The following are memories from Marion Graham Heath Hooper, daughter of Edwin Joseph Heath, recorded October 13, 2006 :

Edwin Joseph Heath was born on December 27, 1880 in St. John, US Virgin Islands, where his parents, Charlotte Reinke Heath and George Octavius Heath, were missionaries. At the time the Virgin Islands were still Danish. Charlotte Amalie (pronounced Uh-MAL-yuh) the capital of USVI, was named after the Queen of Denmark. George Octavius was so called because he was the eighth child of.....?? Whoever they were. He was one of six living children who grew to adulthood. It is said that Charlotte Heath had 12 babies, including twins, but only six survived early childhood. Edwin's five siblings were: George Reinke Heath, (oldest) Mary Heath Fraser (married James Fraser), Herbert Heath, (moved to Canada, married his cousin Blanche, had 4 children) and Harold Heath (married Janet?, became an actor, entertainer, and magician. He was a one-man band, FAR more interesting than the others. Uncle George, however, was a genius and linguist, spoke 12 languages, gave the Miskito Indians their first written grammar, also had gone to medical school in Heidelberg, Germany and knew lots of cures.

Charlotte had been an American. The Reinkes came to the US from Sweden in the 17th century and she had an ancestor who had been a circuit riding preacher in Swedesboro, NJ in 1696. I'm not sure if she was a Moravian. My grandfather George O. Heath was a handsome, blue eyed, white haired guy in his photograph taken around 1920 or so. Grandma Charlotte was somewhat more severe.

George's family as I understand it, were from somewhere in the midlands of England. George and Charlotte sent all their children except baby Harold to school in England, as was the custom with colonials living abroad. The missionary parents traveled around 'mishing" all over the Caribbean. My dad considered Jamaica "his" island. Some of his siblings were born there.

The Heath children went to Fulneck School,, a Moravian school in Fulneck, near Leeds, in England. Judging from reports, it was a horrible place, very strict, very Dickensian. Evidently those old German Moravians had missionaried themselves over to England and converted some English families, probably in the 18th or early 19th century, so there are English Moravians, and this Heath family were some of them.

After finishing Fulneck, Edwin, my dad, went to London to work for a time for the British and Foreign Bible Society. While in London he went to music halls and learned some funny patter songs, which he used to sing. He also attended the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, whenever what was, let's see, 1837 plus 60, it was in 1897. He attended it as a person standing in the street waving a flag, not at Buckingham Palace.

His older brother George had gone, it is said, to Heidelberg in Germany to study medicine, but contracted tuberculosis and had to drop out, and while recovering he changed his mind and went to theological seminary in Bethlehem. Edwin followed, and graduated from Moravian College for Men in 1904. He went on to get a B.D, degree from Moravian Theological Seminary, was ordained and became a missionary, I think the boys' dad, George O, had also gone there for his degree, while there, he met this American girl he married that would be Charlotte.