DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. There's a house sitting in Teague, Texas, that has been standing since 1906, and the marker calls it the oldest home in town. That alone ought to make you slow down when you pass it.
But the house is really just the frame around the man who built it, and that man is worth knowing. His name was Dr. Emmet Headlee, born in 1848, died in 1918, and the life he packed in between those two years reads like somebody tried to fit three men into one.
He came to Texas in 1866, and the town he settled in was called Brewer. You know it today as Teague. Now Headlee didn't arrive without roots.
His father was a Methodist preacher who also served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. That's the stock he came from. And he carried that legacy forward in his own way, becoming the father and grandfather of doctors.
Medicine ran through that family like a current. But Headlee himself was not content to hang a single shingle. He became a planter.
A church leader. He was Brewer's very first postmaster. He was a civic leader, a peace officer, a banker, a druggist, a school trustee, a Mason.
And the marker says he was a citizen who had a hand in influencing the building of the railroad. Think about that list for a moment. That is not a resume.
That is a town. He didn't just live in Brewer. He was woven into it, post office and all.
And in 1906, he built this house. The one still standing. The oldest home in Teague.
Some men leave a name on a plaque. Dr. Emmet Headlee left a whole community, and the house to prove he was there.
What the marker says
Built 1906 in Brewer (now Teague). Builder (b. 1848 - d. 1918) was son of a Methodist preacher who was also a Confederate Army surgeon in Civil War; in turn was father and grandfather of doctors. Came to Texas 1866; became a planter, church leader, Brewer's first postmaster; a civic leader, peace officer, banker, druggist, school trustee, Mason, citizen influencing railroad building. This is Teague's oldest home. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1965