Dunwoody's early laboratory and pharmacist-Eureka!

When Dunwoody Methodist Church contructed a new sanctuary in 1970, a small tin salve box was discovered in the ground.  The box read “Eureka Ointment, Eureka Laboratory, Dunwoody Georgia.  Price 25 cents. Recommended for chapped hands, face and lips, chafes, burns, catarrh etc.” (The Story of Dunwoody 1821-2001, by Elizabeth L. Davis, Ethel W. Spruill) 

Eureka Laboratory was one of several business located along the Roswell Railroad in the early 20th century. The Roswell Railroad ran from Chamblee, through Dunwoody, to Roswell and back from 1881 until 1921. Eureka Laboratory was just off Chamblee Dunwoody Road on Nandina Lane, then known as Spruill Street, and next door to Dunwoody Methodist Church.

Lawrence Albert Ball, born 1885, and his sister Clara Elizabeth Ball, born 1890, started the business.  They were children of Reuben Greenleaf Ball and Martha Salina Brightwell Ball. 

The Ball family already had a long history in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody. Albert and Clara’s grandparents were Peter and Margaret Ball, who came to Georgia from South Carolina. Peter Ball owned a mill along a creek today known as Ball Mill Creek, located along Ball Mill Road.  

Peter and Margaret Ball had four sons and five daughters. Reuben Greenleaf Ball was one of those children.    

Albert Ball received his training at the Atlanta College of Pharmacy (established 1891) and became a registered pharmacist.  Then he began developing his formulas for healing salves and lotions.

Clara Ball was known as an accomplished student and cook. She often prepared food for families facing illness or difficult times. She made face powders, perfumes and cosmetics to sell at Eureka Laboratory. 

In addition to working as a pharmacist, Albert Ball was an early mail carrier for Dunwoody, traveling the long route by horse drawn buggy.  The route went from Dunwoody to the area along Roswell Road just south of the river, over to Morgan Falls and back to Dunwoody along Mount Vernon Road.

In 1918, Albert Ball completed a draft registration card for World War I.  His registration card is signed by Mr. Tilly. There are no records to indicate that Ball was ever called to report for military duty.

1920 census records show Albert Ball lived in the same house with his mother Martha and his sister and business partner Clara. Reuben Ball died two years earlier. The space for occupation shows Albert is a student at a medical college.

When the 1950 census was recorded, Albert was 65 and Clara was 59. Albert’s occupation recorded on the document is working around the house and garden. I believe today we call that retired!

Jett Ferry and the Jett family

New blog posts each Monday

Roswell Manufacturing Company built a bridge over the Chattahoochee River in 1857, about thirty feet downstream from the current bridge.  McAfee’s Bridge, near the present-day Holcombe Bridge was built by Robert McAfee in 1834.  Before the bridges, ferries offered a way to get across the river. 

There were also two areas shallow enough to cross on foot, the Shallow Ford near today’s Roswell Road bridge and Island Ford, in the area where the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area Island Ford is today. These shallow areas changed with the construction of dams, and are no longer traversable.

One of the ferries was run by the Jett family. James Jett and Rosanna Gregory Jett brought their family from South Carolina to Georgia around 1810. The couple had ten children. According to “Roswell: A Pictorial History,” James Jett began operating a ferry in 1819.    

The fourth Jett son was Theophilus, born in 1801.  Theophilus married Minerva Elizabeth Davis and they built a home at the intersection of today’s Eves Road and Terrace Club Drive in Roswell.  Eves Road was once known as Jett Road. Theophilus worked on the farm and operated the ferry in the late 1830s and early 1840s. (“The Chattahoochee River Crossings of Roswell, Georgia” by Michael D. Hitt)

This image of a covered bridge across the Chattahoochee River leading from Sandy Springs to Roswell appears in “Roswell: A Pictorial History.” This was not the original bridge but one constructed by Charles Dunwody after the Civil War. Confederate soldiers destroyed the bridge in an attempt to slow the Federals from crossing and continuing towards Atlanta and Decatur. The Union soldiers crossed the river by using the Shallow Ford, shallow area that was crossable.

