History of Johns Creek

The City of Johns Creek has a surprisingly rich history tracing back to the early 1800s when its land was part of the Cherokee Nation and home to several with leadership roles in the Cherokee government. There is the 1840s story of a gold nugget discovered in a local field and the gold rush that followed, complete with a flood of prospectors panning the creeks and farmers digging mines and adapting a grist mill to process the ore. By the mid-1800s, six ferries on this section of the Chattahoochee were in operation facilitating the movement of traders, travelers, settlers, and farmers taking products to market.

Throughout its rural history, local farmers were innovators and pioneers in breeding seeds and stock, developing agricultural processes, and adopting conservation practices. However, much of the history here is filled with the stories of the hardships and joys of everyday life on the rural farms that dotted the area. All lived within one of four historic communities of Warsaw, Shakerag, Newtown, and Ocee each with its own school, social center, and businesses that served the farm families’ needs and created a sense of identity that still remains today.

Johns Creek’s modern history is still being made, a continuation of the recent evolution from a very rural southern farming area to a city of over 85,000 known for its schools, attractive housing, golf courses, educated population, and diversity. The Johns Creek Historical Society is busy researching it all, collecting the documents, stories, and artifacts to create both a physical and digital archive to preserve 200 years of Johns Creek’s history.

A historical society project with the City is preserving and improving the Macedonia Cemetery, a small AfricanAmerican cemetery and burial place of at least six who were enslaved and others who were first and second generation descendants of slaves on local farms. Researching those buried at the site is providing the opportunity to learn the history of the local AfricanAmerican population going back to the time of the Cherokee Nation. Learn more at www.JohnsCreekHistory.org and watch for our history archives opening to the public.