm life there. The rocky, hilly land could
not compete with the valley land for productivity and access to markets
nor could it compete with nearby factory towns such as North Adams. The
town has for many years been a bucolic refuge for city dwellers. It is
named after General William Heath, who served in the Continental Army and
as a senator. |
