Discover history with us

Johns Creek Historical Society, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization

11877 Douglas Rd, Ste 102-295 , Johns Creek GA 30005 www.johnscreekhistory.org [email protected]

Discover history with us

JOHNS CREEK HISTORICAL SOCIETY - 2019 ANNUAL REPORT 2

CONTENTS

Our Organization …………………………..…... 3-4

Meetings ….……………………………………..... 5-6

Activities & Events ………………………....... 7

Presentations & Networking …………..... 8

Partnerships & Collaborations ……….…... 9

Creating a History Archives …………....….. 10-11

Communication & Marketing ………...….. 12-13

2019 Financials ……………………………........ 14-15

Volunteers …………………………………………. 16

Members & Donors …………………….….…. 17-18


MISSION

To research, preserve and promote interest in the history of Johns Creek and collaborate with the city and other related organizations in these endeavors.

The Johns Creek Historical Society is a 501(c)3 organization operated by community volunteers and open to all with an interest

in local history.

Incorporation In January, 2017, the Historical Society was incorporated as a non-profit in the state of Georgia.

501(c)3 Status The Historical Society received 501(c)3 status in August, 2017 and is classified as a public charity by the IRS.

2019 was our third year as an incorporated nonprofit.

Researching, Preserving, Sharing OUR ORGANIZATION

Historical Society Co-Founders

Joan Compton, Leader in numerous city and

county nonprofits and government councils. Researcher and presenter of local history.

Claudette Lopez, Former Heritage Director of

Autrey Mill Nature Preserve & Heritage Center. Consultant in museum management, education, and collections.

Professional Memberships The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH)

Johns Creek Chamber of Commerce

The Cultural Arts Alliance of Johns Creek

North Fulton Alliance of Historical Societies


Directors 2019-2020

Joan Compton · Claudette Lopez · Kirk Canaday

Marnie Gordon · Barbara Latham

The Johns Creek Historical Society is led by an all-volunteer working board that includes professional education and experience in

historic collection management and museums, community historians, leaders of local nonprofits, and retired professionals.

Researching, Preserving, Sharing OUR 2019-2020 LEADERSHIP

Initiatives Strategic Plan: Barb Latham and Claudette Lopez Programs: Marnie Gordon Archives Space: Kirk Canaday, Joan Compton, Vicki Horton Research: Joan Compton, Barb Latham Macedonia Cemetery: Kirk Canaday

Honorary Board

Richard McMahan · Millie Medlock Moore · Judy Webb


Meetings provide a chance to learn from lectures, hear about history related activities in the Johns Creek area, share discoveries in local history, listen to memories of long-time residents, and network with others interested in discovering the past. Meetings typically feature a program on a history-related topic, are free and open to the public, and have drawn over 65 attendees.

Memories of Newtown Larry Garrard and others with deep local roots talked about the history of the area and attending Newtown School.

Sharing History This meeting was a chance to meet others interested in learning and preserving history, to ask questions about local history, and to see some of our ongoing history research and projects.

Mystery of Trees Don Wells, a founder of Mountain Stewards, presented a program about Marker Trees, curiously bent trees that were used by Native Americans as sign posts across the continent.

Historic Post Offices of Johns Creek JC Historical Society members Ed Malowney and Barb Latham presented a program based on a treasure trove of U.S. Post Office records that include hand-drawn maps, postal routes, postmaster appointments, and more.

Learning & Sharing Local History MEETINGS

MEETING TOPICS in 2019


A Cherokee History Program

Wanda Patterson, a member of the Georgia Trail of Tears Association, presented a program about Elias Boudinot, editor of the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper and a leader in the Cherokee Nation and discussed the sad result of the New Echota treaty.

Cemetery Clues Historical Society board members Marnie Gordon and Joan Compton presented a program about Johns Creek’s burial grounds leading to discovery of genealogy and stories of earlier residents. The program also covered gravestone carvings and their meanings and historically common causes of death.

Summerour Ancestry Charles Summerour, a Summerour descendant and local historian, told the story of the Summerour family, one of Johns Creek’s historically prominent and interesting families. Topics included the family's involvement in gold mining, their family farms, their large brick house (located where Regal Cinema is today), memories of the Warsaw community, their Duluth tannery, and more.

Learning & Sharing Local History MEETINGS


Into the Community ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

The Johns Creek Historical Society was pleased to participate in the 2019 “Secret Gardens of Johns Creek” garden tour presented by Johns Creek Beautification.

Located at one of the beautiful gardens, we displayed a mini history exhibit and shared stories of the history of the land and earlier inhabitants of the tour area.

We held this event in conjunction with the Autrey Mill Farm Festival. Descendants of early farm families and others who remember this area as a rural farm community, were able to meet each other, socialize, reminisce, enjoy a light breakfast, and view our mini history exhibits that included information about some of their ancestors.

