Needham

Needham is located in central Choctaw County in the southwestern part of the state near the Alabama and Mississippi border. It has a mayor/city council form of government.

The railroad and depot in the area now known as Needham was originally called Bogueloosa, like the creek that runs through the town. The earliest representation of the town on a map is from La Tourette's 1844 map of Alabama. It is unknown exactly when the town was founded. When the first post office was established in the area in 1905, the Federal Board of Communications would not allow it to be called Bogueloosa because of a town in Louisiana with a similar name. The post office, and by extension the surrounding area, was renamed Needham in honor of Eli W. Needham, a retired veteran of the Civil War whose father was an early resident of the town. Needham was officially incorporated in December 1981.

According to 2016 Census estimates, Needham recorded a population of 121. Of that number, 987.5 percent of respondents identified themselves as white and 2.5 percent as two or more races. The town's median household income was $68,750, and the per capita income was $30,364.

Employment

According to 2016 Census estimates, the workforce in Needham was divided among the following industrial categories:

· Manufacturing (25.9 percent)
· Retail trade (16.7 percent)
· Educational services, and health care and social assistance (13.0 percent)
· Transportation and warehousing and utilities (13.0 percent)
· Arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation, and food services (7.4   percent)
· Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and extractive (7.4 percent)
· Construction (7.4 percent)
· Finance, insurance, and real estate, rental, and leasing (3.7 percent)
· Public administration (3.7 percent)
· Other services, except public administration (1.9 percent)

Students in Needham attend Choctaw County schools; no public schools are located within the town limits.

County Highway 18 bisects Needham running southwest-east through town, and County Highway 11 dead-ends into 18 from the north.

Needham sponsors a Fall Festival the third weekend in November at Broadhead Memorial Park on County Highway 18. The park features a one-mile walk on Bogueloosa Creek, a dog-trot cabin, the Wilson grist mill, and other exhibits. The festival has basket weaving demonstrations, a tour of the cabin, food and craft vendors, local singers, and a demonstration of cane-syrup making.

Additional Resources

Choctaw County Heritage Book Committee. The Heritage of Choctaw County, Alabama. Clanton, Ala.: Heritage Publishing Consultants, 2001.

Gay, Ann H. Choctaw Names and Notes: Alabama's Choctaw County. Meridian, Miss.: Brown Printing Company, 1993.