The early 1800s brought settlers to the interior of the state of Georgia as land became available through treaties with the Indians. Doraville is the result of this movement of early settlers into the area from the Carolinas, Virginia and other parts of Georgia.

An area along Peachtree Ridge near the headwaters of Nancy Creek provided the water and timber to start an agricultural settlement. Early transportation routes were available by way of existing Indian trails.

From its inception until the 1940s, Doraville was a small agricultural community that served the interests of a larger surrounding farming area. External forces and events of the 1930s and 1940s were to determine a larger role in history for Doraville.

Religion in the form of organized churches arrived in the 1820s and 1830s. The Civil War disrupted the area in the 1860s.

Immediately after the Civil War the railroad was built through the town from Atlanta to Greenville, S.C., and points north and south. World War I brought Camp Gordon to neighboring Chamblee. While all of these events contributed to the development of this area, the impact was minimal.

Two events in the late 1930s and early 1940s changed the nature of Doraville forever. Dekalb County built a major water supply system into the area and Plantation Pipeline built a pumping system and storage facility in Doraville just before the beginning of World War II. During the war, the pipeline was valuable in delivering oil products across the country without the threat of German submarines sinking tankers. The pipeline went from Baton Rouge, La., through Doraville to Greensboro, N.C. Today's tank farms grew from the pipeline development.

At the end of World War II, Doraville was on the main rail line, and had the new water system available. General Motors selected Doraville as the site for its new assembly plant. The growth of Doraville exploded in the late 1940s and the 1950s as a result of these developments.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Early History of the Area

The area that is now the City of Doraville was Creek Indian territory until 1821, when 26 Indian chiefs and u.s. Government officials held a conference at Indian Springs, Georgia. At that conference, the Indians ceded to the State of Georgia a large tract of land reaching from the Chattahoochee to the Ocmulgee Rivers.

The ceded land first was known as Henry County. In 1822, the Georgia legislature formed DeKalb County and located the county seat at a point that was named Decatur.

There was a rapid influx of settlers into DeKalb County. By and large, the early settlers were of English, Scottish and Irish ancestry. They came mainly from the Carolinas and Virginia.

They were industrious people, most of whom bought their land in a land lottery for $19 for a plot of 202-1/2 acres less than 10 cents an acre.

In this gently rolling country, with its plentiful creeks and springs, they built their houses-often log cabins built from trees in the area.

The land has an average elevation of 900 to 1,000 feet above sea level. Because of the abundant streams, many water-driven mills dotted the area during the 1800s and early 1900s. Several present-day roads, including Doraville's Tilly Mill Road, still bear the names of early families and their mills.

The area that is now Doraville is located in the Shallowford District of DeKalb County, Militia District 524, on the northern fringes of the county. For the first 75 years, it was a thinly settled community with little population change. The 1830 census of DeKalb County as a whole, which included what is now Fulton County, listed a total population of 10,047 people. This included 4,295 white males, 4,081 white females, 782 male slaves, 871 female slaves, nine free black males and nine free black females. The figures included one person who was deaf and mute and three who were blind.

The 1850 census of the Shallowford District showed that the population of the district was 420 people, with 68 families and 68 dwellings. In addition to farmers, there also were blacksmiths, teachers and laborers. The census showed a property value of $30,485 for the District.

Early settlers tended to use old Indian trails when they traveled. Those trails in Doraville included the Hightower and Peach tree Trails.

The Hightower (or Etowah) Trail came down from the Etowah River in Northwest Georgia and crossed the Chattahoochee River about two miles south of Roswell. It continued southeast and, since 1822, has served as the boundary line between DeKalb and Gwinnett Counties. It still serves as Doraville's northern boundary.

The Peachtree Trail runs southwest along the Peachtree Ridge from Gwinnett County through Doraville to Atlanta. In present-day Doraville, it is known as New Peachtree Road. There is a granite marker on New Peachtree Road, near its intersection with Buford Highway, marking the intersection of the Hightower and Peachtree Trails in Doraville.

Organized religion came to the area in 1826 with the establishment of Prospect Methodist Church (now Chamblee First United Methodist Church).

A group led by the Rev. Thomas Turner founded the Prosperity Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church on August 11, 1836. That church is now known as Doraville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.

The two churches served as the spiritual and social centers of a large but sparsely settled agricultural community.

The 14 charter members of Prosperity Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church were members of five families originally from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and later from the Anderson, South Carolina, area.

Charter members were John Stevenson, Samuel McElroy Sr. and his wife Mary, Joseph Stewart and his wife Mary, Samuel McElroy Jr. and his wife Nancy, John McElroy and his wife Margaret, William Stevenson and his wife Sarah, Elizabeth McElroy and her daughter Rachel and William McElroy.