Jett’s Ferry was somewhere between the location of today’s Ball Mill pump station on Old Riverside Road and where Ball Mill Creek meets the river on the south side.  Spalding Drive during this time was known as Jett Ferry Road and followed a path close to the river.  A wooden bridge over Ball Mill Creek washed out in 1929, which led to that section of the road being moved further south. 

Theophilus and Elizabeth’s son Adam Jett took over the ferry in the 1860s. The home of Adam Jett was along what is now Riverside Road in Roswell, near the intersection with Eves Road. He married Effie Anderson in 1877. After Effie died around 1890, Jett married Sarah Roberts.  

In a 1994 interview, Horace DeLong recalled picking cotton for Adam Jett. The DeLongs lived on the south side of the Chattahoochee River. Their home was in the same area as the Four Seasons neighborhood sign along Spalding Drive. DeLong remembered Adam Jett as having a “long beard down to his waist.” (Horace Delong oral history, Dunwoody Preservation Trust archives)

Local historian Jim Perkins found that the present-day Jett Ferry Road running northeast off Spalding Drive was not part of the original Jett Ferry Road, but part of the Old Nesbit Ferry Road. This would indicate that the road once led to the ferry belonging to the Nesbit family.

Many members of the Jett family are buried at the Mount Pisgah Methodist Church cemetery in Johns Creek, including Adam and Sarah Jett, Theophilus and Minerva Elizabeth Jett, and several siblings of Adam Jett.

A school bell travels from Roswell to Dunwoody

The story about the large bell that sits in front of the Spruill Center for the Arts today begins with a trip from Roswell. The bell was purchased near Roswell and brought to Dunwoody by horse and buggy. Who the bell was purchased from is not included in the story.

The earliest records of a Dunwoody School are from the late 1800s. The school was a one room wooden building. Zachariah Eidson donated land at the present site of the Dunwoody Library and Spruill Center for the Arts for the purpose of a school. 

Dunwoody school in the 1940s

Later, the one-room school was replaced with a larger painted wooden school, then a brick building.  Eventually, a modern building was built adjacent to the old school.  The older part burned in the 1960’s, an event that some Dunwoody residents still remember well.     

The bell at Dunwoody School was not only rung to announce the beginning and end of the school day, it was also rung to warn the people of Dunwoody of a fire or other emergency. 

During World War II, the bell rang to celebrate when one of the grades at the Dunwoody School had one hundred percent participation for their thrift stamp books. 

This photo of teacher Nettie Austin and her first grade students, shows them preparing to ring the school bell. The photo appears in the history book Ethel Spruill and Elizabeth Davis wrote, “The Story of Dunwoody.”

The bell today is held in a brick display structure and a white wooden historic site sign was placed nearby in 2011.

Jane Autry, a descendent of the pioneer Carpenter family, shared her memories of the bell from the 1940’s.  She remembered that the bell was in the attic of the school, with a rope that hung down in the hallway.  When every student in a grade filled out their World War II stamp book, the class would gather in the hallway for a celebration which included ringing the bell.  It would sometimes take two or three students to pull the rope and ring the heavy bell if it was a younger grade.  Principal Elizabeth Davis believed the ceremony of ringing the bell encouraged the children to fill their stamp books.

Mrs. Autry returned to Dunwoody Elementary from 1960 until 1973, when she worked as school secretary.  During this time, the new home for the bell was built. 

Other sources cited include: “The Story of Dunwoody:  1821-2001” by Elizabeth L. Davis, Ethel W. Spruill, Joyce Amacher, and Lynne Byrd. 

1950s style scammer Margaret Gray lived off Happy Hollow Road

The Cassidy Lamb House on W. Fontainebleau Court was home to Clara Cassidy, Baxter and Midge Maddox, Harold and Charlotte Ebersole before it became the home of Janet Gray, aka Mrs. Gray. Gray both charmed and deceived the people she came into contact with.

