James Headly Coburn was born January 1848 in Lauderdale County, Alabama, to Charles and Elizabeth Coburn.

During the Civil War, James served as a private in Company I of the 1st Alabama Cavalry. James was Enlisted, into the unit in Murphreesboro, Tennessee in 1863 where he wound up after having run away from his older, abusive brother, Elijah. During the war a Rebel musket ball shot off his left ear lobe. He was discharged at Rome, Georgia in October of 1864.

After the war he returned to Colbert County, Alabama where he remained until 1881 when he moved to Lonoke County, Arkansas. In 1902 he moved to Durant (Oklahoma), Indian Territory. By 1910, he was living in Tomberlins, Arkansas, farming about 400 acres.

James married Martha June Mayes, 6 August 1865 in Alabama. They had five children.

Martha died 18 February 1879 in Colbert County, Alabama, and James married Julia Fureigh on 21 December 1879.

James' family was not happy about him marrying Julia. They thought that it was too soon after his first wife's death (10 months). Julia was supposedly Eastern bred, a Catholic school girl with wealthy parents and a rather sophisticated background. Her parents were also unhappy with the marriage, feeling that James, a farmer, was not good enough for their daughter.

Julia had her hands full, but she took his small children and raised them after they lost their mother and even after she had fifteen children of her own with James. Four of the fifteen children died at birth, a set of twins died in infancy, two others didn't make it to their second birthday, and one child died before the age of four.

Julia died 20 August 1910, and James married for a third time. Her name was Etha Elizabeth Poteet and they had no children.

James Headly died 19 October 1934 in Lonoke County, Arkansas when a team of mules he was driving bolted, throwing him from the wagon which then ran over him and fractured his skull. He is buried in Tomberlin Cemetery in Lonoke County.

Source
http://www.kimsgenes.com/familypages/ancestral/coburnjamesheadly.htm

Database created and maintained by Ryan Dupree.

Service records compiled by Glenda Todd and used with her permission. This and other information about the history of the First and the men who fought with the unit can be found in her book, First Alabama Cavalry, USA: Homage to Patriotism.

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