Included in this issue:

• Classic Crabapple and Rescued Recipes
• Major collections donated by families of Billy Bates and Aubrey Morris
• Spring Fling honors Patrons and the Bates and Morris families
• Geology of Georgia Mountains by Genevieve Brown
• Leaders We Choose to Follow
• And more!

Linda Statham, Society Patron, recently shared a wealth of personal reflections, articles, photos, and cookbooks that go back decades in the Statham family. She speaks lovingly of her in-laws - Ben Statham, Sr. and her mother-in-law, Pat. Ben, Sr. was born in Americus, Georgia, and Pat was born in Cedartown, Georgia.

The Statham family has owned Crabapple’s Broadwell Building since 1965, and has the hand-written Bill of Sale from Matthew Perkins of the Northside News to prove it! 

Ben and Pat Statham started the Crabapple Antique Fair in 1966. The Broadwell Building also featured Pat’s Christmas House. Many of the Crabapple ladies sold their handmade crafts at the annual Christmas House. A dear friend of the Statham’s, Mary Attaway, a native of Scotland, sold her beautiful hand-painted china at that yearly event.

Celestine Sibley was a friend of Pat’s and often visited the Statham shop. Celestine admired a Brumby rocker that was in Pat’s shop so they discussed a trade. Celestine got the chair and the Statham’s got Celestine’s Atlanta wood cookstove. To help boost awareness of the Christmas House, Celestine wrote an article for the Atlanta Constitution titled, “Christmas House ‘Peddles’ Handmades and Homemades.” Celestine wrote this about Pat Statham: “Pat lives up in my end of the county on a pretty country place near the Birmingham community and she has long felt that Georgia women were talented cooks, needlewomen, arts and crafts practitioners and gardeners. The trouble was that although they made pretty things which other people, particularly homesick city folks, would love to have, there was no way of getting buyer and seller together. I thought it was a shame for people in Atlanta to have to drive a hundred miles to North Georgia or even to Tennessee and North Carolina to buy pretties which their close neighbors make so beautifully.” Thus, the Christmas House was created in November of 1967. 

Note: Scroll down to see a brief recap of the Crabapple antique business and the families whose shops made the crossroads popular: notably Virginia and Emory Reeves, Muriel and John Morgan, and Pat and Ben Statham.

Born Pearl Gober, ‘Pat’ was the 13th of 15 children, as Linda remembers it. When Pat’s mother was widowed, she took a job cooking at the local Sunshine Children’s Home. It is now named the Harpst House. Pat, her six young siblings and their mother lived in the Sunshine House for several years due to the generosity of the Methodist Church. On the census reports, the children were listed as "inmates." The Methodist Church also helped Pat gain acceptance to West Georgia University (then a 2-year college). Pat was trained as a dietitian and was in the first graduating class at the school. According to Linda, “Anything she cooked was delicious.”

Pat (pictured here) gathered recipes of her own and from her Crabapple friends and neighbors to include in her recipe book, Crabapple Collections. Her daughter-in-law, Kay Statham Whatley, co-authored the book with her. A few of her recipes are featured below.

Pat and Ben Statham, Sr. at Penthouse Antiques

House of Pat and Ben Statham, Sr. on Hickory Flat Road at Little River

Linda and Ben Statham, Jr.

Community Volunteers

Linda and Ben have contributed to the North Fulton community for years and in many capacities. Along with Bill and Debbie Royston, they founded the Little River Valley Association to protect the river's watershed. With Jan Jones, Charna McCurry, Julie Bailey, and Debbie Royston, the Stathams organized the Birmingham-Hopewell Alliance to educate residents about preservation, conservation, land use, and zoning. Ben and Linda have volunteered at the Alpharetta Library for 32 years and are instrumental in organizing the monthly book sales.

An amazing record: Ben has been the top "hour" volunteer for the Fulton Library System for the past 25+ years (since volunteer hours have been kept). We applaud this dedication, a real achievement in a 34-library system. In 2022, Ben donated 1,222 hours to the Alpharetta Library and was a top award earner again. Kudos, Ben! You are an inspiration to all who know you.

Linda Simpson Statham was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Her father served in the U.S. Navy, though he was Canadian. After serving in WW II, Linda’s dad took a job with the Whirlpool Corporation in St. Joseph, Michigan and the family moved to the United States. Linda attended Bowling Green State University in Ohio and had a 32-year teaching career as a Speech/Language Pathologist in Atlanta and Cherokee County, based at Hickory Flat Elementary School. Ben is a 1959 graduate of Northside High in Atlanta and a 1963 graduate of UGA. He continues to work in real estate management.

