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Tucker's History Predates the Civil War
In the early 1800s a tall young man from Scotland named
Greenville Henderson made his way from the battles of the Indian Wars to his
Georgia home. As a reward for his valiant services, the governor of Georgia gave
Henderson 3,000 acres of land in what is now known as the Tucker area.
This land, valued at 50 cents an acre, roughly encompassed from east to west the
area from Tucker to below Northlake Festival Shopping Center on LaVista Road and
north of Henderson Mill Road south to Lawrenceville Highway (U.S. 29). Settling
on this tract of land, Henderson operated large apple and peach orchards, corn
fields, and a prosperous whiskey and brandy making business. He shipped finished
product to Savannah by wagon train in exchange for window glass, salt, sugar,
coffee and building brick brought to the Atlantic seaport by boat.
Before the Civil War, Henderson built the historic grist mill on Henderson Mill
Creek at the intersection of Midvale Road and Henderson Mill Road. Near the mill
was the old frame Henderson Post Office. Mail was brought by horse and buggy
from Decatur for people in the Tucker area. The post office was abandoned in
1895 and the mill demolished in 1911. Henderson's home was on a sloping hillside
overlooking the grist mill is now the site of St. Bedes Church.
In 1861, the Civil War swept the countryside. Seven of Henderson's sons left to
fight in the Confederate Army. Two never returned.
On a hot day in 1864 word came to the Tucker area that the Union Army was
advancing on the area. The army of Tennessee under the command of Gen. James
McPherson decided to come to the Southeast to cut off the Georgia railroad near
Stone Mountain where Atlanta would be isolated from the east. The Federals 15th
Army Corps under the command of Maj. Gen. John Logan crossed the Chattahoochee
River at Roswell and detoured to Browning's Courthouse in Tucker to give support
to Garrard's Army in the destruction of the railroad. This courthouse was
recently moved to the grounds of the Tucker Recreation Center on LaVista Road.
Garrard's soldiers headed toward Stone Mountain long Fellowship Road on July 18,
1864.
Confederate soldiers under the command of Gen. Joseph Wheeler fought hard to
stop the march. The Federal troops reached Stone Mountain and destroyed a
two-mile section of the Georgia Railroad tracks, several culverts and the water
tank. Approximately 150 of the Confederate soldiers who were killed in defending
the railroad are buried in a small cemetery near the mountain.
Meanwhile, the mission at Stone Mountain accomplished, Logan's Federal troops
withdrew from Browning's Courthouse in Tucker to Henderson Mill the evening of
July 18 to camp near a water supply. Early the next morning Logan's troops
joined Blair's Army Corps near Midway Baptist Church (the small church across
from Northlake Mall on Henderson Mill Road) and marched toward Decatur to fight
in the Battle of Atlanta.
In 1869, four years after the war, Greenville Henderson died. He is buried in a
small cemetery off Henderson Mill Road near the intersection of Midvale Road.
Buried with him are about 30 relatives including his wife, Nancy, who died in
1892 at the Age of 102.
Growth was steady in the area after 1892 when the Georgia, Carolina and Northern
built the railroad through the center of what is now called Tucker. The first
business in Tucker was a saloon and horse race track on Fellowship Road. The
area had been known as Browning's District until 1907 when the Seaboard Line
Railway acquired the railroad and surveyed the unincorporated town of Tucker and
named the town after an Officer of the company, Capt. Tucker.
This information was provided by Mark Henderson and his daughter, Marsha Pittard.
©