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Lynn is a native of Western New York who moved to Atlanta in 1983 from Miami. She received her BS degree in Accounting from Indiana University and her PhD in American Studies from Emory University. She worked for Management Science America (MSA) and Bell South in Atlanta before moving to San Francisco with her husband Pat when he bought a Palo Alto-based software company.

Her graduate work focused on textiles and religion, and has expanded to include Southern history in the areas of education, textiles, religion, and social history. Lynn was an Adjunct Professor of History at Oglethorpe University from 2012 to 2020. She has been active with Dunwoody Preservation Trust since 2016, serving as Executive Director and Site Manager for the Donaldson-Bannister House from 2017 to 2018.

She has served on various nonprofit boards for the past 30 years. She has been the Editor for the Biennial Symposium Proceedings for the Textile Society of America since 2016. Lynn currently works as an independent textile scholar.

A few years ago the Milton Historical Marker Task Force heard stories of a field across the Chattahoochee where wagons bringing produce and goods from North Georgia to sell in Atlanta could stop for the night - it was called Pole Town. Seems there is a rich story to tell (and you get to choose which version to believe!).

Byron Foster, Society Board member (pictured above on the left, with friends), and his cousin, Helen Gilleland contributed this story. Leroy Buice (Paul Gilleland’s elder relative) recounted the story of Pole Town to Paul as he remembered it and personally traveled through it.

“Leroy Buice lived in what is now the Cumming area. He would come to Atlanta by horse and buggy, which was a two-day trip. He told Paul of staying overnight at Pole Town. This was where now Long Island Drive runs into Roswell Road. The area just south of Belle Isle Road was a hill that slanted down going south. Roswell Road was not paved at that time, and because of that, if it was raining for very long, the buggies could not go up or down the hill. The men in the area cut trees and placed them across the road, thus “poles,” and therefore “Pole Town.” There were also poles available on the property to hitch or tie your horse to stay overnight. He would come to Pole Town, stay overnight and go into Atlanta - take care of business, come back to Pole Town, spend the night and return home the next day.”

“Mary Pearson Buice (Byron’s and Helen’s maternal aunt) told the story of living in Atlanta after she was married in the early 1930s. She and Floyd, her husband, would go to visit her mom who still lived in Milton. If the weather was wet they would have a very hard time getting up the high bank of the Chattahoochee River. They had a Model-A Ford. The width of the tires was very thin. She said there were two ruts in the road and they would have to stay in the ruts to make it up the hill (there were no poles there!). She said she would always cry all the way up the hill because she was so afraid."

These families with familiar Milton names lived in Pole Town: Pearson, Foster, Hardeman, Chatham, Spruell, Dilbeck, DeVore, Bates, Pierce, Vaughan, Childres, and Chadwick. Some, like the Pearsons, moved to Atlanta from Milton farms for economic opportunity in the 1920s.

From Byron Foster: My maternal grandmother’s death certificate states that she died in Pole Town:

Eunicey Octavie Land Pearson (known to all as 'Nicey')

Maiden name Land

Born 1872, died 1943

Buried in Hopewell Baptist Church cemetery

This from Thornton Kennedy courtesy of mdjonline.com in his article about the no-man’s land between I 285 and Atlanta along Roswell Road:

“Pole Town was a popular wagon stop operated by Mack Dobbins near what is today the Fountain Oaks shopping center (now Sandy Springs). It was the only one between Buckhead and Roswell in the early 1900s, offering weary travelers and their horses a rest and overnight accommodations. Dobbins was an interesting figure. He was from the area but left to join Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders. When he returned he tried to make a living mining his family’s property off High Point Road. He was convinced there were rich veins of gold in the hills. When that didn’t pan out, he planted peach orchards on 50 acres he had acquired on Roswell Road near Mount Paran Road. That did not take either. He acquired another contiguous 50 acres in the vicinity of Belle Isle Road and established his wagon stop."

