Carlton Renfroe, who has lived along Tilly Mill Road since 1941, has shared that the Tilly Mill was located in the area of the northeast corner at the intersection of Tilly Mill Road and North Peachtree Road. The Tilly home and school were further up Tilly Mill Road, closer to where it meets Peeler Road.
John William (Will) Fletcher Tilly operated a cotton gin, sawmill, and gristmill. He was the son of Ebenezer and Martha Ballenger Tilly.
Ball Mill was owned by Peter Ball and located along Ball Mill Creek. The name lives on today through Ball Mill Road. There is a Ball family cemetery next to the Big Trees Preserve along Roswell Road; however Peter Ball is buried in a small cemetery behind a home off Spalding Drive in the Spalding Woods subdivision.
In case you are thinking, what kind of mill was Ball Mill? I have not found the answer to that question. If you have more information about Ball Mill, please contact me from the home page of this blog.
According to the "History of DeKalb County" by Vivian Price, Dr. C. C. (Christopher Columbus) Hart built a corn mill in 1860 along the banks of Nancy Creek near the crossing of Harts Mill Road and Chamblee-Dunwoody Road. He lived along Peachtree Road in the Brookhaven area. The mill closed in 1890 after Dr. Hart’s death. The mill house was where Blackburn Park is today.
Joberry Cheek operated a sawmill, cotton gin, and later a flour mill on his farm on the south east corner of the intersection of Chamblee Dunwoody Road and Mount Vernon Road. Today, new construction is taking place on this corner.
Cheek built his home next door to the mill. The home sat where Panera Bread is located today. Joberry Cheek’s daughter Lizzie Cheek (Newhard) lived in the house into the 1970’s. The home had fallen into disrepair and some residents of the area thought it was abandoned.
Local farmers who used the mills often paid for that service with a percentage of whatever they were having milled. All that remains are the names to remind us of how the mill was once an important part of the farmer’s life.
Other sources cited include: The Story of Dunwoody by Elizabeth L. Davis and Ethel W. Spruill.