Jett Ferry and the Jett family

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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.

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.”