HISTORY RESEARCH
are now available online at the National Archives. These records are a boon to historians, because even the small post offices in this rural area were recorded with a paper trail that includes lists and dates of postmaster appointments; postal routes with stops identified, distances between stops, and frequency of service; plus hand-drawn maps noting neighboring post offices, waterways, and other local landmarks.
Although Johns Creek does not have even one post office today, in the past there were many including Warsaw, Sheltonville, Ocee, Skelton, Mazeppa, Newtown, Alton, McClure, and others
We know about all these P.O.'s, when they were established and when they disappeared, where they were located, and who were the postmasters through a treasure trove of records that were required by the United States Postal Service and are now available online through the National Archives.
See examples below of records for a post office on the Benjamin Franklin Findley farm in 1895.
We've been collecting these rich records for our Johns Creek history archives since 2018. The information contained in these records enable locating the historic post offices on present-day maps, help us create engaging programming, and add to our resources for family genealogy and local history research.
These Post Office records are available online at the National Archives website http://www.archives.gov. Search their catalog for Record Group 28, "Records of the Post Office Department". The "Post Office Reports of Site Locations 1837-1950" can be found in microfilm record M1126. It's organized by state, then county. Information about post offices in Johns Creek and nearby areas were found in rolls 110 (Forsyth and Fulton Co.) and 111 (Gwinnett Co.).
The National Archives "Records of the Post Office Department" also include historic logbooks of Postmaster Appointments, an informational booklet on historic post offices, and much more.
This hand-drawn map was attached to Benjamin J. Findley's 1895 application (included below) to establish a new Post Office called Selma to be located on his farm, south of McGinnis Ferry Rd and near today's Medlock Bridge Rd. The map also shows Johns Creek, the Chattahoochee River and existing post offices of Ocee, Warsaw, Sheltonville, Big Creek, Cumming, and Duluth.
Below is Benjamin J. Findley's 1895 application to establish a new Post Office called Selma to be located on his farm. The details offer exciting insight into this area in the 1890s with the population served plus distances and directions from existing post offices and waterways that enable mapping the post office on today's landscape.