"The name Pole Town came from the horse corral on the property, which was constructed out of long poles. In keeping with the theme, Dobbins incorporated poles into many of the buildings on the property, and the area became known as Pole Town.”

"During the late 1940s and 1950s my aunt and uncle lived in the Wieuca/Highway 9 area that was called Pole Town. They understood that at one time, the power company stored utility poles there, which was the origin of the name Pole Town."

First published in her 1987 column and later included in her “Days Gone By in Alpharetta and Roswell Georgia, Vol I”.

“My very first feeling for the Chattahoochee - at least the first I can remember - was one of terror. Not of the river itself or even the crossing of it, but of what lay ahead after crossing on the way back from Atlanta. It was that hill."

"I can hear the sounds even now, of shifting to second, then to low, as I wondered if the car would really make it up that mountain, I would look out the back window apprehensively calculating how fast the car would fly down the hill and into the river if something in the car suddenly failed…I would close my eyes and wait until the car felt level and the appropriate gear-shifting noise would mean we had made it one more time - and I could open my eyes and breathe once again."

"My cousin Anne Maddox Ebright, a few years older than I, has told me of her own brand of fear in crossing the bridge when it was a wooden one with boards for the floor. She was gripped with apprehension with each crossing - sure that the car, with her inside, would slip through the cracks between the slats. After all, she could see the river through every single crack.”

from his book "Barns of Old Milton County"

The richest man in Pole Town sat in the second pew in Sentell Baptist Church at Wieuca and Roswell Road. At the offering he would pull out a large roll of bills, take one out, and ask the usher for change. This story was recounted many times, much to the amusement of the congregation.

As a young boy, Byron had occasion to cross the Johnson Ferry bridge over the Chattahoochee with his family. He remembers the bridge as having one lane with two tracks made for car tires - three boards, then crosswise slats with cracks open to the river, then three more boards. Keeping your tires straight on those boards was important!

Q: How many members of the Rucker family of Crabapple played Major League baseball and how were they related to each other? What positions did they play?

Answers at the end of the newsletter!

Editor's Note: This Morris article came to the Society undated. As an update, we discovered that in the late '90s, Alpharetta residents feared this landmark was in jeopardy. In a December 1998 copy of the North Fulton Neighbor newspaper, Eric Burden quoted Diana Wheeler, Director of the Alpharetta community development staff, talking about the fate of the silos: "If the owner of that property were to come in tomorrow and apply for a demolition permit to take them down, there is nothing in place to prevent that from happening." Subsequently, Alpharetta passed an historical preservation ordinance and purchased the silos' land. It became a pocket park in April 2005. These iconic silos and the park can be enjoyed for years to come!

About Aubrey Morris: Aubrey Morris was a reporter for the Atlanta Journal newspaper, and in 1957 was hired at WSB radio to create and manage the news department, where he served for over 30 years. Morris wrote over 150 columns for local papers, including the Alpharetta & Roswell ReVue.

A: Two. John (Johnny) Joel Rucker (January 15, 1917 – August 7, 1985), nicknamed "The Crabapple Comet," was an outfielder for the New York Giants who appeared in 705 games mainly as a center fielder from 1940–1941 and 1943–1946. He is featured on the cover of the April 1, 1940 issue of Life magazine. The Milton Historical Society has a copy of the magazine available to the public.

Johnny’s uncle was George Napoleon (Nap) Rucker (September 30, 1884 – December 19, 1970) who pitched left-handed for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1907-1916 during which time he led the league in shutouts and innings pitched. He was the first left-handed pitcher to throw a no-hitter in Dodger history. After retiring from baseball, Nap became a successful cotton farmer, businessman and politician, serving as mayor of Roswell from 1935-1936 where he was instrumental in bringing running water to the city. He later served as water commissioner for many years.

The newsletter of the Milton Historical Society is produced quarterly by volunteers of the Society. Have an idea, a link, or a story to share?

We'd love to hear from you at president@miltonhistoricalsociety-georgia.org.

Thanks for reading!