Jewish soldiers at Chamblee's World War I Camp Gordon

A building constructed for Jewish soldiers at World War I Camp Gordon in Chamblee was completed October 1, 1918. It was known as the Little White House and was sponsored by the Jewish Welfare Board. The building was painted white unlike most of the buildings at Camp Gordon. (Hearst’s Sunday American, Oct. 27, 1918, “Air of Home Permeates Little White House at Gordon”)

The YMCA and Knights of Columbus had already constructed buildings at Camp Gordon. The Spanish flu epidemic hit Camp Gordon in 1918, causing delays for the completion of the Little White House.

According to the 1918 Hearst Newspaper, although the Little White House was “…essentially the gathering place for Jewish boys in the service, every soldier in the camp knows that he will receive a hearty welcome there.”

Once completed, the building had reading and writing rooms plus a large hall with seating for around 200 people. Jewish Welfare workers at the camp used the building as their headquarters. English classes were offered in the building for non-English speaking soldiers.

Fourteen women volunteered to serve on a committee which would meet at the Little White House each afternoon at 4 pm until 8 pm. The women would sew and mend uniforms, help soldiers write letters and spend time talking with them.  

The Jewish Welfare Board found hundreds of Jewish families in Atlanta who were happy to open their homes to soldiers. The soldiers were invited to dinner at these homes.

Women from the Jewish Welfare Board visited several times a week at the Camp Gordon and Fort McPherson hospitals with flowers to make the area more cheerful. They would bring cigarettes, candy, and fruit with the permission of the commanding officer.

Even before the Little White House was built, the Jewish Welfare Board was working to improve the social and religious life of Jewish soldiers. In the Atlanta Constitution’s special section, “Camp Gordon and the other camps,” their activities are described. Soldiers were entertained during Passover holidays and 75 pounds of candy was distributed.

Image from “Atlanta’s Camp Gordon,” by James Kevin Knettel.

When the war ended, the Jewish Welfare Board, YMCA and Knights of Columbus all had floats in a parade in Atlanta. There were also students from the army training corps of Boys High School, Tech High School, Marist College, and Georgia Military Academy participating in the victory parade.  The Women’s Motor Corps marched, leading the way for the floats.

Antioch School, first Chamblee school 1905

A one-room school was built in Chamblee in 1905. Prior to that, some families sent their children to school in Roswell. Ida Wallace of Chamblee rode the Roswell Railroad from Chamblee to Roswell each week to attend school. She stayed in Roswell until the end of each week, then returned to her family in Chamblee. (“A History of the Community and the City of Chamblee,”1983 by Vivian Price)

The location of Antioch School is now 5295 New Peachtree Road. The school site was next to the First Baptist Church of Chamblee Cemetery and for many years was the location of Interactive College of Technology. Today 5295 New Peachtree Road is home to the International Pentecostal Church of God.

When the Camp Gordon World War I encampment was built in Chamblee, it took over a large portion of the town, including Antioch School. A new school was planned for Chamblee and the two-story brick school was completed and opened in 1919.

The new Chamblee School housed both the grammar school and high school. The Atlanta Constitution proclaimed the school to be one of the finest schools in the state, calling it “beautiful and modern in every respect and contains every feature of the up-to-date school house.” The final cost of the new school was $30,000.

The old Antioch School was moved to the new property and was used for the Home Economics program.

This may not seem like a great deal of historical information about Antioch School. I agree! I’ll continue to be on the lookout for more history and this blog post will be updated when and if I locate more history.

During the time that World War I Camp Gordon took over Chamblee, the school was part of the camp’s property. After the war, it was moved to the new site for the school, which is the same location as Chamblee High School today. The old Antioch School building was used as the Home Economics building. This 1940 photo also shows the cannery on the right and students forming the letters CHS in front of the school. (Photo from “A History of the Community and the City of Chamblee,”1983 by Vivian Price)

This 1938 yearbook page shows students standing in front of the Home Economics building, the former Antioch School.

