Deatsville

Holtville School Deatsville is located in western Elmore County in the east-central part of the state. It has a mayor/city council form of government.

History

Named for W. S. Deats, who first settled there and built a sawmill in 1841, Deatsville was located along a stagecoach route and near a creek that supplied water power for the sawmill. Deatsville was in Autauga County until 1866, when Elmore County was formed. By the late 1850s, the town had a sash, door, and blind factory, as well as a grist mill and sawmill. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, all of the equipment in these businesses was confiscated by the Confederate Army to use in the war effort.

After the war in 1871, Deatsville got its first post office, and in the same year the South and North Alabama Railroad (later taken over by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad) came through town. The town expanded as a result. A depot and water tower were built to serve the trains coming through. Saloons and a dance hall soon followed the railroad, but the churchgoing citizens of Valley Head quickly shut them down.

From 1900 until the Great Depression, Deatsville prospered; at one time it had four general stores, two cotton gins, two boarding houses, a soap box factory, two sawmills, a grist mill, and a turpentine distillery. The Great Depression forced many residents to seek work in larger cities after these local businesses began to shut down, and the town never regained its former level of prosperity.

Demographics

According to 2020 Census estimates, Deatsville recorded a population of 1,864. Of that number, 75.4 percent of respondents identified themselves as white, 23.7 percent as African American, 2.0 percent as Hispanic or Latino, and 0.9 percent as two or more races. The town’s median household income was $79,688, and the per capita income was $28,642.

Employment

According to 2020 Census estimates, the workforce in Deatsville was divided among the following industrial categories:

  • Retail trade (23.5 percent)
  • Educational services, and health care and social assistance (18.7 percent)
  • Arts, entertainment, recreation, and accommodation and food services (10.9 percent)
  • Transportation and warehousing and utilities (7.8 percent)
  • Manufacturing (7.2 percent)
  • Wholesale trade (7.2 percent)
  • Public administration (6.1 percent)
  • Professional, scientific, management, and administrative and waste management services (5.9 percent)
  • Finance, insurance, and real estate, rental, and leasing (4.8 percent)
  • Construction (3.7 percent)
  • Other services, except public administration (2.5 percent)
  • Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and extractive (0.9 percent)
  • Information (0.8 percent)

Education

Schools in Deatsville are part of the Elmore County school system; the town has one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school. Coastal Alabama Community College maintains a campus in Deatsville.

Transportation

State Highway 143 curves through the western part of Deatsville traveling north-south. County Road 3 bisects the town running roughly northwest-southeast.

Events and Places of Interest

The Billy Johnson Place and Holtville School are listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

Additional Resources

Elmore County Heritage Book Committee. Heritage of Elmore County, Alabama. Clanton, Ala.: Heritage Publishing Consultants, Inc., 2002.

External Links

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