Margaret Burton aka Janet Gray. Photo courtesy of DeKalb History Center

Thanks to the DeKalb History Center, I learned the surprising story of Margaret Burton aka Janet Gray, often referred to as Mrs. Gray. Marissa Howard, Programs and Membership Coordinator at DeKalb History Center, made the connection that the house Gray lived in on Happy Hollow Road and the Happy Hollow summer home I have written about were the same. The story of Gray and her crimes in Decatur, Georgia are included in a 2019 blog post at dekalbhistory.org titled, “True Crime-Margaret Burton aka Mrs. Gray,”

Gray had at least 21 aliases during her years as a criminal across the United States and in Europe. When she arrived in Decatur, she applied for a job as office manager for a group of doctors. Her appearance, manner and stories led people to believe she was a wealthy socialite. She was 51 years old, described with long silver hair and youthful skin. She claimed her father was president of Panama, that she owned mining interests in Colorado, and that her husband was a Colonel who had died. Her husband was a hotel night manager in Athens, Georgia.

Gray impressed the doctors and was given the job at a salary of $400 per month. A University of Georgia student working in the office reported that Gray usually came in to work in the morning, left about 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., and returned much later in the afternoon. She may have been out shopping because information surfaced later about charge account balances owed at several retail stores. Gray owed $1,600 at the Leon Frohsin store in Atlanta, where she had bought over 50 hats. She owed $300 and $400 at two other stores and $30 to a photographer.

She bought a $6,000 pink Lincoln and four other cars. The Lincoln later was used for the getaway of Gray and her daughter Shelia Joy. Shelia Joy was known by neighbors on Happy Hollow Road as Candy Laine or Candace Victoria Lane, Gray’s niece.

Gray kept 40 show dogs at the Happy Hollow property. One dog was a cocker spaniel that won awards at the Westminster Dog Show in 1956. Another went by the name Capital Gains. Gray entered her dogs in the Columbus, Georgia Kennel Club’s annual dog show for two years. Those who met her in Columbus were shocked when they learned she was a thief. (The Sunday Ledger-Enquirer, Columbus, GA, August 18, 1957, “Mrs. Gray Owed Everybody”)

In the 1950s, many people paid cash for their doctor visits. Gray was pocketing all the cash paid by patients at the Decatur office. This went unnoticed for a long time, until an accountant was called in for an audit and discovered her thievery. When Gray heard an audit was planned on July 19, 1957, she fled Decatur and Georgia. She arranged for the dogs to travel by moving van and sadly they did not all survive the trip.

She made the mistake of securing a bookkeeper job in a doctor’s office in Tulsa, Oklahoma, thinking she could get away with it again. An office employee saw the Decatur story in the Tulsa newspapers and informed the doctors. Mother and daughter were captured by the FBI in Tulsa, Oklahoma and charged with transporting stolen property across state lines. (Atlanta Constitution, August 22, 1957, “Mrs. Gray seized in Tulsa at job in doctor’s office”)

Janet Gray’s first trial ended in a mistrial. In February of 1958 Janet Gray appeared for her second trial at DeKalb Superior Court for embezzling $186,757 from the clinic where she worked. “Mrs. Burton admitted she bought three houses, expensive automobiles, show dogs, furniture and a swimming pool, she said she used the rest of the money for lavish living for herself and her daughter.” (Macon News, Feb. 5, 1958, “Mrs. Burton’s Statement Admits Theft of $50,000)

Gray was indicted on February 8, 1958, with two counts of larceny. When she heard that she could serve two to five years at Reidsville State Prison, she fainted.

Sheila Joy Gray left Atlanta in September of 1957 and went to live with an uncle. Janet Gray served eighteen months before being extradited to California to face additional charges. She spent 240 days in jail in California. Then she was deported for “failure to keep the Government informed of her address and conviction of two crimes involving moral turpitude and criminal misconduct.” She eventually returned to California to live the remainder of her life.

Homeowners fight widening of Ashford Dunwoody Road

If you travel in the Perimeter area today, where I-285 meets Ashford Dunwoody Road, then you are probably accustomed to the traffic and the businesses, hotels, restaurants and apartments up and down Ashford Dunwoody. In 1980 there were still many single family homes on the road and only two lanes.