Sams Crossing, story behind the name

I am often curious about the history behind road names. Sams Crossing and Sams Street in Decatur are along one of my regular routes and I presumed there was a family named Sams, but wanted to know more about them. At the end of this article you will see that I communicated with a Sams family member back in 2006, but just recently made the connection.

Marion Washington Sams came to Georgia from Greenville, South Carolina in 1870. Sams and his wife Mary Lucia Duncan Sams lived temporarily with his uncle J. H. Nash on Church Street. (DeKalb News Sun, Vivian Price, 7/22/1981)

Sams then purchased property along with a three- or four-bedroom home from Thomas Little. The property was located where Railroad Avenue (today’s College Avenue), Covington Road and Sycamore Street met.

Augustine Sams, grandson of Marion and Mary Sams, was an attorney and later a member of the Georgia general assembly representing DeKalb County. During WWI, Augustine Sams was stationed at Camp Gordon. He is buried at Decatur Cemetery with a marker that indicates he was born in 1893 and died 1978. The marker also recognizes his WWI service as a Captain in the U. S. Army.

When Vivian Price wrote about the Sams family in 1981 a marker had recently been placed by MARTA, naming the overhead crossing Sams Crossing, dedicated to the memory of Marion Washington Sams.

The Sams Crossing marker at MARTA’s Avondale Station reads, "This construction is located near the original 1870 home site of Marion Washington Sams, who settled in this area with his wife, Mary Lucia Duncan, and children, Hansford Dade Duncan, Lewis Reeve, Marion Washington, Jr., Mary Lucia, Joseph Augustine and Miles Stanhope. The rail crossing at this road junction immediately became known as ‘Sams Crossing’.”

Over on the east side of E. College Avenue, a stones throw from Sams Crossing, is Sams Street, named for the same family.

What became Sams Crossing was called Covington Road Crossing back then. The home of the Sams family was called Violet Cottage. There was a large bed of violets planted around a giant magnolia tree in the yard.

Price says “The only thing that is left of the Sams settlement area in 1981 is the plaque in the MARTA Station. Marion Sams at the dedication ceremony, said “So we see now that the first generation traveled by horse and buggy, the second generation primarily by train, the third generation by the old south Decatur Trolley and now the fourth generation will travel primarily by MARTA.”

Back in 2006, I wrote an article about WWI Camp Gordon in Chamblee for the Dunwoody Crier Newspaper. I received emails from a few readers, including one from Joseph Augustine Sams Bond. He shared the followed recollections with me.

This photograph of the J. A. Sams home on College Avenue from 3/4/1927 is from the archives of the DeKalb History Center and appears to be the home that Joseph Augustine Sams Bond describes as his mother’s childhood home.

“My Mother's childhood home was the large Victorian structure that stood where the Sams Crossing MARTA Station south parking lot is today. She was a Sams. Many times I heard my Mother and/or her sister or brother discuss the long, bumpy and dusty wagon rides that they endured traveling from Decatur to Camp Gordon for a dance or other function. Often just to see a friend in the service. My family and friends occasionally enjoy eating at Downwind (restaurant) while the grandchildren watch the runway activity. As I sit there, I often remember the many buildings that once stood on that site and those that served at Camp Gordon as well as Naval Air Station Atlanta.”

Sams went on to tell me that his Uncle Augustine Sams had been at Camp Gordon and his cousins Marion A. Sams and Richard H. Sams were at Naval Air Station Atlanta in the early 1950s. Joseph Augustine Sams Bond died in 2020.

Captain Peter Carey and the WWI Norcross Rifle Range

New posts each Monday.

I recently came across an article about WWI Norcross Rifle Range that mentions Captain Peter Carey. I was fortunate to communicate with Carey’s son Chris in 2018. Chris Carey shared several documents and photographs of his father.

The August 20, 1918, Atlanta Constitution article I stumbled on is titled, “Rifle Range Men Doing Great Work at Camp Gordon” with the subtitle, “Operate 300-Acre Farm and Help to Feed Gordon in Addition to Supplying Own Messes.” It describes how the soldiers at Norcross rifle range are constructing a farm of between 250 and 300 acres and supporting themselves in fresh food.