It is thought the congregation first gathered in the house of Samuel McElroy Sr. under the guidance of the Rev. Thomas Turner. A log house was built as the first church. It was later replaced by a frame building with one glass window behind the pulpit and board shutters for side windows.

This building had a box stove to warm the congregation during services and also to warm covered wagoners who used the church for an overnight camping place. These first meeting houses were located near the entrance to the present cemetery in Chamblee.

In 1872 Prosperity Presbyterian Church moved to its present site on Central Avenue and Church Street. The church was located in a one and a half acre site donated by Maj. John Y. Flowers. His gift carried with it the right to use, for church purposes, water from the Flowers family's spring. Subscriptions for the new church were taken in 1871 and the church was built in 1872. J.N. Dodgen and J.C. McElroy made the roof shingles by hand.

The old church buildings was sold to Elder David Chesnut and used by him to build a substantial gin house.

Prosperity Presbyterian was the only church in today's city limits. Prospect Methodist Church and Corinth Baptist Church, both located in what is now Chamblee, served residents of today's Doraville. Prospect Methodist Church used Prosperity's church building until it could build its own facility, and the two congregations established cemeteries on adjoining land near the present Peachtree Road.

During the Civil War, Prosperity's congregation was able to hold services only ''as occasion permitted". When the war was over and the congregation again gathered for worship, the communion tables were missing. "It is supposed the soldiers used the wood for kindling fires," a church history states.

New communion tables were made soon after the war by Elder Alexander Chesnut. Prosperity Church changed its name to Doraville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in 1890.

Doraville Native John Creel recalled a story that, in the early days, a guard had to be posted at the cemeteries at night after church members learned that medical students were digging up bodies to dissect in their studies.

During the Civil War, in July of 1864, Union General McPherson's Army of the Tennessee crossed the Chattahoochee River from the Roswell area at the Shallow Ford Crossing and proceeded south on the old Shallow Ford Road, now close to Roberts Drive, and down Chamblee Dunwoody Road to Ashford Dunwoody Road.

Garrard's Cavalry, operating on McPherson's left, crossed at McAfee's Bridge close to Holcomb Bridge and camped the night of July 17 near the headwaters of Nancy Creek and the home of J. W. Buchanan, which stood on the old Hightower Trail (now the DeKalb County /Gwinnett County line.) A state historical marker commemorating the encampment is located on Buford Highway at English Oak Drive, where Hightower Trail then crossed Peachtree Road. This is very near the northern boundary of the Doraville city limits.

Garrard's Cavalry proceeded from there to the Decatur area to attempt to destroy the Georgia Railroad. While the Doraville area was spared the worst of the destruction of the fighting, the effects of the war were visible to the population. Raiding parties from Sherman's army devastated the area. Fourteen men from Prosperity Church went to the war and only six returned.

Ed Pelfrey, a longtime resident, recalled the story that one of the McElroys still had a fine horse when the Yankee troops arrived in the area and he came out of his house to find a worn out "bag of bones" of a horse where his had been tied. It was said that he cared for the horse and kept it for many years after the war.

In 1887 the Rev. R.E. Patterson accepted a call as pastor of the New Hope Church in Dunwoody and Prosperity Church in Doraville. He served until 1897.

Prosperity Church was the only church in today's city limits until Mt. Carmel A.M.E. Church moved to Doraville.

Mt. Carmel was started in the late 1870s by the Rev. George Washington Gholston, an early black settler. A farmer and pastor, he held meetings in his home on today's Chamblee Tucker Road. At the time of his death, he owned over 200 acres in the area of today's Embry Hills. Mrs. Lizzie Gholston, wife of the church founder, lived to be 100 years old.

As Mt. Carmel grew, members rented the Odd Fellows Lodge Hall in Doraville, across from today's Galloway Hardware store, for a meeting place.

In 1883, Mt. Carmel Church moved to the former Barrett's store building on New Peachtree Road. Later, the storefront property was purchased from the L.S. Middlebrook family.

Here the church held services and started the first school in the area for black children. The first teacher was Miss Mary J. Gholston, sister of Mrs. T.M. Ford and the Rev. G.W. Gholston.

Mt. Carmel Cemetery was established in 1888 when land on New Peachtree Road was purchased for a church. In 1912, Mt. Carmel members completed their church building from timber cut on the property of the Rev. G. W. Gholston. It housed both the church and the school and adjoined the cemetery.