Ashford Dunwoody Road was widened in 1981. The announcement that the road would be widened came in 1980, nine years after the opening of Perimeter Mall. The community of Dunwoody opposed the widening, predicting commercial development would push its way into the residential areas.

The Dunwoody Homeowner’s Association started a petition and worked to stop the widening of Ashford Dunwoody Road and of Mount Vernon Road. Protestors gathered along the side of the road with signs. Attorney Bill Hurst filed a class action suit on behalf of the DHA. The suit asked for a court ordered injunction to halt the four-lane construction.

The DHA was successful in stopping the widening of Mount Vernon Road, except for the section from Ashford Dunwoody Road to the Fulton/DeKalb County line. They were also able to keep the speed limit from moving 35 miles per hour to 45 miles per hour. (“The Queen of Dunwoody: Remembering Community Visionary Joyce Amacher,” by Lynne Barfield Byrd)

Although the plan to widen Ashford Dunwoody Road was not stopped, DHA President Terry Huetter felt the efforts of the community to stop the widening did have a positive effect, saying “It probably wouldn’t have ended up being a parkway otherwise.” (Atlanta Constitution, April 23, 1981, “Homeowners cringe as Ashford-Dunwoody expands”)

Once the battle to stop the four-lane expansion of Ashford Dunwoody Road was lost, the Dunwoody Garden Club campaign to beautify the median began. The club decided to make the best of the situation, led by club president Joyce Amacher. (Dunwoody Crier, March 25, 1982, “Ashford Dunwoody median landscaping begun last week”)

After several conversations with Tom Moreland, Director of the Georgia State Highway Department, Joyce Amacher and Lynne Byrd were able to convince him to use funds intended for a concrete median towards landscaping.

Dunwoody Garden club members went to developers and tenants in the Perimeter area, local civic organizations, local businesses, and elected officials to raise the necessary funds. All property owners on Ashford Dunwoody Road between I-285 and Mt. Vernon Road were asked to participate.

County Commissioner Jean Williams assisted Amacher in obtaining $10,000 from the developers of the Ravinia-Hines Development. A donation of $10,000 was also secured from Lane Properties. State representative Bruce Widener was able to secure $16,000 from the state. Taylor and Mathis paid for the landscape plan, which was completed by Hickory Hill Landscaping.

The original landscaping plan called for a variety of maple and oak trees, along with Bradford pears, many types of shrubbery and 18,000 pieces of ground cover. The median is maintained today by the Perimeter Community Improvement District.

A DOT official predicted in 1981 that traffic along Ashford Dunwoody Road would increase 60 to 70% over the next twenty years.

Lockridge Forest, Winters Chapel and other names

Jeremiah Winter came to an area north of Atlanta in the late 1860s and saw the need for a church. Winters Chapel Methodist Church began in a grove and then Winter decided they could cut logs from the property, “have them sawed and hull us up a church.” The church and road are named for him. (winterschapel.org)

This Winters Chapel church sign and glimpse of the church behind the sign is part of the Doraville archives at DeKalb History Center.

Ralph Glaze shared his memories of the beginnings of Lockridge Forest subdivision along Winters Chapel Road in a 2017 video recording with Dunwoody Preservation Trust. Glaze’s father Herman Glaze owned a store at the corner of Peeler Road and Winters Chapel Road. Herman Glaze bought land from W. Y. Womack, Pink Womack, and Ida Morgan, accumulating about 100 acres at one point. The land purchased from Ida Morgan was where the store was built and is today the location of Auto Zone. Glaze Road is located off Peeler Road

Later Ralph Glaze moved to Lockridge Forest, a neighborhood that is partially in DeKalb County and part is in Gwinnett County. Glaze recalls that a man named Lockridge bought the land to develop from brothers Pink Womack and W. Y. (Young) Womack. Some of the street names can be directly attributed to the Womack family. There is a Womack Road and Womack Court.

There is also a Womack Drive off Winter’s Chapel Road, further toward where Winter’s Chapel Road meets Highway 141.

