Son of Sampson and Elizabeth "Betty" Ann Blakely Head,
James Blakely Head was born on December 31, 1830 in Blount County, Alabama to Sampson Head and Betty Ann Blakely. He married Asenath Catherine Baker on August 19, 1855 in Alabama where he had been a teacher. One son, Clinton Alexander, was born in Alabama before the family moved to Johnson County, Texas. In 1876, he moved his family to Center City which was in Hamilton County at that time.

James was instrumental n the building of the first school and church building. As the little town continued to grow, the countryside for miles around was blossoming with small farms where wheat, corn, and cotton flourished. In 1872 a family came to this community and settled along the upper waters of North Bennett. Few people have made a greater impact or contributed more to the religious and civic affairs of this frontier than the J. B. Head family - with six sons and six daughters. Six years after the family arrived the father and his twelve year old son, William Eli, took two wagons and six yoke of oxen to Waco to bring back lumber for the erection of a two-story building in Center City which was to serve as a multiple structure for a church, school and Masonic Lodge Hall. The trip was uneventful going, and was made in three days. Imagine taking three days to travel one hundred miles, but coming back loaded with lumber was a different story..

Crossing the creeks with their steep banks was the greatest problem. Most of the time they put all their oxen power to one wagon to get up the bank, but even that did not work at the Cowhouse Creek. So the wagon was driven to the bed of the creek, unloaded, and then pulled up the steep bank by six yoke of oxen. The lumber was then carried, plank by plank, by the father and son up the bank and reloaded. The same procedure was repeated for the second wagon

In 1887, Mills [County] was formed and J.B. Head became its first judge. He served in this capacity for two different terms -- 1887 to 1888 [and] 1890 to 1892. He had fifteen children many who were pioneer citizens of Mills County. He died on August 10, 1903 and is buried at Center City Cemetery. The name Head means Dweller by the hill, near the source of a stream, or the head of the valley.