John Jolly Espy, Sr.

1878 - 1934

Alabama State Senator - 1911

J.J. Espy, wife Emma (Carroll) Espy, and chidren Sarah Frances, "Bud" John and Major

One child, Josephine, died at a very young age.

Manhattan - New York City

circa 1910

Click here for more on the J.J. Espy home.

First Baptist Church Cemetery

Headland, Alabama

Henry County

Text of Wiregrass Farmer Obit

 Had it transcribed in the 90s.  Have not checked for typos.

THE LAST OF THE older members of a powerful and influential clan was lost to this community late Thanksgiving Day when J. J. Espy was killed in an automobile accident at Rehobeth, 10 miles below Dothan.

Mr. Espy, Mr. C. A. Stringer and Mr. Alto McClenny had left Headland after dinner for the Bay and were returning home when the fatality occurred.  Mr. McClenny was at the wheel at the time.  Mr. Espy had just been complimenting him on the careful manner to which he had been handling the car.  Night had descended and Mr. McClenny was driving at a moderate speed and was dimming his lights for approaching cars.  In company with two of three friends, Mr. Espy frequently made such trips to the Gulf, especially on holidays.  He rarely drove his car himself, but liked to sit beside the driver and carry on a conversation with members of the party.  He not only liked the diversion and the relaxation afforded by such trips.  One point that he always made was that “when we go away on a trip we must bring something home.”  He never went to the Gulf without returning with a “peace offering.”  In this instance—on his last trip—they had loaded the with fresh oysters for the Thanksgiving supper which he had planned.  From information available, an approaching car, driven by a 17-year-old boy, whipped around an unlighted wagon, and crashed into the Espy machine, head-on.  Mr. Espy was killed instantly and both Mr. Stringer and Mr. McClenny were seriously injured.  Mr. Stringer was terribly bruised and shocked, while the extent of the damage to Mr. McClenny still hasn’t been fully determined.  He is confirmed in a hospital in Dothan.

Thus, through the instrumentality of the too-familiar road accident, Headland has sustained what many believe to be its most serious loss.  Mr. Espy was a modest man who made little use of the personal pronoun “I”.  He talked illuminatingly of issues and conditions but personal references were few.  Hence no appraisal of his full worth to this community could be made.  Everyone knows that he was in the relief business some two or three years before the Federal Government took hold.  A disposition has been manifested on the part of some Relief Administration officials to criticize the furnishing system as it has operated in the South, yet if it had not been for such men as Mr. Espy, at Headland, Mr. Ben Lindsay, at Capps, and Mr. Ed Arnold, at Abbeville, the poverty and suffering in Henry County during the depression would have been greatly intensified.  Such men as those had always relied on their own abilities to supply the wants of their tenants, and when the bitter interval out of which we are just now passing came on their was increased and their capital decreased, but they went ahead with their operations in the face of certain loss.  There is no telling how many loans Mr. Espy made and how much credit he extended that he knew could be nothing less than unqualified charity.  The hospital and coffin bills alone that he has underwritten during the past four years have been a no inconsiderable expense.  Leadership implies responsibilities, and it is worth noting here such furnishers and landlords as have been named stood the test in a manner which no impersonal Federal organization could hope to equal.

Mr. Espy had successfully passed through the most trying period of his business career.  When the President’s order came in March of 1933, the First National Bank of Headland closed along with all other banks of the Nation.  Although the Headland bank, like most others in the farming sections, was heavily loaded with “frozen” paper, Mr. Espy contended then and later events justified this contention—that the Headland banks were essentially sound and that, if permitted, could work themselves out of a condition which confronted bankers everywhere.  Recently the First National discharged in full its last obligation to its depositors, and at the time of his death Mr. Espy was liquidating the old bank with the determination of paying off his directors also.  He was determined that no one should lose a penny through the failure of the First National to reopen when the closing order was lifted.  Few other banks in the Nation can point to such a record as this.  Even as the affairs of the old bank were being closed out, deposits with the new institution, the Headland National Bank, of which Mr. Espy had become President, were climbing steadily, indicating the degree of confidence in which this man was held.  A few weeks before his death Mr. Espy came into the office of The Wiregrass Farmer with a statement which showed that the new bank had been favored with deposits in excess of half a million dollars, which was another record for a small-town bank.  He had weathered the gales, had reestablished himself, and the fact deposits in the new bank had climbed to this remarkable figure afforded him the keenest enjoyment.

