Editing Heath, Massachusetts (section)

== History ==
[[File:Steinkreis Burnt Hill Massachusetts gross.jpg|left|thumb|Burnt Hill Stone Circle, a [[Pre-Columbian]] site in Heath]]

Heath was first settled in 1765 as a part of [[Charlemont, Massachusetts|Charlemont]]. The town, as well as neighboring [[Rowe, Massachusetts|Rowe]], separated, and Heath was officially incorporated in 1785, just a few days after its new neighbor. The town is named after [[William Heath]], Major General of Massachusetts and Brigadier General in the national army during the [[American Revolution]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n152 153]}}</ref>

General Heath had been the commanding officer and friend of Col. Hugh Maxwell, a local citizen who suggested the town be named in his honor.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=07AUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA175&dq=%22hugh+maxwell%22+heath Letter from William Heath to Hugh Maxwell, 1781, Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, 1905]</ref> In 1784 Maxwell, who was severely wounded at the [[Battle of Bunker Hill]] by a bullet through his shoulder, was chosen to represent Heath at the [[Massachusetts General Court|General Court]] in Boston and obtain a division of the town from Charlemont. Accordingly, the new town was incorporated on February 14, 1785.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/historywesternm02hollgoog/page/n384 <!-- pg=381 quote=leavitt battle lexington. --> History of Western Massachusetts, Josiah Gilbert Holland, Springfield, Mass., 1855]</ref>

Chloe Maxwell, daughter of Col. Maxwell, was married to prominent local landowner and state legislator abolitionist Roger Leavitt.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=S8FYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA210&dq=%22hugh+maxwell%22+heath+leavitt Papers and Proceedings of the Connecticut Valley Historical Society, Vol. II, published by the Society, Springfield, 1904]</ref> Their son was the [[Congregational church|Congregational]] minister, lawyer, social reformer, editor and fervent abolitionist Rev. [[Joshua Leavitt]], who after his graduation from [[Yale College]] was the first lawyer to practice in Heath. (Rev. Leavitt soon gave up law for the ministry, training at [[Yale Theological Seminary]] and settling in [[Stratford, Connecticut]], before decamping for New York City and a career that included the editorship of ''[[The Emancipator (newspaper)|The Emancipator]]''.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/historyancientw05cothgoog/page/n630 <!-- pg=614 quote="hugh maxwell" heath leavitt. --> History of Ancient Woodbury, William Cothren, Waterbury, Conn., 1854]</ref>) Members of the Leavitt family of Heath and Charlemont provided stops on the [[Underground Railroad]], and in some cases sheltered slaves like [[Basil Dorsey]] who were fleeing the [[Southern United States|South]].<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/history/ugrr/list.htm National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, National Park Service, nps.gov]</ref>

The town had some farming and other small industry in the nineteenth century, but much of it is gone now, leaving the town as a rural area. One of its more distinctive industries was a straw hat business, where palm fronds were imported from [[the Carolinas]] to be woven by women and children during their free time. Each year, the Heath Agricultural Society hosts the Heath Fair, a small agriculturally-focused fair held two weekends before [[Labor Day]].<ref>[http://www.co.franklin.ma.us/heath.html Town of Heath - Franklin County Chamber of Commerce]{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>