When Antiques Reigned in Crabapple:

Reeves, Morgan, and Statham Families

Crabapple Antique Community

by Sandra Plant for Georgia Magazine (undated)

“Three of the nicest couples in the antique business have shops in the vicinity of a fading sign, “World’s Biggest Crabapple,” painted years ago on the old Broadwell store building and community center at Crabapple, between Roswell and Alpharetta.

“Here Pat and Ben Statham welcome a trade, a sale, or merely an interested observer to their Crabapple Penthouse Antique Shop located on the second level of the charming red brick building, while on the first floor John and Muriel Morgan pursue both their interests at the Morgan’s of Crabapple Antique and Rock Shop. Primitive pieces seem to predominate in the Morgan’s stock.

“Across the street in the old Bates store building, Emory and Virginia Reeves open their Crabapple Corners Shop on the weekends after a busy week at their Cornice Shop at Buckhead. 

“The idea for the antique center blossomed when the Stathams, who had owned the Broadwell building for several years without deciding what to do with it, met the Morgans and the Reeves. Soon they became excited about restoring the charming little town to the busy hum of commerce it enjoyed in the days when cotton was king in Crabapple. 

“A local man, Willis Owen, runs the service station at Crabapple, with the friendly atmosphere that makes it a gathering place of the townspeople who always welcome visitors with a warm greeting and fascinating stories of their neighborhood.”

Last December the Society received two generation donations from the families of William “Billy” S. Bates and Aubrey Morris. Both men were avid historians and genealogists. They both graduated from Milton High School and like a stately tree that grows steadily over time, their so called “hobby” efforts leave a lasting legacy. The SAR and DAR awarded them for their work as historians. One helped numerous authors and one authored history pieces. To have these donations is a true honor.

William S. (Billy) Bates

The word polymath comes to mind when you learn about Billy Bates. Born in 1926, he was class president at Milton, helped build the Future Farmers of America Log Cabin, fought in WW II in Okinawa, owned a grocery store for 40 years in what was then small-town Alpharetta and rural Milton. “Everybody knew Billy,” as first cousin Bob Meyers wrote about him in a 2-part article published last August. He was a friend, mentor, researcher for his whole life to those around him.

Billy became the expert in the family lineages in Old Milton County according to local historian Connie Mashburn. Billy co-founded the first Old Milton County History and Genealogy Group along with Howard Knight. Billy was also key in discovering the original settlement that became Alpharetta, called Farm House. He excelled in a multitude of hobbies. He built furniture, some of which we will be using at HQ. He was an expert gardener, an excellent fisherman. He had an extensive geode collection. Bob even has one of the knives Billy forged. The list goes on. Bob recalls many things about Billy, one of which was that he was one of the kindest men he ever knew. 

We are excited to have Billy’s collection of local family research, maps, reference materials, and books to preserve for future generations. Thanks to the Bates family donors: William (Bill) S. Bates, Lynn Bates, Shirley Bates Benton, and Philip Benton.

Note: Billy's collection of books includes Morris' The Haygoods of Mars Hill, signed by Aubrey Morris himself. This gives us an indication of the close ties between the two local historians!

Aubrey Morris

Aubrey Morris, born in 1922, was also a graduate of Milton High when the area was still very rural. He began his celebrated journalism career the day after he graduated from UGA in 1945, starting at the Atlanta Journal. After several years there he became the first news director at WSB radio. He interviewed every president from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan during his career. He was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame in 2008.

His more than 140 locally published history-related articles have been a Society treasure trove of reading. Topics range from Cherokee history to Milton County origins and how local cities were named. Added to the Society’s library are his over 125 binders of family genealogy material and personal library of history books: local, regional, and beyond.

We were happy to discover the book he published about the Haygood family of Mars Hill. In the forward to this book, Aubrey describes his quest for knowledge about his mother and information regarding her early life. Thus his interviewing and note taking began early and served him well. The book is dedicated to his wife Tera and their three daughters. Thanks to the Morris family donors: Susan Morris Moe, Rhoda Morris Owens, and Rebecca Morris Fricton.

C 1913 Hamilton Pump Organ owned by Aubrey's mother

Note: The donated material is in the processing stages. If you are interested in volunteering to review and catalog this information, contact Kathy Beck at archives@miltonhistoricalsociety-georgia.org.

William 'Billy' Bates and Aubrey Morris Collections displayed at Spring Fling

Photo credit: Leslie Watson

A delightful spring evening (with just a touch of rain) welcomed Society supporters and guests for the annual Spring Fling. This Patron appreciation event was held May 9th at The Jenny Doyle Group’s barn on Mid-Broadwell Road. Many thanks to Society Patron Jenny Doyle for hosting the catered event. This perfect venue featured display space (for selections from the Bates and Morris collections), ample room to socialize, and even game opportunities!