One of Pink Womack’s children was Geraldine, and Geraldine Court is named for her. She married Buck Kinnard and Kinnard Drive was named for him.

Glaze recalls two sawmills along Winters Chapel Road, one just south of the entrance to Winters Chapel United Methodist Church and cemetery and the other further north, at the entrance of Lockridge Forest today. The sawmills were still there in the 1940s and 1950s. One sawmill was owned by Mr. Tanner from Stone Mountain, who leased the land from Pink Womack.

Glaze believes the Womacks along Winters Chapel Road were third or fourth cousins to the Womacks who owned land at Tilly Mill Road and Womack Road, where Georgia State University Dunwoody campus to today.

There are other names in Lockridge Forest that remain a mystery, Arrie Way, Abby Court, Tilton Lane, and Sumac Court.

Larkin Copeland store on Chamblee Dunwoody Road

Once I know what used to be in a specific location many years ago; whether it was a home, business, school or church, I imagine that place still being there. That’s how it is with Larkin Copeland’s store. The store was located on land that is now Dunwoody Village. It sat where Walgreens in Dunwoody Village is today. It was a two-level brick store on the east side of the Roswell Railroad tracks near the Dunwoody Depot. The first floor of the store featured an arched doorway and two arched windows on either side of the door. Copeland’s home was next to the store.

Copeland married Lavada Ball in 1887. Both of their families had deep roots in Dunwoody. Copeland was one of nine children of Obediah and Salina Corley Copeland, whose home was where Dunwoody Springs Elementary School is located.

Lavada Ball was the daughter of Martin and Martha Sentell Ball and granddaughter of Peter and Margaret Robertson Ball. Peter Ball operated the mill along what is known as Ball Mill Creek.

Larkin Copeland was a farmer in 1900, according to the U.S. census. The 1910 census indicates Larkin Copeland is operating the store and his oldest son Howell works there as well. Larkin and Lavada’s other children were Ethel, Fred, and Grace. Chamblee Dunwoody Road was the path of the Roswell Railroad during this time, so the census identifies their street as Southern Railway.

The Roswell Historical Society and city of Roswell Research Library and Archives has a photograph of the store in their collections. Along with the photo there is a note identifying Larkin Elijah Copeland standing in front of his store in Dunwoody Georgia. It also identifies the location using the names of today, near the intersection of Chamblee Dunwoody and Mount Vernon Road.

The store photo is a photo card dated 1908 and addressed to Mrs. S. M. Copeland of Chamblee, Georgia. According to the Roswell archives the note on the card reads, “Hello! Grandma, How do you like this?” The card is signed by Larkin and Lavada’s son Fred.

Visit the Roswell Historical Society website to see more photographs and to learn about other items in their archives, including artifacts, maps, manuscripts, newspapers and textiles.

A 1915 map of Dunwoody indicates that Larkin Copeland was planning to divide his land on Chamblee Dunwoody Road into several lots. He died in November of that year and the development never happened. Lavada Ball later moved to Atlanta and lived until 1958.

This 1915 map of the intersection of Chamblee Dunwoody Road with what is now Mt. Vernon Road and Nandina Lane, shows Larkin Copeland’s plan to divide his land into lots for sale. That never happened. (Map from the archives of Dunwoody Preservation Trust)

The spelling on the photograph of the store and on Larkin Copeland’s grave marker leaves the e out of Copeland. However, most other records of the family show the spelling Copeland.

The Copeland’s daughter Grace went on to run a grocery store in Atlanta along with her husband Dillard Blackwell. Blackwell’s Grocery was located at 1128 Oak Street in Atlanta.

In “The Story of Dunwoody,” written by Ethel W. Spruill and Elizabeth L. Davis in 1975, there is a documented memory of the Roswell Railroad which includes the Copeland store. The memory comes from Annie Roberts Wing, who married Henry Wing and was the daughter of Roswell Railroad engineer Ike Roberts. She remembered riding Old Buck, the engine of the Roswell Railroad, to Dunwoody to pick the first violets of spring and shop at Larkin Copeland’s store. Her purchases usually included shoes and some “eatables.”