For us, the event was an opportunity to connect with these descendants to add their stories to our archives.

CEMETERY CLEANUP

SECRET GARDEN TOUR

In March, we helped the Roswell Historical Society clean headstones at the Old Roswell Cemetery. This activity led to other collaborations and was an opportunity to learn recommended monument cleaning procedures.

DESCENDANT RECEPTION


Meeting with other historical societies, history resource centers, and local historians.

Networking at Johns Creek Chamber Events, Cultural Arts Alliance and other community meetings.

Discussions with elected officials and city staff.

Attendance at City Hall meetings, park and comprehensive plan meetings.

As a new organization, efforts continued to get out into the community to promote history , establish awareness of our mission, share stories of local history, and advocate for historical components in new parks and history preservation in future development.

NETWORKING ACTIVITIES

History Talks on a variety of subjects were presented throughout the year to engage and educate the public.

Leadership Johns Creek class

Student Leadership Johns Creek class

Johns Creek-North Rotary Club

And other neighborhood and community groups

HISTORY PRESENTATIONS

Into the Community NETWORKING & PRESENTATIONS

Historical Society President Joan Compton, City Councilman John Bradberry, Rotary board member Angela Harvey, City Councilman Jay Lin, Mayor Mike Bodker. Photo credit: Jay Jones, Gwinnett Daily Post

Photo credit: Jay Jones, Gwinnett Daily Post


Rogers Bridge The Johns Creek Historical

Society continued as a GDOT Consulting Party on the Rogers Bridge project to rebuild the bridge as a pedestrian crossing, with the requirement to fully record its original structure and display its history on interpretive panels.

COLLABORATIONS

PARTNERS

We continued to build partnerships and collaborate as an effective way to learn from established history organizations, leverage our resources, build our reputation as a primary source for Johns Creek history information, give service to the community, and reach a wider audience.

Collaborations in 2019 included:

100th Anniversary of Armistice Day Program with other N. Fulton historical societies

Historical exhibit for the Johns Creek Beautification Garden Tour

Descendants Reception at the Autrey Mill Farm Festival

Native American display at Spruill Oaks Library

Into the Community PARTNERSHIPS & COLLABORATION

Community Input Meetings Historical Society Board Members actively participated in a variety community meetings and forums during the year. Pictured above left, Marnie Gordon was one of 3 of our Board members that gave input on the CVB’s Gateway Marker project for the City of Johns Creek.

Macedonia Cemetery This small abandoned African-American cemetery is known to be the burial location of slaves as well as church members through the 1900s. Historical Society Board Member, Kirk Canaday, worked with the City on maintenance and plans for improvement and engaged the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society to help with research of one of the known slaves.

City of Johns Creek Autrey Mill Nature Preserve & Heritage Center

Spruill-Oaks Library River Trail Middle School

The historical societies of Alpharetta, Roswell, Milton, and Sandy Springs

Atlanta Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society

Johns Creek Beautification Six Bridges Brewery


Establishing contact with and learning from Historical societies, local historians, archivists, and

other experts in history research preservation.

Descendants of early families and those with deep roots in the area.

In our third year, we’ve only just begun to discover the history of the this area. Challenges include a late start in preserving history and the fact no historic town was here to be a repository of local records. This will be an ongoing effort for many years, but for a young historical society, impressive progress has been made in gathering history resource materials and presenting findings to the public.

GATHERING HISTORY INFORMATION

And Making it accessible Digitizing and copying records.

Compiling research into family trees, topic papers, maps, and presentations.

Organizing hardcopy files and notebooks.

Beginning the long process to catalog items acquired.

Collecting Family histories

Documents, recordings, maps, ledgers, photos, etc.

History books and other publications

Here’s how we are approaching the task.

Preserving & Sharing History CREATING A JOHNS CREEK ARCHIVES

Searching online and physical archives for Land transactions, tax records, census, military

service, ship manifests, etc.

Genealogy, marriage, birth and death certificates

Deed Room Fulton County Courthouse

The goal of creating a Johns Creek History Archives is to gather in one place

the records and stories of the past to create both a physical and digital archive to preserve Johns Creek's history and make the records available to the public.


While waiting on a physical space, hundreds of photos, documents, and recorded memories have been collected, digitized and stored in digital folders organized by topic and farm family. There is still much to do, but we’ll continue this work in preparation for a future database to provide access online and at an eventual archive facility.

Without appropriate dedicated space, it’s been difficult to operate and fulfill our mission. Discussions continued with the City of Johns Creek concerning the need for archive storage, office and work space to provide a secure, environmentally controlled location for records and artifacts and to facilitate public access to our local history resources. By the end of 2019, City officials indicated there are several possible spaces in the new city hall we might use. Our plan is create a work and storage space there in 2020.