Honored guests included the Bates and Morris families, who were recognized and thanked by President Jeff Dufresne for donating the archives of Milton residents William ‘Billy’ Bates, historian and genealogist, and Aubrey Morris, journalist, reporter, and radio legend. 

Bates Family



L-R: Gail Hudson, Bill Bates, Shirley Bates Benton, Philip Benton

Morris Family

L-R: Rev. Paul Owens (Rhoda Morris' husband), Kent Moe, Susie Moe, Rebecca and Robin Fricton

Welcome to the Doyle Barn

Photo credit: Leslie Watson

Patrons enjoying the party

Photo credit: Leslie Watson

Stone Mountain

Photographer unknown

Anna Ruby Falls

Unicoi State Park

Photo credit: U.S. Forest Service

Blue Ridge, Allegheny, Appalachians - what's the difference? Although most of our state’s area is taken up by Piedmont and Coastal Plain, these are not the only two regions that make it up. Much of the northwestern corner of the state is part of the Valley and Ridge or Blue Ridge regions, and the very farthest tip of the state in that direction lies within the Appalachian Plateau, housing the very southernmost tip of the Appalachian mountain range and its famous Trail.

The mountains of Georgia have a very interesting history. Mountain building events are called ‘orogenies’, and occur when tectonic plates collide and cause the crust to ripple, over tens of millions of years. Imagine the folds and ridges that form whenever you kick a rug and it scrunches up. Now imagine that rug is made of stone, and you’ve got a mountain range.

The orogeny that formed the Appalachians is called the Alleghanian Orogeny, as it was named after the Allegheny portion of the chain. It occurred during the Permian period (over 300 million years ago) when two supercontinents - Gondwana, including modern-day Africa, and Euramerica, including modern-day North America - collided with each other to form the supercontinent of Pangaea. 

The Appalachians display this crumpled rug styling, although they have been weathered a great deal and the look is softened. Their partner range, the Anti-Atlas mountains in Morocco, formed on the African part of the plate during this event. 

Awesome Stone Mountain: But the Appalachian range doesn’t hold Georgia’s only mountains. One fascinating mountainous geological oddity of our state is our own Stone Mountain. Stone Mountain is what is called a ‘pluton’ - this is created when magma cools slowly into rock beneath the surface. You could consider it to be the solidified magma chamber of a volcano. When the softer rock around the pluton is eroded, the body is exposed to the surface. 

Although Stone Mountain was only revealed about 15 million years ago, it formed around 300-350 million years ago, during the formation of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and is still larger under the surface than it is topside - the base of the pluton extends as far as Gwinnett county, almost 10 miles from the exposed peak. It is formed mainly of granite, granodiorite, and quartz monzonite, several of the most abundant forms of intrusive igneous rock (rock that has been melted and cooled again underground without reaching the surface). 

At the lower elevations of Stone Mountain’s trail, you can easily see igneous intrusions, recognized as bits of lighter colored rock within the body of the mountain. These are called dikes, areas where magma filled into cracks in solid rock and cooled. Also present are darker xenoliths, pieces of rock that didn’t melt in the magma and were trapped when it solidified into new rock. 

Another characteristic feature of Stone Mountain granite are called ‘cat paws’, which are clustered black markings in the rock, surrounded by a white outline - these are black tourmaline crystals within the stone. You can see these in buildings whose stone was quarried from here. 

Stone Mountain is round in shape because it is what’s called an exfoliation dome - when rock that was under great pressure underground surfaces, it expands and can ‘pop’ up along joints in the rock, and across a large area, these jointing planes tend to smooth into domes. The pits seen on the surface of the mountain, what my brother and I jokingly called ‘dinosaur footprints’ as children, are the result of these exfoliation events. 

Stone Mountain stands relatively alone on its horizon, an uplifting of stone amidst a relatively flat region - this makes it a ‘monadnock’, a remnant left behind above the level surroundings due to its tough, erosion-resistant stone. Kennesaw Mountain, not far away, is also a monadnock, as it is made of similar granite and granitic gneiss.

About Elberton Granite: Stone Mountain unfortunately cannot claim the title of ‘largest granite body in the state’, although it is the most famous one. That title belongs to the Elberton Granite, which is a batholith - an enormous pluton - 35 miles long. The Elberton Granite has made up a great deal of the state’s granite quarrying. If you visit a cemetery in Georgia, chances are that most of the blue-gray granite seen there came from this very formation. Another way our state’s geology impacts our human history. 