McGaughey home was Serviceman's Shelter

Carroll and Effie McGaughey announced a house-warming party at their new summer home on Spruill Road in Dunwoody in 1939. The Dec. 30, 1939, Atlanta Constitution Society Events column included the announcement, using the alternate spelling of Spruell Road. The gathering was also in honor of their debutante daughter, Mary McGaughey. The couple would later make the Dunwoody home their primary home.

Carroll McGaughey was an electrical engineer and owner of McGaughey Electrical Company.  Effie McGaughey operated an antique shop called Backdoor Studios out of their Atlanta home on Lombardy Way.  The McGaughey’s had two sons, Carroll Jr. and Carrick, in addition to their daughter Mary.

When the United States entered World War II and Lawson General Hospital opened in nearby Chamblee, Effie McGaughey began thinking of ways to help recovering soldiers.  The McGaugheys turned their home from a social gathering spot to a place for relaxation and recreation for injured soldiers, the Serviceman’s Shelter.

Ethel Spruill and Elizabeth Davis describe the McGaughey place in their book The Story of Dunwoody. “Using a rustic building on the McGaughey property and colorful festive lanterns, church groups, community clubs, and Atlanta groups took turns at entertaining the boys and furnishing food and dance partners.” 

This 1945 photo of patients from Lawson General Hospital at the McGaughey home appears in The Story of Dunwoody, by Elizabeth L. Davis and Ethel W. Spruill.

By 1944 a group of Atlanta women including Effie McGaughey had organized a committee to plan parties for convalescing soldiers at various homes around Atlanta.  An article in the July 12, 1944 issue of The Atlanta Constitution titled Many Parties are Planned for Convalescent Officers describes the upcoming schedule of parties.  The following Friday evening a barbeque supper would be held at the home of Carroll and Effie McGaughey.  The guests would be entertained with swimming, music by the Tech band, and a movie shown on an outdoor screen. 

The schedule for the next two weeks includes parties on Habersham Road and another on Tuxedo Road in Atlanta, followed by a gathering at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ryburn Clay on their Chattahoochee River country place known as Lazy River Farm.  The Clay summer estate was on what is now Clay Drive off Spalding Drive.

The McGaugheys place was for the enjoyment of all recovering soldiers.  One soldier from Lawson General Hospital who lost the use of his legs often got a ride to their home courtesy of the Red Cross.  Upon arrival, he would enjoy swimming in the pool. 

The Serviceman’s Shelter and use of the McGaughey’s swimming pool continued into 1946.  In August of that year they hosted veterans of both World War I and World War II, arranged by Veterans Hospital Number 48 in Brookhaven and financed by the Elks Club. (The Atlanta Constitution, August 16, 1946, Veterans Feted by Elks Group)

Effie McGaughey also helped during World War II by donating a movable kitchen in 1942.  The kitchen was operated by the Atlanta Red Cross Canteen Corps and was able to serve two thousand meals and forty thousand cups of hot coffee per day. 

1891 Atlanta, smallpox vaccine debate

Depending on when you were born, you may have a small circle scar on your upper arm as a reminder of your smallpox vaccine. In 1972, it was determined the vaccine was no longer needed and it stopped being administered to children

Looking through cemetery records, it is obvious that many deaths around the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century near Atlanta were due to smallpox. During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and the discussions regarding vaccines, I found a similarity with discussions of smallpox vaccine from about 130 years earlier.

There were people on both sides of the smallpox vaccine debate in Georgia. A September 7, 1891, Atlanta Constitution column titled “Against Vaccination” featured a lengthy letter from a citizen strongly opposed to vaccination and Atlanta’s rule that students could not attend without vaccination.

The letter is followed by an explanation and opinion by Dr. J. B. Baird, secretary of the board of health. “The more the people become enlightened, the more they believe in it and know its worth, and if wanted of its benefits to humanity, thousands and thousands can be given.”

