Towns and Communities of Henry County, Alabama

Newton
Originally in Henry County

Newton is located in Dale County (Southeast Region), 15 miles northwest of Dothan along Highway 134 near the Fort Rucker Military Reservation.
 

Kinsey
Originally in Henry County

Named for a former postmaster, Eliza Kinsey, Kinsey is found in Houston County (Southeast Region), on the NE outskirts of Dothan along Highway 431 placing it in the Dothan, Alabama metro area.
 

Stage coaches are said to have passed that way. It was on the Chattahoochee River road. There were two furnishing, that is grocery and dry goods stores. A boat landing on the river, provided means for the merchants to receive merchandise from Columbus, Georgia  and other points along the river. Large plantation owners in this section traded with the merchants there who kept good wares and needful merchandise.

Otho drew trade largely from the north east section of Henry County and south east of Barbour County.
Beginning in the 1880’s many of the inhabitants and plantation owners moved to Columbia, Abbeville, Eufaula, Clayton and elsewhere.

The Bedell, Averett, McVey, Elias Thomas, Allen Bizzell, Moses Langston, Hinton Craddock, W. J. Craddock, Giles Carter, P. M. Thomas, Jesse W. Corbitt, Lipscomb, Whitmore Price, John and Rebecca Bowden, Nancy Thomas and her grandchildren, James R. Morris, Henry W. Culver, Albert A. Norton, William H. Calhoun, George W. Carter, A. S. Hill, Michael Holmes and Jos. F. Phillips lived at Otho.

Otho began to decline during the 1890’s when prices for farm products were not in keeping with their cost of production.

The steamboats on the river made trips from Columbus to Apalachicola twice weekly until 1920.
There was a U. S. Post Office at Otho from 19 July 1854 until 15 November 1905. After that time they called for their mail at Hilliardsville. Otho was in existent as late as the turn of the century.

Nearby Dothan offers all of the amenities of a large city. Haleburg is located 15 miles northeast of Headland and
5 miles from the Alabama-Georgia state line. The lifestyle of the town is relaxed and easy with no traffic lights or
bustling traffic jams. The neighborly residents take care of one another's physical and religious needs at the 2 local churches.  It may not be busy here but it is surely a nice place to live in the area's beautiful rolling hills.

People began moving to the settlement, seeing that its surroundings and strategic location gave way to a bounteous timber and turpentine industry. As industry gradually shifted from the lumber base, the area still remained active in agriculture, having peanuts, cotton, and corn forming the economic foundation that still exists. Settlers from the Carolinas and the Virginias brought with them a tremendous work ethic and a firm will to succeed as they faced the problems and obstacles in this new, unknown area and way of life.

While agriculture remains important in its economic base, this doesn't mean that Headland is tied to the farm.
Our industries include the home of a furniture manufacturing plant, a baker's yeast production and distribution
facility, a pen and pencil producing company, construction concerns, trucking lines, professional offices,
and facilities that process and distribute peanuts. It is everyone's belief in hard work and its rewards that make
the city what it is today; it is that belief that will carry us successfully forward into the next century.

The current population for Headland is 3,266.

The Blanche Solomon memorial Library is located next to City Hall on the square and has approximately
17,000 volumes. The library contains reading areas for all ages, including a room of area history. It also has
3 online computers available for public use.

The natural resources of the area include mining of clays, bauxite, and stone along with harvesting an
abundance of loblolly pines and slash pines. Our major agricultural products include peanuts, hogs, cattle,
cotton, soybeans, corn, and canola. One cotton gin and 3 peanut processors operate locally; the closest market
for livestock, soybeans, corn, and canola is in Dothan.

There are 24 churches in and around the Headland area to serve both the physical and spiritual needs
of almost all denominations; others are found close by in Dothan.

The Headland Observer is the local weekly newspaper that prints each Thursday. The Dothan Eagle is daily and the Dothan Progress is a weekly.

They sought higher ground and decided on that part of the Chunnuggee Ridge that the Indians named "Yatta Abba", that the settlers knew as Abbeville from 1821. Since the altitude was 499 feet, the area had perfect drainage. They heeded this sound advice and began building their log homes in this healthful area. It began to grow continuously with settlers coming from the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia; 80 percent were from South Carolina alone. They had been crowded out of their native states as there was not land enough to go around among the large families of sixteen or more children.

Once in this county, they found land that produced abundant crops of cotton and corn and most years had a very suitable climate. Some of them had come in good financial condition and added to their holdings by good management. Many of the jobs held by settlers were not white collar jobs, but required hands and brains that were needful. Of the occupations reported were: blacksmith, shoemakers, cabinet makers, merchants, carpenters, millwrights, planters, spinning wheel makers, chair makers, hatters, school teachers, surveyors of land, stockmen, rock and brick masons, to name a few. By 1823, Abbeville was a growing village of substantial residents. It became the county seat of Henry County in 1833.

Location factors find that Abbeville is located in the Lower Coastal Plains, an area that runs along the southern border of Alabama and as far north as the northern part of Henry County. The Lower Coastal Plains are made up of soils that respond well to good management, especially fertilizations and irrigation. A two hour drive from Abbeville will place one at the Gulf of Mexico's fishing areas and beaches. Lakes and streams of the Chattahoochee are within 30 minutes, where there is an abundance of campsites and provisions for boating and fishing. Hunting advantages further add to the enjoyment of living in the area.

The Abbeville Memorial Library maintains approximately 13,000 volumes. An excellent working relationship exists between the city library and the regional library, thus providing a rotation of printed materials and giving a broader base for the library's selection. This modern library has a spacious meeting room and historical section that contains records and books of the once-active Henry County Historical Society.

The local newspaper is The Abbeville Herald published weekly.

Franklin

Franklin - First Beachhead into East Alabama
Location: Located near the McKemie Bridge on Alabama Highway 10, fourteen miles east of Abbeville, Alabama.
Marker Dedication or Erection Date:  January 21, 1979

Marker Text:
The frontier village of Franklin was established here by Colonel Robert Irwin in 1814 on the site of the Indian town of Cheeska Talofa. It was the first colonial village in east Alabama. Fort Gaines, Georgia, was constructed in 1816 to protect the early settlers in this former Creek Indian Nation, West. Twenty-one blocks were laid off for this promising river port of Abbeville. This prospective early city never recovered from the destructive flood of 1888.
Erected by the Historic Chattahoochee Commission and the Henry County Historical Society, 1978.

Lawrenceville

Location: Located on U.S. Highway 431 at Lawrenceville, Alabama.
Marker Dedication or Erection Date:  November 12, 1978

SIDE 1:
This cultural, educational and religious center in east Alabama was settled in 1823 and named for Joseph Lawrence, prominent pioneer, farmer, and extensive land owner. A Baptist and a Methodist Church were established here prior to 1830. The first settlers of this area came from the Carolinas and Georgia, crossing the Chattahoochee River at Franklin and squatting here until land could be purchased in 1828.

Hilliardsville post office was established near here on May 18, 1850, with Washington H. Peacock as its first postmaster, followed in 1860 by John M. Woods. Discontinued during the Civil War, the post office was re-established in 1872 with Matilda Thompson as postmistress. Later appointments were John P. Crawford in 1876, Matilda Thompson again in 1878, James A. Phillips and Richard Knight in 1882, Mattie R. Bedell in 1883, John C. McLeod, Maggie E. Johnston in 1884, and William F. Watford in 1887. His son, John W. Watford served from 1897 until October 15, 1907, when mail service was transferred to the Abbeville Post Office. Erected by the Historic Chattahoochee Commission and the Henry County Historical Society, 1989.

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