Mt. Carmel Church burned about 1940. After the fire, the church moved close to the present site of the General Motors plant. After only a few years, this property was sold to GM and the church moved to its present location on Carver Circle.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Founding of the Town of Doraville

The Town of Doraville was incorporated by an act of the Georgia General Assembly, approved December 15, 1871. Doraville's first town council was composed of G.N. Flowers, L.T. Jackson, Samuel Harman, S.H. Braswell and William N. Leitch. They were named by the Georgia Legislature to serve until the first Saturday in 1873.

There are at least three versions of how Doraville got its name.

The generally accepted version is that the town was named for Miss Dora Jack, whose father was an official of the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railroad when it was built through the settlement.

A second story holds that it was named for Dora Braswell Tapp, grandmother of Mayor Gene Lively, at the suggestion of her grandfather, Major John Y. Flowers. Major Flowers, a Civil War veteran, was one of the town's most prominent citizens at the time.

A third version holds that Doraville was named for Dora Howell. The story is that several young engineers who worked on the building of the railroad were attracted to Miss Howell, daughter of Singleton Howell, and they suggested naming the town for her.

There seems to be no argument that the city was incorporated because church leaders in the community wanted control over the two saloons then operating in the settlement.

The town charter required that, on the first Saturday in January 1873 and on the first Saturday in each subsequent year, five commissioners be elected to serve one-year terms.

The charter directed that the council members, at their first meeting after election and qualification, elect from their own number a presiding officer, to be styled Chairman of the Council, and to appoint a marshal and a clerk to hold office during the pleasure of the council.

The charter gave the council the power "to provide for the working of the streets of said town, and to compel all persons in said town subject to road duty, under the laws of the State of Georgia, to work on the same. For the violation of the ordinances of said Town Council they shall have the power to punish by fine, not exceeding twenty-five dollars, or imprisonment, not to exceed five days, or both, in the discretion of said Council," the charter stated.

The corporate limits of the original town, as chartered by the State, were one-half mile in every direction from the depot of the Atlanta, Richmond and Air-Line Railroad Company, located where the MARTA station is now.

In the years following the Civil War, the area around Doraville had become a hub on the Atlanta and Charlotte Air-Line Railroad. The railroad, originally planned in 1856, was delayed due to the start of the Civil War. Construction did not begin until 1869 and involved several reorganizations and name changes.

On April 1, 1871 an excursion train from Atlanta to Norcross and Duluth, by way of Doraville, began operation. By December of that year, rails had been laid into Gainesville. By the end of 1872, construction forces working from each end of the route had the road completed 80 miles out of Atlanta and 60 miles out of Charlotte. By July 17, the line from Atlanta through Doraville reached Toccoa.

By September, 1873, the railroad extended from Charlotte, N.C., through Doraville and Atlanta to New Orleans. The railroad became part of the newly formed Southern Railway Company in 1894, and it still is Southern's main line from Charlotte to Atlanta.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Early Town and City

Despite the railroad, the area retained its rural flavor. The 1900 census shows that the Shallowford District population had grown from 68 families and dwellings in 1850 to 109 families in 109 dwellings by the turn of the century.

The 1900 census also shows that Doraville Town had a population of 114 people, with 25 families and 23 dwellings. Most men were farmers and farm laborers, but the Town also had clergymen and at least one physician.

Old Doraville was centered generally around New Peachtree Road and the Southern Railroad tracks in the area now occupied by the MARTA Station.

The city jail was on today's New Peachtree Rd., then called Main Street. Apparently the jail wasn't too busy because Ed Pelfrey recalls the story of a couple of party goers who had too much to drink and let themselves into the jail to sleep it off.

According to Inez Grant Lawson and Earle Grant, there was a two-story house in an oak grove on the east side of the road and a cow barn across from it on the present MARTA station site.

About 1890, Sylvester Pounds and J.E. Munday had a store in Downtown Doraville. Pounds sold out to Munday after the roof blew off the Pounds house. The store, located at the corner of Church Street and New Peachtree Road, became known as Munday Brothers.

The store was moved from the east side of Peachtree Road to the west side, and operated as Munday Brothers until 1912. It then became known as J.W. Munday and Company. There was a cotton gin across the street from the store. It burned about 1904. A second gin on the same site also burned.

At one point around the turn of the century, the City had three stores, a com mill, a doctor's office, a post office, a church and a barbershop. The barbershop was open only on Saturday.

According to Earle Grant, the town had only a small area that consisted of houses along the street in today's fashion. Most people lived on their farms in the area. The lifestyle was rural. Yards did not have grass, as is today's custom, but instead were dirt and kept swept with brush brooms.

New Peachtree Road went from Five Points in Downtown Atlanta through Doraville and then to Pinckneyville, near Holcomb Bridge Road, over the Chattahoochee River and on to New York City. It was a dirt road that often became a mud road.

