Note: Stephen Preston Heath was born in Cabell County March 2, 1812, son of Israel Heath & Elizabeth (Blue) Heath who lived at the mouth of Heath's Creek on the Guyandotte River (15 acres) Heath Shot Dead in Platte City, two other Heaths Wounded The Heath family were staunch supporters of the Union and anti- slavery. Four of them were Methodist ministers against slavery. On Sept 3, 1866 a Conservative County Convention was held in Platte City, MO (the largest city near them). It was held in a Baptist Church in Platte City to nominate candidates for the ensuing election. A majority were disenfranchised; yet, after a ‘spirited’ contest in which S.A. Gilbert led the opposition, all were permitted to vote. After the nominations were made for all the offices, the crowd adjourned to the street; and, appointing tellers, the chairman called for the candidates for one office at a time to ‘stand forth’; and, at the word, the voters took position behind their favorites respectively. In this way the nominees were very soon and very satisfactorily selected according to an account written in 1897 by W.M. Paxton in the ‘Annals of Platte County’. There was also an opposition party called ‘the Radicals’. Just 12 days after the Conservative Convention, they held a convention of their own on Sept. 15, 1866. In the afternoon after the Radical Convention had adjourned, a crowd gathered in frot of the Fleshman House. J.H. Dunagan, a Radical of ‘Herculean’ frame, got drunk, and flourished a pistol with threats. Officers interfered, but Dunagan refused to obey, and fired off his pistol. Immediately, there was a general firing of revolvers, and the crowd hastily dispersed. William Callaghan and John Heath were killed, and among the wounded were Richard Rush, J.B. Cates, J.H. Dunagan, D. Fleming, J. Foley, W.B. Heath, Sanders McComas, E.J. Phillips, Henry Rodd and Jonathan Todd. Dunagan was arrested and gave bond; but nothing was ever done. It was a battle between Conservatives and Radicals, and the former held the field. (Note: I believe the John Heath killed was the son of Stephen Preston Heath. The W.B. Heath was his brother, another son of Stephen Preston Heath. Sanders McComas was the name given to one of Nancy Heath and Burke McComas’s boys so it would have been their cousin.) The story went on further to say that the lawlessness was so bad in the city that Sanders McComas had to hide in town for three days. Others took refuge in the new iron vault in the bank not even yet in place. For a few weeks after the incidents, the community was in much awe.