Next time you visit any of our mountains, I hope you take a moment to think about just how old they are and all the things they’ve seen - they can give excellent advice, if you listen. 

About the Author

Gena Brown is a Georgia native who’s lived in Milton for over ten years. She has a Bachelor’s in Geology and Anthropology from the University of Alabama, and a Master’s in Biological Anthropology from George Mason University. She’s been approximately five different kinds of scientist so far (including archaeologist and geologist) but is currently working for the state ensuring our water, soil, and fish are all safe for consumption. Gena has a passion for all facets of the natural world, and really wishes Naturalist was still a valid profession.

Gena took this selfie from atop Monk’s Mound at Cahokia Mounds in Illinois! 

The new Roswell History Museum is open in the Roswell Cultural Arts Center at 950 Forrest Street, in Roswell. It is free and open to the public from Wednesday through Saturday 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

According to Delaney Tarr of Appen Media, the museum displays “centuries of the city’s history from Native American artifacts to the stories of mill workers.” 

With an abundance of historical artifacts from the Roswell area, Elaine DeNiro - curator and Roswell city archivist - explains, ”We went to the city, and we petitioned to have the whole space (the second floor of the Roswell Cultural Arts Center) to create a museum. We were granted that, and the city renovated the space.” Museum development was a joint effort between the City of Roswell and the Roswell Historical Society, which raised money with fundraisers and a capital campaign.

Building Four Fabrication designed the museum exhibits. Roswell City Councilwoman Christine Hall, was quoted in the Appen article, “If we didn’t have our history, we would be just another town with a river and some parks.” 

Spinning cotton yarn

Yarn to cloth

Roswell Mill model

Roswell Presbyterian Church

Native American timeline

Woodland period

Editor's note: This article offers one person's recollection of the founding and naming of Milton County. Multiple versions of this event exist!

Col. Candler furnishes the press with the following facts as he has them concerning the forming and naming of Milton County. It looks like he has the record on his side, and very probably the version he has is correct, notwithstanding it differs with the recollection of some of our citizens. Col. Candler says: “In the legislature which assembled in Milledgeville on the first Monday in November, 1857, Lawson Fields was the senator from Cherokee County. At that time each county had a senator.

“On the 10th of November, 1857, Senator Fields introduced in the senate a bill to lay out a new county from the counties of Cherokee, Forsyth and Cobb. When the bill came up on its passage in the senate John K. Ward, the senator from the county of Chatham, who was United States minister to China when the war of secession began, moved that the new county be named Milton and the county site Miltonville. His motion prevailed, and the bill, thus amended, passed the senate. (See senate journal 1857, page 145.) The bill then went to the house, and on the 11th of December it came up for its third reading in that body and was defeated. On the morning of the next day (the 12th of December) Mr. Worley, one of the representatives from Cherokee, moved to reconsider the vote by which the bill was lost, and his motion prevailed and the bill went back on the calendar. On the 15th, three days later, it passed by a vote of 66 yays and 57 nays. The name Miltonville as the name of the town was stricken out in the house, but the name Milton for the county was agreed to unanimously by both houses. Thus Milton County got its name. Lawson Fields, who was the author of the bill to make the county, and who was my brother-in-law - the husband of my oldest sister, - did not name the county at all, but John K. Ward did. It had always been the custom of Georgia to perpetuate the memory of her distinguished sons and public servants by naming counties after them. Captain John Milton, who had first distinguished himself as a soldier in the early part of the war of the revolution, and afterwards, when secretary of state, by preserving records of the state when Savannah fell into the hands of the British, was a citizen of Chatham county, from which Ward was the senator.

“In view of these facts nothing is more probable than that Ward named the county Milton to perpetuate the memory of the gallant Captain Milton, who lived and died in Chatham, Ward’s own county, and who had done the state invaluable service both as a military and a civil officer during and after the revolution.”

Note: Society Treasurer and excellent researcher, Lynn Tinley, added the following:



"The Colonel Allen Candler (1834-1910) quoted in the article served in the Civil War, served in the Georgia House and Georgia Senate, the U.S. 48th Congress, and was both Secretary of State (1894-1898) and the Governor of Georgia (1898-1902). His military service in the 34th Georgia Infantry saw First Lieutenant, later Colonel, Candler fighting in some of the Civil War’s most brutal battles."

In case you missed it in the news…

So it was an extraordinary moment last week at Macon City Hall when the flag of the sovereign Muscogee (Creek) Nation was raised on its own flag pole, and at the same height as the American flag, an acknowledgement that Macon was founded on land that was once the home of the Muscogee (Creek) tribe and where their elders are still buried.

