Rutherford Exposed: The Story of Berta and Bonnie

by Farkel 747 Replies latest watchtower scandals

• 

  Leolaia

  Aha! Now I know who "Dorothy Smith Heath" married after divorcing William P. Heath, Jr.

  http://www.mindspring.com/~camdenarchives/

  CAMDEN ARCHIVES AND MUSEUM
  1314 Broad Street,
  Camden, South Carolina, 29020-3535

  This website lists those deceased in the city of Camden, and there we find:

  Hydrick, Onan A. (Wife(s)1. Josephine Liebling 2.Dorothy Smith Heath) 23 Sept 1983

  This would suggest that Dorothy S. Heath married Onan A. Hydrick after her divorce, and that it was his second marriage too! Then he passed away in 1983.
• 

  Leolaia

  In the 1930 census, Onan Hydrick (a native of South Carolina) was living in Bethesda, Montgomery, Maryland with his wife Josephine Hydrick (a native of Illinois, born in 1890), and they had two sons: J. Lawton Hydrick (age 16) and Claude Hydrick (age 7). The Hydricks had earlier lived in Pennsylvania, for that is where J. Lawton was born. Onan was a lawyer for the Veterans Bureau. This is interesting, because Onan's future wife Dorothy Smith Heath was the daughter of a lawyer. According to the SSDI, Onan Hydrick was born on October 6, 1888 and died in Swansea, Lexington, SC in August 1983. I also found him registered in the US National Guard in 1925 with the rank "Major" in the 118th Infantry Regiment, HQ Columbia Company. Ah, the joys of researching!
  

  Now, to confirm whether the recent President of the Carolina Coca-Cola Bottling Co. was the son of Dorothy Smith Heath and William Pratt Heath, Jr., we should see what name the middle initial of "William S. Heath" stands for. If it is "Smith," then the theory that this recent Coca-Cola President is the son of a member of the Board of Directors for the Watchtower Society would receive additional support.
• 

  Leolaia

  Hehehe, here is another good piece of info:

  http://my.execpc.com/~rrichard/wishlist.html

  My Bottle Wish List

  CCD-0795 - W.S. Heath - 60 Years 1936-1996 - Carolina Coca-Cola - Sumter, SC

  So it looks like W. S. Heath was born in 1936. This fits perfectly with the time frame provided: 1930-1938. If this is the case, William P. Heath, Jr. would have divorced two years after his wife gave birth to his son. However, it is admittedly not clear from this exactly what happened in 1936 -- perhaps it was also when he joined the company? The best thing would be to find out who W. S. Smith's parents were or what his middle name was....
• 

  Leolaia

  Here we go....

  The caption reads: "This Coke bottle was released to celebrate the retirement of W.S. Heath from Carolina Coca-Cola in 1996. This bottle books out for $300+."
• 

  Leolaia

  The W. S. Heath Collection was the gift of William S. "Bill" Heath, former president and co-owner of the Carolina Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Mr. Heath donated his collection of Coca-Cola artifacts to the museum in 1999. Long known for their generosity to the citizens of Sumter, the Heath family donated land for Swan Lake, which became the Heath Gardens, started the Community Chest in the 1940s, the forerunner of the United Way of Sumter, and supported numerous charitable organizations. Mr. Heath's generous donation to the Sumter County Museum will be on permanent display
  http://www.sumtercountymuseum.org/exhibits/exhibits.htm

  I'm thinking of giving the museum a call. I'm sure someone there knows something about Mr. William S. Heath and his family.
• 

  Gamaliel

  Leolaia,

  This thread is an excellent testament to how much information is still available for research. Frustrated researchers should take heart.

  Still I thought I should comment on one of the peripheral assumptions made with respect to seeing Dekalb on the SC map a few posts back.

  When you gave street addresses like 516 Chestnut and 1505 Hampton it seemed odd that such a numbering scheme would have been used in an "intersection" town so far flung from Camden. It turns out that a USGS map and a satellite photo of the area confirms that Dekalb has no more than 10 houses in a 200 yard radius from the old cemetery at the intersection that forms the only visible basis for Dekalb.

  The two addresses are still very close to each other in Camden proper, no more than a quarter-mile apart. Apparently, in Camden, Hampton refers to Hampton Avenue which only runs 4 blocks, and Hampton Street(s) (E & W) refer to extensions after a short break on each end of the avenue. Hampton and Chestnut run parallel, only one street apart, a block away from each other. 516 Chestnut is still located on current maps, which leaves the possibility that they were as little as one block apart, but as many as three blocks apart.