Nine years earlier Atlanta’s Superintendent of Schools, William Franklin Slaton, stated that every child in Atlanta schools was vaccinated against smallpox. When one student’s family asked for her not to be vaccinated, she was removed from school. (Atlanta Constitution, April 28, 1882)

A notice titled “Public Schools” on August 31, 1882, informed the public that the “Office of Superintendent, 75 E. Mitchell, will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the next three days. Persons applying for school tickets must bring certificate of vaccination.”

Whether the vaccine was required or even available to the small communities surrounding Atlanta, I do not know. I do know that smallpox was causing devastation to these communities.

At Nancy Creek Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery in Brookhaven, Solomon Goodwin was buried in 1849 and is believed to have died of smallpox. Goodwin was later reinterred on Goodwin land along Peachtree Road only to be later moved back to Nancy Creek Cemetery.(“The History of DeKalb County, Georgia 1822-1900, Vivian Price)

In Dunwoody, the Bennett-Rainey cemetery and Donaldson cemetery had their beginnings around the time of a smallpox epidemic. The Bennett-Rainey cemetery was referred to as a smallpox cemetery by Franklin Garrett, Atlanta historian who documented cemeteries in DeKalb County in 1931. (Atlanta History Center, Franklin Garrett necrology, 1931) Fannie Adams, Lonnie Adams, Maggie Adams, and Minnie Adams all succumbed to the disease around 1884 and 1885 and are buried at Bennett-Rainey Cemetery, a small, unmarked cemetery along North Shallowford Road.

The Donaldson cemetery, adjacent to Donaldson-Bannister Farm, includes the grave of Nuty A. Donaldson who died in 1883. She was the daughter of original owners William J. Donaldson and Millie Adams Donaldson. On her marker are the words “died from smallpox.”

Smallpox began over 3,000 years ago according to cdc.gov. History tells us that Spanish Explorer Hernando de Soto brought smallpox to Mexico in 1520. The first smallpox epidemic in New England occurred in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635.

Native Americans of Georgia were hit hard by smallpox outbreaks in 1735 and 1759.

Dr. Edward Jenner’s discoveries in 1796 led to a vaccine. Concentrated efforts by the World Health Organization to eradicate smallpox began in 1959. By 1966, smallpox was considered eliminated in North America and Europe. The Intensified Eradication Program began the next year and in 1980 the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated.

The November 25, 1974 Atlanta Constitution carried the headline, “Within a Few Months Smallpox Will Have Been Wiped Out.” They reported that 43 countries had outbreaks of smallpox in 1967 and that number had been reduced to four countries in 1974.

Lord family farm at Mt. Vernon Road and Wickford Way, Dunwoody

Not far from the crossroads of Mt.Vernon Road and Chamblee Dunwoody Road was the home of George Washington Lord and Dicey Ann Wade Lord. George Washington Lord was born in 1852 in Madison County, Georgia.   Dicey Ann Wade (full name Dicey Ann Sarah Frances Wade) was born in 1856 in the Oak Grove community of Fulton County, which is now part of Sandy Springs. 

George and Dicey Lord married in 1875 and had twelve children. Sometime before 1900, they moved their family to the Shallowford District of DeKalb County, or Dunwoody. They established a home and farm in the area where Mount Vernon Road and Wickford Way intersect.  Their neighbors were the Cheeks to the west and the Warnocks to the east. 

Three of the Lord children married members of another early Dunwoody family-the Mannings.  Margaret Adella Lord married John Manning, Effie Elizabeth Lord married Starling Manning, and William Alexander Lord married Mary Angie Manning.  These children each owned land in the same area along Mount Vernon Road, then known as Lawrenceville Road or Norcross Road.

In The Story of Dunwoody by Ethel Spruill and Elizabeth Davis, some of the memories of Fannie Mae Lord were shared through daughter-in-law, Cletis French Jackson.  Fannie Mae Lord was one of the other children of George and Dicey Lord.

When Fannie Mae grew up in Dunwoody, she attended the old Dunwoody School, located where the Dunwoody Library and Spruill Center for the Arts are today.  It was the only school in the area, sparsely populated with farmhouses. 

