Abbeville, AL

Abbeville is Henry County's seat in southeastern Alabama's Wiregrass, a city organized around Court Square, U.S. 431, and the roads toward Eufaula and Dothan. An active trading post appeared here in Alabama Territory in 1819, and Abbeville became the county seat in 1833 after the former seat, Columbia, moved into the newly formed Houston County. The city incorporated in 1853. Local history connects the name to nearby Abbie Creek, with a Muscogee name sometimes translated as a grove of dogwoods. Henry County's courthouse still stands at Court Square, while Abbeville Elementary and Abbeville High keep the county school system visible in town. Agriculture, especially peanuts, shaped the Wiregrass economy after cotton's decline. Abbeville is a small Alabama county seat with a trading-post beginning and a road network that still points in every direction.