They are growing vegetables in addition to their training under the leadership of Captain Peter Carey who is described as “one of the most efficient and hardworking officers at Gordon.”

The Norcross Rifle Range was constructed in 1917 near the U. S. Army’s World War I encampment Camp Gordon, located in Chamblee, Georgia.  There were two rifle ranges near Atlanta, one in Norcross and another in Marietta.

Captain Peter Thaddeus Carey was commander of the Norcross Rifle Range from November of 1917 through January of 1919.  His job was to prepare recruits for rifle duty in combat companies.  Most of the recruits had no military experience.

Captain Peter Carey demonstrates his shooting skills at Norcross Rifle Range, 1918.

Peter Carey had already fought in the Spanish-American War, was a bugler for the New Jersey National Guard, and rose through the Army ranks as sergeant, commissary sergeant, 1st sergeant, 1st Lieutenant, and Captain through 1910.   

In 1917, when men across the United States were called to register for service, he reported to Officers Training at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia.  That same year, he was recommissioned and reported to Camp Gordon as a Captain in the 82nd Division, then to Norcross Rifle Range in March of 1918. 

Captain Carey of Norcross Rifle Range was set to become a Major in October of 1918, but his commission did not come through before the war ended on November 11th.  He received glowing recommendations from his superiors but took his discharge in January of 1919 and moved to California to pursue new opportunities.

In November of 1937, Captain Carey married Mary Catherine Terhune of Burley, Idaho.  She was a graduate of Lake Erie Women’s College and the University of Idaho.  She taught school in Edinburg, Texas and then in San Francisco, where the couple met. Their son Chris was born in 1946.  Peter Carey died just four years later.

Chris Carey shared this story passed down by his mom as told by Peter Carey. “When he (Captain Carey) was training the American Expeditionary Forces destined to join General Pershing’s command in Europe, one of his recruits was Alvin York, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery.  He had substantial skill as a dead-eyed squirrel shooter but lacked any vestige of discipline requisite to becoming a skillful soldier.  This he quickly set in order, since York was already a natural-born sharpshooter and expert rifleman from his years in Tennessee’s hill region.”

According to “Atlanta’s Camp Gordon,” by James Knettel, “the (Norcross Rifle) range pits were approximately seven miles northeast of Camp Gordon and occupied 700 acres. The federal, state and DeKalb County governments joined together to pay for paving the road to the range pits.” The land that was once Norcross Rifle Range is today the location of Sheffield Forest neighborhood, located off Norcross-Tucker Road. 

In addition to starting a vegetable garden, I know the soldiers picked peaches somewhere nearby, because it is documented in the photographs below. Since the war ended soon after the August 1918 article, I wonder what became of their farming efforts.

Captain Carey is identified in this peach picking photograph as number 17.

Norcross Rifle Range recruits after a peach picking expedition.

More Norcross Rifle Range Photos

Captain Peter Carey stands at the entrance monument for Norcross Rifle Range. (1918)

My Past Tense column in the Dunwoody Crier this week features Part 2 of the story of Captain Peter Thaddeus Carey, who commanded the Norcross Rifle Range during World War I.

The two photos above are from the collection of James Knettel. The photo to the right was shared by Chris Carey.

You can find the article here.

Captain Peter Carey and Sergeant Boyle with the Norcross Rifle Range car. (1918)

Mary Carey, Chris Carey, and Captain Peter Carey in 1950.

World War I Norcross Rifle Range photographs

Captain Carey in his Norcross Rifle Range office.

This week’s Past Tense column in the Dunwoody Crier newspaper features the story of Captain Peter Thaddeus Carey who commanded the Norcross Rifle Range during World War I. There will be a second part to the story in a future edition.

These are some of the Norcross Rifle Range photos from Chris Carey and James Knettel. More photos will be available next week.

You can find the article here.

Captain Peter Thaddeus Carey with his horse Aphrodite at World War I Norcross Rifle Range.

A group of trainees from the Norcross Rifle Range go peach picking in Georgia. This photo is from the collection of James Knettel. The back identifies each man by his nickname and his home state. Captain Carey is identified as #17.