Earle Grant remembers his father sometimes taking his team of horses to pull a stranded automobile from the mud, although automobiles still were rare in those days.

There was no Methodist Church in Doraville, but there was one in Chamblee and another in Norcross. Earle Grant recalls that the preacher lived in Norcross and served both churches.

Grant also recalled that Dr. J .E. "Eb" Flowers not only had his medical office but also ran a store and the town's post office. "He had ancient medicines and jars of candies. There was a little grate and fire in there. He would wear his coat inside in winter because the building was so cold," Grant said.

Dr. Flowers' office was located on New Peachtree Road across from where Galloway Hardware has stood since 1946. The MARTA station now occupies the site of the doctor's office.

When Dr. Flowers retired he donated to the City a portion of his family's land. It is this land on which Flowers Park and most of the City's municipal buildings now are located.

Old Post office records from about 1916 to 1928 show that Dr. "Eb" Flowers kept his postal records on the backs of letters, halves of used envelopes, any scrap of paper. Postage on hand rarely exceeded $100, and often was $40 or less. In those years, a postcard cost a penny and letters cost two and later three cents.

In 1915, the postmaster earned a percentage of revenues, up to a limit of $250 compensation per quarter. The most money a postmaster could earn at that job was $1,000 a year.

A postmaster earned 100 percent of the first $50 or less, 60 percent of the next $100 or less, 50 percent of the next $200 or less and 40 percent of revenues over $350, up to the limit of $250.

The postmaster got the total amount of box rents collected. Commission also was collected on the sale of waste paper, old newspaper and twine.

The postmaster's compensation for July 1-September 30, 1916 was $64.03. The amount sent to the U.S. Government was $77.60.

World War I saw the establishment of Camp Gordon in 1917 in nearby Chamblee. It was one of the largest cantonments in the country. It was built between June and September, 1917. Corn fields were transformed into barracks at the rate of eight per day.

During the camp's existence, 30,000 Army recruits were trained there. While the camp was in neighboring Chamblee, its effect was felt in Doraville and throughout the area.

During World War II, in the 1940s, this same property was used for the Lawson General Hospital and the Naval Air Station. DeKalb-Peachtree Airport now is located on the former wartime flying field. The Internal Revenue Service has built a facility in the old hospital area. Other Federal agencies also use the site.

The first paved road came to Doraville in 1926, when New Peachtree Road was paved from Chamblee to Stewart Road. Electricity came in 1928 through Chamblee Power and Light. Telephone service also came that year.

Buford Highway, now one of the most heavily traveled roads in Doraville, was a dirt road when it was designated Georgia State Road 13 in 1932. In 1936, it was paved 20 feet wide with concrete at a cost of $2,300. Doraville's population at that time was 195.

In 1964, the road was widened to 24 feet. In 1967, it was fourlaned and later it was widened to its present seven lanes.

In 1938, Paul Tapp opened a store on Peachtree Road across from the present location of Galloway Hardware Store. The store building was demolished in the late 1980s to make way for the Doraville MARTA Station.

In the late 1940s, the DeKalb State Bank opened in Doraville with a housewarming to which 2,000 persons were invited. Its total capital structure was set at $65,000, including a $10,000 surplus and $5,000 in reserve. The bank was in a position to serve Chamblee as well as Doraville and the surrounding area.

The bank was a one-story concrete block structure situated a short distance from the center of town.

President was Clarence A. Whelchel, formerly president of Farmers and Merchants' Bank, Mt. Pleasant, Tenn. L.A. Baird, former cashier of a Thomson bank, was cashier and vice president. Walter H. Scott of Decatur was chairman of the board of directors, and Miss Lois Wigney of Doraville was stenographer.

Members of the board of directors, in addition to Whelchel and Baird, were Joseph R. Murphy of Atlanta (also a vice president), Guy W. Rutland Sr., Frank B. Graham Jr., and Frank G. Thomas, all of Decatur; George H. Slappey, Atlanta, and J. Harvey Chesnut, Chamblee.

The Doraville railroad depot was closed "temporarily" during the 1930s Depression, because Southern Railway said there was not enough business to keep the depot open.

In the 1940s, before the General Motors factory was built, a delegation headed by Mayor Johnny Stewart requested the station be reopened. Others on the delegation were Dr. Eb Flowers, J.W. Walker, Ed Hobson, Jim Chesnut and Buck Ham.

Dr. Flowers alleged that when his grandfather donated the land for the right-of-way, the railroad promised there would always be a depot for Doraville. Doraville did not object to the temporary closing, but after World War II the City wanted the boarded-up station reopened. According to Doraville native Ed Pelfrey, it never did reopen.