Albert Heath was born in Crigglestone, Yorkshire, in 1848. The 1851 census finds him living with his grandparents. In 1856 at the age of 8, he emigrated with his mother, Anne Heath, to the United States, landing on Ellis Island.
He started his family in Pennsylvania with his wife, Caroline Stevenson. They moved to Muskoka and eventually lived in Huntsville, where according to my mother, he became a lumber baron. They had 6 children, the second youngest being my grandmother Edith May Heath. The family was quite well off, and Edith’s parents were reluctant to give permission for her to marry my grandfather Kelso Carmichael Cairns.
According to family lore, he lost everything in a fire and then migrated out west. He was listed in a 1900 Washington census as a shingle and mill proprietor. He appears to be living in Vancouver with his adult son Harry in 1911. Eventually, he moved again to Tacoma Washington. His death certificate in 1912 lists suicide as the cause of death.