David Hill, the principal chief of the nation, traveled to Macon for the ceremony. “You may ask why we care about keeping connection here,” Hill told the audience. “It’s because this is where we came from. This is where our people were and our people are buried. Our stories are still here.”

The flag will remain raised in Macon permanently, flying in front of the seat of government 24 hours a day just like the American and state flags, as specified by an ordinance approved unanimously by the city-county commission.

Eventually, the tribe will also co-manage (with the U.S. Park Service) what locals hope will soon be Georgia’s first national park and preserve at the Ocmulgee Mounds. The Muscogee (Creek) had lived in the area along the Ocmulgee River for 17,000 years before they were removed by Georgia settlers in the early 1800′s to make way for new farms and towns.

And this from the Georgia Trust: The mounds, used as community structures, were the site of one of the largest archaeological digs in American history. Over 2.5 million artifacts were recovered!

When we came across the bit of internet wisdom on characteristics of good leadership copied below, it set us thinking about the volunteers who take on the presidency of local historical societies. Leadership of a non-profit is akin to running a business: managing communications, developing staff, ensuring the bills are paid (hardware and software costs, archival materials, mailing costs, keeping the lights on), developing a revenue stream (including sponsors and patrons), filing tax returns, providing educational programming, building institutional memory and a sustainable organization, and on and on. Endless hours are spent ensuring everything is done, and done well!

All of the following local leaders exemplify outstanding leadership ability and are either current or recent historical society presidents:

• Alpharetta and Old Milton County Historical Society: Pat Miller, Ed Malowney*
• Roswell Historical Society: Kevin Bamford*, Judy Meer
• Johns Creek Historical Society: Joan Compton
• History Cherokee: Stefanie Joyner*
• Milton Historical Society: Bill Lusk, Jeff Dufresne

* These presidents wrote letters of support for the Georgia Trust’s Places in Peril application nominating Milton’s McConnell-Chadwick House

Characteristics of Good Leaders

From Summit Consulting, posted in Educators, Employees, Leaders, Parents, Teachers:

• They trust you to do the job you’ve been hired to do.
• They seek your advice and input.
• They find opportunities to let you shine.
• They recognize your contributions.
• They have your back during tough times.
• They are master storytellers.
• They challenge you to do bigger and better things.
• They express appreciation.
• They know when to apologize.
• They give credit where credit is due.
• They treat others with dignity and respect.
• They care.

“What do we do with glorious things that have outlived their original intent? When we’re wise, we preserve them. When we’re brilliant, we preserve and repurpose them.”

Nick Yetto, Smithsonian Magazine, March 2023

“A physical structure like a house can be a symbolic way to honor somebody.” 

Artist Adam Pendleton, National Trust newsletter

“Change is inevitable. There are only two kinds of change in today’s world: planned change or unplanned change. (A town) can grow by choice or by chance…accept whatever comes its way, or it can shape the future it wants.”

Cashiers, NC Urban Land Institute Study quoted in the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust newsletter

We hope to periodically feature friends of the Society who generously supply in-kind donations, including gratis speakers for our evening programs.

Clay Gridley is co-founder of Six Bridges Brewery at Crabapple Market and Johns Creek as well as a generous supporter of the Milton Historical Society. Clay and his father Charles provided the magnificent assortment of libations for our Society’s 2022 Spring Fling and Shindig events.

Clay is a lifelong Georgia Tech and Falcons fan. He has a deep appreciation for the history behind interesting and unique objects, particularly if there is a family connection. 

Milton Historical Society events scheduled for Fall 2023:

• September 17, 2023 - Annual Shindig
• October 10, 2023 - The Search for John Milton

Watch this space for more information on program topics with confirmed dates and venues!

Milton Historical Society Patrons

Many thanks for your support!

Lifetime Patrons

Amy and Mark Amick

Josephine and Jeff Dufresne

Laura and Byron Foster

Fran Gordenker

Felton Anderson Herbert

Johnny Herbert

Bill Lusk

Linda and Robert Meyers

Adam Orkin

Charlie Roberts

Sarah Roberts

Donna Savas

Marsha and Kevin Spear

Karen Thurman

Kate and Ron Wallace

Kim and Dana Watkins

Corporate Sponsors

Lithic Genealogy Group

The William B. Orkin Foundation

Savas Digital Creations



Mark Amick

Joan Borzilleri

Norm Broadwell

Jeff Dufresne

James Farris

Byron Foster

Kim Gauger

Bill Lusk

Connie Mashburn

Robert Meyers

Charlie Roberts

Sarah Roberts

Kevin Spear

Karen Thurman

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 and supporting Milton's history!