  The reason that Dekalb referred to a part of the city of Camden and not those few houses scattered near the cemetery at Dekalb, north of town is probably explained by this:

  http://www.geocities.com/dillysdillys/AlexanderMcLeodII.htm

  Note: Dekalb Township, was the southern portion of the city of Camden( SOUTH CAROLINA - Kershaw County - Historic Districts ...)

  and here, as pointed to, from the above site:

  http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/SC/Kershaw/districts.html

  Historic Camden Revolutionary War Restoration *** ...Also known as British Revolutionary War Fortifications
  Southern area of the city, DeKalb Township, Camden
  (12800 acres)
• 

  Leolaia

  Gamaliel.....Thanks so much for the clarification! I checked it out on Mapquest.com and found that William P. Heath, Jr. and Mendel L. Smith lived half a mile apart (0.48 miles). Here's the driving route from William Heath's house to Mendel Smith's house:
  

  Note that the scale is 100 meters. They lived literally blocks away from each other! Actually, on the basis of the street number as 1505, I think Hampton St. originally went a few more blocks westward, or W. Hampton Street was originally the extension of Hampton Street on which the Heaths lived.
• 

  Leolaia

  Okay, it might be a bit more complicated than I originally suspected. I am now suspecting that William S. Heath may have been the cousin of William P. Heath, Jr. Perhaps 1936 was the year he first began working for Coca-Cola; I checked the SSDI, and found that William S. Heath, resident of Sumter, South Carolina (where the Carolina Coca-Cola Bottling Co. plant was located) was born on December 7, 1914 and died on August 6, 1999. The death date fits well with what we know, and the birth date would definitely rule him out as being the son of William P. Heath. This would also better fit the bottle caption, giving 1996 as the year of retirement after "60 years". So I went back to the 1930 census and found him rather easily. He is listed as "William Heath," 15 years old (which points to a birth in 1914-1915), living at 428 Main Street, Sumter, Sumter County, South Carolina. His father was Alfred T. Heath, 48 years old, who was originally born in Georgia (just as William P. Heath, Jr. was). His mother was Anne Heath, age 46 (that is, born around 1883-1884). What was the occupation of Alfred T. Heath? "President -- Coca Cola", the census says.
  

  Okay, so there's gotta be a connection here. The family also had two other sons: Alfred T. Heath, Jr., and Quintard Heath, who were four and three years older than William Heath respectively. The entire family was from Georgia. And this now takes me back to the article in the February 28th, 1906 issue of the Atlanta Constitution newspaper. At the time, William would've only been two years old. The article states:
  

  "Mrs. Mary Taylor and Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Heath, Master William Heath, and Mrs. A. T. Heath have returned from Florida ."

  So was Alfred T. Heath the same person as A. T. Heath, husband of Mrs. A. T. Heath (and brother-in-law to Mrs. Mary Taylor?) associated with "Master William Heath" (aka William P. Heath, Jr.)? I suspect so. I think finally we're getting a clear picture at William Heath Jr.'s family connection with Coca-Cola. Now we just need to know more about who Alfred Taylor Heath was.
• 

  Leolaia

  Yup, it fits, the following verifies that the middle name was Taylor:

  (6) Annie Darling Howell, b. Oct. 26, 1883; m. 1905, Alfred Taylor Heath, of Atlanta, Ga. Lives, Sumter, S. C.
  http://www.surnameguide.com/hook/emily_martha_hook_genealogy.htm

  Note too how "Annie Darling Howell," born in October 1883, matches with "Anne Heath" in the 1930 census who was born in 1883-1884.
• 

  Leolaia

  Here is a cool site that clarifies things:

  http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~reetrees/wc05/wc05_236.htm

  First, Reverend Nathaniel Alpheus Pratt (1796-1879) married Catherine Barrington King (1810-1893) and had a daughter named Catherine Quinland Pratt, born in November 10, 1850. Then, Katie Q. Pratt married Alfred T. Heath around 1875 in Roswell, Georgia. Alfred was born around 1847-1848 in Florida and was employed as a farmer. They had three children: Willie Heath, Natalie Heath, and Eliza A. Heath. Willie Heath was born abt. 1875-1876 in Roswell, Georgia. According to Heath, Sr.'s draft card, he was born on July 17, 1875. It would then be conceivable that Alfred T. Heath and Katie Q. Pratt had another son around 1882-1883 and named him Alfred T. Heath, Jr. He would have, then, been William Pratt Heath's younger brother, and William S. Heath, presumably the son of Alfred T. Heath, Jr. would have been the cousin of William P. Heath, Jr., the son of Heath, Sr.