Although accepting donations could not be a priority in our first couple years, we did accept a some collections and items because they would not be available later.

Findley farm items

Susan Miller’s collection of Newtown park and community history

Misc. items from multiple sources

In 2019 we began working to create awareness of the Johns Creek Historical Society as a place to donate family records and original artifacts to make sure existing local history assets are not moved from the area or destroyed. This effort will be intensified as appropriate storage space becomes available.

SOLICITING DONATIONS

NEED for STORAGE, WORK, and EXHIBIT SPACE

DIGITAL ARCHIVES

Preserving & Sharing History CREATING A JOHNS CREEK ARCHIVES

Other Needs for our History Archives and Research Library Computer

Photo scanner

Printer

Past Perfect software

File cabinets, shelving, tables, and chairs

Archival storage supplies


An Online Presence with

Top Page Views: Home, History, About, Contact, Membership, Archives, Meetings, Activities, In the News

Top Downloads: Sheltonville 1962 Booklet, Rogers Bridge Project, Annual Report

www.johnscreekhistory.org Our website went live November 2016 announcing the formation of an historical society to preserve and promote the history of the area that is today’s City of Johns Creek. Since then, the website has grown to promote the Historical Society’s meetings, projects, and activities; accept online membership payments; advocate for local history preservation; and provide local history information and resources.

www.johnscreekhistory.org website homepage

Creating Awareness COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING

A free MailChimp account is used to communicate Historical Society upcoming meetings, activities, and local history related news.

25 e-blasts were sent in 2019 to an expanded list of 266 active contacts.

The contact list grew from sign-up’s on our website plus email addresses collected at our history meetings, events, and community presentations.

E-News Community Calendars

and Message Boards

To extend reach, postings of meetings, field trips, and programs were placed on

City of Johns Creek online Calendar

Culture Arts Alliance online Calendar

Nextdoor

Johns Creek Patch

Other Marketing Efforts A Tri-fold informational brochure and business cards were created and printed to hand out

at events and during networking.

Displays and poster boards were created to both promote the organization and to illustrate historic events, places, and people.


Creating Awareness COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING

In 2019 articles appeared in the Johns Creek Herald and the Gwinnett Daily Post and our historical society was highlighted in a City video clip. We especially thank Carson Cook, reporter for the Johns Creek Herald, and Jay Jones, reporter for the Gwinnett Daily Post, for their writing and photography that captured many of our programs and brought an awareness to our organization and activities.

Historical Society preserves the stories of Johns Creek, Jay Jones, Gwinnett Daily Post, Jan 25, 2019

Historical Society looks back at the history of Newtown, Carson Cook, Johns Creek Herald, Jan 29, 2019

Historical society hears tales of trail trees, Carson Cook, Johns Creek Herald, Mar 20, 2019

City of Johns Creek "7-in-70" video for the week ending September 6, 2019.

Historical Society hosts talk on Cherokee leader, Carson Cook, Johns Creek Herald, September 12, 2019.

Descendant of prominent Johns Creek family tells their story, Carson Cook, Johns Creek Herald, Nov 14, 2019

Coverage of Historical Society Activities


Johns Creek Historical Society, Inc.

2019 Statement of Operations

The organization did not have fundraisers in its third year; rather continued to utilize memberships to cover minimal operational needs. Even with only small funds to handle, financial business accounts and systems were utilized.

A surplus has been purposely accumulated for anticipated costs associated with opening an archive workspace in 2020, requiring computers, scanners, archival storage supplies, and cataloging software.

Acct # Account Name $ Amount

Balance 1/1/2019 5,085.28

INCOME

12000 Programming 304.69

14010 General Donations 370.00

14021 Restricted Donations 500.00

15000 Membership 1,630.00

TOTAL INCOME $ 2,804.69

EXPENSES

20000 Corporate Expenses 30.00

22000 PR/Marketing 250.46

23020 PayPal Fees 54.00

24000 Dues & Subscriptions 175.00

28000 Office Expenses 137.94

28030 Website 72.34

30010 Program/Event Expenses 334.69

TOTAL EXPENSES $ 1,054.43

12/31/19 Net<Deficit>/Surplus $ 1,750.26

Funding our Mission 2019 FINANCIALS



2019 Financial Position Statement

1/1/2019 12/31/2019

Current Assets

Fidelity Bank Account $ 4,839.59 $ 5,604.14

PayPal Account $ 245.69 $ 1,231.40

Total Assets $ 5,085.28 $ 6,835.54

Liabilities - -

Net Assets

Unrestricted $ 5,085.28 $ 6,335.54

Temporarily Restricted - $ 500.00

Total Net Assets $ 5,085.28 $ 6,835.54

Funding our Mission 2019 FINANCIALS


2019 In-Kind Donations

Meeting space provided by Autrey Mill Nature Preserve & Heritage Center , Park Place at Newtown Park, and the Johns Creek Chamber

JC Historical Society board members provided:

Website development and social media marketing services

Archive supplies

Research books

Membership in local business organizations and professional associations

Hospitality for meetings

Digitization and copying of documents, photos, audio and video tapes

As a young organization with limited financial resources, the donation of in-kind services and supplies were crucial in meeting 2019 goals. We expect in-kind donations to continue to support operations even as we solicit additional sources of cash income.


