Q: We were taught that Campbell and Milton counties merged with Fulton. I read that Roswell was taken from Cobb County and included so that all of Fulton would be connected. Is that what happened?
—Robert Gore, Hapeville
A: The merger of the three counties was part of a state-wide effort called “Bigger and Better Counties,” in the early 1930s, which didn’t have much of an impact other than the creation of the Fulton County we know today.
Campbell (which had been around since 1828), Milton (which began in 1857) and Fulton were separate until 1932. Legislative acts brought about the merger, which was approved by voters in all three counties in 1931.
Campbell and Milton counties ceased to exist on Jan. 1, 1932.
There was only one problem.
To ensure what had been Milton County could fully connect with the rest of Fulton, the city of Roswell was “transferred,” as Atlanta historian Franklin M. Garrett wrote, from Cobb County to Fulton in May 1932.
And that’s why the northern part of Fulton County looks like a boulder teetering on a precipice.
Eliminating Campbell and Milton counties left Georgia with 159 counties, which is the current total.
Q: Could you list the organists that were at the Fox over the years and when they played?
—Vadis Brewster, Lithonia
A: The list is incomplete.
Fox ownership has changed through years since the theater opened in 1929, so the records are spotty.
Also, Mighty Mo, the second largest theater organ in the world, was neglected and unplayable for most of the 1950s, until it was repaired in 1963.
Joe Patten, who led the effort to repair the organ and lived in an apartment in the Fox, died last month.
Bob Van Camp helped Patten in the organ renewal and was the house organist from 1963 until 1987.
Larry-Douglas Embury, the theater’s most recent resident organist, died in February. He had been with the Fox since 2002.
Storyland memories wanted
If you have any information or memories about Storyland, an amusement park that was on U.S. 41 in Marietta, let me know for possible use in a future Actual Factual Georgia.
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