Good question, Dicho. Representing a dialect in print seems to be as much of art as trying to speak in it. I couldn't pinpoint good or bad written dialect, but you sure know it when you're reading it! (I'd write "heared" -- it gets the meaning across to a reader quicker without them having to stop and sound it out.)

Most of my family from that early was completely illiterate, and no apparent desire or need to be otherwise. Yet occassionally I stumble across a surprise. There's a long, eloquent letter in perfect handwriting in one of my ancestor's Civil War pension files from his sister, who by all otjer accounts was a just a plain farm wife. It makes me wonder when and where she aquired such a wonderful education when her own brother couldn't sign his name!