She remembered the day the boiler at the Cheek cotton gin exploded on the southeast corner at Mount Vernon Road and Chamblee Dunwoody Road.  It was November 21, 1920, the day before Thanksgiving.  Her brother-in-law, John Manning died from injuries during the explosion. 

William Edward Jackson was visiting his sister in Dunwoody in 1906 when he met Fannie Mae Lord.  Jackson worked for the Southern Railway as a switchman.  He rode the Roswell Railroad to visit his sister and later to visit Fannie Mae Lord.   Southern Railway had taken over operations of the Roswell Railroad at this point.  

Fannie Mae and William did most of their courting while on buggy rides.  They married in 1910 and had eight children.  At one time, they lived in a home where the first Austin Elementary School was located on Roberts Drive.  According to ancestry.com, in 1959 they lived in a home on McDonough Street in Roswell.  The home was known as Sleepy Hollow.

Ice Storm of 1973, major power outages around Atlanta

These below freezing days we have been having recently in Atlanta bring my mind back to the ice and snow storms from years past. Everyone knows these storms can bring our city to a halt. It happens so rarely, which means many of us have little experience driving in snow or ice.

The ice storm that struck Atlanta in 1973 is a memorable one for those who lived here. My family moved to a new home off Briarcliff Road in 1972. The ranch home had a fireplace, unlike our previous house. The fireplace was very useful during the ice storm, but I don’t remember exactly how many days we were without power.

A few years ago, I asked some people who were living in Dunwoody at the time about their experience. Time without power ranged from four days to two weeks. Trees and power lines had a thick coating of ice. Kathy Florence remembers pine trees bent over from the weight of the ice and the constant sound of trees snapping.

Lynne Byrd lived on Spalding Drive in the Branches neighborhood in 1973 and was without power for four days. She needed to get to her job at Piedmont Hospital. Lynne says she was able to get up her driveway in her small Volkswagen and drive on to work by not taking her foot off the gas until she got to the office.

Jeff Glaze was in the eighth grade at Peachtree High School and his family was without power for about ten days. Jeff’s uncle owned Glaze’s Hardware at the intersection of Winters Chapel Road and Peeler Road. The recently opened Winn Dixie across the road couldn’t operate because they had electric cash registers, but Uncle Glaze kept ringing up groceries because his older model electric cash register also had a hand crank.

The family lived near high tension lines that were coated with about an inch of ice. Jeff remembers, “…days when temperatures started to rise a bit, the ice would break off those lines and fall to the ground one hundred feet below. Sometimes they would hit the ground vertically and ‘spear’ the ground... it was pretty amazing to see and scary to consider what might happen if you were under them when the ice broke free.”

The January 3, 1973 Atlanta Journal reported that DeKalb police estimated 90% of residents were without power. Police and fire departments were inundated with calls about fallen trees, fallen power lines, and power outages.

I’ve been talking with people that lived in Atlanta during our past ice and snow storms about their experiences. The ones I remember are 1973, 1982, 1993, and then more recent ones. Apparently there was a big one in Georgia in 1935 and 1940, as well as the early 1960s. I was around in the early 1960s, but don’t remember that one. Look for my recent article in the Dunwoody Crier for more memories of Georgia ice and snow storms.

If you live in another state and are thinking those silly Georgians and their reactions to snow and ice, plus their inability to drive, you are right and we know it. Besides, it can be fun to miss work or school just because less than an inch of snow is falling!

• 1960s 6
• 1970s 2
• 1980s 1
• Atlanta 48
• Brookhaven 32
• Camp Gordon 21
• Chamblee 70
• Chamblee High School 1
• Chamblee schools 7
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• Doraville 16
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• Sandy Springs 35
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Chamblee High School photo 1928

This week, I’m sharing a 1928 photo of Chamblee High School graduates. Kathryne Carpenter is in the center of the back row and the photo was shared with me by the Anderson family, descendants of the Carpenters. The Carpenter family lived in Dunwoody, but Chamblee was the only high school in north DeKalb County at the time. Students living in Dunwoody, Doraville, Brookhaven and Chamblee attended Chamblee High School.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. I’ll return with a new history post next week.

If you have a relative in this photo send me a message!