Mr. Espy, as with all the Espys was an individualist, and to use the now hackneyed phrase which has fallen into some momentary disrepute, he was a rugged individualist.  In order to accentuate the accuracy of the description, it might be added that he was a rugged individualist with a big heart.  No man ever lived who had clearer and more pronounced opinions on the questions of the day, opinions which he explained with the aid of a parable, or a joke, or by some humorous reminiscence.   Gifted with an almost uncanny memory and with a large mind that was stored with well-assimilated information, he was one of the best talkers, on almost any subject, known anywhere in this section.  Those who observe little things will bear out the statement that, as forcefully and picturesquely as he presented his own view-point, he never fell out with a listener who chanced to disagree.  In short, he never descended to disputation, and he was always first to agree that every man was entitled to his own opinion.  Certainly he had his own opinions concerning many beliefs that other persons advanced, but it was not for him to set the world straight or to challenge the right of another to believe what he might.  The writer was talking to a man in Headland several months ago who lives 12 or 15 miles distant.  He had been one of a group around Mr. Espy following his analysis of a subject which was being discussed.  Asked what he was doing in town, this man said, “Well, I didn’t have any business here today, I came here to do just what you saw me doing—listen to John Espy talk.  I don’t always agree with what he says, but I do like to hear him talk.”  This conversation is recalled here because it is fairly representative of the opinion that so many men held of Mr. Espy.  His little impromptu audience didn’t always agree with him, but they did have a vast liking and respect him, and moreover, whether or not they were always in agreement, they liked to hear him talk.

Aside from his more serious preoccupations as banker, supply merchant, farmer – and a good deal could be written concerning Mr. Espy’s farming operations – and counselor for all who needed advice or were in trouble.  Mr. Espy was the spearhead of the hold “unterrified Democrats” of Henry County.  At the time of his death he was Chairman of the County Democratic Executive Committee, he had been a member of both Branches of the State Legislature, and had been a Councilman and Mayor of Headland.  Like his elder brother, Tom, he cared nothing about holding political office himself, but no man could have been more interested in the races of his friends.  Besides being an “unterrified and unfaltering” Democrat, as he used sometimes to describe his kind, he was a “wet: from the beginning to the end of the unfortunate and costly experiment in Prohibition.  Statesmen, leaders of the Nation, came to the belief some two or three years ago which he stoutly maintained throughout that long controversy.  Mr. Espy’s contention was that disrespect for one law would breed disrespect for ALL laws.  That he was right, it is now held by the people generally, has been more than amply demonstrated by a crime wave the proportions of which have left the county aghast.

Mr. Espy’s loyalty attracted and cemented deep friendships.  It is unusual to see numbers of middle-aged men break down and weep at a funeral, but that is what happened last Sunday morning.  Rev. Tom Fleming, who paid eloquent and understanding tribute to Mr. Espy’s life and works at the Baptist Church Sunday, testified as to the assistance and encouragement which he, as a young minister, had received from this source of help, amounting to a benefaction of large proportions.  Bro. Fleming was only one and was testifying only for himself , but he knew Mr. Espy well enough to know what almost any other man in that overflowing congregation could have arisen and contributed his testimonial also.  Mr. Espy was a hard-headed business man, but if a way could be found to help his friends or those who were more or less dependent upon him, that way would be found.  This writer has often wondered to whom Mr. Espy could go for assistance and advice.  He was on top of the pile, so to speak; he was the acknowledged leader.  He who had helped so man others could not, in turn, go to them for assistance.  In spite of his close friendship with so many citizens of this section there must have been many times, when business and other matters pressed upon him for solution, in which he felt lonely and cut off from the common walks of life.  But that he was ever depressed or overawed by the weight of the responsibilities which he bore was not apparent.

