Henry County Siftings
By T. Larry Smith
Vol. 14, No. 47
Headland’s 140th Anniversary, 1871-2011
Happy birthday Headland! The City of Headland, Alabama, the largest
town in Henry County, is now 140 years old this year. Headland was founded by the town’s namesake, James
Joshua Head (1839-1927), in 1871 near the crossroads of the old Newton –
Columbia Road and the Eufaula, Alabama – Marianna, Florida Mail Road. A scattering of settlers and farmers were
living in the piney woods area. The one
room church and school of the Baptist Church of Christ at Bethlehem had been
organized in 1867 with a few members, and stood at the north end of present
Cleveland Street; this church grew into the present First Baptist Church of
Headland now on East Church Street. The Piney Grove Primitive Baptist Church
had been established in 1849 near the three cornered pond just west of the
present farmer’s co-op in Headland, but later removed to its present location
on hwy 173 within the present city limits.
J. J. Head was a Confederate Army veteran
from Henry County, Georgia (what a coincidence). He had attended the University of Georgia and
became a teacher, a large land owner, a farmer, a merchant, a politico, and
later a medical doctor. J. J. Head and
wife, Lucinda “Lutie” Head, were seeking new opportunities after the Civil War
ended. They came into Henry County,
Alabama in 1866 and first settled in Abbeville when Head was age 27; he later became
Principal of the reopened Abbeville Academy. He ran for the office of Henry County School
Superintendent in 1869, but lost. J. J. Head
purchased a 160 acre land claim from William Whitehead and wife, in 1869,
excluding the land upon which the little Baptist Church of Christ at Bethlehem
stood. This church later relinquished
the name of Bethlehem to a new church congregation which is still operating
east of Headland. Mr. Head had a vision for
a new town to be carved out of the flat wooded wilderness with standing ponds, and
he continued to buy additional lands. In 1871, J. J. Head staked off the public
square with the intentions of having a Henry County Branch Court House to
locate on the square; he platted and laid out commercial lots first on the
south and west sides of the square. Head
built his home just northeast of the square on present Cleveland Street, with
the place then being called “Head’s Land” by the few local area settlers. An application was presented for a U.S. Post
Office, which was soon established at Head’s Land on October 10, 1871 and
opened as “Headland, Alabama,” with William Lane as the first Postmaster. Mr. Head served as the second postmaster from
1874-1880. The village grew slowly with
only a few business lots being sold, along with several large residential lots.
Mr. Head sold the unsold platted portion
of the little village of Headland, including the public square, in 1879, to
Hosey C. Powell who then attempted to incorporate the town. The attempt failed
due to not having enough male voters of legal age residing within the proposed
corporate limits. J.J. Head had become a medical doctor by 1880. Dr. J. J. Head opened his medical practice in
Headland and remained in the town until removing his large family to
Hillsborough County, Florida in 1883 at age 44, where he lived until his death.
Dr. Head had lived in the town of Headland for about 12 years. After Hosey C.
Powell’s incorporation attempt failed, Mr. Powell then sold the town of
Headland lands to Dr. Wyatt S. Oates in 1880. Dr. Oates had opened his medical
office in Headland in 1875; after graduating from medical school in Atlanta. Dr.
Oates seeing an opportunity in the new village of Headland and in his growing
real estate business, soon closed his medical office in order to spend more
time on his real estate business.
Dr, Oates then became “The Father of
Headland” as the promoter, builder, and developer of the town. He began building new homes and commercial
buildings for rent or for sale; Headland began to prosper with the town
incorporating in 1884. The name of
Headland could easily have become “Oatesland, Alabama” if so desired by Dr.
Oates who became a wealthy man having owned some 12,000 acres over the county. Dr. W. S. Oates was an Abbeville native, a
son of Ephraim Oates and a cousin of the notable William Calvin Oates of
Abbeville, who was a CSA Colonel, U.S. Congressman, Governor of Alabama, and
U.S. Army General. Many of Headland’s
early pioneers had connections with the county seat town of Abbeville.
Dr. J. J. Head died in Lake Magdalene,
Florida in Hillsborough County in 1927 at age 88. He had practiced medicine on
Washington Street in Tampa and had served as county treasurer. The attached image depicts one of Dr. J.J.
Head’s campaign cards when he won the office of treasurer in Hillsborough
County, FL. He also became a pioneer in
the nearby town of Lake Magdalene, FL.
Lutie Head had died there in 1924; she and Dr. Head were parents of
eight children, with only a few descendents living today. Their first child was born in Houston County,
GA; the next two were born in Abbeville, Alabama, with the remaining five
children being born in Headland, Alabama. Dr. and Mrs. Head are buried in the
Lake Carroll Cemetery near Tampa, FL., where a marker was placed at Dr. Head’s
grave in 2005 by the Henry County Historical
Group stating that he was the founder of Headland, Alabama in 1871.
Dr. W. S. Oates (1852-1913) died in 1913
and his notable wife, Martha Alice Reynolds Oates (1857-1926), nicknamed “Queen,”
died in 1926, with both being buried in the Abbeville City Cemetery in the Ephraim
Oates family plot. Dr. Oates’ body was
transported to Abbeville by a special funeral train. Martha Alice Oates
Reynolds was called the “Martha Washington of the Wiregrass” as well as a
pioneer, matriarch, and benefactor of Headland. Portraits of these three important Headland
pioneers: J.J. Head; Dr. W. S. Oates and his wife Alice Reynolds Oates; are
displayed in the Headland City Hall lobby.
No image or further information has yet been located regarding Hosey C.
Powell, the interim owner of Headland in 1879. Mr. Powell was residing in
Florida in 1909 when he penned a letter to Dr. W. S. Oates detailing his brief
ownership of the village of Headland. This was during the noted 1909 Supreme Court
case of W.S. Oates vs. The City of Headland regarding who owned the Public Square
and several disputed city streets. The
court ruled in the City’s favor, but Dr. Oates refused to abide. After further deliberations, the case was
settled with the city getting ownership of the Square and Dr. Oates getting
ownership of several city streets.
Headland’s 150th anniversary
will be in 2021; with the city’s 200th anniversary happening in
2071. May the City of Headland continue
to prosper during the next 140 years, as the city’s new generations of citizens
awake to another 51,000 sunrises propelling Headland into the unknown future by
the year 2151. Will J.J. Head’s vision
of a county court house ever come to fruition?
Henry County and the State of Alabama will celebrate their 200th
anniversary in 2019. Meanwhile, we wish
a Happy 140th birthday to Headland this year.
- More Anon!
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