SPOTLIGHT
We will not publish anything detrimental to any person, but would like to have any information of a positive nature. We will attempt to make changes on a monthly basis or as the necessity arises. In order to have your
information published you can contact:
Howard or Elsie Knight
You should also visit our other Milton County site for census data, court records, etc.
Any comments are welcome.
Where is the following location as recorded Dec. 6 th. 1911 by J.B. Paris C.S.C.
"J. A. Webb of Gwinnett County of Georgia , for the Sum of Two Hundred and
Forty Five Dollarsdo hereby give , grant , sell , alien and convey unto
W.H. Barnett of the County of Milton State of Georgia his heirs and assigns
the following property , to wit: lying and being in the first District and
the first Section as follows, Beginning at an Iron Pen on Cumming Road and
running in a N.W. direction 111 feet to Brook Garden, Thence N.E. 124 feet
to corner of COURT HOUSE, Thence N.E. 26 feet to Alpharetta Road , Thence
East along Alpharetta Road to Cumming Road and along Cumming road to Iron
peg at starting point being part of land lot No. 198."
J.A. Webb (SEAL)
|
|
SPOTLIGHT |
|
Tom's first wife was Mary. Mary died from rabies around 1920. There were six or more children from this marriage.
Lillie Mae Bradford, born 1910
Jim C Bradford born 1912
Lela B Bradford born 1913
Jim Bradford born1915
Paulene Bradford born 1918
Leon Bradford born1920
Tom then married Rosa Etta Childers. There were 13 to 14 children from this marriage. Mary and Etta could have been sisters.
Much of the construction of the school building was done by the local residents. From the journal of Dewey Burnett we find that he, Wade Shirley and Abb Anderson started digging the well for the new school on June 6, 1921. He also writes in his diary of starting the new building June 13, 1921. The last day of School in the Academy, a school located on Academy Street in Alpharetta, was December 21, 1921.
January 2, 1922, was the first day of school in the new building. Several of the students tell of walking from the old Academy School to the new Milton School on School Drive.
The corner stone was to have been set May 16, 1922, but for some reason it was not. On that night Dewey Burnett, Kate Walker and Clyde Andrews received their certificates.
In the early days Milton was a brick two story structure with enough rooms to accommodate 11 grades, two small offices, a library and auditorium. From the front entrance the Sanctum Sanctorium was on the left. Directly ahead was the auditorium. There was a fire escape on the second floor just outside "Miss Gertrude's" fourth grade classroom. Nobody was supposed to slide down except in case of a fire.
In the beginning the school included first through eleventh grades. The twelfth grade was added in 1950. Students in surrounding county schools transferred to Milton in the eighth grade. Students from Roswell transferred to Milton in the tenth grade. The Alpharetta Elementary School was built in 1957 and grades one through seven transferred to the new Elementary School.
Talmage and Lounette Shaw Burgess both graduated from Milton as did their five children, six of their grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Two of their great grandchildren will graduate from the new school. Talmage and Lounette both played basketball for Milton in the 1920's.
Piano lessons were given by Mrs. Blanche Maddox in a room to the left of the stage in the auditorium. Piano recitals were given at the school.
During WWII sports programs stopped. There was an ROTC Unit at the school. After the war Alpharetta had a terrific baseball team with veterans (most of whom were former students). Baseball games were played at the school. In 1948, one female student was an excellent basketball player. However, she was not allowed to play for the school because her mother would not allow her to wear shorts.
In the fifties things changed. The elementary students moved from the center building to the former high school building on the right and the high school classes moved to the center building and the building on the left. After 1957 the changes to the school continued and soon the building changed completely.
In the early days the school colors were purple and gold. The curtain on the stage was purple trimmed with gold. The colors now are red and white and navy blue. Our school song has not changed.
The cemetery is in Forsyth Co, but many of the people in it lived their lives just across the county line in Milton Co.
I've scanned the article and transcribed it (using a character recognition program). I'd like to share it with other researchers of Forsyth and Milton counties, and am attaching it in case you would like to include it on your web site.
I just got an e-mail from Ted Brooke that it's OK to do so.
I'm attaching two version of the article -- a Word Document that preserves the exact format of the original article, and a Text Document that uses slashes in place of tabs that might be more readable if the text is on-line.
I'd also like to post this information on the Forsyth and Milton county message boards on rootsweb/ancestry.
Best Regards, Leo W. Little, Austin, TX"
Where do you live? How many people who live in developer subdivisions would recognize the names of Ocee, Shakerag, Warsaw, Newtown, Birmingham, Hopewell, or even Crabapple? I was is a planning meeting when a snobby new resident (who had lived in the subdivision that replaced Mr. Corley’s corn field for five whole years) was disappointed when the name of Ocee was going to be preserved in the name of a shopping center. She felt it was “too provincial.” I had to remind her that she had chosen to live in Ocee, and if she were not happy here, all the older residents of Ocee would help her move. I am now glad that the community name continues. I can only hope that just a little knowledge of the history of the communities of old Milton County will help preserve them.
In Georgia, Counties were founded in the nineteenth century so that anyone living in the county could reach the county seat in just one day’s easy journey. This distance requirement is why there are so many counties in Georgia and also why the counties are smaller in the mountains of north Georgia. Milton County was formed in 1857 from parts of Cherokee, Forsyth, and even DeKalb Counties when it was felt that the people in the extremes of these counties lived too far away. Alpharetta was incorporated as the county seat, and a courthouse was built. Because of the distance requirement of one day’s journey, the town would be too far to travel for a family’s immediate needs. Therefore, communities were formed so that families would have quicker access to stores and supplies they could not grow or create on their farms. These communities were often still close to half a day’s journey away because it took much more time to travel by foot or even farm wagon.
| Birmingham | Crabapple | Hopewell |
| Midway | Newtown | Ocee |
| Shakerag | Warsaw | Webb Georgia |