A. A. and Susanna Head Homestead
Alvarado, Johnson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Alanson Asbury (A. A.) Head (1843-1925) and his wife, Susanna Alabama Bethany (1843-1924) built a two-story residence here about 1877. Over the years A. A. and Susanna, known as Uncle Ben and Aunt Sukie, terraced about 300 acres here on which they cultivated various orchards, vineyards, and berry patches. Their farm prospered and in 1903 they donated two acres across the road from their home for the building of the Head Chapel Methodist Church. In 1908 the Heads donated an adjoining 2 acres to establish the Bethany Rest Cemetery, where they were later buried side by side. (1993)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1877 Alanson Asbury Head and his wife Susanna—known affectionately as Uncle Ben and Aunt Sukie—built a two-story home here and terraced some 300 acres into orchards, vineyards, and berry patches. As their farm prospered they gave two acres in 1903 for the Head Chapel Methodist Church and two more in 1908 for the Bethany Rest Cemetery, where they were later buried side by side.
Why it matters
The Head homestead shows how a single hardworking farm family could anchor a rural neighborhood, turning private success into the church and burial ground that gave the community its center.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When A. A. and Susanna Head built their home near Alvarado around 1877, North Texas was changing fast. The Civil War was a dozen years past, and settlers were pouring into the Blackland Prairie and the Cross Timbers country south of Fort Worth. Johnson County's farmland drew families who hoped to build something lasting.
Most of their neighbors put their faith in cotton, grain, and livestock. That is part of what makes the Heads stand out. The late 1800s were an age of agricultural experimentation across America, as farmers, agricultural societies, and new land-grant colleges tried out new crops and methods. Fruit growing was one of the ventures ambitious farmers took on in many parts of Texas.
This was also a time when rural communities were largely self-built. There was little government presence in the countryside. Churches, schools, and cemeteries often existed because a local family gave the land and neighbors pitched in to build. The Heads' story fits squarely into that tradition.
People & events
Alanson Asbury Head and Susanna Alabama Bethany Head were both born in 1843, and they spent a long life together on this land. Around 1877 they built a two-story house here, a substantial home for the time and place. To their neighbors they were not the formal-sounding Alanson and Susanna at all, but "Uncle Ben" and "Aunt Sukie." Nicknames like that tell you something about how a couple fits into a community: familiar, trusted, and part of everyone's lives.
What they did with the land was remarkable. Over the years the Heads terraced roughly 300 acres and planted orchards, vineyards, and berry patches. Terracing is hard, patient work. Shaping the ground into level steps slows the rain, holds the soil, and makes sloping land usable. It was a long-term investment in a place, the work of people who meant to stay.
The farm prospered, and the Heads turned their success outward. In 1903 they gave two acres across the road for the Head Chapel Methodist Church. In 1908 they gave two more adjoining acres for the Bethany Rest Cemetery, whose name echoes Susanna's own family name. Susanna died in 1924 and A. A. in 1925, and they were buried side by side in the cemetery they had helped create.
Its place in the American story
The Head homestead is a small, clear window onto how rural America was actually built. Across the country in the 19th and early 20th centuries, countless country churches and cemeteries stand on land donated by one farm family. Those gifts created the gathering places that turned scattered farms into a community with a shared center.
Methodism played an outsized role in that story. Through circuit riders and small country chapels, the Methodist church became one of the most widespread denominations in rural America during the 1800s. A chapel named for the family who gave its land is a familiar feature of the Southern and Midwestern countryside, and Head Chapel belongs to that tradition.
The Heads' terraced orchards and vineyards also connect to a broader national story about farmers trying new crops and caring for their soil. Long before soil conservation became a national cause in the 1930s, individual farmers were learning, sometimes by hard experience, that the land had to be tended carefully if it was to keep producing.
If you visit
Think of this stop as a visit to a neighborhood that one couple helped shape. The marker's story unfolds across the road as well as beside it: the home site on one side, and on the other the land the Heads gave for a church and, next to it, a cemetery. Standing here, you can take in the whole arrangement of their lives and their generosity.
As you look out over the land, try to picture it terraced and planted with orchards, grapevines, and berry rows. Fruit farming on this scale would have made the place look quite different from the cotton fields and pastures around it. If you visit the cemetery, look for the Heads resting side by side. Please be respectful, as the grounds may still be in use and cared for by local families. Keep in mind that homesteads like this are often private property, so enjoy what you can see from the public roadside.
Alvarado sits within easy reach of Fort Worth, which makes this a good short detour on a drive through Johnson County's farm country. It pairs well with other rural church and cemetery markers in the area, which together show how North Texas communities grew around the gifts of their founding families.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Alanson Asbury Head
- · Susanna Alabama Bethany Head
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Bethany Rest Cemetery
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In 1857 a small group of Alabama families settled near Chambers Creek, founding a rural community called Fairview north of this site. Decades later, in 1903, the Head family donated land for a church—first called Head's Chapel—and in 1908 its trustees set part of it aside as a burial ground. The earliest marked grave, that of fifteen-year-old Marcy Thompson, dates to that year, and a cemetery association later fenced and cared for the plots that still serve the surrounding countryside.
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