Thanks to Our Volunteers Our all-volunteer board puts in many hours , but we also relied on the help of others throughout the year to organize collections, help with events, check-in before and cleanup after meetings, and to create history programming for schools.

Our Supporters VOLUNTEERS

Special thanks to volunteers

Christine Austin

Nancy Bivins

Alison Kane

Lynn Pennington

Katie Perrotta

Nancy Reinecke

Royce Reinecke

Angel Walker

Judy Webb

Royce Reinecke shared local history with visitors after the Descendant Reception in September.

Lynn Pennington, a leader in saving the Newtown School and obtaining historic recognition for the building, helped organize our Newtown collection and identified photos and documents.

Judy Webb was a resource of local history, helped identify and contact invitees for the Descendant Reception, was our greeter at every meeting, and helped with historic collections on loan.

Over 2,200

Volunteer

Hours

Recorded in

2019


Thanks to all who have become members in our young organization! Memberships support operations and programs. Founding and Sustainer Members’ larger investment in the Historical Society covered startup expenses and create a financial base for our young organization and future projects.

Individual Founding Members

These are the individuals and businesses who believed in the need for an Historical Society. Their generous contributions covered startup expenses and created a financial base for our new organization in its first 2 years.

Linda Austin

Joan Compton

Bob Gern

Trey Holladay

Vicki Horton

John Kohler

Steven Kramer

Barbara Latham

Claudette Lopez

Jan Mairose

Ed Malowney

Lynn Pennington

Corporate Founding Members

Jacqueline Bass, owner Jacqueline Bass Preservation

Specializing in historic preservation planning, research and design, and museum collection consulting services www.jacquelinebass.com

Charles Gridley, co-owner Six Bridges Brewery

Local craft beer brewery and taproom 11455 Lakefield Dr. Ste 300 Johns Creek, GA 30097 www.sixbridgesbrewing.com

Our Supporters MEMBERS & DONORS

Growth in number of

members


Honorary Members Honored for their strong ties to the history of Johns Creek

Richard McMahan Millie Medlock Moore Judy Webb

Visionary Members

Lynn and Gregory Canty

Joan Compton

Trey Holladay

John Kohler

Steve Kramer

Sustainer Members

Nancy Bivins

Marnie Gordon

Dyna Kohler

Jean Miller

Claudette Lopez

Lynne Riley

Mary Beth Salazar

Our Supporters 2019 MEMBERS & DONORS

Individual and Family Members

Lauren Ackermann Eddy Anderson Linda Austin Wayne Baughman Richard Beggs Joan Borzilleri Deborah Cahill Kirk & Beverley Canaday

Charlie Enscore Ken & Elaine Goodroe Angela Hervey Bryan & Penny Jackson Alison Kane Barb & Ralph Latham Lou Ann Lebovitz Janice Lock

Jan Mairose Ed & Mary Jo Malowney Deanna Maust Lyn Michell Jean Miller Barbara Mindel Lynn Pennington

Katherine Perrotta Nancy Reinecke Alan Rosenthal Irene & Eric Sanders Karen Swenson Gerald & Barbara Stein Beverly Thompson

Donors

Ken & Elaine Goodroe Lou Ann Lebovitz

Jan Mairose Jean Miller

Gerald & Barbara Stein Beverly Thompson

Corporate Visionary Members

Jacqueline Bass Preservation www.jacquelinebass.com

Six Bridges Brewery www.sixbridgesbrewing.com

Corporate Member Marilyn Davis, Davis & Langford CPA

Researching, Preserving, Sharing History Visit www.johnscreekhistory.org

to learn more about the Johns Creek Historical Society, its projects and activities.

Photo of the historic Strickland House before demolition

Johns Creek Historical Society, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization 11877 Douglas Rd, Ste 102-295 , Johns Creek GA 30005

www.johnscreekhistory.org [email protected]

History Lost: With the 2015 approval to demolish the

Strickland House on McGinnis Ferry Road, it became clear that an historical society was needed to educate the City and residents on the history of this land and importance of historical structures and stories of the people who lived here before we arrived.

Please help us with this mission by making a donation, becoming a member, or advocating for historic preservation.

Discover history with us

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