Named for W. S. Deats, who first settled there and built a sawmill in 1841, Deatsville was located along a stagecoach route and near a creek that supplied water power for the sawmill. Deatsville was in Autauga County until 1866, when Elmore County was formed. By the late 1850s, the town had a sash, door, and blind factory, as well as a grist mill and sawmill. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, all of the equipment in these businesses was confiscated by the Confederate Army to use in the war effort.