Besides all these other things, as has already been intimated, Mr. Espy was a liberal man, not only with respect to his beliefs but as to his mode of living.  He didn’t subscribe to the belief that life must be a stern and unremitting grind without its bright intervals.  As well as any man, liked the wholesome pleasures, within the bounds of temperance, that this life offers.  Not an active sportsman, nevertheless he liked to go off to the fishing camps with a group of friends or to appear in the woods at suppertime where the day’s catch or kill was being prepared.  Up to two years ago, he had never caught “more than two fish at one sitting.”  Last Summer, on Lake Iamonia, a spot of which he became very fond, some friends put him in a place where, to his considerable surprise, he caught fish after fish, until he had a long string.  “One has to know how to do this thing,” he remarked as he casually landed a fine bream.  Another man drove the car to the lake shore, and a winding and devious road it was; but that night, long after dark, when the party began their return to Headland, Mr. Espy took the wheel and drove five miles out of the swamp and into the highway without question as to direction or roads to travel.

Mr. Espy, was 58.  While still a little boy he came to Headland with his parents, Mr. And Mrs. Tom Espy, Sr., who had moved from the upper to the lower end of the county.  He was a grandson of Robert or Bob Espy, as he was generally known, the founder of the Espy family in this section.  Bob Espy emigrated to from Tallapoosa to Barbour County between 1851 and 1855, and died in 1858, four years before the outbreak of the Civil War.  Bob Espy was the father of eight children, Mrs. Lou Blackwell and Miss Carrie Espy, of Barbour County; W. C. Tom, Sr., Joe, James, Seaborn, and G. S. Espy, a resident of Texas who is the only surviving member of Bob Espy’s family.  Of these six sons, uncles of Mr. J. J. Espy, five were called to the Colors during the Civil War period.  G. S. Espy, the youngest son, was not of military age at the close of the War.  James was killed in action.  W. C. Espy was the father of Mr. F. M. Holley of Abbeville; Prof. Joe Espy, who died in 1929, was the father of Carl and Walter Espy.  Tom Espy, Sr., was married to Miss Fannie Searcy, whose father, Jim Searcy lived between Lawrenceville and the County Line Church.  Miss Searcy was a sister of Charlie, father of Ed Searcy, of Abbeville.  Mr. J. J. Espy was the last surviving son of this union, Jim having died in 1925 and Tom in 1933.  Two sisters, Mrs. G. E. Jackson and Miss Gray Espy, live at Ashford.

Mr. Espy was married to Miss Emma Carroll, of Ozark, on December 18, 1901, and besides his wife three children survive him:   John, Jr., of Atlanta,; Mrs. Charles Sidney, of Bloomfield, N.J., and Major Watt Espy, of Headland.

He had sent his children to the fine brick school which he had helped to erect, and when the time came for him to make his last journey to a church it was to the church which, without his material assistance, probably would not be standing where it is today.  As already stated, the funeral oration was delivered by a Baptist minister, one of his own faith, who testified feelingly as to the great part that Mr. Espy had played in his life.

Mr. Espy had lived a full life.  Perhaps he knew better than anyone else that he did not have many more good years ahead of him.  If the going had been hard at times, nevertheless he had surmounted major difficulties and was coming out into smoother waters.  A self-made man, one who didn’t see the need or feel the necessity of a college education for himself, he was easily the intellectual match, by reason of his fine native ability, of anyone with whom he might come in contact.  He was known and respected by leading men throughout the State.

Interment was made in the Baptist Cemetery, across the street from the Espy home.  And so the scene closes and Headland enters into a different phase of life—without John Espy.  And our, of course, is the loss, not his—he had done one man’s work.  It will seem strange and unnatural for a while.  His personality was so powerful that he will unconsciously be missed by hundreds who have watched him walk from store to bank and from his bank to his store.  It will take some time to clearly fix in the minds of hundreds of people that John Espy has gone from his store and gone from his bank, and will not return.