Morgan County leaders and local residents gathered for a cookout to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the post office in Buckhead, Georgia.
Attendees sang “Happy Birthday” to commemorate the occasion on July 22nd, honoring a significant milestone in the small town’s history.
According to Richard Harris, a Buckhead Town Councilman, the original Buckhead Post Office was founded on July 26, 1823, for Buckhead’s modest populace of just 78 tax-paying residents of record. Just 81 years later, Fred L. White became Buckhead’s first official mailman in 1904, delivering the mail by horse, then buggy, and finally an automobile.
Buckhead leaders wanted to honor the 200th anniversary, noting that the establishment of a post office, a later mail delivery, helped Buckhead grow and develop.
“Anything that reestablishes our history and reaffirms our history is a good thing,” said Harris.
According to the historical marker placed in downtown Buckhead in 2007, the town was formally incorporated by the Georgia Legislature in 1887 but the earliest reference to the town dates back to 1819 in a ledger of a general store located in the town.
The marker says “by 1823, a post office had been constructed, and by the 1830s, the Georgia Railroad came through Buckhead. A Methodist Church was organized in 1824, and a Baptist Church in 1890. A four-room schoolhouse that had ten grade levels, employed eight teachers and possessed an auditorium was constructed in 1900.”
Harris said the official site of the post office moved in the town, from a store, to a bank to its current location in 1936. A history of the post office shows that Marjorie M. Stewart served the longest as the town’s Postmaster (1941-1979) and James A. Jones served as Postmaster for 27 years from 1979 to 2006.
During mail carrier White’s employment, a second mail route was added to the Buckhead Post Office in 1907 and was serviced by mail carrier Homer Paschal.
The post office (or the zip code) has been a coveted designation in the past 30 years. On several occasions, Harris said, representatives from the affluent neighborhood of Buckhead in Atlanta (population 100,000) have attempted to purchase the zip code from the Town of Buckhead (population 193) in order to buttress efforts to become and secure the name of “Buckhead” for their community and become incorporated. All attempts, Harris said, have been shunned.
“They wanted the name,” Harris said. “We’re going to hang on to it.”
Credit: Morgan County Citizen
Credit: Morgan County Citizen
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